A practicum was designed to motivate first-grade students in a rural community in the southeastern United States to read independently for pleasure in the classroom and at home. A whole language program was implemented which did not include the use of basal readers or workbooks. Children's literature was the primary source used for reading…

An instructional program was developed and implemented to help four first-grade students use an Atari 800 microcomputer. To determine the extent to which the four students and 40 teachers were familiar with computers and to judge their attitudes toward using them in classrooms, a survey was administered. While teachers' responses varied, all…

An elementary school teacher designed and implemented a program intended to reduce excessive absenteeism among first grade public school students. The program consisted of four basic parts: (1) perusal of attendance cards and grade books prior to treatment; (2) implementaton of treatment; (3) post-perusal of attendance cards and grade books; and…

A practicum intervention was designed and implemented over an 8-month period for the purpose of enhancing the mathematics-related cognitive and social interaction skills of primary school students in five kindergarten one pre-first, and seven first grade classrooms. Students interacted in group discussions and activities involving interest…

A review of classroom teachers' records of student attendance covering a 2-year period revealed that 18 students in the first grade at Dangerfield Primary School in Fremont, Illinois, frequently did not attend school. Further investigation showed that the parents of the frequently absent children had very little or no contact with the school. The…

This project was developed and implemented to increase the target students' phonemic awareness in order to be able to make sense of the alphabetic principle and become successful independent readers. The objectives for the project were for 8 of the 10 target students to score 80% on the posttests of rhyme detection, blending, and the Yopp-Singer…

A practicum aimed to strengthen the reading abilities of first grade students. Objectives included having first graders: (1) strengthen phonetic and decoding skills; (2) progress to grade level in the basal reading series; and (3) master a problem solving process that would enrich critical thinking skills. Subjects, 52 first grade students,…

A behavior management specialist implemented a practicum intervention designed to increase prosocial behavior and positive peer interaction among kindergartners and first graders by means of student participation in a self-motivating play group. Five students attended a daily play session in block and housekeeping play settings that had been…

For this practicum three methods for improving sight vocabulary for first graders were developed and implemented. Goals were to increase vocabulary recognition, improve students' attitudes toward reading, and raise critical thinking levels using parental support. The program, which involved 10 students, took place in 3 phases allowing 4 weeks per…

A 10-week practicum intervention was implemented with 67 first graders at a small, independent, university-run school in order to improve the children's affective behavior by increasing their self-esteem. The program began with a meeting with parents at which they were informed of the school's emphasis on self-esteem. In-service education was…

A practicum intervention designed to decrease the incidence of retention of students in first grade, through a diagnostic-prescriptive intervention program and teacher inservice activities, was implemented and evaluated. Teachers at two schools were aided in the early identification of students at-risk for retention; psycho-educational evaluations…

A practicum was implemented by a licensed speech-language pathologist working in a clinical and instructional program in a predominantly black, inner-city community in northeastern Indiana. The practicum was designed to improve the communicative competence of young children in a kindergarten-first grade setting. It was implemented because…

A practicum used the Keyboard Familiarization approach (introducing students to the location of keys on the computer keyboard) to integrate the computer into a traditionally taught first-grade spelling program, using laminated copies of the computer keyboard. After completing basic drill and practice sessions on the laminated keyboard, the 23…

A 10-week classroom intervention program was implemented to facilitate the fine-motor development of eight first-grade children assessed as being deficient in motor skills. The program was divided according to five deficits to be remediated: visual motor, visual discrimination, visual sequencing, visual figure-ground, and visual memory. Each area…

This practicum determined that students with language learning disabilities were not experiencing success in the regular classroom, and skills acquired in a pull-out program were not generalizing to the regular classroom. The practicum piloted a first-grade inclusion program which called for the resource room teacher and speech language…