School can be a frustrating and confusing experience for children who have not developed their communication skills. not only will access to the curriculum be difficult, so will developing co-operative skills and friendships. This book has been developed to teach and develop oral language and social interaction skills to children aged 4-6. Containing 40 sessions, designed to take place two to three times a week, the book aims to help teachers to develop the "rules" of interaction with the help of the character Ginger the Bear, who features in all the activities. Skills taught include: eye contact; taking turns; sharing; greetings; awareness of feelings; giving; following instructions; listening; paying attention; and play skills. The book should provide a useful resource for Literacy Hour and curriculum Key Stage 1.

Many teachers use traditional counting and shape books in math class. But what would happen if we approached any story with a math lens? How might mathematizing children's literature give learners space to ask their own questions and make connections between stories, their lives, and the world around them? These are the questions Allison Hintz and Antony T. Smith set out to explore in this book as they invite us to consider fresh ways of using interactive read-alouds to nurture students as both readers and mathematicians. Inside Mathematizing Children's Literature, you'll learn how to do the following: Select picture books according to the goals of the read aloud experience. Plan and facilitate three kinds of read aloud discussions-Open Notice and Wonder, Math Lens and Story Explore. Utilize Idea Investigations-experiences that invite students to pursue literacy and math-focused ideas beyond the pages of the-read aloud. Connect with students' families and communities through stories. Along the way, Allison and Antony offer a wide range of picture book suggestions and appendices that include ready-to-use planning templates, a note-taking form, and a bookmark of guiding questions. Mathematizing Children's Literature is a practical resource you'll find yourself referring to frequently.

Due to the demand for flexible working hours and employees who are available around the clock, the time patterns of childcare and schooling have increasingly become a political issue. Comparing the development of different 'time policies' of half-day and all-day provisions in a variety of Eastern and Western European countries since the end of World War II, this innovative volume brings together internationally known experts from the fields of comparative education, history, and the social and political sciences, and makes a significant contribution to this new interdisciplinary field of comparative study.

The current global marketplace demands more workers who are scientifically literate, yet few are being adequately prepared to meet that demand. Particularly underrepresented are women and minorities, who often lack the social and academic support that stimulate and sustain interest in science, math, and engineering. The authors of this book demonstrate that early intervention, especially during grades 4 through 8, can help overcome some of these obstacles. They show how increased career awareness and exposure to mentors and role models can help students see science and math-related careers as desirable and viable options. And they explain how test preparation, activity-based instruction, cooperative learning, and tutoring can help to improve academic outcomes. The authors also provide critical information on ten successful intervention programs, including MESA, Project SEED, and Operation SMART - and they offer practitioners specific guidance for developing, funding, and implementing similar programs in their own schools.

While being engaged in fun activities, your children will be practicing important age-appropriate skills such as visual discrimination, sequencing, small muscle coordination, following directions, and critical and creative thinking. Every parent knows what it's like when the kids are bored and nothing seems to strike their fancy. In those moments, count on The Never-Bored Kid Book series to come to the rescue. These books contain hours of constructive fun! All you need are a few simple supplies such as scissors, glue, tape, crayons, or marking pens.

Good teachers do much more than instructing children. They develop a relationship built on trust, honesty, humor, and above all love. When two or more students discuss varied ways to solve problems we have the beginnings of a creative dialogue, which is the root of inventiveness and a direct path to successful collaboration skills. Too often we do not recognize the value of friendships that is buoyed up by the brotherhood or sisterhood among children. There is a force that flows between them, an invisible understanding cementing their friendship

Emergent Science is essential reading for anyone involved in supporting scientific learning and development with young children aged between birth and 8. Drawing on theory, the book helps to develop the essential skills needed to understand and support science in this age range. The book is organised into three parts: development, contexts and pedagogy, exploring the underpinning theory alongside practical ideas to help trainees, teachers and childcare practitioners to create high-quality science experiences for the children they teach. The text includes guidance on developing professional, study and research skills to graduate and postgraduate level, as well as all the information needed to develop scientific skills, attitudes, understanding and language through concrete, social experiences for young children. Features include: Reflective tasks-at three levels of professional development;- early career/student, developing career/teacher and later career/leader. Case studies that exemplify good practice and practical ideas. Tools for learning - explain how science professionals can develop their professional, study skills and research skills to Masters level

This edited book tells the story of the multifaceted efforts devoted by a "future school" in Singapore-The Nan Chiau Primary School-in shaping future learning. It documents the various measures implemented by one primary school to improve student learning outcomes in a technology-rich teaching and learning environment. With the current interest in Singapore's "Masterplan for ICT (information and communication technology) in Education," and the increasing focus on teaching and learning design by leading education researchers and professionals, this well-timed book will appeal to policy makers, educators and researchers.

Scientific Discourse examines the nature of scientific inquiry in the primary school classroom to show how this interacts with early literacy. Through an examination of the texts used and produced by pupils studying science the author shows how what is at work in this context of scientific discourse is actually multiliteracy. The teacher aids the pupils' learning using different forms of literacy spread across the spoken word, written text, visual text and physical action. The result of this diverse approach is a growth not only in scientific knowledge, but basic literacy. The book provides a theoretical introduction to developmental literacy theory, current positions of science education and advanced theories of multiliteracy and genre theory. The new theory of scientific discourse presented in this book will be of interest to researchers of applied linguistics, discourse analysis and education.

This book examines the beliefs, attitudes, values and emotions of students in Years 5 to 8 (aged 10 to 14 years) about mathematics and mathematics education. Fundamentally, this book focuses on the development of affective views and responses towards mathematics and mathematics learning. Furthermore, it seems that students develop their more negative views of mathematics during the middle school years (Years 5 to 8), and so here we concentrate on students in this critical period. The book is based on a number of empirical studies, including an enquiry undertaken with 45 children in Years 5 and 6 in one school; a large-scale quantitative study undertaken with students from a range of schools across diverse communities in New Zealand; and two related small-scale studies with junior secondary students in Australia. This book brings substantial, empirically-based evidence to the widely held perception that many students have negative views of mathematics, and these affective responses develop during the middle years of school. The data for this book were collected with school students, and students who were actually engaged in learning mathematics in their crucial middle school years. The findings reported and discussed here are relevant for researchers and mathematics educators, policy makers and curriculum developers, and teachers and school principals engaged in the teaching of mathematics.

This book contains a collection of the author's previously published articles on early childhood care and education. Each chapter was written in response and reaction to particular events or contexts that were provocative. Many of the issues explored were stimulated by experiences with teachers and caregivers of young children, many of whom were also the author's students, as well as with other professional colleagues. These background experiences and events are described briefly in the introduction to each article.

A collection of 150 unique games and activities to help support teaching of Primary PE. Designed with busy teachers in mind, the Classroom Gems series draws together an extensive selection of practical, tried-and-tested, off-the-shelf ideas, games and activities guaranteed to transform any lesson or classroom in an instant. Easily navigable, allowing you to choose the right activity quickly and easily, these invaluable resources are guaranteed to save you time and are a must-have tool to plan, prepare and deliver first-rate lessons.

A collection of 150 unique games and activities to help support teaching of maths in the primary classroom. Designed with busy teachers in mind, the Classroom Gems series draws together an extensive selection of practical, tried-and-tested, off-the-shelf ideas, games and activities guaranteed to transform any lesson or classroom in an instant. Easily navigable, allowing you to choose the right activity quickly and easily, these invaluable resources are guaranteed to save you time and are a must-have tool to plan, prepare and deliver first-rate lessons.

This book explores the current status of primary schools in Rwanda and the history behind their development. It argues that current primary school leaders in the area encounter a wide range of problems relating to conflict prevention, teachers' and school leaders' professionalism, financial and resourcing constraints, student attrition, and parental disengagement, many of which can be attributed to the legacies of war and the genocide in 1994. The book also presents a range of strategies that are pursued by school leaders while dealing with these concerns, as the Rwandan government invests in reconstructing education following the country's turmoil. Through examining the issues of the past and the present, the book provides valuable insights for researchers of educational leadership, school leaders, education policy makers, and those in charge of preparing, developing, and implementing professional development programmes for school leaders and teachers in Rwanda, as well as in other post-war and developing countries.

The use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in primary schools is often problematic and frustrating for teachers and pupils alike. Drawing on a study of the experiences and perceptions of over 600 primary pupils, this book explores how ICT provision may be improved from a 'bottom-up' perspective - considering a number of radical suggestions for recasting primary schools as sites of innovative, imaginative and empowering technology use. There have been relatively few empirical studies of primary school IT use, and very few studies of pupils' perceptions of using technologies in primary schools. This book addresses the lack of 'learner voice' in the existing literature by providing interesting, thought-provoking insights into children's views of ICT. From this background, the book is able to make a number of practical suggestions for changes to the nature of ICT organisation and provision in schools, and so will benefit schools' efforts to better align education ICT use with the needs of children.

This collection gathers contributions from scholars from Poland and abroad addressing different facets of research into the processes of foreign-language and second-language learning and teaching as they transpire in a typical language classroom. The book is divided into three parts, which address in turn: research directions and methodology, the findings of empirical research, and links between theoretical considerations and classroom practice. Accordingly, the first part includes papers that examine the role of different research paradigms, put forward concrete research proposals, present innovative data gathering tools or assess the role of such instruments in language teaching. The second part includes reports on original research studies focusing e.g. on teachers' beliefs, the role of lexis and pragmatics, the application of modern technologies, the teaching and assessment of primary school children, and the development of social skills from a cross-cultural perspective. Finally, the third part of the book demonstrates how theory-driven approaches can enhance the effectiveness of instructed second language acquisition.

This book offers a challenge to traditional approaches to classroom teaching and pedagogy. The SPRinG (Social Pedagogic Research into Groupwork) project, part of a larger research programme on teaching and learning funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), was developed to enhance the learning potential of pupils working in classroom groups by actively involving teachers in a programme designed to raise levels of group work during typical classroom learning activities. Internationally, the SPRinG project is the largest evaluation of effective group working methods in comparison to traditional teaching, with findings that show raised levels of pupil achievement and a doubling of sustained, active engagement in learning.

The opening chapters present arguments regarding the relationship of social interaction and children's cognitive development and examine theories that explain why social interactional processes should be integrated into primary school pedagogic practices.

Next, the book describes the conceptual and methodological basis for the SPRinG studies, especially its focus on the relational approach, the type of involvement of teachers and classroom planning. Further chapters present key results and describe the background and methods used to establish SPRinG-based effects on pupil progress in mathematics, literacy and science, including both macro and micro assessments; how the SPRinG approach affected pupil-pupil interactions and teacher-pupil interactions, as measured by systematic on-the-spot observations and analyses of videotapes of groups working on specially designed tasks work; and effects on pupil self-completed measures of motivation and attitudes to group work.

The book also analyses reflections of teachers who have worked with SPRinG: moving from theory to practice as well as adding insights associated with implementing SPRinG principles in schools. Drawing upon developmental psychological, social psychological and classroom research, it develops a new and ambitious social pedagogic approach to classroom learning, with a stress on group work, which will be of interest to researchers, teachers and policy-makers.

"This bookincludes contributions fromAndrew Tolmie andEd Baines, who were also involved inthe ScotSPRinG and SPRinG projects."

This volume systematically applies the accumulated knowledge of developmental psycholinguistics to the field of language instruction. The first part of the book draws together a wide range of theoretical material from developmental psycholinguistics. Furthermore, suggestions are made of how psycholinguistically based material can be graded in the various years of elementary school. The second part presents practical applications, maps out experimentation done in elementary schools, and analyzes the results obtained from a series of interviews and language tests. In closing, a summary is made of the volume's central topics relating to developmental psycholinguistic theory and teaching techniques.

Volume V of ""The Handbook of Research in Middle Level Education"" highlights action research in middle grades education. As a method of inquiry, action research compels educators to take action and think reflectively about those actions in order to effect positive educational change (Mills, 2000). Teachers, administrators, university professors, and other professionals conduct action research in different ways to examine classroom practices and school issues. Educational action researchers initiate their inquiries in various contexts: alone, in small peer teams, or larger faculty groups (Zeichner, 2001). Using individual and collaborative approaches, educators gain insights into teaching and learning processes. As evidenced throughout this volume, action research in the middle grades occurs in a variety of configurations. This volume examines the dynamic ways that preservice and inservice teachers, school administrators, university faculty, and educational consortia use action research.

A collection of 150 unique games and activities to help support your teaching of phonics in the primary classroom. Following on from the success of their first gem 'Games, Ideas and Activities for Early Years Phonics', Gill Coulson and Lynn Cousins have written a companion gem 'Games, Ideas and Activities for Primary Phonics', introducing more advanced activities and offering a natural progression from the basic sounds introduced in the first book. The 150 activities in this new book will apply to children throughout the Foundation Year and Key Stage 1, but are equally useful for children who have moved into Key Stage 2 but are not yet confident with spelling and still need to reinforce their skills. As with the first book, the ideas provided are not fully-developed lesson plans, but provide a wealth of ready-made lesson ideas to supplement and support your teaching of phonics. Designed with busy teachers in mind, the Classroom Gems series draws together an extensive selection of practical, tried-and-tested, off-the-shelf ideas, games and activities guaranteed to transform any lesson or classroom in an instant. Easily navigable, allowing you to choose the right activity quickly and easily, these invaluable resources are guaranteed to save you time and are a must-have tool to plan, prepare and deliver first-rate lessons.