Return to syllabus | marcopolo | Gateway to Education Materials on-line | International Reading Association | Readings for this course | Educational Statistics | Read Across America Website
http://members.aol.com/joshgato/AlfaCat.html
Even Start Family Literacy Program Grants for Indian Tribes and Tribal Organizations (use this outdated RFP to make a proposal you could submit next year)
Center for the Study of Books in Spanish for Children and Adolescents
Does Transition Really Happen? by Stephen Krashen
A literacy initiative for boys. http://www.guysread.com/
http://scov.csos.jhu.edu/crespar/Reports/report58.pdf
Transitional Programs for English Language Learners: Contextual
Factors and Effective Programming
By Diane August, May 2002
In this report, transitional programs refer to instructional
programs for students who have been schooled in their native language
and are now in a transitional� classrooms where
literacy instruction takes place in English. Transition usually
occurs during the elementary years but may occur in middle and
high school for older students recently arrived in U.S. schools
who are entering English-only literacy programs in the U.S. With
regard to the development of literacy and transition from a first
language to a second language, the paper focuses on school-age
children who are acquiring English as a second language, where
English is the societal language.
The author first examines the role of first anguage proficiency
in second language literacy, reviewing evaluation studies as well
as studies that investigate the transfer of skills from a first
language to English. This is followed by a discussion of the relationship
between English oral proficiency and literacy instruction in English
and the educational implications that ensue, and a description
of the elements of successful transition programs for English
language learners. The report concludes with recommendations for
research and practice.
DUAL LANGUAGE CLASSROOM LIBRARIES
Libraries of dual language materials (Spanish/English) are available through Attanasio and Associates, Inc., a New York- based distribution and consulting firm. The libraries include Spanish as a second language and ESL materials for elementary grades. Titles in the libraries are selected to correspond with grade level language arts and content themes, and to promote first and second language learning. Classroom libraries can be tailored to meet the individual needs of the school district or classroom.
For more information, contact Attanasio and Associates:
78-15 Metropolitan Avenue
Middle Village, NY 11379
tel: (718) 416-1832
fax: (718) 416-1838
email: cattanasio@aol.com
LATINO FOLK LITERATURE -- THE READING TEACHER
"Dissolving Borders and Broadening Perspectives through Latino Traditional Literature," an article by Lynn Atkinson Smolen and Victoria Ortiz-Castro, discusses recently published Latino myths, legends and folk tales. Books featured in the article were written in English and Spanish for children and adolescents. Smolen and Ortiz-Castro include a historical perspective of the literature, criteria for choosing literature to use in the classroom, and activities that support literacy and content learning.
This article appears in the April issue of "The Reading
Teacher," a publication of the International Reading Association
(IRA). For more information, contact IRA:
800 Barksdale Road
PO Box 8139
Newark, DE 19714-8139
URL: http://www.reading.org
["The Reading Teacher," Volume 53 (7): 566-578, April 2000]
The National Education Association (NEA) website -- http://www.nea.org/ -- has a brief overview of bilingual education in the U.S. and "quick clicks" to online resources. Included are NEA policy and resolutions concerning immigrants and language education, and profiles of two dual immersion schools. To go directly to NEA's bilingual education page, point your browser to: http://www.nea.org/issues/bilingual
Last Names
The use of middle names by Americans varies widely. Some families give two "first" names (e.g., William Robert Jones). Others give two "last" names (e.g., Thomas Crowley Jones). When two "last" names are given, sometimes the first of these is the mother's middle name (as mine was; I was Suzanne Sprague Broomell before I married), and sometimes it's some other family last name (as all my brothers' and sisters' were). Then when an American woman gets married and takes her husband's name (which doesn't always occur anymore), sometimes she keeps her own middle name and sometimes her maiden name becomes her middle name (Sarah Jane Holiday can become Sarah Jane Smith or Sarah Holiday Smith).
In Spain, the father's surname becomes the first last name and the mother's surname becomes the second last name. The father's surname is the "real" one, the one that is used in alphabetizing, and the one the wife takes. Your example is correct, except that if any of those people were just going to give one last name, it would be the first one. You can add as many additional grandmothers' last names as you can remember (Antonio Elizalde Perez Bustamente Rojas ... ). I don't believe it has anything to do with women being "prioritized" because they bear the children. It's just a convenient, logical way to know who everybody's mother and father are.
Suzanne Irujo (who couldn't figure out whether I should be
Suzanne Sprague Irujo or Suzanne Broomell Irujo, so I just dropped
the middle name)
sirujo@bu.edu
Throughout the Spanish speaking world, be it Spain or Latin America, the formula is the same. The children may have a first and second name, or just first name, but always take their father's first last name as the children's first, then the mother's first last name as the children's second last name. We even take the father's second last name and mother's second last name in that order as our third and fourth last names respectively. I can even trace my grandparent's first and second last names following that formula. As children we learned to memorize at least seven last names.
Toty
Martintoty@aol.com
http://www.esl.net/ (Schools & Language Learning Resources)
http://www.startek-uk.com/ (London Language School: Business, Drama, Speech Training, Media courses & Workshops)
http://www.101language.com/ (Language materials and resources)
http://www.lang.uiuc.edu/ (University of Illinois at Champaign; starting point for ESL Learners)
http://www.toefl.org/ (TOEFL Testing official website)
owl.english.purdue.edu (Purdue University's online writing lab)
http://www.globalenglish.com/ (Learn English online)
http://www.ilcs.com/ (Free online ESL lessons and resources; academic prep and acculturation on US Campuses)
http://www.aitech.ac.jp/ (CALL quizzes for ESL students)
http://babel.uoregon.edu/yamada/guides.html (Language Guides on the WWW)
www-writing.berkeley.edu/TESL-EJ/ (Electronic Journal for ESL/EFL/Applied Linguistics) fully refereed academic journal)
http://www.cal.org/ncle/ (National Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy)
http://esl.miningco.com/ (About.com guide for ESL)
Corpora (databases of language usage in context, and syntax- how dB influence language teaching and learning)
http://clwww.essex.ac.uk/w3c/ (Corpora applications)
http://www.smic.be/smic5022 (English exercises online and Free resources for English Language Learners and Teachers)
http://www.bbc.co.uk (see:TALKING POINT)
http://campus.fortunecity.com/newton/40/home.html Literacy and Technology Web Site
http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/arts_lit.htm PBS TeacherSource
http://www.reading.org/ International Reading Association
http://www.gutenberg.net/ Project Gutenberg
http://pbskids.org/rogers/parents/parentreading.html Mr. Rogers to Parents on Reading
http://www.ed.gov/inits/americareads/index.html America Reads
http://www.ncte.org/wlu/ Whole Language Umbrella
http://www.rif.org/ Reading is Fundamental
http://www.firstbook.org/ Firstbook helps disadvantage children read and own their first books
http://www.readcalifornia.org/ Read California
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/CompactforReading/ Compact for Reading (K-3)
It pays to be a thoughtful reader: All
Is Fair In Business
-----------------------
A shopkeeper was dismayed when a brand new business much like
his own opened up next door and erected a huge sign which read
'BEST DEALS.'
He was horrified when another competitor opened up on his right,
and announced its arrival with an even larger sign, reading 'LOWEST PRICES.'
The shopkeeper panicked, until he got an idea. He put the biggest
sign of all over his own shop. It read: 'MAIN
ENTRANCE'
Hi, Tracy Whattam here, member of the Nisgaa Nation (northern B.C.), and current Life Skills/SOI Instructor/Counsellor at New Westminster Secondary School.
I have been asked by my colleagues to send this out to cyberspace in case someone might be interested. So, I send this with the hope that it might stimulate some curiousity and....I would also like to hear from anyone who has worked with S.O.I.
I am currently working with Grade 8-12, 1st Nations kids. (Native
Americans for our southern relatives)
The program I originally introduced to this school is a course in applied problem solving, (Newstart life skills). It addresses personal, family, community, school/work, and leisure time life and it's unique in that it's experiential.
This has proved invaluable, however some of the kids needed additional support. I am working with some high risk students that truly dislike being at school.
They come because they have to...because they are told by many that education is a wonderful thing to have....that it will get you further.
I don't blame them for not wanting to attend...many of them are reading and writing far below their grade level. Our system is primarily based on this learning style and it's not theirs. It's no wonder they dislike school so much.
Anyway, we knew that what we had tried wasn't working, so, we started to look for other programs that had met with success.
We did some research through Canada and the US and found that SOI had met with a great deal of success when working with gifted and talented students, learning disabled, behaviour disordered, ADD, juvenile delinquents, adults returning to school, etc.
As a result, we started a pilot project in May of this year. We tested 8 students for peer tutoring positions. We then tested 12 more students and will test 4 more before September. These tutors will work with the 16 other students in an After School Homework Lab, minimum - three hours a week over the next year.
After they were tested they were so excited about the possibility of success they decided to attend a summer remediation program. So far it's been successful, in terms of attendance, punctuality, and enthusiasm for achieving their goals. At this point 12 of the 20 are attending.
After we presented our program to the School Board, the Principal decided to implement a SOI Pilot Project for the general school population as well, in place of their Developmental Reading Program, for the 96-97 school year.
What is SOI? Well, here's a capsule description.
SOI ASSESSES HOW YOU THINK
SOI assesses how you think and shows you your intellectual strengths
and weaknesses. The assessment can be geared towards either educational
or career needs. If you need to develop any areas of your thinking,
SOI provides a comprehensive set of training modules. These range
from thinking skills, to arithmetic and math skills to language
and creativity development. They are graded in level to accomodate
students from kindergarten to adult to university.
STRUCTURE OF INTELLECT
SOI stands for Strucuture of the Intellect. The basic theory of
SOI is that intelligence is too complex to be described by a single
number like the IQ score. Instead, SOI produces a profile of intelligence,
a picture of your ability in many different areas, learning style,
comprehension, memory, problem solving, etc.
HISTORY OF SOI
The SOI theory was originally developed by J.P. Guilford during
World War II. Guilford used his theory of multiple intellectual
abilities to screen pilots for the US Army Air Corps. 35% of pilot
trainees were failing the program. Guilford reduced this rate
to less than 5%.
After the war, the US Navy funded Guilford's research for 20 years at the University of California. During this time, Guilford used the statistical technique of factor anaylsis to isolate 120 different intellectual abilitites.
In the 1960's Dr. Mary Meeker, a colleague of Guilford, applied the theory to education. Dr. Meeker isolated 26 of the 120 abilities as being most important to academic achievement. Later, she and her husband, Dr. Robert Meeker, created a series of of standard tests for the 26 abiltities, along with a set of remedial modules.
Whereas Dr. Guilford used the Structure of Intellect theory to screen employees for various career fields, the Meekers developed the idea that intelligence can be trained.
DIFFERENT LEARNING STYLES
SOI recognizes that people learn in different ways. The figural
learning style is concrete and direct - figural learners learn
by seeing, touching and doing. The symbolic learning style has
to do with systems of notation- music, mathametics, and spelling.
The semantic learning style operates through words and ideas and
concepts. Our school system is heavily based on semantic learning
and many students who do not succeed in school may simply have
a different learning style.
DIFFERENT THINKING OPERATIONS
The five thinking operations in SOI are comprehension, memory,
evaluation, problem-solving (convergent thinking) and creativity
(divergent thinking). Comprehension describes how quickly and
how well you understand new information. Memory describes how
well you retain information. Evaluation describes your judgement,
your ability to make practical decisions. Problem solving describes
how well you can come up with the correct solution to problem.
Creativity is about finding many different solutions.
ORGANIZING INFORMATION
SOI also measures how well you organize information in six different
ways: units, classes, relations, systems, transformations and
implications. For instance, some people are strong in units. These
people are good with details. Others are strong in systems, meaning
they are less concerned with the details than with the big picture.
PROFILE OF INTELLIGENCE
By assessing these areas, the three learning styles, the five
operations, and the six ways of organizing information, the SOI
test produces a graph of your thinking. This graph shows where
you are strong and where you are weak. Then, most importantly,
SOI provides remedial modules for building up your weak areas.
Working through the modules can help you get better marks in school,
equip you for a better type of work, or improve your everyday
thinking skills.
So, there you have it, a very brief summary of what we are piloting at our school.
If you have any questions, please feel free to call or write back.
Sincerely,
Phone: (604) 527-8220 Local 316
Fax: 527-8204
email: twhattam@helix.net
"The supreme misfortune is when theory outstrips performance."
SUMMER READING FUN, a new America Reads Challenge website, offers a number of reading resources for summer, including....
POEMS ON DEMAND ... or maybe "Poems to Go"?
These alternate titles spring to mind for the Website "Representative
Poetry On-Line" from the Department of English at the University
of Toronto.
Compiled since 1912 by editors like Northrop Frye and Marshall
McLuhan, "Representative Poetry" hosts the full text
of 2200 poems by U.K., Canadian, and American poets. The main
criterion for inclusion as "representative" was an editor's
opinion that a poem has literary value. The collection is well
indexed and all poems are in the public domain, so anyone may
reprint these poems without violating copyright. The downside
is that the poet must have been dead at least 70 years (i.e. prior
to W.B.Yeats).
The site links to other massive collections of poetry on-line.
Now your class *can* study that classic poem which is not in their
English textbook!
Courtesy Network Nuggets.
http://www.themestream.com/articles/228668