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

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

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

Herschel observations of EXtra-Ordinary Sources (HEXOS): The present and future of spectral surveys with Herschel/HIFI

We present initial results from the Herschel GT key program: Herschel observations of EXtra-Ordinary Sources (HEXOS) and outline the promise and potential of spectral surveys with Herschel/HIFI. The HIFI instrument offers unprecedented sensitivity, as well as continuous spectral coverage across the gaps imposed by the atmosphere, opening up a largely unexplored wavelength regime to high-resolution spectroscopy. We show the spectrum of Orion KL between 480 and 560 GHz and from 1.06 to 1.115 THz. From these data, we confirm that HIFI separately measures the dust continuum and spectrally resolves emission lines in Orion KL. Based on this capability we demonstrate that the line contribution to the broad-band continuum in this molecule-rich source is ~20−40% below 1 THz and declines to a few percent at higher frequencies. We also tentatively identify multiple transitions of HD^(18)O in the spectra. The first detection of this rare isotopologue in the interstellar medium suggests that HDO emission is optically thick in the Orion hot core with HDO/H_2O ~ 0.02. We discuss the implications of this detection for the water D/H ratio in hot cores

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

Modeling of the processing and removal of trace gas and aerosol species by Arctic radiation fogs and comparison with measurements

A Lagrangian radiation fog model is applied to a fog event at Summit, Greenland. The model simulates the formation and dissipation of fog. Included in the model are detailed gas and aqueous phase chemistry, and deposition of chemical species with fog droplets. Model predictions of the gas phase concentrations of H2O2, HCOOH, SO2, and HNO3 as well as the fog fluxes of S(VI), N(V), H2O2, and water are compared with measurements. The predicted fluxes of S(VI), N(V), H2O2, and fog water generally agree with measured values. Model results show that heterogeneous SO2 oxidation contributes to approximately 40% of the flux of S(VI) for the modeled fog event, with the other 60% coming from preexisting sulfate aerosol. The deposition of N(V) with fog includes contributions from HNO3 and NO2 initially present in the air mass. HNO3 directly partitions into the aqueous phase to create N(V), and NO2 forms N(V) through reaction with OH and the nighttime chemistry set of reactions which involves N2O5 and water vapor. PAN contributes to N(V) by gas phase decomposition to NO2, and also by direct aqueous phase decomposition. The quantitative contributions from each path are uncertain since direct measurements of PAN and NO2 are not available for the fog event. The relative contributions are discussed based on realistic ranges of atmospheric concentrations. Model results suggest that in addition to the aqueous phase partitioning of the initial HNO3 present in the air mass, the gas phase decomposition of PAN and subsequent reactions of NO2 with OH as well as nighttime nitrate chemistry may play significant roles in depositing N(V) with fog. If a quasi-liquid layer exists on snow crystals, it is possible that the reactions taking place in fog droplets also occur to some extent in clouds as well as at the snow surface

Molecular Line Observations of Infrared Dark Clouds: Seeking the Precursors to Intermediate and Massive Star Formation

We have identified 41 infrared dark clouds from the 8 micron maps of the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX), selected to be found within one square degree areas centered on known ultracompact HII regions. We have mapped these infrared dark clouds in N2H+(1-0), CS(2-1) and C18O(1-0) emission using the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory. The maps of the different species often show striking differences in morphologies, indicating differences in evolutionary state and/or the presence of undetected, deeply embedded protostars. We derive an average mass for these clouds using N2H+ column densities of ~2500 solar masses, a value comparable to that found in previous studies of high mass star forming cores using other mass tracers. The linewidths of these clouds are typically ~2.0 - 2.9 km/s. Based on the fact that they are dark at 8 micron, compact, massive, and have large velocity dispersions, we suggest that these clouds may be the precursor sites of intermediate and high mass star formation.Comment: Accepted to ApJS, 22 pages, 10 pages of figures. For full-resolution images, see http://www.astro.lsa.umich.edu/~seragan/pubs/fcrao/figures.tar.g

The Dynamical State fo the Starless Dense Core FeSt 1-457: A Pulsating Globule?

High resolution molecular line observations of CS, HCO+, C18O and N2H+ were obtained toward the starless globule FeSt 1-457 in order to investigate its kinematics and chemistry. The HCO+ and CS spectra show clear self-reversed and asymmetric profiles across the face of the globule. The sense of the observed asymmetry is indicative of the global presence of expansion motions in the outer layers of the globule. These motions appear to be subsonic and significantly below the escape velocity of the globule. Comparison of our observations with near-infrared extinction data indicate that the globule is gravitationally bound. Taken together these considerations lead us to suggest that the observed expansion has its origin in an oscillatory motion of the outer layers of the globule which itself is likely in a quasi-stable state near hydrostatic equilibrium. Analysis of the observed linewidths of CO and N2H+ confirm that thermal pressure is the dominant component of the cloud's internal support. A simple calculation suggests that the dominant mode of pulsation would be an l = 2 mode with a period of 0.3 Myr. Deformation of the globule due to the large amplitude l = 2 oscillation may be responsible for the double-peaked structure of the core detected in high resolution extinction maps. Detailed comparison of the molecular-line observations and extinction data provides evidence for significant depletion of C18O and perhaps HCO+ while N2H+ may be undepleted to a cloud depth of about 40 magnitudes of visual extinction.Comment: to appear in ApJ vol 665 20 August 2007