Educational Reading Games

This project consists of a collection of educational reading games specifically for teachers and reading resource educators to use in the classroom. The games were designed for students in kindergarten and first grade. The games were organized according to the specific reading skills that will be reinforced. The specific skills were phonics, letter identification, and sight vocabulary. The games were collected from a variety of commercially available sources, teacher made games, and other educational resources. Furthermore, the author will discuss the rationale for using educational games in the classroom

Project Grow: A Plan to Grow an Edible Garden in a Poverty-affected School to Improve Parent Involvement and Increase Student Knowledge of Nutrition

Growing an edible garden in a poverty-affected school serves multiple purposes. It provides a way to increase parent involvement at the school while increasing student knowledge of nutrition. This comprehensive plan prepares a school to implement a school garden run solely by teacher, students, parents, and community volunteers. The potential results are that parents will get involved at their child\u27s school while the students can learn about nutrition along with their families

Processing speed in children and adolescents

Literature Review Background: Mathematical and reading abilities are predictive of academic achievement. To date, limited research has examined the relationship between processing speed and academic achievement in typically developing children. Greater insight into this relationship could help to identify the impact that reduced processing speed may have on long-term academic achievement. This review aimed to explore the relationship between these variables in typically developing children. Method: Studies conducted in the past twenty years measuring mathematics and/or reading abilities and processing speed in typically developing children using a standardised assessment measure were included in the review. In total 1278 studies were screened, which led to the identification of eight eligible studies that were included in the review. Results: No relationship was found between processing speed and reading ability. The findings on mathematics abilities were conflicting, with some studies identifying a relationship and other finding no significant association between these variables. Age appeared to be a moderating factor in studies that reported a significant relationship between mathematics and processing speed. Conclusions: The findings suggest that the relationship between processing speed and academic achievement is complex and the following review was unable to ascertain the direct relationship between these variables. It is recommended that future research examines the relationship between age and academic achievement in further detail. Empirical Paper Processing speed interventions have been found to be acceptable in children; however, there is limited evidence that they are effective in this population. This study investigated whether a processing speed intervention was effective in improving processing speed (PS) in children with suspected white matter disorders. The study hypothesised that children would demonstrate improvement on a daily outcome measure and between pre-baseline and post-intervention measures of PS. A single case experimental design utilising a multiple baseline approach was used to observe the effect of the intervention within and across participants. Three participants were recruited, each completing a choice reaction time (CRT) task three times a week that acted as the outcome measure. The processing speed intervention involved playing single player, multiplayer and iPad/android games. Overall there was no significant change in CRT between phases; however two participants demonstrated a medium effect size. There was no significant change in pre- or post-PS measures but there was evidence of reliable change in overall and cognitive fatigue. These findings suggest that the processing speed intervention was not effective in improving PS abilities. This paper highlights a number of challenges in implementing a processing speed intervention and explores the clinical implications of these findings

Cognitive Concept of Game in American English and Hungarian

This study explores the meaning of the concept of game for speakers of American English and Hungarian by investigating the exemplars of the category, their attributes, and their links to the findings of a linguistic examination of texts written on a specific game, chess. The main goal is to pin down similarities and differences between typical and less typical members of the category for the two populations as well as explore in more detail the main game frames for the two groups.Surveys conceived of in the traditions of prototype category inquiry reveal that, apart from a basic overlap in contents, for Americans, game first of all means sports, whereas for Hungarians, board games lead the way. Moreover, children and joy appear to be more prominent aspects of games for Hungarians, and Americans link games first of all to fun and competition. Interviews add the strategy and company dimensions to games for Americans, and for Hungarians, purity and competition appear as significant aspects. The domain analysis of chess metaphors shows a substantial overlap in source domain usage between the two languages. On the other hand, and in support of the quantitative data, Hungarian proves to use expressions of more violent actions and relies more on the supernatural when describing this game. A construction and frame analysis of a number of phenomena described in a chess game also bears out the subtle differences in the two populations' concept of chess.A secondary aim of the study is to investigate the structure of the category in the two languages. Contrary to earlier findings with categories of natural objects, the present study did not find a correlation between typicality and family resemblance. At the same time, the amount of property overlap between members of the category and the superordinate seem to be correlated with typicality. The results of this study indicate that despite the similarities between the contents of the concept of game for speakers of American English and Hungarian, the significant differences in how people perceive this concept also translate into the ways how descriptions of games are linguistically constructed.English Departmen

The role of leisure engagement and satisfaction in the relationship between job stress and subjective well-being in New Zealand workers : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Psychology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

The job demands-resources (JD-R) model argues that job stress is the result of an imbalance between demands and resources, and can negatively impact subjective well-being (SWB). Engagement in leisure activity provides a context for building resources through meeting key psychological needs, and fulfilment of these needs is reflected in satisfaction with leisure. Therefore, the ability to cope with and recover from job stress is believed to be affected by engaging in enjoyable and need-fulfilling leisure activity. The present study investigates the relationship between three measures of leisure engagement (variety, frequency, quantity), leisure satisfaction and SWB; and whether the relationship between job stress and SWB is mediated by leisure engagement and leisure satisfaction. Workers (n = 187) currently employed in New Zealand (NZ) were recruited through Facebook to complete an online survey. Results revealed that leisure variety and leisure frequency were positively related to SWB, but leisure quantity was not. Leisure satisfaction was positively associated with SWB, and job stress was negatively associated with SWB. The relationship between job stress and SWB was partially mediated by leisure frequency and satisfaction. Overall, the findings suggested that frequent engagement in satisfying leisure activities may be beneficial to counteract job stress and benefit employee SWB. The findings and limitations are discussed, as well as the implications for NZ organisations and workers

Expectations across entertainment media

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 131-132).An audience's satisfaction with an entertainment product is dependent on how well their expectations are fulfilled. This study delves into the implicit contract that is formed between the purveyor of an entertainment property and their audience, as well as the consequences of frustrating audience expectations. Building on this model of the implicit contract, the creation of expectations through marketing, character and world development, and the invocation of genre discourses are examined through the lens of the television shows House M.D. and Veronica Mars. The issues surrounding the dynamic equilibrium between novelty and stability in serial entertainment and entertainment franchises brought up by these initial case studies are examined in further detail through the collectible card game Magic: the Gathering, and the complexity of the interactions between different types of expectations are demonstrated via a study of the superhero comics serials 52 and Civil War.by Alexander Chance Austin.S.M

Time For Play? – An exploration of the nature of play and its possible contribution to the mitigation of stress and promotion of well-being particularly in the ministry of the church.

I aim to study the concept and nature of play and particularly its value in ministry and in the life of clergy. Much has been written about play in a number of spheres but little from a primarily theological perspective. Berne takes a sociological approach and Huizinga a more anthropological viewpoint whilst Sutton-Smith approaches the subject from a mainly educationalist perspective. Many writers like Brighton and Moon, Willett, Richards, Marsh, Burn and Bishop begin with the child and study school and playground to draw out lessons for life. Suurmond takes a more theological approach in his link between play and worship. I plan to take a more radically ontological approach, examining my subject at a deeper level to seek to discover the answer to the question: can an understanding of play and how we engage with it enable more balanced and flourishing ministries? I aim to show that the long-undervalued activity of play has something profound to teach us in the long-overemphasised arena of work and goal-setting that will contribute to our understanding of church ministry. My objectives are: 1. To present Play as an experienced phenomenon, a building-block of reality, common to all nature, developing essential life-skills and necessary growth. 2. To explore the paradoxical nature of Play as something liminal which is both autotelic and vitally meaningful as a route to improved wellbeing. 3. To discover if Play can be an authentic response to acedia*, particularly in the ministry of the church, and if engaging in something that doesn’t matter can have any value in the modern world. “Time for Play?” aims to make an original contribution to the understanding of parish ministry and leadership by offering the long-undervalued phenomenon of play, recreation and fun as a possible remedy for stress and valuable contribution to flourishing in ministry. *a term meaning listlessness, often applied to the clergy and leading to pressure, stress and burnou

Is a Rose Always a Rose Always a Rose?

Some of the questions I attempt to deal with are as follows: What does it mean to mean something? How does meaning happen? What do we really mean when we say that something means something? Can there be meaning without a mind? Is meaning something fixed or is it more like an unstable flux? How do concepts affect or determine the way we perceive the world? Aren’t metaphor, metonymy and other figures of speech very natural occurrences when meaning is understood more as an unstable flux than as something fixed and permanent? Do innate ideas or concepts exist? Or is it rather that we have innate ways of creating concepts? How do we (re) create concepts? How do concepts relate to meaning? How do concepts integrate and relate so as to create more complex meanings at higher levels? And how do they relate to grammar? Is grammar a set of rules or is it rather a set of conventions? How does grammar interact with the structures of our concepts