A practicum project was developed to provide self-directed learning opportunities for all 10 members of a kindergarten enrichment group. Specifically, the project was implemented over a period of 10 weeks to help students gain independent work habits, to improve their care of materials, and to raise their reading ability by one grade level. Ten…

A kindergarten teacher used a classroom learning center approach to design and implement a practicum establishing a child-centered learning environment in her classroom. Several learning centers, including centers for math, language arts, and nutrition, were set up. Twenty-three children received individual assignments through the use of file…

An early childhood education consultant to a Parks and Recreation Department implemented and evaluated a practicum intervention intended to promote active learning by means of a redesigned indoor preschool environment. Additional goals were to improve the behavior and engagement of the children in the environment; increase parental approval of the…

Because low achieving kindergarten children attending a neighborhood school in the South Area of the Dade County Public School System were experiencing difficulty during independent work periods, a practicum study was designed to improve their basic skills by providing closely supervised visual, manipulative, language, and listening activities.…

Aware that some kindergarten children are not ready for the demands of a structured program, a kindergarten teacher developed and implemented a program which made use of classroom learning centers to help kindergarten students grow in all areas of development. Special attention was given to the process of helping students: (1) develop belief in…

This practicum report describes an intervention during the 1990-1991 school year that involved restructuring a kindergarten classroom to include more developmentally appropriate activities. Expected outcomes were stated in the following terms: (1) the arrangement of the classroom will allow free, orderly movement; (2) the county's kindergarten…

A practicum was conducted primarily to increase prekindergarten teachers' skills as well as their personal feelings of competence and confidence as they worked in interest centers set up and planned by other teachers. A secondary goal was to decrease the number of interruptions during the school day due to questions and problems resulting from the…

The primary goals of this practicum were to improve the listening skills of 47 kindergarten children attending half-day classes at an elementary school in a residential suburban community, and to remediate the attentional deficits of 2 students. Additional goals were to elicit the cooperation of parents in developing good listening habits in 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…

A kindergarten teacher designed and implemented a practicum for increasing the oral language competence of 20 kindergartners in an inner-city public school. Goals were to improve children's receptive and expressive language abilities, social skills, and mastery of kindergarten curriculum objectives, and to increase parent involvement. A whole…

This practicum was designed to provide speech and language therapy to children identified as speech and language impaired, in a Head Start classroom with typically developing peers. The practicum involved amending Head Start component plans, discussing inclusion issues at four education component meetings, conducting an interagency meeting with…

A specialized word attack skills program was designed to increase the reading ability of a target group of seven first grade students. These youngsters, placed in an average ability classroom, were performing below county standards. The program utilized learning centers, computers, and visual-auditory activities as motivational techniques.…

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…

A practicum tested the effectiveness of a learning-center approach in improving the overall academic achievement of kindergarten children who were speakers learners of English as a second language (ESL). The entire kindergarten class participated in the method, but only nine students were selected on the basis of their score on the Brigance Test.…

A practicum study designed to address the problem of inadequate language development skills in first-grade children was conducted. Specifically, efforts were directed toward developing and implementing a specialized instructional program to remediate students' deficiencies in listening comprehension, basic concept skills, classification skills,…