A special summer program was developed to increase five elementary students' abilities to locate the main idea in written text. The researcher worked with the students 3 hours each morning for 8 weeks, devoting approximately 2 hours of that time to reading comprehension by teaching correct strategies for identifying the main idea. Question and…

This practicum program was developed and implemented to increase the reading comprehension of second grade students. The objectives of the program were for students to improve the ability to use context clues by 20%, improve reading comprehension by 15%, identify the 4 types of QAR (Question Answer Relationship) questions by 80%, and write…

This paper discusses one English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher's attempts to use cuisenaire rods as a language learning tool. Cuisenaire rods (sometimes called algebricks) vary in size from 1 x 1 x 10 centimeter sticks to 1 x 1 x 1 centimeter cubes, with each of the 10 sizes a different color. Although such rods have been used to teach…

A 3-month practicum utilized teacher workshops and biweekly consultation to provide all fourth grade teachers (N=11) in a public school district with higher level questioning strategies to meet gifted students' cognitive needs. A total of six fourth grade students were identified as gifted and talented. At the workshops, higher level questioning…

The purpose of this practicum was to develop and implement a validated interviewing process to aid managers of administrative units in selecting certified elementary school personnel. Such a process would facilitate the effectiveness of administrative managers in following approved city, state, and federal employment guidelines during the…

The study reported here was conducted to improve student teachers' skills in asking questions capable of eliciting learner responses on a higher cognitive level. Participants, senior student teachers, were chosen randomly for video evaluations of their question asking strategies. Following video recording of lessons, the student teachers performed…

This practicum focused on the use of repeated taped reading instruction with modeling to improve fluency, comprehension, and automatic word recognition in five students (ages 11-13 years) with learning disabilities for a period of 10 weeks. The instruction also involved the teacher giving corrective feedback and having the students answer story…

A teaching team leader and second grade teacher designed and implemented a 10-week practicum intervention meant to improve the inferential comprehension of 105 second graders whose reading scores on the Ginn Mastery Tests revealed a gap between inferential and literal comprehension. It was reasoned that the gap would decrease if teachers were…

An inservice teacher education course was designed to address the problems of content-area teachers in teaching limited-English-proficient (LEP) students. Goals were for content-area teachers: (1) to gain sensitivity to and understanding of the special needs of this population; (2) to become aware of the cultural and linguistic diversity and…