Although research emphasizes the importance of integrating technology into the curriculum, the use of technology can only be effective if teachers themselves possess the expertise to use technology in a meaningful way in the classroom. The aim of this study was to assist Egyptian teachers in developing teaching and learning through the application of a particular digital technology. Students were encouraged to work through the process of producing their own digital stories using MS Photo Story, while being introduced to desktop production and editing tools. They also presented, published and shared their own stories with other students in the class. Quantitative and qualitative instruments, including digital story evaluation rubric, integration of technology observation instruments and interviews for evaluating the effectiveness of digital storytelling into learning were implemented to examine the extent to which students were engaged in authentic learning tasks using digital storytelling. The findings from the analysis of students-produced stories revealed that overall, students did well in their projects and their stories met many of the pedagogical and technical attributes of digital stories. The findings from classroom observations and interviews revealed that despite problems observed and reported by teachers, they believed that the digital storytelling projects could increase students' understanding of curricular content and they were willing to transform their pedagogy and curriculum to include digital storytelling.

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Digital storytelling: a meaningful technology-integrated approach for engaged student learning

Many programs have been developed to help schools enhance students' health and reduce the prevalence of drug use, violence, and high-risk sexual behaviors. How should educators choose among these? This article describes selection criteria based on theory, research, and best educational practice that identify key social and emotional learning (SEL) competencies and program features. The SEL competencies for students include 17 skills and attitudes organized into four groups: awareness of self and others; positive attitudes and values; responsible decision making; and social interaction skills. The 11 program features critical to the success of school-based SEL programs emphasize curriculum design, coordination with larger systems, educator preparation and support, and program evaluation. Developed by the Collaborative to Advance Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL), the SEL framework can be used to guide selection of research-based prevention programs that address health, substance abuse, violence prevention, sexuality, character, and social skills.

Social and Emotional Learning: A Framework for Promoting Mental Health and Reducing Risk Behavior in Children and Youth

More or Better Student Teaching

Teachers today face increasing demands to ensure their students achieve high levels of literacy. They may feel overwhelmed by the challenges of teaching reading comprehension strategies that foster the integration, interpretation, critique, and evaluation of text ideas. The challenges are compounded because students of diverse backgrounds often enter classrooms reading far below grade level. In this article, the authors describe how Question-Answer Relationships (QARs) can provide a framework for comprehension instruction with the potential of closing the literacy achievement gap. QAR can serve as a starting point for addressing four problems of practice that stand in the way of moving all students to high levels of literacy:


The need for a shared language to make visible the invisible processes underlying reading and listening comprehension


The need for a framework for organizing questioning activities and comprehension instruction within and across grades and school subjects


The need for accessible and straightforward whole-school reform for literacy instruction for higher level thinking


The need to prepare students for high-stakes testing without undermining a focus on higher level thinking with text.

QAR: Enhancing Comprehension and Test Taking Across Grades and Content Areas

Extensive research on reading in a first language has shown the critical role fluency plays in successful reading. Fluency alone, however, does not guarantee successful reading. Cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies and schemata that readers utilize also play important roles in constructing meaning from text. Most research, however, indicates that good reading ability is virtually impossible in the absence of fast and accurate word recognition skills and reading fluency. Therefore, efficient ways of improving fluency must be developed. In answer to this need, extensive reading programs have been implemented as an effective approach in EFL settings. Another method, repeated reading, seems equally promising. The main objective of the current study is to focus on whether and how assisted repeated reading with an auditory reading model enhances EFL readers' fluency. Some comparisons of Japanese university students' performances in repeated reading and extensive reading programs are also made in an attempt to see gains in reading fluency and comprehension, and to explore some characteristics which are unique to assisted repeated reading. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of participants' reading behaviors suggest that assisted repeated reading is equally as effective as extensive reading in increasing EFL readers' silent reading rate, and favorably affects learners' perceptions of reading activities. Furthermore, the results indicate the specific role the repetition and listening components of assisted repeated reading play to facilitate reading comprehension. Assisted repeated reading can potentially develop weak ESL/EFL readers' fluency and help them become independent readers by providing a distinct form of scaffolding.

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Developing Reading Fluency in EFL: How Assisted Repeated Reading and Extensive Reading Affect Fluency Development.

This market-leading text sets the standard for reading instruction and provides preservice teachers with extensive coverage of strategies, examples, and study devices. The book balances new approaches to reading--such as language arts integration and emergent literacy/literacy as a continuum with the more traditional foundations of strong skills and phonics instruction. Coverage of current topics includes assessment standards, teaching diverse learners, technology and the teaching of literacy, and the role of parent-teacher communication in student success.

Teaching reading in today's elementary schools

Secondary School Literacy Instruction: The Content Areas

Informal Reading Inventory

This handbook reviews essential educational theory, fills in some gaps that are often not covered by methods courses, offers practical suggestions for handling a full range of classroom concerns, and provides a setting for critical analysis of teaching activities. The first four chapters help students get ready to teach; the next five address specific teaching challenges; and the final chapter provides information about entering the teaching profession, professional ethics, and legal issues important to all teachers. Three appendices cover assessment instruments, a sample unit and lesson plans, and a sample learning center.

Paul Clay Burns

Papers

Teaching reading in today's elementary schools

Secondary School Literacy Instruction: The Content Areas

Informal Reading Inventory

Student Teaching and Field Experiences Handbook

Informal Reading Inventory: Preprimer to Twelfth Grade. Fifth Edition.