One first grade teacher\u27s experience with a literature-based reading series: A look at her first year

The purpose of this study was to examine a first-grade, rural school teacher\u27s use of a newly adopted literature-based reading series. The goal was not only to see how she used the materials but to also examine any struggles she experienced during her first year with a literature-based series. The participant/observer spent one day a week for an entire school year observing the teacher\u27s reading class and interviewing the teacher at regular intervals. It was apparent in the interviews that this teacher had a positive attitude toward many aspects of the new series and believed that she had changed her methods and beliefs of teaching reading. However, classroom observations revealed that in fact she modified the materials to meet her epistemology. Although prior studies support that the literature based basals are significantly different from previous editions, a change in reading instruction will only occur with greater teacher guidance

Behavioral Issues, Self-Esteem Struggles, Retention, and More: The Portrayal of Book Characters with Dyslexia

This study examined children’s and adolescent trade books portraying school-age characters with dyslexia. All of the books are contemporary realistic fiction, geared to elementary and adolescent readers, and published in the United States between 1993 and 2003. After an extensive search, seventy-two books were located. An analysis of the characters’ strengths and difficulties is discussed. Also behavioral characteristics and self-esteem struggles are noted. Furthermore, the article addresses the issue of grade retention and the history of characters’ family members with dyslexia

Pictorial/Oral and Written Responses of First Grade Students: Can Aesthetic Growth Be Measured?

Reader-response research (Galda, 1983; Many, 1992; Wiseman, Many, and Altieri, 1992) continues to provide in sight into the complex responses of children. From this perspective, each reading event is viewed as a transaction between the reader and text (Rosenblatt, 1978). Meaning is not inherent within the text or reader but rather created by the reader who uses the cues provided by the text

African-American Stories and Literary Responses: Does a Child\u27s Ethnicity Affect the Focus of a Response?

The importance of using multicultural books with children has become of increasing concern to the educational community. Within the past year multiculturalism has been the focus of articles in many important shapers and reflectors of public opinion including Time, Newsweek, US News and World Report, The Atlantic Monthly and The New Republic (Taxel, 1992). A criticism frequently found in such writing is the lack of multicultural books published. During a three-year period in the 1960s only four-fifths of one percent of the books published dealt with contemporary black Americans (Larrick, 1965). Even though the situation has slightly improved for all minority cultures, the percentage of books published about people of color continues to remain between one and two percent (Bishop, 1992). The most dramatic increase has been in the number of quality African-American books produced. In the last ten years, seven of the Caldecott Award winners or Honor Books contained African-American characters

African-American Stories and Literary Responses: Does a Child\u27s Ethnicity Affect the Focus of a Response?

The importance of using multicultural books with children has become of increasing concern to the educational community. Within the past year multiculturalism has been the focus of articles in many important shapers and reflectors of public opinion including Time, Newsweek, US News and World Report, The Atlantic Monthly and The New Republic (Taxel, 1992). A criticism frequently found in such writing is the lack of multicultural books published. During a three-year period in the 1960s only four-fifths of one percent of the books published dealt with contemporary black Americans (Larrick, 1965). Even though the situation has slightly improved for all minority cultures, the percentage of books published about people of color continues to remain between one and two percent (Bishop, 1992). The most dramatic increase has been in the number of quality African-American books produced. In the last ten years, seven of the Caldecott Award winners or Honor Books contained African-American characters

The Role of Children\u27s Literature in One Rural Town\u27s Elementary School: A Case Study

Although researchers and theorists have shown the value of using literature in the curriculum (Huck, Hepler, and Hickman, 1987; Norton, 1993), studies show that the use of children\u27s literature in the classroom is not as common as one might think (Blass and Jurenka, 1989-1990; Morrow, 1982). One study suggests that teacher location may be related to the use of literature-based instruction (Lehman, Allen, and Freeman 1990). This study found that teachers in rural areas were less confident about teaching with literature without the benefit of a published reading program than urban and subur ban teachers. Rural teachers were also much more likely to feel that lists of recommended children\u27s books for each grade level were important

From McGuffey Readers to Taking Notes on the Sermon: Literacy Experiences in a Catholic Home Schooling Group

This study looks at the literacy practices of a Catholic home schooling group located in the Pacific North West. Semistructured interviews conducted with each parent in the home schooling group comprised the primary data source. Researchers have called for more research looking at specific teaching practices of such individuals (Cizek &Ray, 1995; Knafle &Wescott 1994) involved with home schooling. Findings of this study revealed that reading aloud was important to all parents. Benefits cited by parents included immediate feedback for children, ability to pace themselves as necessary, and the opportunity to tailor lessons to individual child

Thermal Infrared Observations of Asteroid (99942) Apophis with Herschel

The near-Earth asteroid (99942) Apophis is a potentially hazardous asteroid. We obtained far-infrared observations of this asteroid with the Herschel Space Observatory's PACS instrument at 70, 100, and 160 micron. These were taken at two epochs in January and March 2013 during a close Earth encounter. These first thermal measurements of Apophis were taken at similar phase angles before and after opposition. We performed a detailed thermophysical model analysis by using the spin and shape model recently derived from applying a 2-period Fourier series method to a large sample of well-calibrated photometric observations. We find that the tumbling asteroid Apophis has an elongated shape with a mean diameter of 375$^{+14}_{-10}$ m (of an equal volume sphere) and a geometric V-band albedo of 0.30$^{+0.05}_{-0.06}$. We find a thermal inertia in the range 250-800 Jm$^{-2}$s$^{-0.5}$K$^{-1}$ (best solution at 600 Jm$^{-2}$s$^{-0.5}$K$^{-1}$), which can be explained by a mixture of low conductivity fine regolith with larger rocks and boulders of high thermal inertia on the surface. The thermal inertia, and other similarities with (25143) Itokawa indicate that Apophis might also have a rubble-pile structure. If we combine the new size value with the assumption of an Itokawa-like density and porosity we estimate a mass between 4.4 and 6.2 10$^{10}$ kg which is more than 2-3 times larger than previous estimates. We expect that the newly derived properties will influence impact scenario studies and influence the long-term orbit predictions of Apophis.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics, 21 pages, 8 figures, 2 table

A ring galaxy at z=1 lensed by the cluster Abell 370

We present a study of a very peculiar object found in the field of the cluster-lens Abell 370. This object displays, in HST imaging, a spectacular morphology comparable to nearby ring-galaxies. From spectroscopic observations at the CFHT, we measured a redshift of $z=1.062$ based on the identification of [O ii] 3727 \AA and [Ne v] 3426 \AA emission lines. These emission lines are typical of starburst galaxies hosting a central active nucleus and are in good agreement with the assumption that this object is a ring-galaxy. This object is also detected with ISO in the LW2 and LW3 filters, and the mid Infra-Red (MIR) flux ratio favors a Seyfert 1 type. The shape of the ring is gravitationally distorted by the cluster-lens, and most particularly by a nearby cluster elliptical galaxy. Using the cluster mass model, we can compute its intrinsic shape. Requiring that the outer ring follows an ellipse we put constraints on the M/L ratio of the nearby galaxy and derive a magnification factor of 2.5 $\pm$ 0.2. The absolute luminosities of the source are then $L_B = 1.3 \ 10^{12} L_{B \odot}$and$\nu$L$_\nu \simeq 4. 10^{10}$L$_\odot$ in the mid-IR.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, uses aa.cls, accepted to A&A Letters. Minor changes, Figure 1 revisited and typos adde