A product of the Wisconsin Writing Project, this guide for teachers is intended to offer a fresh focus for lesson plans, give students more responsibility for their own learning, provide direction for student involvement in the curriculum, and gain community support for the school, all by means of a project to study and write about local history.…

Preschool children respond to the rhythm and rhyme of Mother Goose and are enchanted with the likable characters, quick actions, and humorous animals. If shared with enthusiasm, Mother Goose books may also be used to teach older children creative writing skills and research techniques. In the primary grades, promoting children's confidence in…

This language arts minicourse guide for Lampeter-Strasburg (Pennsylvania) High School contains a topical outline of an introduction to a poetry course. The guide includes a list of twenty course objectives; an outline of the definitions, the stanza forms, and the figures of speech used in poetry; a description of the course content and concepts to…

This language arts minicourse guide for Lampeter-Strasburg (Pennsylvania) High School contains a topical outline of a course on the novel. The guide includes a list of seven course objectives; an outline of the elements to be studied from eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth century novels; a description of novels and concepts to be studied in…

Educational games can make the English classroom a giant playground for natural language opportunities. Some of the games include (1) the use of the animate-inanimate switch for a unit on the language of advertising, where the students use two decks of word cards (one for nouns and the other for adjectives), the purpose being to match the…

The purpose of this study is the development of specific suggestions and methodologies for the efficient as well as successful development of creative dramatics activities in the elementary school curriculum. The design for this study was drawn from curriculum objectives and goals identified in "Teaching Agreements for Primary and Intermediate…

Changing the presentation of a lesson can clarify instruction for the mainstreamed learning-disabled student and reinforce instruction for other nondisabled students. Examples are given of modifications for language arts activities, including adaptations for oral language, reading, writing, and language process and grammar. (CB)

Enumerates reasons for using quotations as a staple in the English classroom, such as: to lend authority to words, to summarize a concept, to motivate or inspire, or to enhance vocabulary growth. (NKA)

This is a book about "conscious learning," the kind of learning that enables students to assess the current level and quality of their language performance and then work to improve that performance deliberately, enthusiastically, and with commitment. The book takes complex, sophisticated understandings and reworks them into ready-to-use…

This lesson plan teaches students about the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr. Students listen to a brief biography, view photographs of the March on Washington, and read a portion of King's "I Have a Dream" speech. After studying Dr. King's use of imagery and allusion, students create original poetic phrases about freedom and…

The ideas collected in this twentieth edition of "Ideas Plus" come from two sources: ideas submitted at an Idea Exchange session at a National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention or Spring Conference, and contributions by readers of "Classroom Notes Plus" and "Ideas Plus." Some of the teaching practices described in this book are…

Discusses a teacher education program in which college students in elementary education learn to teach creative dramatics. (RB)

Described is a newspaper project in which elementary students report life as it was in the Middle Ages. Students are involved in a variety of language-centered activities. For example, they gather and evaluate information about medieval times and write, edit, and proofread articles for the newspaper. (RM)

Describes ways in which English teachers can capitalize on the natural response of teens to music. (RL)