This Tasmanian handbook for teachers describes a handwriting program that helps children develop a technique that enables them to easily produce a legible and fluent personal handwriting style. An initial overview of the program is followed by sections that focus on activities for development of handwriting skills, the process of planning the…

An appropriate education is one that identifies students' educational needs and then provides a curriculum that addresses those needs (Benbow & Stanley, 1996). All students, even those identified as gifted, deserve a personalized education. However, many educators outside gifted education believe that "giftedness" is a fancy label and that gifted…

This book contains strategies for effective literacy coaching of teachers in districts and schools. Whether it's your job to start a literacy coaching initiative or to be an effective literacy coach to your colleagues, this guide has all the steps and strategies you need: (1) Roles and responsibilities of literacy coaches; (2) Keys to building…

With the proliferation of alternative route (AR) special education teacher preparation programs, many teacher educators are likely to be involved in AR program design and implementation. Unfortunately, few resources have focused on best practices for program developers to prepare the nontraditional participants who typically populate their…

Citizenship education is an important part of the development of young adults, enabling them to learn about their rights and responsibilities, and to understand how society works and decisions are made. Like citizenship, action research is about having a positive effect on the quality of people's lives. It is about seeking improvement both for the…

These two manuals are designed to aid prospective providers of workplace literacy programs in program organization and implementation. The administrator's manual addresses the following topics: program philosophy, history, potential clients, advertising, guidelines for client meetings, instructor recruitment and training, client goals, learning…

Individuals with autism successfully participated in a group musical activity involving a handbell choir. Described is the teacher's role in introducing students to the bells, assigning appropriate bells to each ringer, selecting the music, and directing the choir. (JDD)

The Council for Exceptional Children and the Council on Education of the Deaf have worked together for over a decade to maintain mutually agreed upon standards for teachers of children who are deaf and hard of hearing. This article presents the newly developed and validated standards of knowledge and skills for teachers who are working on advanced…

This book provides a guide to visual instruction and assessment using the Unit Visual Framework (UVF). Combining pictures, color, and text for meaningful representation of the core concepts in a unit of study, UVFs result in a deepened understanding by all students, regardless of language level. The manual includes specific steps and suggestions…

Mentorship programs are described which involve gifted students and subject experts with no prior knowledge about students' personalities or preconceptions about their abilities, known as "naive experts." The students are challenged by the experts' high expectations and respond to the experts' enthusiasm for sharing their knowledge and…

Classrooms across the country are discovering the power of service-learning--the ideal way to help students develop social and academic skills while giving back to their community. Now for the first time, there's a practical how-to guide on using serving-learning to promote inclusion and differentiate instruction for students with and without…

The manual describes the development and implementation of a project for gifted and talented students (grades K-12) in a rural, culturally isolated area (Wells River, Vermont). Approaches to the following project components are discussed: needs assessment, project goals and objectives, implementation (including staff responsibility), activities…

Steps for developing an effective school-business relationship include: meeting with the school principal; determining what kind of support is wanted; appointing a volunteer coordinator; understanding business operations; and setting up an evaluation process. Ideas for school-business partnerships include sponsoring an awards program, work…

Elementary special education teachers can enhance the transition of handicapped students into mainstreamed classes by careful planning and preparation of the regular class teachers, nonhandicapped students themselves. Followup communication with the regular class teacher must be maintained. (CL)

This book offers a theoretical justification for online writing instruction (OWI) and a fully developed approach to training educators for such instruction--whether in networked classrooms, distance learning, e-mail- or Internet-based conferences, or online tutoring. The book includes concrete examples of asynchronous (non-real-time) and…