Education Commons^™

A Community Coalition Promotes Family Literacy With Story Celebrations, M. Susan Mcwilliams

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

A coalition is typically formed between individuals or groups to bring unique strengths together in a cooperative manner to address a common cause. In our community, an alliance was formed to raise public consciousness about the impact of family reading on children's literacy development. As a coalition, we planned, organized and funded literacy-related events or story celebrations in multiple locations throughout the community. In this article, I describe and provide rationale for creating a coalition that advocates for family literacy.

The Effect Of Gender And Age On Ppst Performance In An Urban Teacher Education Program, Judith Harrington

Counseling Faculty Publications

This study examined PPST scores for 318 College of Education students in a midsized, midwestern, urban university. Factors of gender and age were used to compare performance on the three PPST subtests of Reading, Writing and Mathematics. Findings tended to support some gender-stereotypical beliefs with regard to math and verbal abilities. The study's findings did not support the often perceived belief that traditional students outperform nontraditional students. Inferences for urban colleges of Education are discussed.

In The Classroom: Poetry In Motion (May '91), Michael P. French, Kathy Everts Danielson

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

Presents a look at several special projects designed by various teachers to foster learning in young children. Includes using a body movement to respond to poetry, creating a `Book-a-Mania' week of instructional and entertaining events, and using logos and street signs to teach reading awareness.

In The Classroom: Creating A Writing-Rich Environment In The Preschool Classroom (Mar. '91), Michael P. French, Kathy Everts Danielson

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

Describes the special teaching strategies developed by various teachers across the nation, including preschool journal writing, creating big books, and teaching comprehension through reading and writing editorials.

In The Classroom: The Winter Tradition Project (Feb. '91), Michael P. French, Kathy Everts Danielson

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

In an effort to involve all students and to educate them about the cultures of other countries, I developed a "winter tradition" project. The project required that students write brief descriptions of things their families do during the holidays or winter months. These were compiled into a class booklet. The winter tradition project proved to an excellent activity for middle school students because it allowed them to learn about each other while increasing their writing, computer, and interpersonal skills. I introduced this five-day project to five language arts classes of 20-25 students each.

In The Classroom: Details, Details, Details (Nov. '90), Michael P. French, Kathy Everts Danielson

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

Recounts how several teachers came up with their own solutions to teaching problems involving diverse areas like reading diagnosis, writing workshops, and peer conferencing.

In The Classroom: Vocabulary (April '90), Michael P. French, Kathy Everts Danielson, Maureen Conn, Willa Gale, Charlene Lueck, Mona Manley

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

Vocabulary knowledge is one of the most critical elements of comprehension. Helping students to expand their own vocabularies and to become more interested in words is a challenge for all teachers. The following techniques provide teachers various ways to enhance students' vocabulary development. To read more about vocabulary instruction, see: Heimlich, J.E., & Pittelman, S.D. (1986). Semantic mapping: Classroom applications. Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Johnson, D.D. (Ed.) (1986). Vocabulary [Special issuel. Journal of Reading, 29 (7). Johnson, D.D., & Pearson, PD. (1984). Teaching reading vocabulary (2nd ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Marzano, R.J., & Marzano, J.S. (1988). …

In The Classroom: Reading And Writing In The Content Areas (Dec. '89), Michael P. French, Kathy Everts Danielson, Maureen Conn, Willa Gale, Charlene Lueck, Mona Manley

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

Students comprehend content material by reading, discussing, writing, questioning, investigating, exploring, and organizing. Reading and writing in the content areas relates prior knowledge, classroom interaction, cooperative learning, vocabulary instruction, and questioning techniques. Children practice research skills by organizing information in a meaningful and practical manner. This month's In the Classroom column presents ways in which teachers can enhance their students' comprehension of content area topics by involving them in various classroom activities. Additional resources for content area reading and writing activities follow :

Dupuis, M.M. (1983). Reading in the content areas: Research for teachers. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Graves, …