The major goals of the practicum with 12 severely language impaired elementary students were: to increase and enhance the students' low self-concepts, and to reduce absenteeism among the students. A 3-month self-concept guidance program for these students was developed and implemented. Specific guidance activities were conducted in three areas:…

This paper recounts the author's removal as an Indian child to a non-Indian foster home and consequent alienation and identity crisis, and presents survey results from Indian adults with similar childhood experiences. The problems in this particular case began when, at age 5, the author moved with her family from the reservation to an urban…

Improving at-risk students' low self-esteem, changing the negative feeling that at-risk students have about themselves, and helping at-risk students to become empowered to do something about their poor achievement in school were the major undertaking of this project. A formalized self-esteem assessment tool, the Coopersmith Self Esteem Inventory,…

A practicum was designed to improve a high school sophomore curriculum in traditional English rhetoric and the study of literary classics by adding a component to strengthen adolescent identity formation. Students were encouraged to generate and present family literary documents including varieties of familial cultural artifacts. Portfolios,…

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…

Growing out of concern about the increased absenteeism and poor achievement of a select population of students at Fox Chapel High School, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this program aimed to decrease absences and improve student achievement and self-concept. It also involved a review of the climate provided for learning and of the teaching-learning…

A practicum aimed to increase global awareness in the first grade classroom. The problem was that the students were very "Americanized," predominantly white, and rarely exposed to other cultures. Therefore, the students could not recognize commonalities among people and could not understand the cultural differences in others. The major…

A guidance counselor and chair of an elementary school's special services team implemented a 10-week practicum intervention designed to improve the school attendance of 107 kindergarten through fifth grade students who were chronically absent. While 49 percent of the truant students lived in an inner-city housing project, 62 percent lived in…

Because handicapped and nonhandicapped students in a Pennsylvania elementary school were not sucessfully mainstreamed and lacked social skills, a practicum was devised to (1) teach social behavior skills to socially/emotionally maladjusted (SEM) students, and (2) present social skill intervention strategies promoting a positive attitude between…

An investigation conducted at Suffolk University as a basis for developing a course in career and life planning is described, and the course units that were produced are outlined. The literature survey investigated: the historical development of career and life planning from Frank Parson (1909) to the present; kindergarten to adult programs; and…

A personalized parenting program was implemented to address poor academic performance and low self-esteem of high school students. Student records, the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory, the Behavior Evaluation Scale, and teacher surveys were employed to identify and measure academic and/or self-perception growth. Parents participated in an 8-week…

The purpose of this practicum was to train 20 elementary teachers to do therapeutic music activities designed specifically to promote social skills in elementary school children. A five- part seminar series was presented over a 10-month period. The goals of the practicum were (1) to improve the teachers' knowledge of intervention techniques and…

An elementary school teacher implemented a practicum designed to: (1) provide a curriculum for a before and after school day care program serving primary school students; and (2) solve problems encountered in the implementation of a pilot school-age child care program. A review of the literature indicated that few curriculums had been developed…

A practicum was designed to employ multiple intervention techniques in an effort to improve the negative self-concept of sixth-grade black male students who were involved in rampant acts of verbal and physical aggression that disrupted the flow of class activities. Peer facilitator training was provided for the boys. Other components of the…

An elementary school guidance counselor conducted a practicum designed to address low-income, urban Puerto Rican and black fourth- and fifth-grade students' need for career awareness. In the course of implementing the eight-month long intervention, nine classroom teachers were asked to set aside two periods each week for: (1) developing students'…