Preschool learning environments offer prime opportunities for establishing healthful attitudes and knowledge about food and nutrition. Often, however, more emphasis is placed on flavor than on the teachable attributes foods offer like colors, shapes, food origin, texture, and smell. When introducing nutrition concepts to preschoolers, it is important to build upon their pre-existing knowledge and integrate nutrition education into other activities.
Let the following ideas inspire you to incorporate nutrition education into all areas of the curriculum.
One of the basic nutrition concepts for preschoolers is identifying new foods. “Smelly Socks” is an excellent way to teach the identity of various foods. Begin by presenting five fruits: an apple, an orange, a banana, a kiwi, and a pear. Then ask the children a variety of questions, such as “What is this?”
“Did you know that fruit can grow fur?”
“What color is this?”
“What shape is this fruit?” After each item has been identified and described, proceed with “Smelly Socks” as a small group activity. Place each piece of fruit in a clean sock. Allow each child to take turns smelling, touching, and describing the contents of the sock. No peeking. See if the children can guess what’s inside the sock. This activity can also be done with carrots, broccoli, sweet potatoes, corn, and tomatoes.
Foods and mealtimes can also be used to reinforce colors, shapes, numbers, social skills, language, and motor skill development. A menu consisting of cheese pizza, tater tots, tossed salad, melon medley, and milk, for example, presents a number of learning opportunities. Ask the children the following questions:
“What colors do you see?”
“What is the shape of the pizza?”
“What is in the salad?”
“How many tater tots do you have?”
When these items are offered again, challenge the children to remember the shape of pizza and the colors in a salad.In addition to mealtimes, nutrition education can be expanded to other areas of the curriculum. Making fruit juice, for example, provides an opportunity to reinforce the science of nutrition. At this age, many preschoolers have not connected juices with the fruit or vegetable the juice is made from.
Allowing the children to make their own juice helps them to make the connection. To make orange juice, have each child place an orange half in a zip-topped bag. Zip the seal closed. Allow each child to squeeze the orange to produce juice. Take the orange half out. Open the seal of the bag wide enough to pass a straw through. Voila! Orange juice. This activity can also be supplemented with questions like
“Where did the juice come from?” and “What other juices do we drink?”
While children learn to identify and try new foods from the activities above, nothing is more important than sitting and enjoying meals with the children. Eating with the children gives you a chance to participate at mealtime and to explore teachable moments. A simple question such as, “What is this new green stuff on my plate?” can be expanded beyond the meal to include stories about gardening and accepting new foods (Oliver’s Vegetables by Vivian French and Growing Vegetables by Lois Ehlert are two wonderful examples).
Sharing meals with children also allows you to model behavior. If children see you eating broccoli and spinach, chances are that they will attempt to eat it, too. In addition, you might want to participate in family-style meal service. Family-style meal service promotes self-help skills, develops fine and gross motor skills, and encourages language development as the children participate in conversation and use table etiquette.Throughout the day, there are innumerable opportunities for formal and informal nutrition activities, not all of which require food. As with teaching any group of concepts, begin with the basics and advance as other developmental milestones are reached.
Keecha Harris, RD, LD, is a nutrition coordinator for JCCEO Head Start in Birmingham, AL, and a consultant for Head Start Region IV Training and Technical Assistance Service.


The John S. Watson Institute for Public Policy of Thomas Edison State College is using iPads to increase language skills and math literacy in New Jersey preschools that serve children from homes where English is a second language.
The project, which is administered by the institute’s English Language Learners (ELL) Summer Institute and Mentoring Program, is currently being piloted in Head Start programs in Trenton and Hunterdon, N.J.
“The iPads we have distributed in this first wave will be used as an interactive digital resource by educators to enhance early childhood language mastery,” said Ana I. Berdecia, senior fellow and director of the Watson Institute’s Center for the Positive Development of Urban Children, who is managing the pilot and leads the ELL Summer Institute and Mentoring Program. “We are delighted to be partnering with the Hispanic Information and Telecommunication Network’s Early Learning Collaborative (HITN-ELC) in providing these multimedia learning tools to classrooms.”
According to Berdecia, teachers do not always have the resources to link technology with early childhood learning. The Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network teacher’s guide, parent’s guide and the accompanying materials are expected to provide a clear map to link technology with learning while promoting early childhood English language literacy and reinforcing the children’s home language, Spanish.
“From my visits to the classrooms, I can see the pure enjoyment and engagement of children exposed to these interactive learning tools,” said Berdecia.
The transmedia materials provided through the program focus on English language development, early literacy and early math. The collaborative is funded through a Ready to Learn grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement. Teachers participating in the program will be asked to record how the children are using the devices and document what learning has taken place under the auspices of ELL’s Mentoring Program.


BSEd in Elementary Science Education
The BSEd in Science Education is designed to provide students with a sophisticated understanding of science content that will prepare them to be excellent elementary or middle-school science teachers. Students will attend specially designed courses that will emphasize science content and still allow some discussion of pedagogical techniques. These natural science courses are offered exclusively to elementary education students.
According to a 2002 National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) report on qualifications of public school teachers, 31% of elementary science teachers and 57% of high-school science teachers in general lack a major or certification in their field. According to RNT's 2000 study of the largest urban school districts, nearly 98% of responding districts noted an immediate demand for science teachers. The need is critical for highly qualified teachers as schools are becoming more accountable to demonstrate learning.
- Earn your Illinois' teacher's license with additional credentials in a high-demand STEM field.
- Study a range of areas within science, such as biology, physics, astronomy and earth science, as well as mathematics.
- Get real-world classroom experience in diverse settings through Loyola partnerships with schools and communities.
- Continually collaborate with faculty and students at all levels within your chosen specialty through professional learning communities.


While the government cannot regulate what type of art is posted on private property, it may be able to regulate art that is displayed on public – that is, government-owned – property.
Traditional public forums – publicly owned spaces such as a street, park, or sidewalk that have typically been open to public discourse – are open to all expression protected by the First Amendment. The government may also create a designated public forum by opening up a space that isn’t a traditional public forum to be used for general public discourse. Limited public forums are non-public places such as meeting rooms in libraries and other government buildings that the government has opened for specific groups or discussions.
The government cannot place content-based restrictions on speech that occurs in traditional public forums. At most, they can enforce what are known as time, place, and manner restrictions, which regulate when and how someone may speak. Time, place, and manner restrictions on speech in public forums must be reasonable, which the Supreme Court has interpreted as meaning that “the manner of expression is basically incompatible with the normal activity of a particular place at a particular time.”
Some government property, such as jails, military bases, and courthouses, are nonpublic forums. In this type of forum, the government can restrict speech based on content if it demonstrates that it has a “legitimate interest” in doing so. The government still cannot discriminate against particular viewpoints, however. So, the government could prohibit all posting of religious iconography or other religion-themed art on military bases, but it could not permit the display of one religion's symbols while prohibiting those of another.
It may be possible for the government to create a public forum online. Most government websites are not forums for public discussion; rather, they are examples of the government's own speech, which the government can regulate to whatever degree it chooses. And while websites are clearly not traditional public fora, if the government provides a website as a place for public discussion, the website may take on the characteristics of a designated public forum -- a non-traditional space that the government opens up for public discourse. In that case, the government's ability to regulate the speech that occurs on that website would be significantly limited.
Additional informaiton is available at:
Under the First Amendment, the government may choose to provide funding for the arts, which can include supporting the creation of specific works and making more general contributions toward art education or museum maintenance. But the government cannot distribute this funding based on whether the government agrees with the message of a particular work, or use funding in an attempt to exert editorial control over a museum's collection.
Because the government has a limited amount of funds, however, it must be able to make some determination about which artists receive funding. The National Endowment for the Arts is one of the largest sources of government funding for art, and Congress has tried several times to put restrictions on the grants that the NEA awards. While the restriction forbidding the NEA from funding to art that "may be considered obscene" was struck down as unconstitutionally vague, the Supreme Court upheld a later requirement that the NEA "take into consideration general standards of decency and respect for the diverse beliefs and values of the American public" in the case National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley. The Court reasoned that, because "the very assumption of the NEA is that grants will be awarded according to the artistic worth of competing applications . . . absolute neutrality is simply inconceivable." And, because Congress's requirement merely directed the NEA to "take into consideration" decency as a criterion and specifically encouraged "respect for . . . diverse beliefs and values," the requirement was not an unconstitutional restriction on speech.
The Court did note that "if the NEA were to leverage its power to award subsidies on the basis of subjective criteria into a penalty on disfavored viewpoints," then the funding provision could be found unconstitutional. "[E]ven in the provision of subsidies, the Government may not aim at the suppression of dangerous ideas . . . and if a subsidy were manipulated to have a coercive effect, then relief could be appropriate."
Additional informaiton is available at:


Allington, R. (2002). What I’ve learned about effective reading instruction from a decade of studying exemplary elementary classroom teachers. Phi Delta Kappan, 83(10), 740-747.
Allington, R. (2009). What really matters in response to intervention: Research-based designs. Boston: Pearson.
Atwell, N. (2007). The reading zone: How to help kids become skilled, passionate, habitual, critical readers. New York: Scholastic.
Au, K. H., Carroll, J. H., & Scheu, J. A. (1997). Balanced literacy instruction: A teacher’s resource book. Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon.
Beers, K. (2003). When kids can’t read, what teachers can do: A guide for teachers 6 – 12. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Blachowicz, C., & Ogle, D. (2001). Reading Comprehension: Strategies for Independent Learners. New York: The Guilford Press.
Conniff, C. (1993). How young readers perceive reading and themselves as readers. English in Education, 27(2), 19-25.
Fountas, I., & Pinnell, G. S., (2001). Guiding readers and writers grades 3-6: Teaching comprehension, genre, and content literacy. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Gambrell, L., & Almasi, J.F. (1996). Lively discussions: Fostering engaged reading. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Gambrell, L., Codling, R., & Palmer, B. (1996). Elementary students motivations to read. Reading Research Report No. 52. Athens, GA: National Reading Research Center.
Haga, M (2009). Build and Use A Classroom Library. Retrieved July 13, 2009, from The Best of Teacher’s Mentor Web site:
Kasten,W. C., Kristo, J. V., McClure, A. A., & Garthwait, A. (2005). Living literature: Using children’s literature to support reading and language arts. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Morrow, L. C. (2005). Literacy development in the early years: Helping children read and write. Boston: Pearson.
Richardson, J. S., Morgan, R. F., & Fleener, C. (2006). Reading to learn in the content areas. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.
Sweet, A. P., Guthrie, J. T., & Ng, M. M. (1998). Teacher perceptions and student reading motivation. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90, 210-223.
Thames, D. G. & Reeves, C. K. (1994). Poor readers’ attitudes: Effects of using interests and trade books in an integrated language arts approach. Reading Research and Instruction, 33(4), 293-308.
Tompkins, G. E. (2005). Language arts: Content and teaching strategies (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall.


Renaissance music is music written in Europe during the Renaissance. Consensus among music historians – with notable dissent – has been to start the era around 1400, with the end of the medieval era, and to close it around 1600, with the beginning of the Baroque period, therefore commencing the musical Renaissance about a hundred years after the beginning of the Renaissance as understood in other disciplines. As in the other arts, the music of the period was significantly influenced by the developments which define the Early Modern period: the rise of humanistic thought; the recovery of the literary and artistic heritage of ancient Greece and Rome; increased innovation and discovery; the growth of commercial enterprise; the rise of a bourgeois class; and the Protestant Reformation. From this changing society emerged a common, unifying musical language, in particular the polyphonic style of the Franco-Flemish school.
The development of printing made distribution of music possible on a wide scale. Demand for music as entertainment and as an activity for educated amateurs increased with the emergence of a bourgeois class. Dissemination of chansons, motets, and masses throughout Europe coincided with the unification of polyphonic practice into the fluid style which culminated in the second half of the sixteenth century in the work of composers such as Palestrina, Lassus, and William Byrd. Relative political stability and prosperity in the Low Countries, along with a flourishing system of music education in the area's many churches and cathedrals, allowed the training of hundreds of singers and composers. These musicians were highly sought throughout Europe, particularly in Italy, where churches and aristocratic courts hired them as composers and teachers. By the end of the 16th century, Italy had absorbed the northern influences, with Venice, Rome, and other cities being centers of musical activity, reversing the situation from a hundred years earlier. Opera arose at this time in Florence as a deliberate attempt to resurrect the music of ancient Greece.
The business terms push and pull originated in logistics and supply chain management, but are also widely used in marketing. Wal-Mart is an example of a company that uses the push vs. pull strategy. A push–pull system in business describes the movement of a product or information between two subjects. On markets the consumers usually "pull" the goods or information they demand for their needs, while the offerers or suppliers "push" them toward the consumers. In logistics chains or supply chains the stages are operating normally both in push- and pull-manner. Push production is based on forecast demand and pull production is based on actual or consumed demand. The interface between these stages is called the push–pull boundary or decoupling point.
A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. Brass instruments are also called labrosones, literally meaning "lip-vibrated instruments".
There are several factors involved in producing different pitches on a brass instrument. Slides, valves, crooks, or keys are used to change vibratory length of tubing, thus changing the available harmonic series, while the player's embouchure, lip tension and air flow serve to select the specific harmonic produced from the available series.


A trio of one-page memos from the Lead for Literacy series examines the importance of using curriculum that is rigorous, cohesive, engaging and builds knowledge as well as decoding skills. The series was produced by HGSE’s Language Diversity and Literacy Development Research Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
As the first memo — The Importance of Using a Literacy Curriculum – notes, “It’s a big job to design cohesive, rigorous literacy instruction, especially instruction that promotes language and knowledge building. Yet many teachers are expected to both design and deliver literacy instruction day‐after‐day, and month after month, throughout the school year.” It offers a rationale for using a comprehensive literacy curriculum:
- “A curriculum provides content and pedagogical strategies educators need to help children meet standards.”
- “A high-quality curriculum is a resource that creates a platform for supporting good teaching.”
- “A curriculum is a tool for institutionalizing professional knowledge and effective practices across classrooms.”
- “A curriculum is a tool for building the kind of instructional cohesion children need to accumulate skills and knowledge over time.”
The second memo — Selecting a Comprehensive Literacy Curriculum – recommends selecting a curriculum through a “team‐based process that is informed by … the needs of the setting’s children and adults, and a pilot phase that enables thorough review.” The memo notes the importance of choosing a literacy curriculum with:
- “Language-rich and content-rich units of study.”
- A long-term plan with daily lesson models and supporting materials to “support instructional coherence and consistency within and across classrooms and grade levels.”
- Engaging approaches to instruction with “literacy enriched learning centers featuring a wide variety of books and visuals” and lessons “that promote interactive play and inquiry.”
The final memo — Implementing a Comprehensive Literacy Curriculum – offers suggestions for putting a literacy curriculum in place. It calls for ongoing professional development, “regular formal and informal observations of educators using the curriculum,” and “conversations about instructional practice and improvement.”
“Curricula are not intuitive and therefore require ongoing training. Continuous training improves implementation quality, builds collective commitment to the curriculum and gets new staff up to speed,” the memo states. “A curriculum [also] provides a shared professional language that enables educators to discuss and refine their instructional practices during meetings and planning time.”
The Lead for Literacy memos are an initiative of the Language Diversity and Literacy Development Research Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The research group is headed by Professor Nonie Lesaux, author of “Turning the Page: Refocusing Massachusetts for Reading Success,” which we commissioned in 2010 and which informs the memos.


Your child can transform a triangle of felt into a colorful and motivating pennant sharing all her favorite characteristics and traits. A pennant is a colorful and decorative flag often waved during a game or commemorative event. They are made out of felt and are colorful and full of exciting shapes and colors. Your child can use that same fun style to create her special pennant celebrating herself!
What You Do:
- Invite your child to brainstorm all the things she finds interesting about herself, along with any positive traits she has.
- Once your child has finished her list, have her create a sketch of her ideas for the pennant. Encourage her to think about layout and design, encouraging her visual and creative skills.
- Now offer her a collection of felt colors and scissors, and invite her to select one color for the background of her pennant. She can cut a long triangle for the base. She can even use a ruler to ensure both sides are even.
- Invite her to adorn the pennant with stickers, images and pieces of felt symbolizing some of her favorite things about herself.
Once she’s finished, she can share her finished creation with the whole family, encouraging her self-esteem and confidence!
Sarah Lipoff has a K-12 Art Education degree and enjoys working with kids of all ages.


Longer ago than I care to admit a popular educational resource for kids was a series of Bell Telephone sponsored films on a variety of science topics. The series was made for TV in the mid to late 50s and later distributed to schools. The one I remember best was Hemo the Magnificent. It combined humorous Disney style animation with human actors to take the student on a virtual tour of the circulatory system. Clever production elements and analogies (such as nervous pathways illustrated by telephone lines and little men operating levers representing pre-capillary sphincters) held us baby boomers in rapt attention and indelibly etched the circulatory system in our minds.
Fast forward to generation X and this paper in Advances in Physiology Education. The survey of undergraduate students found a high rate of misconceptions about circulatory function and offers fascinating insight about how we learn. When asked to trace the flow of blood a student might draw a path around the perimeter of the body. When asked about the principal function of the lungs some students said it was to filter the blood, others said to convert oxygen into carbon dioxide. There was confusion about distinctions between arteries, veins and capillaries. Worse, these college students were pursuing a career in elementary education.
Despite improvements over time major misconceptions persisted through the end of the course. Equally concerning was the fact that one on one interviews with students uncovered many more misconceptions about the circulation than standard tests, suggesting that students can conceal major areas of misunderstanding on routine testing.
The authors point out that faulty preconceptions about course material hinder learning. Learning is a synthesis of new content and what the student thought before. If the student’s prior thoughts are flawed the learning is less effective. The discipline of physiology, the study of how the body works, may be uniquely susceptible to prior thinking. Early on children begin to develop a mental model based on their interpretations of body sensations. Although the model becomes more sophisticated over time it remains flawed. The teaching of physiology might be more effective if teachers could identify student misconceptions, then employ means to help students unlearn or modify them. The authors conclude that new methods of assessment and teaching are needed. I would add that perhaps we should resurrect Hemo the Magnificent.


Music can change your child’s life — literally. Music builds self-confidence and helps children gain social skills to help connect them to other kids and the world in general. Music students score higher on verbal and math portions of SATs, have fewer drug and alcohol problems and fewer altercations with the law. Like the sound of that?
Elizabeth Lasko, assistant executive director, center for members and constituency relations with the National Association for Music Education (NAFME), says it is much easier to maintain — and build upon — any existing music program your child’s school may already have, than to lose it and have to work to get it back.
She adds, "So it’s worth putting every available resource into protecting a program.”
And don't take your child’s music program for granted.
Check in with your child’s homeroom teacher and/or music teacher to find out what needs to be done to support the music program.
Lasko says, “There may be an existing booster program or other support system, or one may need to be started.”
If you are going to spearhead one or want to breathe some life into the existing music booster program, reach out to other parents to help with your efforts. Send flyers home in backpacks, organize meetings and brainstorm how you can work together to gain support for the school’s music program.
Work with your child’s school’s leaders to organize some fun activities this March geared toward encouraging music education and appreciation in honor of MIOSM.
Lasko suggests using MIOSM to bring visibility to your child’s school music program by organizing community events like putting on a school talent show featuring musical acts or making a video asking for support. Using social media is important too. You can connect with local radio, television and newspapers to help spread the word throughout your community. Also, consider organizing a school or class field trip to see a local musical group perform or invite a local group to come to your child’s school.
Lasko also points to the organization’s secondary school honor society, Tri-M, which spotlights the achievements of music students and their community spirit.
She says, “It’s a great way to show how important music is and how great music kids are — as we say, music education orchestrates success!”
Take your advocacy for music education to local legislature. NAFME offers extensive how-tos on its site regarding gaining support by working with government officials, including how to get resolutions passed, and contacting local media to get the word out to your community.
And you'll see personalized content just for you whenever you click the My Feed .
SheKnows is making some changes!


Find parenting tips and links to resources specifically for parents. Resources include State and local examples.
Adventures in Parenting: How Responding, Preventing, Monitoring, Mentoring, and Modeling Can Help You Be a Successful Parent
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
Describes an effective approach to parenting and provides examples of how to use it with children. See also the Spanish Version.
Head Start, Administration for Children and Families Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center (2013)
Offers information and resources to help parents with everyday parenting issues.
Facts for Families
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Presents concise, up-to-date information on more than 100 topics that impact children, teenagers, and their families. The collection is available in English and Spanish, and six other languages.
Healthy Parenting Initiative
Military HOMEFRONT, Department of Defense
Materials and information on programs for military parents.
The Incredible Years: Parents, Teachers, and Children Training Series
The Incredible Years (2014)
Highlights The Incredible Years Parents, Teachers, and Children Training Series, a comprehensive set of curricula designed to promote social competence and prevent, reduce, and treat aggression and related conduct problems in young children (ages 4 to 8 years). The program components are guided by developmental theory concerning the role of multiple interacting risk and protective factors (child, family, and school) in the development of conduct problems.
Nurturing Parenting Programs
Family Development Resources (2014)
Includes product catalog, training resources, research, and validation, and related links for the Nurturing Parenting Program, which promotes nurturing parenting attitudes and skills for the prevention and treatment of child abuse.
One Tough Job
Massachusetts Children's Trust Fund
This website for parents includes information on stress, parent-child communication, discipline, child safety, parenting tips sorted by age, and more.
Provides an online community of leadership, knowledge, and resources to members seeking support with parenting issues.
Parent Resources -Tip Sheets
Circle of Parents
Effective parenting information for dealing with discipline, rules, schoolwork, and other family situations. Also available in Spanish.
Promoting Children's Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Health: A Resource for Parents (PDF - 582 KB)
Board on Children, Youth, and Families, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, National Research Council, Institute of Medicine, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (2009)
Helps parents focus on the healthy development of children from birth to adolescence and identify risk factors to prevent problems before they occur.
Resources for Dads
National Fatherhood Initiative
Programs, brochures, articles, and other resources to become a better father.
Tips for Parents
Prevent Child Abuse America
Advice for new moms and dads and information on discipline, safety, education, recognizing child abuse, and leaving children home alone.
One Tough Job
Massachusetts Children's Trust Fund
Includes information for parents on stress, parent-child communication, discipline, child safety, parenting tips sorted by age, and more.
A Parent's Guide to Vermont's Child Welfare and Youth Justice Agency (PDF - 1,126 KB)
Vermont Department for Children and Families & Family Services Division (2013)
Provides an overview of how the child welfare and youth justice systems work in Vermont. This guide explains the role of the Family Services Division and describes child welfare processes, including information on actions that are taken once a report is made, how child safety interventions begin, and next steps in the intervention. It also lists resources that can help parents meet their basic needs: health and mental health, housing, legal matters, parenting, work supports, and youth services and supports.
Straight Talk About Child Sexual Abuse: A Prevention Guide for Parents. Massachusetts Edition (PDF - 320 KB)
Explains the incidence of child sexual abuse and provides information on types of child sexual abuse, characteristics of perpetrators of child sexual abuse, children sexually abusing other children, tips for protecting a child from sexual abuse and reducing risk factors, symptoms that a child has been sexually abused, and steps to take if a child discloses sexual abuse. A list of reporting, prevention, and treatment resources in Massachusetts is provided.
Straight Talk About Child Sexual Abuse: A Prevention Guide for Parents. New York Edition (PDF - 357 KB)
Explains the incidence of child sexual abuse and provides information on types of child sexual abuse, characteristics of perpetrators of child sexual abuse, children sexually abusing other children, tips for protecting a child from sexual abuse and reducing risk factors, symptoms that a child has been sexually abused, and steps to take if a child discloses sexual abuse. A list of reporting, prevention, and treatment resources in New York State is provided.


Kate Walters, I Can't Hear You 2006
Ink, watercolour, gouache and shellac on gesso on paper, 64 x 47 cm
Courtesy of the artist
‘These cards effectively combine thought-provoking contemporary art images with stimulating questions that highlight themes relating to social identity, gender and the meanings we give to our experiences. They will be very useful for art therapists, teachers and parents.'
Diane Waller OBE (Professor of Art Psychotherapy, Goldsmiths, University of London)
Children and young people need opportunities to build reflective skills so they can make positive choices and learn from their experiences. Evidence shows that processing emotional responses to life, finding ways to express oneself and understanding relationships are essential life skills.
What do you feel? addresses the need for stimulating art education and emotional learning resources that can be used in the classroom or after-school workshops, in therapeutic settings and at home.
The 20 cards in the boxed-set feature contemporary artworks by culturally-diverse artists on one side with questions relating to the images on the other. The cards creatively bring to the surface themes that are central to emotional literacy including:
- understanding relationships;
- preparing for change and transition;
- acknowledging and working through losses;
- thinking about social, personal and cultural identities;
- identifying emotions and learning how to express them.
The boxed-set also includes a booklet with ideas for using the cards in their own right or as the starting point for creative projects.
Ideal for young people
The resource meets curriculum requirements especially in Art and Design, Design and Technology, Personal Social Health Education (PSHE) and Literacy. It can be used with all age groups from Key Stage 2 upwards and is particularly recommended for:
- years 5 and 6 pupils on the cusp of adolescence and preparing for significant changes (including the transfer to secondary school);
- secondary pupils who are navigating a series of changes associated with adolescence;
- young people in therapy settings;
- refugee children who are settling into new environments and may welcome the opportunity to make sense of their experiences.
Laylah Ali, Janine Antoni, Gayle Chong Kwan, Zosia Combes, Mónica de Miranda, Gonkar Gyatso, Anish Kapoor, Chila Kumari Burman, Yayoi Kusama, Neeta Madahar, Chris Ofili, Hetain Patel, Freddie Robbins, Franklyn Rodgers, Yinka Shonibare MBE, Lorna Simpson, Do-Ho Suh, Francis Upritchard, Leticia Valverdes, Kate Walters
Co-developed and published by Iniva and A Space


Introduction to Working with Students with ASD
Date: Friday, November 9, 2012
Time: 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
AUDIENCE: Educators and paraprofessionals new to working with students on the autism spectrum
This introductory training provides participants with the foundational skills to work effectively with students with autism. Topics include an overview of diagnostic criteria and learning characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Reviews the general principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and the importance of incorporating reinforcement systems and data collection into programming to ensure success. This session will also cover the general classroom and instructional characteristics needed for this population to make effective progress.
For more details and information on how to register, please click here


by Richard Long
International Reading Association
October 31, 2013
Early in October, the National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices issued a paper: A Governor’s Guide to Early Literacy: Getting All Students Reading by Third Grade. The report observes that those students who are not reading at grade level by the third are at risk of failure. They cite that only one third of all students enter the fourth grade with the literacy skills needed to succeed. The report makes three observations:
- Starting at Kindergarten is too late.
- Reading proficiency requires three sets of interrelated skills:
- Language and communication skills,
- Mechanics of reading, AND
- Content knowledge.
- Parents, primary caregivers, and teachers have the most influence on children’s language and literacy development.
They recommend that the governors and other policy makers take five actions to adopt policies and change systems to better ensure that all children are on track to be strong readers by the end of third grade:
- Adopt comprehensive language and literacy standards and curricula for early care and education.
- Expand access to high-quality child care, pre-Kindergarten and full-day Kindergarten.
- Engage and support parents as partners.
- Equip professionals providing care and education with the skills and knowledge to support early language and literacy development.
- Develop mechanisms to promote continuous improvement and accountability.
This report is part of a wide ranging initiative by NGA to promote early childhood education by encouraging changes in state policies and encouraging an expansion of early childhood programs. The advisory group they convened worked with representatives of six states to develop the core ideas around what worked well and what needed to be done. The U.S. Senate committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions is expected to create a set of recommendations to create a new program to ensure universal pre-Kindergarten for all students, with the first phase being those children who live in poverty.
The report may be of use to IRA members as they advocate for state policies that support early literacy development. The report can be accessed on the NGA website.
Reader response is welcomed. Email your comments to LRP@reading.org


The Tennessee Early Childhood Education Early Learning Developmental Standards were developed to provide documentation of the continuum of developmental milestones from birth through age 5 based on the research about the processes, sequences, and long term consequences of early learning and development.
The Tennessee Department of Education is pleased to announce the release of
materials from this summer’s TN-Early Learning Developmental Standards math
training. These materials are now available to all Tennessee teachers,
administrators, and schools.
The Revised TN Early Learning Developmental Standards for 4 year-olds were written to support teachers, care givers and families who want to provide high quality, developmentally appropriate early learning experiences for children before they begin kindergarten. These standards align directly with the Kindergarten Common Core Mathematics standards adopted by TN Department of Education in 2011. Helping children develop the concepts documented in these standards will provide them with the foundational skills necessary to their continued growth in kindergarten and beyond. To access Standards for Mathematical Practice, click here or visit our Mathematical Practices pages in the Teacher Toolkit. New resources for implementing the new standards are forthcoming.
Click here to access the PowerPoint presentation of the Standards for Mathematical Practice for 4-year-olds.
The revised standards are for 4-year-olds only. To access existing set of Early Childhood/Early Development standards for birth to age 5, please click on the links below to download these PDF documents.
Common Core Standards
Education Web Design by In10sity


The mission of the Elementary Education Program is to assist students and educators in the learning and teaching process. At all grade levels, the curriculum in English/language arts, mathematics, social studies, physical education, health, music, art, guidance, technology, and media skills follows the North Carolina Standard Course of Study.
Elementary educators teach all students on their instructional levels and each child should be reading on grade level by the end of second grade. Instructional coaches, Kristie Compton, Lisa Huffman, Susan Carriker Smith, Sarah Temple, and Denise Wright give classroom demonstrations and make follow-up visits for teachers. In addition, class-size reduction is a critical component of the elementary program. Smaller classes, with ratio of eighteen students to each teacher, allow for one-on-one assistance and student-centered activities. All students in the first, second, and third grades have this opportunity. Attention is given to identifying and responding to individual student needs, teaching with positive classroom management, and building on student strengths. Each student in the first through third grades has a reading, math, and writing portfolio.
Also, the elementary program holds workshops for educators on the use of strategic questioning, literature circles, assessment, phonemic awareness, and instructional groupings. Additional sessions include the use of math manipulatives, problem-solving, and math strategies. Reading in the content areas of health, science, and social studies is emphasized. Staff development for all elementary teachers has evolved into literacy development, problem solving, integration of the curriculum, and teaching to individual learning styles. As a result, Burke County teachers have developed specific grade level reading strategies, essential performance indicators for all grades, and assessment aligned to the curriculum.


The following information is in reference to Chapter 17, page 203 of the revised 2nd edition of The Power Of Sound.
The Tree of Sound Enhancement Therapy ® evolved as the developmental flow chart for the correct administration of any sound-based therapy. While there are many different sound-based therapies that can be administered individually with some level of success, the best outcomes are evidenced when The Tree analogy is used.
The Tree has 6 basic parts:
1. The “Root System” addresses one’s sense of hearing. The therapy(ies) offered at this level are a form of Auditory Integration Training, which repatterns how the acoustic reflex muscle in the middle ear responds to sound, and subsequently supports the reception of sound in the cochlea.
2. The “Seed” is the foundation for all sound response in the body as it addresses our basal body rhythms, such as the heartbeat or breath stream. The therapies at this level of The Tree can be utilized at any time in the person’s protocol of sound therapies because these skills bring the person back into focus and keep them feeling positive at their core level.
3. The “Trunk” addresses all responses of the ear for general sound processing stimulation, not hearing. The programs at this level are called Listening Training Programs and are modeled after the work of Dr. Alfred Tomatis who established the Tomatis® Method.
4. The “Lower Leaves and Branches” address specific auditory processing skills such as memory, sequencing, and discrimination. These skills are inherent in how the brain receives information from the auditory pathway to the brain, specifically from the cochlea to the auditory reception centers in the brain.
5. The “Upper Leaves and Branches” address the academic areas such as reading, spelling, and handwriting skills, which can only be maximally achieved when the foundation of The Tree is in place. People can have these skills as splinter skills but not always process them in their entirety. The programs suggested at this level must include an auditory, visual, and language combination of instructional skills, thereby allowing for full integration of the foundational skills.
6. The “Overall Maintenance of The Tree” addresses one’s wellness or body support for maintaining the learning and developmental changes obtained with the therapies at the various parts of The Tree.
JL: Also find and include DAVIS Otoemissions. (text was never in book)


The state of New York discovered that special needs students are not enrolling in charter schools as much as they are in public schools, and immediately thought that the charter schools were to blame. However, A study by the Manhattan Institute and the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) found that students with disabilities are less likely to enroll in charter schools.
Charter schools tend to reclassify special needs students out of the program. This reclassification helps explain at least 80% of recent growth in this gap, while the other 20% was due to students transferring between charter and public schools. When more general education students enter elementary education, their entrance automatically reduces the proportions of special needs students in comparison to the general population. It is not, as some alleged, a decrease in the enrollment of students with disabilities.
But, there is a lot of mobility among special needs students and it does not depend on whether they attend public or charter schools. According to the study, a third of charter school students who receive special education leave their charter school by their fourth year, while a third of public school students who receive similar services leave before their fourth year.
The study also saw an increase in Individualized Education Programs (IEP, or the special education program) over time in the group of special needs students in both charter and public schools. The overall change in both schools for IEP students was 1.2 percent.
And, adding to that, more students with disabilities apply to public schools over charter schools. For example, in the 2009-9 year, 12.6% of students who applied to public schools had special needs while 5.7% of the students who applied to charter schools had such needs. Even though the percentage of special needs students increases over time to 2012-13, it is still less than the amount of students with special needs who apply to public schools with an average difference of 7.625% between public and charter schools.
Spencer Irvine is a staff writer at Accuracy in Academia.
If you would like to comment on this article, e-mail firstname.lastname@example.org


Storylords features reading comprehension strategies in a basic reading program for first- through fourth-graders as well as Chapter I remedial reading classes. The series will capture students’ attention with fantasy carefully interwoven with strategies designed to help students better understand printed materials. The lessons will provide an appealing and understandable initial introduction to a new abstract idea.
1. Activating Prior Knowledge Before Reading — Norbert meets Lexor and takes on his first challenge: Helping a dancer solve a riddle.
2. Connecting What You Know With What’s On The Page — Stumped by Thorzuul’s riddle, Norbert finds Mrs. Framish’s lesson on making inferences about a wordless picture book helpful.
3. Knowing When You Don’t Know (In Your Head) — Norbert uses Mrs. Framish’s STRARO strategy (Stop, Think, Reread, Ask, and Read Over) to help an artist paint.
4. Knowing When You Don’t Know (On The Page) — Mandy’s portrayal of a pterodactyl suffers because the word is not explained at the beginning of the script she is reading.
5. Directed Reading-Thinking Activity — Mandy follows Norbert to Mojuste, where Thorzuul has turned ten children to stone for failing his reading test.
6. Question-Answer Relationships — The apprentice storylords show the Gwynn twins how to combine ideas from two letters to find one answer.
7. Decoding Words In Context — Norbert leads Mandy through strategies to decode the word “envelope.” Mandy helps Zandro pronounce and understand “dandelion.”
8. Inferring Word Meaning In Context — When Norbert becomes ill, Jason tells him about the word detective game the class played. Mandy guides Caroma through contextual clues for painting a magical picture.
9. Story Mapping — Magical picture.
10. Pronoun Anaphora — With Norbert zapped motionless, Mandy must infer links between pronouns and their antecedents to free her brother.
11. Identifying Main Idea And Details — The apprentices must read and organize a set of sentence strips into a paragraph that makes sense.
12. Integrating Comprehension Strategies — Thorzuul startles Norbert and Mandy by threatening them after school. If they can’t make a sensible paragraph out of his four sentences, he’ll turn them into permanent statues. Applying several reading strategies, they succeed.
A Million Thanks
Instructional Video Resources
Use our classroom videos for every curriculum and every grade level.
Lending LibraryAccess our lending library and order form for video titles for all grade levels and subject areas.
Find Us at the Following Events:
March 25-28: ND Assoc. of Secondary School Principals, Bismarck.
March 26: Family Literacy Event, Rolette, ND.
March 26-28: ND Music Educators Assoc., Bismarck.
March 30: Family Literacy Event, Warwick, ND
April 10: Family Literacy Event, Devils Lake.
April 14: Family Literacy Event, Wahpeton-Breckenridge.
April 16-18: ND STEM Network Conference, Fargo, ND.
April 20: Family Literacy Event, Tate Topa, ND.
April 21: Family Literacy Event, Minnewaukan, ND.
April 23: Family Literacy Event, Dakota Prairie, McVille, ND.
April 23-25: NDRA Reading Conference, Minot.
April 28: Family Literacy Event, Flasher, ND.
April 30: Family Literacy Event, SENDCAA, Fargo, ND.
May 29-31: Family Literacy Event at Devils Run, Devils Lake.
JUNE 6: SHARE-A-STORY LITERACY EVENT, Rheault Farm, Fargo.


From the recognition of ‘self-respect marriages’ to the upholding of 69% reservation, the State Assembly, whose diamond jubilee is being celebrated today, has seen many momentous occasions, says T. Ramakrishnan
The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, which celebrates its diamond jubilee on Friday, has always been known as a forum for expressing strong views on various social and economic issues, and occasionally, a platform to settle political scores.
This was evident even in the first Assembly (1952-1957) when the House intensely deliberated the scheme of elementary education launched by the Rajaji government. Among the critics of the scheme were many members of the Congress and they contended that the scheme sought to perpetuate caste-based social hierarchy. Through an amendment in July 1953 to a government-sponsored motion, an attempt was made to recommend to the government to drop the scheme.
Though the amendment was not carried through, Rajaji quit the post within a year. After Kamaraj succeeded him, Education Minister C. Subramaniam in May 1954 informed the House that the scheme would be dropped.
The Rajaji days are remembered for landmark laws to protect tenants of farm lands and landless agriculturists.
After the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam captured power in 1967 and its founder C.N. Annadurai became Chief Minister, the Hindu Marriage Act was amended to recognise “self-respect marriages” or those marriages free of religious rituals. The law took retrospective effect as “self-respect marriages” formed a major plank of the Dravidian movement.
His successor and five-time Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi, piloted several Bills and moved numerous motions. In his last spell (2006-2011), laws for exclusive reservation for Muslims and Christians within the quota of Backward Classes and Arundathiyars within the reservation of Scheduled Castes were made. However, in deference to wishes of the Christians, the scheme of separate quota for the community was dropped.
The 10-year-long rule (1977-1987) of the government, headed by M.G. Ramachandran of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, was noted for various measures in the area of revenue administration. Notably, the system of hereditary village officers such as “karnam” was abolished at one strokeAfter the Supreme Court delivered the Mandal Commission judgment in November 1992, settingthe ceiling for reservation in education and employment at 50 per cent, the Assembly responded through legislation aimed at safeguarding the existing 69 per cent quota for Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes and Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes.
The law was included in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution. The enactment of the quota law was a high point in the first tenure (1991-1996) of Jayalalithaa as CM. In her previous spell (2001-2006), the law against those who indulged in charging usurious rates of interest was enacted. The Assembly, which has witnessed several changes in the social profile of its members, has also seen numerous uproarious scenes and yet retains its character of lending voice to problems of the less-privileged.


|Art Methods and Practicum for Secondary Education|
|CLASS CODE:||ART 405||CREDITS: 3|
|DIVISION:||PERFORMING AND VISUAL ARTS|
|GENERAL EDUCATION:||This course does not fulfill a General Education requirement.|
|DESCRIPTION:||Skills and methods necessary to teach art in the secondary classroom.|
|CONTENT AND TOPICS:||Topics will include drawing, painting, color, design, photography, ceramics, graphic design, and printmaking.
This course will be both lecture and studio experience. It is designed to acquaint students with the skills and methods necessary to teach art in the secondary classroom. It will introduce the student to art education theory, and how to practically apply its concepts into curriculum development and lesson planning. The student will also learn methods for effective instruction of these concepts in the classroom. Students will create a variety of images that can be used in the secondary classroom.
Students will be introduced to a variety of media and the methods for art creation, curriculum development, critique processes, and evaluation.
|GOALS AND OBJECTIVES:||-- Understand that Art is a core subject.
-- Understand comprehensive art education--including production, aesthetics, criticism, and art history.
-- Create meaningful art curriculum and lesson plans.
-- Analyze, discuss, and respond to a wide range of artworks.
-- Apply issues of art history, art criticism, and aesthetics to the secondary art classroom.
-- Gain experience in secondary art education by observing and participating in a secondary art classroom.
|PREREQUISITES:||Junior level status. Sec. Ed. 370|
|OTHER:||Attendance, preparation, and completion of all projects will be the basic criteria for grading. Students will be expected to create a portfolio of projects for each medium that will become the basis for classroom visual aids.|
|EFFECTIVE DATE:||August 2003|


Learn to understand and compare the many religious expressions of humankind. Although the study of religion requires a certain subjective sensitivity to the religious mindset, it seeks to transcend subjective empathy in the pursuit of objective analysis.
Whether you’re interested in music education, music performance, or studying and listening to music, our flexible curriculum lets you create a personalized program. You’ll also experience an abundant and varied concert life by attending first-rate musical events in NYC.
Build linguistic and cultural awareness to experience the world differently as you study Spanish, French, Italian or German. By studying language, literature, civilization and film, you will begin your own journey through the myriad cultures of the planet.
Reflect on the global economic and political interdependence of the post-Cold War world. We’ll help you understand how and why countries interact, and how the world has been influenced by history, politics, economics, and culture.
Do your interests span multiple departments and areas of study? Maybe creating your own major is for you. Build a rigorous program of study to investigate interdisciplinary topics, problems, and questions.
Studying history will prepare you to respond to breaking global news and to debate conflicting views. Using newspapers, films, novels, and legal documents, you’ll learn how to argue persuasively, read and research carefully and write creatively.
Learn to think about the process of acquiring an identity as male or female and consider the impact of changing gender roles. Areas of focus include marriage and family, sexual orientation, the distribution of power by gender, and the representation of gender in literature and the arts.
Become media literate and advance your own awareness of media’s effect on your perceptions of critical social issues. You’ll look at film form, film and television history, world cinema, and/or practice in graphic computer arts.
You’ll learn to appreciate literature in its own right and explore literature as a reflection on the political, social, and aesthetic values of the periods in which works were written.
Study a range of disciplines, including ballet, jazz, modern, and tap as well as courses in choreography, history, and criticism. Explore the wide range of dance techniques while encouraging further development of your personal dancing style.


expert advice MORE
Should My Son Take the SAT or the ACT?
Q: My seventh-grade son has been nominated to the Duke University Talent Search. He can take either the SAT or the ACT. How do I know which test is appropriate for my child? I know the SAT tests verbal and math skills, while the ACT includes science and social studies as well. Is there something else I should know before we make the choice?
A: The SAT and the ACT are the two standardized tests used by colleges in admissions decisions. They can also be used to identify highly gifted students as early as fifth or sixth grade.
The SAT I: Reasoning Test measures verbal reasoning, math problem-solving, and critical reading. It is not designed to measure motivation, creativity, or specialized talents.
The American College Test or ACT measures general educational achievement in the areas of English, math, reading, and science, and assesses the ability of students to complete college-level work. The ACT is also unlikely to identify students who are gifted in specific areas, such as creative thinking, leadership, or the visual arts.
Both the ACT and SAT also have supplementary tests that are designed to assess advanced achievement in specific subject areas. Some colleges prefer one test or the other in their admissions processes, but both tests are good for selecting students for accelerated content-based programs, such as Talent Search. Schools also can compare scores on the two tests. The American College Testing Program, which produces the ACT, and the College Board, which is associated with the SAT, provide excellent websites with additional information about their testing programs. Both have specific links for parents and students. The ACT website is act.org. The College Board website is collegeboard.com.
More on: Expert Advice
Rita Culross is Associate Dean, College of Education, and Adjunct Professor of Psychology and Curriculum and Instruction at Louisiana State University. Culross has served as the consulting school psychologist for a public school elementary gifted program, and has written a book and several journal articles on gifted education.


|Free Ear Trainer|
Educators can teach their students to play music by ear with this free music trainer. The trainer includes a picture-based guide and three video tutorials.
|Integrating music with Language Arts|
Music and Language Arts/Phonics/Reading lesson plans.
This online music factory provides education grants for teachers so that students can use the site's music mixing and songwriting tools for free.
Provides free learning resources for music students and teachers at every level.
KIDiddles provides free printable sheet music and lyrics for thousands of nurseries and children's songs. The site can also be used to professionally produce original song sheets for the classroom.
|Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music|
Sheet music collection from the Milton S. Eisenhower Library of The Johns Hopkins University includes more than 29,000 pieces of sheet music that can be used in the music classroom.
|McGill English Dictionary of Rhyme|
A dictionary and the free software that comes with it would be an asset to any music curriculum.
Listeners can search for music using their voice. Simply sing a few bars (at least ten seconds is best) and you will find the song you're looking for.
|Music and Math|
Another Math lesson on patterns integrating Music.
|Music Ed Magic|
Music Ed Magic offers an amazing collection of music resources for educators, including
lesson plans, sheet music, education articles, and free software.
|Music Education Online|
This free website from Children's Music Workshop provides free music lessons, sheet music, news, event listings, and other helpful music education resources.
|Music Homework Help|
Music Homework Help (Tameside Central Library)
|Music Tech Teacher|
A site to support and connect music teachers was created by a music Teacher of the Year-who posts free music and technology-related lessons, quizzes, word searches, and other games.
This site offers free web-based flashcards that can be used to teach students note names, key signatures, and music theory.
Created by Dr. Prof. Joseph Pisano, this site is dedicated to spreading the word about technology in music education.
|National Association for Music Education|
The "mother" and umbrella organization for all other groups in music education.
|Pitch Perfect Guitar Tuner|
This free guitar tuning software for musicians makes it easy to quickly tune any guitar. Pitch Perfect works with Windows and Pocket PCs.
A place to find lyrics, song meanings, trivia, and other resources to engage students in music curriculum.
Songza is a music search engine that doubles as a free Internet jukebox. Users can look up any song or band and then stream or share the music they find.
|The Teachers' Corner|
The Teacher's Corner provides music lessons around colors, literature, and more.
|The Teaching Channel|
Teaching Channel is a video showcase—on the Internet and TV—of inspiring and effective teaching practices in America's schools.
|The ultimate FREE resource for teachers|
HotChalk’s Lesson Plans Page (LPP) was created with one goal in mind — making life easier for teachers.
|Voices Across Time|
Voices Across Time was created to help teachers harness the power of song as primary source to supplement any secondary American Social Studies, Language Arts, and Music curriculum.


Boston Children's Museum has been creating curriculum, activities and other resources for educators and parents for 100 years. These resources are used in every state in the United States and in over 100 countries around the world, and are rooted in decades of understanding how children learn most effectively, and how adults can best support that learning.
The resources below include the multiple–award winning "Beyond the Chalkboard" website, which was named "Best of the Web – Education Website" and is used by tens of thousands of afterschool professionals all around the world; the STEM Sprouts Teaching Guide, which offers ideas and activities for early childhood educators who teach science, technology, engineering and math; guides for afterschool educators working with English Language Learners and children with autism; and BCM Home Edition – a book of 26 activities that families can try together at home. Each of these resources is available for free to any parent, teacher or other caregiver that wishes to use them. Click on the links below to find out more.
Voted "Best Education Website" by Museums and the Web, Beyond the Chalkboard is the world's first free, online multidisciplinary curriculum created specifically for afterschool educators. The hundreds of activities on this site cover a range of subjects including science, literacy, culture, art, health, math, and engineering in ways that support what's learned during the school day. Most importantly, by promoting critical "21st century" skills like problem solving, communication, and working collaboratively with peers, we believe the activities, teaching techniques and resources of this curriculum can help prepare kids for life.
Beyond the Chalkboard is being used in every state in the United States and in over 100 countries (and counting!) around the world, by tens of thousands of educators reaching hundreds of thousands of children. Such a broad community gives us all an opportunity to communicate, share and learn from each other. Click the link below to visit this website and join this growing community!
Boston Children's Museum developed the Including Children With Autism in Afterschool Settings Guide alongside experts in Autism, Out-of-School Time (OST) professionals who run inclusive programs, and parents of children with autism to help afterschool staff better support children with Autism Spectrum Disorders at their sites. As the frequency of diagnoses of Autism Spectrum Disorders steadily increases, this Guide can serve as a platform for enriching professional growth and relevant dialogue for a wide spectrum of OST staff and administrators.
Click below to download two free PDFs: the Including Children With Autism in Afterschool Settings Guide and an accompanying document that includes examples of tools you can use with children with Autism Spectrum Disorders in your afterschool program.
Working closely with the Latino After School Initiative, Boston Children's Museum developed this guide to help Out-of-School Time (OST) staff better support any and all English Language Learners at their sites. As the ELL and bilingual student populations steadily increase at both the state and national levels, we envision this guide serving as a platform for enriching professional growth and relevant dialogue for a wide spectrum of OST staff and administrators. Click below to download this free PDF.
The STEM Sprouts Teaching Guide is the product of collaboration among National Grid, Boston Children’s Museum, and WGBH. The goal of this guide is to assist preschool educators in focusing and refining the naturally inquisitive behaviors of three- to five-year-olds on science, technology, engineering, and math. It includes general information on how young children explore science topics as well as specific activity suggestions that align with the Massachusetts state guidelines for STEM teaching in early childhood. Click below to download this free PDF.
Boston Children's Museum's mission is to engage children and families in joyful discovery experiences that instill an appreciation of our world, develop foundational skills, and spark a lifelong love of learning. But these kinds of engaging experiences don't only happen at the Museum…they can happen at home as well. BCM Home Edition was created to encourage families to explore, learn and grow together through activities that are fun and inspiring and that any family can try at home. Click below to download this free PDF and bring the Boston Children's Museum home with you!


Between examing the role that Good to Great can have in our schools, I continue to explore what I need to learn about teaching Latino students. In three previous posts, here, and here, I responded to a professional development session in which our staff's effort with Latino students was summarily reproached for its subtly racist undertones. The presentation, though interweaved with some truths, was more for provocation than actual usefulness. I'm tempted to dwell on its need for provocation and not move to the intereweaved truths--I'll refrain for now.
Last year, in my first year at this particular school, I discovered a book, Puerto Rican Students in U.S. Schools, edited by Sonia Nieto. The Daily Grind should fund the purchase of this text, but for now, google books will have to suffice. The truth is that our Latino students do face challenges in finding success within our US schools--we who teach these students should be more educated on those challenges. Yet I can't help but admit that many students of various racial makeup have challenges. Which is why I agree completely with one of Nieto's conclusions about the need for caring teachers--of all the foundational skills needed to succeed with all students, carino, might be the most important.
Nieto concludes, "Care is demonstrated most powerfully through high expectations and rigorous standards, and in teachers' beliefs that students are worthy and capable" (31). The current charter school movement is tapping into the power of carino as a means to improving student learning. We have much to discover about high expectations and rigorous standards.
Sometimes I think teachers of our Latino students, in an effort to care about them, allow themselves to lower their standards and focus too heavily on how the "feel" and less on whether or not they are learning.
She adds that other effective examples of carino include, "...developing strong interpersonal relationships with students and their families, learning about and from them, respecting and affirming their language and culture, and building on these to support learning" (31). At this point, I begin to feel uncertain about what she is proposing. Or, at least start asking far more questions, which would be the better way to describe my uneasiness.
Shouldn't we expect "strong interpersonal relationships" between our teachers and every student? What does "affirming their language and culture" mean?
For instance, in Sweating the Small Stuff, author David Whitman writes that the new paternalistic schools "Street slang, the use of the ‘n-word,’ and cursing are typically not only barred in the classroom but in the hallways and lunch room as well” (38). I know that by "language" Nieto more than likely means Spanish, but what if their "language" is both Spanish and street-slang English? Culture is the learned patterns of behavior, and street-slang falls into that definition.
However, in the end, I agree with Nieto regarding what she more than likely really means. Schools which serve Latino students should be working to create great students. Whitman, in his book, describes Cristo Rey Jesuit High School goal “... to have graduates be bilingual and bi-literate” (139). Not only does this respect their culture, it serves the greater purpose of educating our students to high standards. Now that's real carino.


As touchscreen tablets become the hot holiday gift for children—even for tots still learning to walk and talk—parents can be forgiven for feeling a little confused and skeptical about this new trend, especially when it comes to claims about education. The iTunes App Store boasts more than 700,000 apps and, as the Joan Ganz Cooney Center discovered earlier this year, nearly 80 percent of the top-selling paid apps in the education category are aimed at children. Many of these apps make claims about helping children learn to read. It's an alluring promise—but are they all they are cracked up to be?
As partners with the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, a national coalition examining reading problems, we set out to answer those questions. For the past eight months, we scanned the technology and literacy landscape examining new products and programs. What we found was a digital Wild West, especially in the teeming app marketplace. Tens of thousands of apps are labeled educational and marketed to parents who receive little to no information about whether and how they work.
Most of the top-selling reading apps appear to teach only the most basic of literacy skills. They lean toward easy-to-teach tasks, such as identifying the ABCs, but don't address higher-level competencies that young children also need to become strong readers, such as developing vocabulary and understanding words in a narrative. A snapshot of the iTunes App Store's most popular paid literacy apps showed that 45 percent targeted letters and sounds and half focused on phonics. Only 5 percent covered vocabulary, and none addressed comprehension or the ability to tell stories. Many “reading” apps are essentially flashy flashcards: Click on a set of letters and the audio kicks on, uttering the letter's sounds. Move to the next set and repeat.
This imbalance comes as research shows that knowing the ABCs and other basic literacy skills, while important, are not enough to help children become strong readers. Children need background knowledge and vocabulary, too, as made clear last week in the release of vocabulary scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The scores, which are distressingly low for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, showed an integral link between vocabulary and reading comprehension. Until comprehension is addressed, American kids will continue to lag compared to children from nations such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Finland.
But apps aren't the only problem. We also examined the most popular children's ebooks in the iTunes store and found missed opportunities for literacy development. Ebooks have real potential to exploit interactive features for engaging parents and children around stories, while also providing prompts and assistance when words are too difficult to sound out. But our data on ebooks, while based on a small sample, showed that the e-titles that parents download are not the ones taking full advantage of technology to help children learn to read and understand the story. Popular ebooks based on children's movies, for example, appear to be designed to be “watched” more than “read,” putting them in the category of child-occupying tools rather than something to actively engage children with the print on screen and the story being told. Few ebooks give children on-ramps to new vocabulary or background knowledge in subjects they may not come in contact with everyday (art, science, history).
By contrast, good ebooks for building strong readers will ask questions that lead to interactions with on-screen images that add meaning to the story or help reinforce the storyline. Ideally, such ebooks, coupled with parenting programs in early childhood programs and libraries, could help parents see their value in helping their children, especially for moms and dads who have never felt all that confident reading aloud print books.
More than two-thirds of fourth graders unable to read at grade-level (and numbers far worse for low-income children, blacks, and Hispanics). We have to find new ways to help or we will continue to sap the potential of millions of young children. Already the federal government and states have spent billions of dollars to try to tackle the literacy problem, but current policies and practices have only barely budged reading scores upward. With the advent of new technologies, we are at an opportune moment for harnessing digital media to support parents, educators, and children in building the next generation's reading skills. But technology's potential to be a game changer will not be reached unless technology is tapped to provide vital new supports for parents and educators. At its best, the technology complements the work of trained teachers and parents. It doesn't replace it.
Lisa Guernsey is director of the Early Education Initiative at the New America Foundation. Michael H. Levine is executive director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. They are authors of “Pioneering Literacy in the Digital Wild West,” a new report from the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading.


What it means to be literate today is very different than what it meant 10 years ago and what it will mean 10 years from now. As a result, Walden University reading and literacy experts have been selected for their abilities to promote 21st-century literacy in students from a very young age. They provide proven skills that both students and teachers need in order to thrive in today's fast-paced, information-driven world. As educators, administrators, and policymakers, these experts bring new literacy perspectives that form the basis of research-based best practices and provide leadership in literacy on a national level.
Donald Bear, EdD
Dr. Bear is a professor in the Department of Educational Specialties in the College of Education at the University of Nevada, Reno. He also serves as director of the university's E.L. Cord Foundation Center for Learning and Literacy. Dr. Bear consults with school districts to develop their literacy programs. He is the co-author of Vocabulary Their Way: Word Study with Middle and Secondary Students and Words Their Way: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction.
Linda Gambrell, PhD
Dr. Gambrell, a professor of education in the Eugene T. Moore School of Education at Clemson University, recently served as president of the International Reading Association (IRA) and was a member of the IRA's Board of Directors. In 2004, she was elected to the Reading Hall of Fame. Her current research interests are in the areas of reading comprehension strategy instruction, literacy motivation, and the role of discussion in teaching and learning. She is co-editor of Literacy Teaching and Learning and serves on the editorial advisory boards of Reading Research Quarterly, Journal of Literacy Research, and Reading Research and Instruction.
Dorothy Strickland, PhD
Dr. Strickland offers more than 50 years of knowledge and perspective as a reading and literacy expert. She began her landmark career as an elementary classroom teacher and went on to serve as a reading consultant and learning disabilities specialist before assuming such leadership roles as president of both the International Reading Association and its Reading Hall of Fame. Today she is a senior research fellow at the National Institute for Early Education Research, Rutgers University Graduate School of Education where she holds the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Chair in Education. She has authored and edited numerous publications on language development and reading.
Alfred W. Tatum, PhD
Dr. Tatum has emerged as a leading voice on adolescent literacy, conducting cutting-edge, qualitative research on the literacy development of African-American adolescent males and teacher professional development in urban middle and high schools. A former eighth grade teacher and reading specialist, he offers professional development support to schools nationwide in addressing the literacy needs of students characterized as vulnerable. Dr. Tatum is an associate professor in the Department of Literacy Education at Northern Illinois University and is active in several professional international and national literacy organizations including serving on the board of directors for the International Reading Association.


New UK curriculum ramps up lessons in SPAAAACE
More facts crammed into brains in draft schools shakeup
British children will be taught more about the solar system and evolution in an overhaul of the primary school curriculum proposed yesterday by Education Secretary Michael Gove.
Gove reckons his new draft lesson plan will "restore rigour" to classrooms by bumping up the amount of stuff kids have to learn: in science that will mean telling youngsters more about neighbouring planets and how creatures emerged from Earth's primordial ooze, which will make a change from the Pokemon flavour of evolution the tykes are used to.
Blighty's under-12s will also be made to learn more about the concept of speed - presumably the magnitude of velocity rather than the drug.
In line with the approach to science in schools in Alberta and Massachusetts, there will be a new focus on getting kids to do experiments.
In maths, pupils will be expected to do more work with fractions - a level consistent with education in Singapore - and know their times tables up to 12 x 12 instead of the current top limit of 10 x 10. In English, spelling will be beefed up, and pupils will be expected to know how to use apostrophes correctly and master formal English by reciting poetry. ®


Neither genius, fame, nor love show the greatness of the soul. Only kindness can do that.” -Jean Baptiste Henri Lacordaire
Unrestrained generosity as described by scholars: “Something given with no ulterior motive, necessity, or expectation in mind.”
Kindness, as described by Webster: “The ability to show tenderness, consideration, thoughtfulness, humanity, understanding, compassion, graciousness and benevolence.”
I found the term “unrestrained generosity” used in a couple of books I have read lately. It is an act that we can perform every day in many ways. This brings to my mind the fact of how most young children express their appreciation or love for someone or something. So how do we as parents and caregivers mentor our children to keep this skill natural to them as a child and retain it throughout their adult years.
Children do things all the time without the thought process of what the outcome of their action may be. This can be good and sometimes not so desirable. This is an extraordinary role impersonation that you will see children take on from parents, other adults and older children they model.
Simple acts of kindness go a long way with children. Children not only soak up these moments but also love to witness acts of kindness towards others. Whether it is taking in the stray kitten that has wandered on to your porch or helping someone cross the street.
As parents and caregivers of children, it is important to think about the way we respond to different circumstances. They need to see you show them the “kind” response. Exercising our control of temperament and feelings will help your child see and gain that skill. Children sense from us how we are reacting to different individuals and/or situations and will gear their reaction similarly if learned.
This whole thought process brings back the images of September 11, 2001. With events such as these we see many images of unrestrained generosity by individuals, states and countries.
You think of the co-workers that struggled to carry a wheel chair bound co-worker down flights of stairs. You see images of blood donors across the country lining up around city blocks, insisting they be able to do something to help. In a vast system you see harried bureaucrats working with unexpected calm and compassion to get relief and information out to the victims and families. It was an incredible time of word pictures with the intensity and the enormity of the desire to help. It is human nature to help when tragedy strikes especially with something of this magnitude.
Wow! What an incredible impression we would make if we felt that desire on a daily basis. We would all make such a difference by showing our children this concept with acts of kind-
ness to our family members, friends and co-workers. Unfortunately, many times what goes on around us is tempered by our self-interest. Make a mental list to put your priorities in check. At the top of that list put unrestrained generosity to those faces you look upon every day. I challenge you as a parent or caregiver to show the children in your life that you haven’t outgrown this all-important ability to “simply be kind”.
“Paradise is open to all kind hearts.” -Pierre Jean de Beranger
Mary Ellen Carlson has extensive experience in Elementary Education. Before assuming the duties as Director of Heritage House Childcare & Learning Center, she taught at Panama Central School, owned and operated her own home day care, and was the Project Coordinator of “Write Team,” a grant-funded project at the James Prendergast Library.


Eight separate teams of art teachers, curriculum specialists, museum educators, and art discipline specialists worked together to create this stimulating collection of sample curricula. These distinctive approaches integrate art production, art history, art criticism, and aesthetics, the foundation of elements of discipline-based art education (DBAE). These curricula provide examples of DBAE in practice for teachers who want to create their own curricula tailored to the needs of their schools and multicultural classrooms.
Two units each are included for elementary, middle, and secondary levels; one selection covers a studio production unit in ceramics; and one unit provides an approach to studying a work of art in a museum setting.
This title is out of stock indefinitely. Please look for it at your local libraries and/or used bookstores.


A Comparison of Oral and Written English Styles in African American Students at Different Stages of Writing Development.
Summary of "A Comparison of Oral and Written English Styles in African American Students at Different Stages of Writing Development."
The purpose of this investigation was to compare the rates of using African American English (AAE) grammatical features in spoken and written language at different points in literacy development. Based on Kroll's model (1981), a high degree of similarity between the modalities was expected at Grade 3 and lower similarity expected at Grade 8.
Spoken and written language samples were analyzed for the occurrence of six AAE morphosyntactic features. Fifteen third- and 15 eighth-graders were asked to respond to interview questions and retell stories in both modalities. Percent use of the AAE grammatical features and a dialectal density measure were used to measure rates of AAE occurrence.
Findings indicate comparable use of dialect in spoken and written modalities for third-graders, but a difference in use between the modalities for the eighth-graders. The eighth-graders used more dialectal features in speaking than writing.
These results suggest there is likely a period in writing development when speakers of AAE learn to dialect-switch in their writing.
University of Mississippi.
This article was published in the following journal.
Name: Language, speech, and hearing services in schools
- PubMed Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20679408
- DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1044/0161-1461(2010/09-0069)
-Students situated in post-structural feminist pedagogical learning (PFPL) in a freshman English course (37 students) were expected to have lower English classroom anxiety, score higher in English, an...
Durable remissions in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) require a two-year maintenance phase that includes daily oral 6-mercaptopurine (6MP). Adherence to oral 6MP among Asian and Afric...
Abstract Objectives: To evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of an e-mail-delivered program to promote nutrition and physical activity in African American college students. Participants: Forty-s...
Using the Adapted Model of Institutional Support as a framework, data were collected from 90 minority students, 80 faculty members, and 31 administrators from schools of nursing in Texas to determine ...
ABSTRACT This study investigated college students' sexual hooking up and its associations with alcohol consumption for men and women; furthermore, potential differences related to ethnicity were inves...
The purpose of this study is to test if sexual health interventions can reduce the incidence of STIs among African American teens (15 to 21 years old). By doing this study, we hope to help...
The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness and safety of SYMBICORT® pMDI (a medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration, FDA) in the African American populati...
African American women have higher rates of obesity than women of any other racial or ethnic group in the United States. Obesity can have many causes, including genetic and environmental f...
The overall goal of this randomized, controlled study is to compare a model written treatment plan with the usual care that is provided by a group of adult and pediatric pulmonologists and...
B-ME is a research intervention study designed to address the needs of African American men who have sex with men (AAMSM) who are at high risk for HIV. The intent of the intervention is to...
Medical and Biotech [MESH] Definitions
Agreements between two or more parties, especially those that are written and enforceable by law (American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed). It is sometimes used to characterize the nature of the professional-patient relationship.
Comparison of various psychological, sociological, or cultural factors in order to assess the similarities or diversities occurring in two or more different cultures or societies.
Revealing of information, by oral or written communication.
Method for obtaining information through verbal responses, written or oral, from subjects.
The philosophical view that conceptions of truth and moral values are not absolute but are relative to the persons or groups holding them. (from American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed)


THIS WEEK'S TRACK IS EXCERPTED FROM
A Drummer's Guide to:
Rock Beats and Fills • Hand & Foot Technique • Coordination and Independence • Reading Music
Understanding Song Construction • R&B, Jazz, Latin Styles and more!
Including: MP3 CD packed with 41 Play-Along Tunes (with and without drums)
and over 400 Demonstration Tracks!
Whether you're a beginner, intermediate or advanced drummer, you'll benefit from the simple step-by-step approach for learning technique, independence, music reading and grooves.
A FRESH APPROACH to the DRUMSET will give you a solid foundation to take your drumming to the next level!
DOWNLOAD A SAMPLER OF THE BOOK AND PLAYALONG TRACKS HERE!
more information, visit: http://www.MWPUBLICATIONS.com
What others are saying about the book:
Many teachers have attempted to write a one stop book for drummers
of all levels which can be given to the beginner and still be a
useful tool to the advanced player. So many good teachers have
failed at this difficult task and I can only think of a few books
that do this well. Most of the books that fail spread themselves too
thin by covering several areas in a rushed manner while others
include far too much detail that can put off a beginner and
frustrate the advanced player who has to trawl pages of information
they already know.
Mark Wessels has managed to create one of the few successful books.
The book is split into 34 lessons covering the basics like grip and
sticking patterns all the way to more complex challenges like
syncopated 16th notes grooves, Rhumba and Jazz . The CD contains
play along tracks in almost every genre that a drummer may encounter
in their musical life. In addition to this, there are reading
exercises, rudiment charts and a musical glossary. I’d say it has
it all in one book. Did I mention it works on your fills as well?
This is definitely one of the most comprehensive and detailed book I
have seen in a very long time. The information is vast, yet it seems
to break down its content into small bite size pieces. As a teacher,
I welcome this book and would recommend as a book for students to
buy as it covers so many areas that teachers teach over the years.
This is simply a great book that every drummer should have whether
you’re starting up or are professional looking for a reference book.
It’s informative, interesting and straight to the point.
– Adrian Graham, MikeDolbear.com
is the Director of Internet Activities for Vic Firth. In addition to his daily gig of updating the VF website with video interviews, features and educational content, he is the owner of Mark Wessels Publications, the publisher of "A Fresh Approach to the Snare Drum" and "A Fresh Approach to Mallet Percussion" - two best selling books for the school band market. You can check out Mark's video lesson series for beginning snare drum here - and view his popular video game for learning to read keyboard music here. Currently, Mark has printed (and sold) over 250,000 books.
Mark received his Bachelor's Degree in Music Education at the University of Texas at Arlington. He marched the Madison Scouts Drum & Bugle Corps and was the Percussion Caption Head/Arranger for the Sky Ryders Drum and Bugle Corps (1985-1991). In addition to spending an agonizing year instructing the University of North Texas Drumline (which presented an exhibition at PASIC in San Antonio, TX – a year BEFORE the famed "FOGAR" incident, which he happily wasn't a part of), Mark had an exciting 12 year public school experience teaching band in DeSoto and Plano, TX. Mark was hired by Vic in 2001 to construct the VF website from scratch, building it from nothing to the behemoth you see today. VICFIRTH.COM is widely considered a leading music industry website, and currently attracts over 30,000 unique visitors per day.
Currently, Mark works at home in his pajamas and also writes and practices. Mark lives with his wife of 25 years (Lynn), daughter (Kaitlyn, 10), and son (Drew, 6) in Prosper, TX – and will never have the time to be on Facebook. Watch for his ground-breaking video lesson series based on "A Fresh Approach to the Drumset" on vicfirth.com - coming soon!


Three questions that can determine your wealth
If you and your spouse can correctly answer three simple math questions, a recent study suggests you'll have plenty of money in retirement. Financial commentator Greg Heberlein gave the quiz to KPLU's Dave Meyer, and you can take it, too. Patricia Sabatini of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette obtained the questions from the RAND Corporation. They are:
1. If the chance of getting a disease is 10%, how many people out of 1,000 would be expected to get the disease?
2. If five people all have winning numbers in the lottery, and the prize is $2 million, how much will each of them get?
3. Let's say you have $200 in a savings account. The account earns 10% interest per year. How much would you have in the account at the end of two years?
You'll find the answers at the end of this post.
The study was conducted by researchers at the RAND Corporation, the University of Southern California and the University of Michigan.
It found when couples over the age of 50 were able to correctly answer the three questions, their household wealth averaged $1.7 million. If neither spouse correctly answered any of the questions, their total wealth averaged $200,000. The more questions answered correctly, the greater their household wealth.
RAND's James P. Smith says:
"We examined several cognitive skills and found that a simple test that checks a person's numeracy skills was a good predictor of who would be a better family financial decision maker."
The findings are published in the November edition of The Economic Journal.
Warning: Researchers did not study the effectiveness of the quiz in settling disputes over household finances. Use at your own risk!


Approaches to Phonics Instruction
Several approaches to phonics instruction have found support in the research (National Reading Panel, 2000). These approaches are sometimes modified or combined in reading programs.
Synthetic Phonics Instruction
Traditional phonics instruction in which students learn how to change letters or letter combinations into speech sounds, then blend them together to form known words (i.e., sounding out).
Embedded Phonics Instruction
Teaching students phonics by embedding phonics instruction in text reading, a more implicit approach that relies to some extent on incidental learning (National Reading Panel, 2000, p. 8).
A variation of onset and rime instruction that has students use their knowledge of word families to identify new words that have that same word part. For example, students learn to pronounce light by using their prior knowledge of the -ight rime from three words they already new: right, might, and night.
Analytic Phonics Instruction
A variation of the previous two approaches, students study previously learned whole words to discover letter-sound relationships. For example, Stan, steam, and story all include the st word element (st is known as a consonant blend).
Phonics Through Spelling
Students segment spoken words into phonemes and write letters that represent those sounds to create the word in print. For example, rat can be sounded out and written phonetically. This approach is often used as part of a process writing program.
© ______ 2005, Allyn & Bacon, an imprint of Pearson Education Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The reproduction, duplication, or distribution of this material by any means including but not limited to email and blogs is strictly prohibited without the explicit permission of the publisher.


Reading Skills: Making Connections
These sites provide various activities involving the reading stragey with connections to text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world. Includes modeling scenarios as well as interactive activities for teachers.
Into The Book: Strategies for Learning
This site from Wisconsin Education Communication Board features interactive activities to teach questioning, visualizing, inferring, summarizing, evaluation, and synthesizing. Videos model teaching lessons.
READWRITETHINK: Making Connections: Strategy Guide
Here is a strategy guide to learn how to model the three different kinds of connections (text-to-text, text-to-self and text-to-world). Students then use the strategies to look for their own personal connections to a text. Three downloadable posters describing the connections are available.
Reading Response Logs - Making Connections
This PDF helps students connect to the texts they are reading.
Teaching Reading Comprehension: A Look At Reading Comprehension Strategies
Learn more about the following reading comprehension strategies: making connections, visualizing, questioning, inferring, evaluating, and synthesizing.
NOTE: This site includes ads.
Scholastic: Making Connections - Self-Monitoring
See this series of seven lessons provides independent activities to engage students in making connections to text. NOTE: This site contains ads.
READWRITETHINK: Digging Deeper: Developing Comprehension Using "Thank You, Mr. Falker"
This lesson provides strategies for students to make personal connections to text by using "Thank You, Mr. Falker". Response journals may be used for recording student connections to the character and themes in the book.
READWRITETHINK: Boars and Baseball: Making Connections
This lesson uses "In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson" to teach reading strategies of text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world. An extension activity is given.
READWRITETHINK: Family Ties: Making Connections to Improve Reading Comprehension
In this activity, students are engaged with picture books about families to make text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections by reading and responding to those books.
Revisiting Read-Aloud: Instructional Strategies That Encourage Students' Engagement With Text
Use this article for teaching examples of modeling text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world strategies. Several student activities are provided.
This site provides information on six comprehension strategies and activities for students. NOTE: This site contains ads.
Request State Standards