Describes how a class of fourth graders effectively used their reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills to take action (regarding the laws governing trophy hunting) and to change a piece of their world. (SR)

Provides excerpts from scripts and students' self-reports on their participation in a class project that taught communication skills through playwriting and performing. (RL)

Describes the Legends Project in Indiana in which a class collaboratively researches, writes, and illustrates a local legend and sends it via computers and modems to other classes across the state. (SR)

Describes eight creative inquiry projects for middle-school students, complete with description, time investment, level of difficulty, and student rating. (SR)

Describes the "American Families Project," in which students from two or more schools participate in a creative writing, historical research activity, each playing a role in a fictitious family living in 1838 and corresponding with each other. (RS)

A sixth grade teacher discusses how she enhanced student writing and thinking skills by having them collaborate on a class monster story. The article describes how they created the story. A copy of the story is included. (SM)

Describes a project in which students write their own notes, postcards, and invitations from storybook characters to other book characters. (SR)

Argues that, especially in the intermediate grades, keying into students' personal interests is a powerful motivator for learning. Illustrates this with the story of a formerly excellent student who became disillusioned with school in fifth grade, becoming resistant and disruptive. Describes how a project approach to reading and writing that…

Describes a year-long project for upper elementary-middle school students that incorporates mathematics, language skills, problem solving, and economics in a classroom business. Outlines the 13-step process that the author's students followed in planning and running a classroom candy store. (SR)

Educational psychologists and researchers attest to the importance of play in learning, but studies indicate that children are playing less, and often less effectively, justifying the need for play within the school curriculum. The area of language arts is a natural place for imaginative play. One elementary school project incorporated playing,…

Describes a history unit for middle school students focusing on their own communities. Describes getting organized, introducing the unit, and possible student projects. Adds a note of caution. (SR)

A Catholic-school teacher of grades five and six reflects on her first year of teaching and describes how Foxfire training led her to introduce group decision making and planning into her classroom. Resulting class projects including a newspaper, a play, and a booklet of ghost stories are described. (SV)

A fifth grade teacher in a rural Kentucky school discusses three years of classroom experiences applying the Foxfire approach, focuses on the democratic decision-making process and the importance of student self-esteem, describes student-project problems and successes, and lists student accomplishments. (SV)

This article describes a class geography project which involves middle school and junior high school students in re-mapping the United States. A bibliography of print and human resources is included. (Author/RM)