The Effects of Combining Direct Instruction, Metacognitive Instruction and Co-operative Learning Strategies to Teaching Summarizing to Year 6 Students

Summarizing is one of several study skills students are asked to do as evidence of their ability to learn from texts and it is one which students find difficult. Research suggests that part of the difficulty students experience with summarizing is due to the lack of instruction students received in summary writing and the quality of that instruction. Therefore the purpose of this study was to design an instructional procedure for teaching summary writing to primary school students and to investigate the; effects this form of instruction had on students\u27 summaries. This study involved pre-testing, instruction in summarizing, followed by a Post Test and a delayed summary writing task. The Post Test was administered immediately following the completion of instruction. The delayed summary writing task was administered one month later and was conducted in order to investigate the durability, application and contextual use of skills and strategies learnt from the instruction in summary writing. The instructional format for writing summaries was developed from a review of past research studies which had successfully taught students to summarize. The characteristics of procedures in each of the studies were tabled and the common elements identified. The rationale and theory behind these common elements were found to be similar to that of direct instruction, metacognitive instruction and co-operative learning strategies. Therefore the instruction procedure designed for this study was named the Combined Approach To Summarizing Procedure, or the C.A.T.S. Procedure. The results indicated that for this sample of 21 year 6 students both the quantity and quality of information being recorded in their summaries increased. Students in this study improved and maintained the number of main ideas statements being produced in their summaries and they were found to be combining main ideas and supporting details more frequently. Although immediately following instruction the amount of unimportant information was reduced, and the amount of inferences increased, this was not maintained in the delayed summary writing task. It was found that there was no difference between the improvements made by lower ability readers and the remaining students in the study, in terms of the amount and type of information being recorded in their summaries

The Nature And Provision Of Instruction In Summary Writing For Students From Years 7-9

As students progress through our education system they are increasingly asked to independently comprehend and compose informational material to show evidence of their ability to use and learn from texts. One skill which facilitates students\u27 abilities to learn from texts is summarizing. Research into summarizing suggests it is a complex skill needing explicit and systematic instruction. However, materials to which teachers turn to for advice on strategies and instruction do not always reflect the findings of research. This being the case, this study set out to investigate what teachers understood about the nature of summarizing and the extent to which instruction was being provided in summarizing. With the need for increased independent learning from texts in secondary school settings, this study also aimed to investigate the difference between upper primary and lower secondary teachers\u27 understandings and knowledge about the nature and provision of instruction in summarizing. A descriptive/analytical study was conducted with eleven teachers from Western Australian primary and secondary schools. Teachers were asked to individually plan and administer an \u27ideal\u27 lesson involving summarizing. Following the administration of the \u27ideal\u27 lesson, teachers were interviewed and responses transcribed. Data from the teacher\u27s lesson plan, interview and students\u27 marked summaries were triangulated to present case scenarios. The case scenarios were analysed to describe the nature and provision of instruction in summarizing. The study found that teachers\u27 instructions and activities implied an awareness of the use of selection, condensing and transforming skills, however teachers did not deliberately and consciously make these skills explicit to their students. Teachers\u27 knowledge about the nature of summarizing and subsequently their provision of instruction were directly influenced by their purposes for asking students to summarise. In addition, four teaching orientations emerged which describe a developmental trend in which systematic instruction and opportunities to practise summarizing appear to decrease as students progress through the education system. This developmental trend is manifested in upper primary teachers tending to have an integrated process and task orientation to summarizing whilst secondary teachers demonstrated content and assessment orientations

A developmental investigation of the relationship between appraisals and peer self-esteem in children experiencing peer-aggression

Transactional models of stress and coping emphasize the role played by cognitive appraisals in determining psychological adjustment (Lazarus, 1999). This proposition has been supported by research examining young people's adjustment in relation to family conflict and break-up (Grych et al., 1992). Furthermore, this literature suggests that there is a change in the relationship between appraisals and adjustment at around 10 years of age: specificity of appraisal type (e.g. threat, blame) becomes relevant to outcome after 10 years, whereas before 10 there are either no effects of appraisal on adjustment or a diffuse effect of 'negative' appraisals more generally (Jouriles et al., 2000). However, it is currently unclear whether this developmental progression can be generalized from familial- to social-stressors experienced by children and young people. The current study therefore evaluates the model within the context of a commonly experienced social childhood stressor: peer-aggression

557 GHz Observations of Water Vapor Outflows from VY CMa and W Hydrae

We report the first detection of thermal water vapor emission in the 557 GHz, $1_{10} - 1_{01}$ ground state transition of ortho-H$_2$O toward VY Canis Majoris. In observations obtained with the Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS), we measured a flux of $\sim 450$Jy, in a spectrally resolved line centered on a velocity $v_{LSR} = 25$km s$^{-1}$ with a full width half maximum of $\sim 35$ km s$^{-1}$, somewhat dependent on the assumed line shape. We analyze the line shape in the context of three different radial outflow models for which we provide analytical expressions. We also detected a weaker 557 GHz emission line from W Hydrae. We find that these and other H$_2$O emission line strengths scale as suggested by Zubko and Elitzur (2000).Comment: Astrophysical Journal Letters, accepte

A simple model to estimate atmospheric concentrations of aerosol chemical species based on snow core chemistry at Summit, Greenland

A simple model is presented to estimate atmospheric concentrations of chemical species that exist primarily as aerosols based on snow core/ice core chemistry at Summit, Greenland. The model considers the processes of snow, fog, and dry deposition. The deposition parameters for each of the processes are estimated for SO42− and Ca2+ and are based on experiments conducted during the 1993 and 1994 summer field seasons. The seasonal mean atmospheric concentrations are estimated based on the deposition parameters and snow cores obtained during the field seasons. The ratios of the estimated seasonal mean airborne concentration divided by the measured mean concentration ( ) for SO42− over the 1993 and 1994 field seasons are 0.85 and 0.95, respectively. The ratios for Ca2+ are 0.45 and 0.90 for the 1993 and 1994 field seasons. The uncertainties in the estimated atmospheric concentrations range from 30% to 40% and are due to variability in the input parameters. The model estimates the seasonal mean atmospheric SO42− and Ca2+ concentrations to within 15% and 55%, respectively. Although the model is not directly applied to ice cores, the application of the model to ice core chemical signals is briefly discussed

The Dynamical State of Barnard 68: A Thermally Supported, Pulsating Dark Cloud

We report sensitive, high resolution molecular-line observations of the dark cloud Barnard 68 obtained with the IRAM 30-m telescope. We analyze spectral-line observations of C18O, CS(2--1), C34S(2--1), and N2H+(1--0) in order to investigate the kinematics and dynamical state of the cloud. We find extremely narrow linewidths in the central regions of the cloud. These narrow lines are consistent with thermally broadened profiles for the measured gas temperature of 10.5 K. We determine the thermal pressure to be a factor 4 -- 5 times greater than the non-thermal (turbulent) pressure in the central regions of the cloud, indicating that thermal pressure is the primary source of support against gravity in this cloud. This confirms the inference of a thermally supported cloud drawn previously from deep infrared extinction measurements. The rotational kinetic energy is found to be only a few percent of the gravitational potential energy, indicating that the contribution of rotation to the overall stability of the cloud is insignificant. Finally, our observations show that CS line is optically thick and self-reversed across nearly the entire projected surface of the cloud. The shapes of the self-reversed profiles are asymmetric and are found to vary across the cloud in such a manner that the presence of both inward and outward motions are observed within the cloud. Moreover, these motions appear to be globally organized in a clear and systematic alternating spatial pattern which is suggestive of a small amplitude, non-radial oscillation or pulsation of the outer layers of the cloud about an equilibrium configuration.Comment: To appear in the Astrophysical Journal; 23 pages, 8 figures; Manuscript and higher resolution images can be obtained at http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~ebergin/pubs_html/b68_vel.htm