One of the main questions regarding Dutch primary education in our secularised and religiously diverse society--both with regards to public and religiously-affiliated schools--is how to get students acquainted with the symbolic language of religious and worldview-affiliated life narratives. Teaching literacy in symbolic language has become less…

The article describes a practical symbol system that facilitates physical education instruction for hearing impaired students. The movement capabilities of the hearing impaired are pointed out, the movement exploration technique (which uses a problem-solving approach to individualize instruction for elementary school children) is briefly…

An elementary teacher investigates a way of telling a story using only pictures. In another article (EJ 527 113) this teacher and his students considered how our writing system uses letters to stand for sounds or groups of sounds, experimenting with Kiowa picture writing. (Author/RK)

Relating natural language to mathematical language is an important component of elementary mathematics education. This paper describes new steps toward a computerized database of addition and subtraction word problems that could provide teachers and students with access to critical natural language terms and expressions for mathematical…

The Bliss Symbol System, an international pictorial language, is being used in Great Britain to help children with speech difficulties communicate in school and home. (IM)

An elementary teacher uses pictorial symbols to help his students, who speak English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Chinese, to communicate more freely. (RK)

Presents ideographic selections and class exercises from a Chinese first grade primer. Explanations in English are included. (Author/DB)

Reports on a study investigating the contributions of visual factors dependent upon the use of symbols as intermediary units and concludes that perceptual factors may play an important role in the use of Chinese characters as intermediaries in introducing reading. (JM)

Presents observations of three children's styles of symbolic language focusing on how each leaned to different degrees on drawing and talking to create their imaginary worlds and thus faced different challenges in rendering those worlds in print. (SRT)

Qualitative stories garnered from six students with mental retardation and published autobiographical and biographical stories by people with disabilities or their parents are used as a "research synthesis" to describe an intimate, caring relationship which is of central importance when constructing a non-traditional approach to literacy that…

Provides a brief history of the use of metaphor and its potential usefulness with children. Describes eight strategies for using metaphors with children, offers a systematic approach for constructing interwoven metaphors for children, supplies a case example, and lists some of the limitations of metaphorical language in counseling. (RJM)

Researchers have reported that children's writing about mathematical concepts can give teachers valuable insight into students' mathematical understanding. There are, however, factors which place constraints on the adequacy of written products to reveal the quality and degree of children's conceptual understanding. This study examined the…

This workbook, intended for use in a bilingual education setting, is designed to accompany the Level Two reader of the same series. Each page presents the Chinese characters in clear, large, pen-and-ink drawings, and provides spaces in which to copy and practice them. (AMH)

This report proposes that the entire basis of composition be reconsidered in terms of total communication--starting with culture (the total interaction of humans) and progressing to the recognition of writing as a symbol system valuable in expressing and ordering the self. Included in the report are discussions of (1) the relationship of written…

The failure of research on media to deal with media's symbol systems is discussed. Nature of symbol systems is described and related to cognition and learning. Symbolic elements used by media can facilitate the cultivation of mental skills in interaction with individual differences and depth of processing. (Author/RD)