A study investigated the effects of the literature-based reading instruction on the reading achievement of Mexican-American first graders in Spanish. Using a posttest-only control group design and "t" test for independent samples, results indicated that after three months the experimental group of 30 students (attending a 100% Hispanic…

This report documents efforts to develop instruments for data-gathering and to train field staff in the use of the instruments, as part of a feasibility study designed to validate a conceptual framework that describes the elements of California's special education prereferral and alternative assessment procedures for ethno-linguistically diverse…

This study compared a measure of theoretical orientation and a measure of style orientation administered to 107 classroom teachers in graduate and undergraduate language arts methods courses, examined their responses to holistic curriculum structures, and examined the types of support that students/teachers needed to modify traditional beliefs.…

Gender attitudes are usually viewed as products of the socialization process and therefore may be viewed as modifiable behaviors. Of great practical importance is the discovery of how they are formed, how they are organized in the mind, and how they may be changed. A study attempted to determine if exposing middle school students to…

In this language arts unit, high-ability students in grades 4 through 6 study the concept of change by reading autobiographies of writers from various cultures and by looking at change in selected lives. Selected stories from "Junior Great Books" were chosen for their probing of issues of identity. Other literature selections are drawn…

A series of six studies of the reading ability of Japanese high school and college students investigated the ability of students to process various literary forms and the types of questions students have difficulty with at different levels of reading proficiency. Over 25,000 students completed various versions of an English reading comprehension…

This study evaluated a Columbus (Ohio) Public Schools summer remedial reading and language mechanics skills program for participants in a job training program. The Summer Academic Skills Enhancement Program provided clients with the skills required for employment into entry-level positions in 160 curriculum hours. Seventy-one clients were…

A study investigated the efficacy of using the Language Experience Approach (LEA) with a 15-year-old special education fifth-grade rural black student who did not seem to benefit from traditional skills training procedures. The subject was reading below the first grade level and was a sole survivor of two parallel single-subject design studies.…

This paper describes the development and implementation of a culture-based literature program to improve the reading skills and understanding of minority cultures in students with mild disabilities. Steps in developing such a whole language approach program include: (1) identifying the cultural groups to be studied; (2) choosing both fiction and…

This handbook for Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC) adjunct faculty presents a variety of information designed for adjunct lecturers in English. Three short introductory sections focus on general information, helpful hints, and the use of office machines. The body of the handbook contains the following sections: (1) Services, including…

In 1991, a study was conducted by Oakland Community College (OCC) in order to evaluate the need for a proposed Sign Language Interpreter program. OCC's study focused on validating and updating findings from a similar research project begun in fall 1989 by Macomb Community College (MCC) in Warren, Michigan. Federal and state legislation, data from…

This paper describes and analyzes an incident which occurred during observation and videotaping of an eighth-grade language arts class. This classroom observation was part of an ongoing case study of an eighth-grade teacher of Native American heritage. The vignette that is presented describes a fist fight that occurred between two male students in…

This study evaluates four summer programs (two prefreshman programs, one postfreshman program, and a Science, Mathematics, and Technology Institute) designed to assist at-risk college students in the City University of New York. Section I describes the two prefreshman programs: (1) the SEEK and College Discovery Prefreshman Summer Program, which…

The Listening Partners project examined rural mothers' development of a sense of the power of their own minds and voices and the relationship between this sense of power and mothers' parenting strategies and their children's development. Two cohorts of 60 women from a rural, impoverished region of Vermont participated in the program. Half the…

This document describes programs that serve migrant preschool children and their families or that would be adaptable to the migrant population. Model programs illustrate trends in the direction of a "whole family" approach to early childhood education, respect for the importance of proficiency in the child's first language with regard to…