Reading Researchers Question Result of National Reading Panel: Is Phonics the Best Choice?
By: Gregory Camilli, Sadako Vargas, and Michele Yureck
The study reviewed findings of the National Reading Panel (NRP) (2000). Results of the NRP have strongly influence current education policy on reading and the role of reading instruction for all children who are struggling readers. The conclusion of the panel was that phonics instruction is the core to the NRP findings. The current study attempted to replicate, or find the same results, with a similar analysis. Their goal was to verify whether independent researchers, who had not been commissioned by federal policy makers, would arrive at the same conclusion as the NRP report.
A meta-analysis of preexisting research was conducted. A meta-analysis is a quantitative analysis of data found through literature reviews of experimental research studies. Researchers doing meta-analysis ask "If a large group of studies on a specific topic are taken together what do they say about the field?"
The NPR model was followed to a large extent. Date from 40 previous studies on reading were included in the current data analysis. With the exception of one study that was dropped, and three that were added, studies included in this meta analysis were those used by the NRP.
The full write-up of this study has an excellent explanation of meta-analysis. It also clearly outline the findings of the NPR and how different use of the date resulted in different findings. The authors write a paper that nicely walks the reader through the data analysis. Variables are clearly explained and the reader is able to understand how and why the study was done.
A systematic phonics instruction significant effect was found but the size of the effect was much smaller that of the NRP. That means that phonics instruction was found to be important. The effect for phonics instruction, however, was also much smaller than the effect for individual tutoring and smaller than the effect for systematic language activities. "Overall, we concluded that there is reason to believe that these effects are additive. Systematic phonics instruction when combined with language activities and individual tutoring may triple the effect of phonics alone".
The study does support part of what the NPR study suggested. That is phonics is important. The study is important, though, for what it adds. Many are concerned that federal reading policy has become unidemensional with a focus only on phonics and phonics instruction as the key to measuring and achieving reading success for children. The current study suggests that successful reading programs require more. The current study also calls into question what is meant by rigorous researched-based models of instruction. The authors emphasize that it is important to look carefully at how data was gathered as well as what the results say.
Educational Policy Analysis Archives, Volume 11, Number 15, May 8, 2003. National Institute for Early Education Research and Rutgers Unversity.


BASIC Computer Games
|Author||David H. Ahl|
BASIC Computer Games (1973, 1978, 2010) is a compilation of type-in computer games in the BASIC programming language collected by David H. Ahl. Some of the games were written or modified by Ahl as well. It was the first computer book to sell a million copies.
Around 1971, Ahl ported two popular games from DEC's FOCAL language to BASIC, Hammurabi and Lunar Lander. He published the BASIC versions in DEC's educational newsletter, EDU, which he edited. Their popularity was such that he called for more submissions for future editions of the newsletter, and quickly gathered many, with a considerable group of them coming from high school students. The wide availability of BASIC on various platforms, notably the Data General Nova and HP 2100 series, led to considerable porting effort to and from the DEC platform.
In 1974 Ahl left DEC to start Creative Computing magazine. He re-acquired the rights to the book from DEC and re-published under the name BASIC Computer Games. It was around this time that the first hobbyist microcomputers started appearing in 1975, and it became quite popular with these owners. The release of the "1977 Trinity" machines (Apple II, Commodore PET and TRS-80) was soon followed by a great many new competing microcomputer platforms featuring BASIC, along with the userbase to go with them, and demand for the book led to a second edition in 1978. Sales remained strong for years, and spawned similar collections in More Basic Computer Games (1979), and Big Computer Games (1984) and Basic Computer Adventures (1984), with translations into six languages.
The first version, 101 went into a second printing and eventually sold 10,000 copies. Ahl later noted that “was far more books than there were computers around, so people were buying three, four, five of them for each computer.”
The second version, BASIC, was re-printed many times and was the first computer book to sell a million copies. Harry McCracken called it "The single most influential book of the BASIC era".
The BASIC Computer Games are playable under the relatively obscure Microsoft Small Basic development environment for children. Computer Science for Kids has released a 2010 Small Basic Edition of the classic Basic Computer Games book called Basic Computer Games: Small Basic Edition.
- Hamurabi (David H. Ahl, based on The Sumer Game by Richard Merrill)
- Super Star Trek
- Anderson, J. J. "Dave tells Ahl—the history of Creative computing", Creative Computing, Volume 10 (November 1984), p. 66-8+
- Harry McCracken, "Fifty Years of BASIC, the Programming Language That Made Computers Personal", Time, 29 April 2014
- Microsoft Small Basic website
- Small Basic Computer Games website
- Archived version of GW-BASIC
- LCCN 78-50028
- Basic Computer Games: Small Basic 2010 Edition
- George Beker's BEKERBOTS Site. Beker illustrated the Basic Computer Games books
- Basic Computer Games archived on AtariArchives.org
- GW-BASIC games and other programs, including selections from the Basic Computer Games series
|This article about a computer book or series of books is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.|


Want to play publisher for a day? Become an illustrator with this fun and creative project. Make a book jacket for either your favorite book or one that you read and thought could be represented better.
Take a minute to think about the book jacket designs that you have seen. How did the artist decide on the image and style? Looking at some of your favorite titles, would you have chosen the same artistic style, or description on the inside book jacket? What would you do differently? Keep the same? How important is the illustration and the book jacket description to you when choosing the book? Do you ever think about the book jacket summary after you have read a book? Was it accurate?
What You Need:
- Large construction paper or drawing paper
- Lined paper
What You Do:
- Choose either one of your favorite books, or one that you read that you want to work with to change the cover.
- First step is to write the summary for the interior flap of the cover. Begin by brainstorming your ideas for the jacket summary. What is the book about? Why would someone want to read it? Remember to make the summary attractive and exciting, while still staying true to what the book is about. Remember, it should be a short piece, and writing should be clear and concise.
- Once you have the ideas hashed out, write a rough draft, read to a parent and discuss if they feel what you wrote is a good, brief description about the book. Ask yourself, would it make someone want to know more and read this book?
- When your edits are finished, cut two strips of lined paper, about 4 inches wide and as long as the book jacket will be. Publish the final draft by writing out your summary on one of the strips (the front flap), and continuing onto the other (the back flap). These will be glued later inside your illustrated jacket.
- Next, lay out a large sheet of drawing paper or construction paper. Place the book, spine down, on top of the paper and fold each end around the covers, leaving around 4 inches on each side. Glue the front and back summaries down on each flap in writing order.
- Now design and illustrate your cover. You can use collage, colored pencils, markers, or anything else you think would work. Remember, you are the artistic director! Don’t forget to include the title and author’s name on your new cover.
- Finally, when completed, share your book jacket with others!
Alicia Danyali, BS Elementary Education, taught primary-level students for four years at the International School of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The last four years of her teaching career, she taught at the Washington International School in Washington, D.C. She recently completed writing a series of children's picture books and is a mother of one young son.


Thousands of books are published every year, and of those, some are judged to be better than the rest in one category or another.
The gold foil seal on these books lets people know the art inside is going to be especially rewarding.
"What's so important about art in a book?" you might ask, but can you remember Shel Silverstein's  poems without his silly line drawings of dogs hanging over disappearing sidewalks, or of The Giving Tree , well, giving?
What would Green Eggs and Ham  be without the improbable illustrations of Sam I Am and his friend in a box, in a house, with a fox, with a mouse...?
Whether it's something iconic like Where the Wild Things Are  or something breathtaking like The Polar Express , the illustrations in our favorite books not only help us identify those works, but they also teach us something about the world of art.
This is especially important now as national leaders are recognizing the importance of art education  in creating a flexible workforce than can take on our nation's challenges.
Randolph Caldecott  was a British artist who lived from 1846 to 1886. Every Christmas for eight years he released two illustrated books priced at a shilling each. These became affordable and popular gifts for children, and as a result, he is recognized as the father of the modern picture book.
You might recognize his rendition of the poem Hey, Diddle, Diddle in the accompanying close-up illustration of the dish running away with the spoon. The entire public domain image  can be found in the Wikimedia Commons.
Read more about the effort to add Art to the nation's educational emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathmatics at the Rhode Island School of Design's advocacy site: stemtosteam.org .
Also, check out our Best Books for Young Readers  page for links to Caldecott and aother award-winning titles for children at JCPL.


Mobile Learning Week 2013 is kicking off today. The initiative is organised by UNESCO, supported by Nokia and actively explores how mobile devices can contribute to literacy and education as a whole. Mobile learning is taking over desktop computers with more people accessing the Internet from a mobile device, and the potential is being tapped into by Mobile Learning Week to empower individuals.
The initiative plays a vital role towards achieving UNESCO's Education for All (EFA) goals by 2015. Three goals that are related to the Mobile Learning Week are:
- Improving levels of adult and youth literacy: how mobile technologies can support literacy development and increase reading opportunities
- Improving the quality of education: how mobile technologies can support teachers and their professional development
- Achieving gender parity and equality in education: how mobile technologies can support equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality for all, in particular for women and girls
Nokia has been working with UNESCO (UN's Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) since 2010 on the EFA goals and has been a significant partner in helping to promote mobile learning. It makes sense for Nokia to be included in the initiatives as the company has both the technology and services in place to support such projects.
Nokia will be presenting a keynote speech on Nokia Life at UNESCO's Mobile Learning Week symposium in Paris this week. Nokia Life is a suite of education and life services that has reportedly benefited more than 90 million mobile phone owners in countries such as India, China and Nigeria. The Finnish manufacturer will also be demonstrating two tools that have been developed to aid learning:
- Mobile Mathematics, or MoMaths, has already been used by 50,000 students in South Africa across 200 schools and is now being expanded as a global service.
- Nokia Flashcards, created in partnership with the NGO Plan, is a mobile game that supports literacy and language learning.
Professor Francesc Pedró is leading UNESCO'swork in education and technology. Nokia Conversations managed to book a few minutes of time to interview him on mobile learning, the part that Nokia has played so far and why it can benefit teachers, pupils and families. It's well worth reading through, should you have a few minutes to spare.
No one can deny that Nokia goes the extra mile.
Source: Nokia Conversations


Why pay for expensive plates when you can paint original designs on your own dishes? This plate painting activity is sure to put your kid's artistic skills to the test and she'll create a lovely keepsake in the process. Kids can paint ceramics at their next party, adults can create unique platters for dinner parties, or the whole family can create a special set of dishes together.
What You Do:
- Help your child wash and dry the plates.
- Have her brainstorm what type of design she would like to create. Offer her a paper and pencil so she can sketch out her ideas. If she wants, she can also use stencils or stamps. Even a leaf from the yard can make a beautiful design.
- When she's settled on a design, have her to use a washable marker to help her map out the design on the plate. The marker will wash off after the plate is finished.
- Now it's time to start painting. If painting more than one layer of color, make sure she allows the first layer to dry before painting over the top. If the painting doesn't go as planned, she can always wash the plate and start over!
- Once her plate is painted to her liking, set the paint by baking the plate in the oven at 300° Fahrenheit for 30 minutes (or according to your ceramic paint instructions).
- Then, help her remove the plate from the oven using hot mitts, and set aside to cool.
Once they've cooled off, the plates can be used for your next family meal, or they make great gifts for a holiday or special occasion, too!
Sarah Lipoff has a K-12 Art Education degree and enjoys working with kids of all ages.


Joined: 21 Jan 2005
|Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 3:59 am Post subject: Beginners: Guitar Sheet Music
|by Kristy Annely
As you take guitar lessons either on your own or with a help of a professional guitar player, you are most likely to encounter guitar sheet music. Guitar sheet music is a printed musical notation for guitar. If you are serious in learning how to play a guitar like a pro, you have to learn what guitar sheet music is, what it does and how it is used as early as now.
There are basically two types of musical notations for guitar: standard notation and tablature. These notations tell you which notes to play on your guitar.
In this kind of notation, the notes are written in a five-line musical staff. You must be able to identify the notes in the staff and locate the equivalent note on your guitar. Each kind of note has its own duration — for instance, a quarter note lasts one beat; a half note, two beats; and a whole note, four beats.
Mnemonics are usually used to identify and remember the notes in the staff easily. Notes that are found in the spaces between the lines form the word FACE while the notes found in the lines form EGBDF, which can be easily recalled by the mnemonic “Every Good Boy Does Fine.”
The note located at the ledger line below the staff is called the middle C. On the guitar, the middle C lies on the fifth string.
This kind of guitar notation tells you exactly where to position your fingers on the guitar. It consists of six horizontal lines that represent the six strings of the instrument. If you look at the staff closely, you will see numbers on the lines. Each of these corresponds to a fret in the guitar.
Since a guitar tablature or a tab shows a clear-cut illustration of the fretboard, it is much easier to use. Also, a guitar tab avoids confusion since notes in a standard notation can be played in different strings and frets.
However, a tab may only be used for guitars while a standard notation is applicable to many kinds of instruments. Moreover, you cannot identify the rhythm of the song if you are using only a tablature. For better appreciation of the music, it would be better to get a guitar sheet music with both standard and tablature notations.
Sheet Music provides detailed information on Sheet Music, Free Sheet Music, Piano Sheet Music, Guitar Sheet Music and more. Sheet Music is affiliated with Music Education Theory.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kristy_Annely


COLUMBUS, Ohio, Oct. 1, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The definition of handwriting means writing by hand with a pen or pencil. Students across the country will be testing those skills as they prepare to compete in the
23rd Annual Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest
. For the first time since its inception, kindergarteners will also be invited to compete in the manuscript (printing) portion of the contest.
Zaner-Bloser decided to add the new kindergarten category because handwriting is one of the key foundational skills taught to kindergarten and pre-k students. "The rigor of kindergarten is so strong now. Why not reward them for the hard work and dedication it takes to master handwriting," says
, president of Zaner-Bloser. "Research continues to show that students as early as pre-K can benefit from putting pencil to paper when it comes to developing literacy and fine motor skills."
The contest is open to all students in grades K-8 in both public and private schools. Schools hold their own handwriting contests and enter the winning student for each grade level. Judges will look for handwriting that appears relaxed and natural, not traced, and must meet the Zaner-Bloser
Keys to Legibility
: size, shape, spacing, and slant.
Judges select state winners in grades K-8 for both public and private schools. State winners compete against each other to become one of the 18 public and private
National Grade-Level Semifinalists
Those semifinalists then compete to be chosen as one of nine Grand National Champions.
The submission deadline is January 23, 2014—National Handwriting Day
. More than
in cash and prizes will be awarded and distributed among all the winning students, their teachers, and schools.
Nicholas Maxim Award for Special Needs Students
An exciting category added two years ago is the
Award for Special Needs Students. This is a challenging educational opportunity for special needs students to test their manuscript and cursive skills in a fun competition with their peers. Zaner-Bloser created and named this award in January of 2011 after receiving an entry from
, a 5
, who submitted an outstanding cursive entry despite the fact he had been born without hands and his lower arms.
Eligibility requirements for the
Award for Special Needs Students include:
- One manuscript (print) and one cursive special needs award entry per school
- A student must have a cognitive delay or an intellectual, physical, or developmental disability
- Each entry must be accompanied by a letter on official school letterhead explaining the student's special needs handwriting challenge
All students chosen as "school winners" compete for the
Award for Special Needs Students—one for manuscript and one for cursive—worth
in cash and a trophy. Entries are judged by a team of occupational therapists.
Teachers can download an entry form by visiting
. The company estimates that more than 3.3 million students have participated in the contest during its 22-year history.
Zaner-Bloser, a wholly owned subsidiary of Highlights for Children with more than 120 years of experience in education, is one of the premier publishers of research-based reading, writing, spelling, vocabulary, and handwriting programs. The Zaner-Bloser mission is to create dynamic, appealing, and effective educational programs and services. Zaner-Bloser focuses on distinctive programs that inspire all students to become engaged, literate participants in the global society.


paraguay: sounds of hope
FEATURED LESSON PLAN: Music as an Instrument of Social Change
In this lesson, students will examine how a music education program is being used in Paraguay to bring about positive social change. They will then predict how Paraguay’s economy, politics and culture might be different in 20 years as a result of the program. For more background information on Paraguay and the vision for this music program, please see the Related Resources.
Social Studies, Geography, World History, Global Studies, Music
The student will:
- Examine a program for poor children in Paraguay that aims to bring about positive social change through music
- Discuss benefits that come from studying and performing music
- Infer what economic, political and cultural changes might occur in Paraguay over time as a result of the program
Estimated Time Needed:
One 50-minute class period
- Internet access and equipment to show the class an online video clip and to conduct research
- The FRONTLINE/World film Paraguay: Sounds of Hope (length: 14:03)
- Map showing the location of Paraguay
- Ask the class if anyone plays a musical instrument. Invite those who do to describe any benefits they have received from studying music. Capture these benefits on a list that everyone can see. Have students consider whether any of those benefits might help them to be better citizens of your community.
- Explain that you are going to show the class a video that tells the story of a famous Paraguayan musician who is trying to bring positive change to his country by providing free instruments and musical instruction to poor and neglected children. Point out the location of Paraguay on a map. Explain that years of political uncertainty, corruption and a poor infrastructure have meant that about 60 percent of Paraguayans live in poverty.
- Show the class Paraguay: Sounds of Hope (length: 14:03). Focus student viewing by having them take notes on the ways the Sounds of the Earth program has changed the lives of its participants. After watching the video, have students refer to their notes to make any additions to the class list about the benefits of music.
- Make further additions to this list by highlighting some sections of FRONTLINE/World’s interview with Szarán. Specifically, have students consider his answers to these questions:
- What kinds of music do children play in the program?
- What has been the most difficult part of running the program?
- How have years under a dictatorship defined the country?
- Tell me more about your efforts to expand Sonidos into urban areas. What has it been like to work there? What are some of the challenges?
- Five years on, how far and wide has your program spread?
- Why did you take some of the kids from the program to Europe?
- And for those who are not geniuses, what happens to them? What do they learn?
- Ask students to take what they’ve learned about Paraguay and the class list about the benefits of music and write a one-page description that predicts how Paraguay might be different in 20 years as a result of the Sounds of the Earth project. Students should frame their predictions by how they think changes might take place in the areas of economics, politics and culture.
- If time permits, invite students to share what they’ve written with the class. As they read, play audio clips from “The Music of the Missions” in the background.
This teacher's guide was written by Cari Ladd.


In recent years, concerns have emerged regarding the preparation of teachers and their ability to work effectively in today's complex classrooms. Some entities have criticized traditional teacher preparation programs at colleges and universities particularly, focused on perceived weaknesses in content courses and field experiences.
The Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut has been preparing teachers for almost 75 years and is a recognized leader in teacher preparation by organizations such as the Carnegie Corp. of New York, and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, particularly in the areas of program innovation and school placements. We conduct world-class research and collect extensive data from our students, graduates, and school districts that keep us focused on what works about our program and where we need to improve. Based on the evidence we have gathered, we can say unequivocally that high quality teacher education programs include the following elements.
First, it is our firm belief that not all can be teachers. Teacher preparation programs must be selective in admissions. They should not only examine the applicants' GPA, but also their academic course work to ensure extensive subject knowledge. They should evaluate applicants' emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills, require experiences in working with educators and students, and establish their commitment to education, social justice and equity.
Second, effective teacher preparation programs must combine strong content preparation with pedagogical knowledge and skills. Professors in education must work closely with professors in arts and sciences and school partners to ensure what is being taught reflects the reality of the schools and is aligned with standards. This means, for example, that students in mathematics teacher preparation programs have a solid grasp not only of mathematics, but also how to teach math effectively in real-world classrooms.
Third, teacher preparation programs must instill in their students the dispositions required to be effective teachers. Future teachers must become reflective practitioners so that they have the ability to ask critical questions about their own practice. They must possess a high commitment to teaching as a profession; and to equity, fairness and diversity.
Fourth, according to national experts, a key element for successful learning is the opportunity to apply what is being learned and refine it; teacher preparation is learning about practice in schools. Professor Linda Darling-Hammond at Stanford University suggests that strong teacher preparation programs have "a common clear vision of good teaching that permeates all course work and clinical experiences" and they have "extended clinical experiences ... that are carefully chosen to support the ideas presented in simultaneous, closely interwoven course work." Such meaningful field experience must be extensive and involve experiences working with learners from diverse socio-economic, ethnic, cultural, religious backgrounds, and those who have special learning needs including English as a second language.
Finally, it is imperative that teacher preparation programs establish a systemic mechanism to gauge the learning of their students. Through a series of key assessments from the beginning to the end of the preparation programs, students must demonstrate how well they have learned the knowledge, skills, and dispositions required to be good initial teachers. Strong programs collect, analyze, and report student performance data so that they cannot only help individual students, but also make overall program improvements. Teacher preparation programs should also track their graduates and understand how they perform in schools after they become teachers.
Selectivity, strong content and pedagogical knowledge, dispositional training, field experiences throughout the program, along with systemic assessment mechanisms matter the most to a successful teacher preparation program. This spring, the Connecticut Educator Preparation Advisory Council has reaffirmed the value of these elements in their guidelines. Such guidelines reflect knowledge and evidence from teacher preparation educators, school leaders, and policy makers. The Neag School of Education at UConn is committed to supporting this work and is looking forward to discussing the specifics with the council in the coming year. While we are always open for feedback, we are confident that we have a strong and effective teacher education program. We are confident that our efforts to assess our program are comprehensive and valid. Our confidence is evidence-based and in the university's long tradition of service to the state.
At the Neag School of Education of the University of Connecticut, Dr. Marijke Kehrhahn serves as the associate dean; Dr. Yuhang Rong serves as the assistant dean, and Dr. David M. Moss serves as the interim director of teacher education, and is also an associate professor for elementary education.


National Association for Music Education
The National Association for Music Education is a professional organization for in-service and pre-service music educators across the United States.
The preamble of NAfME mission statement reads, “Music allows us to celebrate and preserve our cultural heritages, and also to explore the realms of expression, imagination, and creation resulting in new knowledge. Therefore, every individual should be guaranteed the opportunity to learn music and to share in musical experiences.” The mission of NAfME is to advance music education by encouraging the study and making of music by all.
Belmont University Collegiate NAfME members have the opportunity to attend monthly meetings related to their future profession, to attend a music education workshop during the spring semester, and to receive journals that enhance knowledge in their chosen field of study. The national NAfME organization also informs the public about the values of music education. NAfME sponsors a “Music in Our Schools” month and completes a variety of public relations work. The association encourages music teachers to see their work as vital to the development of young children, and motivates and encourages teachers to approach music education as something to which every child needs exposure.Dr. Deen Entsminger, Faculty Advisor


Learn more about the ancient art of bread baking by rolling up your sleeves and making a batch of homemade pita bread! This kid-friendly recipe is easier than you think, and encourages children to explore tasty ethnic foods they may not normally eat. It's a healthy and versatile vehicle just waiting to be stuffed with some turkey, veggies, falafel or hummus.
What You Do:
- Have your child place the warm water in the bowl and sprinkle with the yeast and sugar. Yeast is a living organism, which causes the bread to rise. Working with the sugar, the yeast activates and leavens, or foams and aerates, the bread.
- After a few minutes, invite your child to take a look at what’s happened in the mixing bowl! You should see a frothing, bubbling mixture, which means its ready for the next step.
- Add the salt, vegetable oil and flour, using a spatula to incorporate.
- Lightly dust a clean workspace with flour and dump out the dough. Spend 5-minutes kneading the dough by rolling it forward and then back while pressing it with the heels of your hands.
- The dough can be placed back into the mixing bowl to rest for at least an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 400 F. Pinch off some dough about the size of a golf ball. Once again, lightly dust your workspace with flour and roll the dough into a round circle about half an inch thick.
- Place the rolled rounds of dough on the sheet pan and then place in the hot oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until they have puffed up and are lightly browned!
Once the pita bread has cooled, you can taste test it with your favorite stuffings and dips, like hummus, veggies, turkey or tuna salad!
Sarah Lipoff has a K-12 Art Education degree and enjoys working with kids of all ages.


Music Education Great Britain
A selection of articles related to music education great britain.
Original articles from our library related to the Music Education Great Britain. See Table of Contents for further available material (downloadable resources) on Music Education Great Britain.
- An Overview of Gospel Music
- Gospels refer to the first four books of the Bible’s New Testament. These hymns became integral part of worship services of “Protestants”.
>> Poetry & Fable
- Black Gospel Music
- Black Gospel music is also known as Urban Contemporary Gospel music. Its roots were the Negro spiritual songs that were sang by the African slaves while tilling the rich cotton fields of their white Southern masters in the early 18th century.
>> Poetry & Fable
- Story of the Celts: The Celts in Britain
- The Celts in Britain [ 27 ] What is obvious when studying the Celts, as when studying anything, is that different experts say different things--there are always men of knowledge who have conflicting views about specifics. The dates of when the Celts came to...
History & Anthropology >> Celtic & Irish
- Lynne, Carol
- Growing up surrounded by music, Carole Lynneâ€™s musical education has ranged from the informal training of her parents teaching her how to sing jazz to formal instruction at The Juilliard School of Music, University of Michigan Music School, and The American...
Real Interviews >> Authors
- What day are you born on?
- The day of the month on which the you were born - regardless of which month or year it is - is a key numerological indicator, providing an excellent "thumbnail sketch" of standout traits. It strongly influences your Life Path and is helpful in...
Symbology >> Numerology
Music Education Great Britain is described in multiple online sources, as addition to our editors' articles, see section below for printable documents, Music Education Great Britain books and related discussion.
Suggested Pdf Resources
- Mapping Music Education Research in the UK
- MAPPING MUSIC EDUCATION RESEARCH IN THE UK. - 2 -. BERA REVIEWS.
- Music Education in England
- orchestral music education activities, although these fall outside of Arts Council. England funding. 2.
- Monitoring musical progress: approaches from the UK
- Stephanie Pitts. Monitoring musical progress: approaches from the UK. Defining standards for music.
- State of the Union
- Music Education UK magazine: Summer 2011 | musiceducationuk.com.
- The Music Education Community in the UK
- The Music Education Community in the UK.
Suggested Web Resources
- Music Education Council - Home
- Young people's music making in the UK sets the standard for the rest of the world .
- Music Education UK | Bringing everyone together - Home
- Music Education UK magazine - out now! 'The music education sector is standing on a burning platform', says Marc Jaffrey.
- Music Education UK | Bringing everyone together
- Home · News · Events · musiclearninglive!
- Welcome - Yamaha Music in Education - UK & Ireland
- Welcome to Yamaha UK's education website for the UK & Ireland.
- Music | Education | guardian.co.uk
- Latest news and comment on Music from guardian.co.uk.
Great care has been taken to prepare the information on this page. Elements of the content come from factual and lexical knowledge databases, realmagick.com library and third-party sources. We appreciate your suggestions and comments on further improvements of the site.
Music Education Great Britain Topics
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It is my goal this year to provide my students with many opportunities to discover math and social studies through student-centered learning.
My focus throughout the year in math will be on vocabulary, fluency of the basic operations, number sense, and problem solving. By focusing on these four foundational skills alongside the TEKS, each child will become a stronger math student. It is my goal through meaningful instruction that every student in my class will leave 6th grade with a sense of respect for math and its importance.
This year's curriculum in Social Studies is World History. Learning about the geography, history, culture, economics, and government around the world will teach our students to become more knowledgable and involved citezens of our community.


External Web sites
- European Space Agency - Our Universe - Mercury
- H2g2 - Mercury
- Iloveindia.com - Mercury
- India Parenting - Mercury
- Indian Child - Mercury
- Indianetzone - Mercury Planet
- Kidipede Science for Kids - Mercury
- KidsAstronomy.com - Mercury
- National Aeronautics And Space Administration - Mercury
- National Geographic - Science and Space - Mercury
- Nineplanets - Mercury
- Office of Naval Research - Solar System: Inner Planets - Mercury
- Rader’s Cosmos4Kids.com - Mercury
- Science Kids - Fun Science and Technology for Kids - Mercury Facts for Kids
- Window To The Universe - Discover Mercury
- Wolfram Research - Mercury
Britannica Web sites
Articles from Britannica encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
- Mercury - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
Mercury is one of the eight planets that orbit, or travel around, the sun in the solar system. It is the closest planet to the sun. Its average distance from the sun is about 36 million miles (58 million kilometers). It travels around the sun at a faster speed than any other planet.
- Mercury - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
The planet that orbits closest to the Sun is Mercury. It is also the smallest of the eight planets in the solar system. These features make Mercury difficult to view from Earth, as the small planet rises and sets within about two hours of the Sun. Observers on Earth can only ever see the planet during twilight, when the Sun is just below the horizon. Relatively little was known about Mercury until the Mariner 10 spacecraft visited it in 1974-75. It was more than 30 years before another spacecraft, Messenger, visited the planet.


Free Reading Strategies Pack 1
Reading and Word Solving Strategies Pack 1 is free for newsletter subscribers who confirm their newsletters subscriptions. Immediate access is given as the first news received will have the current password for the lessons log-in page. What’s in this pack? There are 170 pages with 20 reading comprehension and word solving posters. Also included are some book companions to help mentor the strategies. Pictures tell the best story, so see for yourself what is included. I prepared a PDF preview with more information, including the CCSS addressed for grades one and two. Sign up below to download for free.
First, the word solving reading strategies are included, pocket chart cards for these strategies are also included, along with cards for any mentor text resources included in this pack. Auto the Otter is so perfect for sight words automaticity!
Next, there are posters for the reading comprehension strategies. Pocket chart cards for these strategies are also included, along with a card for any mentor text resources included in this pack. Quackers the Duck is my favorite!
Now for the Scholastic book companions/resources included in pack one. Seven Blind Mice can be used to help teach several strategies. This section includes work pages, activities, and also pocket chart cards for vocabulary.
The Arthur’s Valentine section has some sweet activities.
Chunky Monkey and Spinner the Spider are part of the Cinderella Penguin section.
Next, Scholastic’s sight word readers (or any emergent readers with the same words) help reinforce automaticity with Auto the Otter. By the way, here is a second Auto the Otter (only) freebie on Buy Sell Teach.
Next, Digger Dog helps mentor non-fiction conventions.
Finally, Clifford for President is used as an anchor text for several word solving strategies. Quackers the Duck is perfect for noticing dialogue in the text, also.
Thanks for reading!


In order to provide a thorough education for students across the country, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 made art a mandatory part of public school curricula. As a compliment to the sciences and humanities taught throughout the elementary, middle and high school levels, art is a way to further develop a student’s understanding of different disciplines, and expose them to new and engaging topics. For many students, art classes provided in school are the primary source of art education and are therefore an essential part of public school core curriculum. In many schools, art programs seek to establish skills in crafts, design, painting and other forms of visual expression.
For elementary school students, art classes seek to foster interest as well as skill in many different forms of art. The art teacher usually has the freedom to design their own classes, but in general, classes will include basic drawing, painting and crafts. In middle school, classes continue to help students improve basic artistic skills, while introducing concepts in art history. At this level, lessons are still basic and intended to establish a solid foundation in skill and history. In high school, art classes expand to include other visual medium, such as video, photography and even graphic design. Art theory is also introduced at this level, and the subject becomes more of a serious academic study than an activity.
Dance, although a form of art, is not a mandatory subject as stipulated by No Child Left Behind. Still, it is equally important to the development of a well-rounded student. Dance is usually offered as an elective, and a number of new initiatives have helped to strengthen the place of dance in schools and have led to an increase in extracurricular dance clubs. Dance can additionally be taught as part of a physical education program.
Like dance, drama is a form of art that is not a mandatory part of the curriculum, but still can play a very important roll in the development of students. Drama, or theater, is usually offered as an elective or an extracurricular activity, and is concerned with instilling students with an aptitude for acting in a variety of styles, methods and techniques. Drama teachers train students to communicate, control and project their voices, and present themselves. The responsibilities of a drama educator may include creating lesson plans, teaching students about plays and theater history, assisting students in creating their own dramatic pieces, organizing and managing the learning environment, directing performance rehearsals, helping to set-up and manage lighting and sets, and assessing students’ performance.
In elementary school, drama usually takes the form of school pageants or skits organized by teachers to educate students about teamwork, creativity and oftentimes literature. Classes can also play theater games for fun, while channeling a child’s creativity, imagination and performance skills. In middle school or high schools, full-length plays or musicals are orchestrated bu students and their drama teachers in cooperation. Here, students can be exposed to drama as an elective or as part of an English class. Many drama clubs are supervised by an instructor who teaches in another subject and volunteers for the role. This is often an English teacher or other educator who has a measure of experience with literature and drama. Some schools, however, employ a drama teacher on a full-time basis.


Health benefits of correct singing
Is Singing Good For Your Health?
Do you know that singing is actually good for your health and even make you live longer? The National Charity, Heart Research Of United Kingdom wants to get everybody to be singing from 8-15 December 2008 to help raise funds to find cures for heart diseases and also because the charity believes that there are evidence to show that singing is good for you.
Singing Music Therapy
Professor Graham Welch, who is the Chairman of Music Education at the Institute of Education, University of London has studied developmental and medical aspects of singing for more than three decades.
He said, "The health benefits of singing are both physical and psychological. Singing has physical benefits because it is an aerobic activity that increases oxygenation in the blood stream and exercises major muscle groups in the upper body. Singing has psychological benefits because of its normally positive effect in reducing stress levels through the action of the endocrine system which is linked to our sense of emotional well being. Psychological benefits are also evident when people sing together as well as alone because of the increased sense of community bonding, belonging and shared endeavor."
According to a research conducted by leading singing teacher and singer Helen Astrid, from The Helen Astrid Singing Academy in London, regular vocal cord exercises are also believed to prolong life.
This was what she said, "Singing is an excellent way to keep fit because you are exercising your lungs and heart (cardio vascular exercise). Furthermore, your body produces endorphins (feel good hormones), just like when you eat a bar of chocolate except that with singing is that you won’t consume any extra calories! Singing not only increases your lung capacity, it improves posture, clears respiratory tubes and sinuses and can even increase mental alertness through greater oxygenation. Singing regularly also tone and firm up your abdominal muscles and back. However, that is if you are singing correctly.”
"Another benefit of singing is that it can keep you looking young since you are gently exercising your facial muscles" added Helen who looks more than a decade younger than her age.
According to the findings of a joint study conducted by Harvard and Yale, singing can even helps you live longer. The study showed that choral singing increased the life expectancy of the population of New Haven, Connecticut. This report concluded that this was because singing promotes a healthy heart and an enhanced mental state.
So if singing is really good for your health, then let’s have fun and keep fit by singing more regularly. Remember the song by Helen Reddy "Keep On Singing"? Click here to get a good singing voice to sing beautifully.


Most parents of young children are anxious about water safety - and for good reason! For children under the age of 5, drowning remains the second leading cause of accidental death. Many parents believe that infant swimming classes will safeguard their preschooler against the tragedy of accidental drowning. Over the past decade, numerous infant and toddler swimming programs have emerged that promote a variety of benefits, including "waterproofing" infants and teaching small children water safety and swimming skills. While toddlers can learn to propel themselves in the water, parents cannot expect young children to learn the rules of water safety or to know how to act in an emergency. Furthermore, no one can be "waterproofed". Toddlers can easily drown even if they have had swimming lessons, and parents can be lulled into a false sense of security believing that their infant or young child can "swim" a few strokes.
Children not toilet trained may spread infection in pools, particularly the intestinal parasite Giardia. Even high chloride levels cannot effectively clean pools contaminated by fecal material. Youngsters in swimming programs that encourage head submersion risk water intoxication, a medical condition caused by swallowing large quantities of water causing brain swelling with seizures and other severe complications. Although children may appear well while swimming, water intoxication can develop later and can be deadly. Furthermore, the smaller the child, the less fluid it takes to produce this condition.
Recognizing the popularity of swim programs for children and the desire of parents to make their children as safe around water as possible, the AAP recommends that programs for children under 3 years of age require a one-to-one participation of a parent or another adult. Organized group swimming instruction should be reserved for children more than 3 years of age. To reduce medical risks, the program should follow the national YMCA or American Red Cross guidelines, which include prohibiting total submersion, maintaining proper water temperature (86 degrees and above), and providing measures to control stool contamination. Parents should avoid programs that advertise "waterproofing" children or making them "water safe" because neither is humanly possible. The best programs promote water enrichment and stress parent participation and risk awareness.
Children age 3 and older may be ready for lessons, depending on their developmental readiness and comfort level in the water. There are many activities parents can do at home to help a young child learn to love the water:
Parents considering lessons for their young child should remember that motor skill development at this age is unpredictable, so avoid the "hurried child" syndrome. Not every youngster will like the water at first, and if a child doesn't want to learn to swim, they won't. Any pressure from parents, beyond providing the exposure to swimming, will ruin the fun and cause the youngster to become anxious and resistant.
If small group classes fail, try some private lessons, using an instructor who provides a "tender loving care" approach to water. And if a parent is a non-swimmer or fearful of the water, ask another adult to go into the water to help the child.
One final word. Most swimming instructors agree that flotation devices are a good way to provide support for new swimmers. While these aids allow youngsters to relax, their use should be limited. Children may become too dependent on their support, and that can slow their progress. What is more important, flotation devices often give children (and their parents) a false sense of security in their youngster's ability would could quickly place a child in a drowning situation.
Parents should remember that the water is a new element that their child must slowly get used to with supervision. When encouraged, but not pushed, all children will learn to swim when the time and place are right.


FInd the sleepyheads snuggled in their beds in trees, caves, weeds, and on waves. There is one sleepyhead still not in a cuddle spot. Where can that sleepyhead be? A drowsy, sweet story for ages 3 and up.
A very hungry bear smells something good and ends up in the back of a truck that is taking berries to the city. Watch the bear trying to fit in the busy city with all of the wonderful food smells. There is your sandwich on the bench. Is it really the bear who ate your sandwich? A colorful tall tale for ages 4 and up.
This is a special poem about the wonders seen on a winter night. A perfect mix of words and imagery for bedtime reading ages 4 and up.
For Kids: Great Reads
New Children's Books
News for Little and Big Kids
It's that time again, kids. Time to hug smelly old Aunt Matilda (why does she have to wear SO MUCH perfume?), time for your mom to harp at you in front of everyone, to eat your brussels sprouts, time to fill your stomach to almost bursting, time to fight your little brother for the last piece of pumpkin pie, time to let Great Grandma squeeze your cheeks and drone on about how much you've grown, time for the wish bone to be broken (what are you wishing for?), and time for turkey!!
Phonological awareness is a child’s awareness that sentences can be broken down into words, syllables and sounds. Music naturally encourages development of this pre-reading skill by allowing kids to play with language using rhythm, rhyming and repetition. Take a peek at this short video for more information:
One of the first early literacy skills to develop is print motivation. Print motivation is a child's interest in and enjoyment of books. Parents can cultivate this skill early on by reading to their infants. Even though they aren't able to follow the story, they still very much enjoy hearing their parent's voice. If children witness their parents enjoying reading, they learn to...Read more
At some point in early childhood, children realize that letters are different from each other. They learn to recognize all letters, in both lower and upper cases. They learn the name of each letter and what sound accompanies each letter. This process is known as letter knowledge. This skill can be developed by every day reading and writing activities such as playing with alphabet letters on a refrigerator, reading and pointing out...Read more
Vocabulary is simply knowing the names of things. Words and their meanings are the building blocks of literacy development. The more words a child knows, the easier it will be for him or her to understand what they read. A parent can help their child build vocabulary by exploring different types of books, formats, and subjects in both fiction and non-fiction. As unfamiliar words are encountered, the parent and the child can sound them out together...Read more
Connect with Your Librarians
Join our Youth Department's Goodreads Group: connect with your librarians and other Goodreads Group members to discuss and share book recommendations.
Resources for Preschool Kids
Events for Kids & Teens
For a full events calendar for kids and teens, please follow this link.
Heroes are more than just comic book creations. Twenty-five real heroes grew up in Ohio and became astronauts! Educators from the Neil... (full entry)When?07/06/2015 - 4:00pm to 4:45pmWhere?Lane Road Branch Library
For children ages 2-6 and their families. Young children will learn a variety of skills: rhyming, identifying sounds and letters, asking... (full entry)When?07/06/2015 - 7:00pm to 7:45pmWhere?Tremont Road - Main Library
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- 3 of 3


As we head towards the end of the first decade of the new millennium, high expectations have been set for schools to meet the needs and demand of highly creative, curious and techno savy twenty-first century learner. To give some perspective on this, it is worthwhile to explore the trends that are emerging, that will leverage technology and that have the potential to genuinely transform education in substantial, meaningful and sustainable ways.
In order to improve the quality of education a humble attempt is made in the present book Emerging Trends in Education to deals with the current problems and the future strategies in the context of innovative methods and approaches, creative and collaborative learning, use of information and communication technology, modern concepts of education, values, constructive pedagogy, quality of elementary education, improvement of standards and curriculum changes which would gear the system more to productivity each sector of education has its on unique features and hence there are so many issues with regards to new innovations in every sector of education which are critically examined, discussed and highlighted in this book.
ICT is the major revolutionary application of present time. Its application from primary to higher education has changed the entire scenario of education. The potential use of this resource depends upon the creative ability of the individual teachers. ICT is more critical to education now than ever before and likely to increase in its importance. Today, computers, software and the Internet aren’t simply part of the educational process, they are embedded in it. With the emergence of increasingly robust connectivity infrastructure and cheaper computers, school systems around the world are developing the ability too provide learning opportunities to students anytime, anywhere. ICT has already transformed how we access information and that has in turn transformed the skills our educated people require.
ICT can be utilized in innovative way. A highly imaginative involvement of an author, illustrators and educators together in a digital environment may prepare innovative coursework in the unstained manner. Computer based recording and editing of sounds may be applied in new learning opportunities for the teachers in the teaching music, physics and mathematics and can explore pupils’ creativity. This method assumes that children need to be involved through a range of communication styles and sensory stimuli which go beyond the textual or verbal dimensions, usually favoured in schools. The authors of this book have presented their diverse and innovative views regarding the needs and ways of implementing new trends in education and specially ICT. This book present a context and framework within which teachers and school leaders can re-imagine what technology might make possible for schools in the future.


Masterson, Jackie and Stuart, Morag and Dixon, Maureen and Lovejoy, Sophie (2010) Children's printed word database : Continuities and changes over time in children's early reading vocabulary. British Journal of Psychology, 101 (2). pp. 221-242. ISSN 0007-1269. DOI UNSPECIFIEDFull text not available from this repository.
|Not from UCL IOE?|
In this paper we introduce a comprehensive database of the vocabulary in reading materials used by 5 – 9 year old children in the UK. The database is available on-line http:www.essex.ac.ukpsychologycpwd and allows researchers into early reading development the possibility of rigorous control over critical characteristics of experimental stimuli such as word frequency, regularity and length, frequency of grapheme-phoneme correspondences, orthographic and phonological neighbourhoods etc. The on-line database is also a resource that can be used by practitioners with interests in literacy development and literacy instruction. It can be used to obtain characteristics for a user-generated list of words, or else to generate a list of words according to constraints specified by the user. Here we present an overview of the construction of the database, the materials entered into it, the survey of schools by which we obtained information about the books that were most likely to be used by children in each age group, and the search features available on the database website. We also discuss certain characteristics of the Vocabulary itself and compare these with those reported in an earlier non-representative database reported in Stuart, Dixon, Masterson and Gray (2003). We then present a detailed analysis of the characteristics of Vocabulary in books used in the Reception year, against the background of recent recommendations for change in the early teaching of reading. Finally, we present data showing that the database is indeed already proving a useful resource for both practitioners and researchers.
|Additional Information:||This reports development of an online database of words in print for UK children aged 5-9 years (based on a survey of 10% of primary schools), that has been widely used for the selection of stimuli for research into reading/spelling development, and for the National Strategies phonics literacy instruction programme.|
|Divisions:||IOE Departments > Departments > Psychology and Human Development|
|Depositing User:||IOE Repository Editor (1)|
|Date Deposited:||18 Nov 2010 11:56|
|Last Modified:||29 Jan 2015 08:39|


Parents and Teachers
Encourage your kids' creativity and you could win big!
Win money for your school's art program!
Receive free U.S. Kids activity books for each student entry!
Get a free classroom subscription to a U.S. Kids magazine of your choice!
When your child or student enters the U.S. Kids Cover Contest, your school becomes eligible for a donation of $1,500 to support your art program!
Teachers, our cover contest makes a great class project. Print out entry forms and drawing pages here on our website, and give your students a chance to get creative! Be sure to select the magazine on the entry form appropriate for each student's age. A parent or guardian must sign each entry form. Enter at least 10 of your students and receive a free subscription to the U.S. Kids magazine of your choice and a free U.S. Kids Fun Time Activity Book for each student, while supplies last.
10 Art Tips for Parents and Teachers
- Children may not draw things the way they look to adults. They draw and paint their world in their own way. It is different from an adult's world. It is a young child's world.
- Every art activity should be a creative experience that requires original thinking, planning, and doing.
- All children do not create at the same speed. Some are slower than others in developing original ideas. Do not feel that your child must finish his artwork in one sitting. Unfinished work should be left where the child may work on it when he or she wishes to do so.
- Encourage your child to talk about his or her artwork. This seems to give children greater confidence about their work, especially when the listener shows a genuine interest in the child's art.
- Be encouraging by watching your child work. Try to stay interested by asking questions about what your child is creating.
- Show your child some techniques you remember learning when you were growing up.
- Supply your child's creativity. Have lots of paper available on which to draw, whether it is drawing paper, construction paper, or scrap paper you bring home from work. Have a good pencil sharpener, #2 pencils, high-quality markers, crayons, colored pencils, and watercolor trays handy.
- Keep supplies organized and labeled on shelves at the child's height. Show the child how to get out his or her own supplies, where everything belongs, and how to clean up independently.
- Encourage your child to try new, unique ways of doing things.
- Set children up for success. Ensure a project is broken down into simple-to-master tasks.
10 Lessons the Arts Teach
by Elliot Eisner
- The arts teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships. Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts, it is judgment rather than rules that prevail.
- The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution and that questions can have more than one answer.
- The arts celebrate multiple perspectives. One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world.
- The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity. Learning in the arts requires the ability and a willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.
- The arts make vivid the fact that neither words in their literal form nor numbers exhaust what we can know. The limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition.
- The arts teach students that small differences can have large effects. The arts traffic in subtleties.
- The arts teach students to think through and within a material. All art forms employ some means through which images become real.
- The arts help children learn to say what cannot be said. When children are invited to disclose what a work of art helps them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words that will do the job.
- The arts enable us to have experience we can have from no other source and through such experience to discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling.
- The arts' position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young what adults believe is important.
SOURCE: Eisner, E. (2002). The Arts and the Creation of Mind. Yale University Press. Used by permission from the National Art Education Association (NAEA). For more information on art education and its benefits, visit http://www.naea-reston.org/


Jeanne Allen, president of The Center for Education Reform, discusses how charter school innovations have improved options for all children.
When the first charter school opened its doors to Minnesota students in 1992, few could have predicted that it would mark the beginning of what would become the fastest growing and most significant reform in modern education.
Charter pioneers sparked a wildfire of reform that swept the nation, fueled by parents who refused to accept a one-size-fits-all approach to education parents who set high standards and demanded accountability in meeting them. Education was changing one child and one school at a time.
Major changes in public policy would follow from standards, to curriculum, to more choices for parents and more options for children. And a changing legislative landscape paved the way for the significant growth of charter schools.
Today, there are nearly 3,000 charter schools serving close to 800,000 students in 37 states and the District of Columbia. And in most cases, these schools are meeting the needs of at-risk and disadvantaged children long-since abandoned by many traditional schools. Parents wait anxiously for an opportunity for their children to benefit from the innovation and flexibility charters provide. In fact, over 70 percent of charters across the country have waiting lists equal to their enrollment.
Free of bureaucratic and regulatory micro-management, charter schools can design and deliver programs tailored to educational excellence and community needs. Charters offer at-risk programs and state-of-the-art education. In charter schools, you'll find teachers that are there because they want to be, because they have more authority over the programs and approaches they use than they did in all their years in traditional public schools.
This year a number of charter schools reached a milestone - the graduation of the very first class of students who were with them from the beginning. Schools such as Washington, DC's SEED Public Charter School and the Hyde Leadership Public Charter School; Newark's North Star Academy; San Jose's Downtown College Prep and Dorchester (MA)'s South Boston Harbor Academy Charter School watched as their first classes received diplomas. And one hundred percent of their students yes, each and every one have been accepted to college. These charter schools have proven that high levels of achievement are not reserved for elite prep schools. Schools serving overwhelmingly minority and low-income students can set equally high standards and they can, indeed, meet them.
But it is not just students inside these schools who have benefited from the charter movement. Charters have been like pebbles, causing ripples in their wake leading schools and districts to alter behavior or improve offerings. Studies out of charter-rich states such as Arizona and California show that charters are producing innovations that are being adopted by the traditional schools in their districts. And in some districts, increased student achievement in neighbor public schools suggests charter competition is raising the bar for all schools.
As we celebrate the progress of the charter school movement and the individual successes at schools such as Amistad we are also reminded that there remain far too many children who grow up in this country without the educational opportunities they deserve. The wildfire of education reform will not and cannot slow down until each and every child can share in the success.
The Center for Education Reform (CER) is a national advocacy and research organization working with states and communities to provide more choices in education and better schools for all children. For additional information, visit http://www.edreform.com.
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Zero as Denominator
Date: 10/22/97 at 15:02:18 From: V. Amburgey Subject: Zero as denominator Why can't zero be in the denominator for rational numbers? My students, preservice elementary education teachers, have asked that this question be submitted to you. We have discussed this using the models of "parts of a whole region" model and the "division model." In discussing models for rational numbers, we have also discussed the "parts of a set" model for rational numbers. My students want to know why 0/0 can't be another name for one when using an empty set as their whole for the "part of a set" model. We look forward to your response. Thanks.
Date: 10/22/97 at 19:55:06 From: Doctor Tom Subject: Re: Zero as denominator The way formal mathematics works is that you make up rules for a system and then study that system. In principle, you can study ANY system this way, but in practice, useful systems get a lot more study than non-useful systems. For the sake of this discussion, let's just consider the set of rational numbers with +, -, x and /. The standard definition says that the operation of division is simply undefined if the denominator is zero. There's nothing on earth to prevent you from using mathematical methods to look at systems where division by zero makes sense, either sometimes (like only when the numerator is zero) or always. What I'll try to show below is that when you do this, you lose so much that adding the definition for division by zero is not worth it. For example, how shall I define 1/0? If you say "infinity," then there's suddenly a new object, "infinity," in your system, and you'd better tell me how it behaves. What's 1+infinity, for example? If it's infinity, then you can no longer use the rule that if you subtract the same thing from both sides of an equation the results will be equal: 1 + infinity = infinity Subtract infinity from both sides, and 1 = 0. So now if I ask you to solve this: x + 1 = 7 you can't just subtract 1 from each side and get x = 6, because there is no general rule. If you modify the rule to apply only to subtracting infinity, it's still no good. Is infinity-infinity equal to zero? If not, what is it? Is subtraction now only sometimes defined? If it is zero, then since 1+infinity=infinity, 1+infinity-infinity = infinity-infinity - I just replace one of the infinities in infinity-infinity=infinity-infinity by 1+infinity, and again I get 1 = 0. I can go on and on, but no matter how you decide to define 1/0, you make one or many of the basic laws of arithmetic fail, and you suddenly find that your system has lost the power to do almost anything. People have looked for good ways to add 1/0 to the rationals (or even just 0/0), and in every case, the new system's rules are so weakened that it is not good for anything useful. Geometers have had better luck. If you look at the line of real numbers and add an imaginary infinity to sort of "close the ends," you get a very servicable system called linear projective geometry. But this geometry has none of the addition or multiplication properties, and only deals with "neighborhoods" of points. It can be very instructional to try various ways to define 1/0 to the rationals (leaving all the other operations as-is), and see what basic laws of arithmetic have to be re-written. Be sure to look at the commutative, associative, and distributive laws, the existence of inverses, closure of operations, et cetera. I think division by zero has always been confusing because there is a lot to it. The books simply weasel out of it by saying, "Division by zero is not defined," and the instant knee-jerk response is, "Well, just define it." It's in trying to find a "reasonable" definition that all the ugly problems come up. -Doctor Tom, The Math Forum Check out our web site! http://mathforum.org/dr.math/
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In a recent blog, Michael Petrilli states that "NAEP scores in fourth-grade reading jumped significantly, especially for the low-income, low achieving students who were Reading First’s focus."
I discussed this claim in Krashen (2006), pointing out, as others have, that the jump was not related to Reading First. In addition, I discuss other cases in which Reading First was considered to be succussful, and point out that the data is not clear at all.
Krashen, S. 2006. Did reading first work? ninglunbooks.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/krashen_reading_first.pdf
(To access this article, please google "Did reading first work? Krashen" and click on the pdf.) I will post it on www.sdkrashen.com soon.)
Petrilli also refers to whole language as "discredited" and "ineffectual." There is plenty of evidence that whole language (not "whole-word") is effective, reviewed in these papers and in one book:
Krashen, S. 1999. Three Arguments Against Whole Language and Why They are Wrong. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Publishing Co.
Krashen, S. 2002. The NRP comparison of whole language and phonics: Ignoring the crucial variable in reading. Talking Points, 13(3): 22-28.
Krashen, S. 2002. Defending whole language: The limits of phonics instruction and the efficacy of whole language instruction. Reading Improvement 39 (1): 32-42.
Krashen, S. 2002. Whole language and the great plummet of 1987-92: An urban legend from California. Phi Delta Kappan 83 (10): 748-753.
Petrilli blog: "On Tony Bennett’s “grading-gate,” avoid the rush to judgment" Michael J. Petrilli / July 30, 2013 http://www.edexcellence.net/commentary/education-gadfly-daily/flypaper/2013/on-tony-bennetts-grading-gate-avoid-the-rush-to-judgment.html


According to the first annual Children’s Report Card, released by First Focus and Save the Children, the country earned an overall lackluster grade of C minus on several domains of a child’s life. The five categories measured in the report card include economic security, early childhood, K-12 education, permanence and stability and health and safety. The full report can be found here.
The report card, Commissioned by former Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Senator Robert Casey (D-PA), points out that 22 percent of American children live in poverty and they lag behind international students in reading and math proficiency at all grade levels. In addition, in the 2010–2011 school year, 1.1 million children out of the 49.5 million enrolled in the public school system were identified as homeless by the U.S. Department of Education.
Of note, the early learning programs earned a C plus grade overall. State investments in early education were reduced by $60 million in 2010-2011, the second year in a row of funding cuts. Currently 28 percent of 4-year-olds and only 4 percent of 3-year-olds were enrolled in state funded pre-kindergarten programs. In 2010, only 4.5 percent of eligible infants and toddlers under age 3 were enrolled in Early Head Start and only 29 percent of eligible children age 3–5 were enrolled in Head Start.
Early learning programs, especially successful Pre-K programs that effectively interface with comprehensive Pre-K-3 systems, are an essential investment to ensure that children at-risk of beginning formal education behind their peers, particularly low-income children, have a chance to begin school on equal footing.
Principals have a unique understanding of the consequences that occur when children are not fully prepared to enter the school building. However, principal preparation programs and school systems lack sufficient training and professional learning opportunities to help principals design and lead quality early childhood programs.
This is why NAESP supports the Continuum of Learning Act, which was introduced in Congress by Senator Casey and Rep. Mazie Hirono (D-HI). The Continuum of Learning Act is based on the NAESP landmark publication, Leading Early Childhood Learning Communities, which outlines standards and guidance for principals in designing aligned Pre-K-3 systems and implementing high-quality early childhood programs. The standards focus on helping principals rethink the connection between early childhood centers and elementary schools.
The release of this report card came just weeks before the November elections, and parents and concerned Americans are urged to stand up for children -- who are too young to fully participate in the election process -- by voting for political candidates that will put children first and make them a legislative priority. The report card states that improving the economy repeatedly polls as the main concern for voters in the current election cycle, but due to the tremendous cost of caring for poor kids, the economy can only improve when the number of U.S. children living in poverty is reduced.


Are you making your final selections in regard to curriculum for the new school year? I know that many of the moms I'm talking to, are doing just that. As you're narrowing down your options, please keep in mind the following guidelines which originally appeared as an e-newsletter from the Struggling Learner website.
When choosing homeschool curriculum there are several factors that you want to take into consideration.
1. How will your child learn best?
The main consideration is how your child learns best. Will he learn best with textbooks, workbooks, hands-on manipulatives, online, computer, unit studies, etc. The answer to this has to do with their learning style. Are they hands on learners, do they learn best by listening, do they learn best visually?
Hearing: If your child learns best by hearing you might want to go with a textbook approach. These learners like to listen and learn and textbooks might be the best way for them.
Visual Learner: If your child is a visual learner, consider workbooks, online and computer based programs, as well as unit studies. Generally, these use a lot of visual enhancement to their teaching methods, such as the Weaver Curriculum, Switched On Schoolhouse, or Teaching Textbooks. Just be aware that if your child is more than a year behind in reading, online or computer based programs do not tend remediate the reading as well as the one on one tutorial from a mom using special curricula for this task. Visit our struggling learner resources page and look under the topic “dyslexia,” to find a list of some of these special learning tools for these struggling children.
Hands on: A hands-on learner might like a computer based curriculum, curricula with lots of experiments and projects, or a unit studies type of program. They will want to be involved physically in their learning. Look for math programs with concrete manipulatives, such as Math-U-See, Right Start Math, or Woodbine House publishers’ series on Teaching Math to People with Down Syndrome and Other Hands On Learners. Still, other children who are very brittle in math may find some of these books overwhelming. In that case many parents look to more right brain teaching strategies for this child. The newsletter, “Attacking the Math Monster”, has many right brain teaching ideas for these struggling children.
2. How do you want to teach?
Your philosophy: Another important factor to consider is how you want to teach. What is your philosophy of teaching and how children learn best? Do you want to use a Charlotte Mason method, classical approach, or unschooling? You may like textbooks or workbooks or you might want to oversee an online or computer curriculum. Keep in mind that most children with special needs require structure, routine, and will thrive best with a good schedule and an organized and a learning environment that is free from distractions.
Unit studies: Another approach is to use unit studies, which is the teaching of all subjects or content area through one topic. An example is teaching a unit study about Egypt. You can teach math, reading, writing, science, and history all linked around this one topic. (My Father's World and KONOS use this approach).
Combination: You can also use the eclectic method of homeschooling, which is basically a mix and match approach, combining bits and pieces of different homeschool methods and curricula.
3. What skills does my child need and what are the goals we are working toward accomplishing?
Fix your focus: Consider what is paramount to address in your homeschool. Is your child working on basic, foundational skills and/or life skills? What academic strengths and weaknesses does your child have?
Learning levels: What is your child’s current functioning level in reading and math? It may be necessary to purchase materials at one level in math, but a different level in language arts.
Services: Are there supplemental services your child with special needs must have or would benefit from, such as language therapy, speech or occupational therapy? Such services, count as part of your child’s homeschooling curricula and day. HSLDA recommends that parents make sure their children’s special needs and disabilities are being addressed and private services, if possible are best.
I hope you found these ideas to be as helpful as I did.
God bless you as you prepare for the coming year!


HODGES, JAMES, engineer; b. 6 April 1814 at Queenborough, Kent, Eng.; d. 28 May 1879 on his estate of Penny-Hill at Bagshot, Surrey, Eng.
In Queenborough James Hodges received only an elementary education, and he took advantage of the industrial revolution to carve out a place for himself. He was apprenticed to a Brompton contractor at the age of 17, and soon turned to railway construction, taking part in some ten important projects and becoming works manager of the South-Eastern Railway Company. After that, as Sir Samuel Morton Peto’s agent, he worked at the building of the suspension bridges at Norwich, Needham, and Somerleyton, accepted a post as engineer, and then undertook the construction of 50 miles of track for the Great Northern Railway.
With this valuable experience to help him, Hodges arrived in Canada in 1853 to represent the firm of Peto, Brassey, and Betts, which had just signed a contract with the Grand Trunk Railway Company. Until 1860 he directed the gigantic task of building a bridge (Victoria Bridge) over the St Lawrence near Montreal. He had to tackle numerous technical problems resulting from the speed and strength of the current and the intense cold of the winters. Furthermore, he could not count on a stable work force. The fitters and labourers, dissatisfied with the wage offers made them, periodically went on strike; some were signed on by other contractors who offered them better wages. Drownings occurred; cholera and blindness due to the reflection of the sun on the ice affected a considerable number of workmen. However, thanks to the assistance given by five doctors, the number of deaths among the 3,040 men employed during these six years was kept down to 26. The workers lived on the banks of the river, and had the advantage of a chapel, a school, and a library of some 1,000 volumes.
The Grand Trunk Railway Company wanted to do away as soon as possible with the ferry linking the two banks, which would lighten its annual budget by about £2,500. The contractors therefore decided in June 1858 to try to open the bridge to traffic by the following year. To meet this objective, Hodges used the support of the ice to place in position during the winter of 1858–59 the central deck of the bridge and its tubular structure, which measured 330 feet in length and weighed 771 tons. By this daring operation he completed his task before the time provided for in the contract. This achievement earned him the honour, on 25 Aug. 1860, of welcoming the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII, who had come specially to open the bridge, named Victoria after the reigning sovereign.
His work ended, Hodges returned to England. But he soon found himself alone once more, as a result of his wife’s death. In 1863 he came back to Montreal as the agent of the Grand Trunk, and endeavoured to obtain a cheap form of fuel for Canadians, who lacked coal. He developed a peatbog on a 25,000 acre tract of land near the railway in the township of Bulstrode (Arthabaska County), which had been granted to him in May 1869. He met with little success and shortly before 1871 he returned to England to his estate in Surrey, where he died in 1879.
James Hodges, Construction of the great Victoria Bridge in Canada (2v., London, 1860). Langelier, Lands granted in Quebec, 1763–1890, 65, 1465. Le Courrier du Canada (Québec), 31 août 1860. Morning Chronicle (Quebec), 27 Aug. 1860. Morgan, Sketches of celebrated Canadians, 706–8. Notman and Taylor, Portraits of British Americans, I, 267–92. A. W. Currie, The Grand Trunk Railway of Canada (Toronto, 1957), 51. Raphaël Bellemare, “Inauguration du pont Victoria,” BRH, V (1899), 189–90.


5 Steps to Inquiry Based Learning
Unsure about how to make the shift to inquiry-based teaching under the Next Gen Science Standards? Follow these steps to lessen teachers’ anxiety.
By Ronald J. Korenich
As school districts begin to implement the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), they may find teachers and staff are worried about how to implement inquiry-based methods of teaching. For many teachers, inquiry-based instruction can be scary, or at the very least, require a leap of faith.
I know this first-hand. More than 10 years ago, in my role as district coordinator of elementary education for Fox Chapel ASD in Pennsylvania, my charge was to implement inquiry-based instruction for both science and social studies.
Teachers wanted to provide quality instruction but were uncomfortable because they didn’t feel equipped. When students engage in inquiry, lessons can take many twists and turns, and teachers were concerned they wouldn’t have the content knowledge to answer student questions or wouldn’t be able to tie in the overarching concepts students were required to know.
Although progress was gradual, the end result was such an improvement in both teacher confidence and student learning that I don’t think any other method of learning is even an option now.
For any district moving from a non-inquiry-based curriculum to an inquiry-based one, there will always be a steep learning curve. Here’s what we learned in my district.
1. Start with pedagogy, but don’t forget content. Teachers need to know the pedagogy of inquiry-based learning—their role, students’ role, how to implement the lesson—in addition to the content. For better or worse, you can’t learn one without the other. In the beginning, though, most of our training focused on pedagogy. We walked teachers through sample lessons: what might happen during a lesson, how to handle veering off-course or unexpected experiment results. Teachers were excited to see that once they knew strategies to capitalize on those moments, incredible learning occurred.
2. Rich materials are crucial. Schools must not only choose materials that are robust in content for their science curriculum but also those that provide teacher support. Publishers that provide training sessions or whose materials are tied to Web-based support are the most helpful. In my district, teachers also appreciated curriculum that was structured so they could take specific steps to reach student goals.
3. Schools need to accept initial teacher missteps. Teachers may not be completely successful at first, and that’s to be expected. Rather than view these experiences as failures, schools and districts need to understand them and continue to support the teachers. We found that sharing “mistakes” during professional development sessions provided some of the best learning opportunities.
4. Teachers need to accept mistakes, too. It can be difficult for teachers to pull back from “teaching” and let students pursue their own conclusions. However, when teachers create an environment where kids aren’t afraid to be right or wrong, they are much more inquisitive and engaged. The teacher can always turn “wrong” answers into learning opportunities by pointing out common misperceptions or by making a connection between the mistake and critical learning content.
5. Professional development needs to be ongoing. Training for inquiry-based learning is continuous. For example, we were surprised in one of our schools that a simple unit on levers and pulleys generated sophisticated questions that required physics knowledge. The district brought in more content training on physics, and as a result, both the students and teachers achieved a depth of knowledge on the subject that we had never imagined previously.
When most of us think back on what we know, we realize that we’ve learned best when we were actively engaged in the learning but had someone supporting and guiding us. It’s the same for elementary students. Teachers who understand how to meet students where they are and guide them along a path of inquiry are engaging students in the real work of scientists. Today we have the opportunity to encourage children’s natural curiosities, coach them on how to interpret what they’re discovering, and help them understand the impact of what they’re learning while they acquire important knowledge about science content and process. This engagement and resulting depth of knowledge is where we want our students to be in STEM subjects. Other teaching methods can’t achieve this, which is why implementing inquiry-based learning, although sometimes bumpy at first, is so critical in today’s schools.
Ronald J. Korenich, Ed.D., is an educational consultant and former coordinator of elementary education at Fox Chapel Area School District, Pennsylvania. He is a member of TCI’s Science Advisory Board.


In preparation for teaching my graduate class in the History of Teaching Art each year, I make a point of spending time digging into the past of art education to locate some new nuggets of information and interesting historical facts to share with my students in our survey of “Great Moments in Art Education History.”
This year I stumbled onto the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) that turned into a goldmine of useful resources for the study of the history of art education. One resource in particular that caught my attention was the very first issue of Art Education, A Journal Devoted to Manu-Mental Training, dated October 1, 1894.
Within the journal, I found an article titled “Two Hypotheses for the Acquisition of Thought Expression” by Francis W. Parker, a pioneer of the progressive school movement and a firm believer that education should teach students to think for themselves rather than simply cram more and more information into their heads.
Parker hints at the debate that was occurring at the time over the role of formal training vs creative self expression in the nurturing of young minds in the classroom. I imagine his comments will resonate with art teachers who practice choice-based art education today.
It seems to be a safe principle to follow, that nothing shall be demanded of a child in the way of expression that is not genuine, that is not the reflex or correspondence to his own conscious images; that any attempt to express that which is not genuine interferes with the normal action of the mind, deadens the interest, and worse than this, leads to dishonesty and hypocrisy.
Every child loves to draw. Give him paint, crayon or pencil and he will make crude and imperfect images with the greatest confidence and with perfect delight. This is proven in countless cases. This is the spontaneous beginning of art? But teachers of perfectly accurate drawing claim that this is a hindrance rather than a help, that the spontaneous activities and the loves of the child are to be ignored until he has had a certain definite and accurate training in line drawing.
On the other hand, students of concentration believe that these spontaneous activities are the true beginnings of all knowledge and skill; and that the more the child draws in early life the better, no matter how crude, according to any adequate standard, the external result may be. They assert that under the modern system of teaching drawing by flat copies no artists were ever made; that, indeed the art teachers themselves are not artists, although they have had the best raining that the so-called art school afford. They also assert that all true art feeling must spring from the spontaneous desire on the part of the child to draw, and to practice, and that out of this crudeness and imperfection will steadily grow, under proper criticism, better and better technique, that the only criticism worthy of the name is the criticism from the standpoint of the child’s concepts; that as these concepts become more and more developed the skill will be comfortably enhanced; that there is such a thing as organic growth.
Parker, F.W. (October 1, 1894). Two hypotheses for the acquisition of forms and thought expression. Art Education, a journal Devoted to Manu-Mental Training, 1(1) 6-7.


Posted by Scott Tibbs at 8:00 AM
The Fourth of July marks 236 years since the 13 colonies seceded from England and became an independent nation. England attempted to block the colonies attempt at secession with military force, but were not able to do so as the colonists won a long and bloody war of secession. 236 years after secession, England is one of our greatest allies. Every year on July 4, we celebrate self-determination and the right to choose one's own government, and the choice made by the colonies to secede from a nation that no longer respected their liberties.
Today, we celebrate George Washington and the colonists as patriots, but that certainly was not the universal view at the time. Had the 13 colonies failed in their attempt to secede from England, our history books would be very different, teaching us that Washington was a traitor and a criminal - just as we now view Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. The winners do write the history books, after all.
The irony does not escape me, though, that we view the Revolutionary War and the War Between the States in a completely different light. In both cases, a group of states decided that continued union with a larger entity was destructive to their liberty, and declared that they would be seceding from the larger entity. In both cases the larger entity used military force to prevent the secession. In the first case, the secessionists won the war. In the second case, the secessionists lost. That makes all the difference in how history sees both: secession was moral and patriotic in 1776 but secession was immoral and treasonous in 1860.
The popular and simplistic view of the War Between the States is that a benevolent Yankee army invaded the Confederacy to free the slaves. It was a humanitarian mission to ensure racial equality and end a grave injustice. But Abraham Lincoln's own white supremacist views are conveniently ignored, as was the political charade that was the Emancipation Proclamation. The War Between the States was not about ending slavery. It was an armed conflict over the role of federal power as opposed to states' rights and whether states were really sovereign entities with control over their own affairs.
The federalists won the war, which set into motion the ever-expanding power of the federal government at the expense of both states' rights and individual liberty. The men who founded the country would be shocked at what they see today, when truly local issues such as elementary education are debated in Congress and both major party candidates for President advocating their own views of a single national solution for a nation that stretches across the continent and has a population of over 300 million people. That is unfortunate.
A question settled by violence, or in disregard of law, must remain unsettled forever. - Jefferson Davis


In the 21st century, teaching cursive writing is increasingly becoming more of an exception than the rule. With computers emerging as the primary source for writing, many administrators feel teaching cursive writing is not necessary and believe the time would be better spent teaching keyboard skills.
Many students and parents, however, believe that teaching cursive writing is still very relevant and should not be so quickly dismissed. Maggie Wells from Parenting Squad polled teachers to uncover reasons cursive should be taught in school:
Cursive develops motor skills
Cursive writing requires a very different skill set from print writing. It involves using the hand muscles in a different way. Additionally, it activates a different part of the brain than regular writing does. At the age cursive is taught, around 7 or 8 years old, these skills can be very beneficial in furthering motor skill development. In turn, many other skills will benefit. Some administrators argue that the time teaching cursive writing would be better spent teaching keyboard skills. In this case, students do not actually have to use their hands to create the letters, which will make retention rates lower and not help motor skills at all.
Cursive reinforces learning
When students are taught the English language in only one form, print writing, they get only one chance to learn and memorize the letters. By having to learn cursive as well, students get another opportunity to fully comprehend the alphabet. Learning cursive also gives students a clearer understanding of how letters are formed, which will improve their print writing as well.
Cursive helps students with disabilities
Students with learning disabilities, specifically dyslexia, can have a very hard time with writing in print because many of the letters look similar, particularly b and d. On the contrary, cursive writing offers each letter a very different look. This gives dyslexic students another option — an option that can decrease their dyslexic tendencies and make them more confident in their abilities.
Cursive is an art form
More and more school districts are cutting art from their budgets. This can be detrimental to the full development of students. However, cursive writing can be considered an art form all its own. It is one more way for students to develop the side of their brain that is not developed by basic reading and writing skills. The more diverse a teaching curriculum is, the better.
Cursive connects students to the past
Without being able to read cursive writing, students will undoubtedly be kept from many opportunities to read important documents. Examples include many historical documents that are written in cursive. While some of these documents are readily available online in print form, not all of them are. It would be silly to expect students to use translators to interpret cursive writing when it is written in their own language.
Not only will students miss out on a part of history, they may very well miss out on reading important letters and cards from their grandparents or great-grandparents. The older generation still writes in cursive on a daily basis. Kids often rely on their parents to translate these letters and cards for them because they simply cannot read the cursive writing. Forty years from now, when these grandparents have passed on, kids may want to look back on these letters, and they should be able to read them.
So, should cursive be taught in school?
We think a resounding “Yes!” If teaching cursive writing is eliminated from schools, children have a lot to lose. Though the world is becoming more and more technology dependent, there is something to be said for retaining a part of classic writing skills in the curriculum. Maybe schools need to start testing the subject again in order to make teachers take it seriously. Cursive reinforces the mantra that learning should simply be for learning — not just to pass a test.Learn More: Click to view related resources.
- Maggie Wells, "Teacher's Poll: Cursive Writing," Parenting Squad