September 12

Teaching Language Arts in the Elementary School

September 12

In the News
Are Educators Training or Trainers Educating?: http://www.educationnews.org/areeducators-training-or-traine.htm
An ongoing argument among school administrators, teachers, and parents is whether schools are institutions of education or training. Education is about theory, and training is about practice. Education aims to cultivate the mind, and training seeks to move the mind to action. Education focuses on knowledge, while training concentrates on performance. Education sees knowledge for its own sake as power; training takes a more utilitarian view, seeing results-focused action as power. A world of difference hangs in the balance here.

Computer program picks up language rules, makes own sentences, researchers say:
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/050831_langfrm.htm
"Researchers say they have developed a system that lets a computer scan text in various languages, figure out the grammatical rules behind it, then spit out simple, but sensible sentences of its own making. The method also works for such data as sheet music or genetic code, the researchers said, and has implications for speech recognition and genomics."

Digital Anthology of Ms. Angala's Exceptional Students: http://digitalanthology.blogspot.com/
Students in this literature and art class publish their works on this blog used as an anthology of poems and illustrations.

Education Reform Network: http://www.edreform.net/

Guide to State and Federal Standards for Academic Year 2005-2006: http://nysut.org/standards/index.html

How gifted brains work: http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/050902_intelfrm.htm
Highly intelligent people use slightly different brain circuitry to solve IQ-test problems than the less gifted do, some new studies have found.

NetAid World Class: http://www.netaid.org/educators/world-class/
"NetAid World Class is an interactive educational activity that teaches young students ages 8-14 how obstacles relating to poverty can keep children from reaching their dreams. More importantly, students are challenged to turn what they've learned into action, planting the first seeds of lifelong advocacy on behalf of the 125 million children not in school around the world."

Row erupts over dyslexia 'denial': http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4205932.stm
An education professor has cast doubt on the scientific validity of the term 'dyslexia', saying experts cannot agree on what it is or how to treat it.

Study: Teachers coming to terms with computers: http://www.nytimes.com/cnet/CNET_2100-1032_3-5844057.html
It is in the online version of the of the New York Times, which requires free registration.

Trends in Reading: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/ltt/results2004/natreadinginfo.asp
The NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) long-term trend assessment in reading documents trends in student performance from 1971 through 2004. Performance results are reported in three ways: as average scale scores, as percentile scores, and as percentages of students reaching predetermined performance levels. Use the links below to view key findings, and use the arrow at the upper right of the results pages to move sequentially through reading and mathematics findings.

Accelerated Reader
Accelerated Reader: http://www.renlearn.com/ar/default.htm
To view a practice quiz, go to quizzes, Reading Practice Quizzes.

Accelerated Reader: http://reading.indiana.edu/ieo/bibs/accl-rdr.html

Accelerated Reader: http://www.catawba.k12.nc.us/schoolpages/riverbend/AR/ARindex.html
From River Bend Middle School

Accelerated Reader Bulletin Board: http://www.gardenofpraise.com/bul42.htm

Accelerated Reader Cheat Sheet: http://tsc.k12.in.us/ci/workshop/AR/ARCheatSheet512.PDF

Accelerated Reader for Middle School Teachers listserv: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ar4middleschool/
This group is designed specifically for sharing original tests, strategies, concerns, questions, successes, and other items relating to students in grades 6-8 who use the Accelerated Reading program.

Accelerated Reader - New Research: http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/whatsnu_ar.html

Accelerated Reader Program: http://www.sbe.mps.k12.mi.us/AR_program.htm#Program
From Siebert Elementary School

Accelerated Reader: http://mainst.monterey.k12.ca.us/library/libpg/ARpage.htm
From Soledad Unified School District

Advantage Learning Gives You a Break - Accelerated Reader:
http://www.teachnet.com/how-to/manage/advantage.html

Certifications: http://www.wcs.edu/pes/ar/ar.htm
Accelerated Reader reading requirements to get prizes at one school.

The File Cabinet From Laura Candler-Accelerated Reader: http://home.att.net/~clnetwork/ar.htm

Grant High School's Accelerated Reader and STAR Reader Programs: http://www.grant.k12.ca.us/schools/ghs/AR/arhome.htm

Greene County Tech School District-Accelerated Reader: http://www.gctsd.k12.ar.us/display/hs/MediaCentre/ar

NCTE-Reading Program-Accelerated Reader: http://www.ncte.org/elem/topics/reading/109879.htm

Readers are Leaders: http://www.highland.mccsc.edu/ar.htm

Valley Heights Mustang Library: http://library.valleyheights.org/acc.htm

What Is The Accelerated Reader?: http://www.readingonline.org/critical/topping/rolarD.html

Scholastic Reading Counts
Reading Counts: http://www.flaglerschools.com/bes/Media/reading_counts.htm
From Bunnell Elementary School

Reading for Highest Student Achievement: http://www.cls.pcslearn.org/ideas/pdf/readBrochure.pdf
Explains Lexiles and Reading Counts
From the school board of Pinellas County, Florida

Reading Counts: http://www.pes.poquoson.k12.va.us/activities/readingcounts.html
From Poquoson Elementary School

Scholastic Reading Counts: http://src.scholastic.com/ecatalog/readingcounts/index.htm
To view a sample quiz, go to Program Overview, Take a Quiz.

Battle of the Books
Battle of the Books and More: Reading Activities for Middle School Students by Sybilla Cook, Fraces Corcoran & Beverley Fonnesbeck.
I like this book because it is very practical. It has alternate book report ideas, ideas for classroom, and school wide reading related competitions, and ideas for using the Internet to enhance reading. The majority of the book describes in detail how to set up a Battle of the Books competition in a school. Battle of the Books is a game show type competition that can be done between classes or within a classroom. Students read books, form teams, and then answer questions about the books they have read. They try to have their team answer the most questions and thus win.

2003-2004 Battle of the Books: http://www.akla.org/akasl/bb/bbhome.html

Battle of the Books: http://www.battleofthebooks.org/

Other Reading Incentive Programs
Bookadventure.com: http://bookadventure.com/index.asp
Bookadventure is a free online reading motivation program for grades K-8. You can view a sample quiz at this site.

Bookit: http://www.bookitprogram.com/
Sponsored by Pizza Hut

Read Across America: http://www.nea.org/readacross/
Sponsored by the National Education Association (NEA)

What are the negatives associated with the incentive programs?:
http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/rah_chpt5_p4.html
You can click on Chapters at the top of the page and read the rest of the book online.

This site began in March 1998 and was created by Janet Luch. This page was last updated on September 11, 2005.
Email to studyplans@yahoo.com.