To complete Standard 2 of the California History-Social Science Framework, first-grade students must learn to use and construct maps and consider how location, weather, and physical environments affect the way people live. Students develop basic geographic skills by focusing first on their school and then on their neighborhood. The 6-year-old…

Kindergarten and first grade represent a time of rapid growth and learning for children. During these years, children acquire the reading knowledge and skills that prepare them for future schooling and life. Until recently, little national data have been available on young children's reading skills. The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study,…

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) offer opportunities for renewed development for many rural and remote areas that have long experienced economic decline and outmigration. But there is a risk of a territorial digital divide between urban and rural areas. Investments in telecommunications infrastructure and services tend to be…

In order to determine preservice teachers' reflective thinking and concerns as they addressed the complexities of supporting and augmenting their students' literacy instruction through computer activities, a systematic qualitative inquiry was conducted. The study was conducted in three schools within the same school district in south Mississippi.…

This book examines issues related to problems in workforce education for Latinos and Latinas in the United States. Chapter 1, "The Landscape of Latinos, Education, and Work," presents an introduction and background information. Chapter 2, "The Politics of Workforce Education," discusses current legislation that has negatively…

This professional development packet consists of two sessions, each requiring 6 hours. Session one is designed to teach participants to do the following: identify at least three unique characteristics of workplace English as a Second Language (ESL); describe the steps involved in developing a workplace ESL program; identify the basic steps of…

This booklet explains the goals of Easter Schools, part of England's National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies. Easter Schools should be planned to cover four half-days and include four literacy and four mathematics lessons each covering the equivalent of at least an hour. The booklet addresses the following issues: why funding has been made…

Research has shown that principal support is a key factor in the implementation of effective school library or information literacy programs in schools. An international study of the principal's role in developing and supporting information literacy programs was conducted in Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Japan, Scotland, and South Korea.…

This book is designed to help faculty members and others involved in training teachers to use technology to understand what implementation might look like, to provide a framework or starting point in a lesson or topic, and to encourage faculty members to use intellectual and creative license to make the experience appropriate for the teacher…

This handbook proposes that early speech and language problems may contribute to reading problems. The relationship between oral language problems and written language problems is presented, followed by tools and models of assessment and treatment. In chapter 1, results of follow-up studies of children with early speech and language problems are…

Griffith University's (Australia) "Flying Drama School" visited Belmont State School in 2000, which inspired several teachers to want to learn more about drama education. One teacher at the school at that time approached a professor from Griffith University to design a professional development program in drama education: "Pretending…

This collection of research-based articles is framed around the International Reading Association's 10 "literacy rights" of every child, outlining what children need to become competent readers and writers. Under Right 1--Children have a right to appropriate early reading instruction based on their individual needs--are the following…

Noting that the curriculum in early childhood education is dramatically different from that at other levels of education, this volume seeks to clarify some of the issues related to early childhood curriculum development and its bases in both personal knowledge and knowledge from the different disciplines to achieve a "balanced curriculum."…

This paper presents an overview of a plenary panel entitled "Measuring Outcomes and Setting Standards in Languages Education.""Outcomes" implies what learners take away from their course, while the term "standards" seems commonly to have at least two senses: first it may imply some yardstick or framework against which…

Teachers are likely to have exceptional learners in their classrooms and thus need better understanding of these students to provide for their literacy needs. The acronym "SPECIAL NEEDS" suggests the following teacher characteristics and tasks: Sensitivity, Patience, Empathy, Caring, Individualized instruction, Acceptance, Life skills,…