A Descriptive Analysis of the Relationship of Reading Performance and Selected Characteristics of Pupils with Special Educational Needs

This study was designed to identify the similarities and differences among children who are experiencing difficulty in learning to read. A review of the literature showed that physical, psychological and sociological factors including language and teacher expectations may cause reading difficulty. The literature further suggests that there is a need to assess these factors in individual learners so that reading instruction can be designed for children to experience success in reading. The characteristics of fourteen low achieving first grade students were analyzed through data collected in a variety of ways. The data analysis included the similarities and differences within the group, the relationship of each of the 18 identified variables to the criterion variable, reading, and an individual profile with analysis for each student. This group of low achieving students was found to be most alike on IQ, personal-social behavior ratings of teachers, receptive language, reading achievement, orientation, and auditory comprehension ratings of teachers. They were less alike on locus of control, reading readiness, spoken language ratings of teachers, and expressive language. The group differed most in number of children in the home, number of errors on the language screening test, number of languages spoken in the home, conceptual tempo, socioeconomic status, number of employed parents, basic concepts, and auditory attention span for related syllables. The variables which correlated most highly with reading achievement were locus of control, number of languages spoken in the home, receptive language, and teacher ratings of spoken language and personal social behavior. A positive relationship to reading achievement was shown with locus of control, number of languages spoken in the home, reading readiness, language development, socioeconomic status, expressive language, and IQ. An inverse relationship was found with receptive language, spoken language, personal social behavior, auditory attention span, number of children in the home, auditory comprehension, number of employed parents, orientation, basic concepts, and conceptual tempo. The individual profiles compared the students\u27 scores for each variable in the study with both the group and national mean. The study was limited to a small number of students in a suburban school. Other limitations were imposed by design which did not include factors such as classroom environment, type of reading program, or attitudes that are important in reading achievement. It has been recommended that the results of this study serve as a base for future research to include: (1) a diagnostic instructional program; (2) a follow-up study with the same group of students; (3) exploration of new instruments to assess the same factors; (4) a study of factors not included in the present design; and (5) a comparative study between urban and suburban school children

Training the Professoraite of Tomorrow: Implementing the Needs Centered Training Model to Instruct Graduate Teaching Assistants in the use of Teacher Immediacy

The effects of providing training for Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) in the implementation of immediacy behaviors on the creation of a supportive classroom environment are examined in this study. GTAs and their students served as participants in the research to understand the need for this training and this information guided the trainings formation. The training was based on Beebe, Mottet and Roach’s (2013) Needs Centered Training Model. The needs assessment indicated students’ perceptions of teacher immediacy was higher than self-perception and GTAs did not understand the meaning or effects of teacher immediacy on a supportive classroom environment or student learning. Thus, the training focused on providing GTA’s a base of knowledge to implement within their classrooms. Posttests with the students indicated an increase in both teacher immediacy behavior use and a supportive classroom environment in the majority of participants after the training. Interviews with participants indicated an appreciation for the training, awareness of the effects it had in their classroom and a desire for further training in this and other pedagogical techniques. Suggestions for future trainings and development of the trainings concludes this study

Constitutional Law - Freedom of Speech, Expression: Protecting Main Street? The North Dakota Supreme Court Analyzes Whether an Ordinance Regulating Exotic Dancing and Adult Entertainment Violates Free Speech and Constitutes a Regulatory Taking

McCrothers Corp. v. City of Mandan, 2007 ND 2

A Soldier\u27s Thoughts on Napoleon\u27s Grave

Napoleon Bonaparte died at the age of 52 on St. Helena, to which he had been exiled in 1815, an island in the Atlantic Ocean 2,000 km away from any major landmass. Despite rumors that he may have been poisoned, both the autopsy at the time of his death and later studies found that he died of gastric cancer due to poor treatment and diet. He had previously been exiled to Elba, an island in the Mediterranean from which he escaped to France to govern again for a period known as the Hundred Days. This period ended when Napoleon lost to the allied forces in the Battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815. The Bourbon Monarchy returned to power after his defeat and exiled him to St. Helena. They had no intention of giving him a proper burial at the St. Denis Cathedral with the other French Kings at the time of his death. Napoleon used his period of exile to shape and refine his legacy, and with the help of Mémorial de Saint Helène by Count Emmanuel De Las Cases, he was able to paint himself as a savior, punished cruelly by England, whose government feared he would succeed in liberating all of Europe. As De Las Cases writes in Mémorial, “How can the monarchs of Europe permit the sacred character of sovereignty to be violated in my person? Do they not see that they are, with their own hands, working their own destruction at St. Helena?” Pensée d’un Soldat sur la sépulture de Napoléon was written by a horse artillery captain and member of the Legion of Honor, Alexandre Goujon, as a reaction to Napoleon’s death far away from his country, wife, and son, without honor or proper burial. The dramatic and incendiary voice the author uses puts it among the many propagandist writings surrounding Napoleon’s rule. Goujon frequently compares Napoleon and his situation to historical and biblical figures, much like the propagandist newspapers Napoleon oversaw during his rule. Pensée d’un Soldat sur la sépulture de Napoléon (1821) came before Mémorial de Saint Hélène (1823) and is thus from a period of Napoleon propaganda that is less well-known

amei: An R Package for the Adaptive Management of Epidemiological Interventions

The amei package for R is a tool that provides a flexible statistical framework for generating optimal epidemiological interventions that are designed to minimize the total expected cost of an emerging epidemic. Uncertainty regarding the underlying disease parameters is propagated through to the decision process via Bayesian posterior inference. The strategies produced through this framework are adaptive: vaccination schedules are iteratively adjusted to reflect the anticipated trajectory of the epidemic given the current population state and updated parameter estimates. This document briefly covers the background and methodology underpinning the implementation provided by the package and contains extensive examples showing the functions and methods in action.

Seeing the Destination but Not the Path: Effects of Socioeconomic Disadvantage on School-focused Possible Self Content and Linked Behavioral Strategies

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/89934/1/oyserman_johnson_james_2010.pd