This digest identifies some of the cultural factors that can influence learner and teacher behavior during classroom English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction. Four topic areas are discussed: roles of learners and teachers, gender-related issues; appropriate topics for instruction, and behavior at the site of instruction. Given the diversity…

Intended to help middle grade teachers and school leaders explore conferences as a communication strategy for school family partnerships, this booklet provides guidelines for designing or refining a conference format to meet the needs of teachers, students, parents, and families. Following an introduction, the first section examines scenarios that…

This book examines the relationship between teachers (facilitators) and students who are themselves education professionals and who are participating in professional development courses. The methodology, which is based on a combination of interaction and reflection, is outlined in Chapter 1. Examined in Chapter 2 are the roles of the didactic,…

This report presents stories, written by teachers in the northwestern United States, about their experiences with curriculum over the years. The stories come from several groups, including four teachers who wrote as individuals, one pair of close colleagues, and one interview with a team of educators. The teachers responded to questions about how…

Recent arrivals to the United States from Vietnam have encountered many educational problems, as well as difficulties in social and psychological adjustment. Schools need to devise special strategies and instructional programs that meet the needs of Vietnamese American and other Southeast Asian American refugee students whose previous educational…

Instructional conversations (ICs) represent an alternative approach to the instruction of culturally and linguistically diverse populations. It has instructional intent, but appears to be a spontaneous conversation with natural language interactions. Successful ICs depend on identification of a text-specific theme that is significant and tied to…

This handbook is designed as a tool and resource document for school and agency personnel involved in the school-to-work transition of persons with disabilities. It includes forms, checklists, and sample documents. After a brief overview describing why transition has become a national priority, an individualized 4-year transition process is…

The evolution of the University of Minnesota's program of student volunteers in the college union is described. The program draws on developmental theories, and suggest ways of integrating union program production and specific educational goals for the volunteers engaged in that production: individual autonomy, commitment of values, integration of…

The training manual for establishing a college student mentoring program was developed to help educators enhance the educational experience of newly enrolled college students, particularly first generation and minority students. The manual first defines the terms associated with the mentor concept in order to ensure congruence in the terminology,…

The extension of the new thinking curriculum into the classroom suggests that the redefinition of learning requires a collaborative classroom. Provided in this third guidebook in a series of nine video conferences is an elaboration on the definition of classroom collaboration, a description of classroom characteristics and student and teacheer…

Focusing on adolescent literature, this issue highlights the role of historian, writer, teacher, and reader in fact, fiction, and history. The following essays are included: "Doing the Literacy Tango" (J. L. Collier); "Biography and Books of James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier" (J. Bugniazet); "Fact, Fiction and History: The Role of…

In response to the need for improvement of reading instruction, a committee of secondary reading specialists developed this guidebook, which allows for three distinct levels of usage: as a curriculum guide for administrators and counselors, offering expanded course descriptions of all reading classes offered at the secondary level; as a reference…

Textbooks not only transmit key cultural information but also employ a distinctive style and language, and these intrinsic structures maintain the textbook as the official valid knowledge required of the student. The student has a particular view of schooling which conditions the learning process and teaching decisions. The teacher emphasizes…

This report is one in a series on the work of the 30 pilot projects that form the European Community's second Programme on the Transition from Education to Adult and Working Life. The report reviews new demands on guidance and new approaches that have been developed to meet them, reviews the responses made by the Transition Programme pilot…

Constructive controversy has many benefits in the classroom. The benefits of constructive controversy, however, depend on the way the teacher structures the controversy, the skill level of the students, and the materials and resources available. The controversy model involves eight steps: (1) introducing the controversy; (2) assigning groups and…