Lewis's own experiences living in Indonesia are fertile ground for telling "a ripping good story," one found in "The Flame Tree." He hopes people will enjoy the tale and appreciate the differences of an unfamiliar culture. The excerpt from "The Flame Tree" will reel readers in quickly.

Even as a child, Pearsall questioned social injustice and prejudice. In her own community in Ohio and, as she grew, all over the world, she saw social inequities she could neither understand nor accept. Her novel "Trouble Don't Last," takes place during the era of the Underground Railroad. The chapter included here pulls us in…

In our enthusiasm for teaching English to English Language Learners, we often forget to celebrate the multiple cultures and languages in our classrooms. Sumaryono and Ortiz help us walk this fine line, offering advice, examples, and resources for maintaining a critical but often-overlooked area--cultural identity.

There is nothing more motivating than to feel you have something to contribute to a group situation. The Nilsens have used that basic premise to devise activities that teach all students about the connections between languages while highlighting the special expertise that bilingual students can add to such a conversation. Activities and word lists…

A visit to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis provided one teacher with a vehicle for improving the language and literacy skills of a group of students from varied backgrounds. Using art as a basis for lessons that used academic language, cultural expertise, and writing, Saurino links creative expression with a host of skills and perspectives to…

A teacher with vivid memories of a childhood of poverty in Appalachia helps launch a community-based, participatory action research project with adolescent girls from the same background. Applicable to all marginalized students, the results of this research highlight the importance of seeing and hearing oneself in stories and of sharing stories…

Involvement with the Wrinkle Writing Program at the University of New Mexico led Dupre to encourage playwriting in her classroom as a means to understand and respect differences.

Considers how the "Readers Are Survivors" program encourages students to become lifelong readers, and focuses on the value of providing families with a way to actually communicate about something other than homework, chores, and curfews. Presents a description of what has evolved over the past three years in this program. Suggests that…

Notes that as an alternative to written responses to young adult literature (YAL) in the author's Adolescent Literature course, the preservice and inservice teachers must present at least one visual response to the class. Presents guidelines for the visual response. Gives some examples of outstanding visual responses in recent years. Encourages…

Describes the activity "Menu Magic!" that helps eighth graders review the power of adjectives. Notes that students "eat up this project" that promises to deliver the opportunity to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate while giving students the chance to work in cooperative groups. Describes and gives examples of the "Menu Magic" project. (SG)

Describes an end-of-year project in which students research an interesting figure from American history and have a "dinner party" in which they become the historical figure they have researched. Gives examples of ways to modify the number of assessed activities based on the class and time factors. (SG)

Presents an activity to connect language arts, social studies, and technology in a meaningful way while encouraging students not only to read for details but to "read between the lines" and draw conclusions about a historical figure's inner thoughts and personality. Notes that the biopoem is a simple 10-line poem with a specific, easy-to-follow…

Encourages student awareness of the connections between their classroom experiences and real life. Develops an idea to motivate and keep track of students' findings, the "I Spy Vocab Words" contest. Describes how the author implemented the contest. Notes how the program has students keep a log of vocabulary words they find in their everyday lives.…

Considers how to transfer a community fund-raising motivational tool to the classroom. Describes the Hoppin' Frog Contest, a project in which students work to earn "miles" instead of working for grades. (SG)

Extends readers' theater to movie theater by asking the students to make a video production of the book "The Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton. Notes that the educational objectives for the project included increasing reading fluency, developing oral presentation skills, identifying the basic elements of a novel including setting, character, and plot, and…