Weighting Miscues in Informal Inventories: A Precautionary Note

Even among those who are not readily in agreement with the numerous implications for instruction being put forward in the name of a psycholinguistic model of reading, there is substantial support for the constructive dialogue and spirited interactions which have been generated. The enthusiasm of some, however, has, at times, been taken to such extremes that the reality of the classroom has all but been ignored. Recently, for example, my students encountered some difficulty in reconciling certain practical applications of miscue techniques with another fundamental precept of reading instruction; that is, the critical role of successful practice in connected reading toward the development of proficiency. This conflict is disturbing. Whether these concerns are real or imagined, significant or inconsequential is the topic of this brief presentation

Reading instruction in first-grade classrooms: Do basals control teachers?

This study describes first-grade teachers beliefs and practices about reading instruction. Drawing from interview and observational data, 16 teachers from four districts were placed on a continuum from skills-based to literature-based in relationship to their use of the basal. Only 2 teachers were found to rely solely on the basal, while 3 teachers enhanced the basal with literature, and 4 teachers used only literature in their reading instruction. Six teachers enhanced their basal use with additional skills and 1 teacher relied on skills only in her reading instruction. This diversity\u27 of teaching beliefs and practices was corroborated by questionnaire data from a larger sample of teachers. Next, a framework developed by Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarule (1986) was used to categorize teachers\u27 ways of knowing. The findings showed 1 teacher to be a silent knower, 6 were received knowers, 1 was a subjective knower, 7 were procedural knowers, and 1 was a connected knower. Results challenge Shannon\u27s (1987) hypothesis that basals deskill teachers while supporting Sosniak and Stodolskv\u27s (1993) view that teachers are more autonomous in their use of textbook materials

Drama in Dialogic Read Alouds: Promoting Access and Opportunity for Emergent Bilinguals

In this report, we explore the potential for drama pedagogy in the classroom to support the engagement and growth of emergent bilingual students in language and literacy. We are focused on the use of drama to promote dialogic interactions during teacher read alouds. This study was conducted as a collaborative, action research investigation involving classroom teachers and university-based researchers. Our goals focused on three areas. First, we were interested in the impact of the drama intervention on comprehension. Second, we were interested in the responses of students to drama in read alouds with attention to differences in responses related to gender, grade level, skill level, and English Language Learner (school labeled) status. Third, we were interested in the students’ explanations for why (or why not) drama enhanced their engagement with the stories read. The findings suggest the power of incorporating drama to promote participation and dialogic interactions in support of language learnin

Polypharmacy or medication washout: an old tool revisited

There has been a rapid increase in the use of polypharmacy in psychiatry possibly due to the introduction of newer drugs, greater availability of these newer drugs, excessive confidence in clinical trial results, widespread prescribing of psychotropic medications by primary care, and pressure to augment with additional medications for unresolved side effects or greater efficacy. Even the new generation of medications may not hold significant advantages over older drugs. In fact, there may be additional safety risks with polypharmacy being so widespread. Washout, as a clinical tool, is rarely done in medication management today. Studies have shown that augmenting therapy with additional medications resulted in 9.1%–34.1% dropouts due to intolerance of the augmentation, whereas studies of medication washout demonstrated only 5.9%–7.8% intolerance to the washout procedure. These perils justify reconsideration of medication washout before deciding on augmentation. There are unwarranted fears and resistance in the medical community toward medication washout, especially at the moment a physician is trying to decide whether to washout or add more medications to the treatment regimen. However, medication washout provides unique benefits to the physician: it establishes a new baseline of the disorder, helps identify medication efficacy from their adverse effects, and provides clarity of diagnosis and potential reduction of drug treatments, drug interactions, and costs. It may also reduce overall adverse events, not to mention a potential to reduce liability. After washout, physicians may be able to select the appropriate polypharmacy more effectively and safely, if necessary. Washout, while not for every patient, may be an effective tool for physicians who need to decide on whether to add potentially risky polypharmacy for a given patient. The risks of washout may, in some cases, be lower and the benefits may be clearly helpful for diagnosis, understanding medication effects, the doctor/patient relationship, and safer use of polypharmacy if indicated

Reimagining Primary Teacher Preparation in Moçambique: Literacy Mentoring in Hybrid Spaces as a Transformative Practice

In this article, we describe our collaborative work with the Moçambique Ministry of Education in re-imagining primary literacy teacher preparation through an initiative that promotes closer personal (literacy focused) relationships between preservice teachers (formandos) and primary-aged students during the formando’s preparation program. Our work seeks to disrupt traditional notions of Moçambique teacher preparation, which are mostly didactic and disconnected from community-based interactions with children. We are working to move toward ideologies that recognize and draw on children’s cultural and linguistic resources. Our collaboratively designed literacy methodologies call for building personal relationships, engaging in responsive teaching, promoting translanguaging, encouraging children to take the lead in their own literacies, and drawing on community resources in our work with formandos. This report will focus on a description of the literacy mentoring program we are enacting and the results of a feasibility study at the Instituto de Formação de Professores de Chitima. We will summarize the mentoring program and the findings from research, discuss our successes and challenges and the ways in which this initiative has the potential to reframe the current mode for academic coursework in primary teacher preparation, and our next steps in Moçambique. This collaborative model stands to inform a re-imagining of teacher preparation that is situated locally and grounded in practice

Supramolecular Assembly of Metal-Organic Tubes Constructed from the Ditopic Heteroscorpionate Ligand (4-NH\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3eC\u3csub\u3e6\u3c/sub\u3eH\u3csub\u3e4\u3c/sub\u3e)CHpz\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3e (pz = Pyrazol-1-yl) and Silver(I)

The possibility of constructing tubular metal-organic structures with aid of weak hydrogen-bonding interactions between suitably designed metallacycles was explored. For this purpose, the new heteroditopic ligand (4-NH2C6H4)CHpz2 (L1) was prepared in good (75 %) yield by a one-pot procedure starting from commercial 4-acetamidobenzaldehyde. The equimolar reactions between L1 and various silver(I) salts gave the intended 1:1 complexes in which the metallacycles were assembled into tubes. However, the exact nature of the assemblies (including their solvate compositions) varied depending on anion, solvent, and concentration of the original crystallization solution. For the trifluoromethanesulfonate anion, a hexameric structure was observed, whereas cyclic dimers were obtained for other anions. In the case of PF6–, an unusual, opened-cycle structure with the composition [(L1)Ag(μ-L1)Ag(CH3CN)2]2+ was also identified crystallographically. The capacity for desolvated tubular structures to be used for gas adsorption was also investigated

Literature-based reading instruction: Problems, possibilities & polemics in the struggle to change

Concerns are being raised in both professional literature as well as in the popular press regarding certain aspects of the literature-based movement. Here we report on findings from a longitudinal study of a group of first -grade teachers who have been attempting (with varying degrees of success)to introduce literature-based teaching strategies into their classrooms. We inspect the experiences of these teachers in relation to four areas of concern that have been raised regarding literature-based teaching: 1. skills instruction; 2.guided reading strategies; 3. literature selection;and 4. thematic teaching (or curriculum integration). We describe classroom practices and the 9 problems and possibilities associated with teacher change in each of the four areas