The folks who brought us the give-away of Funnix Beginning Reading are doing it again! They’re giving away Funnix Beginning Math for free throughout the month of June 2011. Funnix Beginning Math is a 100-lesson computer program designed for children who have not learned beginning math operations. One can download the program from the Funnix site (see link at the end of this post). All of the components of Funnix Beginning Math are included in the download—100 animated, computer-based lessons; workbook materials; a teaching guide, including explicit directions for the teacher; and a placement test for assessing and placing the student.
Continue reading ‘More free Funnix! It’s math this time.’
Archive for the 'News' Category
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The Independent Publisher, a resource for publishers who are not the giant publishing houses that dominate contemporary book publishing these days, annually awards the “IPPY” Awards, which recognize what the Independent Publisher bills as “the best indie-published books of the year in 69 categories, 11 regions, and 12 Outstanding Books of the Year.” For 2011, in the category of “Education/Academic/Teaching,” the Silver Award was made to friend-of-TE James M. Kauffman’s The Tragicomedy of Public Education: Laughing and Crying, Thinking and Fixing which was published by Full Court Press.
Here’s a huzzah for Jim and his book! And here’s a link to Amazon for those who haven’t had a chance to get a copy and read it: http://amzn.to/jmktragicomedy.
Sphere: Related ContentIn “Using Encoding Instruction to Improve the Reading and SpellingPerformances of Elementary Students At Risk for Literacy Difficulties: A Best-Evidence Synthesis,” professsors Beverly Weiser and Patricia Mathes of Southern Methodist University reviewed of studies of the effects of spelling instruction on literacy performance and found that systematic instruction in helping students to convert speech into print promotes not just spelling but also reading competence. What is more, the benefits appear to persist over time.
Using Encoding Instruction to Improve the Reading and SpellingPerformances of Elementary Students At Risk for Literacy Difficulties: A Best-Evidence Synthesis
Although connectionist models provide a framework explaining how the decoding and encoding abilities work reciprocally to enhance reading and spelling ability, encoding instruction in today’s schools is not a priority. Although a limited amount of high-quality experimental or control studies to date (N = 11) give empirical support to using direct, explicit encoding instruction to increase the reading and spelling abilities of those students at risk for literacy failure, the benefits of integrating this instruction into current reading curriculums warrant further consideration. Students receiving encoding instruction and guided practice that included using (a) manipulatives (e.g., letter tiles, plastic letters) to learn phoneme–grapheme relationships and words and (b) writing phoneme–grapheme relationships and words made from these correspondences significantly outperformed contrast groups not receiving encoding instruction. Robust Cohen’s d effect sizes, favoring the treatment groups, were found in areas of phonemic awareness, spelling, decoding, fluency, comprehension, and writing. Educational implications of these findings suggest that there is support for using encoding instruction to increase the literacy performances of at-risk primary grade students and that encoding instruction can be successful in improving the reading and spelling performances of older students with learning disabilities. Importantly, there is also evidence to support the transfer effects of early encoding instruction on later reading, writing, and spelling performances.
Continue reading ‘Teaching spelling promotes general literacy’
Sphere: Related ContentIn Could John Stuart Mill Have Saved Our Schools? Siegfried Engelmann and Douglas Carnine explain what Mill’s logical analysis contributes to understanding how students learn, what educators should do to teach, and the consequences of education’s failure to apply fundamental scientific reasoning. The publisher doesn’t seem to have a link to it yet, but the ISBN is 1-57861-745-6.
If you want to get an idea of what’s in this book, watch this 30-min video in which Mr. Engelmann explains the ideas.
Sphere: Related ContentOver on SpedPro I have a post about an up-coming Webinar on evidence-based practices presented by Bryan Cook. A product of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) and and CEC’s Division for Research, the session is billed as helping educators answer questions such as these:
- What exactly does evidence-based practice mean for practitioners?
- How are evidence-based practices different from “best practices” and “research-based practices”?
- Where can you find them?
- How should you select them?
- How can you use them?
- How can you evaluate them?
I haven’t seen the syllabus, but I bet this will be a worthwhile session. For one small fee, one can register as many folks as you can gather around a computer and a projector; and then you get a copy of the Webinar to review later, as well. It’s like a ready-made, re-usable staff-development program. To read the SpedPro post, follow this link. Alternatively, simply follow this link to register for the session!
Sphere: Related ContentMr. Hal Bowman is advertising professional development opportunities for US teachers. They’re promoted with the lead, “Teach Like a Rock Star.” Here’s the main content of two e-mail messages I received:
Sphere: Related ContentPrincipals from coast-to-coast are sending their teachers by the boatload to attend Teach Like A Rock Star.
Is it unconventional? Definitely.
Entertaining? Absolutely.
Effective? Beyond belief.
Continue reading ‘Teach like a rockstar, legend’
The Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy, which covers many different social programs in addition to education, announced the publication of an electronic newsletter that should be of interest to some readers. The current issue of RIGOROUS EVIDENCE Newsletter: Distinguishing Effective Evidence-Based Programs from Everything Else doesn’t have much that is precisely on point for education (though, check the entry about a teen pregnancy program), but one can bookmark the on-line site for the newsletter and check it regularly as a potential source for trustworthy content about effective educational methods.
Sphere: Related Content
Until 31 January 2011, one can download a copy of Funnix a tutorial program for teaching beginning reading skills just for the asking. Yes, you have to submit a name and an e-mail address, that’s the catch.
Funnix, authored by Siegfied Engelmann, Owen Engelmann, and Karen Davis, is composed of 120 30-minute lessons delivered via compact disk on a computer. An adult coaches the child as she learns fundamentals of decoding (e.g., letter-sound correspondences, blending), practices reading words (lists, sentences, and passages), and develops basic comprehension skills (e.g., literal connections). Children answer some questions verbally, click answers to others directly on the computer, and write responses to others in workbooks. The adult monitors and provides feedback. (The package includes materials guiding the adult’s support.)
Continue reading ‘Funnix is free for a few more days’
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