Group items tagged

In this article, the relationship between literacy practices and spatiality is explored in the context of family literacy. The article draws on fieldwork in family literacy classrooms as part of two evaluations in Croydon and Derbyshire of family learning provision. Methods of evaluation included classroom observations in rural and suburban locations. In addition, teachers and parents were interviewed. In this instance, family learning included literacy and language activities with parents and children in school and nursery settings. These were learning spaces where parents and children collaborated on joint projects including book making, storytelling, the making of visual artefacts and reading and writing activities. The research revealed how family literacy classrooms could be understood as 'third spaces', between home and school, offering parents and children discursive opportunities drawing on both domains.

This essay focuses on how video games both highlight our traditional assumptions about reading and writing and suggest alternative paradigms that combine the new and the traditional:Play. Video games reveal how pleasure and desire are inherent to the reading and writing process. This dimension of gaming helps explain why video games can produce resistance in terms of approaches to writing instruction grounded in maintaining the cultural distinction between play and work.Authority. The interactivity of video games complicates questions of who authors and authorizes meaning in a discourse community. Video game players are simultaneously readers and writers whose gaming decisions are inscribed within a certain horizon of possibilities but not predictability. The video game is an inherently dialogic discursive space that problematizes the institutionalized distinction between "reading" and "writing"Return to the visual. The case of video games not only helps restore the understanding of writing as a visual form of communication but also challenges the apparent static quality of the printed text, emphasizing the temporal quality of all communication. In so doing, the study of video games promises to fundamentally rewrite the conceptual binary of process and product in composition pedagogy.

Health literacy is basic reading and numerical skills that allow a person to function in the health care environment. Even though most adults read at an eighth-grade level, and 20 percent of the population reads at or below a fifth-grade level, most health care materials are written at a 10th-grade level. Older patients are particularly affected because their reading and comprehension abilities are influenced by their cognition and their vision and hearing status. Inadequate health literacy can result in difficulty accessing health care, following instructions from a physician, and taking medication properly. Patients with inadequate health literacy are more likely to be hospitalized than patients with adequate skills. Patients understand medical information better when spoken to slowly, simple words are used, and a restricted amount of information is presented. For optimal comprehension and compliance, patient education material should be written at a sixth-grade or lower reading level, preferably including pictures and illustrations. All patients prefer reading medical information written in clear and concise language. Physicians should be alert to this problem because most patients are unwilling to admit that they have literacy problems. (Am Fam Physician 2005;72:463-8. Copyright© 2005 American Academy of Family Physicians.)

A film on OhioLINK. "The world is a mosaic of visions, and each vision is encapsulated by a language." Yet every two weeks, one of the world's approximately 6,500 languages dies out. What is the significance of this loss to those who speak the language as well as for the rest of humankind? Why do some languages become global while others disappear? And how are language and identity connected? In this program, linguists David Crystal, Peter Austin, and Jørgen Rischel search for the answers to those and other pressing questions as they investigate the state-and fate-of Livonian, in Latvia; Dogon, in Mali; Mlabri, in Thailand; Changsha Hua and Naqxi, in China; Pitjantjatjara and Pintupi, in Australia; and Tutunaku, in Mexico. Portions are in other languages with English subtitles. (60 minutes)

Kozup and Hogarth discuss the necessity of consumer warning labels on financial matters such as credit cards, mortgage, and mutual funds. They successfully make the analogy of indebtedness to obesity, and our financial state, like our health, can be helped by reading the labels on what they are consuming. The authors describe financial literacy partially as an ability to weigh the pros and cons of financial options available to them, as well as familiarity with the macroeconomic conditions of their environment. The authors also talk about third party financial intermediaries, and the role of policy in consumer saving. The authors offer a great variety of solutions to the problem of financial literacy, and the analogies make it very easy for the reader to understand and learn about the responsibility of financial literacy. Also, the rhetorical questioning involves the reader and implores them to form their own opinion.

This essay is an overview of the theoretical, methodological, pedagogical, ideological, and power-related issues of world Englishes: varieties of English used in diverse sociolinguistic contexts. The scholars in this field have critically examined theoretical and methodological frameworks of language use based on western, essentially monolingual and monocultural, frameworks of linguistic science and replaced them with frameworks that are faithful to multilingualism and language variation. This conceptual shift affords a "pluricentric" view of English, which represents diverse sociolinguistic histories, multicultural identities, multiple norms of use and acquisition, and distinct contexts of function. The implications of this shift for learning and teaching world Englishes are critically reviewed in the final sections of this essay.

The article explores how literacy reforms alter the issues of identity, and cites the influence of technology on student's literacy skills. The author said that the emergence of MySpace site, Facebook, and cellphone cameras have changed the way young people communicate and write, and informed a statement from a young adolescent girl which validates the literacy changes. He also stressed several intriguing developments which allow students to manipulate and play with their identities, and informs that students spend much more time reading and writing online.

In this article Soto describes thirteen bilingual children and their own awareness of bilingualism in their lives by sharing conversation with the others. The study is based on 6 girls and 7 boys from Pennsylvania that speak English and Spanish. Soto goes on to speak about how their town's award winning bilingual system was taken away, and the children were very upset when they went to school and could not understand what was going on. The author makes great points and has many sources that lead to many facts in the article. It is a good study within the article that could teach one about the studies that happen within bilingualism.

Could help students develop their methods for observing children. This program asserts that the testing of a causal hypothesis involving cognitive development is best done through a combination of observational and experimentational methods. Kathy Sylva and Peter Bryant, both of the University of Oxford, and other researchers share their insights into categorizing and codifying patterns of play through observation, avoiding common experiment-related pitfalls such as covariation and unintentional bias, and mitigating artificiality, a challenge to practitioners of both approaches. (25 minutes)

The article discusses the importance of instituting NCAA academic reforms and maintaining the balance between academics and athletics. It offers an overview of the new ncaa academic standards and its solution to bridging the gap between athletics and academics. The author also points out the significant role coaches and academic/athletic advisors play in a student's athletic and academic career.

The author discusses the importance of instituting NCAA academic reforms and maintaining the balance between academics and athletics. It offers an overview of the new NCAA academic standards and its solution to bridging the gap between athletics and academics. The author also points out the significant role coaches and academic/athletic advisors play in a student's athletic and academic career. She provides adequate information needed to develop better academic standards in hope of gaining successful academic support programs for student athletes.

Weiss discusses the scope of the health literacy problem, the barriers faced by patients with low literacy, and methods to foster verbal and written communication in low literacy patients. Low literacy is pervasive in the U.S. and causes an unnecessary financial and health burden. Because of the complicated health literature, most patients have inadequate understanding of what is said, and simple strategies can alleviate low health literacy problems. Weiss makes interesting and provocative points, but much of his observations are based on his medical practice.

The article is about how music, in general, is effective for the mind, body and soul. Mostly in everyday situations, but more about the brain. The authors questioned the purpose of the the "Mozart Effect". What is so significant about Mozart's music helping the cognitive process that contemporary music couldn't do? This question and many others help develop a study between classical music and rock music. I the study, a group of rock and classical musicians were used to listen to classical and rock music to determine which music as effective or the cognitive processes. Only 6 woman were included in this study. The demographics for this study was 18-58 years.

Smith discusses how the Davis Bilingual Magnet School is very effective in and out of the classroom. The school that teaches children of many different language backgrounds using Spanish and English is highly successful through standardized test scores, performance, and various other things. Through the different teaching methods and the context of studies, students learn very thuroughly and efficiently. Smith's article states good arguments of why this school is effective and makes one believe that the Davis Bilingual Magnet School shows great importance in the city of Tuscon, Arizona.

A film on OhioLINK. Could be useful for students analyzing the rhetoric of politics. As Maya Angelou points out in The Power of Speech, "If the words and delivery are powerful, they echo down the centuries." To emphasize the point, Angelou and other writers and orators examine the moving oratory of 14th-century tax protester John Ball, 19th-century slave Sojourner Truth, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Each speaker's technique is examined within the context of why the speech is being delivered, and to whom. Examples of how great orators throughout history have used their skills for good and evil drive home the immense power of the spoken word. A BBC Production. (30 minutes)

This study examined the roles of sensation seeking and self-efficacy in explaining extreme and high physical risk taking behavior. Study participants were 20 extreme risk takers chosen from participants in skiing, rock climbing, kayaking, and stunt flying. One control group was comprised of 20 high, but not extreme, risk takers from each of these activities, matched to the participants in skill and experience. A second control group consisted of 20 trained athletes involved in moderate risk sports. Percepts of self-efficacy emerged as the principle variable differentiating the groups. A social cognitive explanation for desire for mastery was used to understand what enables risk takers to overcome the potentially inhibiting influences of anxiety, fear, and the recognition of danger. This conclusion is further reinforced by converging results from interviews with the participants.

A film available on OhioLINK. TV and radio commercials, Web sites and banner ads, magazine ads, pop songs, photos, and even news articles and textbooks: all of them are sending messages to influence the reader/viewer/listener. How do they grab the attention? What are they selling-a product or service? a lifestyle? an ideology?-and why? Would a different media consumer interpret the message differently? This program raises more questions than it answers, which is the whole point: to prompt students to question, question, question the messages they are bombarded with daily. Savvy media consumers aren't born; they're made, and this program is an excellent tool for shaping the classroom dialogue. (35 minutes)

A film on OhioLINK. Could be useful for students analyzing the rhetoric of politics. As Maya Angelou points out in The Power of Speech, "If the words and delivery are powerful, they echo down the centuries." To emphasize the point, Angelou and other writers and orators examine the moving oratory of 14th-century tax protester John Ball, 19th-century slave Sojourner Truth, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Each speaker's technique is examined within the context of why the speech is being delivered, and to whom. Examples of how great orators throughout history have used their skills for good and evil drive home the immense power of the spoken word. A BBC Production. (30 minutes)

A film available on OhioLINK. TV and radio commercials, Web sites and banner ads, magazine ads, pop songs, photos, and even news articles and textbooks: all of them are sending messages to influence the reader/viewer/listener. How do they grab the attention? What are they selling-a product or service? a lifestyle? an ideology?-and why? Would a different media consumer interpret the message differently? This program raises more questions than it answers, which is the whole point: to prompt students to question, question, question the messages they are bombarded with daily. Savvy media consumers aren't born; they're made, and this program is an excellent tool for shaping the classroom dialogue. (35 minutes)

The article discusses financial-literacy programs at universities and colleges in the United States. Programs like Texas Tech University's help its students master the basics of budgeting, saving, and not buying what they can't afford. These programs are especially important as colleges grapple with rising costs and an economic downturn in the country. The author states that financial literacy affects student retention, productivity, and mental health, and may also generate good will in a time when colleges are being criticized for repeatedly raising tuition, fees, and housing costs. (From the EBSCO abstract.)