A project developed a plan to improve oral reading in 12 mentally handicapped adults by stressing observation of punctuation marks, reading in phrases, using proper volume, and increasing confidence levels. Identifying the parts of a book and identifying new words were also included. The 12 students were reading below their potential, as shown by…

This practicum was designed to reinforce the importance of meeting the needs of the whole child in the classroom--the social, emotional, and psychological needs, not just the intellectual needs. The practicum was implemented in the Montessori Learning Center, a small private preschool and elementary school located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, by…

A 10-week practicum intervention was designed to reduce deficiencies in 10 kindergarten children in southwest Florida with poor fine motor skills. The intervention consisted of daily instruction and weekly activity tests. Activities included drawing, tracing, cutting with scissors, pasting, molding with clay, various games, lacing, weaving, and…

An elementary school teacher implemented a practicum designed to: (1) provide a curriculum for a before and after school day care program serving primary school students; and (2) solve problems encountered in the implementation of a pilot school-age child care program. A review of the literature indicated that few curriculums had been developed…

A kindergarten teacher implemented a practicum with her students in an effort to improve their receptive and expressive vocabularies. Five kindergarten students were selected from the 23 identified as language-impaired. Four of these five participated in the practicum to its completion. During a 10-week period, target children were involved in…

Reporting on a doctoral practicum that examined children's literary works and developed related expressive language activities, this document contains a description of the practicum--including its purpose, goals, procedures, and results--and a guide for primary teachers to use in language arts instruction. The expressive language activities…

A primary grades specialist implemented a 10-week practicum intervention designed to increase third graders' social skills by training their teachers in cooperative learning techniques and providing cooperatively structured lessons. Eight skills were addressed; these included the skills of accepting peers' ideas for group activities, completing…

An experienced third-grade teacher at an elementary school whose students were predominantly Hispanic designed and implemented a practicum in her class of academically above-average students with a low level of verbal participation in class. The target group of 25 students was involved in social studies, science, and expressive language activities…