Given the cultural diversity and pluralistic nature of the United States, an important part of citizenship education is helping children learn how to engage respectfully and dialogically with people whose beliefs and ways of life may differ significantly from their own. Such engagement is necessary for peaceful co-existence, as well as in the…

Baiba Krumins Grazzini has generously transformed her lecture, delivered at the AMI-USA Refresher Course in 2014, into a legacy article. This article establishes the role of storytelling in Cosmic Education while capturing both the whole and the detailed parts of Montessori Cosmic Education. Working from the early childhood transition into the…

As digital technologies continue transforming the time and space boundaries that traditionally had been ascribed to different educational settings, the very notion of learning "context" also is being challenged in educational research literature. In this article, we contribute to this debate by offering an empirically grounded discussion…

Wordless picturebooks may be better defined by what they do contain--visually rendered narratives--rather than what they do not contain. This column challenges traditional ways of looking at wordless picturebooks and offers a few approaches for integrating wordless picturebooks into a wider range of classrooms, preschool through middle school.

Does poetry have a place in elementary education? Can reading and writing poetry offer elementary learners a way to imagine (and to image) the world through personal insight, to organize and interpret their experience, and to discover meaningful connections to other areas of knowledge? If so, how should these modes of interaction and…

Describes a method aimed at teaching students to trust their imaginations and channel their fantasies toward purposeful ends. (RB)

Uses summaries and excerpts from ERIC documents to define fantasy, examine its attraction for children, and describe how fantasy may be selected and used in the elementary school classroom. (DD)

Evoking storytelling as a human tendency, suggests that stories involve sight, sound, rhythm, voice, and spontaneous imagination. Claims that because stories appeal to children's inner lives, they are optimal for communicating "life and human relationships and the totality of the natural world." Also claims that stories encourage…

Uses themes arising from childhood fantasies and imaginary voyages as incentives for developing writing and discussion skills in elementary students. (RK)

Defines imagination in Montessori terms, describes the power and centrality of imagination to emotional and intellectual life, and makes a carefully supported case for imagination as the foundation of the entire Montessori elementary experience and, perhaps, even for adult life as well. (HTH)

The ideas in this workbook for stimulating children's creative thinking are presented as integral parts of ten stories about a boy named Dudley Bond (a distant relative of a very famous spy), his friend Max (a professional bear), and his cousin Maybelle. They find their imaginations stretched by a backyard scientist-inventor who knows dozens of…

As one component of the Special Arts Project and designed to stimulate the use of creative drama in the classroom, this booklet describes 26 topics for classroom dramatic activities. Examples of topics are slow-motion techniques, simultaneous conversation, magic strings, making an object real, texture walk, word toss, tag freezes, and changing…

Reveals ways to help students learn that writing can be similar to play, in that they can use their imaginations to create new settings and even new worlds. Suggests using toys, imaginary trips, and including friends in stories as inspiration for writing. (SKC)