The Reading Field Agent: A Model for the Diagnostic Teaching of Teachers

Diagnostic teaching with all its ramifications is one of the trends in education which has had profound implications for the field of reading. Unfortunately, too much of the emphasis has been on diagnosis and not enough on teaching. Teachers are constantly bombarded with new tests diagnostic, criterion referenced, etc. all of which are reputed to accurately pinpoint the reading needs of all students. Many of the results of these measures are at best tenuous: the fact that a well trained teacher is the best diagnostician is one fact that is often ignored in any implementation of diagnostic teaching

Cross-Age Tutoring and the Sacrosanct Reading Period

Cross- age tutoring in the elementary school has long been recognized as a valid means of learning for both the tutor and the tutee; (Frager & Stern, 1970). Many studies even show that the tutors make greater gains than the tutees, (Cloward, 1967). Like many validated educational innovations, however, cross- age tutoring is not practiced to any great extent in the schools, particularly the elementary schools. One of the main reasons for this is that tutoring is difficult to fit into the regular school program. Reading, writing, social studies, math, science, health, etc., all seem to fill the day of the elementary school student. The problem of time becomes more severe as the student progresses through elementary school. It is further compounded in the intermediate grades when many schools begin forms of team teaching and/or departmentalization. The question seems to be then: How can one introduce a program such as cross-age tutoring without sacrificing components of the already existing program? The answer is simple. It can\u27t be done! Something has to go! The purpose of this study then was to see the effect on student achievement when a cross-age tutoring program was substituted for a traditional program—in this case; the traditional reading program

Literacy: The First Decade of the New Millennium

Although the importance of literacy instruction has remained con­stant since the beginning of the new millennium, literacy trends have shifted, often alongside acts of legislation. Areas of literacy education that were once overlooked in the past like adolescent literacy and RTI are now receiving increased attention, whereas areas of literacy like phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency receive considerably less attention than 10 years ago. Discussions describe “very hot” and “cold” topics as they relate to philosophy/approach, level, content, materials, and assessment. Educators can utilize the findings in this survey to adjust their instruction and direct atten­tion to needed areas within their own schools

The Evolution of What’s Hot in Literacy

The annual What’s Hot, What’s Not in Literacy survey has served to highlight topics receiving attention in the field over the last 15 years. What we know as literacy has drastically shifted alongside advances in legislation, policy, and curriculum. As a result, what was once hot may subsequently receive less attention or even fall of the list entirely. So what happens to those topics that were once hot? Are they still valued enough by classroom teachers to warrant attention within their literacy programs? This article examines the context around previously hot topics and characterizes current teacher sentiments towards these topics to characterize how the field of literacy has changed over the last 15 years

A Foot in the Door: The Annotated Checklist

The role of the reading specialist has traditionally been perceived as broader in some scope than that of just a remedial teacher. Ideally, the reading specialist becomes a resource upon which all classroom teachers can rely. Some recent evidence (IRA, 1976) seems to support the assumption that this ideal is, at least to some degree, a reality at the elementary level

Specialized Literacy Professionals as Literacy Leaders: Results of a National Survey

This large-scale national survey of specialized literacy professionals was designed to answer questions about responsibilities, including leadership, and preparation for these roles. Questionnaires, completed by over 2,500 respondents, indicated that respondents had multiple responsibilities that included both instruction of struggling readers and support for teachers. Four distinct role-groups were identified: instructional/literacy coaches, reading/literacy specialists, reading teachers/interventionists, and supervisors. The findings indicated a need for more precise definitions of the roles of these professionals and for preparation programs to include experiences that address the tasks required. Themes discussed included: roles have changed and require more focus on leadership, specialists must be nimble, and they require more in-depth preparation to handle the leadership demands of their positions

Site-restricted web searches for data collection in regional dialectology

This article presents a new method for data collection in regional dialectology based on site-restricted web searches. The method measures the usage and determines the distribution of lexical variants across a region of interest using common web search engines, such as Google or Bing. The method involves estimating the proportions of the variants of a lexical alternation variable over a series of cities by counting the number of webpages that contain the variants on newspaper websites originating from these cities through site-restricted web searches. The method is evaluated by mapping the 26 variants of 10 lexical variables with known distributions in American English. In almost all cases, the maps based on site-restricted web searches align closely with traditional dialect maps based on data gathered through questionnaires, demonstrating the accuracy of this method for the observation of regional linguistic variation. However, unlike collecting dialect data using traditional methods, which is a relatively slow process, the use of site-restricted web searches allows for dialect data to be collected from across a region as large as the United States in a matter of days

Prevention of insulin resistance in adolescents at risk for type 2 diabetes with depressive symptoms: 1-year follow-up of a randomized trial

Background: Depression is associated with poor insulin sensitivity. We evaluated the long-term effects of a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program for prevention of depression on insulin sensitivity in adolescents at risk for type 2 diabetes (T2D) with depressive symptoms. Methods: One-hundred nineteen adolescent females with overweight/obesity,T2Dfamily history, and mild-to-moderate depressive symptoms were randomized to a 6-week CBT group (n = 61) or 6-week health education (HE) control group (n = 58). At baseline, posttreatment, and 1 year, depressive symptoms were assessed, and whole body insulin sensitivity (WBISI) was estimated from oral glucose tolerance tests.Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry assessed fat mass at baseline and 1 year. Primary outcomes were 1-year changes in depression and insulin sensitivity, adjusting for adiposity and other relevant covariates. Secondary outcomeswere fasting and 2-hr insulin and glucose.We also evaluated the moderating effect of baseline depressive symptom severity. Results: Depressive symptoms decreased in both groups (P \u3c .001). Insulin sensitivity was stable inCBTandHE(ΔWBISI: .1 vs. .3) and did not differ between groups (P=.63).However, among girls with greater (moderate) baseline depressive symptoms (N = 78), those in CBT developed lower 2- hr insulin than those in HE (Δ-16 vs. 16 �IU/mL, P \u3c .05). Additional metabolic benefits of CBT were seen for this subgroup in post hoc analyses of posttreatment to 1-year change. Conclusions: Adolescent females at risk for T2D decreased depressive symptoms and stabilized insulin sensitivity 1 year following brief CBT or HE. Further studies are required to determine if adolescents with moderate depression show metabolic benefits after CBT