Discusses how a teacher was challenged to outgrow previously held beliefs about children and broaden her verbocentric curricular assumptions and experiences by a student for whom art stabilized and gave shape to his thoughts. Notes that the student helped bring real meaning to the idea that learning is "multimodal" in nature. (RS)

Describes two hours in the life of an eight-year-old to demonstrate that children acquire information and develop language skills from multiple sources. Argues that the conceptualization of literacy must be broadened from reading and writing skills to a definition that recognizes the layering of information and that includes all forms of the…

In a study involving creative spelling, 300 kindergarten children and one first grader used computer programs to spell words in isolation and in stories they wrote. As the children made progress toward writing words in conventional spelling, they developed phonological spelling strategies similar to those that have previously been reported for…

This curriculum is designed primarily for use in individualized classrooms where the teacher is working with an assistant, but it has also been proven effective in traditional classrooms and in remedial situations. Program 1 focuses on the basic abilities children use to analyze and organize graphic and other spatial patterns--skills directly…

Second-grade students' reading proficiency was studied by determining the influence of rhyming or nonrhyming items on their recall of random letter strings, using visual and auditory presentations. Good and poor readers differed in their use of phonetic coding in working memory. (MH)

In a study that investigated differences in the processing styles of beginning readers, a Pictograph Sentence Memory Test (PSMT) was administered to first and second grade students to determine their processing style as well as to assess instructional effects. Based on their responses to the PSMT, the children were classified as either visual or…

Reports on the ability of preschool age children to interpret a black-and-white aerial photograph and to solve a simulated navigation problem on the photo. By placing the problem in a story context with personal reference points, the children were able to identify landscape features and solve simple problems. (MJP)

This assessment guide represents a method for evaluating visual arts achievement by third graders. The artwork presented can be used to determine whether students have met learning objectives and are ready to advance, and also as a diagnostic tool for school improvement. The guide is based on selected sample learning objectives from "State…

Reviews studies suggesting benefits of block play for literacy development that provides actual reading and writing experiences. Suggests that block play centers can be literacy-enhanced with materials that are authentic, useful, and appropriate, including: thematic books, magazines, architectural blueprints, envelopes, and adding machine tape.…

Thirty-five second-grade learning disabled children participated in a visual information processing training program designed to teach analysis of visual material into component parts, systematic scanning of visual arrays, pick-up, description, and memory storage of distinctive information, and efficient solution of visual match-to-sample…