Chaucer's Canterbury Tales was the subject of the first volume in the Approaches to Teaching series, published in 1980. But in the past thirty years, Chaucer scholarship has evolved dramatically, teaching styles have changed, and new technologies have created extraordinary opportunities for studying Chaucer. This second edition of Approaches to Teaching Chaucer's Canterbury Tales reflects the wide variety of contexts in which students encounter the poem and the diversity ...

Exploring Chords and Scales is an amazing 138 pages of information that can turn you into a master guitarist on either the acoustic or electric guitar! This course is literally two books in one and includes a complete study of primary scales, pentatonic scales, rock and blues, and an advanced study of modes, as well as a “Working Musicians Chord Dictionary”. The joys of playing lead and rhythm guitar and so much more are about to be explored, discovered and mastered by you! It is a continu...

Young people and improvisational theater should be a natural combination—so why do we so rarely find this combo in today's classrooms? According to Elizabeth Swados—playwright, director, composer, poet, author of children's books and of an acclaimed family memoir—improvisational theater is the perfect creative outlet for junior-high and high-school students . . . if only they can be given the tools and the guidance to make the most of this natural yet rigorous art form.Drawing on he...

Daniel Jarvis and Irene Naested highlight the natural association between math and art in a series of practical ideas for the classroom, because when students understand the math/art connection, their understanding and confidence increase in both subjects. Through innovative teaching strategies and more than 100 rich learning experiences, Jarvis and Naested give teachers a wealth of engaging tools to explore the math/art connection with their own students. This connection is established th...

No matter what you teach, there is a 100 Ideas title for you!The 100 Ideas series offers teachers practical, easy-to-implement strategies and activities for the classroom. Each author is an expert in their field and is passionate about sharing best practice with their peers.Each title includes at least ten additional extra-creative Bonus Ideas that won't fail to inspire and engage all learners._______________...

What is distinctive about art and design as a subject in secondary schools?What contribution does it make to the wider curriculum?How can art and design develop the agency of young people?Understanding Art Education examines the theory and practice of helping young people learn in and beyond the secondary classroom. It provides guidance and stimulation for ways of thinking about art and design when preparing to teach and provides a framework within which te...

This book reveals the hitherto critically disregarded ludic elements in popular American comedy films, building on and expanding the theories developed by Johan Huizinga in his classic study Homo Ludens (1938) and Roger Caillois in Les jeux et les hommes (1958). To address the lack of attention paid to the play principle in film comedy studies, this book focuses exclusively on the elements typical of play that can be found in movies. It introduces two new categories descr...

This book examines how Massachusetts Normal Art School became the alma mater par excellence for generations of art educators, designers, and artists. The founding myth of American art education is the story of Walter Smith, the school’s first principal. This historical case study argues that Smith’s students formed the professional network to disperse art education across the United States, establishing college art departments and supervising school art for industrial cit...

Digital media is an increasingly important part of a teacher's arsenal to excite and engage students in music lessons. Digital Media In The Classroom presents a wide variety of practical, creative ideas and activities that you can dip in and out of to spice up your lessons.It will help you to make the most of interactive whiteboards, video cameras and other recording devices, websites such as YouTube and NUMU, Virtual Learning Environments, blogging, mobile phones ...

In the mid-nineteenth century, the study of English literature began to be divided into courses that surveyed discrete "periods." Since that time, scholars' definitions of literature and their rationales for teaching it have changed radically. But the periodized structure of the curriculum has remained oddly unshaken, as if the exercise of contrasting one literary period with another has an importance that transcends the content of any individual course.Why Literary Periods Mat...

Highlighting an arts-based inquiry process that involves contemplation, mindful awareness, and artful writing, this book explores women’s difficult experiences in teaching. It weaves a strong autobiographical thread with artifacts from several research projects with female teachers. By linking innovative approaches to research that involve visual images and poetic writing with feminist poststructuralist theories and Buddhist-inspired practices, Walsh offers new understandings about what it...

The Promise of Wisdom is addressed to all educators. It raises perennial questions about the purposes of education, authority and freedom in the classroom, and the structure of the curriculum. It offers a vision of education in and out of school, of learning and teaching that seeks ultimately to help “reconcile the individual and his world.” In simple, graceful language, this volume addresses individuality and happiness, artistry in conduct, and concludes with a section on schools and the ...