Exploring Interactive Writing as an Effective Practice for Increasing Head Start Students’ Alphabet Knowledge Skills

The current study used a pretest–posttest randomized control group design with 73 Head Start students, ages 3–5 years. The researcher served as the interactive writing teacher for the treatment group, rotating to five different classrooms in one Head Start center 3–4 days a week for 13 weeks. Children in the treatment group received a 10–15 min interactive writing lesson each day in small groups within their own classroom settings. Children in the control group received standard literacy instruction in small groups with their own classroom teachers. Child outcome data on upper case, lower case, and letter sound identification were collected before and after the intervention for both groups. Based on the large frequency of zeros on outcomes, zero-inflated Poisson regression analyses were performed. The results of the study showed that children receiving interactive writing identified more lower case and upper case letters at the end of the study relative to children in the control, but no differences were observed on letter sounds. While continued evaluation of the interactive writing strategy is needed in the preschool setting, the evidence from the current study shows encouraging trends in alphabet knowledge skill development as a result of this strategy.     

The benefits of resource discovery for publishers: a librarian's view

A core goal of librarians is to maximize usage of the content to which their libraries subscribe. Webscale or resource discovery systems offer a single search box for library users to access subscribed content. This article examines usage data at the University of Huddersfield to show how resource discovery has helped to increase the usage of publisher content that has been made available to discovery vendors, and considers the implications for publishers who are yet to do this. The article concludes that resource discovery systems have effectively levelled the playing field, allowing small to medium‐sized publishers to make content discoverable to users, and encourages publishers who do not have their content indexed in resource discovery systems to speak to discovery service vendors in order to do so at the earliest opportunity.     

Teacher verbal behavior following student success and failure

Undergraduate subjects taught identifying traits of animals (fish, reptiles, amphibians, mammals) to a fifth grade student confederate over a microphone. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of four conditions in which they failed (F) or succeeded (S) in teaching five animal comparison problems. The four conditions were (a) F, S, S, S, S; (b) F, F, F, S, S; (c) S, F, F, F, S; and (d) S, S, S, F, S. The teaching sessions were tape recorded and analyzed for Teaching Time, Word Rate, and Voice Amplitude. Analyses revealed increased Teaching Time and decreased Word Rate following failure. Voice Amplitude increased across teaching sessions independent of success or failure. Findings were interpreted as more consonant with frustration-aggression than frustrative nonreward energizing theory.     

Giving credit where credit is due: Evaluating experiential learning in the liberal arts

Portfolio assessment has become a standard mechanism for the evaluation of prior learning for experienced students. The assessment of such learning in terms of the traditional liberal arts disciplines raises basic questions about the relationship of liberal learning to lived experience and about liberal learning outcomes. An informal survey of portfolio narratives receiving faculty approval for credit at various post-secondary institutions indicates a wide range of declarative, analytical, and interpretive assertions recognized as learning in these disciplines.I wish to thank the following institutions: Sinclair Community College, Clark University, the University of Alabama, and Indiana University who were kind enough to share materials on record while preserving the confidentiality through the removal of names, dates, etc.