Teachers\u27 understandings of phonological awareness

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate teachers\u27 perceptions, knowledge, and teaching practices of phonological awareness. Sixty-four kindergarten and first grade teachers in a rural East Tennessee school district volunteered to participate in the study. The survey instrument was a mailed questionnaire in the form of a two-part written interview. The written interview contained six demographic and general information questions and eight open-ended questions designed to reveal teachers\u27 understandings of phonological awareness and their instructional approaches within the classroom context. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method. This study found that most teachers perceive phonological awareness and its constituent skills to involve letter-sound relationships rather than the segmental aspects of oral language. Generally, teachers did not believe phonological awareness to be an essential component of reading instruction; however, approximately one-third of the teachers perceived phonological awareness to be causally related to reading. The conclusions of this study were that most teachers have limited knowledge concerning the meaning of phonological awareness, how it relates to reading acquisition, and of the ways to instruct it in the classroom context. All but a few of the teachers are conducting phonics lessons rather than instructing children to identify and manipulate various segments of speech. It is also evident that many of the teachers in the present study have actively sought information regarding phonological awareness through professional development programs, the Internet, and collaborating with colleagues; thus, it appears that their limited knowledge of phonological awareness is not attributable to their disinterest, but to inadequate sources, which often fail either to clearly differentiate between phonological awareness instruction and phonics instruction, or to deal adequately with the complexity of the construct

Campus Vol VIII N 2

Shaw, Ted. Cover. Picture. 0. Mckenny, Sam. Fiction and Fact From Sports Almanac . Prose. 2. LeFever, Joe. The Fourth Ring . Prose. 3. Lugar, Dick. The Meaning of Campus Government . Prose. 4. Huntington, Ann. Campus Calender Girls: January . Picture. 6. Lashar, Sally. Campus Calender Girls: Febuary . Picture. 6. Omundson, Marilyn. Campus Calender Girls: March . Picture. 6. Nuzum, Gret. Campus Calender Girls: April . Picture. 7. Nussbaum, Nancy. Campus Calender Girls: May . Picture. 7. Morrow, Bobbie. Campus Calender Girls: June . Picture. 7. Walker, Nancy. Campus Calender Girls: July . Picture. 8. Gregory, Mary Lou. Campus Calender Girls: August . Picture. 8. Dutro, Jacquie. Campus Calender Girls: September . Picture. 8. Woodward, Lee. Campus Calender Girls: October . Picture. 9. Thuma, Jane. Campus Calender Girls: November . Picture. 9. Drake, Mary. Campus Calender Girls: December . Picture. 9. Aabye, Nancy. The Dividing Line . Prose. 10. Anonymous. Untitled. Prose. 11. Miller, Bud. Denison\u27s Two new Varsity Sports---Lacrosse and Soccer . Prose. 12. Anonymous. Untitled. Prose. 13. H and S. From Here to Bexley . Prose. 14. Shaw, Ted. Vote Here . Cartoon. 15. Mackimm, Brad. Untitled. Cartoon. 16. Howard Studio. Ricky Helmerichs, Sophomore . Picture. 17

Tuberculosis in Pediatric Antiretroviral Therapy Programs in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Diagnosis and Screening Practices

Background The global burden of childhood tuberculosis (TB) is estimated to be 0.5 million new cases per year. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected children are at high risk for TB. Diagnosis of TB in HIV-infected children remains a major challenge. Methods We describe TB diagnosis and screening practices of pediatric antiretroviral treatment (ART) programs in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. We used web-based questionnaires to collect data on ART programs and patients seen from March to July 2012. Forty-three ART programs treating children in 23 countries participated in the study. Results Sputum microscopy and chest Radiograph were available at all programs, mycobacterial culture in 40 (93%) sites, gastric aspiration in 27 (63%), induced sputum in 23 (54%), and Xpert MTB/RIF in 16 (37%) sites. Screening practices to exclude active TB before starting ART included contact history in 41 sites (84%), symptom screening in 38 (88%), and chest Radiograph in 34 sites (79%). The use of diagnostic tools was examined among 146 children diagnosed with TB during the study period. Chest Radiograph was used in 125 (86%) children, sputum microscopy in 76 (52%), induced sputum microscopy in 38 (26%), gastric aspirate microscopy in 35 (24%), culture in 25 (17%), and Xpert MTB/RIF in 11 (8%) children. Conclusions Induced sputum and Xpert MTB/RIF were infrequently available to diagnose childhood TB, and screening was largely based on symptom identification. There is an urgent need to improve the capacity of ART programs in low- and middle-income countries to exclude and diagnose TB in HIV-infected childre

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead