Western Australia Statistical Indicators
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Recent Councils of Australian Government (COAG) agreements have targeted literacy development as an important component of education and workforce reform over the next few years.
Individuals with good literacy skills are likely to enjoy better employment opportunities, greater social participation and an improved quality of life. Ensuring adequate literacy levels in the adult population may assist in developing a more skilled, flexible and productive work force, as well as increasing human capital and the potential for economic growth.
Read Your Way to Wealth?
The 2006 Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey was conducted by the ABS to seek an understanding of the relationship between literacy and the economic and social well-being of the individual.
The survey identified five literacy ‘domains’, including prose literacy, document literacy, numeracy, problem solving and health literacy. Individual scores in each domain were measured on a scale 1 to 5, with Level 1 representing the lowest level of literacy and Level 5 the highest level. A score at Level 3 was considered to be the minimum literacy required to meet the complex demands of everyday life.
Literacy of Western Australians
Western Australians performed slightly above the national average on all of the literacy domains measured in the 2006 survey. However, the results identified that a considerable proportion of individuals had less than adequate skills.
Solving a Problem.
Problem solving caused the greatest difficulty for Western Australians, with a staggering 69% assessed as having a skill level of 1 or 2 in this domain, that is, insufficient planning and reasoning abilities.
Scores on the other four domains were somewhat better, however still approximately half (ranging from 44% to 57%) were assessed as skill level 1 or 2.
The Gender Divide
In the 2006 survey, females were more likely than males to have a literacy level of 3 or above for prose (60% versus 53%), problem solving (33% versus 29%) and health (46% versus 41%) literacy, but males were more likely to have a literacy level of 3 or above for numeracy (53% versus 45%) and document (58% versus 54%) literacy.
To put it simply, males generally outperformed females at maths (and perhaps even some spatially-oriented tasks such as map reading) while females demonstrated stronger language skills (just to support those well-known stereotypes!).
Education and Work
As expected, the 2006 survey showed that literacy levels generally increased as levels of education increased. Of those Western Australians who had completed 16 or more years of formal education, 83% had an assessed skill level of 3 or above on the prose literacy scale compared with 62% of those with 11 to 15 years of formal education and 31% with 10 years or less.
Literacy levels across all domains were also associated with labour force status. Of those in the employed labour force (full-time or part-time), 62% had prose literacy scores of level 3 or above, compared with only 40% of those not employed (unemployed or not in the labour force).
Consequently, a higher median income was found among those with higher literacy. In terms of prose literacy, Western Australians with a score at level 1 had a median weekly wage of only $316; this compares with $577 for level 2, $723 for level 3, and $792 for levels 4/5.
For more details check out the full article on the website:


Use ignorance in a sentence
- The best part of our knowledge is that which teaches us where knowledge leaves off and ignorance begins.
- It must be made to serve a purpose in helping to liberate the world from sentimentalism, ignorance, close-mindedness, and cant.
- What we have known is but a bitter pledge Of Ignorance, The human tribute to an ageless dream, A timeless trance.
- One was, that ignorance and incompetence had no place in the government.
- In ignorance of his legal emancipation he is kept chopping, splitting, and plowing.
- Ignorance had been her only peril in the past, as it had been the cause of her unhappy connection with Jasper Kimber.
- Can ignorance and fanaticism alone account for his unjust treatment?
- Wiser, for we are learning our weakness, our narrowness, our selfishness, our ignorance, in lessons of sorrow and shame.
- When I fixed a plan for an election in Arkansas I did it in ignorance that your convention was doing the same work.
- My order to General Steele about an election was made in ignorance of the action your convention had taken or would take.
This page helps answer: how do I use the word ignorance in a sentence? How do you use ignorance in a sentence? Can you give me a sentence for the word ignorance? It may also be related to grade school school k-12, educational, lesson plans ged, teaching, back to school, elementary education, and teach charter.
Example sentences with the word ignorance, a sentence example for ignorance, and ignorance in sample sentence.


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It is very important to remember disabled students in the overall advancement of general learning methods involving technology in the classroom. There are many different choices of software for combining technology and disabled students to produce a better understanding of the lessons at hand. Often, disabled students are in the same class despite their various abilities or inabilities to completely comprehend the material being taught. Therefore, they are not learning at the same level.
This is why technology and disabled students is such a good idea, most likely more so than technology in the classroom designed for students who do not have disabilities and who are all primarily on the same educational level as one another. With technology and disabled students the individual students are able to learn at their own pace and the instructor is then able—judging by what he or she knows the individual student is capable of, can grade the work accordingly.
In addition, the instructor can keep much better track of his or her student’s progress by keeping records of all of the individual students work on a hard drive and back-up disks. This is also a way to teach the students how to organize their files neatly. Many programs, even those that are not as advanced technological the students and make it easy for them to put different files in different folders depending on the subject—and further organize his or her assignments with other folders marked by the exercise. They can even go as far as to learn how to save old files that have been improved such as English papers or book reports that have been revised from the original version they wrote after the material was reviewed.
As a teacher, it is difficult to instruct a class composed of students
who learn at all different levels to make the lesson interesting
enough that they do not bore the more advanced students—which
often makes them “tune out”—and, by the same token,
they do not confuse and frustrate the children who are slower at
learning and require more time to reach an understanding of the
material being taught. It is virtually impossible for any teacher
to do so.
The main point is that technology and disabled students is almost becoming an essential part of teaching mentally handicapped children. And although technology is also helping advance other learning— i.e. learning for students without mental handicaps, without disabilities, is still a very effective method of teaching. But it does take away from the actual teaching itself, and for some teachers that is a sad thing. When the computers do most of the instructing, the teacher, of course, does less.
Technology and disabled students make a great match when the usual circumstances I mentioned above and their downfalls are presently controlling the classroom. And there are all kinds of software available on the market today that will be a wonderful assistance for instructors everywhere.
Be choosy in the kinds of computer software you purchase for your
students. Some software for technology and disabled students is
quite effective, contains a long warranty and allows the students
to get the most possible benefit. On the other side of the spectrum,
certain computer software and other technological learning devices
are without warrantee and are of lesser quality, therefore these
kinds of programs used as technology for disabled students can unfortunately
be a waste of money, even if they are less expensive. Check out
consumer reports on technological software, technology and disabled
students, and you will find the perfect technology for disabled
students you have been looking for.
Homeroom Teacher has the best selection of Technology for disabled students at the lowest prices!
Teaching writing to young children – ideas and activities to encourage children to leaern how to write.
Communication is one of the most important things that students learn throughout their schooling.
First you must establish a basis for more advanced learning by building vocabulary and grammar skills.
Music education and its importance in an elementary school curriculum.
music to elementary students
The basics of music should be established first.


Bringing Métis Children’s Literature to Life: Teacher Guidebook for GDI Publications
|Title:||Bringing Métis Children’s Literature to Life: Teacher Guidebook for GDI Publications|
|Subject:||Métis, Lesson Plans, Education, Resource, Literature, GDI, Burton, Wilfred, Children, Guide|
Bringing Métis Children’s Literature to Life is a guidebook for teachers to support the children’s literature published by the Gabriel Dumont Institute (GDI). The guidebook supports teaching about the Métis and utilize strategies that foster and promote literacy development (listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing, and representing).
The stories used in this guidebook are written and illustrated by Métis authors and illustrators.
Each story brings traditional and contemporary Métis culture to life. They honour the past
and present. Métis children often see themselves in these publications. Non-Métis students
will see and connect with the universal themes and relate them to their own lives while
learning about Métis culture. Most importantly, this resource is about engaging readers in the
history and traditions of Métis culture through literature.
Métis children’s literature is found in classrooms, and in school libraries and public libraries all
across Canada. Teachers use the books in various ways to bring awareness of the culture
and teach outcomes. However, teachers are not always an “insider” in the culture, and
often search for ideas on how to incorporate Métis content into their practice. There is a
desire by teachers to be more inclusive, but they may not know how. This resource assists
teachers in being culturally responsive while at the same time allowing them to teach
If you are printing this resource, we recommend printing on one side only. This way, you will have room to make notes on the lessons to fit your particular class.
To download this resource, right-click the link above and select "Save Link As" or "Save Target As", and then select the folder on your computer where you would like to save the file.
To order the publications included in the guide, visit our online shop at: shopmetis.ca
|Publisher:||Gabriel Dumont Institute|
|Date:||September 11, 2013|
|Identifier:||Teacher Guide - GDI Resources September 11 2013.pdf|
|Date of Copyright:||September 11, 2013|
|GDI Media Filename:||Teacher Guide - GDI Resources (May 11 2016) LR.pdf|


Linguistic, social, and cultural factors influencing literacy development and academic achievement of Puerto Rican students in elementary school
Throughout the United States and in New York City specifically, public school students of Puerto Rican origin/descent have exhibited an historical and consistent problem in English language literacy development and high academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to examine the interaction of linguistic, cultural, and social factors on the literacy development and academic achievement of Puerto Rican elementary school students. Linguistics for Puerto Rican students is influenced by language proficiency in the first and second language, degree of bilingualism, and students' own language perceptions. Cultural and social factors are influenced by the socioeconomic level of parents, their literacy levels, patterns of language usage at home, and parents' attitudes towards education. ^ Participants in the study were 22 fifth-grade Puerto Rican students enrolled in an elementary public school in the Bronx, New York during the 2008–2009 school year, and their parents who volunteered to participate in the study. Academic achievement for participating students was measured by quantitative data from standardized test scores in English and Spanish reading, and student writing samples in English and Spanish, in concert with qualitative data from a researcher-developed student questionnaire, and parent questionnaire/interview. Parent interviews were scheduled at the school, audiotaped, and transcribed for analysis. ^ Findings indicated that at the speaking level, participating fifth-grade Puerto Rican students demonstrated various levels of bilingual proficiency, while few demonstrated written language proficiency in Spanish. The Puerto Rican families predominantly engaged in code-switching between L1 and L2 in the home reinforcing the degree of bilingualism in the chiidren. Students reported that they planned to speak both languages with their chiidren in the future and demonstrated a positive attitude toward bilingualism. ^ Participating Puerto Rican students significantly outperformed all fourth grade students at the school and in the district in English reading. All 20 parents interviewed supported their children's education in the home through the use of computers, homework help, and school projects, along with exposure to age appropriate electronic media such as TV and radio. While half of the parents in the study were high school and college graduates, all parents articulated high academic and career expectations for their chiidren. ^
Education, Bilingual and Multicultural|Language, Linguistics|Education, Elementary|Hispanic American Studies
Aramina Vega Ferrer,
"Linguistic, social, and cultural factors influencing literacy development and academic achievement of Puerto Rican students in elementary school"
(January 1, 2009).
ETD Collection for Fordham University.


Local Literacy – Local Themed Learning
Local Language Learning – Local Community Development
Our mobile storytelling program, 1001 Stories, brings meaningful learning to some of the hardest to reach populations around the world. We aim to facilitate the creation, development, and gathering of 1001 empowering stories from every participating local community. 1001 Stories … is only just the beginning … be a part of the story!
Children love to tell stories. However, in many places in the world, their creative voices are rarely heard or cultivated. The 1001 Stories Programconducts storytelling workshops that build on children’s natural potential to become original storytellers. Through the 1001 Stories Program, children are empowered while their literacy skills are developed. When integrated with mobile technologies, these stories become an effective tool for literacy by growing reading and writing skills grounded in local languages and local themes in underserved areas worldwide.
“… Tomorrow, Ashura will start her studies at a great school … Ashura promises that she will study very hard and will become an inspiration to all children. Most of all, she will never lose hope.”
– excerpt from Girl with a Hope story from the 1001 Stories series
The 1001 Stories Programleverages the rapidly expanding global mobile network to foster literacy development and a self-sustaining entrepreneurship model. Children learn to read the stories that children in other parts of the world have created and then write their own original stories. As a part of the program, selected stories are published and made available to be purchased, generating a self-supportive, entrepreneurial model. All proceeds from the publications are re-invested into the local communities of the 1001 Stories Program. These young authors from underserved populations become a part of the story by creating their books. You can be a part of the story by purchasing their books from 1001 Storiesseries and by supporting Seeds of Empowerment from Amazon.
1001 Stories Program Students
- Read stories written by children from around the world
- Understand what makes a good story and the narrative arc
- Write, draw, and narrate original stories in local languages
- Learn how to create digital stories
- Learn how to apply technology features of mobile devices
1001 Stories Program Features
- Promotes literacy and empowerment
- Fosters creative writing skills
- Provides technology experience and skills
- Encourages entrepreneurship and sustainable development
- Increases cultural awareness and global understanding


Color theory isn’t always the most exciting topic but, this Valentine’s Day your child can create a shades of red gradation design, honing his color theory skills and design abilities! With the help of a ruler and some color mixing, not only will your child learn more about color theory, but create abstract artwork, too!
What You Do:
- With a piece of paper positioned horizonatally, or the longest edge facing him, invite your child to use the ruler to make nine vertical parallel lines. He can make the lines the same distance apart or lay down randomly distanced parallel lines.
- Now he'll make a horizontal line intersecting the vertical ones. This line can be angled or straight, whichever he prefers. Encourage him to use the ruler as needed. When he's done he'll have 20 various sized rectangular shapes!
- It’s time to get mixing! Invite him to put a small amount of red tempera paint on a sheet of scrap paper. You can talk to him about what a gradation and color gradient is: the gradual mixing of one color into another.
- Have your child paint the top upper-most right rectangle, and the lower left-edge rectangle, red. Now he’s ready for gradation painting!
- Next by mixing a small amount of white paint together with the red he can make a new gradiation of color to fill in the following two rectangles, working from right to left on the top half of his paper and left to right on the bottom!
- Invite him to start painting in the rest of the rectangles by mixing different amounts of white paint together with the red.
- Encourage your child to continue mixing and painting until his whole paper is filled with the different gradations of color created with red and white!
Display the finished painted gradation design where others can enjoy it for Valentine’s Day!
Sarah Lipoff has a K-12 Art Education degree and enjoys working with kids of all ages.


What Your Fourth Grader Needs to Know; Fundamentals of a Good Fourth-Grade Education
by E. D. Hirsch (Editor), John Holdren (Editor)
Order the Hardcover
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The author of the controversial Cultural Literacy presents the opinions of educators on what every fourth-grade child should know, offering information on such subjects as history, fine arts, geography, math, science, and technology.
This new addition to the six-volume series of parent/child interactive books designed to teach the fundamentals of a good elementary education includes classic stories and biographies, an exploration of both the Dark and the Middle Ages, an overview of geology, and more. Photos and illustrations.
Add your comments about this book here. Read what other KidSource OnLine visitors think about this book.


Eighty-seven 4th, 5th and 6th grade students were administered the Derivational Relatedness Interview (DRI) (Templeton, Smith, Moloney, Van Pelt, & Ives, 2009). The purpose of this instrument is to explore students' understanding of derivational morphology. During the same week, the subjects were also administered an Upper Level Spelling Inventory (USI), (Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnston, 2008). This instrument determines students' level of orthographic development, and also predicts with a significant level of confidence students' reading levels – their comprehension of texts. A mixed methods explanatory design was applied to these existing data used to compare each student's performance on the DRI with their performance on the USI. The DRI interviews were coded for higher level cognitive responses and then compared to each student's performance on the USI. All interviews and USIs are preexisting data. MAXQDA (www.maxqda.com), a computer assisted qualitative data analysis software, was used to code performance on the DRI using L3© a learning level lens developed for this study: Cognitive functions of gist and extrapolation, similarities and differences as indications of good comprehension; filled pauses of four seconds or less, memorized or simple 'yes/no' response answers, and partially correct responses as indications of incomplete comprehension; and unfilled pauses of four seconds or more and wrong/unanswered responses as indications of lacking comprehension. Correlations between the coded categories of the DRI and each student's qualitative spelling inventory (USI) were determined using Pearson r. Results showed a high correlation between the increasing gradients of comprehension as measured by L3 © coding and increasing upper level spelling inventory scores. This high correlation to the USI suggests that student interviews interpreted by coding with L3© parameters might be used as an accurate measure to determine comprehension.
|Advisers||Shane Templeton; Donald Bear|
|School||UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, RENO|
|Subjects||Educational tests & measurements; Elementary education; Educational psychology|
About ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
With nearly 4 million records, the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) Global database is the most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses in the world. It is the database of record for graduate research.
PQDT Global combines content from a range of the world's premier universities - from the Ivy League to the Russell Group. Of the nearly 4 million graduate works included in the database, ProQuest offers more than 2.5 million in full text formats. Of those, over 1.7 million are available in PDF format. More than 90,000 dissertations and theses are added to the database each year.


Sutjiati, Rosemarie (2011) Peran Pendidikan Pra-Sekolah dan Tenaga Pendidik Pendidikan Dasar dalam Pembangunan Karakter Siswa. In: International Seminar on Elementary Education Improving the Quality of Elementary Education to Build a Better Future Generations Character, Januari 2011, Bandung.
Peran Pendidikan Pra-Sekolah dan Tenaga Pendidik Pendidikan Dasar.pdf - Published Version
Globalization brings forth huge changes in the workplace. Profession and work specification become more delicate than ever. Education is responsible in providing qualified human resources to answer those challenges. One of the most important parts of education is character education. Character determines the future of a person, society and nation. A nation fails to pass it core values will most likely to perish. This makes character education the most important responsibility of elementary education in our nation. This paper also examines the role of pre-school education in determining student’s achievement in elementary school and current pre-schools condition in our nation. The findings suggest that first, teacher education, teacher knowledge, skill, competence and integrity positively affect effective learning process including character education and graduate quality. Second, in this nation the participation level to attend pre-school which have positive effect on student’s achievement in elementary school is still very low. The main reasons are because most people didn’t aware yet that pre-school is important and the fee needed to access pre-school is still too high for some people. We need to educate our teachers in order to understand the importance of character education and be able to accomplish it. Strategic plan is also vital to ensure the education development. We also need to socialize pre-school to the society in order to encourage them to bring their children to participate in pre-school education.
|Item Type:||Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)|
|Uncontrolled Keywords:||Teacher, education, elementary school, strategic plan, pre-school.|
|Subjects:||L Education > L Education (General)|
|Depositing User:||Perpustakaan Maranatha|
|Date Deposited:||29 Feb 2012 10:35|
|Last Modified:||29 Feb 2012 10:35|
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Shariff, Amily Shafila (2002) A tutoring system for engine : living skills subject. Masters thesis, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Faculty of Computer Science and Information System.
Restricted to Repository staff only
PDF (Table of Contents)
PDF (1st Chapter)
The usage of technology in the 21" century has lead into many innovations in the educational area. As we can see, from the elementary education to the university's level, there are many innovations with technology usage that needed to be aligned with the educational background. These technologies are used to help improve the student's knowledge in their learning environment. There is variety of Computer Aided Instruction (CAI) that have been developed and used but unfortunately; there have not been many products that implements the educational theories according to the needs of users. This project is about implementing a tutoring system in engine subject, where it could help the students to understand better on how an engine works as well being a side-guide tutor. The guided notes that is provided in the tutoring system is aligned with the syllabus of Kemahiran Hidup Bersepadu (Living Skills) in Form 3. Also, there are a few simulation graphics of engine to help students learn on how the engine process is carried out. On the other hand, it includes an assessment where a quiz is provided in order to help students have a better understanding of an engine. Furthermore, the students can share their knowledge by signing up in guestbook, so they can communicate with others to share their knowledge. By learning the theories in classrooms, it will block the student's perception as how an engine works and cannot relate to the real world. With the Dreamweaver UltraDev as an editing tool, this tutoring system uses image maps and links as a dynamic process to attract the student's attention in learning engine. The main objective is to help the students to have a better krnowledge about engine system.
|Item Type:||Thesis (Masters)|
|Additional Information:||Thesis (Sarjana Sains (Teknologi Maklumat - Pendidikan)) - Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 2002; Supervisor : Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ab Rahman Ahmad|
|Uncontrolled Keywords:||tutoring system, computer-assisted instruction, living skills|
|Subjects:||L Education > LB Theory and practice of education|
Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA76 Computer software
|Divisions:||Computer Science and Information System (Formerly known)|
|Deposited By:||Ms Zalinda Shuratman|
|Deposited On:||25 Nov 2008 03:35|
|Last Modified:||04 Sep 2012 05:01|
Repository Staff Only: item control page


How Can Music Benefit The Development of The Adolescent Brain?
May 6, 2014 2 Comments
It’s like an old mantra; “Music aids in brain development in children…” We are constantly bombard with this statement as if we were a being vocally blasted by a victorian school teacher. At this point we turn the other way and say, “I know I know.” But do we know?
The problem is that we have a very good idea as to how music positively influences the brain development of a child, but we very seldom do anything about it. In order for the true benefits of music to become integrated into the life of a child, the learning must go beyond the classroom and into daily life. The key to this is in the engagement the child finds appealing in the home setting. Let’s get off the tablets, phones and computers and exchange that for family interaction — music and dance. What could it hurt? We might not catch the latest episode of our favorite sitcom or the update on our feed to the benefit of the future — our children.
In a recent article by Rebecca Parlakian entitled, “Beyond Twinkle, Twinkle” , thoughtfully planned music experiences can support and nurture each of the domains of development — social-emotional, physical (motor), thinking (cognitive), and language and literacy. These areas are intertwined and the learning which takes place across domains can happen while singing or playing just one song.
Music experiences enhance social-emotional skills through helping a child to understand emotions, cooperate and team building, build self-esteem, and build self-confidence. Children learn how to be co-existent with others in the interactive setting that music provides. This allows children to be naturally creative in any setting in-where they find themselves interacting with peers.
‘What’s unique about playing an instrument is that it requires a wide array of brain regions and cognitive functions to work together simultaneously, in both right and left hemispheres of the brain,’, Allison Balbag, a professional harpist who has a Ph.D. on the impact of music on health told National Geographic.
Therefore, what we see is that by implementing musical training early on we can create a world of emotionally stable, team oriented, confident whole-brain thinkers. This paints a solid picture of our future CEO’s, artisans and producers. The implementation of early-childhood music education sets the stage for a future that is full of new developments in any field the child sets his or her mind to pursuing.
The current responsibility relies now on us… We must take the initiative in implementing sound instruction for our young people to engage in; spend more time ensuring the concepts are understood by children on their level. Music, to music, can seem foreign and hard to understand. In reality, music is something that is apart of who we are as humans. Music isn’t something we need to learn as much as its something we need to experience to learn. As adults we must lead children into the best possible future as we can manage. We seem to find time for all the luxuries that modern technology provides. As I am a supporter of tech innovation, I still believe that everything has it’s time and place for use. Just as music shouldn’t be screamed at children 24 hours a day, neither should media in the faces of growing brains. The question to which how our future will turn out remains in the amount of discipline we encompass, showcasing creative alternatives for our future — our children.


Date: December 2013
Creator: Quijano, Oswaldo Jorge
Description: Contributions from elementary education to the practice and reality of critical thinking are rare, largely because attempts in basic education to elucidate a concept of critical thinking have a hard time breaking through the elusiveness and indeterminacy that characterize the history and reality of the concept. This situation is due to, and a consequence of, the difficulty of delimiting critical thinking from related fields, such as metacognition, higher-order-thinking, problem solving, informal logic, reasoning skills, and decision making, to name a few. Texas school authorities designed and put into practice a battery of tools to evaluate critical thinking through the assessment programs TAKS and STAAR, without taking a position regarding the indeterminacy problems of the content of critical thinking. The purpose of this study was to reconstruct the pieces of the critical thinking model imparted to Texas elementary school children since 1999 and continues today. The findings indicate that the critical thinking model implemented in Texas elementary schools is a particular version of a skills-only approach of critical thinking that follows the classical logical paradigm, consisting of two sets of complementary skills. This model acquaints students with the components and structure of five types of arguments while it fails to substantiate ...
Contributing Partner: UNT Libraries


Outlining the area
Numeracy involves using mathematical ideas efficiently to make sense of the world. While it necessarily involves understanding some mathematical ideas, notations and techniques, it also involves drawing on knowledge of particular contexts and circumstances in deciding when to use mathematics, choosing the mathematics to use and critically evaluating its use. Each individual’s interpretation of the world draws on understandings of number, measurement, probability, data and spatial sense combined with critical mathematical thinking.
What is it?
Number sense and mental computation
Parents Count Too
Effective partnerships in numeracy education develop from good communication. A range of pamphlets has been developed outlining activities that can be used at home to support mathematics learning at school. These pamphlets on "Helping your child with..." are available in 22 community languages.
National Literacy and Numeracy Week activities
Dates for 2011 - 29 August - 4 September
|National Literacy and Numeracy Week is an Australian Government initiative conducted in collaboration with the Government, Catholic and Independent education sectors. National Literacy and Numeracy Week focuses on literacy and numeracy practices from Kindergarten to Year 10 and celebrates successful numeracy and literacy projects and programs by schools and their local communities. |
Visit the NSW website to explore the activities, available resources and archives.
A range of vidcasts and audiofiles are available for parents support and teacher professional learning:
Mental computation for numeracy
The problems with fractions
Effective mental computation
Maths in the real world
Numeracy in the home
Teaching the empty number line
There is a secure link at Kids' Links where children can explore many numeracy and literacy websites and build up their skills.
For parents and carers, there are many brochures and leaflets with ideas for building literacy and numeracy skills at home or during family activities.
The national assessment of literacy and numeracy
The national assessment of numeracy will be held in Term 2 for Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. The assessment will be based on material students have addressed in the Mathematics syllabus. Further information, including sample questions, can be found on the website for the National Assessment Program: Literacy and Numeracy. (http://www.naplan.edu.au)


Up to 140 Teacher Training College (TTC) instructors, representing all 13 TTCs, participated in the first ever national TTC instructor training.
The focus was a brand-new curriculum, designed to better prepare TTC students to effectively develop young learners’ literacy and numeracy skills.
During last week’s six-day training, held at TTC Save, instructors prepared to teach new and revised courses this academic year on English, math, language methods, and math methods.
"In order to effectively transition into a primary school teacher, it is imperative that quality teaching practices are modeled," says VSO volunteer Pam Connell, who is supporting curriculum implementation at TTC Save.
"These new curriculum have been designed to effectively facilitate that."
Story reading techniques, used before, during, and after reading, are among such quality teaching practices included in the new curriculum.
In a video viewed at the training, a Rwandan teacher from Muhanga engaged her primary school students in the story with the use of props, actions, and songs, ensuring that the students comprehended the story.
One TTC English instructor at the training remarked that seeing a teacher in a low-resource setting employ such techniques "can bring hope."
English instructors also practiced using expressive voice when reading stories. Nduhirahe Dieudonne, an English instructor at TTC Gacuba II in Gisenyi, says that when the instructors read stories, "we had to imitate the voices of these animals [in the story]."
Nduhirahe noted that the use of voice, gestures, and facial expressions not only makes stories interesting for children, but also helps them to understand.
Math instructors also engaged in new teaching methodologies. Instructors saw how simple and low-to-no-cost materials such as chalk, bottle tops, banana leaf balls, nails, string, paper, and cardboard could be easily used to support learners’ understandings of abstract mathematical concepts.
"The training was done to enable tutors in TTCs to support their students in teaching at primary schools, which is why we used locally developed materials available to everyone," says Dr. Alphonse Uworwabayeho, Kigali Institute of Education (KIE) mathematics lecturer.
In one activity, instructors used chalk to draw number lines, which can help students to see and compare fractions, on the floor of the classroom.
"Powerful representations of mental images enable learners to ’see in their heads,’" says VSO volunteer Linda Wilson, a math training facilitator.
"This helps them to make the connections between objects, words, symbols, and diagrams that they need to develop a good understanding of mathematics."
The training was jointly facilitated by KIE, VSO, and TTC instructors as part of the USAID-funded Literacy, Language, and Learning (L3) Initiative.
Israel and Turkey reach deal to restore relations
ISIL claims responsibility for Jordan border attack
Deadly suicide bombing rocks village in eastern Lebanon
Weapons for Syrian rebels sold on Jordan’s black market
More than 3,300 migrants rescued off Libya
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Originally posted on ABC & 123, 4/05/10 & on teachmama.com on 5/10/10. Sharing again because. . . well, it’s totally worth your read.
We, as parents and our children’s very first teachers, can begin to support early literacy development as soon as our kiddos are born.
Many of us do this already and don’t even realize how much we are helping to build a solid foundation of learning for our children.
Talking our way through diaper changes and feedings, through trips to the park or the grocery store, we give our little ones their first unwritten lessons on language and learning. By reading books, reciting rhymes, and playing games with our toddlers, we take this learning a step further, and the possibilities for sneaking in lessons here and there are endless.
Here are a few literacy terms every parent must know as their children approach reading and step into preschool.
This list is hardly complete, but it includes the basics without the Reading teacher jargon that is sometimes tough to get through. In the next few weeks and months, I’ll spotlight these topics and more in greater detail and provide ways that parents can support their children’s learning in these areas.
Here’s the skinny. . .
- Literacy Terms Every Parent Needs To Know:
- Comprehension: a complex process in which a reader interacts with a text in a specific context in order to construct meaning. Specific comprehension strategies should be taught and can be taught even before a child can read. Such strategies include making connections, questioning, visualizing, inferring, determining importance, and synthesizing.
- Decoding: the process of figuring out a new word in a text. It’s really just deciphering text into understandable words.
- Fluency: the ability to read orally with speed, accuracy, and expression while comprehending a given text.
- High Frequency Words: are the words that appear most often in texts. Thanks to Drs. Dolch and Frye, we have age-leveled lists of these words beginning from the simplest in Kindergarten to the more difficult in upper grades.
- Phonological Awareness: the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate sound units in words. It is one component of a comprehensive reading program and the precursor to solid literacy development.
- Phonemic Awareness: one component of phonological awareness. The ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the individual sounds in spoken words.
- Phonics: an approach to teaching word identification that emphasizes letter-sound correspondences and their application to reading and spelling. The goal of phonics is to help children learn and apply the alphabetic principle–the understanding that there are systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken words.
- Sight Words: are words that do not often follow phonics rules, so emerging readers should learn them ‘by sight’ in order to read them quickly and accurately.
- Vocabulary: a term used to describe the words that one must know in order to communicate with others, both orally and through print.
Want to have this sheet handy? Want to learn a little more?
Feel free to download the literacy terms every parent must know as a pdf to use as an easy reference. It includes these definitions, some in more detail, along with a few other words to know.
Still want more? Search the navigation bar right under the header! Or check a few more resources for you:


What kinds of writing assignments can I expect in upper-division music courses?
Currently music students may fulfill their DSW requirements by successfully completing the writing-intensive History of Music in the Western World and World Music sequence. As part of these courses students engage in formal and informal writing assignments, in and out of class, such as the following:
- essay exams (short and long)
- reflective essays
- reviews of musical performances and recordings
- program notes
- music analytical essays
- music critical essays
- historical contextualization essays
- performance practice essays
- research proposals
- sentence outlines
- original, thesis-driven research papers
In addition to the sample writing assignments above, assignments in other music courses may include, among a wide variety of other assignments, the following:
- teaching philosophies
- professional development proposals
- curriculum development
- lesson plans
- music pedagogical essays
How is my writing evaluated?
Your professors may weigh criteria differently depending on the nature of the assignment. In general, assessment of your writing assignments may take the following into account:
- clear presentation of the topic or question at stake
- clear organization, with beginning, middle, and end
- significance of ideas and examples that clarify and support the main point(s) of your paper
- critical response to primary and secondary sources
- use of correct grammar
- maturity of writing style, starting with control of standard written English
- appropriate and correct citations of references
Why write about music?
We write about music to help ourselves and others better understand music: its histories and contexts, its styles and forms, its composers and performers, its practices and meanings. In writing about music we explore musical coherences and express, refine, and support the musical judgments that we make.
As many have noted, writing about music can be challenging. Music is sometimes thought to bypass human linguistic processes and interact directly with the emotions; many have espoused music's ability to "say" what words cannot not say. Even when music accompanies a text, it can be difficult to convey exactly what the music adds. And, most of us have little experience writing about music. As Robert Wingell points out, "our culture thinks of music as comforting background noise, an atmosphere one creates for oneself, a sort of sonic wallpaper….In this atmosphere, it is difficult to argue logically and convincingly about issues of musical style or quality" (Writing about Music, 3). Through writing about music, we might help others heard music as more than sonic wallpaper, indeed, as a subject of critical inquiry, as are the other arts, humanities, and sciences.
General tips for writing about music
- Carefully consider the nature of the assignment: respond to the question posed; engage in the purpose set forth; choose research questions that can be addressed given the scope of the project
- In general, mere description is not enough; attempt to connect your musical observations to interpretations. Avoid "play-by-play" commentary.
- Make significant value judgments worth justifying. Avoid clichés such as "the piece was beautiful": instead, convey to your reader what made the piece beautiful and what sort of beauty it was.
- Be savvy in drawing connections between a composer's presumed intentions and his or her musical compositions: how might you ascertain a composer's feelings? how might music be expressive of certain ideas?
- Avoid frequent shifts in verb tense. In general, we write about the history of music in past tense and music itself in present (but occasionally past) tense. Aim for a flowing style.
- Use active voice constructions: straightforward prose is stronger prose.
- Revise, revise, revise: prepare a paper as you would prepare a recital performance.
- Do your own work. Do not plagiarize. Cite material you use even if you paraphrased (APA for music education; Chicago/Turabin for music analysis, history, and performance).


Great phonics lesson plans can make teaching students to read a whole lot easier, and a lot more enjoyable.
By Lesley Roberts
Most teachers recognize that the primary focus of phonics instruction is to help beginning readers understand how letters are linked to sounds (phonemes) to form letter-sound correspondences and spelling patterns, and to help them learn how to apply this knowledge in their reading. Phonics instruction produces the best results when letter-sound relationships are taught in a clearly defined sequence. Teachers can do this by including the letter-sound relationships of both consonants and vowels in target words. Teachers will also recognize that the simultaneous presentation of both written words and sounds can be effective in improving children's decoding skills.
Phonics can best be taught in small groups of like-leveled students. Teachers should also choose books that are tailored to the abilities of these select students. Teachers can begin phonics instruction by showing students to recognize that the rime segment of an unfamiliar word is identical to that of a familiar word, and then blending the known rime with the new word onset, for example reading the words fat and hat by recognizing that -at is contained in the known word cat. Teachers can also use phonics instruction to show students how to convert letter to sounds and then putting those sounds together to form words. Please use the lesson plans below to help in implementing these instructional tips.
Phonics Lesson Plans:
Learning Phonics Through Making Words (Grade Range: 1st) Students manipulate letters to spell words. They listen to a story that contains words using the lesson letters, and using the letters a, i, c, g, m, n, and p they spell various words following step-by-step directions given by the teacher. This lesson is based on a phonics lesson from the book "Systematic Sequential Phonics They Use" by Patricia Cunningham.
Manipulating the Sounds in Words (Grade Range: 3rd) Students discuss a variety of phonics rules that deal with changing sounds within words. They read and discuss the examples with the teacher, then read the fable "The Lion and the Mouse" with a partner, drawing a picture of what happens in the beginning, middle, and the end of the story.
Reading is the Key (Comprehension) (Grade Range: 6th - 8th) Students incorporate phonics, word attack skills, use of context clues, and use of word origins to improve a student's comprehension of assigned readings in various classes. They comprehend the role of decoding.
Signs and Symbols to Acquire Language (Grade Range: 8th - 10th) Students utilize deductive reasoning to decipher unfamiliar words and sounds. They acquire high-frequency words by viewing street signs and playing phonics games. This lesson is intended for students acquiring a foreign language.


Inclusive Special Ed Foundations: Legal, Characteristics, Collaboration, Assessment, and Management (4) Legal issues, learner characteristics, collaboration skills, assessment, and behavior management related to educating students with disability in inclusive settings.
SPLED 400 Teaching Exceptional Students in General Education Settings (4)
This course is delivered via a model of blended instruction and addresses foundational skills (assessment and management) and knowledge (laws, etiologies, collaboration) for those working with students with special education needs in general education classrooms. Almost 30% of the content includes student understanding of the history and current relevance of special education law; roles and responsibilities of general education teachers in providing services to students with special education needs; characteristics and etiologies relevant to providing effective instruction to students with mild and severe disabilities; and developing and maintaining effective education teams. Roughly 35% of content is relevant to assessment in inclusive settings and is centered on sound instructional decision making as well as linking instruction to standards based curricula. Coverage includes understanding formative and summative assessment; creating and administering curriculum-based assessments in reading, mathematics, and writing; designing systems to collect behavioral data; interpreting a variety of norm-referenced test scores; using brief experimental analyses is adequate for a given purpose. Roughly 35% of content is relevant to applying principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) to managing and motivating learners with special needs placed in inclusive settings. Broad objectives include student acquisition of knowledge and skills related to ABA principles and interventions such as: identifying the nature (positive and negative) of consequences maintaining or decreasing specific behaviors; operationally defining behavior; establishing a classroom and school environment conducive to learning for all students; creating class-wide, school-wide; and individual motivation systems; intervening to decrease specific behavior; and using functional behavioral assessments (FBAs) and positive behavior supports.
Note : Class size, frequency of offering, and evaluation methods will vary by location and instructor. For these details check the specific course syllabus.


STEP into storytime for newborns to 5-year-olds
For Immediate Release
CHICAGO — Story Time Effective Practice (STEP), developed by Saroj Nadkarni Ghoting and Kathy Fling Klatt, is an approach that articulates the link between child development theory and storytimes. “STEP into Storytime: Using StoryTime Effective Practice to Strengthen the Development of Newborns to Five-Year-Olds,” published by ALA Editions, shows how presenters can use STEP to craft a storytime that is effective for mixed-age groups and adheres to best practices for emotional, social, physical and cognitive support. In this book, early literacy experts Ghoting and Klatt:
- offer more than 30 complete ready-to-use storytimes appropriate for newborns to children age 5, along with extension activities;
- show how STEP relates to emotional, social, cognitive and physical development;
- explain how storytime materials and activities directly connect to language and literacy development;
- include preparation, planning and performance tips, plus guidance for interacting with parents and caregivers;
- provide lists of recommended additional resources, including organizations, websites and sources for storytime time activity ideas.
Ghoting has been a children’s librarian for more than 35 years and is now an early childhood literacy consultant. She is coauthor of the best-selling books “Early Literacy Storytimes @ your library®: Partnering with Caregivers for Success,” “The Early Literacy Kit: A Handbook and Tip Cards,” and “Storytimes for Everyone: Developing Young Children’s Language and Literacy.” She presents at conferences and conducts face-to-face trainings and online trainings on early literacy, science and math in storytimes, and Every Child Ready to Read. Visit her website for more information.
Klatt has worked as an assistant children’s librarian and program coordinator for 35 years at the Mamie Doud Eisenhower Public Library in Broomfield, Colo., where she presents weekly baby and family storytimes and is responsible for scheduling arts, science, and cultural programs for children ages newborn through fifth grade. She presents Every Child Ready to Read trainings for parents and grandparents and, most recently, Confident Parenting trainings for parents and children, focusing on social and emotional skills. She taught preschool for 30 years, working with 3-to-5-year-olds and developed and taught preschool science classes at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. She has also copresented on early literacy and music for the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and ALA.
ALA Store purchases fund advocacy, awareness and accreditation programs for library professionals worldwide. ALA Editions publishes resources used worldwide by tens of thousands of library and information professionals to improve programs, build on best practices, develop leadership, and for personal professional development. ALA authors and developers are leaders in their fields, and their content is published in a growing range of print and electronic formats. Contact us at (800) 545-2433 ext. 5052 or firstname.lastname@example.org.


The Effects OF Aligning Supplemental and Core Reading Instruction on Second-Grade Students' Reading Achievement
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of aligning supplemental reading instruction with core classroom reading instruction on struggling second-grade students' proficiency in phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Alignment was defined as core classroom and supplemental instruction that are congruent in philosophy, goals, instructional materials, instructional methods, student activities, and reading strategies that follow the same scope and sequence. This study employed a two-group, pre-post true experimental design. Second-grade students (N = 153) scoring in the lowest quartile on the fall Dynamic Indicators of Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) Oral Reading Fluency assessment were randomly assigned to either an aligned or nonaligned supplemental reading instructional condition received instruction over a 20-week period. Reading specialists in 11 schools provided the supplemental instruction. iv The DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) and the Woodcock Reading Mastery-Revised (WRMT-R III) assessments were used to assess student reading growth in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and vocabulary. Each student received one score from the DIBELS ORF and six scores from the WRMT-R III. Seven separate nested analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) were conducted to examine differences in group means at posttest while accounting for nesting of reading specialists within schools. Pretest measures for each of the dependent variables were used as covariates to adjust posttest scores at the end of the study. After controlling for pretest score differences and accounting for the variance associated with reading specialists nested within schools, statistically significant differences were found favoring the aligned supplemental condition for posttest scores on all measures. Effect sizes ranged from small to moderate, with largest effect sizes being found for vocabulary and comprehension. The results of the study suggest that at-risk second-grade students benefitted from supplemental instruction that is aligned to the classroom core reading program.
School:Utah State University
School Location:USA - Utah
Source Type:Master's Thesis
Keywords:elementary education response to intervention at risk primary grade reading second alignment congruence
Date of Publication:12/01/2008


Extensive research by the University of Miami's Touch Research Institute has revealed that human touch has wide-ranging physical and emotional benefits for people of all age groups. In the Institute's experiments, touch lessened pain, improved pulmonary function, increased growth in infants, lowered blood glucose and improved immune function. Human touch is important for all ages, but by the time children reach their teen years, they receive only half as much touching as they did in the early part of their lives. Adults touch each other even less.
Newborns that are touched gain weight faster and have superior mental and motor skill development---an advantage they retain for months. Touching on the back and legs generally soothes babies while touching on the face, belly and feet tends to excite them. In the earliest stages of a child's life, touch is a critical part of the establishment of a bond between parent and child. It is also the earliest form of parent-child communication.
Adolescents and adults need touch too, but societal inhibitions sometimes get in the way. You may find yourself wavering between a handshake and a hug when greeting or saying goodbye to colleagues or acquaintances because adults tend to equate touch with sexuality. To help find a socially acceptable middle ground, try touching a friend's lower arm, hand or shoulder lightly during a conversation. Both you and your friend will benefit from this tactile form of communication.
Researchers at the University of Miami Touch Research Institute found that touch with moderate pressure stimulates a cranial nerve that slows the heart rate and lowers blood pressure. This produces a state that is relaxed but more attentive. Touch also reduces stress hormones and may enhance immune function. In a Touch Research Institute study, medical staff and students that received massages for 15 minutes a day over the course of a month were more accurate and took less time on math performance tests than their counterparts who did not receive massages.
There is some evidence that the level of aggression and violence among children is related to lack of touching. In two separate studies, Touch Research Institute researchers found that French children received more touching from parents and their peers and were less aggressive than their American counterparts. By contrast, American children had less physical interaction with their parents and tended to touch themselves---for example playing with their hair---more than they touched their peers.
Senior citizens receive the least touching of any age group. This may be due, at least in part, to emphasis on young-looking skin and the implication that older skin is unattractive and thus untouchable. Seniors also are more likely to live alone, which means they are less likely to have daily physical interaction with family members. Nonetheless, the aging process tends to loosen inhibitions, so seniors are more likely to touch and to accept touching than younger age groups, especially teenagers.
- Adoption.com: The Importance of Touch
- Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired: The Importance of Touch in Parent-Infant Bonding
- The New York Times: The Experience of Touch: Research Points to a Critical Role
- Univeristy of Miami Touch Research Institute: General Information About TRI Research
- Karger Gazette: The Importance of Touch


Many pediatric occupational and physical therapists work with children who exhibit decreased sensory processing such as decreased body awareness, motor planning and proprioception. These difficulties of sensing where a child is in space can interfere with motor skill development, peer interaction and safety. We are all familiar with therapy sessions that focus on proprioceptive input, following motor commands and activities that encourage the children to learn where their body is in space. One additional activity to consider is fully exploring the environment where the functional skills are to be learned.
Let's take this goal for example: Johnny will negotiate the classroom without bumping into stationary objects 100% of the time. As stated previously, therapy may consist of body awareness activities, proprioceptive input (heavy work activities) and motor planning skills. If it is pull out therapy all of this takes place outside of the true environment. If it is push in therapy perhaps skills are practiced in during recess, physical education or sometimes in the classroom. BUT do you remember to explore and practice skills in the actual environment?
Remember to not only practice activities but how about really exploring the area where "Johnny" is having difficulties. When the classroom is empty, go inside and have Johnny walk in and around the desks and chairs. Johnny can crawl under desks, kneel down and sit in different locations in the classroom. Add in games or activities to keep it novel. Provide verbal cues as Johnny walks by items ie. this desk is wide or this aisle is narrow. This exploration allows Johnny to develop a motor map of his surroundings with him in it. He can develop a better sense of how big desks are, how tall are the chairs, how wide is the carpet and how far is the bathroom.
This can apply to different areas of the school or home. How about the cafeteria? Let a child explore it to help define a motor map for in between cafeteria tables, on the cafeteria line and around garbage cans. At home, if furniture is changed around allow time to just explore the new areas and obstacles without adding in the stressors of different goals. Now when you do start to add in the actual functional tasks that needs to be accomplished, Johnny should have a much better idea of what you are expecting of him.
In summary, keep it simple sometimes and start out with just simply exploring the surroundings without adding in any other functional tasks to help build a strong foundation.


Come along on an adventure through the rain forest. Along the way, you'll meet new friends big and small, see amazing sights, and learn all about the creatures that make their home in the rain forest. Told in simple yet lively text built with sight words and using picture icons to aid reading, National Geographic Pre-readers will enchant kids just beginning their journey with books.
About the Author
Susan Neuman is a prominent educator, researcher, and education policy-maker in early childhood and literacy development. As of 2010, she is Professor of Educational Studies at the University of Michigan.
Series: National Geographic Kids: Pre-Reader
For Ages: 2 - 5 years old
Number Of Pages: 24
Published: 1st August 2014
Publisher: National Geographic Kids
Country of Publication: GB
Dimensions (cm): 22.8 x 15.3 x 0.2
Weight (kg): 0.08
Edition Number: 1


Early childhood education regards education in early childhood, which are the most vulnerable stages in a persons life. According to the NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children), it spans the human life from birth to age eight.
Other terms that are often used interchangeably with "early childhood education" are "early childhood learning," "early care," and "early education."
Early childhood education often focuses on children learning through play. The term, "early childhood education," is often used to describe preschool or baby / child care programs.
Early childhood education is also incorrectly referred to by many as "babysitting." This stigma is widespread and many do not seem to understand the importance of educating young children. Due to early childhood learning spaces being more holistic and based around play centers many (without a trained eye) think that what trained educators are doing is providing play opportunities for children, with no structure or assessment of abilities.
Infants and toddlers experience life more holistically than any other age group. Social, emotional, cognitive, linguistic, and physical lessons are not learned separately by very young children. Adults who are most helpful to young children interact in ways that understand that the child is learning from the whole experience, not just that part of the experience to which the adult gives attention. Researchers in the field and early childhood educators both view the parents and/or families as an integral part of the early childhood education process. Early childhood education takes many forms depending on the theoretical and educational beliefs of the educator or parent.
Much of the first two years of life are spent in the creation of a child's first "sense of self" or the building of a first identity. This is a crucial part of children's makeup--how they first see themselves, how they think they should function, how they expect others to function in relation to them. For this reason, early care must ensure that in addition to employing carefully selected and trained caretakers, program policy must emphasize links with family, home culture, and home language. Care should support children's families rather than be a substitute for them.
If a young child doesn't receive sufficient nurturing, nutrition, parental/caregiver interaction, and stimulus during this crucial period, the child may be left with a developmental deficit that hampers his or her success in preschool, kindergarten, and beyond.
Worst-case scenarios such as those found in Russian and Romanian orphanages demonstrate how the lack of proper social interaction and development of attachment affect the developing child. Children must receive attention and affection from their caregivers to develop in a healthy manner.


Editor’s note: CEI’s Myron Ebell is at the 19th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Warsaw, Poland. Below is his first report.
Tuesday was one of the special theme days at COP-19 in Warsaw. It was Gender Day. I couldn’t go to many of the gender-related events because there were several important sessions that were part of the official negotiating process that I wanted to attend, but I was able to attend the high-level event organized by the Secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The UNFCCC has adopted several resolutions on gender equality and women’s participation beginning in 2001. Last year at COP-18 in Doha, Qatar, they committed to gender balance in the Secretariat and member delegations.
The gender event on Tuesday was moderated by the executive director of the UNFCCC, Christiana Figueres. She began by saying that we should keep our feet on the ground but raise our eyes to the stars. She asked the speakers to tell the audience (of several hundred people) what their dreams were and to talk from their hearts and souls rather than their minds.
Bianca Jagger’s remarks were low key and modest. She said that her dream was ending violence against women. Lakshmi Puri, deputy director of UN Women, said that women were more adversely affected by climate change, but could do more to stop it than men. Helen Clark, the head of the UN Development Programme and former prime minister of New Zealand, seconded that and said that the climate justice agenda included universal access to sustainable energy.
Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland and former UN high commissioner on human rights, noted that there were more than a billion people without access to electricity and more than two billion whose meals were cooked, usually by women, on open fires. She somehow thought that “doing the right thing on climate” will somehow relieve this widespread energy poverty by creating a more just world with less inequality. She added that fossil fuels are a stranded asset as people have come to realize that, “like asbestos, they are too dangerous to use.”
Tara Holonen, the former president of Finland, introduced the new Environment and Gender Index. It ranks 72 nations according to six performance categories. The gender equality measurements don’t seem to have any connection to the environmental quality measurements, so the index makes little sense. The index was produced by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which was once a respectable science and conservation group. The IUCN now describes itself as “a leader on gender issues in the environmental arena.” (www.EnvironmentGenderIndex.org)
A young Australian climate activist was invited from the audience to join the panel when one of the speakers was unable to attend. She said that the sole reason she fights for climate justice is to improve the lot of poor women in the developing world.
The highlight of this gender event, which was only one among many held on this special Gender Day, was the singing of a song composed especially for the event. It was sung magnificently by Elizabeth Njorge, who heads a foundation in Kenya that is dedicated to bringing art and music education to some of the poorest children in Kenya. Titled Vision 50/50, the song’s chorus reads: “We have a dream, a dream of hopes to turn a page that marks a golden age, A greener course, a greener course for planet Earth.” Note that the lyricist refrained from calling it Mother Earth, although the word “sustainable” is used in one of the verses.


Sing, Spell, Read & Write uses carefully sequenced, systematic, explicit phonics instruction to build fluent independent readers. It is effective because it engages students in playing games; singing songs; and look, listen, point, sing-along, and echo routines that stimulate the senses and appeal to all learning styles. Its approach requires total participation on the part of the learner and is strongly supported by current research on brain function, language acquisition, and reading.
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At a Glance
- Providing Art and Science classes
- Virtual field trips to the Smithsonian
- Up to 1600 students per year
- Polycom Video Collaboration solutions
Polycom RealPresence Video Solutions Bring the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art to Schools and Students Anywhere in the World
With arts education under threat—budget cuts and accountability programs have nearly cut in half the hours spent in art classes since 2001—the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art (NMAfA) is putting art back in classrooms. NMAfA is home to more than 10,000 works and treasures. Most students, however, even in the nation’s capitol, have never seen it. But that’s changing, thanks to a program that lets students and organizations visit the museum’s collection via collaborative meetings powered by Polycom RealPresence video collaboration solutions.
“We knew we had to get creative to find a way for schools to enhance their art education without spending resources or traveling,” notes Deborah Stokes, NMfAA’s Curator for Education.
Available free of charge, the real-time video classes do more than expose students to African art, they give the audience a unique opportunity to appreciate the vast diversity of cultures in Africa. “We’re teaching students how to look at art, how to ask themselves what it meant to the artists and to instill respect for the cultures that created it,” says Stokes.
The programs are so popular that the number of participating students has doubled in the past year, from 800 to 1,600. Budget-constrained schools and interested organizations are using NMAfA’s virtual field trips to keep the audience engaged with access to exceptional content. And because many classes merge art content with other topics, teachers around the world can meet curriculum requirements in history, geography and even science.
Putting art in perspective
NMAfA uses its video classes to present art in unexpected contexts. Its popular African Cosmos: Stellar Arts exhibition, with educational programming created in collaboration with astrophysicists, scientists and educators from the Smithsonian-Harvard Astrophysical Observatory and the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum, combines both art and science to explore how humankind has tried to understand the heavens for millennia. The unique approach offers another benefit: these art classes support STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) initiatives in schools striving to meet objectives in both the arts and sciences.
In her video classes and tours, Stokes uses a Polycom HDX series room video solution and Polycom People+Content™ (green screen) to appear integrated with the high-definition images and artworks that are an essential part of the programs, all powered by the Polycom RealPresence Platform. Engaging face-to-face with the audience via the lifelike medium of HD video, she encourages questions, investigation, dialog and interactive discussions. Schools register for the museum’s collaborative sessions using the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC) clearinghouse or through Polycom’s CAPspace distance learning portal.
In addition to classes, NMAfA has used its Polycom video solutions to help build relationships and cultural understanding globally. A program following the catastrophic 2010 Haiti earthquake used art to connect children in Haiti suffering the devastation they had witnessed with students in a D.C. public school for a cross-cultural exchange of understanding and compassion.
Stokes is planning classes on African masks and explorations of art in Nigeria, Mali and other countries. “I’ve been pleasantly surprised how easy the Polycom technology has been to use,” says Stokes, who acquired the Polycom equipment in 2012 using a grant applied for with help from the Polycom Grant Assistance Program. “I’m just so thrilled with it.”


Common Core Standards
Why we object to the K–3 Core Standards
The core standards address the fact that students are graduating from high school ill prepared for college or careers. Even in the best universities a shockingly large number of students need remedial help with basic language arts and math skills. We support the idea of a national effort to address this problem, but to let that concern shape kindergarten and early elementary education is short-sighted.
Young children are entering their school years, not exiting them. They need support and encouragement to become strong, motivated learners for their whole lives—in school and beyond. That strength begins with active hands-on learning. Current state standards have already led to long hours of didactic instruction, scripted teaching, a narrowing of the curriculum, and overuse of standardized tests with young children. The new standards will almost certainly intensify those inappropriate practices. (See Crisis in the Kindergarten for data on current practices in public kindergarten education.)
The new standards call for kindergarten children to master over 90 skills related to literacy and mathmatics. Is this necessary for children to succeed in school? Experts know of no research showing that children who read at age five do better in the long run than children who learn at six or seven. The proposed standards will almost certainly add to the stress already afflicting many children in kindergarten and the early grades—stress associated by clinicians with growing problems of aggressive behavior in young children and with burnout by third or fourth grade.
An added burden for children and teachers is the extensive testing required to assess mastery of these skills. Alliance research indicates that kindergartens already devote 20 to 30 minutes per day for testing or test preparation. A Milwaukee teacher reported having to give over 150 tests to her kindergarten children last year.
Effective learning in the early years requires a very different starting point than the one presumed in the core standards. The federal Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services are working together to develop a fresh look at how children learn best from birth through age eight. New research points to the indivisibility of physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development. The core standards are based on a narrow and flawed focus on subject matter in isolation, overemphasizing cognitive skills at the expense of all others.
The writers of these new standards did get one thing right in relation to young children. They use the word ‘play’—something that most other standards writers have scrupulously avoided. In the section called “What is not covered by the Standards,” the document says, “[T]he use of play with young children is not specified by the Standards, but it is welcome as a valuable activity in its own right and as a way to help students meet the expectations in this document.”
The core standards do not provide for ongoing research or review of the outcomes of their adoption. The entire K–12 standards initiative is flawed by this omission, which is especially egregious in relation to the youngest students. It is urgent that the federal goverment require research of the long-term effects of the standards and related testing on children in K-3.
What you can do: The standards were finalized in June. Each state will need to decide if it will adopt them. Tell your own governor, chief state school officer, and state early childhood specialists about the need to promote play and play-based learning in Kindergarten and the need to protect young children from testing. Click on the links in this section to find the addresses of your state officials. Let your voice be heard.
For more information: Read our press release, our statement on the standards, signed by hundreds of leading educators and health professionals, and signers' comments. Also see public comments by Alliance Senior Researcher Ed Miller presented at an April 23 meeting on early learning at the U.S. Department of Education. You can read commentaries by early childhood educators, Eric Gidseg and Carla Horwitz, on the likely effects of the core kindergarten standards.


The needs of all students of the Titusville Area School District are addressed by the administrators, guidance counselors, department chairpersons, and individual teachers participating in an annual review of curricula. They then make recommendations to the School Board of Directors for changes and additions to course offerings. Each grade level has a specific role in fostering the educational process.
Early Childhood Curriculum
The Early Childhood Learning Center, constructed in 1991, houses the district’s pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students. Beginning with the 2004-2005 school year, the district made an even greater commitment to early childhood education by offering full day kindergarten. Although the same curriculum is taught, teachers have more time to incorporate activities. Additionally, the program has been enhanced by the Action Based Learning Lab program in Physical Education. Learning in full day kindergarten is tied to kinesthetic motion. These changes have been funded primarily through the Pennsylvania Department of Education Accountability Grant.
The elementary schools are committed to fostering the basic skills of communication through a balanced literacy program that includes phonics as well as reading and writing instruction. Instructors and administrators have implemented measures that promote improved performance in reading, writing and math. Such measures include the use of technology, such as Smart Boards, the introduction of math manipulatives, and the formation of reading and math clubs and summer programs, such as Partners Achieving Learning Success (PALS) Club. Supplemental reading instruction is provided through the Title I Program and subsidized with Federal dollars.
Middle Level Curriculum
Another goal of the District is to provide a developmentally responsive middle level school which provides a curriculum that is challenging, integrated and exploratory. There are three significant components of a middle level curriculum. First, it enables students to discover their abilities, talents, interests, values and preferences. This self-knowledge helps students prepare for adult life, not only in terms of vocation, but also as family members and citizens (NMSA, 1998). Second, all courses and activities are taught in a way that reveals opportunities for making contributions to society. Finally, experiences acquaint students with enriching, healthy, leisure-time pursuits.
High School Curriculum
Titusville High School has been accredited by the Middle States Association for more than 75 years and maintains an academic standing comparable to many larger schools in Pennsylvania. Students in the senior high school may elect to follow an academic, arts, business education or vocational-technical curriculum. Students choosing four years of college preparatory study, frequently acknowledge that their teachers prepare them well to compete academically at the college level. Business education students acquire proficient office and machine skills throughout their experience, which allows many of these students to be placed in cooperative job settings. Vocational students may choose to enhance their vocational education at the Venango Technology Center located in Oil City. For those who prefer to stay at the high school, career-based curricula in Art, Computer Programming, Family and Consumer Sciences and Technical Education are also available. The administration and staff have developed a transition program for incoming ninth graders to ease the challenges of moving from the middle school to the high school. Integration of the various curricular areas has also been a focus. The schedule is designed to accommodate the integration of English and social studies on several levels, as well as advanced math, physics and technology education. Computers and other types of technology are available across the curriculum for students.


Title: Cut and Paste Poetry
This activity provides a way to help all students become more actively involved in reading poetry.
Although I have only used this activity in a high school, it could be adapted to work for students in earlier grades.
Choose a poem that is several stanzas long and is appropriate for the level of the students.
Some suggestions for high school include:
“Out, Out-“ Robert Frost
“The Lady of Shallot” Alfred Tennyson
“Ballad of Birmingham” Dudley Randall
Rearrange the stanzas or lines of the poem and distribute them to the students. In groups, have the students cut out the stanzas or lines and paste them on a page in the order they think is best. Have each group perform their version aloud (taking turns to read verses, reading in unison, etc.). After each group has read, as a class, discuss why the orders varied (if they did) and try to create a “class version” of the poem.
This activity is works well with new language learners because in small groups students must discuss the logical sequence of the stanzas in order to complete the task. Therefore, through this activity, new language learners have “opportunity for extensive oral interaction with English speaking peers” (The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9 to 12: English as a Second Language and English Literacy Development, page 8), and they are able to take part in the authoring of the new version of the poem. Also, all groups are encouraged to read their version aloud. Students who are struggling with speaking English will have an opportunity to participate orally through a relatively low-risk group reading.
Submitted by: Colleen Grandy


The electorate included all ratepayers, including women, who were entitled to vote in vestry elections, and women could also be members.
The County of London was divided into eleven divisions for the election of school board members: each division returned between four and seven members depending on population. The total size of the board was 55 members.
Each voter had a number of votes equal to the number of seats in the division. The voter was free to allocate the votes between the candidates in any way they wished. Where an elector gave all of his votes to a single candidate this was known as "plumping", and was seen as a way of ensuring representation of minority religious denominations. Voting was by secret ballot, with the exception of the City of London, where open voting was used.
By the time of the eighth election, the majority party were the Moderate Party, also known as the Church Party: in favour of providing elementary education, "economy" or low rates, bible teaching in schools and the toleration of voluntary schools provided by various Christian denominations.
In opposition to them were the Progressive Party, also known as the "Advanced" Party, who had held control of the board from 1870-1885. The party's candidates were supporters of free, compulsory and non-sectarian education, manual and physical training, the provision of secondary schools, swimming pools and gynasiums, free school meals and the direct employment oof labour.
In general the candidates supporting the board's policy received the support of the Conservative Party organisation, while the Progressives were aligned with the Liberal Party and Labour organisations.
The "Moderate" and "Progressive" party labels were also adopted by the two parties on the London County Council, following the first election to the body in January 1889.
The school board elected in 1891 had a three-year term of office. Under the terms of Section 44 of the Elementary Education Act 1876 casual vacancies occurring in the membership of school boards due to death or resignation were filled by co-option. Where a vacancy occurred the sitting members nominated a candidate or candidates. Where there was only one nomination, they were automatically co-opted. Where there was more than one candidate, the vacancy was filled by a vote of the entire board.
There were three co-options during the term of the eighth school board.


Fall, well August or even July in Arizona, begins a new year of learning for children. But how early is too early to begin introducing your child to school? Many experts agree that around 2 years-old, children begin benefitting greatly from structured play with other children, guided by an Early Childhood-educated adult. Here are five necessary life skills very young children gain from structured play:
- Problem-Solving Skills: Children try different activities and work as a team. These abilities are necessary to swing on the new monkey bars and write their college essays.
- Thinking and Reasoning Skills: Children learn to trust their instincts, use materials in creative ways, and be independent. With these strengths, they can run for class president and move out on their own.
- Language Skills: Children learn to vocalize their needs and see their successes when they get what they want. Learning to cooperate and to negotiate in their community advances their language skills giving power where it's needed and keeping children from being bullied.
- Reading and Writing Skills: Walk into a NAEYC-accredited program, and you will see a print-rich environment. The first word that most children learn to recognize and read is their first name. Childrens' names are used to develop letter-sound recognition, letter identity, patterns, left-to-right progression, and one-to-one correspondence.
- Social and Emotional Skills: Through dramatic play, children explore feelings and adult roles and develop their identities. They develop their own positive self-esteem.
Structured play in a classroom allows children to cultivate these skills. Consider an early childhood learning program for your young child to give them a head start.
Pam Morris holds a masterís degree in Early Childhood Education from Binghamton University and has taught preschool for more than 15 years. Her children attended the Early Childhood Learning Center, a NAEYC-accredited preschool, now enrolling at the East Valley JCC. www.evjcc.org/preschool


Make sure your child is meeting important developmental milestones — and learn how to recognize the warning signs of developmental delay.
During a child’s early years, it’s crucial that parents keep close tabs on motor skill development. Those skills fall under two categories: gross motor skills and fine motor skills.
Gross motor skills include big movements like climbing and jumping, and involve large muscle groups. Fine motor skills include smaller movements, like grasping, or following objects with eyes.
According to Physical Therapist Jessica Prothero, both fine and gross motor skills are equally important. “Parents tend to notice gross motor skills more,” she said. “But fine motor skills are just as critical because they indicate cognitive development.”
When asked how parents can encourage motor skill development in their infant children, Prothero responded with two words: tummy time. “It’s how children learn to belly crawl, and eventually it leads to crawling and walking,” she said. “Tummy time also helps prevent neck muscle tightness and the development of flatness on one side of the head.
‘When children begin walking, parents should pay close attention to their technique,” Prothero added. Some children tend to walk on their tiptoes — a habit known as idiopathic toe walking. “It’s a fairly common in toddlers, and if it persists, it can cause calf muscle tightness and gross motor delay.”
Prothero also warns against “W-sitting”— when a child sits on his or her legs splayed out to the side, making a “W” shape. “It can negatively impact their knee and hip joint development, so we discourage it as much as we can.”
Even if your child seems to be developing normally, Prothero recommends being proactive by encouraging a variety of activities in your children, from gymnastics to karate. And no matter what activity they choose, make sure they do it for at least 60 minutes a day. “Children need to move,” she said. “It’s the very best thing for a developing child.”
If you think your child needs help with a developmental issue, or just have a question about motor skill development call 317-415-9135 for more information. St.Vincent Pediatric Physical Therapy is located at St.Vincent Medical Center Northeast in Suite 309.


This summer marks the third time the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon has brought elementary educators on staff to create an archaeology curriculum for students in preschool through 8th grade—straight from the trenches to the classroom! Their engaging curriculum has already had a wide reach, and we’re looking forward to what’s next. Below, Kerrie Rovito, a science teacher at Hamilton Elementary School in Chicago, Illinois, describes her summer excavating at Ashkelon and what she will be bringing back to her students.
Recently I returned from my trip to Tel Ashkelon where I had the chance not only to write curriculum for the dig but also to become immersed in the archaeological process. I worked alongside volunteers from many universities—including Harvard, Wesleyan, Wheaton College and Troy University—to tear down mud-brick walls and find floor layers leading to the 604 B.C.E. destruction of Ashkelon by Nebuchadnezzar II.
Because of the recent trouble in the area, our expedition also spent a lot of time traveling around the northern part of the country visiting other archaeological sites, which you can read about on my educator blog.
While in the field, I developed curriculum based around the math and science that I saw being used on a daily basis. Some examples of this include how float samples are used to identify seed types as well as the diet of the people who lived in the area, and how triangulation and GIS are used to mark the location of artifacts we find. I began the process of building the curriculum by watching how these processes were carried out on our dig site, and then I interviewed the specialist as they told me details of their job. From this, I connected these topics to the new Next Generation Science Standards and the Common Core Math Standards, so that these tasks could be applied across a wide range of classrooms. Finally, I created hands-on tasks that allow students all over the world to recreate what they see the scientists doing, which allow them to be a part of the archaeological process. Four modules have already been uploaded, but more are currently being written as I tie together the information I gathered in the field.
Read about the first week, midseason progress and unanticipated conclusion of the 2014 excavation season at Ashkelon.
The videos that I created not only tied in with the modules but also explained questions I had before going to Ashkelon. For example, I have always wondered what the process was between collecting pottery pieces and attempting to put them back together. I videoed the different steps of this process as a way for students to see the immense amount of work involved to do this. I also learned how people can pursue archaeology in a non-research setting through jobs in Cultural Resources Management.
Additionally, I wanted to show students in my own class how important skills learned in the classroom, such as keeping a science notebook, can help prepare them for careers in the math and science fields. One of our square supervisors, Emily, did a great job explaining how integral these skills are in archaeological fieldwork.
Unfortunately, the excavation season this year was cut short, but I have already started the process of brainstorming more lessons I would like to film next year. I am eagerly awaiting the outcome of a Fulbright grant the dig has submitted allowing ten other teachers to travel with me back to Ashkelon so that even more curriculum can be written. In the meantime, continue to check my blog and modules page, which I will be updating throughout the summer. You can also email me at teachashkelon[at]gmail.com if you have any questions about archaeology curriculum or how to bring archaeology into your classroom!
Kerrie Rovito is a 4th–8th grade science teacher at Hamilton Elementary School in Chicago, Illinois. She holds a B.S. and M.S. in Elementary Education and is Nationally Board Certified in the area of Early Adolescent Science. Kerrie has created numerous science and social studies units which emphasize hands-on learning and engineering practices.


Many of us may recall sharpening our No. 2 pencil, opening our math packets, and suddenly beginning to feel our hearts beating faster and our palms getting sweaty as we frantically crunched in numbers on our calculator. The numbers written in fine black print started to look incomprehensible, and before we knew it, we had five minutes left but were still on question number one — a sign of math anxiety. Although negative experiences in math could make most of us anxious just looking at numbers, a study in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry found math anxiety may lie in our genes because of risks related to both general anxiety and math skills.
"We found that math anxiety taps into genetic predispositions in two ways: people's cognitive performance on math and their tendency toward anxiety," said Zhe Wang, lead author of the study and postdoctoral researcher in psychology at the Ohio State University. Math anxiety has recently gained attention because of its damaging psychological effects and its links to math problem-solving and achievement. A fear of math is not a reflection of a student’s true ability in math but rather an emotional problem that interferes with a person’s ability to learn math, which results in an intellectual problem, according to Texas State University counseling center.
A team of researchers at OSU believe genetics may play a more prominent role in math anxiety, alongside environmental factors. Fear could make it difficult for people to further develop the math skills they already have, as genetic factors may exacerbate this risk. The researchers recruited 216 identical twins and 298 same-sex fraternal twins who participated in the Western Reserve Reading and Math Projects — an ongoing long-term study of twins in Ohio — to investigate the genetic and environmental factors that contribute to differences in anxiety during math tasks. This study included data from the last two home visits of the Western Reserve Reading and Math Projects, when the twins were between 9 and 15 years old.
The participants completed assessments of math anxiety, general anxiety, math problem-solving, and reading comprehension. The researchers then used statistical tools to see how these measures of anxiety and math and reading ability were related between fraternal twins and between identical twins. This served to reach a conclusion how differences in math anxiety could be explained by genetic factors, and how much of these differences were attributed to environmental factors such as home and school.
Prior to the study, the researchers were unclear about how vital is the role of genetics is in math anxiety and how it originates. They questioned whether it was due to a lack of math skills or wheter it was related to a person’s predisposition to anxiety. The findings revealed genetic factors explained about 40 percent of the individual differences in math anxiety, according to Medical Xpress. A predisposition to general anxiety and performance in math skills, along with environmental factors helped determined how the participants experienced math.
“If you have these genetic risk factors for math anxiety and then you have negative experiences in math classes, it may make learning that much harder. It is something we need to account for when we’re considering interventions for those who need help in math,” said Dr. Stephen Petrill, principal investigator of the study, and professor of psychology at Ohio State. "If we can get a better idea of what provokes this anxiety response, we may be able to develop a better intervention for those with math anxiety.”
This study may help educators, parents, and even students approach math difficulties in a different way by addressing not only intellectual but emotional problems, like anxiety. Tackling both anxiety and math skills will help encourage a student to learn and perform better in math classes. After all, math anxiety is 40 percent genetic and 60 percent environmental factors.
Source: Bartlett CW, Hart SA, Kovas Y, Lukowski S, Lyons IM, Thompson LA. Who is afraid of math? Two sources of genetic variance for mathematical anxiety. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 2014.