A collection of brief articles offers suggestions for teaching the basics: social studies, problem solving, reading, and science. (CM)

Recommends an approach to basic skills instruction which takes poetry as its focus to study grammar, style, and ideas. Reports three benefits: poetry gives students something significant to read, utilizes professionals' grammar and usage to teach these areas, and generates readable topics for writing. Provides two typical assignments. (DMM)

Relates how a high school English teacher reorganized the "basic skills" course to reflect greater attention not to isolated skills and drill but to meaningful practice in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Focuses on the technique of a "Reading Blitz"--five successive days of reading--to develop other language activities. (RL)

In this symposium, six social scientists examine their fields (history, geography, political science, economics, anthropology, sociology) and identify essential concepts to serve as a foundation and a set of guidelines for classroom work. Some special attention is given to teaching the political process in this election year. (Editor/SJL)

Describes a teaching method that uses Molly Bloom's soliloquy from James Joyce's "Ulysses" to teach punctuation to freshman writing students. Argues that the assignment helps students discover their power as orderers. (EL)

Inquiry teaching requires students to engage in hypothesis formation, collection and evaluation of evidence, and the drawing of logical conclusions. Prerequisite skills for inquiry learning are discussed, and examples of inquiry learning in a college level general psychology course are presented. (RM)

Achieving literacy, while often one of the greatest challenges a child can face, is one of the most important elements in building a base for success in education and in life. Three main strategies are found to be parts of the process of how children learn to read: (1) developing phonemic awareness through the use of phonics techniques; (2) being…

These four articles focus on developing basic reading, science, and job search skills: "Reading Program for Vocational Classes" by Augustus Luparelli; "Why Teach Employability Skills?" by Larry Siefferman; "Improving Vocabulary and Reading Skills" by Edythe Conway; and "Science in Everyday Life" by Virginia Eleazer and George Carney. (SK)

This paper is intended to help supervisors, trainers, and teachers involved in Great Britain's Youth Training Scheme (YTS) understand the principles of participative learning and use them in teaching core skills to YTS trainees. Participative learning is discussed in terms of its emphasis on individual activity in learning and recognition of the…

The use of calculators and computers in the schools is promoted. It is stated that calculators should be used in the mathematics classroom as soon as basic operations are understood. A point is made that calculators are no greater a threat to "learning the fundamentals" than slide rules, which have been available for over 350 years. It is…

This proposal for the creation of a computer-assisted instructional (CAI) laboratory in a middle school in Oklahoma City emphasizes the need for such facilities to provide remedial instruction and improve student motivation as a means of reducing the number of students in the district dropping out of school before graduation. Intended for use by…

This National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Yearbook shows how NCTM's recommendations for improving mathematics education--contained in the booklet, An Agenda for Action--are being implemented in schools. The 27 articles are grouped under 8 headings, corresponding to the 8 recommendations in the Agenda. The articles apply to all levels…

The 12 articles in this monograph discuss the value of informal learning for children, and suggest how basic skills can be reinforced at school, home, and within community groups and institutions. Promising programs, practices, and activities for children are highlighted. Topics addressed include: (1) a rationale for a rededication to a holistic…