Three characteristics of school writing activities that may make it difficult for students to learn to write with skill and enthusiasm are identified in this paper. They are: the solitary nature of most writing tasks, a lopsided emphasis on low-level details of text such as grammar and spelling, and the isolation of writing from reading in the…

CONCEPT FORMATION--AS IT IS AFFECTED BY SUBJECTS (NORMAL AND RETARDED), PROBLEMS (SIMULTANEOUS, SUCCESSIVE, AND SIMILARITY-DIFFERENCE), RESPONSES (MANUAL AND VERBAL), REINFORCEMENT (100 PERCENT AND PARTIAL REINFORCEMENT), AND STIMULI--WAS INVESTIGATED. ELEVEN SEPARATE EXPERIMENTS ARE DESCRIBED. IT WAS FOUND THAT--(1) CONCEPT ATTAINMENT IS…

As part of the "Educating Gifted and Talented" series, the booklet offers guidelines for teaching English to gifted students. Following an introduction and a section on characteristics of the gifted in English, procedures for identifying students gifted in English are discussed and a list of questions to ask when observing language behavior is…

The ten articles in this journal issue are intended to help English teachers deal with the problems posed by mainstreaming handicapped children into their classrooms. The first and second articles suggest ways of meeting the special needs of mainstreamed students and the third discusses the use of a videotaping activity as a reward for learning…

One of a series of guides to the teaching of writing at the elementary and secondary levels, this publication suggests activities to use in teaching the three stages of the composition process: prewriting, writing, and postwriting. The first four sections discuss the steps involved in the three stages of composition, research findings on the…

This teaching guide presents six lessons on using tables to solve problems. For each lesson, the guide gives the purpose, the rationales, materials, and detailed teaching procedures. The six lessons involve making a table, completing a table, using tables to solve problems (lessons 3 and 4), reading tables, and solving problems. Each lesson opens…

The final five units of a program designed to teach reading readiness to visually handicapped children who are potential braille or large print readers are presented. Learning activities, games, and lesson plans are provided for the following five units: positions (up/down, over/under), relationships (same/different, part/whole), time (first/last,…

This guide is designed to help teachers provide their students with a basic understanding of the American legal system. It concentrates on the foundation of law, criminal procedures, and the laws and court decisions which protect the rights of the accused and freedom of expression. Included are case studies, simulation activities, role play, field…

A sharing period in the first grade can provide children with many opportunities for developing both personally and educationally (e.g., becoming aware of others' attitudes and expressing themselves orally). Moreover, much can be learned by the teacher about students' interests, needs, and abilities when they are encouraged to "brainstorm" such…

Outlined is a typical routine for presenting lessons to culturally disadvantaged elementary school students, who seem to require highly structured, immediate, and concrete activities and material. It is felt that teachers need to develop and use a range of visual, manipulable learning devices, and to acquire an understanding of the background and…

Because disadvantaged children have usually experienced sensory-cognitive deprivation or distortion, it is necessary to discover ways to offset this deficit. A program is being conducted to learn to what degree the introduction of systematic programing, while motivation techniques are retained, can reorient essentially noncognitive learning styles…

Designed to provide teachers with a listing of sequentially ordered objectives in specific language arts areas, this level one teaching guide was developed in Plano, Texas, as part of an elementary series keyed to the reading, language, spelling, and handwriting books used in that district. The guide is organized according to vocabulary, word…

Designed to provide teachers with a listing of sequentially ordered objectives in specific language arts areas, this level two teaching guide was developed in Plano, Texas, as part of an elementary series keyed to the reading, language, spelling, and handwriting books used in that district. The guide is organized according to vocabulary, word…

To determine the most effective language training activities for trainable mentally retarded (TMR) children, the variables of degree of previous language training, IQ, Peabody language treatment program versus Distar language treatment program, pretest versus posttest, and sex were examined with 122 TMR Ss (7 to 14 years old). Results of the…

This paper discusses common objections to the use of small group activities in the second language classroom; advantages which outweigh these objections; and guidelines for successful implementation of these activities. Prototype small group activities are outlined in two sections. The first lists activities according to skills focus, including…