‘We can write!’ The writing workshop for young learners

The study presents the process of differentiated instruction, its implementation, and impact on second graders in a Lebanese school It analyses how writing instruction has been differentiated through implementing the writing workshop to help students demonstrate improved writing skills. It examines the effects of second graders' participation in the writing workshop and discusses the factors that enabled students to develop their writing skills. Data collection includes pre- and post-writing samples, reflective journal and checklists during individual conferences. Findings show that students' writing skills improved as reflected in their progression of text, expansion of ideas, and development in conventional writing.     

FACILITATORS OF AND BARRIERS TO MODEL SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGICAL SERVICES

This study examined facilitators of and barriers to comprehensive and integrated services. A national sample of 267 full‐time practicing school psychologists who were Regular Members or Early Career Members of the National Association of School Psychologists participated. We administered a survey to participants that measured the extent to which they engaged in comprehensive and integrated services and the top facilitators of and barriers to those services using web‐based survey procedures. Results indicated that the majority of facilitators identified (Personal Attributes, Stakeholder Involvement, Resources and Support, School‐Specific Variables, Contextual Variables) predicted greater levels of comprehensive and integrated service delivery. Identified barriers—which often reflected the opposite condition of the facilitators—predicted lower levels of service delivery in some instances; however, they predicted services less often than did facilitators. Implications for research focused on better understanding factors that impact service delivery and on processes for facilitating increased comprehensive and integrated service delivery are discussed. Additionally, implications for practice include the assessment of facilitators and barriers, the use of data to plan for the delivery of comprehensive and integrated services, and advocacy for systems change.     

“I've Slept in Clothes Long Enough”: Excavating the Sounds of Domestic Violence Among Women in the White Working Class

Here we listen to and analyze the voices of poor and working-class white women in Buffalo and Jersey City as they chronicle histories related to domestic violence. Although it was initially quite easy to distinguish between women living in what others have called hard living and settled living domestic scenes, we found that the amount of violence in these homes did not differ appreciably. Rather almost all of the poor and working-class white women and their families were negotiating lives disrupted by an inhospitable economy, and almost all of the women interviewed were also surviving within scenes of domestic violence that spanned generations. The distinction between the settled lives women and the hard living women may only be determined by whether or not the woman has exited from her violent home. School-related programs designed to promote discussion of these issues are considered.     

The Almohads and the Qur’ān of Uthm ān: The Legacy of the Umayyads of Cordoba in the Twelfth Century Maghrib

The sixth/twelfth century geographer, al-Idrīsī, alludes to the presence of the so-called Qur’ān of Uthmān in the great Mosque of Cordoba and a ceremony in which it was brought out and paraded daily after the Umayyads proclaimed themselves caliphs in 317/929-30. Around 552/1157, the same Qur’ān appeared in the processions of the Almohads, a Ma?mūda Berber dynasty from the High Atlas mountains, who also claimed to be caliphs. Ibn ?ā?ib al-?alāt, al-Marrākushī and the unknown author of the ?ulal al-mawshiyya, who describe the Almohad parades, all mention the Qur’ān's Uthmānic antecedents and possession by the Umayyads. Using this as a starting point, this paper will explore the image the Umayyads projected in the Maghrib, and the later significance of Cordoban Umayyad prototypes to the ruling Mu’minid dynasty of the Almohads. This contributes to a larger discussion of the evolution of a paradigm of imperial power in the Islamic west and its manipulation to legitimise a succession of dynasties whose actual origins, ambitions and praxis diverged widely.     

Building Vocabulary Knowledge in Preschoolers Through Shared Book Reading and Gameplay

This study moves beyond previous investigations to examine whether an educational intervention combining shared book reading with a vocabulary game increases children's vocabulary knowledge. Four‐year‐olds (N = 44) were randomly assigned to dyads in either an intervention (shared book reading plus vocabulary review game) or comparison condition (shared book reading, after‐reading vocabulary review, and game that did not teach vocabulary). After two 30‐min sessions, results demonstrated that the intervention condition outperformed the comparison condition on measures of receptive and expressive knowledge of taught vocabulary words. Children in the intervention group who scored the lowest at pretest on the receptive measure saw the most gains in taught word knowledge. Findings suggest that combining vocabulary gameplay with shared book reading improved children's learning of the vocabulary words in comparison to a comparison group.