Millions of United States citizens are functionally illiterate. Included are persons who cannot read or write or perform simple arithmetic at all. The reasons for failure of voluntary literacy are reviewed, and consideration given to mandatory literacy as a solution to the problem. The effect of functional illiteracy on the military is examined, as well as the relationship of illiteracy to poverty and crime. A survey of educators reveals an awareness among them of this illiteracy problem, and also reveals that some of these educators favor mandatory literacy. The issue of civil rights in relation to mandatory literacy is discussed, along with the dangers and drawbacks of functional illiteracy. Suggestions are made for initiating a campaign to eradicate functional illiteracy from American society.

This curriculum was developed to assist elementary school teachers in the intermediate grades in the use of storytelling activities in the classroom. It is divided into four sections. The first two sections are addressed to the needs of the elementary students; they include activities that enhance the learning of reading, and activities that will enable the student to become a storyteller. The last two sections are directed to the elementary school teacher; they include various methods and ways for the teacher to become a successful storyteller. These activities and resources will enable the classroom teacher to incorporate storytelling into the learning environment of the classroom.

The purpose of this project was to design a curriculum utilizing newspapers as a primary learning resource to establish newspaper reading habits among junior high students. Research suggested a strong correlation between consistent reading of the daily newspaper and political knowledge, voting, and other acts reflecting good citizenship. Use of the newspaper in the classroom helped to establish newspaper reading habits among adolescents. This resulted in students being more aware of the adult world they would enter and more confident. They understood how their society functioned. With increased mastery of newspapers, came increased self-esteem, since newspapers were seen as an adult medium of communication. To capitalize on these findings, this project incorporated the newspaper into the classroom, to be used daily. The adopted textbook is not utilized as extensively as in previous courses. Instruction on newspapers, using the major local daily and two prominent publications (New York Times, Wall Street Journal), has been included. Methodology to be utilized will take into consideration the various learning styles of the students; development of critical thinking skills is emphasized to strengthen the development of citizenship.

This curriculum project reviews the methods, materials, and supplemental reading activities that have been shown in the literature to be effective in developing or promoting positive attitudes toward reading and how these can be used as an integral part of the daily reading program. The major findings and some various methods and materials used to measure attitudes toward reading are also discussed. This curriculum project is specifically designed for fourth grade teachers to use in correlation with the Ginn 720 Series, Level 10. The project includes directions for developing a curriculum of activities to promote or develop positive attitudes toward reading in correlation with Ginn, Level 10. The criteria for selection of the activities and stories are included. This project includes a list of the reviewed activities categorized under one of the following headings: oral activities, written activities, arts and crafts, and dramatics. Finally, the stories in Ginn, Level 10 and the suggested activities to promote or develop positive attitudes toward reading are listed for teachers to use as an integral part of their reading program.

This curriculum project reviews the methods, materials, movements, music and reading activities that have been shown in the literature to be appropriate for teaching social, emotional, intellectual, and physical skills to three year olds. The development, major findings, various methods, and teacher effectiveness in early childhood education are also discussed. This curriculum project is specifically designed for three year old skills and abilities as listed by The Florida Kindergarten Council, Inc., 1987. The criteria for selection of the activities is included. This project includes a list of the reviewed activities arranged in the format of a nine month calendar and categorized under one of the following headings; art activities, movement activities, music and recipes. One color, number and shape will be introduced into the curriculum each month. Finally, suggested stories appropriate for the central theme of each month will be included for teachers to use in reinforcing the concepts presented.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether children enrolled in two first grade classes who did not meet the criterion score for one or more of the seven subtests on a selected readiness test given during the first two weeks of the school year would make higher scores on selected comprehension measures when instruction in a basal reading series is supplemented with instruction in the language experience approach than children who receive instruction only in basal reader materials. Language experience activities were conducted with all reading groups in the experimental class for three days every two weeks. Group experience stories and word bank activities were not done with the control group which used only basal materials. A factorial analysis of variance model was selected to analyze the data on the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test on the main effects of type of instruction, sex, and classification of students. No significant difference at the .05 level was found for the null hypotheses tested; however, a slight non-significant difference was found in the mean scores of the target children in both classes with the language experience group having an 80% higher mean score than the control group.

Research indicates a need for upgrading vocabulary development in the elementary school classroom. The purpose of this project is to aid in developing the young child's vocabulary as a foundation for future reading. By means of oral presentations of the children's literature and activities centered on the vocabularies generated by these selections, students will have the opportunity to expand their store of words and meanings.

This study identifies, explains, and develops a practical model of teaching art criticism within a traditional secondary art curriculum. The approach to teaching art criticism uses the discipline-based art education format described in the Getty publication of 1985, a composite art critical format including B. Bloom, E. Feldman, K. Hamblen, and E. Kaelin, is accomplished through a process model curriculum developed by L. Stenhouse, and uses K. Gentle's curriculum design as the basis of the Curriculum Model Diagram. The project provides lessons that are intended to help junior high school, and senior high school art students develop the necessary skills to make informed judgements about art in the production, historic, aesthetic, and critical areas of the existing art curriculum. The methodology is presented in a lesson plan design, includes a Biographical Sketch, and a Six-Part Questioning Strategy. Three experienced artist/teachers were asked to review the curriculum and, using the Artist/Educator Questionnaire, evaluate it. Feedback from the three reviewers suggested several ways the curriculum could be tailored to individual teacher and program needs.

Motivating students to learn and practice effective communication skills has always been a dilemma for teachers of all grade levels. Video cameras and camcorders are now being used as teaching tools in many schools to not only motivate students to use and practice a variety of skills, but to stimulate their creativity, as well. Loretto Elementary School in Jacksonville, Florida, is developing a program which incorporates student-written video productions into its existing curriculum. Loretta's innovative program is a direct result of a 10-rninute informational video tape production done by graduate student Jane Fleetwood and Continental Cablevision, a local cable television company. This paper describes the step-by-step procedures involved in that production, the business education partnership which exists between the school and the cable company, and the school's plans for making video productions as integral part of its curriculum.

The relationship between peer-editing and composition quality was investigated. The thirty subjects involved were 11th-grade English students randomly assigned to control and experimental groups. During a nine week period, both groups received the same assignments and teacher evaluation. The control group, which did not revise unless upon individual initiative, participated in a dramatics workshop while the experimental group used a worksheet developed by Leila Christenbury (1982) to edit and proofread each other's writing before evaluation by the teacher. Pre and post writing assignments were blind rated at the end of the experiment using the Diederich Rating Scale. Individual item scores and total scores were compared. The t-ratios proved insignificant at the .05 level. Positive student feedback, however, indicated that the procedure deserves further investigation.