Explicit pedagogy that focuses on visual design and composition principles can affect students' responses to and understanding, interpretation and analysis of images, as well as the creation of their own visual representations. This article considers the why, the what, and the how of teaching various visual elements of art and design to students…

In this article, the author discusses a five-month interdisciplinary bird study that she designed for her seventh-grade students that combines life science, technology, writing, art, mathematics, social studies and literature. The driving force behind this yearly unit is the BirdSleuth eBird program (formerly the Cornell University Classroom…

Describes a "literary gift exchange" in which students buy or make gifts for other students' favorite literary characters and explain to the class why the gifts are appropriate. Argues that the gift exchange is a good way to end the school year and review the literature studied. (RS)

Describes a three-week "Introduction to Language" unit for seventh graders. Notes that students feel ownership of the unit because of the amount of choice and sharing involved. Describes the unit's mini-lessons: human language; origins and development of language; symbols and words; meaning in context; and growth and change in language. (RS)

Describes a project for 7th graders that involves English and Texas history classes, and that includes 19th-century Texas history, several types of writing, and a great deal of creativity. (SR)

Describes how a teacher shared her love of poetry once a week with a class of seventh-grade students who hated poetry, and how, in a few short months, students who had hated poetry for years became poetry lovers. (SR)

Describes a year-long project for seventh graders that incorporates all aspects of language arts. Relates how the project culminates in a videotaped dramatic production of student writing. (MM)

Describes how a seventh-grade teacher introduced her students to poetry by having them create performances of rhythmic poems. Describes how her students created moving performances of poems and responded to poetry with deeper and more personal insights than she had ever seen. Describes students' public poetry performances. Offers examples of…

In 1979 the research department of the Fort Worth Independent School District (Texas) developed a plan for evaluating the utilization of time in elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools. This report deals with the classroom observation undertaken in grades four, seven, and ten. Activities in math and language arts classes were…

Describes a three-week language-study unit in which students search for the meaning of their names. Describes how students use reference works, create symbolic drawings, read stories and articles, record information in their journals, interview family members, and work in small groups drafting and revising imaginative stories based on their…

Presenting a diagnostic teaching unit for grade 7 language arts, this handbook is intended to be used along with the companion handbook 1, "Evaluating Students' Learning and Communication Processes: Integrating Diagnostic Evaluation and Instruction." The student activities of the diagnostic teaching units in the handbook have been…

Describes a magazine project developed by students in seventh and eighth grade language arts classes. Discusses the formation of small work groups, group dynamics problems, peer tutoring, learning interview skills, and selling the magazine. (SV)

Describes a photography and local history project developed by students in a seventh grade language arts class. Discusses the project's success as reflected by student motivation and progress in writing skills. (SV)

This study was designed to determine statistically whether the prolonged use of three prepared reading readiness activities has any influence on seventh-grade students' abilities to read unfamiliar literature; which of the readiness activities is most influential on students' abilities; and whether or not longevity of such influence exists. The…

Describes an exploration the author and his seventh-grade students undertook as they wrote essays about objects of personal significance. Describes how they examined a piece of literature (an essay) as a model for their own writing, how they spent some time talking and listening to one another about their personal objects, and how they then wrote…