This practicum was designed to improve the attendance rate for African American male students in the After School Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) program. The attendance rate for male students was far below that of female students. The following strategies to increase male participation in the reading program were developed: local businesses and…

A practicum addressed the low number of parents participating with their children in a Chapter 1 Reading Program by the development and implementation of a parental involvement program. The program implemented strategies to eliminate conflicts cited by parents as major reasons for non-participation in meetings and workshops relative to their…

A director of elementary education at a Chapter 1 school in a Southern, urban community designed and implemented a practicum study intended to expose disadvantaged kindergartners to stories and books. The primary goal was to stimulate the children's interest in books and desire to read. A second aim was to expand the scope of the practicum to…

This practicum was designed to improve communication practices among teachers and between teachers and parents in an elementary school. An emphasis was placed on utilizing the writing skills of students to link teachers and parents through a communication partnership. The partnership was accomplished through the expansion of the student reading…

A program was designed to improve the reading interests of students in a rural middle school. An analysis of the problem indicated that the students were not reading many library books. One of the probable causes for the lack of interest was related to the small amount of recreational reading done by students. A search of the literature revealed…

A practicum developed a whole language kindergarten at-home reading program. The target group was 27 sets of parents of children in a kindergarten classroom who volunteered to participate. The objectives were to increase the parents' knowledge of whole language techniques; increase their level of comfort in using whole language techniques at home…

A study was conducted to address the problem of all students not learning to read in the same manner when the instruction was limited to only one approach, that of the basal reader with its phonics emphasis. The Reading Style Inventory, the Swassing-Barbe Modality Index, and the Bradway Quick Check were administered to the students attending the…

An intergenerational literacy program was developed for 40 teenage parents and their children enrolled in an alternative education center. The program was designed to empower teenage parents to develop the emerging literacy of their children while reducing their own literacy deficiencies. The Once upon a Time-Together program acquainted teenage…