A well-ordered environment is essential to the learning process. Alfred North Whitehead acknowledged, "freedom and discipline are the two essentials of education". The Shady Hill School embodies this doctrine in spirit but not body. I have endeavored to shape this body into a disciplined, rigorous environment to free the intellect for discovery. The Master Plan is defined by buildings sited to structure the natural environment into a series of activity spaces, and, by the order of the original campus: the building orientation, fenestration, scale and interrelationships. Additional order was found through the siting of the large, multifunctional buildings. The Main Building, beyond providing for Administration and Assembly functions, acts as the "propylaeum" for the plane of education and initiates an experiential promenade. The Grade Building, which is an intermediate unit--larger than a classroom yet smaller than a school--is ordered from the inside by three, classrooms designed to satisfy, very flexibly, the spatial and functional requirements of each grade. The centralized space acts to celebrate the existence of the students in their building.

No description available.

<p> This study explores the responses of twelve fifth graders to Japanese pictorial texts&mdash; manga (Japanese comics), anime (Japanese animations), kamishibai (Japanese traditional visual storytelling), and picture books &mdash; and their connections to Japanese culture and people. </p><p> This study took place Ca&ntilde;on Elementary School in Black Canyon City in Arizona. The guiding research questions for this study were: How do children respond to Japanese pictorial texts? and What understandings of Japanese culture are demonstrated in children's inquiries and responses to Japanese pictorial texts? The study drew on reader response theory, New Literacy Studies, and multimodality. Data collection included participant-observation, videotaped/audiotaped classroom discussions and interviews, participants' written and artistic artifacts, ethnographic fieldnotes, and reflection journals. Results revealed that children demonstrated four types of responses including (1) analytical, (2) personal, (3) intertexual, and (4) cultural. These findings illustrate that the children actively employed their popular culture knowledge to make intertextual connections as part of meaning making from the stories. They also showed four types of cultural responses including (1) ethnocentrism, (2) understanding and acceptance, (3) respect and appreciation and valuing, and (4) change. This study makes a unique contribution to reader response as it examines American children's cultural understandings and literary responses to Japanese pictorial texts (manga, anime, kamishibai, and picture books).</p>

<p> Historically, new teachers have entered the profession woefully underprepared to immediately be highly effective, primary literacy teachers. The twenty-first century has brought to education extensive reforms in literacy instruction, but are teacher preparation programs keeping up? This research examines the varying levels of perceived preparedness with which new primary teachers are entering the profession. The researcher surveyed K-3 teachers throughout three districts of varying sizes in a northwestern state. The survey focused on determining teachers' perceptions of their levels of preparedness in literacy instruction in general, as well as in the core literacy elements of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and comprehension. The data collection portion of the survey differentiated between new teachers in their first 3 years, practiced teachers with 4-10 years of experience, and veteran teachers with 11 or more years of experience. The practiced and veteran teachers were asked to reflect upon their preparation and their first years of teaching when answering the survey questions. The researcher completed a comparative analysis of the three groups to determine if there has been improvement over time in perceived levels of preparedness for literacy instruction. The survey results determined that this sample population has, in fact, indicated an improvement in the level of literacy-related teacher preparation. This improvement better enables new teachers to be highly effective in primary literacy instruction, to the great benefit of their students.</p>

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

<p> In an age of standardization of learning and the learner, literacy is narrowly defined to view young people from a deficit rather than a strength perspective. Empowering learners to draw on knowledges and experiences that they have access to in their everyday lives broadens the view of literacy learning. Research on literacy as a sociocultural practice, rural literacies, and performance theory frame this inquiry that seeks to understand how students are positioned as capable users of multiple literacy practices. This work examines: How do students living in rural contexts bring personal stories and interests into classrooms to make sense of literacy learning? What pedagogical practices make visible students' personal stories and interests as resources for literacy? How do students negotiate lived and imagined experience in classroom literacy engagements?</p><p> Using ethnographic methodologies and a practice centered performance approach, this research foregrounds the complexities of literacy learning that are responsive to this midwestern rural school community. Over the course of one academic year, I observed and participated in the everyday literacy events in a sixth grade and a second grade classroom. This work focuses on how rurality is imagined and experienced in these focal classrooms and the pedagogical practices that establish an ethos of sharing personal stories and experiences. An analysis of student created multimedia videos demonstrates how these literacy events were a location to 1) enact cultural ways of knowing, 2) negotiate multiple discourses that were significant in students' worlds, and 3) create new possibilities for using literacies and participating in classrooms. In the midst of tensions that place students as objects of instructional and political policies, discourses of possibility are created when young people are positioned as capable subjects who contribute and create knowing.</p>

<p> The purpose of this comparative study was to examine the connection between the implementation of a quality early childhood program and the kindergarten readiness of prekindergarten students as measured by the Developmental Indicators for Assessment of Learning-DIAL-3. The researcher analyzed historical data obtained from approximately 40 students in the Study Site School District in the prekindergarten programs at Woodbridge Elementary School for the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 school years. </p><p> The researcher developed two research questions: a) What impact does a MODESE approved, research-based early childhood program have on the kindergarten readiness of prekindergarten students in the Study-Site School District as measured by the DIAL-3? and b) Will there be a difference in the average DIAL-3 scores of the students who did not participate in a DESE approved early childhood program and the average DIAL-3 scores for students who did? </p><p> The implementation of a high quality early childhood program, (the independent variable) was measured by the change in DIAL-3 scores on each subtest for each of the participants (dependent variable). The results were then compared to the scores of the control group, the students that did not participate in a high quality early childhood program. Using a two-tailed t-test to examine the difference between the mean scores of participating and non-participating students, the researcher found that overall there was no statistically significant difference in scores of students who participated and those who did not.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-06, Section: A, page: 2320. Adviser: Allison Ryan. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 83-92) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 264-276).