Developing Better Reading is a concentrated phonics course of 30 lessons. Students who missed phonics instruction in the first two grades would benefit from this study taken slowly through the year. Poor readers in the upper grades or adult level could also benefit.
The first five lessons present five basic understandings—the alphabet, the consonants and their sounds, the vowels and their sounds, the meaning of a syllable, and the meaning of an accent. Syllables and accents are important because many pronunciation rules are based on syllabication and accents.
Included in this course are lists of words that are to be used as oral reading tests, thus permitting a teacher to check each pupil's progress.
Definitions and rules of pronunciation, spelling, and syllabication are simply and clearly stated and distributed throughout the book to provide for a systematic and logical learning process.
The teacher's manual includes answers and detailed instructions for class procedures, review, and testing mastery of the material. Use of the Bible Nurture and Reader Series phonics flash cards is woven into this course.
Table of Contents
- Instructions for the Teacher
- Exercises for Ear Training
- Flash Cards Introduced in Each Lesson
Daily Lesson Instructions
- 1. The Alphabet
- 2. Consonants
- 3. Vowels
- 4. Syllables
- 5. Accent
- 6. Short a
- 7. Short e
- 8. Short i
- 9. Short o
- 10. Short u
- 11. Words Ending With s
- 12. Adding Suffixes ed and ing
- 13. Two-Syllable Words Ending With y
- 14. Long and Short Vowel Sounds
- 15. Long Vowel Sounds
- 16. Vowel Digraphs
- 17. Consonant Digraphs
- 18. Initial Consonant Blends
- 19. Final Consonant Blends
- 20. Two-Syllable Words Ending in le
- 21. Other Vowel Sounds and Compound Words
- 22. Vowel Blends--Diphthongs
- 23. Vowel Sounds With Certain Consonants
- 24. How Some Letters Sound With Certain Other Letters
- 25. Irregular Vowel Sounds
- 26. Irregular Consonant Sounds and Silent Letters
- 27. Sounds That Letters and Letter Combinations May Have
- 28. Prefixes
- 29. Two-, Three-, Four-, Five-, and Six-Syllable Words
- 30. General Review
- Glossary of Phonetic Terms, Rules, and Sounds


Storytime Programs for All Ages
What is storytime?
The Dwight Foster Public Library offers storytime programs for kids of all ages, from birth to 6 years. Find the right storytime program for your family.
Baby Time is a fun time for babies from birth to 18 months and their parents or caregivers. Each gathering consists of rhymes, songs, and a few simple books. Baby Time introduces babies to literacy and encourages talking and positive interactions between the baby and the adult.
Baby Time occurs Thursday mornings from 10 a.m. in the storytime room.
Toddler Time aims to introduce toddlers ages 18 to 36 months to literacy and encourage positive brain and motor development. Each gathering consists of books, music or movement activities, and a craft. Toddler Time can expand toddlers' vocabulary, help them play with letters and sounds, improve their ability to describe things or tell stories, and encourage an understanding and enjoyment of books and reading.
Toddler Time will occur on Thursday evenings at 6 p.m. in the storytime room through the end of May 2014.
In June, July, and August 2014, Toddler Time will occur on Tuesday mornings at 10 a.m. in the storytime room.
Preschool story time is a gathering of 3- to 6-year-olds on Tuesday evenings and Wednesday mornings for the purpose of enjoying books and strengthening early literacy skills. Each storytime will consist of books read aloud, songs, movement activities, crafts, and more.
Preschool Storytime occurs Tuesday evenings at 6 p.m. or Wednesday mornings at 10 a.m. in the storytime room.
Families can register for any storytime program at the library's front desk and begin attending the session as soon as they are able. Pre-registration is appreciated but not required. One-time visitors are always welcome! Registration information allows us to track statistics about storytime attendance and maintain up-to-date contact information. When a child outgrows a particular storytime program, consider enrolling him or her in the storytime program for an older age group.
Storytime programs occur year-round unless otherwise specified. Cancellations or schedule changes will be posted in the library and on the library's website.
- Parents and caregivers are encouraged to attend and participate in storytime with their children. When children see adults engaged in books and literacy activities, they are more likely to enjoy and seek out these activities themselves. Parents and caregivers play an essential role in their children's early literacy development.
- Children are not expected to stay perfectly still during storytime. Children at different stages need to move and make noise, and that is just fine. However, if a child becomes upset during storytime, feel free to leave the storytime room with the child and return when the child is calmer.
- Children younger than eight must be attended and supervised in the library at all times. (Refer to the Dwight Foster Public Library's Unattended Children Policy.) Please make arrangements for other siblings as necessary.
If you have any questions, contact:
Youth Services Librarian


- State News
- Gas Industry
Volunteering For Music Education
December 31, 1969
Regarded as the field of teaching and learning of music, music education is perhaps one of the oldest types of education in history, with humans using different types of music and sound as communication and self-expression since Neolithic times.
Similar to language or dance, music is an art form that distinguishes us as human beings, while also bringing people together from all over the world. Even scientists recognize the human brain’s want for music and being part of the human experience, and oftentimes attribute academic and professional successes to the cognitive skills primed by those who have backgrounds in music, assisting in the creative as well as critical thinking processes and retention as brain activity is increased through music education.
Today, music education is maintained in most schools around the world to provide the development of musical skills, knowledge, appreciation, and sensitivity. As a fundamental component of culture, music is recognized globally as integral in personal as well as academic development for all ages.
Despite the proven and highly recognized positive attributes of music education on individuals as well as society as a whole, funding and staffing assistance for music education has become more scarce over the years, with many public schools (especially in the United States) cutting funding for the Fine Arts in favor of sports or other academic teams.
Today, organizations such as the International Society for Music Education span the globe in efforts to connect people from around the world through music education, appreciation, and respect, and support in their efforts to enrich the world’s intercultural development.
How you can volunteer for music education
If you’re interested in volunteering in the field of music education but aren’t sure where to start looking, fear not, you have many opportunities available to you!
First off, you can assist in music and educational performances in schools and communities through playing as an accompanist, DJ, or event player. You also can help with musical instruction in schools and after-school programs—even holding private lessons—and event volunteering, such as greeting, clean-up, fundraising, stage production, takedown, and more. Plus, you can assist in the distribution of donated instruments, repairing instruments, and event planning for different choral or instrumental groups from different communities—all of which are of great help to music educators and professionals.
However, the area where you can assist in music education the most is perhaps through advocacy to promote required music in public schools and equal opportunities for communities around the world.
Whether through contacting your local school district, finding a music education organization near you, or travelling abroad to volunteer with an international perspective, volunteering for music education is a great choice! Also be sure to check out museums in your endeavors!
The following is a list of a few great organizations to get you started!
- CHIME (DC)
- Music for Minors (San Francisco)
- Global Crossroad (Brazil)
- Lang Lang International Music Foundation
- International Society for Music Education
Good luck in your endeavors!


Pedagogy Voice 1 (VSAO3014)
UNIT OF STUDY
This unit aims to promote awareness of the main elements of teaching and learning the functional aspects of singing. It examines ways of learning about singing and provides a basis for learning about the physiology and acoustics of the singing voice, approaches to posture, breathing, phonation (onset, range and tessitura, dynamic controls, vibrato, register) and resonance. Assessment includes micro-teaching modules, readings, round table discussions, comparative reports and written tests. On completion of this unit, students will have knowledge and experience of the bases of physiology and acoustics of voice, and of a variety of approaches to singing and teaching.
Our courses that offer this unit of study
- Bachelor of Music (Composition)
- Bachelor of Music (Music Education)
- Bachelor of Music (Musicology)
- Bachelor of Music (Performance)
- Bachelor of Music (Performance) (Jazz Studies)
- Bachelor of Music Studies
- Bachelor of Music Studies and Bachelor of Arts
- Bachelor of Music Studies and Doctor of Medicine
- Diploma of Music
Further unit of study information
1 hr class/wk
Oral work (40%), written work (60%).
Faculty/department permission required?
Study this unit outside a degree
If you wish to undertake one or more units of study (subjects) for your own interest but not towards a degree, you may enrol in single units as a non-award student.Find a non-award course for this unit of study
If you are from another Australian tertiary institution you may be permitted to underake cross-institutional study in one or more units of study at the University of Sydney.Find a cross-institutional course for this unit of study


Middle School: Grades 6-8
As students arrive on the cusp of adolescence, the rigorous Waldorf Middle School program challenges their emerging thinking, reasoning, and inquiry. On an ever-deepening base of foundational skills, students explore the world without and within. Continuing artistic work in diverse fields (fine, practical, and performing arts) hones the powers of perception and develops skillfulness in the context of a rigorous practice. Pasadena Waldorf middle school students also have opportunities to experience themselves within the context of a wider social group during curricular and extra-curricular activities that bring together the whole the middle school.
Core curriculum includes:
History. From Rome, through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, Age of Enlightenment, revolutions, industrialization, into modern times students trace the development of Western civilization to the present.
English. Foundational skills in vocabulary, grammar, composition, writing of reference papers are developed. Elements of poetry and figurative language, including ballads, sonnets, epics, Chaucer and Shakespeare, short stories, modern American and British novels and plays are explored.
Geometry. Geometric drawing with instruments, plane geometry, solid geometry, and Platonic Solids.
Mathematics. Percents, ratio, proportion, areas, formulas, algebra from the simple equation through quadratics, powers and roots, binary system, inequalities, numerical trigonometry, probability, logic and problem-solving.
Geography. Western Hemisphere and the poles, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, oceans and winds of the world, world economic geography.
Natural sciences. Mineralogy, geology, astronomy, meteorology, human physiology and anatomy.
Physics. Optics, acoustics, heat, electricity, magnetism, hydraulics, mechanics.
Chemistry. Combustion, lime cycle, acids, bases and salts, metals, and chemistry of foodstuffs.


In an urban school setting, twenty, first-grade students were studied over a 5 month period of time. These students were each given an initial reading attitude inventory in October of 2006. This inventory consisted of yes or no statements. The students' reading level was also obtained by the Development Reading Assessment. In March, the students' reading level and reading attitude survey will be obtained again. From this data, it should be able to be determined whether a students' attitude toward reading correlates with and influences students' reading development. With the results, measures can be taken to instill students' with positive reading attitudes, which, in turn, will be able to improve literacy development.
|Presenter:||Jessica Campanelli (Undergraduate Student)|
|Topic:||Education and Human Development|
|Time:||9 am (Session I)|


Long-term Outcomes of Cochlear Implantation in Early Childhood
Principal Investigator: Ann Geers
Abstract: The proposed study measures auditory, speech, cognitive and academic development and self-esteem in deaf adolescents who received a cochlear implant in preschool. In the past, individuals with prelingual profound deafness have often exhibited substantial educational delays, even in the presence of normal cognitive ability. Such students exhibit 4-6-year average delays in English language and literacy development throughout high school and speech that is minimally understood by inexperienced listeners. These delays have been associated with reduced vocational opportunities and isolation from the majority hearing culture. The advent of cochlear implant technology may constitute a new era in deaf education. The documented auditory, speech and English language skills of young cochlear implant users greatly exceed those of hearing aid users with similar degree of hearing loss. This study will examine performance of adolescents who are long-term cochlear implant users by following a group of 181 children from across North America who were among the first in the world to receive cochlear implants in preschool. These children were first tested when they were in early elementary school (age 8-9). The proposed study will re-evaluate them when they are in late high school (age 16-17). Because the achievement gap between deaf and hearing students tends to increase with age, the early advantages seen in young cochlear implant users may be found to diminish in adolescence. Little is known about the role of auditory speech perception skills in vocabulary and language comprehension during high school, when language is acquired by reading in addition to listening and watching. We will test a structural model of literacy as students approach adulthood and examine the effects of improved speech perception on predicted outcome. Although self-esteem measures conducted at age 8 and 9 year revealed high levels of perceived self-competence, self-image ratings may decrease in high school, particularly for those who identify with neither a Deaf nor a hearing community. The purpose of the proposed study is to identify those factors that contribute to positive outcomes in high school students with cochlear implants and educational programs that promote these outcomes. In addition we will document the incidence and outcomes associated with discontinued use of a cochlear implant.
Funding Period: 2007-04-01 - 2010-03-31
more information: NIH RePORT


- Language Arts
- Physical Education
- Social Studies
A to Z Teacher Stuff
Teacher-created site that offers lesson plans, tips, forums, worksheets and other resources. Organized by subject.
Funded by the Technology Literacy Grant Consortium and consolidates resources to help teachers integrate technology into Language Arts and Mathematics.
A good source for lessons, activities, and tips. Browse lessons by grade level. (extends from Preschool to Undergraduate)
Visit “Teachers” section as a guide to multiple resources.
How to Implement Standards, Curriculum and Assessment
Lesson Plan Central
Free lesson plans, worksheets, clipart and additional student links. Browse lessons by subject or extras like “Fun & Games.”
Lesson Plans Page
Over 2,500 free lesson plans, organized by subject. Site also includes tips and teacher forums.
Site lists lesson plan ideas grouped by subject and also includes additional resources for games, family involvement, songs, and poems.
Integrating curriculum, professional development and community resources
Standard-Based lesson plan template
Provides an outline for creating a lesson plan that address Hawaii state standards. Simply substitute you state’s standards in the appropriate place.
The University of Phoenix’s site for teacher’s to post and share lesson plans for all subjects.
Web Sites and Resources for Teachers
Archived, annotated collection of sites and curriculum resources organized in nine categories, include lesson plans, instructional materials, online activities and projects, and virtual trips to museums and countries around the world.
Preschool art activities and crafts
A site dedicated to art education, lists activities, lesson plans, and additional resources.
A list of a few art/craft ideas.
Graphic organizer templates for different organizers like spider maps, fish maps, compare/contrast matrix, and network trees
Teachnet: Language Arts
Lesson plans in the categories of: general, reading, writing, spelling, speaking, terminology, ESL, and poetry.
Questions on Books
Review questions for books commonly taught all grades K-12
A combination site specifically created for science and mathematics. Includes lesson plan activities for geometry and mathematical patterns
The Math Forum at Drexel “Teachers’s Place”
Lesson plans grouped by elementary, middle, or high school levels.
Math Forum: High School Teacher’s Place
Math Problem Solving Activities
Math Projects and Activities: Global Connection
Lesson plans created for middle school math.
Lesson plans for math grouped into: general, maps and graphs, terminology, geometry, and real world.
Lesson plans for music teachers grouped currently in only one category: general.
This Day in Music History
Daily music facts
PE Preschool Lesson Plans
A long list of PE activities
Teachnet: Health and Physical Education
Lesson plans in the categories of: general, nutrition, fitness, and cooking.
Clifford's Interactive Storybook
A phonics game for young readers
Short stories and plays for young readers
Beatrix Potter stories and pictures
How to form reading/writing centers for kindergarten
A method of getting students to read through use of oral script reading
Science activities for select topics like “light” and “space.” .
Kid’s Do-It-Yourself Science
Links to great science projects
Kid’s Science Projects
Projects listed by level of difficulty
Middle School Science
A site geared specifically towards Middle School Science Curriculums. Lesson plan subjects range from Chemistry, Physics, Earth, and Life Sciences
Science Preschool Activities and Crafts
Solar System Simulator
A list of science lesson plans and activities in the categories of: general, biology, earth, physics, technology, dinosaurs, scientific method, space and time, weather, and animals.
Lesson Plans and Resources
A site specifically created for social studies teachers. Includes lesson plan outlines, and additional social studies resources
Teachnet: Social Studies
Lesson plans grouped into: history, personal growth, countries, government, economics, society, and geography.
Back to School Technology Activities
Includes a step-by-step outline on how to create a technology based lesson plan
ABC’s of the Writing Process
A list of links of graphic organizers
Handwriting Worksheets and Printables
How to Start a Writer’s Workshop


We specialise in multimedia software for young learners of Modern languages. Our aim is to put fun into learning languages, and we do this by using games, which entertain as well as instruct.
Our software is developed by practising teachers of modern languages, and all voices are native speakers.
The complete Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus online -- free and searchable with definitions and audio pronunications. You can also read the Word of the Day, play Word Games, and purchase books and CDs.
Comprehensive new ESL Site including forums, realtime chat, grammar, writing, interactive quizzes and games, flashcards, phonics,
streaming audio materials, world news, TOEIC modules, helplines, multi-
lingual content, and much more.
Buber's Basque Page attempts to compile information about the Basque people. The pages contain many contributions from volunteers from all over the world. The topics span history, language, sports and games, folklore, politics, and genealogy, among many others.
Most people have heard of The Phonics Game. This Learn to Read program is an improved version and is a hands-on program that parents can use with their children to actively teach them to read. It uses phonics instruction, a number of audio tapes, games, flash cards, and more.
ESL/EFL game database with smart tags such as 'high school games', 'speaking games', etc. for easy searching. Instructions are simple, easy to follow, and include notes and variations. After you use a game, leave a comment about it and let others know how it went.
The Dolch words are the 220 most frequently found words. Students who learn these words have a good base for beginning reading. Many of these words cannot be sounded out because they do not follow decoding rules. These words must be learned as sight words.
Click on a picture to download the full sized artwork or click on the link below each picture to download the PDF version.
Find printable materials for immediate use. Teachers have permission to reproduce any of the pages to use in their classrooms. Features include theme units, reading comprehension, fun actvities, shape books. games and puzzles, forums, ABC activities, sign language, and more. Users can also subscribe to a newsletter to receive regular updates of new teaching materials.
A web site that celebrates every sort of wordplay, language games, crazy word lists, hilarious headlines, ambiguous quotes, word puzzles, and everything to do with language that makes us laugh. Come and explore the lighter side of English.


The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, the USC Brain and Creativity Institute and Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA) are delighted to announce a longitudinal research collaboration to investigate the emotional, social and cognitive effects of musical training on childhood brain development.
The five-year research project, Effects of Early Childhood Musical Training on Brain and Cognitive Development, will offer USC researchers an important opportunity to provide new insights and add rigorous data to an emerging discussion about the role of early music engagement in learning and brain function.
Through a collaboration with the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles at Heart of Los Angeles (YOLA at HOLA) program, a partnership between the LA Phil and HOLA which provides free instruments and musical training to children from the Rampart District of Los Angeles, researchers with the USC Brain and Creativity Institute — led by acclaimed neuroscientists Hanna Damasio and Antonio Damasio — will track how children respond to music from the very onset of their exposure to systematic, high intensity music education.
Starting when the children are between the age of 6 and 7, to ages 11 and 12, the researchers will use standard psychological assessments and advanced brain imaging techniques to track brain, emotional and social development. The group of children involved in the YOLA at HOLA program will be compared to a control group of children matched in age, socio-economic status and cognitive abilities, but with no musical training.
All children will be followed for five consecutive years, providing a rare chance for researchers to discover the effects of musical training on emotional, social and cognitive aspects of development as they actually occur, rather than inferring later-life effects. The USC Brain and Creativity Institute team began working with YOLA at HOLA students in September 2012.


This high-beginning reading course introduces students to basic reading comprehension strategies and skills for various reading tasks. Students use the essential skills of previewing, predicting, skimming, scanning and other reading strategies such as vocabulary-building to increase reading comprehension.
Students in this low-intermediate reading course continue to develop basic reading comprehension strategies and skills for comprehending intermediate-level texts. Students will also develop basic critical thinking skills and basic strategies and skills to broaden their vocabulary.
This intermediate-level reading course further develops basic academic reading comprehension strategies and skills by identifying theme and analyzing the basic organization of texts. Students continue to develop basic critical thinking skills by analyzing and reacting to texts and visual aids. Students will also continue to broaden their understanding and use of new vocabulary.
This course is designed to help high-intermediate students improve their academic reading comprehension strategies and skills through annotating, paraphrasing, and summarizing. Students also apply strategies and skills to increase reading speed, make inferences, and react to readings in writing and discussions.
This course builds on the academic reading strategies and skills that the high-intermediate students have developed in Reading 4. Students begin to read and analyze college-level texts as they practice additional reading strategies and apply critical thinking skills such as analyzing the language and organization of various texts. Students continue to expand their academic vocabulary using strategies such as understanding meaning from context and basic word parts.
This course is designed to help advanced students develop the ability to comprehend and interpret authentic college-level texts by applying appropriate reading strategies such as determining authorís purpose, tone and bias, and making inferences from the text. Students continue to develop critical thinking skills by evaluating and comparing multiple texts. Students also continue to develop strategies and skills to broaden their understanding and use of new vocabulary by learning various word forms and using them in context.
This course builds on the academic reading strategies and skills that the advanced students have developed in Reading 6. Students continue to develop critical thinking skills through comparing and evaluating multiple texts and synthesizing ideas from those texts orally and in writing. Students also develop library strategies and skills by locating various types of academic sources in the school library and through the internet. Students evaluate the authority, credibility, appropriateness and effectiveness of the sources located.


While there's nothing new about kids loving music
, science involving music and the brain proves that learning music early in life enhances brain development.
In the fantastical Freddie the Frog® 4-book series (hardcover with companion CD; $23.95 each) detailed below, preschool through elementary-age children learn musical concepts while they are duly immersed in Freddie's colorfully illustrated adventures.
Now a nationally beloved fictional children's book character, Freddie the Frog has become the mascot of music education for kids. Developed and authored by music teacher and speaker Sharon Burch, these books and companion CDs provide an accessible, entertaining and highly effective form of literature-based music education that kids absolutely love.
"Nothing compares to music in brain stimulation and development," notes Burch. "The plethora of music and brain research findings are clear - music training profoundly affects brain development and music education benefits every child. The Freddie the Frog books were purposely developed to make learning music easy and fun!"
The Freddie the Frog 4-Book Series Includes:
Book/CD 1: Freddie the Frog and the Thump in the Night
This book introduces emergent readers to fundamental music concepts in a fun and exciting way. In it, Freddie is a frog who lives with his parents on Treble Clef Island. He is awakened in the middle of the night by a strange thumping noise. Frog-eating crocodiles, a swinging rope bridge, and a humongous gray monster are all part of Freddie's adventure
as he explores the island in search of the thump. Through Freddie's adventures on the island, the reader is introduced to the treble clef staff as a map of where Freddie lives. Readers are captivated as the staff comes to life with the combination of illustrations and enclosed CD narration and music. A bonus of two sing-a-long songs, Froggie Went A-Courtin and Eli's Hokey Pokey, sung by Freddie and his friend, Eli, are included on the CD.
Book/CD 2: Freddie the Frog and the Bass Clef Monster
In this adventure, Freddie awakens from hibernation to discover he is not on his beloved Treble Clef Island. Freddie's search for home leads him through Frog Land, a strange place full of bizarre creatures all pointing him to the Bass Clef Monster who "loves frogs." Discover the dancing bees, a moonlit cocoon garden, the fire-breathing dragon, and dare to meet the Bass Clef Monster. Building on the first book Freddie the Frog and the Thump in the Night that introduces readers to the treble clef, the Bass Clef Monster introduces nine notes of the bass clef simply by playing the CD and turning the pages. The lines and spaces represent each part of this eerie adventure and the sound effects and music bring it to life. Sing-a-long songs included too.
Book/CD 3: Freddie the Frog and The Mysterious Wahooooo
In this book kids discover the tempos, rhythms, and beats of Tempo Island with Freddie and his best friend Eli the Elephant. It guides kids in playing rhythm instruments to the rhythm and beat along with Eli and Freddie who find themselves stranded on a nearby island. They follow the mysterious "Wahooooos" through the jungle and try to communicate with the purple elephant in charge. Will he help them return home? Echo, chant, and play along with Freddie and Eli to learn the beats and rhythms of Tempo Island. The audio CD includes the dramatized story, sing-a-long songs, and jam tracks to play your own created rhythm. Ages 4-9.
Book/CD 4: Freddie the Frog® and the Secret of Crater Island
This book teaches six note names and completes the treble clef staff that the first book in the series, Freddie the Frog and the Thump in the Night, introduced. Freddie and Eli discover a buggy world under the azaleas. The two friends join the Blue Beetle Bugs in their quest to find the secret on Crater Island, (middle C)! The Secret of Crater Island includes peek-through pages and the enclosed audio CD includes the dramatized story, sing-a-long songs, and jam tracks to play along with the 12-Bar Blues. Ages 4-9.
to learn more.
Merilee Kern is JustLuxé.com's "The Luxe List" Executive Review Editor. She scours the luxury marketplace for new and captivating product, service and "travel musts." Submissions are accepted via e-mail at Merilee@JustLuxe.com. View all of Merilee's Luxe List articles from here (scroll to page bottom) and follower her on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/LuxeListEditor.


November 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Lexia reading is a computerized learning program that provides effective phonics instruction, giving the students independent practices for their basic reading skills. This learning program is generally created in order to provide supplement to regular classroom instructions. It is also designed to offer assistance and support skills development in the 5 areas of essential reading instructions.
Is it really effective? Yes! It is definitely proven effective and it was proven to have a potentially positive effect on the alphabetic, has no discernible effect on fluency, has positive effect when it comes to comprehension, and it has no discernible effect on the general reading achievements.
What It Has To Offer – Proven Results!
Closing The Reading Gap – Lexia Reading enables students to enhance their essential reading skills. Lexia can actually be used as an effective component of literacy curriculums in order to meet the needs and requirements of primary and secondary schools alike, in a very affordable and compelling cost as compared to those traditional approaches, which are quite difficult to handle and manage.
An Effective Yet Affordable Solution – Because of the online nature of Lexia Reading, it consistently gives personalized precise practice, which reduces the need for teacher-led supports. It enables easy access to reports planning as well as in evidences progression, thus decreasing the dependency in paper based exams.
It Is A Research Proven Program – Lexia Reading’s efficacy researches have been published many times. This only means that, Lexia Reading has been proven really effective in closing the reading gap as well as in improving the skills and ability of the students to use this software.
Lexia Reading – The Benefits
There are lots of reasons why people are being encouraged to purchase Lexia Reading.
● It is easy to use and can be easily managed.
● It adapts to weak or strong readers.
● It assists in phonics teaching.
● It informs planning.
● It reports the evidence progression.
● It accelerates the ‘at-risk’ students.
And when it comes to the students, Lexia Reading can prove to be very beneficial and extremely helpful.
● It is equipped with appropriate graphics and contents.
● It motivates reluctant learners.
● It works effectively according to the pace of the user.
● Students will be able to learn independently.
● It is very accessible at home.
● It basically promotes essential parental involvement.
Well, with what it has to offer, you probably want to try it for yourself. By integrating this excellent and effective technology into your literacy strategies, you will be able to meet the unique needs or students.
At a student interface, Lexia Reading delivers extremely personalized learning experiences where effective practices and exercises adapt more automatically, in accordance to the unique needs and requirements of people. If it is used as a part of the reading curriculum, this excellent research proven, effective program can ensure the students and teachers needs are being met. Thus, if you also want to take advantage of its excellence and effectiveness, go for Lexia Reading. You can never go wrong with opting for this exceptional learning program.


Engaging the visual arts to serve society
Today, more than ever, our information and knowledge are communicated visually. Opening our eyes to the power of visual images can help us discover new and insightful ways to share our thoughts and beliefs with others.
Art and art history at Calvin offers numerous programs to help you become someone who creatively and skillfully engages the world through the visual arts.
- Studio art majors learn the necessary conceptual and technical skills to create, design and dialogue about art in everyday life.
- Art education students learn to teach art in elementary and secondary classrooms.
- Art history majors research and discuss visual images throughout history in various cultures.
- Architecture students learn to create designs for structures that serve the needs of their clients in functional and pleasing ways.
- Graphics students learn to communicate creatively and effectively through the use of type, layout, design and photography.


This concise text is a must-have for choral conducting students or students looking to enter the fields of music education, church music, or choral singing. The text combines the principles of voice pedagogy and voice science with the practices of choral conducting. It offers teaching methods from history and philosophy, medical and voice science, pedagogical concepts, and active music experts, with sufficient medical verification and user-friendly language for medical and vocal term comprehension. Special attention is given to the needs of an amateur singer, with topics covered including choral diction, posture and seating considerations, rehearsal process, and matters of vocal health. With handbook examples and study questions for easy referencing and short essays regarding the work of amateur singers, this text is sure to prove inspiring to students in the choral field.
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The Rehearsal Process
Vocal Health and Pedagogy
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- B.A. Anthropology
- M.A. Education
- Multiple Subject Teaching Credential
- CLAD Certification
- SPED license (in process)
- 13 years teaching experience
“I Can” Common Core! Kindergarten Reading
Did your class meet the standards for reading? Guide the class with a handy checklist that focuses on reading foundational skills, reading fiction, and reading nonfiction texts. The poster prints onto three standard sheets of paper and introduces 31 standards as a comprehensive "I can" statements.
- Have learners check off each box as they progress through the unit of study
- Use to guide the lesson writing process
- Post to show how far your little ones have progressed toward standards mastery
“I Can” Common Core! Kindergarten Writing
Guide the class through the writing process with a great "I can" poster made specifically for the Common Core standards. Intended for learners in the first grade, the poster provides nine target standards in a checklist format.
- Print and laminate the poster and put on display. As the class masters each standard, have learners take turns checking off each "I can" statement
- Use at Back-to-School Night to help parents visualize the Common Core standards for writing
“I Can” Common Core! Kindergarten Speaking & Listening
"I can" statements are the way to go if you want an easy way to understand the Common Core standards. There are eight standards on this checklist that address speaking and listening targets.
- Use during class discussion, have learners check off the standards they have met, and then use the data to track progress analytically
“I Can” Common Core! Kindergarten Language
With a positive attitude kids can do just about anything, including master the Common Core. Reading foundational skills and language development is the focus of this great "I can" checklist made especially for learners in kindergarten. The poster provides 18 Common Core standards which can be checked off as your class works on language development throughout the term.
- The poster can be laminated and used to guide the lesson writing process
- It can be sent home to showcase learning targets or objectives
- Learners can feel proud as they see how they've mastered each standard
“I Can” Common Core! Kindergarten Math
Get ready to engage in Common Core math! Even the littlest mathematicians will enjoy checking off each standard they meet with a fun "I can" Common Core checklist. Thirty-four standards are listed on three pages; each standard provides a check box which can be checked off as you progress throughout the year.
- Use the checklist to guide the lesson writing process
- Provide the list to parents to keep them informed of the standards their children are working on in class
- Discuss the standard of the day with the class and then have them generate ways they think they can meet the standard


Coteaching reading comprehension strategies in elementary school libraries
For Immediate Release
CHICAGO — Time-strapped educators may wonder whether partnering with school librarians can realistically improve students’ scores, but studies show that collaboration improves overall effectiveness in increasing students’ reading comprehension. As part of the U.S.-wide drive to improve test scores and build a nation of readers, “Coteaching Reading Comprehension Strategies in Elementary School Libraries: Maximizing Your Impact,” published by ALA Editions, offers proven teamwork tools to accomplish both goals. Judi Moreillon, a veteran teacher-librarian, updates “Collaborative Strategies for Teaching Reading Comprehension” to draw on cutting-edge research in instructional strategies, offering a clear, rigorous roadmap to teaching reading comprehension in a proven collaborative process. Incorporating the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Standards for the 21st-Century Learner, Moreillon presents:
- Strategies for improving reading comprehension, complete with updated graphic organizers, sample lesson plans and technology-centered examples;
- Practical steps for streamlining the coteaching lesson-planning process, boiling it down to three levels of literacy development;
- Techniques for strengthening collaborative partnerships through flexible design and delivery ;
- Guidance for incorporating library programs into research-driven teaching practices.
Moreillon is a literacies and libraries consultant and assistant professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman’s University, and author of the companion book “Coteaching Reading Comprehension Strategies in Secondary School Libraries: Maximizing Your Impact.” She teaches courses in librarians as instructional partners, school library administration, multimedia resources, storytelling and children’s and young adult literature. She earned her master’s degree in library science from the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Arizona and a doctorate in education at the same university in the Department of Language, Reading, and Culture. During her 13-year tenure as a school librarian, she has collaborated with classroom teachers, specialists and principals at the elementary, middle and high school levels to integrate literature and information literacy into the classroom curriculum. She has also served as a district-level school librarian mentor, a literacy coach, a classroom teacher and a preservice classroom teacher educator. She chaired the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) School Librarian’s Role in Reading Task Force and served on the AASL Guidelines and Standards Implementation Task Force. She is currently researching the leadership and instructional partnership roles of school librarians and factors that influence preservice classroom teachers’ understanding and practice of classroom-library collaboration.
ALA Store purchases fund advocacy, awareness and accreditation programs for library professionals worldwide. ALA Editions publishes resources used worldwide by tens of thousands of library and information professionals to improve programs, build on best practices, develop leadership, and for personal professional development. ALA authors and developers are leaders in their fields, and their content is published in a growing range of print and electronic formats. Contact ALA Editions at (800) 545-2433 ext. 5418 or firstname.lastname@example.org.


Elementary Arts | Secondary Art | Art Education Office | Student Exhibitions
Elementary Art Program
Spectra Art (K - 5)
Spectra Art is our District-funded elementary art program. It provides students with sequential, standards-based art instruction over the entire school year. Students work with a wide range of media and processes. Spectra is an art-centered curriculum with a focus on developing skills and encouraging self-expression. Artist-teachers rotate among the classrooms of new teachers (first, second, and third years in PAUSD) providing weekly or bi-weekly lessons.
Meet the Masters Art Heritage Program The Meet the Masters program has been supporting our basic art curriculum for over 20 years. Docents from the community are trained by the PAUSD Art Education Office to deliver Meet the Masters lessons to classrooms of requesting teachers. Lessons cover art history and hands-on projects based on the work of 12 selected "master" artists. Everyone enjoys this fun and rewarding program.
Volunteer! Become a Meet the Masters Art Docent. Training sessions are held throughout the year. For information about how to become a docent, please visit Volunteer! or contact the Art Education office at (650) 329-3939.
Secondary Art Program
The Visual Art program in secondary schools extends the instruction provided in elementary education and gives interested students the opportunity to further their skills and expression. Classes are aligned with state and District Visual & Performing Arts Content Standards.
In Middle School, the visual arts are elective courses, and classes are offered at beginning and intermediate levels.
In High School, students have the opportunity to take advanced classes, including several advanced placement courses. Specific classes may vary at each school. Details are provided in school course catalogs.
|Drawing & Painting
|Advanced Drawing & Painting
|Studio Art AP
|New Digital Media
Art Education Office
The PAUSD Art Education Office provides valuable resources and assistance for K - 12 teachers who want to plan lessons that include aspects of the visual arts. Some of the available resources include:
||Books about art, artists, art history, cultures and traditions, art techniques and processes, and children's literature selected for its artistic content
||Video tapes, slides, transparencies, and large art reproductions
||60 portfolios developed around different themes, each containing five art reproductions
||A collection of lessons on arts and crafts as well as integrated lessons, taken from many sources
Youth Art Exhibition
As part of Youth Art Month in May, we display selected K-12 work. The Palo Alto Art Center generously provides their main gallery for a major three-week exhibition. The show, which traditionally opens on Mother's Day each year, is among the most popular shows at the Art Center. In addition, selected artwork of elementary students is displayed in many other venues around the city, such as local legislative offices, businesses, and Stanford University's School of Education.
Rotating District Art Show
Throughout the school year, the Art Education office coordinates a rotating display of student work in the hallways of the District office (25 Churchill Ave.). Each middle school and high school has its own six-week show. Elementary schools share a six-week display. Visitors are always welcome!
School Art Shows
Each PAUSD school displays student artwork in various settings throughout the year. Contact individual schools for details. Many schools also present online galleries on their Web sites. Please visit!
Sharon Ferguson, District Art Coordinator
If you have questions, contact Art Education at (650) 329-3939 or firstname.lastname@example.org.
Revised January 2003


"Every child has the right to read—and must read—in order to make sense of their world and to thrive in it," says Margery Mayer, President of Scholastic Education. "Books and reading should be a part of every child’s life, in their classrooms and homes with their teachers and families—from the day they are born and for the rest of their lives."
In the classroom, after school, in the community and at home, Scholastic Education reinforces learning 24 hours a day, everywhere a child meets a caring adult. Our mission is to provide young people with access to text that is relevant and engaging, while supporting content area learning and information literacy that insures the highest levels of student achievement. Along with classroom books and instructional materials to meet students’ needs, the Family and Community Engagement (FACE) program provides workshops, extensive teaching resources, and works with communities and long-standing literacy partners to ensure that students receive learning support 24/7 and from birth to adulthood.
For classrooms, that means helping to identify critical resource gaps, and providing options that build classroom libraries to drive meaningful independent reading practice or for guided and leveled reading to differentiate instruction.
Because learning and literacy outside of school must complement the learning that happens in school classrooms, the FACE team partners with schools and community organizations to extend literacy and learning into homes, into the summer and into the community through mentoring programs like Scholastic R.E.A.L. In addition, we work with community-based organizations like Reading Is Fundamental and Reach Out & Read to provide children and their families with best-selling, high-interest books they can cherish and enjoy at home.
Motivate ALL of your students with an enormous range of outstanding leveled books! Every title is supported with effective teaching strategies to help all children become independent readers who love to read.
Scholastic R.E.A.L. is a new program devoted to giving school districts the tools needed to recruit, encourage and equip mentors to inspire students and build literacy skills.
Read and Rise is a national literacy initiative created by Scholastic to bring families, schools and communities together to support children's literacy development.
The Traits Writing program is organized as a spiraled sequence of the traits and their 4 key qualities. Key qualities define the traits in detail and give you concrete concepts for targeting writing instruction.
Scholastic Classroom Books offers individual paperbacks and collections with instructional materials at a variety of different reading and interest levels.
Latest Company Financial News
Media Kits and more
We are aligned to the Common Core State Standards. See our complete list of books and programs and build students mastery of individual standards.


NWP Collaborates to Publish Early Literacy Activity Book—Our Book By Us!/Nuestro Libro ¡Hecho Por Nosotros!
Date: June 11, 2008
Summary: A new hands-on book for preschoolers provides parents and caregivers with a resource in English and Spanish that engages young children in reading and writing to support their early literacy development.
Preschool-aged children typically have a lot to say about their world. Our Book by Us!/Nuestro Libro ¡Hecho por Nosotros!, an activity book with text in both Spanish and English, gives them the opportunity to express their ideas about themselves, their families, and the places they live through writing and conversation with their caregivers.
The book, published collaboratively by the National Writing Project in conjunction with the College Board's National Commission on Writing and Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) , will be distributed this summer.
"National Writing Project teachers understand that early literacy skills, which link reading and writing, develop first at home through interactions with parents, grandparents, and other caregivers—long before a child enters a classroom," said Sharon Washington, executive director of NWP in a recent press release (English / español). "That is why we are thrilled to have worked on this project that provides a fun, colorful developmental tool—assuring that more children are prepared for literacy instruction when they begin school."
Writing Stories with SugarLoaf
Our Book by Us!/Nuestro Libro ¡Hecho por Nosotros!, by author/illustrator Peter H. Reynolds, is written with English and Spanish text together on the page. The book contains a series of six "minibooks" featuring SugarLoaf, a teddy-bear-like character, who makes her own book about her life and adventures with the help of friends and relatives.
Each SugarLoaf minibook has activity pages that invite the child and caregiver to talk, draw, and write about their own lives and experiences. Ideas for extension activities encourage parents and caregivers to turn everyday experiences into opportunities to teach literacy.
How to Get a Copy
The first printing of 50,000 copies of Our Book by Us!/Nuestro Libro ¡Hecho por Nosotros! is being distributed through NWP sites and to children in Head Start and other early learning programs served by RIF. The books are environmentally friendly, printed with soy ink on recycled paper. You may also download an electronic version (PDF). The book is also available to the public for purchase at cost through the NWP Bookstore.
For questions about how to order this book or how to use it, please contact us at email@example.com.


Shuishan Yu is a fourth generation Mei’an School guqin player, Professor of Architectural History at the Northeastern University in Boston, and Chair of North America Mei’an Guqin Society. Born in China and learning Chinese instruments since age seven, Yu’s early music education belongs to the rich and dynamic folk traditions of the Shandong Province. He later became a student of Master Wu Ziying, a third generation Mei’an School guqin player who had learned from such renowned 20th century guqin masters as Wang Jiru, Xu Lisun, Wu Jinglue, Zha Fuxi, Sun Zongpeng, and Gu Meigeng. Yu is especially committed to the spread of guqin among non-Chinese speaking communities. His fingering-centered etude writing aims to systematize traditional experience-based guqin education and his composition based on Classical Chinese literatures explores new possibilities of traditional musical vocabulary.
Guqin is the symbol of traditional Chinese music and culture. As one of the four noble arts of the literati tradition, it had been widely played since the time of Confucius (551-479 BCE) with a legendary history further back to the time of Fuxi and Huangdi some 5,000 years ago. Most cultural sages and celebrities in Chinese history play guqin, for instance, Cai Yong (133-192) and Su Shi (1036-1101). Millenniums of unbroken development have created a unique system of notation, education, performance, and appreciation, and left hundreds of ancient manuals, over 3,000 titles of music, many stylistic schools, and numerous poems, calligraphies, and paintings about guqin.
As a literati instrument, guqin was historically nurtured and promoted mainly by scholars, who do not consider themselves as specialized artists, but first and foremost as human beings completed by Confucian moral cultivation and elevated by Daoist integration with nature. Guqin music thus emphasizes art as a way of life that, in turn, nurtures the cultivation and moral character of the practitioner. It is a means for attainting higher spirituality, not an end in itself. Ancient and exquisite, guqin is one of the most endangered musical traditions in the world. Many historic schools and pieces have disappeared and guqin was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Intangible Cultural Heritage. It is the author’s hope that this album will make guqin more intelligible to the western audience and find America a new home of “zhiyin,” a spiritual and keenly appreciative friend.
Many unique features of guqin make its contemporary development a challenge. On the cultural level, guqin and Chinese history are closely related. The emphasis on moral and ritual aspects of music in Confucianism and the fusion of art forms in the literati tradition require guqin participants to be very familiar with Chinese calligraphy, painting, historical anecdotes, and literature. On the conceptual level, the rhythm of guqin music has a syntactic structure like Classical Chinese text, with no regular time and beats as in most other musical traditions. Another example is the central role played by fingering, which is not just a means to achieve sound but the essence of guqin aesthetics. On the communication level, guqin notation is daunting for those who do not know Chinese characters. On the artistic level, guqin players need to make more effort to recreate music, such as the interpretation of rhythm in the dapu process and the option of ornamentations. And on the technical level, the fingering uncertainty as a result of the variable string arrangement, the missing of hand positions in fingering and so on, are different from other string instruments.
On one hand, these characteristics make it difficult for the wide spread of guqin; on the other hand, the potential of its unique quality was not completely exhausted in the traditional repertoire, such as the emphasis on timbre, choreographic fingering, integration with other instruments and so on. There are rooms for new development. Most works in Shuishan Yu's CD albums are centuries old, but some are the artist's new creations.


The Yellow Brick Road of Art Education
Metcalf, Suesi, Smith-Shank, Deborah L., Art Education
The imagination is at the root of all real achievement, in science as much as in poetry. If you are a girl, I hope you will always be as sweet and as brave as Dorothy, and if you are a boy, I hope you will
pursue wisdom as ardently as the Scarecrow did and be as kind as the Tin Woodman himself. All these people, and the cowardly Lion too, when they wanted something, they went out after it, and in the end they found it. And the Wizard himself learned that though you may fool people for a long time, in the end you get found out. (Baum, 1956, last page)
L. Frank Baum wrote the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900. The edition we found was printed in 1956 to celebrate the author's 100th birthday, and as you can see from the quote written above "to the readers of this book," our culture has changed a lot since then. We find Baum's motive for writing the tale very interesting.
"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was written solely to please children of today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out" (Baum, 1956).
Keeping both of these quotations in mind, it seems appropriate on the hundredth anniversary of the book to consider Baum's fantastic tale in relationship to art education practices and pre-service elementary teachers.
Good art education practices facilitate growth through experience in art in much the same ways that Dorothy and her companions grew in courage, kindness, wisdom, and tenacity as they experienced on their journey to Oz. Like Baum, we believe that wonderment is an essential ingredient in any tale-art education or Oz-and that heartaches and nightmares ought to be left out of education altogether. Unfortunately, nightmares and heartaches are frequently the result of poor judgments by art teachers who inadvertently cause their students to experience art anxiety (Smith-Shank, 1993).
When children begin making marks upon their world, they are delighted with what they have accomplished, but when they enter school, all too often something changes. The creation of art is no longer self-directed, but teacher-directed, and the chance of praise from significant adults diminishes significantly. Negative responses to children's art create nightmares and heartaches. The joy of artmaking is replaced with fear of failure. Children have learned that, in the eyes of their teachers, there is a right and a wrong way to make art Some children who receive negative responses to their art grow up with fear to show their artwork, to experiment with unfamiliar media, and to explore new ideas. Sometimes these children do continue to make art, but they have learned that home-not school-is the safe place to make art.
When Dorothy went on her quest for the Great Oz, she met three odd companions. One lacked a brain, one a heart, and one courage. The four of them, along with the dog Toto, journeyed to find the wise and wonderful Wizard who, they believed, would give them what they lacked. Of course we all know the end of the story. Each of them already had what they wanted. But they didn't know it any more than our students who suffer from anxiety because negative experiences have taken away their belief that they can learn about art and their courage to try.
Art anxiety is common among pre-service elementary students. We have found that along the road of art education, something often happens that encourages self-doubt and insecurity about art. After a discussion about our respective students and their fears and discomfort with art, we decided to find out more about how our students feel about art and deal with their negative emotions. Student journals and exit surveys during the Fall 1999 semester were collected with permission from students enrolled in the two authors' courses entitled "Teaching Art at the Elementary School." They provide the data for this study. …


The MetroWest Youth Risk Behavior Survey is a 10-year initiative of the Massachusetts-based MetroWest Community Health Care Foundation to better understand and address the health needs of adolescents in the region.
Surveys are conducted biannually with middle and high school students and focus on issues such as:
Leading causes of morbidity and mortality among adolescents
TEACH-VIP is a comprehensive violence and injury prevention and control curriculum, developed by the World Health Organization and a global network of experts, covering a wide range of topics, designed to be delivered as face-to-face training. To make this curriculum more widely available, EDC created an instructional design approach for conversion of the face-to-face exercises and materials into an electronic, self-paced format with interactive lessons for the World Wide Web and CD-ROM.
This project is developing two products for the National Institute for Literacy. The products will be used by schools and other organizations and groups to engage parents with low literacy skills in supporting their children’s (kindergarten through third grade) literacy development through fun, at-home activities. The products include a facilitators manual and parent activity guide. EDC project stasff are working with national literacy experts on the development of the products.
When parents are involved in their children’s schooling, they can significantly increase students’ chances of graduating from high school and going on to college. Parent involvement is particularly important when a student would be the first in the family to enroll in college, and when poverty is a barrier.
Health and Human Development Programs’ (HHD) Southeast Asia Initiative has developed a new education project for youth in four Thai ‘sea gypsy’ communities the village hardest hit by the tsunami. Funding from Deutsche Bank will permit HHD to offer life skills, vocational training, market research, and formal education assistance.
EDC is part of a team that
developed a regional
framework that will allow
education officers, teacher
educators, and teachers to review, develop, and strengthen
national Health and Family Life Education (HFLE) curricula
and curriculum guides throughout the Caribbean.
When a woman is convicted of a crime and
sent to prison, family life can fall apart. To
support children as they live through the
trauma of a mother’s imprisonment, EDC
is working with the Massachusetts-based
Aid to Incarcerated Mothers (AIM) to
provide children with an adult mentor.
With training from EDC and AIM staff, the
mentors help children, ages 4–14, build
their sense of self-confidence and stability,
strengthen their academic skills, and
maintain family relationships.
Arranging affordable, quality child
care is essential, but very difficult, for most migrant families. “The
challenges migrant families face are very complex,” explains EDC’s
Sheila Skiffington. “There are language barriers, 9–5 office
hours when applying for care, transportation problems, complicated forms
to fill out, and fear of government institutions.”
Is it bad for parents to talk "baby talk" to their babies? How can you tell if a first grader is behind in reading? Is it normal for a child to talk to herself? Is it okay to read the same books every night? Parents with these and other questions about a child’s reading and writing can now "Ask the Expert" by logging on to the PBS Parents Web site.


Fun activities for children
Have fun with learning
The activities across the CBeebies website give your child an opportunity to play and have fun while learning at the same time. These summaries give you more information about how each activity can benefit your child’s learning, links to related helpful articles, as well as durations, so you can plan your time online or offline.
Guide Josie Jump down the ski slope using the arrow keys. Make sure she only goes through the correct colour gates though. This game is good for children's colour matching skills and practising hand-eye co-ordination using the arrow keys. Play now >
The classic game of dominoes, with two levels. Match the pictures in the first level and the pictures and numbers in the second level. Matching games help with pre-numeracy skills that lay the foundations for maths later on - sorting and seeing patterns all help with numeracy from an early age. Play now >
A Tetris-inspired game for pre-schoolers, use the arrow keys to line up the different-shaped snowflakes. There are three levels on this game but all three are nicely paced to introduce pre-schoolers to using the arrow keys. As with the Dominoes game, matching games help with pre-numeracy skills. Play now >
Three different games that range from the easy spacebar-hitting Tug of War to the much more challenging Obstacle Race. These games are all great fun, test children’s reactions and can be played with other children. Play now >
Follow the clues in three stories and help PC Plum solve the mysteries. As with the TV programme, these stories ask children to pay attention and think back over the events and characters of the day. The stories help with children’s problem-solving skills and observation skills. Play now >
Help the plants to grow and learn about how both water and sun are needed to help plants grow. Be quick with that watering can, the sun is hot! A basic introduction to what plants need to grow. Play now >
Have fun dressing up the Balamory characters. Talk about the costumes from around the world to give children a chance to understand why people wear different clothes in different climates and different societies. Play now >
Join us on Facebook
The official Grown-ups page is a great place to find previews and behind the scenes clips.
Get the channel
CBeebies is broadcast on Foxtel in Australia and is part of the Kids & Music package.


On Thursday, July 12, from 11 a.m. to noon the AGO is teaming up with Bunch and co-hosting an hour-long online discussion about kids and art. We hope you’ll take part!
School is out and parents are looking for ways to keep their kids’ bodies and minds active and engaged. Art activities are an obvious go-to on lazy, hazy summer days, but it’s less clear how to keep kids interested, cultivate their creativity and find age-appropriate materials for both art-making and art education. How can you accomplish all that while creating a sense of wonder about the world of art and keeping paint and glue off the carpet?
On July 12, we’re looking for answers on Twitter, with help from our co-hosts Bunch and their expertise on art and culture for families. During #ArtHour, we will ask six questions related to the topic, with the aim of generating a great discussion and giving parents, caregivers and art educators a platform to share tips:
Q1 How do you expose your kids to art in the city?
Q2 Do kids learn more about art from making it or seeing it?
Q3 What’s an art project you did with your kids that really got them engaged at a young age?
Q4 How can we use technology to introduce children to art? Any resources you can recommend?
Q5 Everyone has a marker bin, but does your family use any outside-the-box art materials?
Q6 How do you determine what art is appropriate for your kids to see?
The person who contributes the most to the conversation will win five VIP passes to visit Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris before August 12. Each pass comes with an audio guide, which contains several stops that are just for kids! The passes also include general admission to our collection and current exhibitions.
HOW TO TAKE PART
What #ArtHour is a Twitter chat with a new art topic each month. We invite you to spend one hour each month thinking about and sharing what art really means to you.
When Thursday, July 12, 11:00 a.m. – noon EDT (takes place the second Thursday of every month).
Where On Twitter. Follow @agotoronto and @BunchFamily for more information, or search for the hashtag #ArtHour. You can follow along using Tweetchat by using the #ArtHour hashtag.
Who #ArtHour is for everyone: galleries and museums, arts professionals, artists and anyone interested in learning more and meeting other passionate art fans.
How Starting at 11 a.m. @agotoronto and @BunchFamily will be tweeting a question every 10 minutes using the hashtag #ArtHour. Anyone can respond, also using #ArtHour. For example, we would tweet Q1 What is your favourite painting? #ArtHour, and you could tweet back A1 The West Wind by Tom Thomson! #ArtHour.
We hope that you’ll help spread the word and join us for this great online event. For more information about #ArtHour please email email@example.com.


Teaching art is not only about creative expression. Besides learning in the field of arts, art education helps students develop various skills and increase their knowledge in other areas.
A study from the early 1990s showed that arts education also teaches better school attendance and boosts the student's motivation to learn. It also helps students improve their marks and develops multicultural understanding and creativity. Teaching art in schools can also help students gain problem-solving abilities and higher-order thinking skills.
In the 17th century, the elementary school curriculum included drawing, reading, writing, singing and playing an instrument. Originally, art teaching referred to drawing, which remained a basic part of education throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. At that time, art was largely considered from a utilitarian point of view. Later other types of art, such as painting and plastic arts, were included in art teaching.
In the 20th century, art teaching was marked by a transition from utilitarian to creative expression philosophy, which put the emphasis on personal development. With the outbreak of World War II and the successive Cold War between the East and the West, however, the significance of art education was diminished. Teaching art lost its priority to science and mathematics in school programs. In the United Sates, art programs would fall victims amid a national energy and demographic crisis.
Yet in the 1970s, educators engaged in art teaching made a lot of effort to re-establish the authority and significance of art education. The U.S. discipline-based art education (DBAE) program, launched at the Getty Center for Education in the Arts, was aimed at developing students' abilities to understand and appreciate art. The program considered art "an essential component of general education," and "a foundation for specialized art study." It also suggested that the so called "studio art," should be upgraded with knowledge from art history and criticism, and aesthetics.
Such efforts materialized in the U.S. federal Goals 2000: Educate America Act, which also established the standards for art education. According to the national standards, students should be able to:
understand and implement art media and processes
apply visual arts structures and functions
select and evaluate a variety of subject matter, symbols and ideas
understand art with regard to history and cultures
contemplate and assess their own work and that of others
link art to other disciplines
During the 20th century art teaching was influenced by several theoretical movements.
First the theory of constructivism, supported by researchers such as Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky, replaced behaviorism as a main educational principle. It is based on the idea that learners build their own knowledge and teachers are only assisting this process.
Postmodern theory in turn replaced modernism and focused on multiculturalism and the absence of cultural dominance.
According to the multiple intelligences theory of Howard Gardner, thinking and learning depend on individual intellectual abilities. Gardner distinguished seven types of intelligence:
Such theories, which refer to education and teaching in general, also determined the approaches to art teaching. Students are thus left to reach their own knowledge for making artistic decisions.
Children perform art from a very young age using objects from their everyday environment. Growing up, children start to imply views and values in their artworks. In elementary schools children are encouraged to develop and enhance their artistic abilities and creativity. In the United States, elementary art specialists often play the role of art teachers with an emphasis on art making. Sometimes art specialists and classroom teachers work together with students. The role of art specialists is to help classroom teachers integrate art in other subjects in order to broaden the students' perspective. Many U.S. middle schools also support the incorporation of art as a core subject in the curriculum, applying a team-teaching method for class scheduling to back art education.
Art is an elective subject in most U.S. secondary schools and some high schools even offer 30-40 separate art classes. Art-oriented education was supported by the U.S. educational reform from the 1980s and 1990s. Art is seen as a tool which students can use to study themselves and the world. In some schools art is taught with another subject to provide comprehensive learning in a specific area, for example photography is coupled with journalism.
Computer technologies and the Internet have provided art teaching with innovative resources for both art creation and for the application of visual arts in other subjects.


This is a good introduction to the elements of art for middle school students. As this presentation states, the elements are the “ingredients” of a work of art. Having a solid understanding of not only what these are, but all of the information specific to each one is an important part of any young artist’s art education. Of course, constructing a presentation that delves deeply into each of the elements of art would be massive and would take a long time to navigate through much less create. This presentation would be a good jumping off point when introducing them to a class and it is easy to imagine that other StAIR presentations that address each of the elements individually could be shown to the students in the days/weeks that follow.
Technically the presentation works though I could not play the videos. The slide layouts were nicely arranged with text that was clear and easy to read. It’s always good to see images of art work created by artists that the students may be studying as the school year progresses. Presentations like this one are wonderful tools to share those works of art with students. It looks like there may be some images of student work in this presentation as well.
There are a couple points that might need to be addressed before sharing this tool with students.
1. Some of the graphics are partially covering up some of the text on some of the slides (Slides 1 and 14).
2. The videos did not play for me. I wish I knew how to solve this because I had a similar issue with a StAIR that I created. If I figure out why this didn’t work in my presentation maybe I’ll check back in here and share my soloution.
3. I think it would be good to put some information about each of the works of art featured in this presentation. The names, dates, dimensions and even mediums used in each piece would be good to share even if that information isn’t necessarily what this presentation aims to teach the students specifically.
4. It might be a good idea to add some kind of text to speech features for students who are struggling readers.


Careers And Colleges
This is the first 1,000 characters of 1706 words (6.82 pages) in the essay titled Careers And Colleges
|Careers and Colleges
Research Project: Careers and Colleges
It is difficult for first time job hunters to have realistic ideas about how to profit from their skills. This is why it is important to investigate what career you may be interested in and what colleges will enable you to excell in that career. The profession that I am interested into going into is an elementary school teacher. Fordham University and New York University are two colleges that offer excellent elementary education programs.
Throughout this report I will be discussing information related to the career as well as information dealing with the colleges.
Career: Elementary School Teacher
School teachers at the elementary level introduce children to the basic concepts of mathematics, language, science, and social studies. They aid children in the development of good study and work habits and help them aquire the skills necessary for further education. They evaluate eac...
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A new edition of this text is available here
AUTHORS: Roe/Smith/Burns - ©2009
This market-leading text sets the standard for reading instruction to ensure that aspiring teachers are able to help students learn not only how to recognize words, but also how to comprehend their reading materials--and to enjoy the process. The book balances new approaches to reading, such as language arts integration and emergent literacy/literacy as a continuum, with more traditional foundations of strong skills and phonics instruction. Updated coverage in the Tenth Edition includes the latest uses of technology for literacy teaching and learning. This text's updated coverage and enhanced pedagogy, combined with HM Education Video Cases, provide an ideal way to help future teachers prepare for real life in the classroom.
CengageBrain offers two types of free content:
The amount and type of free content available will depend on whether the book comes with a companion web site or CourseMate. To get started accessing your content, click the "access now" button. You can either access your content immediately or save it to My Home.


REFERENCE: Hutinger, P. (1994, Summer). Study shows assistive technology produces positive effects, makes recommendations for future efforts." ACTTive Technology, 9 (3), 1, 3, 4, 6.
CONTEXT: The article discusses recommendations for improving the benefits of assistive technology for children with disabilities. Recommendations are based on a two-year study describing the use of assistive technologies in educational programs for children with significant multiple disabilities. Assistive technology included such devices as switches, electronic toys, computers and their peripherals, and electronic communication devices. Many recommendations resulting from the study are presented, including the following sampling. Family involvement:
Maintaining and upgrading equipment:
Outcomes/Reflections: In sum, families and professionals were provided with opportunities, equipment, and materials which encouraged children's social and emotional development, autonomy, and independent behavior. Although changes were slow for some of these children with significant disabilities, they did make progress, technology did represent a useful tool, and gains were made even with often inconsistent services. Gains over time related to positive social and emotional changes and to improvement in cognition and communication. It was found that the benefits that occurred depended on "the resources of the educational program, belief in technology benefits, the technology competence of his or her educational staff, the child, and the interest, resources and persistence of families (p. 6). "
ACTTive Technology, Project ACTT, Western Illinois University, Macomb, IL 61455 Macomb
Projects, under the direction of Patricia Hutinger, Ed.D., Professor of Early Childhood in
the Department of Elementary Education/Reading at Western Illinois University, 27 Horrabin
Hall, Macomb, IL 61455. Tel. (309) 298-1634
[Eary Childhood Table of Contents]
[ Home | Library | Videos | Tour | Spotlight | Workshops | Links ]
This material was developed by the National Center to Improve Practice (NCIP), located at Education Development Center, Inc. in Newton, Massachusetts. NCIP was funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs from October 1, 1992 - September 30, 1998, Grant #H180N20013. Permission is granted to copy and disseminate this information. If you do so, please cite NCIP. Contents do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of Education, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by NCIP, EDC, or the U.S. Government. This site was last updated in September 1998.
ŠEducation Development Center, Inc.


The Mars Rover, Curiosity, is scheduled to land on August 5 and Microsoft Research is pretty excited about it. Not only you can watch the event live on the Xbox channel, there's a new Kodu world in which kids can control a rover to explore an authentic version of the Red Planet.
The Kodu Game Lab, developed by Microsoft Research FUSE Labs, is a visual programming language that enables kids to create games. It is a tool that can unleash imagination, foster literacy and numeracy skills and encourage kids to consider programming as a future career.
To coincide with the Curiosity landing, FUSE Labs, in conjunction with NASA’s Mars Public Engagement Program, led by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has launched Kodu: Mars Edition.
This version of Kodu is designed to enable school kids in the fifth through eighth grades to program a Mars rover, explore the planet, or play one of three professionally developed game levels.
The Martian adventure introduces new objects and new programming elements into the Kodu environment via the game levels and enables students to develop skills similar to those of real NASA rover drivers:
Search and Explore Mars: Stents will determine the most efficient set of commands to navigate a rover across terrain using scientific data.
Under the Rover’s Hood: Students will program how the rover will move and act autonomously, as well as run trials to evaluate and refine their programming.
Mars Mission Simulation: Students will design a simulated Martian environment and program a rover to explore Mars autonomously.
Find out more about this new Kodu world in this video:
And remember to tune in to the Xbox Live at 10:31 p.m. PDT on August 5 to discover if the real Curiosity lands on Mars according to plan. (Requires an Xbox and registration, which is free.)
If I tell you how fast I have been driving and for how long, you might think that the best you can do is to compute the radius of the circle I must be in given my starting point. In fact, the data pro [ ... ]
Continuing its push to give all school students the opportunity to learn to code, Code.org is inviting educators to check out the beta of its K-5 Computer Science Curriculum, which will be launched in [ ... ]


Effective Reading Instruction In the Classroom
The following summary of effective reading instruction has been excerpted from a 64-page booklet, designed by teachers for teachers, that summarizes what researchers have discovered about how to successfully teach children to read. Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read describes the findings of the National Reading Panel Report and provides analysis and discussion in five areas of reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and text comprehension.
Phonemic awareness instruction
Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds—phonemes—in spoken words. Phonemic awareness is important because it improves children's word reading and reading comprehension and it helps children learn to spell.
Phonemic awareness can be developed through a number of activities, including asking children to:
- Identify phonemes;
- Categorize phonemes;
- Blend phonemes to form words;
- Segment words into phonemes;
- Delete or add phonemes to form new words, and
- Substitute phenomes to make new words.
Phonemic awareness instruction is most effective when children are taught to manipulate phonemes by using the letters of the alphabet and when instruction focuses on only one or two rather than several types of phoneme manipulation.
Phonics instruction helps children learn the relationships between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language. Phonics instruction is important because it leads to an understanding of the alphabetic principle - the systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken sounds.
Programs of phonics instruction are effective when they are:
- Systematic - the plan of instruction includes a carefully selected set of letter-sound relationships that are organized into a logical sequence.
- Explicit - the programs provide teachers with precise directions for the teaching of these relationships.
Effective phonics programs provide ample opportunities for children to apply what they are learning about letters and sounds to the reading of words, sentences, and stories. Systematic and explicit phonics instruction significantly improves children's word recognition, spelling, and reading comprehension and is most effective when it begins in kindergarten or first grade.
Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately and quickly. Fluency is important because it frees students to understand what they read. Reading fluency can be developed by modeling fluent reading by having students engage in repeated oral reading.
Monitoring student progress in reading fluency is useful in evaluating instruction and setting instructional goals and can be motivating to students.
Vocabulary refers to the words we must know to communicate effectively. Oral vocabulary refers to words that we use in speaking or recognize in listening. Reading vocabulary refers to words we recognize or use in print. Vocabulary is important because beginning readers use their oral vocabulary to make sense of the words they see in print and because readers must know what most of the words mean before they can understand what they are reading
Vocabulary can be developed:
- Indirectly, when students engage daily in oral language, listen to adults read to them, and read extensively on their own.
- Directly, when students are explicitly taught both individual words and word learning strategies.
Text Comprehension Instruction
Comprehension is the reason for reading. If readers can read the words but do not understand what they are reading, they are not really reading. Text comprehension is important because comprehension is the reason for reading.
Text comprehension is purposeful and active. It can be developed by teaching comprehension strategies:
- Through explicit instruction.
- Through cooperative learning.
- By helping readers use strategies flexibly and in combination.
This very brief summary of effective reading instruction has been excerpted from "Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read" by The Partnership for Reading, a collaborative effort of the National Institute for Literacy, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the U.S. Department of Education.


Brain Food! (ages 7-10)
Through hands-on experiences and fun activities, children will become familiar with the major areas of their brains. This knowledge will enable them to “bridge into their own brain” with greater ease. Children will learn how their breath, body, and mind work together to create brilliance in their own being! These empowering skills will help them to recognize they have more control over their decisions, choices, and especially their emotions. We’ll focus on a range of techniques from movement, breathing, “puzzling” problem solving, and critical thinking to tap into their hidden growth potential!
Instructor: Deborah Cyb, BA English, M.Ed specializing in Elementary Education and Curriculum Development


Middle School is poised to take a leap
into 21st century learning. The library media center
is ready to take that leap as well. The West Virginia
Standards for 21st Century Learning state that:
|"The mix of technology tools will change
and evolve rapidly in the future. Today's technology
may be obsolete tomorrow. It is impossible to
predict the tools that will be essential for learning
and working in the years to come. That is why
it is important for people to acquire learning
skills that will enable them to use next-generation
technology and why business people and educators
need to continue to collaborate so schools will
stay abreast of new technology. By moving beyond
the development of foundational skills in technology
to the development of ICT (information and communication
technology) literacy skills, we will prepare our
students to be productive in the classroom and
We need to recognize that the world
our students will be working and living in is scarcely
imaginable today. We need not only to educate them
to use and understand the technologies of today, but
to prepare them to be ready for the technologies of
tomorrow. As stated above, we need to teach them the
"learning skills" that will prepare them
for a workplace that doesn't yet exist.
Belmonte Middle School can create a
"learning commons", which is a space that
is a center for information, knowledge and enjoyment.
The environment is one of inquiry and creativity,
not just skill-building and fact-gathering. It is
inquiry and knowledge building that will lead our
students into successful lives in the 21st century.
The vision for the Belmonte Middle School
Library Media Center is:
commons where inquiry, knowledge, enjoyment, creativity
all live together.
for deliberate and intentional engagement with
is an inquiry model of knowledge acquisition,
hopefully school-wide (IIM-Independent Investigation
where they use Web 2.0 tools in the school as
well as out of school. As Marc Prensky says Its
their after school education not their school
education that is preparing kids for their 21st
century livesand they know it. When kids
come to school they leave behind this intellectual
light of their everyday lives and walk into the
darkness of the old-fashioned classroom.
students literacy skills and they include print
literacy, visual literacy and media literacy.
where students and staff know they will be welcomed,
inspired, and challenged.
where 21st-century ethics are alive.
It is the goal that all stakeholders
at Belmonte will adopt and work towards this vision.


Literacy for ME: Maine's Comprehensive State Literacy Plan
Appendix B: Descriptions of Statewide Literacy-Related Initiatives
Statewide Early Learning Guidelines for Birth to School Age Five Year Olds
Supporting Maine’s Infants and Toddlers/Guidelines for Learning and Development
Adopted in 2005, this document offers parents of infants and toddlers, early childhood professionals, and policy makes a set of guidelines about development and learning. The goals are to help individuals understand what to look for as a baby grows and develops and to aid in understanding that infants’ and toddlers’ natural learning patters and abilities can be nurtured in everyday activities occurring in a home or child care setting.
State of Maine Early Childhood Learning Guidelines (3-5)
Adopted in 2005, The Maine Early Childhood Learning Guidelines were developed to serve as a guide for sate and local early care and education practitioners’ efforts to improve early childhood practice and programs for young children ages three through their entrance into kindergarten. The Guidelines are intended to effect greater collaboration and consistency across systems by aligning practices across all early childhood settings. Currently under revision, these guidelines will become part of a web based progression document from Birth through age eight.
Statewide Plan for a Comprehensive Early Childhood System
The Maine Children’s Growth Council is charged in statute to perform specific duties intended to improve the social and financial investments in Maine’s youngest children and their families. The Council has adopted the Invest in ME plan and reflects a comprehensive approach, through structured committee work, to ensure ongoing accountability of the system in conjunction with the legislative and executive branches of government, municipal and community leaders, parents, youth and providers.
Early Reading First
Early Reading First is a project of the U.S. Department of Education, which provides funding to transform existing early childhood education programs into preschool centers of educational excellence. The mission of Early Reading First (ERF) “is to ensure that all children enter kindergarten with the necessary language, cognitive, and early reading skills for continued success in school.” Many children enter school without the foundations in vocabulary, ability to attune to the sounds of language, knowledge of the alphabet, and the world of print. Research shows these are critical precursors to reading proficiency. This foundation is particularly lacking in many children from low-income families or those who are English Language Learners. Maine has received two Early Reading First grant awards, one in Waldo county and one in the greater Portland area.
Through a coast to-coast network of state-of-the-art programs, Educare serves at-risk children from birth to 5 years. Educare Central Maine is the first Educare site in New England and is designed to serve between 150 and 200 mostly low-income children during this most critical brain development stage. The goal is to measurably increase their school-readiness and significantly reduce unnecessary special education costs.
Parents and caregivers are essential partners in preparing children for school and Educare Central Maine will support them with education and comprehensive supports to improve health, self-sufficiency and long-term parent and child well-being and success.
A private/public partnership, Educare Central Maine will serve as a state-of-the-art professional development and resource center for child care professionals across the state, as well as a teaching lab for students seeking an early childhood degree in Maine.
Maine Reading First
The Reading First initiative is a federal grant program that supports K-3 classroom teachers and students, as well as K-12 special education teachers and students, to boost reading achievement through ongoing professional development and implementation of comprehensive reading programs. The goal of Reading First is to instill proven methods of early reading instruction into classrooms by establishing a comprehensive program grounded in scientifically- based reading research. Funding supports both statewide professional development for all K-3 regular educators and K-12 special educators, as well as competitive sub-grants to eligible school systems for the implementation of comprehensive reading programs. To date, 23 Maine School Systems have received Maine Reading First sub-grants, impacting 25 schools.
Adult Education and Family Literacy
Through classroom instruction or tutoring, Maine Adult Education and Family Literacy initiatives teach the basic reading comprehension and numeracy skills necessary to function in our literate community. Programming areas include English as a Second Language and Family Literacy, an approach integrating early childhood education and adult education and parenting skills. In FY 11 local adult education programs served over 5,000 adults in need of this type of programming. There were also over 1600 adults engaged in coursework leading them to a high school credential. Maine’s adult basic education and family literacy programs are supported by the federal Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA) with many local programs also using local tax support and income from other grant sources.