Art educators and classroom teachers in the elementary schools are confronted with the challenge of helping children look critically at works of art and develop written and/or verbal skills to communicate their findings. It was the purpose of this study to determine the effectiveness of the conceptual learning technique of semantic webbing in teaching art criticism in the elementary classroom. The author revealed a significant difference of opinions between two sample groups and similarities between the variables of frequency of use, and familiarity of the webbing technique and its effectiveness in the classroom. The sample groups consist of elementary classroom teachers and art specialists who work with kindergarten and first grade children.

The diploma thesis focuses on issues of the school admission to the 1st grade of the primary school. Nowadays this topic is more and more often discussed mainly from perspective of the different approach of many primary schools to checking out the school readiness during the school admission. This thesis is divided into two parts, the theoretical and the practical part. The first chapter of the theoretical part describes the terms school readiness and its particular issues. Next chapter describes the school admission to the 1st grade; there we can find recommended methods of checking the school readiness and organization of the school entry. Next chapter focuses on postponement of school attendance and preparatory classes, which are aimed at those children who got the postponement of school attendance. The last chapter deals with the school entrance and first months spent in the school class, because it relates to the school readiness and school admission and therefore it logically closes the theoretical part. The practical part of the thesis presents case study of the school admission on six primary schools. These schools were chosen to differ in the size, size of the city and socioeconomic status of families whose children attend the primary school. The aim is to find out how much the school...

Learning to read is critical for quality of life and success in our society. Children who cannot read well face unsuccessful educational careers and limited job choices. Recently, policy makers and educators have made progress toward increasing the reading achievement of America's children. Still up to 60% of boys who live in poverty cannot read or read two years below grade level. In this experimental study, I designed and examined the effects of the Gottshall Early Reading Intervention (GERI) to determine if direct instruction with a small group, phonics based approach would increase the literacy achievement of low performing, rural, first grade boys. Participants were selected according to Texas Primary Reading Inventory (TPRI) scores, matched them across race, ethnicity, and socio-economic status, and randomly assigned them to experimental/control group. Three times per week for 15 weeks, boys in the experimental group attended 30-minute pullout sessions taught by trained professionals in addition to classroom reading instruction. Control group members received classroom reading instruction only. Findings reveal no significant differences in reading gains across all variables. However, descriptive data indicate higher percentages of gains for the experimental group on four out of five reading components with rate of gain higher on fifth. Statistics also show that Hispanics are more likely to benefit.

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Many children in low-income areas are failing in schools, frequently due to substandard reading skills. Research has shown that early intervention can help alleviate this problem. However, most early intervention strategies are very expensive and labor intensive for school personnel. Furthermore, it is often not clear what programs will work with a certain student population due to their widely diverse backgrounds. In low-income schools, parents are often an ignored resource. Many teachers complain about lack of parent involvement, and yet most do nothing to solicit it. Using parents to help provide beginning reading practice for their children could be a way to involve families in the school and help children gain vital reading skills. This study investigated the effects of parent training in a fluency reading method called “Paired Reading” among low-income first grade students. A one-hour training sessions was offered at two different times to the parents of four first grade classes in an urban elementary school. Thirty-one participated. The children of these parents constituted the experimental group. This group was pretested and posttested to assess reading fluency, sight word recognition and reading attitudes. Forty-one students at a neighboring elementary school acted as the control group for this study. Qualitative interviews were also conducted on experimental group parents and teachers. The results indicated significant gains in reading fluency, sight word recognition and attitudes about reading. Also, there was a significant relationship between the minutes a child spent practicing Paired Reading with the parent and the amount of improvement the child made. Interview data suggested that parents welcomed this type of training session and enjoyed doing the activities with their children. Unfortunately, the interview data also indicated that teachers were negative about the efficacy of parent training sessions and had no immediate plans to implement such classes.

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The Alternative Primary Program (APP), a classroom strategy for accommodating the academic readiness levels of entering first grade students, was implemented in two schools with high concentrations of economically disadvantaged students. For identification purposes, students were designated as Regular and Transitional First Grade students by utilizing existing school district guidelines, but were grouped heterogenously in reduced class size groups rather than being placed in self-contained classes. After two years in this setting, academic progress in the area of reading by students in the two pilot school sites was examined to determine the relative progress of Regular and Transitional (identified) students in comparison to one another. A second comparison was made to determine the relative progress of students in the APP with students moving through the same two schools in a previous student cohort. Heterogenously grouped students were evaluated periodically with an instrument used to assess pre-literacy stages of development including: Sense of Story, Sense of Word, Spelling Awareness, Letter and Word Recognition. The experimental instrument used in the study monitors student progress through three continuous stages of pre-literacy development. Assessment of students is carried out by classroom teachers for the purpose of directing instruction and determining appropriate instructional strategies for classroom use. The analysis of data produced by this measure and relating this data to other more traditional forms of reading achievement was one of the purposes of this study. Information produced by the Stages Assessment instrument was found to be reliable as an early indicator of readiness for reading instruction and predictive of later reading achievement. Multivariate analysis of variance techniques were used to analyze reading dependent variables. Multiple regression and discriminant analysis were used to analyze the relationship among reading achievement measures and indicators of reading readiness, including stages assessment data. Methodological limitations regarding the use of intact groups and problems relating to program implementation in a period of change are discussed. / Ph. D.

The diploma thesis concerns with the school readiness issue in region Cesky Brod. High number of children with compulsory school attendance postponement resists these days, which the government decided to solve with compulsory preprimary year implementation. When framework education programs came into force, schools drew up their own school education programs. The basis, with which they enter the school, diversified. The goal of the thesis is to determine the areas in which most children had problems during the first grade enrollments in Cesky Brod region. The readiness of children to enter school is studied also from the parents' and the teachers' point of view and their points of view are compared. The research combines three methods - observation, questionnaire and case history. For the research during the first grades enrollments the observation was chosen. On the basis of the theory the areas for observation were determined and assessed according to the chosen assessment criteria. The points of view of the parents and teachers were examined in the questionnaire. The areas in which the most children had difficulties during the first grades enrollments were graphomotory and speech development. The parents and the teachers also share this opinion. Weak attention span is mention, in addition, by...

Thesis (D.Phil.) -- Central University of Technology, Free State, 2010 / Due to various reasons, today’s learners lead a passive life that results in movement deprivation and poor motor development. Motor development contributes to cognitive development, which can also contribute to school readiness. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, researchers have indicated that there is an increase of learners with motor problems, which can develop into learning problems. The primary aim of the study was to determine the influence of a 10 week Judo intervention programme on Grade 1 learners with motor restraints. The formal standardised test, Bruininks-Oseretsky Test for Motor Proficiency (BOTMP) with its eight subscales, was used for this purpose. A total of 140 learners took part in the programme: 70 learners formed part of the control group and 70 learners formed part of the experimental group. All the learners took part in the pre- and post-tests (the BOTMP). The experimental group took part in the Judo intervention programme. The importance of Judo with regard to motor aspects has been highlighted. It promotes self-confidence and self-control, and has a significant influence on learning behaviour and learning of movement. This sport emphasises body awareness and spatial orientation, and develops sensory-motor activities, as well as cognitive and physical movements. Furthermore, Judo consists of a great number of motor movements and, as a result of this diversity, the participant develops on a motor, cognitive, social and emotional level. To determine whether the Judo intervention programme had any impact on the learners, t-tests were applied. These tests were done on independent and nonindependent groups. The data was statistically processed and depicted in table or graph format. The results indicated a significant improvement in five of the eight subscales of the BOTMP. The motor variates that showed improvement were balance, bilateral coordination, reaction speed, visual motor control, and upper limb speed and dexterity. The means were statistically different on the 5% level. Furthermore, the average of two variates differed on a 1% level, namely balance and bilateral coordination. Running speed and agility, as well as strength, did not show significant signs of improvement. From the results, it can be concluded that an affordable and achievable Judo intervention programme has a significant impact on the gross, gross-fine and fine motor development of Grade 1 learners with motor restraints. The study indicated that Judo as a sport indeed has an effect on the motor skills of these learners. It is recommended that such a programme should be marketed to educators and be included in the Life Orientation Programme.

This thesis deals with the topic "The content of education at the first grade of primary schools". The initial years of schooling are very important for the future psychological development of children. At the first grade of primary schools the pupils built schoolboy habits of learning and acquire human and moral values. For these reasons is important to the level of study at a primary school meets the high standards and thus helped to create a solid foundation for future academic and professional life of a young human. In the theoretical part of this thesis will be summarized the current knowledge of basic education, in the practical part will be compared school curricula of selected primary schools. Obtained knowledge will be used in the assessment aims, areas and forms of education in the Czech republic.