Research and Impact
The Soar with Reading initiative has been committed to developing a scientific research-base to better understand and promote early literacy development and family reading engagement, particularly among under-resourced communities. Briefly, this accumulated evidence suggests:
Many of our young children live in communities that can be identified as “book deserts.”
In this work, we examine the growing economic segregation of neighborhoods for people living in privilege (1%) and those living in poverty or near-poverty (20%). The analysis reveals striking disparities in access to print even between the families who may live in borderline poverty compared to concentrated poverty. For these children living in poor communities there are virtually no books to be found during the summer months when schools are closed. To give evidence of the extremity, 830 children in one of these prominent communities would have to share 1 book in order to read. Book deserts seriously constrain young children’s opportunity to learn and have an unfortunate consequence in their school readiness.
Employing an innovative strategy, JetBlue’s Vending Machines promotes early literacy development, reaching families where they are.
Traditionally, reading scores for children go down in poor communities during the summer months due to lack of cognitive stimulation and activities. The vending machines were successful in alleviating this problem. Vending machines helped stymie the traditional summer slide that has plagued children’s achievement in poor communities. Giving children and families access to print, with books that are of high interest helped to improve children’s school readiness scores and comprehension skills.
Providing a rich array of high interest narrative and nonfiction books that reflect cultural diversity promotes reading interest and family engagement in reading.
Families in communities are diverse and have diverse interests. To better ‘reach families where they are,’ JetBlue’s vending machines include a rich array of historical, biographical and narrative books which include multicultural themes and topics that are designed to attract young audiences and keep them reading. Tracking these selections, the research team found that the most popular books were TV- or movie-related, often tied to favorite characters and super-heroes. Although often dismissed as ‘poor quality,’ these books seemed to promote a ‘reading habit.’ Repeat visitors to the vending machines often turned to books with similar characters, building their reading stamina throughout the summer.
However, there was also a serious side to some of the selections. Among the most popular nonfiction books were recent and historical figures of heroes, reflecting the culture of the community. This research highlighted the importance of connecting the selection of books to local community interests.
Creating a close connection to the local library
These results suggest that the libraries and the librarians who so carefully work with young children are the best way to sustain this summer initiative. With great collaboration, JetBlue’s initiative and public libraries team up to create a literacy culture.
Spreading the word through social media
This phenomenon provides a vivid counterpoint to the view that low-income parents are less inclined and less interested in their children’s early education. Rather it shows that providing access to resources–reaching families where they are—is a key enabler toward enhancing parent engagement and children’s early literacy development.


A music festival is a community event oriented towards live performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., blues, folk, jazz, classical music), nationality, locality of musicians, or holiday.
They are commonly held outdoors, with tents or roofed temporary stages for the performers. Often music festivals host other attractions such as food and merchandise vending, dance, crafts, performance art, and social or cultural activities. At music festivals associated with charitable causes, there may be information about social or political issues. Many festivals are annual, or repeat at some other interval. Some, including many rock festivals, are held only once.
Some festivals are organized as for-profit concerts and others are benefits for a specific charitable cause. Another type of music festival is the educative type, organized annually in local communities, regionally, or nationally, for the benefit of amateur musicians of all ages and grades of achievement.
Music festivals have developed as an emerging industry which contributes to many national economies. For example, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival earned $114.6 million in 2017. Music festivals nowadays also can serve as a way of building a brand for a destination, creating a unique image for it and attracting visitors.
Another type of music festival is the music education type, often organized annually in local communities, regionally, or nationally, for the benefit of amateur musicians of all ages and grades of achievement. Entrants perform prepared pieces or songs in front of an audience which includes competitors, family and friends, and members of the community, along with one or more adjudicators or judges. These adjudicators, who may be music teachers, professors, or professional performers, provide verbal and written feedback to each performer or group. The adjudicator may be someone whom they might never meet in any other way, as is the case when an adjudicator fromanother city is brought in to judge. They also usually receive a certificate, classified according to merit or ranking, and some may win trophies or even scholarships. The most important aspect is that participants can learn from one another rather than compete. Such festivals aim to provide a friendly and supportive platform for musicians to share in the excitement of making music. For many, they provide a bridge from lessons and examinations to performing confidently in public; for a few of the top performers, they provide a pathway to further professional study of music in a college, university or conservatory.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin's 11-day event, Summerfest, promotes itself as "The World's Largest Music Festival.” Operating annually since 1968, the festival attracts between 800,000 and 1,000,000 people each year, and hosts over 800 musical acts. The Woodstock Festival in 1969 drew nearly 500,000 attendees, and the Polish spin-off Przystanek Woodstock in 2014 drew 750,000 thus becoming the largest open air annual festival in Europe and the second largest in the world. In comparison, the Roskilde Festival in Denmark, attracts about 135,000 spectators each year. Glastonbury Festival has a capacity of about 275,000 spectators, but has "fallow years" roughly every five years, so it is the biggest non-annual greenfield festival in the world. The oldest annual dedicated pop music festival in the world is Pinkpop Festival in the Netherlands, though in other genres, there are much older ones: the Three Choirs Festival in the UK has run annually since 1719.The Queensland Music Festival, established in 1999 and headquartered in Brisbane Australia, is the largest music festival by land mass, as a state-wide music biennial music festival, over a three-week period during July.
Lists of music festivals in:


Build a career with Dental Assistant School in just 8 weeks.
If you are looking for a new career but are not quite sure what to do, you should think about becoming a dental assistant. Dental assisting is a very rewarding career choice. The healthcare industry is the fastest growing industry in the world. Not only do you get to help people but there are also amazing career advancement opportunities that come with the role.
Dental Assisting is a very versatile occupation and has a wide variety of responsibilities. Dental assistants are the backbone of a dental practice, allowing dentists and hygienists to maximize time with their patients by taking care of preparatory duties and office duties. Some typical tasks include the following:
- Assisting during procedures
- Maintaining patient records
- Managing patient charts
- Sterilizing dental instruments between procedures
- Ordering and managing supplies
- Scheduling and booking appointments
- Collecting fees and accounting
- Ensuring insurance forms are correctly filled out and filed
Caring for patients before and after dental appointments is one of the most important responsibilities of a dental assistant. Their job is also to educate patients on how provide daily preventative care for their teeth and specific dental conditions.
We offer more than other schools in Connecticut at a fraction of the cost.
Steps To Becoming A Dental Assistant In Connecticut
If you have decided to become a dental and want know what steps to take, the section below provides a step-by-step guide. There are a number of requirements to be met before entering the field.
To become a dental assistant you typically have to complete a dental assistant program at either a community college or technical school. These often take one to two years to complete, depending on whether you are pursuing a certificate or associate degree. Dental assisting programs provide classroom teaching as well as hands-on learning opportunities in a clinical setting. Coursework commonly includes:
- Oral anatomy
- Dental materials
- Dental radiography
- Dental office administration
- Dental pharmacology
- CPR and first aid
In order to take x-rays, dental assistants must pass the Dental Assisting National Board (DANB) Radiation Health and Safety (RHS) exam.
To perform expanded functions under the direct or indirect supervision of a licensed dentist in the state of Connecticut, a dental assistant must earn Expanded Function Dental Assistant (EFDA) status.
Difference between A Degree & Certification
A certificate is usually about a year or less. The associate degree is typically a 2-year program that may be offered at the local community college.
Obtaining a certificate gives graduates with the foundational skills needed to be competitive for entry-level positions. When attending a vocational school, coursework is completed within nine to 12 months for full-time students, depending on individual program requirements.
Obtaining a degree is a two year program that covers many of the same topics delivered in a certificate program. A degree program provides a more in depth education. Students take general education coursework alongside core dental assisting classes.
Many dental assistants who receive their degree go on to obtaining a 4-year bachelor’s degree in dental hygiene which not only offers increased career mobility but increased earning potential.


New approach to adult numeracy crucial18 March 2011
The headline recommendation of the NIACE-led Independent Inquiry into Numeracy – which published seven recommendations to Government on Tuesday, 22 February – is that the Government needs to adopt a new approach to numeracy that focuses on how adults use maths and numbers in everyday life.
Carol Taylor, Director of Operations at NIACE, said:
“We have a huge numeracy problem in this country. We see having poor numeracy skills – being bad at Maths – as a badge of honour. No one would dream of boasting that they couldn’t read, but many people stand on platforms, write in blogs, appear on radio and television TV, admit to friends and colleagues, proudly showcasing our inability to handle everyday maths.”
“This Inquiry into adult numeracy is a response to the urgency of the current situation. We have made a set of recommendations to help shape a new way forward for how we talk about numeracy and maths, how we can engage more adults in better numeracy learning, support them so they continue learning and assess them to chart their progress. These recommendations are not just about spending more money but spending the current budget in a way that works better for adults.”
“Numeracy needs to reflect our everyday lives, it’s essential that adults calculate their household budgets accurately, are sure about the risks they take with credit, the time they need on a journey and how they can manage their health. Improved knowledge and skills will help people gain more control over their lives and give them the confidence to help their children and grandchildren with their numeracy learning, this is an issue the country can not afford to ignore.”
The Seven Recommendations from the Independent Numeracy Inquiry
To improve adult numeracy, we need…
1. …to change the way we think about adult numeracy.
Adult numeracy should not be thought about solely in terms of the maths that is taught in school. We recommend the Government adopt a new approach to numeracy that focuses on how adults use it in everyday life and that is how it should be taught. Poor numeracy skills should not be seen as a badge of honour.
2. …a new measure of how well adults use numeracy.
We recommend a new way of measuring how well adults use numeracy everyday – for example how they manage bills, make decisions about credit and estimate time.
3. …more, different and better adult numeracy provision.
We recommend that numeracy provision should be available through a wider range of organisations – including workplaces and community groups and not only from education providers – to encourage more flexible numeracy learning through bite-sized and informal provision. This should include embedding numeracy with vocational, family and other learning.
4. …more numeracy teachers and a new group of people to support adult numeracy learning.
We recommend that as well as more adult numeracy teachers being trained we need more numeracy champions, including family support workers, learning reps and job centre staff, to signpost and support learners.
5. …to prioritise adults with the poorest numeracy skills.
Those with the poorest skills have barely been touched by the Skills for Life strategy. We recommend prioritising resources to help adults address their fear of numeracy and encourage them to improve their skills, by making what they learn relevant to their everyday lives.
6. …an ‘all-age’ strategic forum for key organisations and government to work together to improve adult numeracy learning.
We recommend that the Government bring together a range of organisations to research, develop and improve numeracy in line with this Inquiry’s recommendations, which will improve the numeracy learning of both children and adults.
7. …more in-depth research to ensure we know what works best for adult numeracy learners.
We recommend the Government and appropriate partners should continue to research and evaluate adult numeracy provision to chart progress on what works best for adults.
A spokesperson from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), said:
“Helping adults with poor literacy and numeracy skills is a top priority for this Government and we are committed to offering fully funded literacy and numeracy courses for all those who left school without these basic skills. The Government is currently reviewing the quality of literacy and numeracy skills provision and examining how it equips individuals with the skills they need to get a job and play a full part in society.”
“We welcome the report from NIACE, and will draw on its findings to inform the Government’s review, alongside the findings of Ofsted and the expertise of a range of stakeholders, practitioners and academics.”


Lisa de Wilde
Published on July 26, 2016
School may be out, but at TVO we’re looking ahead to a new school year with a lot of excitement and anticipation. TVO’s mPower, a fun and innovative online game-based resource that builds problem-solving, critical thinking and math skills for learners in kindergarten to Grade 6, will be coming to Ontario classrooms this fall.
mPower immerses students in a virtual world in which they can learn and master math concepts that align with the Ontario curriculum through engaging games. It’s a “tool within a toolbox” of math resources. mPower offers students guided, learner-centric math problem-solving experiences set in a variety of creative and age-appropriate worlds that reflect Ontario’s communities. In addition to supporting student engagement and achievement in math, the toolbox also incorporates “big ideas” from the elementary Social Studies and Science curriculums. For example, in one of the games for kindergarten students, they learn about probability by predicting the likelihood of certain types of weather and dress the game character appropriately based on scenes depicting the four seasons.
In the classroom, mPower can be used on an interactive whiteboard for whole-class and small-group instruction, as well as individually on desktops, laptops and tablets. Educators can also use mPower as an assessment tool to monitor student progress.
Jonathan Lowe, a kindergarten teacher at Rosedale Junior Public School in Toronto, has been using mPower in his classroom as part of a pilot program that was rolled out to select schools in late 2015.
“It’s the most age- and developmentally appropriate app that I’ve encountered,” he says of mPower’s unique value. “I could direct the kids to the appropriate content area that matched what we were learning. Also, the scaffolding in the game and the fact that it doesn’t rely on text means that even pre-literate kids can play, learn and have fun.”
It’s already generated a few light bulb moments in his classroom. “I had one student who began the year unable to identify a pattern,” says Jonathan. “When we started using mPower with this student, the scaffolding of the game helped reinforce concepts, and provided a safe, positive environment for them to practise and build confidence. Now [the student] can identify and create their own pattern.”
mPower joins TVO’s growing suite of innovative educational learning products that build on TVO’s strategic direction to be the province’s partner for digital learning inside and outside the classroom.
This post is an edited version of an article that was originally published as part of TVO’s 2015-16 Annual Report.


The Early Literacy Mobile is a library in a big truck, designed for children 0-5 and their caregivers. “Early literacy” is what a child knows about reading and writing before she learns to read. The Early Literacy Mobile holds thousands of books for children under 5 years that have been carefully selected to encourage and support early literacy development. Diggers & movers, dinosaurs, dragonflies, frogs, monsters, princesses, tricycles, flowers, hummingbirds, even a barrel of monkeys. Picture stories, non-fiction, fairy and folktales, board books, early readers, books in Spanish and Chinese, teacher and parent resources, music on CDs, educational DVDs, and so much more. Plenty of materials for older children, too!
The Early Literacy Mobile visits child care centers all over San Francisco. Children visit the mobile library choosing a book to enjoy in the classroom. The children's librarian assists children and teachers recommending materials that meet their needs. The librarian also presents Every Child Ready to Read storytimes that support early literacy development and model best practices for teachers and staff.
The Early Literacy Mobile visits playgrounds in San Francisco on Tuesday mornings with the Swing into Stories/Playground Visits in partnership with SF Recreation & Parks. You can find the Early Literacy Mobile at Golden Gate Park Koret Children’s Playground, Parque Niños Unidos, & Helen Wills Playground.
Already an Early Literacy Mobile Center? Request books for your next stop!
Does your center meet the criteria for becoming an Early Literacy Mobile stop?


Making Words Kindergarten and First Grade - School Edition
By Tapfun Inc.
This app includes 50 lessons designed for students to build spelling skills and develop phonemic awareness. The format and word sequencing were developed by Patricia Cunningham and have been recognized for their ability to motivate students in a fun and engaging way. The audio narration was performed by Adam Ghassemi, a professional voice over artist with 10+ years of experience. While developing this application we received feedback from several expert educators and followed their input on how best to present this activity to students.
The app is designed to be used independently but can also work well where a teacher or family member is available to work through word families with the student(s). Speech language pathologists and special education teachers will appreciate the highly structured sequencing present in this app.
The top 3 reasons teachers love this app are as follows:
1) Features 50 fun and interactive lessons for building phonemic awareness, phonics, and spelling skills with your students.
2) Presents a concise method for involving students in the process of identifying phonological units and patterns within words.
3) Promotes student awareness of similarities in words that helps develop writing skills.
Each lesson focuses on a primary letter pattern and includes a number of words in that pattern that the students spell. The first lesson is the 'at' word family. Students must place the letters in the letter spaces by dragging the letters from the bottom. The app will automatically determine if the word is correct when all of the letter spaces have been filled. Students are encouraged to use the audio support to hear clear instructions. Once the students have spelled the target word, the app will prompt them to spell the next word in the sequence.
The app automatically tracks how many errors the students are making during each lesson. If zero mistakes have been made, the students receive three stars which are shown on the home screen. If less than three mistakes are made, the students receive two stars. If three or more mistakes are made the students receive one star. By tracking the number of errors, teachers and parents can easily see how well their students are doing and which lessons they have completed on the home screen. To reset all stars to zero, simple press the 'Reset Stars' button.
Making Words has been recognized as a great activity because it helps students understand similarities in words. Further, it presents an effective structure for strengthening spelling and phonics skills. By keeping each lesson to one word family the app develops students understanding of letter patterns. A review level is presented after each set of word families that correlate. For example, after the at, am, ad, ap, and an families, there is a review lesson.
We’d love to hear how you are using the app in the classroom and/or home. email@example.com
Thank you for your feedback.
More about Patricia Cunningham and Phonemic Awareness
Patricia Cunningham developed the Making Words activity while working with Title I teachers in North Carolina. In 1991 she wrote "Phonics They Use: Words for Reading and Writing" which is currently available in its fourth edition.
According to Allyn and Bacon, Phonemic awareness includes the ability to recognize that words are made up of a discrete set of sounds and the ability to manipulate sounds. Phonemic awareness is an oral ability - the ability to hear that words begin alike, that words rhyme, and that, for example, there are three sounds in the word c-a-t. Phonemic awareness is highly correlated with success in beginning reading. Phonics instruction begins with learning to tie particular consonant letters to the sounds they typically make. Unlike phonemic awareness, which requires students to attend to both the visual form of the letter and the sound it makes. Phonics knowledge is necessary to read or decode unknown words and to spell or encode words.
What's New in Version 2.0
This app has been updated by Apple to use the latest Apple signing certificate.
Thank you for your support. We have added an option on the home screen to turn off the letter sound.
Assistive Technology Consultant
This is a great app to supplement literacy instruction! I emailed the company to ask that they give the option to turn off the audio support for letter sounds and they did it RIGHT AWAY! Now our kids can use it, relying on their 'inner voice' and sounding the letters out for themselves! Great app!
- Category: Education
- Updated: Feb 27, 2016
- Version: 2.0
- Size: 45.0 MB
- Language: English
- Seller: Tapfun Inc.
- © 2015 Tapfun Inc.
Compatibility: Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.Device-Assignable


What you need to know about EL ED 200
A lot of students are interested in what EL ED 200 will entail, especially since it is a new class and prerequisite for the Elementary Education program. Professor Richard Ogusthorpe, pictured, gave us the inside scoop about what to expect!
1. What will be the outcomes of this class for future educators?
Discuss the purpose of public schools and their goal to provide access to education for all.
Learn how citizens can contribute to the success of student learning.
Students will be able to choose an approach to teaching that will provide opportunities for continuous renewal and improvement of practice.
2. How would you describe this class, what should students expect?
This course will introduce students to the philosophical foundations of education and the role of public education in the U.S. today. Topics include how:
Public education is the cornerstone of a civil and prosperous democratic community;
Education is a public imperative, a moral endeavor, and a shared responsibility for all members of society; and
Public schools exist to provide access to education for all, which includes both academic mastery and personal development for the purpose of maximizing students' potential to participate fully and productively in society.
3. Why is this course important for people who are preparing to be teachers?
This course is important because it helps preservice teachers understand the system of schooling in which they will teach so that they can act within that system, instead of being acted upon. Ultimately, we hope that preservice teachers will be able to align their reasons for choosing a career in teaching with the high ideals and noble purposes that we hold for the education of the young.
4. What makes this class unique and unlike the other prerequisites that students will be taking?
This class is not about how we teach or what we teach, but why we teach.
We hope this information gives you a good idea for what EL ED 200 will be like. Make sure you check out our other ECE, PETE, and SPED prerequisites blog posts, and look out for our EL ED prerequisite blog post that is coming next week. Good luck with your classes, Cougars!


In this globally and digitally interconnected world, all learners, from cradle to career, need new skills and knowledge to succeed. If we want to prepare our children for success in school, work and life, opportunities to learn 21st-century skills are essential.
These 21st-century skills are more important to students now than ever before.
They not only provide a framework for successful learning in the classroom, but ensure students can thrive in a world where change is constant and learning never stops. And they are also tremendously important for our nation’s well being. Our business community demands a workforce with these skills to ensure our competitiveness in a global economy. And at a time when our civic life feels strained, we want our learners to enter the world with an understanding of what it takes to be a good citizen—one who can be civically engaged, critically thinking, digitally literate, globally aware, and an effective communicator.
The organization I lead, P21 (the Partnership for 21st Century Learning), leverages the power of collaboration to turn this vision of learning into a reality. Representing 5 million members of the global workforce, we build partnerships among education leaders, businesses and community and government officials, all of whom are dedicated to ensuring that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills they need to succeed. Our Framework for 21st Century Learning, informed by this far-reaching partnership, emphasizes the 4Cs – communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity – skills that all learners need for success in school, work and life.
The 21st century is not in the distant future – it is today. We do not have a moment to lose in preparing our students, and our nation, to compete and to succeed.
That is why P21 is launching Skills for Today week; to help shine a national spotlight on the importance of these skills for our students, identify the critical elements of a successful education in the 21st century, and highlight the resources, research, policies and best practices that bring these skills to the classroom.
As an example of this, we have released a new research brief with Pearson that not only underscores the importance of collaboration from cradle to career, but also identifies the strategies that educators can use to teach and measure this skill across the K-20 spectrum. In turn, our work empowers teachers to know how to bring collaboration to the classroom.
During Skills for Today week, educators from the 79 P21 21st Century Learning Exemplars will celebrate examples of successful 21st-century learning and illustrate how the 4Cs empower all of our learners to gain the skills they need. Through webinars, social media and events across the country, educators will share how they make the 4Cs come alive for their students. The week will also celebrate the work of our member organizations, who will share new tools, information and resources to support educators as they bring the 4Cs into the classroom. These new resources and tools will support educators in making meaningful and sustainable improvements in education.
Over the course of the week, these partnerships will help underscore how the 4Cs are essential across a variety of educational settings—from early learning and beyond school to STEAM and global learning.
During our Skills for Today week and beyond, our exemplars and member organizations will help outline the building blocks for a successful 21st-century learning experience:
- Children have early opportunities to develop the foundational skills that will help them reason, think creatively, analyze data and work collaboratively in the future.
- Out-of-school programs—a vital part of learning—instill the 4Cs beyond the classroom; ensuring students have the academic, social-emotional and workforce skills to succeed in the 21st century.
- Schools and companies can work together to encourage and support children as they develop the core STEAM skills (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) that are essential to success in school and in today’s economy.
- Students should have the opportunities to develop the attitudes, skills and knowledge to understand and participate in a globally connected world.
With these foundational outcomes and the 4Cs in mind, we will see that today’s classrooms are focusing not only on content knowledge—but also on ensuring that students develop innovative solutions, critically think through complex problems, and the ability to work and communicate across diverse teams.
In the process, we can then ensure that all of our learners are empowered to succeed with the skills for today.
For more, see:
- Plugging into the new, 21st-Century Vision of Learning
- Our School’s Evolution to 21st-Century Teaching and Learning
- Project Management Solutions for the 21st Century Student
Stay in-the-know with all things EdTech and innovations in learning by signing up to receive the weekly Smart Update.


Assessment@100%: How to assess your county's capacity to prevent childhood trauma and evaluate progress
Special Edition: Excerpt from 100% Community by Katherine Ortega Courtney, PhD and Dominic Cappello
The book is designed for 100% Community local action team members and provides the insights and resources to assess the accessibility, quality and family-friendliness of the ten family and student services for surviving and thriving including: food supports, housing, medical and dental care, behavioral health care, transportation, parent supports, early childhood learning programs, community schools, youth mentors and job training. Readers are provided with all the steps needed to design an assessment and evaluation plan to measure the effectiveness of the 100% Community initiative—implementing a county system of care, safety and learning to meet the needs of families and innovate ways to improve service delivery.
Excerpts from 100% Community Include:
Foreword: How Many of Our Children Should Endure Trauma?
Introduction: We’re Ready When You Are
Instructions: What Am I Holding in My Hand?
Chapter 29: Data Guide Us with Continuous Quality Improvement
Full appendices, including the Resilient Community Experience Survey
A Groundbreaking Strategy: 100% Community guides the movement to ensure safe childhoods
100% Community is the nation’s first data-driven, cross-sector and county-focused strategy developed to end the epidemic of adverse childhood experiences, trauma and social adversity. It provides the insights, frameworks and concrete steps for change agents within governmental and nongovernmental systems to build the capacity to increase the health, safety and resilience of children, students and families.
Ending childhood trauma starts with you and the radically simple lessons of 100% Community.
– Authors Courtney, PhD and Cappello


Today I asked my colleague Lieschen Venter to introduce our MathOR learners (the group of school learners that we teach extra mathematics classes to at our university department) to one of the operations research techniques that she teaches in her university course.
She decided on the transportation problem in operations research where the objective is to minimise the total cost of distributing a product from a number of origins to a number of destinations. This problem is introduced to second year students at university, but we thought the algorithmic solution approach might be possible to introduce at secondary school level, so we gave it a try, and it worked! Lesson learned today:
Don't underestimate a child's ability to do math.
The Grade 9 and 10 learners easily managed to implement the north west corner method to find initial feasible solutions, and then applied the stepping-stone method to find optimal solutions with some help from Annelie and Lieschen, who did an excellent job at pitching the problem at a level that they could relate to. The learners enjoyed the exposure, and even asked for more.
The experience made me realise again that we should show more real world applications of mathematics (in our case operations research) to learners at an earlier age, in their language, at a level that they can relate to, instead of just focussing on building foundational skills.
"How can it be that mathematics, being after all a product of human thought which is independent from experience, is so admirably appropriate to the objects of reality."
- Albert Einstein -
Teaching mathematics at school level should be a trade-off between showing them the beauty of the abstract, but also showing them the possibility of applying the abstract to reality. Understanding the value of applying the abstract in real world problems is inspiring these kids to enhance their mathematical skills - because the connection between their skills and making a difference in the world around them is clearer.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but if we don't show the beholder beautiful things, how will they decide if it is beautiful?


Composition is a pathway by which people explore society, culture, and history while discovering their place within these spaces. Because of this, composition deserves a central place within the music curriculum. It is a unique creative experience that people have undertaken throughout time immemorial to mark their personal voice and group traditions upon the cultural and historical landscape (Paynter, 1992, p. 21). Composition within the music curriculum affords students the opportunity to explore sounds, organizational systems (forms, etc.), notational systems, musical vocabulary, music history, and other musical concepts through in-depth self-guided interactions they develop a new understanding of the ideas as a whole (Upitis, 1992, p.155). Finally, creative musical activity can be a useful conduit for the management and expression of emotions (Paynter, 1992, p. 10).
From a young age, children are fascinated with sound and thus are inherently music makers. Through the experience of playing, children seek to make sense out of their environment, so too with sound (Barrett, 2003, p. 3). As children grow and enter school, too often this curiosity and creativity is inadvertently subverted in the push for academic and technical achievement. Music education regularly follows this trend in its emphasis of music literacy and performance. Composition is thus buried or relegated as a music literacy and/or standard notation assessment tool. However, composition can, and should, be seen as the basis for musical learning. Students study compositions, learn about the “great” composers, discover musical notation as used by composers. Yet, one factor is missing. Students must be encouraged to and shown how to compose for themselves. Through this seemingly innocuous process, students develop their own creative voice and come to understand and appreciate the work of others. In this act, students become attuned to their own emotions and abilities.
For these reasons, composition will become embedded within the broader music curriculum. Students will experience fundamentals of music vocabulary and notational literacy through direct interaction and application of the concepts through focused compositions. Listening activities and elements of music history will be analyzed by composing “in the style of” such works to allow students to unfold the complex layers of sound and gain an appreciation for the techniques of the composers. Students will discover how to compose and address the major issues of why people compose. In this discussion, students will be introduced to tools by which they may create their own music, for whatever reason, in whatever setting they choose. Therefore, students may become more inclined towards creative expression through music and become more discerning consumers of music.


There might be different views as regards music as it has a significant effect on our emotions and scientists have proved that music also affects the development of human brain too. When a baby is born, it has billions of brain cells, over time these cells grow stronger. Children who grow up listening music have strong music connections. It affects the way of your thinking, for example, listening to classical music improves your spatial reasoning, and if you are learning by playing with an instrument, it affects individual thinking skills.
Is it true that music makes one smarter?
Music controls some cells of the brain for a particular way of thinking, and after listening to classical music, one can quickly perform some spatial tasks such as solving a jigsaw puzzle. This improved performance is because the classical music pathways are similar to the channels used in spatial reasoning. When one listens to classical music, these channels are turned on and are ready to be used. These open channels result in solving the puzzle quickly but lasts for a short time after listening to music. Playing an instrument also improves the spatial skills as research has proved that music training creates new pathways in the brain.
Use of classical music
Due to the complex structure of classical music, a child who listens to classical music quickly picks out the structure and recognizes any classical music he has heard before. Therefore, listening to classical music has a different effect as compared to other forms of music.
How to nurture your child with music?
You can easily help your child to build his love for music by playing music for your baby, singing to your baby, start taking early music lessons, sing with your child or help your child to learn music education at the school.


Of Victor Lowenfeld's Stages of Artistic Development, naming is the fourth and final sub-stage of the first stage, the scribble stage. The Scribble stage typically occurs at 2-4 years old. At the Naming substage the child tells stories about the scribble. There is a change from a kinesthetic thinking in terms of motion to imaginative thinking in terms of pictures. This is one of the great occasions in the life of a human. It is the development of the ability to visualize in pictures. Also see preschematic stage (4-6 years old), schematic stage (6-9), dawning realism stage (9-11), and the pseudorealistic stage (11-13), and title.Related link: Young Artists, U of Florida art education professor Craig Roland's pages offer a more contemporary interpretation of childrens' stages of art development, and has a section about the scribbling stage.


Powerful assessment meets out-of-this-world engagement.
Introducing mCLASS with Amplify Reading, an adaptive assessment and instructional solution that makes research-based personalized learning a reality for today’s busy classrooms. The program helps you reach each kid, and teach each kid, so you can help every student become a confident reader.
We’ve created guidance and resources to help meet your unique needs this school year. Find out more about our remote and hybrid learning resources.Explore
What educators say
“The addition of Amplify Reading in my classroom has been amazing! The children love the games and I love the progress they are making. It is a win win!”
Our comprehensively aligned system is easy for you to use— no additional setup time required, and your class is automatically enrolled. The adaptive curriculum is 100% digital and works on any device.
Supplemental adaptive curriculum
As students engage in skill practice, their paths through the game world adapt to meet their unique learning needs. Includes more than 40 standards-aligned games that build language, foundational skills, and comprehension skills, while also developing:
- Phonological awareness
- Text analysis
- Microcomprehension (i.e., the smaller aspects of comprehension that make up the reader’s mental model of a text)
An integrated eReader with more than 25 fiction and nonfiction texts allows students to apply learned reading skills to an authentic text.
Benchmark and progress monitoring assessments
As a complete early literacy solution, mCLASS with Amplify Reading offers the mCLASS assessments you know and trust to place students on their personal path in Amplify Reading. Available assessments include:
- DIBELS 8th Edition, which provides comprehensive universal screening, progress monitoring, and dyslexia screening
- Student reports and recommendations in Amplify Reading powered by DIBELS 8th Edition data
- Dyslexia screening measures, featuring measures in Vocabulary, Spelling, Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) that assess risk for dyslexia
Teacher and administrator reports
mCLASS with Amplify Reading allows you to see mCLASS and Amplify Reading data in one view, pairing student’s Amplify Reading usage, skill progress, and current areas of focus with mCLASS data.
Targeted, teacher-led instruction
For additional one-on-one, small group, or whole class instruction targeted to students’ needs, mCLASS with Amplify Reading makes available all mCLASS teacher-led lesson plans, giving you more choice and flexibility for your students’ needs.
Remote learning made easy
Despite uncertainty around where students will be this school year mCLASS with Amplify Reading combines to deliver a remote assessment solution that connects directly to a digital, supplemental learning program.
Explore more programs
Our programs are designed to support and complement one another. Learn more about our related programs.
Using a fundamentally different approach to teaching reading, Amplify Core Knowl...
Based on over 30 years of research, mCLASS assessments dive deep, giving you a c...
Amplify Reading: K–2 Edition
A supplemental K–2 reading program that students can’t wait to play every day.


I remember at some point during my educational training, thematic units went OUT… and so many teachers seemed relieved. At that point, with my lack of experience I didn’t really mind either way. All I knew was that it made it easier for me to submit my subject units when they weren’t really tied together.
I heard teachers saying things like “Thank goodness I don’t have to go out and find worksheets with seashells on them for ocean week anymore.” Before I began creating my own themed resources, I was worried about the exact same thing. After all, did the seashells on the page actually provide students with opportunities for deeper learning?
Then something happened… I began teaching. It became my job to engage young learners. It became my job to light them up to learning and get them excited about all there was to know and discover in the world.
This was also around the implementation of the common core and teachers were wondering how to ever include informational text and learning in the classroom, particularly at the kindergarten and first grade levels. What did all this mean, and how would we manage to teach all these new units to our students? The wonderful team I was working with at the time had never really let thematic units go, and that sure was a gift at this time in our teaching journeys!
The key for my students was… you guessed it… thematic units! I am definitely talking about old school topics, penguins, cats, pumpkins etc.
Here are the reasons I love thematic units
Students are excited to learn and explore stories about different topics. They are bursting with anticipation to discover the theme of the week (or sometimes two).
2. More authentic reading, research, and writing experiences-
When we read about, wrote about, or watched about a certain topic, students were invested in this topic. They wanted to learn all they could about it and they wanted to share it orally and in writing.
3. Opportunities for spiraled practice in a cohesive way-
The great thing about organizing our units within themes, helped students to continue to do all sorts of reading and writing throughout the year, rather than having one trimester of the year all about narrative writing, one quarter about procedural writing, and another all about informational writing. This approach offered real opportunities to practice writing all about the theme, writing a story about the theme (or exploring stories within the theme), answering opinion questions.
4. The connections are real-
Exposing students to informational and narrative text and writing in the same time period surrounding a common theme really helped my students to make meaningful connections. One of my favorite examples was during a “bat week” fall unit, students learned all about bats. They wrote bat books… and then we read Night Song (which is such a beautiful story) and their eyes lit up! They had the science vocabulary and knowledge do make real inferences about the text… what was the night song anyway?
5. Builds background knowledge-
Not only is the gaining of background knowledge amazing for students as young learners, but even just short term within the week, if students are exposed to informational text and opportunities to share, when they write to share an opinion or to make an inference, they are operating with some background knowledge on the topi.
6. Facilitates the incorporation of text evidence-
Even very young students can do a great job finding text evidence to support their opinions when they’ve had a chance to engage with text in an authentic way and to draw their own conclusions.
7. Keeps skill practice fresh!
Kids, especially young learners, are acquiring many beginning and foundational skills which require repeated practice. Skills such as sight word practice, math fact practice, number and letter identification can all become tedious and even boring for students. When you can make that small connection between the theme and this practice (yes even just with clip art) it renews their excitement and engagement with basic skill practice.
What are some of the other reasons you love thematic units?


Climate change isn’t an easy topic to talk about, and it can be harder to teach — especially to kids in grades K-12.
Susan Belgrad, a professor of elementary education at CSUN, is helping K-12 teachers hone their tools for educating their students about sustainability, by hosting workshops on the university’s campus and at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and awarding the teachers grants to start sustainability projects at their schools.
Twenty-nine elementary school teachers — many CSUN alumni — visited JPL in Pasadena, from June 24-28. An additional 29 secondary school teachers will do the same from July 22-25. Legendary among scientists and space fans alike, JPL is NASA’s go-to center for the robotic exploration of space. It’s also a major employer and destination for CSUN interns and alumni. For some of the teachers, the invitation was the chance of a lifetime.
Teachers were advised to wear comfortable walking shoes, which they needed as they toured JPL’s facilities and walked the massive campus to take in the scale replicas of probes sent into space and the mission control room. Samuel Benji ’17 (Liberal Studies), now a third-grade teacher at Magnolia Science Academy 7 in Northridge, said he had been on vacation and raced straight from his flight into LAX that morning — he didn’t want to miss his chance to visit the JPL grounds.
The workshops for elementary school teachers focus on how to introduce sustainable habits to young students, whereas the workshops for secondary school teachers go more in depth on teaching teens why sustainability matters.
“I can’t really go into depth about climate change, but I go over the basics of reduce, reuse, recycle and ways to reduce their energy use,” said Diane De Guzman ’17 (Liberal Studies), a first-grade teacher at Calahan Elementary in Northridge. “They know that you should use metal straws instead of plastic — little things that are easier to understand.”
Benji said he hoped teachers at his school would use their grants from the program to start a recycling program at their school.
“Last year I taught kindergarten, and we’ve talked about recycling and stuff like that,” Benji said. “The students get really involved in it, they want to do it in the classroom. And then, we send home information on things they can do at home, like how to recycle, how to save water and electricity.”
Belgrad said that knowledge gaps about sustainability exist at every level of education.
Belgrad teamed up with Ota Lutz, a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) elementary and secondary education specialist at JPL, in 2013 to educate university in education programs how to talk about science. CSUN professors and JPL educators then decided to give teachers a week of in-depth training in sustainability during the summer, partnering with JPL and the Institute for Sustainability to educate teachers on interpreting the continuous stream of ever-evolving data on the environment.
“Climate science is a pretty complicated topic, so we at JPL have come to understand that teachers are really struggling with climate topics,” Lutz said. “It’s a perfect marriage, because not only is CSUN’s campus really far ahead with sustainability practices, but they are interested in educating [on these practices]. Teachers are between a rock and a hard place, because in order to keep up with all this, you have to have a lot of time on your hands or a science degree.”
On May 4, JPL also partnered with CSUN to host more than 70 K-12 teachers on the university’s campus. Speakers included Seidel, Lutz, Herr and Misha Kouzeh, Institute for Sustainability project coordinator, with many others. The event included CSUN Energy and Sustainability Tours as well as a Garden and Composting Tour.
“The Institute for Sustainability is pleased to be part of this powerful project,” Kouzeh said. “By bringing together NASA-JPL scientists, CSUN faculty and K-12 educators, we can identify ways to plant seeds at a young age and prepare our teachers to educate our future generation of scientists in climate science — and, ultimately, be the change.”


In the visual arts department, we seek to develop a deep understanding of skill, style, and history as it relates to the creation and interpretation of art.
The Charter Arts Visual Arts Department seeks to produce excellence in the visual arts through intensive training and the implementation of high standards. Presented as an academic, as well as artistic, pursuit, the visual arts curriculum will teach students to perceive connections between art and other subject areas. Students will build upon learned concepts with the intention of gaining mastery, concentration, a strong work ethic and discipline.
Message from Lorie Reinhard
Artistic Director, Visual Arts Department
On behalf of the Visual Arts Department at Charter Arts, I’d like to extend an invitation for you to learn more about the art education and experiences offered in our department.
The visual arts educational experience at Charter Arts is like no other in public education. The curriculum combines progressive traditional art training with a contemporary perspective. Visual arts students are rigorously trained in drawing, painting, sculpture, design, and educated in art history. Through practice, study, analysis, reading and research, they learn to apply intelligence, creativity, and discernment to the art they create. Opportunities to exhibit and compete exist for successful and dedicated students who share a passion for creating outstanding work. Our students develop the necessary skills and talent to thrive in competitive collegiate programs across the nation.
If you think the visual arts program may be a good fit for your child, please feel free to contact me, or visit with our faculty at one of our Open House evenings.


People who are interested in helping students who struggle with English or math skills might be interested in becoming a Title I teacher. Title I funds are focused on schools with a high number of students from low-income families who are identified as being at-risk academically. Although most Title I teachers teach at the elementary school level, there are also some Title I positions at the middle and high school level.
Related resource: 50 Most Affordable Small Colleges for a Master’s in Education
What They Do
Title I teachers work with students who struggle academically, but they are not the same as special education teachers. Students are not selected for Title I because of a disability but based on academic scores and progress. Title I positions are funded by the federal government. One duty of Title I teachers might be reviewing data to identify which students might be at risk. The teacher would also develop lesson plans and work with teachers and parents.
One way Title I teachers differ from other teachers is that they do not have a regular classroom of students or focus on one particular grade. Instead, they might see a group of students for a certain amount of time each week, and the group might be mixed in grade level. In other schools, they might work with the regular classroom teacher.
Title I teachers need to have the same education and qualifications as regular classroom teachers. In fact, some teachers may spend part of their career as Title I teachers and part of it teaching in a regular classroom. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, elementary school teachers need either a bachelor’s degree in elementary education or in a specific subject with a certification in education. In some places, teachers may be required to have a master’s degree. A similar path would be followed by people who hope to work with middle or high school students. There is no particular path to follow in becoming a Title I teacher, but students may want to take classes that focus on working with at-risk and underachieving children. When choosing a classroom for student teaching experience, the student might also want to try to work in a Title I school if possible. They may also want to volunteer with at-risk youth to get some experience working with this particular population.
What to Expect
Working as a Title I teacher can be rewarding, but there are also challenges associated with the position that teachers in other jobs may not deal with as much. For one thing, children who are in a Title I program may face exceptional life challenges themselves. According to an article in the Washington Post by a teacher at a Title I school, teachers in these schools work long hours and may use their own money at times. They might also struggle with some of the policies they are required to enforce. Burnout can be a problem, but it can also be exciting for a teacher when a student has a breakthrough, such as learning to read.
Students who want to work as Title I teachers may want to identify specific schools where they hope to work and talk with teachers there about their experience. While a person can be hired as a Title I teacher with regular coursework and experience in education, experience with children struggling academically can help them better prepare to become a Title I teacher.


The world around us is undergoing rapid transformation by people finding innovative ways to use information and technology to better serve our needs. At the heart of these disruptive innovations are people with deep groundings in science, technology, engineering and maths – the STEM disciplines.
Critically, the number of kids studying subjects in school that lead to STEM courses is decreasing. According the Australian Bureau of Statistics only 29% of STEM graduates are women, and in the key disciplines of IT and engineering this falls to 14%. Low enrolment numbers for women in STEM have been a consistent factor since I was an undergraduate in engineering.
Today, Australia competes in the global race for innovative ideas with only half the team – the male half. If we are to develop new industries that move us beyond Australia’s traditional industries and allow us to be globally competitive, we have to change.
For a start, we have to help our kids, and in particular our girls, understand the wealth of opportunities open to them with a STEM foundation. We need to address any perceived or real bias in our high school exam systems and marking arrangements that discourage kids from taking up studies in maths and science. With the highly competitive nature of the results from high school assessments, we need to work to change views that taking STEM subjects could lead to any disadvantage.
We also have to recognise – as a positive – the fact that many STEM graduates will work in roles outside of the classical STEM disciplines. These are role models for a future in which interdisciplinary graduates are able to contribute to the transformation of traditional industries such as the finance, automotive and healthcare sectors.
In an effort to stimulate interest in STEM early on in schooling, Macquarie University runs the FIRST Robotics program in Australia for children in years K–12, with key sponsorship by Google and Ford. This program gives all participants a chance to work as teams that bring together mechanics, electronics, information processing, design and software development skills to build robots and compete with them.
This is an example of how we can not only inspire school students’ interest in STEM, but create pathways for them to pursue these fields into further study, careers, and entrepreneurship in a variety of areas. Today the program involves 5000 kids from 600 schools, and the total numbers of participants across Australia is rapidly growing.
Having stimulated interest at school, we need examples at universities and in the workplace that highlight the important roles that women with STEM backgrounds occupy. This is vital to improving the pull of women through universities and into industries where they are able to make meaningful contributions.
At Macquarie University, we are actively focused on building women’s participation in world-leading research programs through the Science in Australia Gender Equality (SAGE) program. We are able to celebrate the achievements of our world-leading female researchers, including role models such as Macquarie University’s Professor Ewa Goldys (recent winner of a Eureka Award) and Professor Nicki Packer.
Having shining examples of where STEM can take our young women is key to closing the gender gap. We need to expose women to the right kinds of images and messages, which involves having conversations around the non-traditional and non-linear career pathways available to them.
Professor Barbara Ann Messerle
Executive Dean, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Macquarie University
Read next: Deloitte Partner Elissa Hilliard says raising Australia’s STEM IQ means teaching girls foundational skills in their formative school years.
Spread the word: Help Australian women achieve successful careers in STEM! Share this piece on role models using the social media buttons below.


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Resources › For Educators The Dangers of Prompt Dependence When A Student Needs Prompts to Succeed Share Flipboard Email Print Fading help creates independence. Getty/Kidstock For Educators Special Education Applied Behavior Analysis Behavior Management Lesson Plans Math Strategies Reading & Writing Social Skills Inclusion Strategies Individual Education Plans Becoming A Teacher Assessments & Tests Elementary Education Secondary Education Teaching Homeschooling By Jerry Webster Special Education Expert M.Ed., Special Education, West Chester University B.A., Elementary Education, University of Pittsburgh Jerry Webster, M.Ed., has over twenty years of experience teaching in special education classrooms. He holds a post-baccalaureate certificate from Penn State's Educating Individuals with Autism program. our editorial process Jerry Webster Updated March 05, 2018 Prompt dependence comes when a student needs a prompt in order to initiate a skill or activity. Often the skill is mastered, but prompting is so much a part of the student's expectations that they will not initiate and sometimes complete an activity without adult prompting. Often this happens because the parent, therapist, teacher or teachers aide lays on the verbal prompting thick and consistently. Example Case of Prompt Dependency Rodney would sit and wait for Miss Eversham to tell him to start before he would begin the papers in his folder. Miss Eversham realized that Rodney had developed prompt dependency, relying on her giving verbal prompts for him to complete his folder. Don't Talk Too Much Prompting is an important part of scaffolding success with special education students, starting small and working toward more complex academic, functional or vocational skills. More often than not, children who become prompt dependent are those whose classroom aides are not always attentive to the fact that they give verbal prompts for everything. In other words, they talk too much. Too often, students get stuck on the continuum of prompts at the verbal prompt level and require the teacher to verbally direct them in order for them to complete the task or skill. Students can even be stuck at the hand over hand level -- some students even need to take the teacher or aides hand and place it on their own hand before using scissors or even attempting to write with a writing utensil. "Fading" for Independence In each of the cases above, the problem was the failure to attend to the level of independence the child has developed and promptly fade out the prompts. If you start with hand over hand, as soon as you can loosen or relax your grasp, move toward the next level, moving your hand from the student's hand to their wrist, to their elbow and then simply tapping the back of the hand. For other kinds of activities, especially for students have mastered the component parts of a larger skill (such as dressing) it is possible to begin with a higher level of prompting. It is important to avoid verbal prompting if possible. Visual prompts are best, such as pictures of the student completing the activity, step by step. Once your student has clearly mastered the component parts, then employ gestural prompts alongside the verbal prompts, then withdraw or fade, the verbal prompts to finally leave only the gestural prompts, ending with independence. Independence should always be the goal of any educational program, and moving form prompting to independence is always the goal of an ethical and proactive teacher. Be sure you are providing the kind of support that leads to independence.


Studying for the GATE to get into IIT? Get off Facebook and Twitter, put some classical music on Pandora, and brush up on your reading comprehension strategies for the GATE test. Apply these tips to practice tests and you’ll be on your way to acing the GATE and getting that masters!
The majority of the passages you will encounter on the reading comprehension questions will be shorter, but one or two will be longer. If you are running out of time, read the opening and closing paragraphs and skim the middle. The first and last paragraphs contain the passage’s main idea in most passages. You can go back and read body paragraphs more carefully as questions call for it.
USE CONTEXT TO HELP YOU.
If a question asks about a particular line, don’t go back in to the passage and read just that line. A good rule of thumb is to read at least 2 sentences before and after the line in question. This will give you an idea of where the point started and where the author is going with it.
SAVE UNFAMILIAR PASSAGES FOR LAST.
The passages will cover a variety of subjects, from history to science to literature. Like with any question type, do the questions that are easier first and save the harder ones for last. Each question is worth the same amount, so you don’t want to waste a big chunk of time on a passage with a few questions when you could answer twice as many questions on easier passages. If science passages are confusing to you, come back to that one after you’ve completed the rest.
REALLY UNDERSTAND WHAT THE QUESTION IS ASKING.
Reading comprehension questions have the most “gray area” of any question type on the GATE. Some people skim through the question, not really understanding what it is specifically asking, start reading the answer choices, and pick the first one that sounds true. This is not a good strategy – many times more than one answer choice will ring true or partially true with the passage, but only one will specifically and best answer that particular question.
DO NOT BRING IN OUTSIDE KNOWLEDGE.
The GATE does not require you to have any outside knowledge for the reading comprehension passages, so check any you have at the door. Your own biases might actually hurt you when answering the questions, especially if it is an opinion passage.
NOTE HOW VOCABULARY IS USED IN THE SENTENCE.
You will come across some “vocabulary in context” questions where you will be given possible definitions of a vocabulary word in the passage. There may be more than one answer choice that gives a correct definition for the vocabulary word, but only one choice will fit the word in this particular context. Notice how the word is used in the sentence, and plug in the answer choices to see which one works best.
FOR “SELECT ONE OR MORE ANSWER CHOICES” QUESTIONS, CONSIDER EACH CHOICE SEPARATELY.
For some of the reading comprehension questions, you will have to choose one, two, or three of the answers. This format can lead you to second-guess yourself more than with a typical multiple-choice question where you can eliminate choices decisively. To avoid these issues, consider each choice separately and only select it if you feel that it could be the only correct answer to the question.
UNDERLINE AND TAKE NOTES AS YOU READ.
Read the passage actively. Underline key words or sentences that contain the main idea. Jot down any notes, probably just a word or two, that you think might help you. If the author is taking a side on a certain issue, write a positive or negative sign next to the passage to remind yourself later what his or her position is.
AVOID EXTREME ANSWERS.
Generally, if an answer choice sounds very extreme in tone, it’s not the best choice. Be wary of answers that use words like never, always, completely, etc. There’s usually an exception to the rule
DON’T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS.
Inferring and assuming are not the same thing. When you infer, you make an inference based on the information in the passage. When you assume, you make an assumption that brings in outside information or biases and is not based solely on the given passage. An assumption may seem valid, but if you can’t back it up with statements from the passage, it’s probably best to stay away from it.
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Review Article 47 Granger, G. A. et al. 2002. Factors contributing to teachers’ successful implementation of IT. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 18 (4), 480-488. In this article, an analysis of data from qualitative case studies of four Canadian schools illustrates factors that facilitate successful ICT implementation. Findings of the study suggest that informal ICT education, such as ‘just-in-time’ learning, is most influential. Furthermore, supportive and collaborative relationships among teachers, a commitment to pedagogically sound implementation of new technologies, and principals who encourage teachers to engage in their own learning are viewed as highly useful factors. Keywords: Case study; Informal ICT education; Collaboration; Constructivist, ICT-use, Innovation; Pedagogy; Primary/ Elementary education; Secondary education; Canada.


October 19, 2020
USING FLIPGRID AS AN ORAL ASSESSMENT TOOL
It’s hard to find time in our shortened virtual periods to fit in oral presentations or assessments, but Flipgrid can change that! Many teachers are now using the online video assignment platform to have students record creative oral presentations or even just provide quick oral explanations for how they completed a task, such as a math problem, in order to gauge comprehension. Check out this VIDEO to see an example from a real classroom! There are hundreds of youtube videos of how teachers have become creative with their formative assessments using Flipgrid.
Do you often find your ELD 1 students toggling back and forth between Google Translate and an English website? Help them install THIS free translation Chrome extension! With this tool, students can highlight unknown words or phrases on websites (and even some online platforms), and simply right click to access the Simple Translator. The translation will appear on their current screen and will even provide an audio button so that they can hear the translation if they have low literacy! Students also have the option to translate the entire webpage by merely right-clicking on the page and selecting, “Translate this page.”
TECH ROUND TABLE
Join VLL, Valerie Ward, this Tuesday, October 20th at 2:30pm for a Tech Round Table with a focus on remote learning accommodations. During this session, Val will discuss how to use Google Jamboard for Project Read and Wilson-style phonics instruction, as well as how to create interactive worksheets using Google Slides. Please find the meeting info below:
Topic: Tech Round Table with a Focus on Remote Learning Accommodations
Time: Oct 20, 2020 02:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join: Access the Zoom link HERE
NewsELA is a phenomenal platform for the virtual learning block and for assigning meaningful, cross-content reading comprehension assignments to all students. You can adjust the reading level of each text to instantly differentiate.
Interested? NewsELA is hosting two 30-minute kick-off trainings to help you set this up for your classes:
Tuesday, October 20 at 1:45 (middle school teachers)
Wednesday, October 21 at 2:30 (high school teachers)
Please email EL Director Ann Auger if you and/or your team would like to attend.
READING A-Z WORKSHOP: ELL EDITION
Want to learn more about the ELL Edition extension connected to your Reading A-Z/Raz Kids account? Here are some optional sessions with a Reading A-Z expert trainer. Once you register using the links below, you'll receive additional information and a recording afterwards.
Register HERE for the Raz-Plus ELL Edition for Virtual Learning: Grades 2-3 on Oct 20 at 2:45 PM.
Register HERE for the Raz-Plus ELL Edition for Virtual Learning: Grades 4-5 on Oct 21 at 2:45 PM.
Register HERE for the Raz-Plus ELL Edition for Virtual Learning: Grades K-1 on Oct 22 at 2:45 PM.


Understanding the basic steps in a particular task will increase your level of enjoyment and the quality of your work!
Teaching children how to maintain their art supplies is a great goal for parents, caregivers and teachers!
Learning how to use scissors will improve the look of your finished product!
Drawing a straight line using a straight edge sounds simple but is not often taught to children.
Tips on how to move the crayon or colored pencil as one colors in a picture can make a huge difference.
Moving the whole arm when drawing compared to moving only the wrist and hand... when to do which? :)
Links to each of these thoughts and more will be posted soon!
Mimi has so many different types of fun things for you to do! Here you will find a mix of a whole bunch of projects and activities!
A math game that will help you to learn how to add, subtract, divide and multiply while you test your speed and accuracy.
Math Flash Cards
A simple video showing easy to understand techniques used for years by a certified elementary school art teacher
A lesson simple enough for children yet making snowflakes with detail and beautiful intricacies
This game helps children to learn how to spell simple words
This game helps children to learn about parts of the human body and how to spell them
Parents, teachers and "home-schoolers" will find these games to not only engage the child in a fun activity but will also be an educational experience!
More games and activities will be added so please check back! Also, keep an eye open for Mimi's
art education book series for young children!
Paper snowflakes are a lot of fun to make and each one comes out different!
Follow along with Mimi as she teaches how to cut with scissors:
Learning IS fun! Mimi LOVES to make fun games and projects that will help her friends learn how to count; how to read and how to do many others things! She calls this "The 3 R's with an Artistic Twist"!


Early childhood learning has become a key concern from the education policy-makers to all kinds of stakeholders. There is mounting research evidence on its benefits for children's capacities and educational achievements as well as its critical role in realizing equitable, quality education and life-long learning. Every young child has an undeniable right to holistic development and a strong start in life.
The government has also taken several initiatives in early childhood development over the last few years. The non-government efforts have complemented government initiatives and supported the significant progress in this sector. However, even with these major achievements, there is lots of work to be done to ensure greater achievement in early childhood development.
In order to maintain a more positive approach towards raising children, initiatives should come from concerned citizens and parents in the society. And to do that, a private organization named ‘Light of Hope’ recently held a day long workshop titled Early Childhood Learning through fun and games in the capital. With 30 participants 5 guest speakers from different background came up with their inspirational words. At first Rokiba Ahmed started the workshop stating the significance of arranging the same, then Waliullah CEO and founder of Light of Hope described the organization’s visions, missions and motto to the audience.
The first segment of the main session was “stages of childhood learning”. Early childhood specialist Zinia Jesmin Karim was the speaker. She came up with different stages of child learning and duties of parents during these stages of a kid. She showed some activities and involved the parents in doing so. By this process the parents can play these activities with their kids to develop their overall skills. Media personality Tasnuva Ahmed was involved in this session and she encouraged the parents to always give their kids a second chance to complete a work and not to expect that their kid will always finish the job on time or at a single chance.
The next speaker was Rokiba Ahmed Abedin. She described the different natures of a child in early childhood. Then she collected notes from the parents regarding their concern about some behavioral problems of their kids. She showed two different pictures to the participants and asked for a debate from them about which picture is appropriate for kids. Parents debated and gave their different opinions. Then the speaker drew the conclusion that both the pictures are appropriate for the kids according to their nature. She also showed another picture containing different subjects in a single frame. Parents wrote different stories of their interest based on different subjects from that picture. The purpose of this activity was to make the parents understand their kids’ field of interest.
Mr. Hasib, a professional from Ericsson on his take of being explained the methods and techniques of raising children through such an engaging workshop had this to say, “Sometimes we are advised by other parents or guardians on what to do or what not to do with our children; but along with the change of time, children’s behavior patterns are also changing. So this kind of workshops can help us to understand and develop an organized and proper way of nurturing our children, understanding their behavioural patterns and raise them accordingly in order to expect positive outcomes..
So in order to make sure the parents of today are well learnt on making positive approaches for the children of tomorrow, ‘Early Childhood Learning’ will help pave a guiding pathway for parents’ to raise their children being competent and confident, while also help invoke their passions and purposes in life.


Article by Robert I. Lerman.
Efforts to limit the spread of COVID-19 have shut down much of American production, led to massive layoffs and reduced hiring, and endangered many American businesses. The scale of the lost output, revenues, and wages is unprecedented.
Replacing workers’ lost incomes through unemployment insurance (UI) and offering concessionary loans to businesses suffering extraordinary revenue losses are needed but have little impact on the declining production of goods and services.
They’re a stopgap, not the solution.
What can be done, especially for businesses and workers not lucky enough to generate production, sales, and incomes through remote operations?
It might sound counterintuitive, but now—during the COVID-19 crisis—is the best time for investing in skills.
We could reverse years of underinvestment
America hasn’t been training enough workers for a long time. The result has been a serious mismatch between job requirements and worker capabilities. Too few workers qualify for the jobs available in information technology, advanced manufacturing, logistics, and certain health fields.
Part of the problem is that many workers lack the basic math and reading skills necessary to increase productivity and earn good wages. The latest data document low and stagnant levels of literacy, numeracy, and digital problem-solving; 27 percent of employed workers were unable to solve a problem with common decimals and fractions. In the service sector, where job losses are enormous, 74 percent of employees have low numeracy skills.
We can make a dent in these long-term problems by investing in skills during today’s shutdown. Because they can’t go to work, many workers have the time to become active learners; training will not displace other production.
Using dollars from the new economic stimulus, the US government could support a program to upgrade the skills of American workers, especially those experiencing sudden unemployment. At a time when production of goods and services is dropping off dramatically, the program would increase the supply of human capital.
What would it take?
What kinds of skill development should be subsidized? How can we ensure government funds genuinely enhance skills and competencies?
1. Financial support to increase generic skills in math, reading, and language
Workers receiving UI or unemployment assistance would qualify for incentive payments to increase their generic skills and for funding to help them access necessary e-learning tools, educational videos, and mentoring. The financial incentives to workers would be performance based and aim to replace a higher share of lost earnings than the 50 percent level often provided by UI.
State agencies administering UI would invite recipients to participate in a learning program (in math, reading, digital skills, or language) in return for a supplement to their weekly payments. State and local education agencies would receive federal funding to mount online programs to raise reading and math skills.
UI recipients receiving a 50 percent replacement rate could top up their payments to 80–85 percent of prior earnings. The relevant agency would pay the supplements monthly or biweekly so long as recipients demonstrate active participation and progress toward goals. Well-educated unemployed people would be invited to learn mentoring skills and subsequently receive payments to help workers increase their generic skills.
2. Funding for virtual apprenticeships and other in-demand occupational skills
Even in today’s shrinking economy, some employers need and are willing to hire qualified workers. Qualified workers in many health fields are in short supply, or soon will be as health systems become overwhelmed with an influx of COVID-19 patients.
The government could fund virtual apprenticeships to deliver competent workers. UI recipients, others not working, and low-wage workers could apply to participate. Federal grants from the Office of Apprenticeship would go to intermediaries and employer sponsors to mount online learning.
Virtual apprenticeships show promise for several occupations, including medical coding, medical transcription, pharmacy techs, cyber technicians, software development, and even insurance sales brokers. Competency-based occupational frameworks to ease program design and judge how well participants attain necessary skills are already available for several of these fields.
During the pandemic, training more health workers to operate and monitor ventilators would ensure hospitals have the capacity to care for infected patients. However, hospitals too taxed to take on the training could be assisted by having the government fund other health facilities that have adequate supply to train apprentices to learn the necessary skills.
When the crisis has passed, employers willing to commit to rehiring workers would receive aid for helping unemployed workers learn digital and maintenance skills that enhance their value in advanced manufacturing and other industries.
These two initiatives can harness existing approaches to bridge the gap between now and our uncertain future. As our founding father, Benjamin Franklin, reputedly said, “by failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” We can start building America’s future now.


Oregon Poison Center Education Department
Public education and outreach
Public education is a significant component of a regional poison center. Our goal is to decrease the incidence and severity of poisonings through poison prevention education and outreach.
Our public education program is implemented and maintained by a full time educator. Our educator works with community partners to provide free online poison prevention training, participate in community events such as safety and health fairs, as well as school events. Another component of the education program is social media outreach. The Oregon Poison Center strives to reach a wide variety of audiences through the use of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Stay up-to-date on trending topics and newsworthy events by following us @ORPoisonCenter.
The education program uses materials such as Mr. YukTM stickers and Poison Help® magnets, brochures, videos, and posters to support poison prevention messages throughout the community. Our handouts, puzzles, and game sheets are downloadable from our website. To cover the cost of purchased materials generated by this educational program, the Oregon Poison Center is dependent upon public donations.
Medicine Safety - Safe Kids Worldwide and Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc.
More than 47,000 children under age 6 are seen in emergency rooms across the U.S. every year for medicine-related poisoning. That is the equivalent of five children every hour. Unsafe storage practices, dosing errors, underestimating a child's motor skill development (e.g. ability to reach or climb), and overestimating a child's ability to make safe choices (e.g. differentiate between candy and medicine) are contributing factors among others. Together with Safe Kids Worldwide we're committed to helping our communities keep kids safe from medicine-related poisonings.
What you can do - 5 Medicine Safety Tips to Remember:
- Keep all medicine out of children's reach and sight, even medicine you take every day.
- Remember child-resistant packaging is not child-proof.
- Keep medicine safety on your child-proofing checklist.
- Save the Poison Help number in your phone: 1-800-222-1222.
- Share medicine safety information with family and friends.
- Visit Safe Kids Worldwide Medicine Safety Website for more resources and information
- Download Medicine Safety Infographic
- View the latest report produced by Safe Kids with support from Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc., "Keeping Kids Safe Around Medicine: Insights and Implications"
Current prevention campaigns we promote
Education Department Contact Information
To order materials call 503-494-7799 or visit our webpage for online ordering.
To speak with our educator about our educational programs call 503-494-2196.
To speak with our administrator about general questions call 503-494-8600.
Or if you are out of state call 1-800-222-1222 and ask to be transferred to our education department.
Do you want us to attend your health fair or event? please call 503-494-2196 or e-mail your event's information to email@example.com


Built for Grace Church in 1852, this was one of the first Gothic Revival churches in the South to use Connecticut brownstone. St. Peter's Church, founded in 1802, and Grace Church, founded in 1850, were united in 1912. This union is symbolized by the emblem shown.
Scholars consider the structure to be one of the most authentic and elegant English Gothic Revival churches in Baltimore. Designed by the noted architects Niernsee and Neilson, scholars consider it to be a copy of St. Marks Church in Philadelphia, designed by John Notman. Niersee and Neilson's design is regarded as a break from the simple, rectangular church towards a more fully dimensional form, similar to many parish churches in England. The white marble font with the bowl held by a kneeling angel was designed by the famous Danish sculptor Thorwaldsen. Stained glass windows imported from Hardman of Birmingham, England, and Mayer of Munich, Germany, embellish the interior.
The Church has since 1949 sponsored and housed Grace and St. Peter's School, originally founded as St. Peter's School in 1806. Until 1871, St. Peter's School was the oldest free school in Baltimore to operate continuously. Since 1949 the school has been a pioneer in the elementary education and after-school care of children.


|Pre-1992 - List of 42 ERIC Digests
File Name File Title
Challenge of Counseling in Middle Schools.
To Enhance Self-Esteem.
for Later Life.
Heart of Education: Three Exemplary Approaches.
Scope of Practice of the Secondary School Counselor.
Comprehension by Activating Prior Knowledge.
Strategies for At-Risk Youth.
Achievement in a Second Language.
Language Minority Students to Special Education.
Studies for the 21st Century: Recommendations of the National Commission
on Social Studies in the Schools.
of Knowledge by High School Students in Core Subjects of the Social Studies.
Art From a Global Perspective.
in Art Education: A Look Toward Implementation.
Transition: Its Role in Achieving Universal Literacy.
and the Adult Education Act: 25 Years of Collaboration.
Work and Family Life.
and the English Language Arts.
on CD-ROM: Update 1990.
Role of Libraries in Literacy Education.
Children and Schools.
Happening to American Families?
and Alcohol Prevention Education.
Knowledge Base for Teaching.
Teachers' Leadership Skills.
and Writing in a Kindergarten Classroom.
Role of Schools in Sexual Abuse Prevention and Intervention.
Schools: Programs, Policies and Prospects.
Uses in Secondary Science Education.
Library and the Latchkey.
Technology and the Informed Citizen: New Challenges for Government and
Locating Practice-Oriented Materials in ERIC.
the Consumer about Advertising: Some Issues.
Budgeting for Higher Education at the State Level: Enigma, Paradox, and
the Responsibilities of Citizenship.
Achievement in Core Subjects of the School Curriculum.
Please note that this site is privately owned and is in no way related
to any Federal agency or ERIC unit. Further, this site is using a
privately owned and located server. This is NOT a government sponsored
or government sanctioned site. ERIC is a Service Mark of the U.S. Government.
This site exists to provide the text of the public domain ERIC Documents
previously produced by ERIC. No new content will ever appear here
that would in any way challenge the ERIC Service Mark of the U.S. Government.


Music training in childhood “fundamentally alters the nervous system such that neural changes persist in adulthood after auditory training has ceased.”
Skoe, E. & N. Kraus. (2012). A little goes a long way: How the Adult Brain Is Shaped by Musical Training in Childhood. The Journal of Neuroscience, 32(34):11507–11510.
Scientific American’s (2010) board of editors asserted, “Studies have shown that assiduous instrument training from an early age can help the brain to process sounds better, making it easier to stay focused when absorbing other subjects, from literature to tensor calculus.”
Hearing the music, honing the mind. (2010). Scientific American, 303(5), 16.
The cognitive structures developed through music instruction “exposed and illuminated more general organizing structures relevant for multiple disciplines.”
Portowitz,P., Lichtenstein, O., Egorova, L., & Brand, E. (2009). Underlying mechanisms linking music education and cognitive modifiability. Research Studies in Music Education, 31, 107–29.
On the 2012 SAT, students who participated in music scored an average of 31 points above average in reading, 23 points above average in math, and 31 points above average in writing.
College Board SAT, 2012 College-Bound Seniors: Total Group Profile Report. (See table 18.)
Researchers have demonstrated a strong relationship between individuals who participated in school arts experiences and higher academic success as demonstrated by grade point averages, scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) and math and verbal portions of the SAT exam.
Kelly, S. N. (2012). Fine Arts-Related Instruction’s Influence on Academic Success.
Students in high-quality school music programs score higher on standardized tests compared to students in schools with deficient music education programs, regardless of the socioeconomic level of the school or school district.
Johnson, C. M. & Memmott, J. E. (2007). Examination of relationships between participation in school music programs of differing quality and standardized test results. Journal of Research in Music Education, 54(4), 293-307.
After assigning 144 children to keyboard lessons, voice lessons, drama lessons, or no lessons, researchers found that children in the music groups exhibited greater increases on an IQ test than students in the drama lessons or those without lessons.
Schellenberg, E. G. (2004). Music lessons enhance IQ. Psychological Science, 15(8), 511-514.
An analysis of data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 demonstrated a significant correlation between participation in school music groups and achievement in math and English.
Broh, B. A. (2002). Linking extracurricular programming to academic achievement: Who benefits and why? Sociology of Education, 75(1), 69-95.
First- graders who participated in special music classes as part of an arts study saw their reading skills and math proficiency increase dramatically.
Gardiner, M. F., Fox, A., Knowles, F., & Jeffrey, D. (1996). Learning improved by arts training. Nature, 381(6580), 284-284.
Schools that have music programs have significantly higher attendance rates than do those without programs (93.3 percent as compared to 84.9 percent).
Harris Interactive Inc. (2006). Understanding the Linkages Between Music Education and Educational Outcomes.
With music in schools, students connect to each other better-greater camaraderie, few fights, less racism and reduced use of hurtful sarcasm. Jensen, E., Arts with the Brain in Mind, Association for Supervision and Currciculum Development, (2001).