“Given sufficient attention and support, young people can have the chance to grow up healthy and whole both in body and in mind. What is at stake are not only the precious individual lives of our young people but our national health and our future as a nation.” - Fred M. Hechinger
At Amy Biehl High School, freshmen are required to take one semester of Fitness. This class is a comprehensive Health and Physical Education class that addresses Wellness, Integrated Skills, Drugs and Medicines, Human Relationships and Sexuality, Motor Skill Development, and Fitness. Students learn that good health is necessary for effective learning. The curriculum not only prepares them to be better students, but it will help them become more productive community members by reinforcing The Amy Biehl High School Habits of Heart and Mind. Students gain an understanding of these habits, while obtaining critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, cooperative and collaborative qualities, self management skills, and communications skills. Upon completion of this course, I believe that our students will be happier, healthier, more confident. PE provides instruction and development of skills in human movement, physical activities, and physical fitness.
Amy Biehl High School also has several after school sports teams including volleyball, basketball and soccer. For details, contact Jamie Roberts at email@example.com.


Creating an Ocean Ecosystem in the Classroom
Dr. Rikki Asher, Director, Art Education CUNY@ Queens College
Ninth graders at Urban Peace Academy (an alternative high school in East Harlem, New York)
transformed their classroom into an ocean ecosystem. Collaboratively researching the Pacific
Ocean's Kelp Forest, student groups selected sea creatures to create their dimensional projects.
- Explored the three essential questions through an examination of the Pacific Kelp Forest.
- What do creatures in the Kelp Forest need to survive?
- How are living things in this ecosystem interdependent?
- How do humans impact upon life in the Kelp Forest?
- Discovered the broad meaning of environment by observing, drawing and studying diverse ecosystems
- Created two and three dimensional visual interpretations of a creature from the
- Completed an exhibition where they researched and created a replica of one of the
creatures in the Kelp Forest in the classroom. Included in the Exhibition was a written
research paper, an oral presentation, field trips and a formal scientific investigation.
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Please send e-mail to: June Julian email@example.com


Here is a collection of 12 fun and playful ways to bring stories to life with creative storytelling activities! From play dough and story sensory bins to small world play and dramatic retelling, there are lots of ideas here to choose from and keep little ones busy in playful learning.
12 Creative Storytelling Activities
Create a story basket full of storytelling props to retell favourite fairy tales together in a playful way! So easy to set up with items from around the house and beneficial for so many strands of early literacy development.
As part of our
Continue reading Fairytale Storytelling Basket
Use simple storytelling props to act out a favourite traditional tale of Little Red Riding Hood in imaginative play! There are so many opportunities for early literacy development in this type of exciting dramatic play and it is developmentally appropriate for young children.
Continue reading Little Red Riding Hood Storytelling Dramatic Play


Thursday, 10 May 2012
In conclusion, the goverment is hoping the NKRA programme will be succesfull in produce excellent human capital for the development of the workforce to drive the national economy to achieve the New Economic Model, ultimately achieving Vision 2020.
- Increase the number of preschool classes in a dense population, poor urban, and rural area.
Detailed Information on Education NKRA
The National Key Result Areas (NKRA) Education, member governments will focus on four sub-NKRA to expand access to affordable and quality education.
- Uniform support to preschool student.
- Improvement the quality of the teachers.
- Provide the National Pre-school information system.
What the objectives?
The education of NKRA set two main focus as a basis for transformation to ensure that all children receive quality basic education and develop a performance culture to drive transformation in the education system.
Thus, Preschool education, mastery of literacy and numeracy in Phase One, High School Achievement (SBT) has introduced a new offer to the dean and professor in raising the achievement of excellence through NKRA be sub field.
In addition, the sub areas include increasing enrollment rates NKRA children aged four and five years participated in preschool education.
The implementation was to ensure that every normal child can master basic literacy and numeracy skills after attending three years of primary education.
National Key Results (NKRA), Government Transformation Programme (GTP) Education 2010 succeeded in elevating the teaching profession ranked eighth country to get the world as reported by Newsweek magazine.
NKRA aspirations are focused on increasing overall student achievement includes intellectual, emotional, spiritual and physical boost the image of the country's education system. The increase student achievement at all key stages in the development of talent to produce a skilled workforce so that the objective of becoming the developing countries by 2020 is achieved.


Building Success and Confidence in Children (Part I)
By Dr. Evan Brody
Your child enters a new environment, what is his reaction? Does he immediately jumpright into the situation or is he more cautious, clinging to your leg and refusing to part with you? How a child reacts to new challenges is determined by several factors, but the most important to their self-esteem is how you, as a parent, react. Here are some factors to take into consideration when helping to build your child’s self-confidence.
Personality. Take into consideration your child’s personality. If he is naturally shy, he may be more hesitant than the outgoing child who runs right up to your child and asks him to play. A parent’s encouragement and feedback can make a huge difference in the child’s willingness to be involved in a given activity.
The Impact of Learning Environments. The learning environment a parent creates directly influences the rate of learning, success and improvement of confidence in children. In addition,what and how a parent communicates with their children will facilitate, or interfere with the child’ssuccess and self-confidence.
Motor Skill Development. Skill acquisition is a function of the learning process, which in turn is dependent on the amount of quality instruction, proper practice and one’s successful past experience.
Confidence. The by-product of the skill acquisition process is confidence. The more success the child experiences, the better he will feel about himself.
Watch for the next issue of the newsletter that will discuss techniques you can use in every day life to help build success and confidence in your kids.
Building Success and Confidence in Children (Part II)
In the last issue of our newsletter, we discussed factors to take into consideration when helping to build your child’s self-confidence. In this issue, we continue to discusstechniques you can use in every day life to help build success and confidence in your children.
How do you build self-efficacy and/or confidence? First, you as a parent can set realistic goals and expectations based on the present ability level of your child. It is of vital importance that age and development be considered in setting realistic goals and expectations in growing skills.
Specific Positive Feedback and Directive Practice. Two very important communication devices weuse at The Little Gym include Specific Positive Feedback (SPF) and Directive Practice (DP). SpecificPositive Feedback is The Little Gym’s method of communicating to the child what the child did well. It is framed in a positive and nurturing context. Directive Practice involves telling the child what they cando next to take the skill to a higher level. Use this at home. It works.
Structuring Your Child’s Environment for Success. Environmental structure deals with creating an environment rich in love, support, encouragement, and compassion. Confidence is a consequence of successful experience. By creating an environment which nurtures learning new skills you can create success for your child. The results will be improvement in intellectual, social, emotional and motor skill which brings a greater ability to learn new skills.
This ability to explore and grow by the child leads to greater future success. Success will result in feelings of confidence and competence. The greater the confidence, the more likely your child will be able to handle challenging and adverse situations in his future! Try these practices out and help your child be the best they can be!
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**ONE YEAR CURRICULUM BUNDLE is ready and available for a 20% discount when you purchase all months at once - CLICK HERE
This is a complete month of original Common Core aligned phonological awareness curriculum. If you follow our curriculum in your classroom, which requires 15 minutes a day on the first day and 10 minutes a day for the next four days, you will see amazingly ridiculous phonological awareness growth in your students. This program is tried and true, used in K and first grade classrooms at my school. This curriculum is based on 16 phonological awareness skills that we have identified in the Reading Foundational Skills strand of Common Core for ELA. The activities/lessons are text-based, meaning the words and phrases for the phonological awareness lessons (which we call "listening games") are based on popular read aloud titles (books not included) from your monthly curricular themes. This program was written around the Kindergarten and First Grade Common Core standards and skills including the Common Core document, Appendix A, based on phonological awareness research and the general progression of phonological awareness skills in the foundational reading process. This curriculum is also appropriate for Pre-K and anyone working in a teaching capacity with K or 1st grade students. We are so sure you are going to love our phonological awareness curriculum after using it for just one week, that we think you'll come back to purchase the monthly bundles.
The November bundle includes four weeks of lessons based on the following holiday related read-aloud titles and ideal for making text
to text comparisons:
Gracias The Thanksgiving Turkey by Joy Cowley
Thanksgiving Is...by Jan Brett
The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant
Twas The Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey
The only PREP required to implement this curriculum is you locating the book. Once you download and print the lessons included here (28 pages) there is NO MORE PREP. You're ready.
If you would like to be automatically notified when we add more curriculum, please click FOLLOW ME at the top of this page. We appreciate your business!
Hello Two Peas in a Pod
Jen Jones (Hello Literacy)
& Katherine Zotovich


PES Grade 5
|Mr. Frank Battaglia||203-264-8283|
|Mrs. Cynthia Canty||203-264-8283|
|Mr. Mark Ciccone||203-264-8283|
|Mrs. Diane Spencer||203-264-8283|
The fifth grade curriculum at PES focuses on academic growth and study skills, while fostering independence as students prepare for middle school.
The Language Arts curriculum is designed to allow students more time to practice authentic reading, writing, speaking, listening and viewing tasks, to offer more choice in text selection, to organize the curriculum around units of study (genre/author/thematic studies) and to provide instruction through a workshop framework. The content of each unit serves as the vehicle for teaching students the essential skills, knowledge and understandings of English-language arts.
Math Trailblazers is a spiral program with many concepts and skills introduced and taught at different grade levels at an increasing level of complexity. In fifth grade these concepts and skills are reinforced through the use of Daily Practice Problems and applied in problem solving. The units in the fifth grade program include measurement, data collection and analysis, estimation, graphing, multiplication, division, fractions, ratios, probability, decimals, and geometry. Problem solving is an integral part of each unit as students use varied problem solving strategies to solve "real life" math problems.
During social studies, the students explore geography concepts organized around the five themes of geography and complete unit studies on Latin America, Canada and the United States. Fifth grade geography involves an application and extension of reading, writing, and numeracy skills transferred from the language arts and math classrooms.
Our science program begins with an introduction to the field of science and scientists. This unit is followed by a unit on the Solar System. Next, students explore the world of light and sound. We end the year by studying populations and ecosystems, which correlates with our study of owls and the dissection of owl pellets.


One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
This story-poem about the activities of such unusual animals as the Nook, Wump, Yink, Yop, Gack, and the Zeds was originally published in 1960.
A classic work by Dr. Seuss, it is described by Elementary Education as a "fabulous book of easy words, exciting pictures, and inviting rhythm"
- 6, 7, 5
- Interest Level
- Grades K - 2
- Grade Level Equivalent
- Lexile Measure
- Guided Reading
- Random House Children's Books
- Book Type
- Begining Reader Book
- Number of Pages
- Rhyming Story, Comedy and Humor


NEW RESOURCE FROM NAEA
NATIONAL ART EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
Office of the Executive Director
Phone 703-860-8000 Fax 703-860-2960
Art and Cognition
by Arthur Efland
Available from NAEA
May 8, 2002 — In this in-depth text, the preeminent art education scholar
Arthur Efland not only sheds light on the problems inhibiting art education,
but also demonstrates how art contributes to the overall development of the
mind. Delineating how the development of artistic interests and ability is an
important aspect of cognition and learning, he shows how art helps
individuals construct cultural meaning, a crucial component of social
communication—a foundation for lifelong learning that includes the arts.
In Art and Cognition, Arthur Efland:
o Explains the cognitive nature of learning in the visual arts—debunking the
persistent perception of the arts as emotive only.
o Looks at recent understandings of the mind and intelligence to determine
how they bear on questions of the intellectual status of the arts.
o Explains how a cognitively oriented conception of teaching will change the
ways that the arts are taught.
o Discusses the ways in which new developments in cognitive science can be
applied to art education.
o Describes how the arts can be used to develop cognitive ability in children.
o Identifies implications for art curricula, teaching practices, and the
reform of general education.
Topics: The Uneasy Connection Between Art & Psychology o Artistic
Development in Cognitive Developmental Theories o The Cognitive Revolution &
Conceptions of Learning o Cognitive Flexibility Theory & Learning in the Arts
o Obstacles to Art Learning & Their Assessment o Imagination in Cognition o A
Cognitive Argument for the Arts
Order No. #272 Art and Cognition
ISBN 0-8077-4218-X 216 pages
Member Price $18.00; Non-member Price $22.00
ORDER INFORMATION: Payment must accompany order. Shipping and Handling:
Canadian add 25%; foreign add 40% shipping. Virginia residents add 4.5% sales
tax. U.S. shipping/handling: up to $10.00 — $3.00; $10.01 - $20.00 — $4.00;
$20.01 - $35.00 — $5.00; $35.01 - $70.00 — $6.00; over $70.00 — $8.00.
PREPAID ORDERS: All orders under $75 must include payment. INVOICED ORDERS:
Orders over $75 may be invoiced and must be accompanied by a purchase order.
Mail to: National Art Education Association, 1916 Association Drive, Reston,
VA 20191-1590. FAX/PHONE ORDERS using Visa and MasterCard may be faxed to
703-860-2960 or by toll free phone to 800-299-8321 (8:30am to 4pm EST). WEB


Posted: Wednesday Mar 28, 2012
The Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media at Saint Vincent College today launched a unique website that provides high quality digital media resources for early learning teachers, family child care providers, and families of young children birth to age five, free of charge.
The Fred Rogers Center Early Learning Environment™— “Ele” (pronounced “El-Lee”) for short—is located at www.yourele.org. The site includes:
• Activities—A library of more than 100 ebooks, digital games, videos, music, mobile apps, and other activities selected as quality resources that support learning and literacy development. Some activities help adults support children’s language and literacy skills; others are designed for use by adults with children.
• Let’s Talk—An online community where teachers, families, and others can ask questions, and connect and share with others who care about issues affecting young children.
• My Ele—By signing up for a free Ele account, users can organize the site’s resources around their own needs and interests, and then share them by creating Play!Lists. All resources include research-based suggestions and information on how and why to use Ele’s activities, under the headings, “Talk About It” and “Why This Is Important.”
Visitors meet Ele, an avatar that serves as the site’s friendly “guide.” Activities are easily searchable by age, educational setting, and media type; each activity includes accompanying user tips.
Ele Supports Literacy and School Readiness
“The Fred Rogers Center created Ele to support early literacy development and school readiness by identifying high quality digital early learning tools and making them accessible to caregivers everywhere,” explains Michael Robb, PhD, Director of Education and Research at the Fred Rogers Center, and one of the site’s developers.
“Ele encourages caregivers to treat media like they would treat a book,” Robb adds. “The videos, songs, games, and other resources on Ele promote adult-child interaction, an essential component of healthy media use and literacy development.”
The Fred Rogers Center, part of Saint Vincent College, worked with leading non-profit organizations in the field to develop the site. Content partners to date are the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, The Fred Rogers Company, International Children’s Digital Library, National Center for Family Literacy, Reading is Fundamental, Teaching Strategies, Vanderbilt Peabody College, and Videatives.
A New Chapter in Fred Rogers’ Legacy
“Just as Fred Rogers pioneered his distinctive approach to tapping the educational potential of television, Ele demonstrates the unique capability of today’s communications and digital media to enhance learning for adults and young children alike,” says Rita Catalano, Executive Director at the Fred Rogers Center.
Today’s launch is just the starting point for Ele. Several free mobile apps developed for the site will be released in the coming months, and additional content will be added on an ongoing basis, keeping the site fresh and dynamic. Users are also encouraged to submit comments, share stories, and provide examples of how they use Ele.
The Fred Rogers Center Early Learning Environment™ was developed with the support of The Annie E. Casey Foundation, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, and the Richard King Mellon Foundation.
is a signature program of the Fred Rogers Center. The mission of the Center is to advance the fields of early learning and children’s media by acting as a catalyst for communication, collaboration, and creative change. The Center houses the Fred Rogers Archive including videos and materials from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Other national signature programs of the Center include the Early Career Fellows program and the Fred Forward Conference series.
Additional information about the Fred Rogers Center is available at www.fredrogerscenter.org or 724-805-2750.


With budgets cut to the bone, music education programs in many districts have been trimmed and even eliminated. Student interest in them, however, has never been higher. A new study released by the National String Project Consortium (NSPC) indicates that, just prior to the economic meltdown, the number of students playing string instruments had increased from 18 percent in 1997 to 29 percent in 2009. While the study confirms promising news for interest in music education, it also predicts a national shortage of string teachers for 2010 through 2013—a loss of 1,000 teachers each year. Other music programs showed no significant increase or decrease.
"The Status of String and Orchestra Programs in United States Schools," released in February 2010, is the result of a May 2009 survey of almost 9,000 string and orchestra teachers. According to the study, between 2002 and 2009, racial minority enrollment increased to 35 percent, a 7 percent increase from 2001.
The future of string programs remains to be seen. Although string programs have generally been growing, 66 percent of programs had reduced funding between the 2003 and 2008 academic years.
"The general trend has been up. As expectations around the country are going up, playing a string instrument has been helpful," says Robert Jesselson, executive director of NSPC and distinguished professor at the University of South Carolina. "With the economy the way it is, it's going to be a whole new ballgame. The odds are up on the chopping block."
Jesselson cautions administrators not to cut music programs—in particular string programs—during these difficult financial times. String instruments, he says, lead to a number of benefits, including higher SAT scores, increased selfdiscipline, reduced absentee rates, and improved math skills. According to the study, over 95 percent of string programs are taught during school hours. Jesselson notes that eliminating the programs would only create a demand for other teachers during those periods.
"Building a string program takes a number of years and would be difficult to rebuild," says Jesselson. "It's easy to chop down a tree, but the tree takes a long time to grow."
To read the full NSPC report, visit www.stringprojects.org.


Science & Maths drama workshops for schools (KS1 and KS2)
Get your topic started with a bang and your pupils enthused about science with our unique Exploratorium Science drama workshops, suitable for Key Stage One (KS1) or Key Stage Two (KS2). See children’s knowledge and confidence grow as they blast off to space or become electrons in an electric current.
Or why get your pupils marvelling at Maths with an hour-long adventure specially designed for KS1.
Enter the secret laboratory and meet the eccentric scientist who is in a state of panic. The Exploratorium Science Machine is in great danger of imploding. Its information fuel tanks are almost empty! Can your children’s knowledge and enthusiasm for science save it?
Perfect for Science Week or at any time, this lively workshop is filled with fun and facts, and is available on the following science topics:
• Animals, Habitats & Life Cycles
• Forces & Motion
• Healthy Eating
• The Human Body
• Light & Shadows
• Plants & Growth
"The children were fully engaged throughout all the activites and giggled and had so much fun as they learnt about electricity. This was a great introduction to the topic. I felt the children really gained a lot of knowledge in a fun and exciting way. They have also retained all that they have learnt which helps me greatly!"
Louisa Argent, James Allens Pre Prep School, Dulwich
Join our Maths Master on an exciting adventure to Maths Island. In this practical, hands-on workshop, your children will explore many of the concepts that form the foundation of children's early understanding of maths, building their confidence and extending their numeracy skills. There will be puzzles to solve, problems to overcome and some slippery serpents to watch out for!
Choose from the following topics:
• Number & Time
• Shape & Pattern
"The children were intrigued by the presentation and were highly motivated to participate. The facilitator cleverly adjusted his level of questionning to cater for the children's ability level and kept everyone interested for the full session."
Briony Osment, St James C of E Primary, Surrey
Did you know?
The Exploratorium science drama workshops are the perfect complement to National Science and Engineering Week, from 15-24th March 2013. This year's theme is Invention and Discovery.


Big Band Set Up
Posted on Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Ever wonder why musicians in a big band are positioned the way they are on the bandstand?
“How a big band sets up has a lot to do with how it sounds and how easy it is for the performers to do their jobs. Some set ups make it more difficult, and some make it easier,” says MENC member and jazz educator Harry Miedema.
There are several configurations used by big bands, but they all have some things in common. It’s customary to position the horn section lead players one in front of the other: lead alto directly in front of lead trombone, who is directly in front of lead trumpet. This way the lead players can all clearly hear and follow the lead trumpeter’s style, articulation, phrasing, etc. The lead trumpeter is both the leader of the trumpet section and leader of the horn section when they are playing tutti.
The lead players should also be in the middle of their sections. Lead trumpet should have 2nd trumpet on one side, and 3rd and 4th on the other. If there are five trumpet parts, then 2nd and 3rd trumpet should be on one side of the lead trumpet, and 4th and 5th trumpet on the other. The same holds true for the trombone and saxophone sections. The saxophone section should have lead alto in the middle with 2nd alto, 1st tenor on one side, and 2nd tenor and baritone on the other.
Lower Register Instruments
Which side of the bandstand should the lowest instrument of each section be placed? There are two schools of thought about this. The first is that the bass trombone and baritone should be on the rhythm section side of the band. This is best when those instruments act as a section, as in much of Gil Evans’ writing. The second, which is used much more extensively, is to put the lower horns away from the rhythm section so that the other players can hear the fundamental pitch more easily. This set up has the advantage of putting the musicians most likely to play solos (1st tenor, 2nd trumpet, etc.) closest to the rhythm-section.
The Rhythm Section
The rhythm section is usually on the stage right side of the band, so that the piano opens up to the band while the pianist can maintain eye contact with the other members of the rhythm section. This means that the pianist’s back will be partially toward the audience. The bass player is in the crook of the piano, with the amp far enough back for the drummer to hear. The drummer should be roughly in line with the trumpets. If there is a guitarist, he should be in front of the bass player. In large rhythm sections, the remaining players can be behind the drums, if they are percussion, or in front of the piano and guitar, if they are keyboard instruments (mallets). The focus of the rhythm section set up is for the bass and drums to be able to hear each other, and for the keyboard player to maintain eye contact with the bass and drums.
Curious to see what all of this looks like? Click on the following link: big band set up
Adapted from “Big Band Set Up and Performance Practice” by Harry Miedema, originally published in September 2003 Indiana Musicator
Harry Miedema is Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Indianapolis, author of the book Jazz Styles and Analysis: Alto Saxophone, leader of his own jazz group, The Bossa Rio Sextet, and first-call saxophonist with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.
—Nick Webb, February 18, 2009, © National Association for Music Education


We’ve Had National Standards for 15 Years
With the Council of Chief State School Officers sponsoring the creation of national standards in math and English language arts, many people are raising customary objections to the very idea of national standards. Several years ago, someone quoted to me Checker Finn’s summation of the problem: “Conservatives don’t like them because they’re ‘national’; liberals don’t like them because they’re ‘standards.’” Often people have given up on such initiatives as too complicated and difficult. With so many constituencies asking for opposing elements and policies, organizers understandably reach a breaking point and walk away. I’m part of the current project to develop ELA standards, and I sympathize with people trying to coordinate it.
If people don’t think they can happen and please most everyone in the field, though, they’re wrong. Many readers of Education Next might be surprised to learn that we’ve had national standards in one field for 15 years. They are the National Standards for Arts Education, an educational document developed by the Consortium of National Arts Education Associations (with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, among others). The Consortium included American Alliance for Theater and Education, Music Educators National Conference, the National Art Education Association (the visual arts), and National Dance Association.
One thing the arts educators wanted to do was establish strong disciplinary standards for their respective fields, both to regularize arts instruction across the country and to win higher respect for the fields in the overall curriculum. They realized that if arts education involved merely skills and practices, then it would remain an “extra,” something outside the core education of each student. A skills-only approach would also impoverish the full experience of the arts.
The designers insisted, then, on fundamental recognition of art history in the document. “In this document,” they wrote, “art means two things: (1) creative works and the process of producing them, and (2) the whole body of work in the art forms that make up the entire human intellectual and cultural heritage.” They define a “good education in the arts” as including “a thorough grounding in a basic body of knowledge.”
The standards themselves reflect the aim.
Here’s one for Music Grades 9-12:
“Students classify by genre or style and by historical period or culture unfamiliar but representative aural examples of music and explain the reasoning behind their classifications”
And one for Dance 9-12:
“Students create and answer twenty-five questions about dance and dancers prior to the twentieth century”
And one for theater:
“Students research and describe appropriate historical production designs, techniques, and performances from various cultures to assist in making artistic choices for informal and formal theatre, film, television, or electronic media productions”
And one for visual art:
“Students analyze and interpret artworks for relationships among form, context, purposes, and critical models, showing understanding of the work of critics, historians, aestheticians, and artists”
They result has garnered thoroughgoing respect from arts educators ever since. I’ve heard little grumbling about “loss of local control,” “prescribing a curriculum,” and “lack of diversity,” and other familiar complaints. The standards have served the states well as they have used them to craft their own arts education standards. It helped that the project secured endorsements from the beginning from Albert Shanker, Congressman Major Owens, Senator Thad Cochran, Leilani Lattin Duke of the Getty Center, Keith Geiger of the National Education Association, Konrad Matthaei of the United Negro College Fund, Joseph Polisi of The Julliard School, Gordon Ambach of the Council of Chief State School Officers, and many other distinguished figures.
The current project in national standards would do well to follow their example.
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In Search of: Bloom's Taxonomy
There has been a great deal of focus on elementary education lately, especially with the release of new findings showing American students faring poorly against international peers in reading and math. These and similarly troubling findings have highlighted the problems that can occur from the "teaching to the test" process that has increased in the wake of No Child Left Behind Act mandates.
In addition, dissatisfaction with pegging effectiveness of education to students' performance on standardized tests has fueled an interest in a different approach to education in which students are encouraged to develop their own understanding and apply what they learn analytically and creatively.
Perhaps the best-known classification of learning objectives in education that feeds into that goal is Bloom's Taxonomy, a system developed in the 1950s and revised in the years since. Suppose a researcher was interested in performing a meta-analysis in which her first step was to obtain a list of records in the PsycINFO database that specifically mention the taxonomy?
Build Your Search
Our usual approach to a search is to use the thesaurus as a starting place, but in this case, we are interested not so much in a focused topic search as in finding literally all of the research we can that mentions Bloom's Taxonomy.
APA PsycNET Platform
Let's begin with the APA PsycNET platform and perform a Keywords search, which searches the title, the index terms, and the keyword fields. Second, we perform an Any Field search, which also searches the abstract, which can be very useful in a broader search, and the grants and sponsorship and tests and measures fields. Note that the Any Field search does not search the cited references.
An APA PsycNET Keywords search:
An APA PsycNET Any Field search:
Note the difference between the numbers of results. There are well over double the results when a search of the abstract is included.
Finally, to expand our results, we add a proximity search in a third step, to add records where the words "Bloom's" and "taxonomy" appear within four words of each other.
This search picks up an additional 60 records.
CSA Illumina Platform
In our second iteration of this search, we're going to run what looks like the same two searches, but we'll do so using the CSA Illumina platform.
A CSA Illumina Keywords search:
A CSA Illumina Anywhere search:
In both cases, you see the results are considerably higher on the CSA Illumina platform than they were in the APA PsycNET searches. Why? Because CSA Illumina searched in different places. A Keywords search on that platform automatically includes an abstract search, and an Anywhere search automatically includes the cited references.
In a third iteration of the search, we can continue with CSA Illumina and add the proximity operator "within" to include results in which the words appear within a designated number of spaces of each other.
For example, let's show that with our broadest set of results:
This screen yields our most inclusive set of results.
Why are the same or almost the same fields categorized differently? The difference is essentially philosophic and has to do with whether the platform designers sought a more comprehensive or a more focused search. Each has its strengths, and the same or roughly the same results can be obtained on most platforms by grouping different index searches and using different Boolean combinations, wild cards, or proximity operators.
PsycINFO is available on four major platforms, CSA Illumina, OvidSP, Ebscohost, and APA PsycNET. The former two take the more expansive approach, whereas the latter two take the more focused approach. If you know what each index actually searches, you can craft your search to fit your needs.
Below is a sample of records obtained from the final APA PsycNET search:


Oro students first off the mark to play Riskland
By Noreen Chambers
July 2012, Popondetta, Papua New Guinea: Twelve-year-old Archie Ohusa still holds distressing memories of his home town, Popondetta, ravaged by a cyclone five years ago and he fears it can happen again.
Archie was only eight years old in 2007 when he witnessed category 3 severe tropical Cyclone Guba lash across Oro Province, leaving in its wake a devastating trail of destruction that swept away roads and bridges, and damaged food gardens, family homes, schools and other infrastructure. His family joined many other families and camped out in a church yard after their homes flooded that unforgettable day.
“I was frightened because this was the first time for me to see something like this and I was worried about losing our house,” Archie recalls.
Up to 2000 homes were completely destroyed and some 9,500 people displaced when Cyclone Guba devastated this coastal province. A reported 149 people died while close to 58,000 people who needed assistance could not be helped immediately because flood waters destroyed and washed away 56 bridges and culverts making assistance delivery very challenging.
Now a fourth grader at Sorovi Primary School, Archie relates his experience to UNICEF officers who are at his school to introduce the Riskland Game.
Riskland is a fun-filled educational board game aimed at providing lower primary school students with an understanding of what disaster reduction and risk management is all about. The game conveys messages that help students understand how some actions can reduce the impact of disasters, while others can increase our vulnerability. When students play the game, they learn about what they can do to reduce disaster impacts by answering questions and advancing along the boards winning path or going back several spaces for actions that increase our vulnerabilities
Sorovi Primary School is the first school in the country to play the Riskland Game. Popondetta was chosen as the first province to trial the game because of its vulnerability to flooding disasters. Head teacher, Letercia Genau is pleased her school is chosen to be the first to trial the game.
“We had to close the school for a period of time in 2007 when Cyclone Guba struck and our students were forced to stay home. Many families lost their homes and food gardens. Certain areas around the school become water logged when it rains continuously and I’m happy that this game will help my students to learn about disaster preparedness. Children learn better if it is done in a fun way,” Mrs. Genau says.
Before the students can play the game, UNICEF’s Education Officer for Early Childhood Care and Development, Cathy Patuvii takes the teachers through one hour of in-service training to demonstrate how the Riskland Game can be integrated into the existing curriculum and classroom lessons to make it more meaningful.
Based on the lower primary school curriculum, Cathy explains a unit of work that has been developed to integrate the Riskland Game into the curriculums subject strands – Literature, Social Science, Community Living and Environmental Studies. The teachers find the integration very useful and are keen to start using the game in their lessons.
Shortly after the in-service training, a chorus of voice rings out: “You helped to clean a polluted river. Advance six steps”. Sorovi Primary School fourth graders are spread out on the school lawn in groups of six and are playing Riskland. Archie’s group is getting the hang of the game and his team mates read out the instructions as a team player lands on square 6 and he is instructed to advance six spaces because his action to clean a polluted river will help reduce the negative impact of a flooding disaster.
To make learning about disaster fun for the youngsters, Riskland includes several risk activities, a work book for teachers and 20 worksheets for students.
Riskland was first developed by International Strategy for Disaster Reduction of the United Nations for children in Latin America and the Carribbean. UNICEF adapted the game to the Papua New Guinea context. The Department of Education is distributing Riskland to all schools in the country.
It is hoped that a young generation of school children, through playing Riskland, will teach their families and communities about natural hazards and help develop a culture of not only risk reduction but risk prevention as well


Why study music?
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Donald A. Hodges, Covington Distinguished Professor of Music Education and Director of the Music Research Institute (Creator)
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Abstract: Cognitive neuroscience is identifying neural networks in the brain that support multiple ways of knowing. This notion is also supported by evidence from psychology, anthropology, sociology, and other related disciplines. These human knowledge systems provide a means for sharing, expressing, understanding, knowing, and gaining insights into one’s inner and outer worlds. Considered alongside other knowledge systems such as language and mathematics, what unique contributions can music make? Music provides unique and invaluable insights into the human condition. Music allows us to know, discover, understand, experience, share, or express such aspects of the human condition as feelings, aesthetic experiences, the ineffable, thoughts, structure, time and space, self-knowledge, self-identity, group identity, and healing and wholeness. If the purpose of an education is to systematically develop the mind and capabilities of every child, it is clear that music has a unique and necessary role to play.
Why study music?
PDF (Portable Document Format)
Created on 1/1/2005
- International Journal of Music Education, 23:2, 111-115
- Language: English
- Date: 2005
- Formal education, Human condition, Human knowledge system, Informal education, Multiple intelligences, Neuroscience


An Introduction to Primary Physical Education
Edited by Gerald Griggs
Routledge – 2012 – 238 pages
Physical Education is a core component of the primary school curriculum. The primary years are perhaps the most significant period for motor development in children, a time during which basic movement competencies are developed and which offers the first opportunity for embedding physical activity as part of a healthy lifestyle. This is the first comprehensive introduction to the teaching of PE in the primary school to be written exclusively by primary PE specialists, with primary school teaching experience.
The book highlights the importance of PE in the primary curriculum and the key issues facing primary teachers today, such as inclusion, training needs and the development of creativity. Central to the book are core chapters that examine each functional area common to many primary PE syllabi – including games, dance, gymnastics, athletics and outdoor learning – and give clear, practical guidance on how to teach each topic. Rooted throughout in sound theory and the latest evidence and research, this book is essential reading for all students, trainee teachers and qualified teachers looking to understand and develop their professional practice in primary Physical Education.
SECTION 1: Introducing Primary Physical Education 1. Surveying the Landscape of Primary Physical Education - GERALD GRIGGS 2. The Importance of Primary Physical Education - IAN PICKUP 3. The Challenges and Potential within Primary Physical Education DOMINIC HAYDN – DAVIES 4. The Future of Primary Physical Education: A 3-14 Developmental and Connected Curriculum - MIKE JESS SECTION 2: Curriculum 5. The Development of the Physical Education Curriculum in Primary Schools in the United Kingdom - SUE CHEDZOY 6. They can’t catch so what’s the point in teaching them to play a game? Teaching Games in the Primary School - GAVIN WARD 7. Gymnastic activities in the primary years - the foundation of learning to move with enhanced confidence, competence and imagination - LAWRY PRICE 8. Dance: Teaching and learning possibilities within the early years and primary school context - RACHAEL JEFFERSON-BUCHANAN 9. Getting athletics off the track, out the sack and ‘back on track’ - GERALD GRIGGS 10. From Desks to Dens - Outdoor and Adventurous Activities- NALDA WAINWRIGHT SECTION 3: Issues in primary Physical Education 11. Addressing training and development needs in primary Physical Education - JEANNE KEAY and JON SPENCE 12. Towards a more inclusive provision - RICHARD MEDCALF 13. Placing an importance on health and physical activity - KRISTY HOWELLS 14. There is always another way! Creative Physical Education - JIM LAVIN
Gerald Griggs is Senior Lecturer in Physical Education and Sports Studies at the University of Wolverhampton, UK. Dr Griggs trained as a primary teacher with a specialism in physical education, before teaching in several primary schools in the UK. He is a member of the British Educational Research Association, including the Special Interest Group for Physical Education, the Association for Physical Education and the British Sociological Association.


Listen to Dr. David Sherman of Brandeis University interview Changing Lives Through Literature co-founder Dr. Robert Waxler. They talk about the relationship between literature and jail in this “Convicted Reading” Literature Lab podcast.
Brooke Joseph is a graduate student in education at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. She has a bachelor’s degree in Humanities and Social Sciences with a concentration in Sociology and Elementary Education.
In a recent interview with Professor Robert P. Waxler, co-founder of the Changing Lives through Literature (CLTL) program, I focused on finding out how CLTL changes lives. Three themes emerged from this interview: Putting Yourself in the Story, Becoming Friends with Characters, and Breaking Down Stereotypes.
Putting Yourself in the Story
Reading and writing can change people’s lives by helping individuals to focus and increase their awareness through self-reflection. Waxler explained that when you are reading a good piece of literature, you often put yourself in the story and empathize with characters. Even though during the CLTL sessions everyone is reading the same story, each individual will read the story in a different manner. Therefore, when the story is discussed, the characters are seen from opposing angles and people “begin to understand that stories, like our lives, are richly textured possibilities.”
Although stories do not offer definitive solutions to people, they do “raise profound questions about our lives. And as long as we continue to ask important questions, we are doing something worthwhile with our lives.” Waxler says reading the right stories helps us to “pursue our identity as if we are on a journey through life;” by “expanding our perceptions, offering new experiences and deepening our thinking, stories move us and they make us self-reflective. They offer us questions, and then the stories give us the opportunity to pursue answers to those questions.”
Becoming Friends with Characters
Dr. Waxler also gave an example of how a particular character can change people’s lives. When people are reading they allow the characters to become a part of their lives; characters in the stories “become our friends. Their voices are embedded in our hearts.” For example, take Santiago from Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea novel. Even though Santiago does not catch a fish for weeks, he continues to wake up every morning to “fight the good fight; his endurance is admirable.”


Most children begin learning phonics by sounding out letters and learning what items represent that sound and that letter, i.e. A is for apple; A sounds like “aaaaaaaaaaaaaa”. Children begin learning phonics from parents, siblings, videos, and music at a very early age (2-4 years old) even before entering school.
Phonics and phonemic awareness are comingled when teaching children in this manner. Phonics involves the relationship between sounds and written symbols, whereas phonemic awareness involves sounds in spoken words. Therefore, phonics instruction focuses on teaching sound-spelling relationships and is associated with print. Most phonemic awareness tasks are oral.
Even though parents are the initial teachers, it will take a professional to instill all of the rules of phonics and to teach students decoding skills as they begin to read. Hiring a tutor with experience teaching early learners will ensure a student’s success as they begin elementary school. A professional tutor can also reinforce phonics for those students that were taught the Whole Language approach to reading and are still struggling in 2nd and 3rd grades. Hiring an Advanced Learners tutor is a guarantee that you will receive a professional tutor that can make a difference in a child’s ability to read.
Today many students take college level course starting in 11th grade with Advanced Placement courses. Other students are attending a community college, technical college, Business College, medical college, or even a prestigious 4-year university. No matter the level or the location, certain college courses can be a challenge, if not down right overwhelming. This is when it is best to turn to a professional tutor for help. No matter the subject area, we believe in experts with related experience providing professional college level tutoring. Our college tutors are always top in quality and credentials.
Las Vegas Tutors
With one of the largest and fastest growing communities of school age children, we have been proudly helping students find academic success in Las Vegas for many years. Our reputation as a premium service is evident in the hundreds of testimonials we have received from parents, students, and schools across Las Vegas and the surrounding areas.
Our highly customized service means that you determine exactly who your tutor will be, where the tutoring will take place, and for how long. We know that Las Vegas parents know their children best, so we work with you to insure the tutoring is enjoyable and efficient. Results-oriented and compassionate Las Vegas tutors are available now to help your child reach his or her full potential.
View Some Of Our College Phonics Tutor Profiles
Our Tutoring Service
Every Advanced Learners tutor is a highly qualified, college-degreed, experienced, and fully approved educator. You can feel secure knowing that each tutor has been thoroughly pre-screened and approved. We have stringent requirements for all of our tutors. We require a national background check, a personal interview, and both personal and professional references of each applicant. We select only the very best tutors for our clients to choose from. Your personalized list of matched tutors will include professionals specifically suited to your child’s current academic needs. The backgrounds of our tutors are varied and their experience diverse, but the common factor is the passion for learning and education that they all share. As our client, you have the opportunity to review and speak with as many tutors as you wish until you find the right match for your student.


Care To Read:
RIF Responds to the Literacy Needs of Our Youngest Children
Our Care to Read program helps childcare staff in center- and home-based programs support children’s emergent literacy. Care to Read consists of six workshops on early literacy development and uses children’s literature to actively engage adults and illustrate literacy development concepts. Workshop content is based on early literacy and child development research and best practices. Each workshop provides resources and background information and includes training activities, break-out sessions, post-workshop journal practice, and follow-up activities for both building partnerships with families and using the techniques learned. Care to Read training uses a “train-the-trainer” model that prepares participants to return to their programs and deliver the six workshops to their colleagues.
- Improve the quality of childcare centers and family childcare homes by training staff to create literacy-rich environments.
- Improve staff and family access to children’s books and awareness of quality children’s literature.
- Motivate and prepare childcare staff to read to the children in their care, and support families in reading with their own children.
- Six workshops:
- Understanding Early Language and Literacy Development
- Creating Literacy-Rich Environments
- Where Conversation Leads
- Reading Aloud
- Making My Mark: The Writing Connection
- Supporting Language and Literacy Every Day
- A training manual with reproducible handouts.
- A collection of children’s books related to the workshops.
- Three full-color posters that depict literacy-rich environments in toddler, preschool, and family childcare settings.
- A language and literacy developmental milestones chart.
- RIF’s Read with Me DVD series and guidebook.
Please contact us if you are interested in setting up a Care to Read training program.


Our major goal for kindergarten is to prepare the complete child for first grade.
The kindergarten program includes mathematics, language arts, science, social studies, computers, physical education, and an opportunity for the child to begin first grade reading.
Our curriculum provides a flexible schedule with the balance of play and work activities. Also included in our program are sessions in French, Spanish, music, and gymnastics.
Kindergarten is the foundation for the rest of a child's relationship with schooling and formal education. At Le Chaperon Rouge, we recognize that it is of the utmost importance that a child not only master the skills necessary in Kindergarten, but that the child feels confident with the material and genuinely enjoys the learning process. If a child is able to feel confidence and enjoyment with their education from early on, the child will continue to view formal education in a positive way throughout his or her life.
Our Kindergarten program is very enriching to children due to small group sizes in combination with a full-day program. Children benefit from small group instruction in core areas, such as math, reading, spelling, and phonics, where they can progress at a pace that is comfortable for them. Children come together for journals, group reading, science projects, social studies lessons, and other fun hands-on activities throughout the day. French, Spanish, and instrumental music programs all continue, as well as formal gym and computer time.
Click here to view a session on teaching students Kindergarten phonics
Children in our Kindergarten programs consistently show scores of at least first grade on standardized test, with the average Le Chaperon Rouge student showing scores of second and third grade levels in areas of language and math.
She brings home all of her class work, art work and crafts. I ask her questions about all of the different topics -- from animals to math -- and she consistently remembers the lessons she has learned. The fact that she remembers, tells me she is interested in the topic, and the topic is presented in a way that makes it interesting to a five year old who is now interested in going to school each day.
-Carla and Michael Bankovich
LINK TO DAILY SCHEDULE
At our Westlake location, Le Chaperon Rouge includes a private elementary school through fifth grade. Just as in Kindergarten, class sizes are small , and the children are able to benefit from a lot of individualized instruction time from the teacher.
Our elementary school provides reading, phonics, language, spelling, math, science, social studies, geography, multicultural art education, movement through music and computers. Our students scored high consistently on nationally recognized tests, due to our exceptional programs and small groups with individual attention. Elementary school offers a care-free environment for the children with working parents. The child receives under the same roof: hot breakfast and lunch, a nutritious snack, an exceptional education program, extra classes, homework done and really fun and exciting field trips.
Our elementary school boasts the latest in computer technology for the students to benefit from, including a computer lab and computer technology in the classrooms. Spanish and French lessons are given twice per week, and formal music with musical instruments like keyboarding, flutes, and guitar, karate, tennis, gym, and art lessons are given weekly.
Children in our Elementary school classes consistently test two to three grade levels higher than their current grade. Standardized tests are given yearly to measure student and teacher progress, and as an additional assessment tool for parents to review.
LINK TO DAILY SCHEDULE
We feel very comfortable with the small student to teacher ratio and the close-knit group of families that work cooperatively to ensure that the best possible resources are available to all the students. The smaller class sizes make communication between parents and teachers more personal. We enjoy having the opportunity every day to interact with our kids' teachers and express any concerns that we may have. We would definitely feel comfortable recommending Le Chaperon Rouge Elementary to anyone interested in finding a superior learning environment for their children.
--- Bob & Susan Wickman


Henry Moore Biography
Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English sculptor and artist. He is best known for his abstract bronze sculptures which are located in various prominent public places. He became the most influential and famous sculpturer of his generation.
Henry Moore Short Biography
Now I really make the little idea from clay, and I hold it in my hand. I can turn it, look at it from underneath, see it from one view, hold it against the sky, imagine it any size I like, and really be in control, almost like God creating something.
- Henry Moore
Henry Moore was born on 30 July, 1898, in Castleford, Yorkshire. He was the seventh child in a family of 8 children. His father worked in a colliery in Castleford but wanted his children to avoid working down the mines, so as much as possible given the family's poverty, the children were educated at a local school.
It was in his teenage years that he developed an interest and talent in art. This helped him to get a scholarship to Castleford Secondary school. Aged 18 he was called up to the army and in 1917 was injured during a gas attack at the Battle of Cambrai. After his injury, he spent the remainder of the war behind the line training new recruits. Moore later said the war was for him not a traumatic experience - unlike that of many of his contemporaries.
After the war, he continued his education and in 1921 won a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Art. Henry Moore was a talented student, but already he was experimenting with new styles and this often conflicted with his teachers who were trying to teach the classic style - of perfection in form and composition. Moore was attracted to a more spontaneous art form with imperfections evident in the sculpting. In 1924, he spent time travelling in Italy and later Paris. Here he could view the great Masters such as Michelangelo and Giovanni Pisano. But, Moore was also influenced by his studies of primitive art, and at the Louvre he was particularly influenced by the Toltec-Maya sculptural form, the Chac Mool.
On his return to London, he took up a teaching post at the Royal College of art. This part time post enabled him to work on his own art, leading to his first commissions such as the West Wind - 1928-29.
In the 1930s, Moore became an active member of the informal modern art movement, centred around the ideas and innovation of people like Pablo Picasso and Jean Arp. He also briefly flirted with the surrealist movement.
The Second World War led to more traditional commissions and Moore worked as a war artist producing memorable pictures such as images of civilians fleeing the Blitz in the London underground.
This helped Moore's reputation and after the war led to numerous awards and opportunities in America. In 1948 he was awarded the International Sculpture Prize at the Venice Biennale. Significant commissions included
- A reclining figure for UNESCO building in Paris 1956
- A Nuclear energy sculpture at the University of Chicago. (to commemorate 25th anniversary of nuclear reaction)
- Knife Edge – Two Piece in 1962 for College Green, London around Houses of parliament.
In 1972, Henry Moore established his Henry Moore Foundation - a charitable trust to promote art education and the support of young artists. He was a man of modest means. Despite his wealth and fame he lived frugally remembering his Yorkshire roots. He even turned down a knighthood in 1951 because he didn't want to be seen as an establishment figure. Yet, during his lifetime he did become the dominant sculpture of his generation.


Change One Thing: ‘Pupils should learn to read so that they can read to learn’
In a new regular column, key players in education choose one thing they would change to make a big difference
If I could change one thing I would ensure that all our citizens have excellent literacy and numeracy skills. Both are essential to survive and thrive in society today. Without them, lives can be blighted, horizons limited. Without them, they can be lost in a world of unknown words and numbers.
A highly literate and numerate population is better equipped to deal with the growing complexities of a diverse and technologically-driven society where individual and public choices have to be made.
I’m not advocating a return to the mechanistic approach to teaching and learning of a bygone age, nor taking a rote learning view of reading and writing. But I’ve always believed that pupils should learn to read so that they can read to learn.
I also believe that familiarity with financial and digital literacy has taken on much greater importance in the lives of individuals.
I well remember the shock engendered by an OECD report published in the 1990s which showed that that one in four Irish working age adults, aged 16-65, were at or below level one on a five-point literacy scale.
This means, for instance, that many people struggle to determine the right amount of medicine to take based on the instructions printed on the bottle.
All sorts of reasons were offered for the startling statistic, including the late entry of Ireland to universal free post primary education.
Adult literacy which had been neglected for decades suddenly took on a new urgency and the state invested long overdue money into this area.
We thought we were avoiding the next generation slipping into the same pattern when the first PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) report was published by the OECD in 2000.
It pegged Irish pupils high up in international literacy and numeracy rankings. We should have noted the warning signs in subsequent reports in 2003 and 2006 but instead a sense of complacency set in. This was rudely shattered by a follow up report in 2009 which revealed a dramatic fall in Irish performance. Again, all sorts of explanations were offered including doubts about the methodology of the survey, test weariness etc. But it was a real wake-up call.
In July 2011, I launched the new National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy. It has been enthusiastically implemented by teachers whom, I’m happy to report, are still drawn from the brightest and best of our school leavers.
The quality of entrants to teacher education, at both primary and post primary, is still second to none and is the envy of many developed countries. This fact is sometimes lost in discourse about our public services. Granted we need changes in teacher education, and this issue is being addressed.
But the excellence of our teachers is not in doubt and is central to good educational outcomes.
The national strategy contains 41 actions and almost 180 sub-actions, designed to help ensure that every child who leaves school has the literacy and numeracy skills they will need for the rest of their lives.
The strategy includes targets to halve the number of 15 year-olds performing at or below level one in literacy and numeracy tests by 2020, and to increase the numbers at both primary and post-primary levels performing at the highest levels on such tests by at least five percentage points.
Next month we will receive an updated picture, as a result of new OECD research carried out with the support of the CSO. The CSO interviewed 5,000 people aged 16-65 in their homes, assessing their literacy, numeracy and problem solving skills.
Regardless of the results, it is clear that we need to do more to ensure that every adult in Ireland has the basic literacy and numeracy skills required for learning, and for living.
But it’s not just about meeting targets. The strategy also outlines how we need to foster an enjoyment of reading among children and young people, and create greater awareness of, and more positive attitudes towards, mathematics among the public.
The strategy is not prompted by a concern about so-called “falling standards” but by the accelerating literacy and numeracy demands of modern democracies.
Ruairí Quinn TD is Minister for Education and Skills


Psychologist Anne Fishel prepares dinner. Credit: Ginger Chappell
It’s Saturday evening and the smell of roast turkey fills Anne Fishel’s kitchen. Her husband Chris removes the turkey from the oven while Fishel prepares the traditional Passover matzoh ball soup. She dips her hand in water and then places it in a bowl with the sticky matzoh dough. She takes a handful of dough, molds it into the shape of ping pong balls, then boils them in chicken broth. Finally, Fishel serves her family, gathered around the dining room table.
Dinners are more than a Saturday family gathering for Fishel, a clinical psychologist, professor and director of the Family and Couples Therapy Program at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). She studies how family dinners contribute to children’s cognitive and personal development, as well as how they strengthen the bond between children and parents. As dinner is typically a daily routine, Fishel can observe a family’s dynamic and propose solutions tailored to their needs. “Dr. Fishel’s work outlines how the family dinner can serve as an invaluable tool in the assessment and treatment of families in any school of family therapy,” says David Rubin, a psychiatrist at Cornell Medical Center in New York.
For the past 25 years, Fishel has been treating couples and families as a clinical psychologist at her office in Newton Highlands, Massachusetts. She recently began taking a close look at dinner rituals, because meals are family routines that help a therapist understand important aspects of families and make interventions easier. “Patients feel more comfortable answering questions about their dinner than about their sex life or the family roles,” she says.
“Food experiences function not only as a means of physically nourishing a child, but also as a form of emotional nourishment,” says Laura Weisberg, a psychologist at Duke Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina and an expert in eating disorders. Family dinners, according to several psychological studies, show fascinating positive behavioral impacts on children of all ages. Lower rates of substance abuse, depression, pregnancy, alcoholism and eating disorders are just some examples of the long list of positive effects of family dinners. For vulnerable children, not having family meals on a regular basis “makes it easier to begin a pattern of skipping meals, or eating in unhealthy ways, which can then get out of control before the family has an opportunity to recognize it,” says Weisberg. This body of research is so impressive that Fishel almost wants to tell her patients, “Don’t waste your time in therapy-go home right now and cook a meal and eat it together. Here are some recipes, now go!”
Research about the impact of family meals to children’s language and literacy development also caught Fishel’s attention. Although both parents and pediatricians believe that reading is the best way to teach children new vocabulary words, a new study by Catherine Snow of the Harvard Education School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, shows that the best way to build a child’s vocabulary is through regular family meals. “The use of relatively sophisticated vocabulary at family mealtimes predicted children’s later vocabulary knowledge better than in other settings -book reading, toy play, or story telling,” says Snow, an expert on children’s language and literacy development.
To keep children at the table, Fishel proposes maximizing the pleasure of dinner time. Parents can engage younger kids by playing word games or guessing what ingredients are in a meal. In dealing with teenagers, Fishel suggests avoiding discussions that would bring conflict to dinner. Instead she encourages parents to discuss their daily experiences in an honest and self-disclosing way, inviting children to participate in the conversation. After all, dinners are family rituals, whose purpose is to “create a feeling of warm connection among its members,” Fishel says.
Fishel’s family meals are a synonym of joy and creativity, “something that connects everybody up,” she says. Her two college age sons are very demanding eaters, but “I like the way they push me to be creative and adventurous,” she says. Her favorite meals to prepare are those made with a lot of ingredients cooked together in a pot. She loves making soups, such as squash-apple-onion or swordfish stew with pine nuts, tomatoes and raisins. “These foods are very cozy and connected; the flavors are distinct like the different members of the family.” But, both the ingredients in the soup and the members of the family “are made better by being together,” she adds.
To read the full story by Staff Writer Aspasia Daskalopoulou, visit the Contributions page.


Before children even begin kindergarten, they must develop many critical language and thinking skills that will pave the way and make possible later academic learning. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 2002, most children spend more time with their parents and less time in preschools or childcare centers. Once children enter kindergarten, however, they differ greatly in achieving important developmental goals. These early differences continue throughout a child’s school experience and either limit or greatly expand learning success. (Developing Early Literacy, Report of the National Early Literacy Panel, 2008)
Because parents are the first teachers and continually seek to provide their children with quality literacy preparation in the early years, the Alabama Reading Initiative, along with other state agencies dedicated to supporting early childhood education, is committed to providing parents with the most current information, resources, and best practices that would greatly benefit young children’s literacy development.


The history curriculum at Rock Point School focuses on encouraging students to see the broader context for not only the world we live in but also their own lives. In addition to learning about historical events and parts of the world (both near and far), students learn core academic skills through the history curriculum, from organizational skills to developing competency in oral and written expression skills. There is a strong emphasis on “how to be a student.” In the freshman and sophomore years, there is a focus on foundational skills, and, in the junior and senior years, the focus is on college preparatory skills, including a structured essay-writing curriculum that helps students become more confident essay writers.
The history curriculum has a strong place-based educational component, and it also includes four unique opportunities for experiential learning and the development of leadership skills––through attending local-government planning events, and participation in a maple sugaring program, an apiary program, and a local farm-to-school program. Connected to the history program is also a cultural enrichment program, where students attend local theater performances by groups from around the world, with opportunities to learn about the historical backgrounds of the performers and performances.
Drawing on both myths and history, we look at ancient civilizations and the themes inherent in the development of civilizations, societies, and individuals. We examine historical and cross-cultural influences, finding links between ancient history and the world we in which we currently live and continue to create. It is not so easy to travel to Athens to see the Parthenon, but we can visit the Follett House in downtown Burlington and see an example of a Greek Revival home built by an industrialist who was involved in the railroad that ran through Vermont during the late 19th century.
Through the study of the remarkable civilization of China, the rich and often troubled history of Africa, and the history surrounding us in Vermont, we look at how cultures, societies, and governments develop and evolve. Students learn how concrete elements such as topography, geography, weather, and technological developments create and shape societies. As with Ancient Studies, Vermont is a laboratory for looking at the themes and lessons of the curriculum. We examine how cultures and economies evolve in relationship to both concrete elements and unfolding historical events.
U.S. History 1
U.S. History 1 begins with foundational study of the Constitution and how the document that governs our country was created, negotiated, and amended in order to meet competing philosophical, economic, and social concerns, by a group of people who were knowledgeable about the history of governing forms and who had visions of trying to create something viable and flexible. Studying the Constitution becomes a lens through which to look at a variety of other aspects of our country’s development, including westward expansion, statehood and the development of state constitutions, citizens’ rights and responsibilities, government rights and responsibilities, the tension and cooperation between federal and state government, our country’s Civil War, and the civil rights movement that followed that conflict.
U.S. History 2
U.S. History 2 expands on U.S. History 1, but is a stand-alone course. We start with a brief review of the Constitution and then begin to look at why and how it has been amended through the years. We focus on the complexity of these amendments and their application in the world. It’s one thing to have a document that outlines rights and responsibilities; it’s another thing to implement them nationwide, in areas that are vastly cultural, socially, and economically varied. We examine court cases whose decisions changed how our nation interacts and continue to shape our lives, as they are implemented and challenged in new ways.


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programs that currently or will be available in the market [Rog04]. When...
Three Score and Ten in Retrospect
1959, announced that John "was appointed this week to the Sunday School General Board by General Superintendent George R. Hill." After a biographical sketch, the article continued: "Supt. Hill said Elder...
oral language, and potentially positive effects for early reading, writing, and knowledge of print
(Institute of Education Sciences, 2006).
Ideally, intervention would come for low SES Hispanic ELLs when they are very young,
but this is...
successfully have a significantly higher community participation rate at cultural, intellectual,
athletic, and artistic events (Steinkamp, 1998, 34-59). Additionally, town-gown studies suggest
that community members who have benefited from a...
Three Score and Ten in Retrospect
care of there too, but these could be a relief from the routine stresses and strains that never let up at the office. The Indians John's interest in Indians began with his boyhood days when he found...
of how Purcell-Gates (1995) provided reading intervention for Donny in exchange for
documentation and careful examination of literacy development through the social and cultural
perspectives of a family from the “white underclass, a minority...
2002). Focusing on this issue, a Communication Effectiveness Grid (CEG) was formed
as an adaptation of the McCartney et al. (2008) study. This grid integrates personal,
public relations, marketing, and advertising actions that influence a...
18 Chapter 2
Planning for Web Design
CONCERNS FOR PEOPLE WITH DIS-ABILITIES
The Americans with Disabilities Act has pre-scribed
certain standards for web pages that the
government and government contractors must
abide by. Because of this,...
for longer challenging texts. In contrast, extrinsic motivation referred to grades or
competition reasons for reading. (Guthrie, et al, 2006, p. 91).
Intrinsic motivators also include a sense of accomplishment and self-pride....
categorized as a high-poverty, Title I school, with all of the students qualifying for free lunch (B.
Moser, personal communication, October 8, 2010).
Research has shown that there can be positive growth in reading achievement when
Even small amounts of methamphetamine can result in increased wakefulness, increased physical activity, decreased appetite, increased respiration, increased heart rate, irregular heartbeat, increased blood pressure, and hyperthermia. Other...
Meanwhile, the attack network will simulate attacks to the target network. It will create
“live” network forensics situation. The control network will provide automated
management for the system administrator (usually a trainer or a...
and paid preparation time for teachers to create online and other classroom materials that
supported ELL instruction. On the university level, instructors of teacher preparation programs
increased information on instructional practices for ELLs....


The influence of culture on instrumental music teaching: A Participant-Observation case study of Karnatic and Queensland Instrumental music teachers in context.
Barton, Georgina (2003) The influence of culture on instrumental music teaching: A Participant-Observation case study of Karnatic and Queensland Instrumental music teachers in context. PhD thesis, Queensland University of Technology.
This thesis aimed to investigate the unique relationship that exists between music and
culture. More specifically, the purpose of the research was to determine to what extent culture is reflected in music teaching and learning. Understanding the effect that culture has on music knowledge transmission processes will assist in developing a framework for current music education practices to address the cultural diversity that is present in contemporary teaching and learning environments. An exploration of how music teachers teach, and how the cultural and social surrounds influence
these practices in various contexts provided important information in developing such a framework.
As such, a participant observation case study of ten music teachers who taught either the South Indian music tradition known as Karnatic music in Tamil Nadu, India, or Queensland, Australia, or who taught predominantly Western music in the
Queensland instrumental music context, was carried out. Through a comparative study of these teachers it was observed that there were more similarities than differences in the methods of teaching used by the teachers. Both aural/oral and written modes of communication were used in each context albeit at varying levels. It was also discovered that the surrounding cultural rules and rituals, that were
practised, significantly influenced the meaning attributed to the music teaching process for each of the teachers.
In the main, for teachers of Karnatic music a strong spiritual attachment to both the gods and goddesses associated with the Hindu religion and the teachers' own teacher/guru was evident. Conversely, in the Queensland instrumental music
teaching context, powerful economic forces affected the approach that these teachers
implemented. It is argued that with an awareness of these findings, music teaching and learning practices may more effectively meet the needs of students (a concern consistently raised in the literature) in the contemporary music education context.
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|Item Type:||QUT Thesis (PhD)|
|Keywords:||music and culture, Karnatic music, music teachers, music education, context|
|Divisions:||Current > QUT Faculties and Divisions > Creative Industries Faculty|
Current > Schools > Music & Sound
|Department:||Faculty of Creative Industries|
|Institution:||Queensland University of Technology|
|Copyright Owner:||Copyright Georgina Barton|
|Deposited On:||03 Dec 2008 13:51|
|Last Modified:||29 Oct 2011 05:39|
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Mike Laflin directs EDC’s International Development Division (IDD), based in Washington, D.C. IDD, which employs approximately 400 staff in 26 countries, is a leader in the use of technology to address issues of access and quality in learning. IDD is also implementing national educational reform programs in several countries. A former teacher in England and Kenya, Laflin has three decades of experience in international development. He has been at EDC since 1992.
What are the main challenges that IDD faces working overseas?
Many developing countries have emphasized efforts to increase access to education for primary students, and we’ve seen some improvements there. However, we have not always seen equal improvements in the quality of learning. Many kids are finishing primary school without literacy and numeracy skills. Some of our recent work, such as projects in Guinea and Nigeria, has been predicated on changing that. But, huge numbers of children are still not enrolled in school—over 100 million around the world. Ten sub-Saharan countries have more than a million children not in school. There are a lot of reasons for this; one of the main ones is HIV/AIDS and the poverty that it brings. Many teachers have died, and there are many orphans whose parents died of HIV/AIDS. Our work in Zambia and Tanzania is a direct response to that challenge.
IDD often works in countries in conflict. What is the IDD approach in these volatile situations?
One impact of conflict is that there may not be school systems at all. They have either broken down or they never existed. So, one of our strategies is to provide basic education by radio. It can be effective even without a formal structure. Right now it’s working in places like Sudan and Somalia. There’s an appetite for education and a high level of acceptance of interactive radio instruction (IRI) among both formal education systems and among communities.
Tell me about the evolution of radio instruction.
ML: African countries have used radio for enrichment for more than 50 years, but until 10 years ago many countries believed that conventional systems alone could solve their problems. Now, leaders recognize that radio is an inexpensive complement, and one that can have a quick effect on learning outcomes. It also trains teachers at the same time. But for radio instruction to be accepted, countries have to be ready to look beyond conventional systems. In Tanzania, for example, there was initial resistance to radio. Once people saw it in operation, they liked it, and it was found to be effective. A national Grade Four test showed that “radio students” were learning as much as children in conventional schools. You need that kind of evidence.
How did EDC come to have expertise in interactive radio instruction?
IRI was first tried by Stanford University in the 1970s. EDC became a champion of it in the mid-80s and had a successful radio science project in Papua New Guinea. In the mid-90s, other organizations lost interest in radio and turned their energies to computers. We said, “We’re going to stick with radio and work with computers.” That was a critical period for IDD because it set up so many later opportunities.
What innovations do you see as particularly promising for the future?
We will continue to point our creativity at designing applications that fit. We will ask questions like, “What isn’t being done for students after primary school, especially in math and science? How can we use technology in ways that are affordable and effective?”
Tell me how you got involved in international development.
I started as a teacher in England and went to teach in Kenya in 1972. I worked for the Kenya Schools’ Broadcasting Service until 1978, developing educational programs for the radio. I have continued to do a variety of work using technology or media to deliver education ever since. I worked on a USAID radio project in Liberia in 1982. I came to EDC in 1992 to direct the LearnTech project. This kind of work only becomes more important as countries’ needs grow and technology becomes more sophisticated.
Originally published on August 31, 2006


Childhood Music Lessons May Offer Lifelong Benefits
TUESDAY, Nov. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Older adults who took music lessons during childhood seem to have a faster brain response to speech than those who never played an instrument, according to the results of a new, small study.
The findings suggest that musical training early in life has a long-term, beneficial effect on how the brain processes sound.
"This study suggests the importance of music education for children today and for healthy aging decades from now," said study author Nina Kraus, of Northwestern University.
The study included 44 adults, aged 55 to 76, who listened to a recorded speech sound while the researchers measured electrical activity in the auditory brainstem, the region of the brain that processes sound.
The more years that a person spent playing instruments during childhood, the faster their brains responded to the speech sound, according to the findings, published in the Nov. 6 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.
"The fact that musical training in childhood affected the timing of the response to speech in older adults in our study is especially telling because neural timing is the first to go in the aging adult," Kraus added in a journal news release.
The researchers noted that the people in the musical training group had not picked up an instrument in nearly 40 years.
As people age, they often undergo brain changes that affect hearing. For example, the brains of older adults have a slower response to fast-changing sounds, which is important for interpreting speech, Kraus explained.
The study participants with four to 14 years of music training had the fastest response to the speech sound, about a millisecond faster than those without music training.
"Being a millisecond faster may not seem like much, but the brain is very sensitive to timing and a millisecond compounded over millions of neurons can make a real difference in the lives of older adults," Michael Kilgard, who studies how the brain processes sound at the University of Texas at Dallas and was not involved in this study, said in the news release.
"These findings confirm that the investments that we make in our brains early in life continue to pay dividends years later," he added.
The study uncovered a link between playing a musical instrument when young and brain health in later life. It did not prove cause-and-effect.
The U.S. National Institute on Aging has more about hearing loss.
SOURCE: Journal of Neuroscience, news release, Nov. 5, 2013


5 Musts For Raising an Art-Lover
There are many ways you can build art interest and appreciation at home.
Hover over each Learning Benefit below for a detailed explanation.
Schools may not offer your child an art program, but there are many ways you can build art interest and appreciation at home:
- Talk about art. Your enthusiasm will be contagious, whether you're discussing a painting at a local museum or a family quilt you are making. Tour your town's architecture, too, comparing structures and decorations.
- Make art supplies available. Offering your child an array of materials — including paints, scraps of fabric, clay, and natural materials — and a comfortable space to work in will stimulate his interest and teach him that art is important.
- Encourage creativity. Prompt your child to color "outside the lines." Be accepting and enthusiastic about her work, asking her questions and pointing out unique details.
- Stimulate interest. Visit local museums and cultural centers. Enroll your child in a youth art program and attend art fairs together. Before your visit, discuss what you're about to see. Find things that relate to something he already likes, such as paintings or sculptures of favorite animals, foods, or hobbies.
- Support art education in your community. If art is not a part of the school curriculum, discuss implementing a program, perhaps even after-school, or suggest field-trips, participation in national art programs, or opportunities to display children's art throughout the community.
Read more about teaching your child about art.
Recommended Products for Your Child Ages 6-7


Aspects of Literacy Development in Preschool and Elementary School Age Children
This program explores current topics in the development of such critical reading precursors as vocabulary knowledge, narrative ability, phonological awareness, and print knowledge. Aspects of the reading and writing abilities of elementary school students are also considered.
You will be able to:
- discuss how context affects the production of complex sentences by children aged 2–4
- list the potential benefits of a low-cost scripted language and literacy curriculum for preschool-age children
- discuss the relationship between pre-K teachers’ use of print referencing and their quality of language instruction
- evaluate real word oral reading fluency’s function as a predictor of reading comprehension in second-grade students
- assess the contribution of working memory at the word and sentence levels of language to reading and writing outcomes of second, fourth, and sixth graders
View the Table of Contents [PDF]
Instructor Disclosure: Not available. The content for this program was developed and published prior to the ASHA Continuing Education Board requiring instructional personnel to provide financial and nonfinancial disclosure statements.
3/6/2012 to 2/7/2015


Foolproof Positive-Negative Designs: Free Lesson Plan Download
Grade Level: 3-5 Art Education Lesson Plan
Art Elements: Space
Art Skills: Cutting
Making Connections: Design
* Get more free lessons like this, on our Lessons Page
I’ve always had a love – hate relationship with positive / negative space lessons. First, I become unmotivated to teach them because they don’t involve some type of art history or culture, second, the student products have not been stellar for me in past years.
This year, I tried a new lesson with 4th grade and added a few tricks, making both the students (and myself) much happier with the result.
You probably get the basics: Students are given two papers, one large colored and one smaller black square. They cut out a shape, and flip it to create a design.
- Have students glue down the small pieces as they work around the square, but leave the center piece to be glued down until the very end. No loose pieces to be lost and it helps kids work more systematically.
- Make a little guideline on the corners of the template so they know where to line up the center square each time they cut out a new shape.
- Demonstrate a technique (ie: Cutting a wavy shape) and then have them try it. Do this for a few of the shapes before you let them go on their own. This one technique upped the quality of this project and also inspired confidence in students while still maintaining freedom and creativity. (Notice no two look the same).
- Encourage large and small shapes and to fill the entire black square with designs.


Gaming Literacy: Rethinking Teaching and Learning in the Culturally Diverse Urban Classroom
Schools in culturally diverse urban areas can and should be capitalizing on the linguistic wealth their local communities offer and the digital practices encouraged by popular culture to prepare students for a globally connected world. The educational agenda in Ontario, however, does the reverse, reshaping children's home and community repertoires towards a paper and pencil linguistic monoculture that will respond positively to test mechanisms. At Joyce Public School in Northwestern Toronto, our teacher-researcher consortium has been experimenting with socially and culturally responsive literacy engagement by designing narrative projects that provide multiple "access points" to knowledge and learning for students. Projects situate children's creative and productive capabilities within a curriculum that is both grassroots and "user generated": students creatively design narratives through ludic approaches that re-make and re-mean for them. This paper describes our current entry into creating gaming formats for narrative learning utilizing community languages.
Keywords: Multimodal Literacies, Gaming, Elementary Education, Collaborative Research, Multilingualism, Narratives
Dr. Heather Lotherington
Professor, Faculty of Education, York University
Dr. Jennifer Jenson
Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, York University


Reading Textbook Selection
Commercial reading programs form the basis for reading instruction in many classrooms. Instructional manuals with detailed lesson plans, reading materials, and activities are generally included in these programs. Analysis of available commercial programs for early elementary grades was done in 1993. At that time very few programs included explicit teaching and application of the alphabetic principle, the very instructional components that are among those whose importance is most strongly supported by research. Many of the programs have since been revised to more clearly reflect the findings of the NICHD research. Noted below are the underlying instructional activities that serve to teach the skills identified in this document (Snow, 1998):
- Oral language activities for fostering growth in receptive and expressive language and verbal reasoning,
- Reading aloud with children to foster their appreciation and comprehension of text and literary language,
- Phonemic analysis activities that focus on words and their phonemic elements, oral segmenting and blending activities, oral syllabication, and rhyming activities,
- Decoding instruction. Sound symbol relationship activities that promote the relationship between letters and sounds,
- Text characteristics that include word lists, and connected text; text and activities designed to provide multiple examples of the phonics instruction in the program.,
- Activities to promote opportunities for students to build reading fluency,
- Writing activities for developing children's personal appreciation of the communicative dimensions of print and for exercising printing and spelling abilities,
- Activities to promote understanding of the text prior to reading. Comprehension skill strategy training,
- Print-directed activities for establishing children's ability to recognize and print the letters of the alphabet,
- Word-directed activities for helping children to acquire a basic sight vocabulary and to understand and appreciate the alphabetic principle.
Commercial programs that meet the above criteria and correlate to the Idaho Achievement Standards are identified in the annual Adoption Guide.