The Acting in Group of Teachers as Possibility of Resignification of the Interpretation about the Writing Language

Front of the possibility of acting with the teachers who teach in schools of Early Childhood Education for children aged six years, about the re-siginification of the understanding of writing language and of the importance of the child in this age group establish a positive relationship with this mode of language, was developed in 2011, a project linked to the Teaching of UNESP titled “Depathologization learning of the writing and inclusive education: reflections and actions of the teacher of Early Childhood Education”. This project aims to identification of the actions, in the classroom, of the patologization and subsequent implementation of actions depathologization writing by teachers’ actions, considering the increasingly early systematization of formal education of this kind of language in kindergarten. To this end, procedures that characterize the collaborative methodology are adopted. Throughout the methodological course, the engagement of the teachers, of the coordination and of the direction was valued, which seemed to favor both the formation, as the maintenance of the group, were very important aspects to ensure the interaction between its members and the common interest in the reflection about the topic in question. This paper focuses attention on whether thematic axes highlight during the initial survey of the expectations of teachers subsequently addressed in theoretical and reflective meetings leading up to identification of actions the patologization and/or of the proposition of the actions despatologizadoras of the learning of the writing, and in what refers to the way they are addressed.

Análise da relação entre a habilidade de integração visuo-motora e o desempenho escolar

Visual-motor integration is a skill that involves visual perception and eye-hand coordination. Deficit in perceptual ability and motor organization capacity may reflect in reading, writing and arithmetic learning difficulties. This study aimed to verify the relationship between visual-motor integration ability and academic performance, as well, whether visual perception ability was correlated with reading performance and whether motor coordination ability was correlated with writing performance. Participants were 77 students in the 2nd. year of elementary education at a public school. To data collect were applied the Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration and the Academic Performance Test. The results showed a significant correlation between visual-motor integration ability and academic skills of reading (r = 0.230, p = 0.044), writing (r = 0.244, p = 0.033) and arithmetic (r = 0.277, p = 0.015). In addition, was also identified significant correlation between visual perception and reading performance (r = 0.407, p = 0) and between the motor coordination and cursive writing (p = 0.039). The results of this study are consistent with the literature, concerning the verification of visual-motor integration, visual perception and motor coordination abilities influence on the students performance in school activities.

Writing saturated holograms in LiNbO3 crystals through phase control and double diffraction

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Desempenho de escolares com e sem transtorno de aprendizagem em leitura, escrita, consciência fonológica, velocidade de processamento e memória de trabalho fonológica

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

The Invisible Blackness of Harryette Mullen's Poetry: Writing, Miscegenation, and What Remains to Be Seen

This essay addresses the poetics of Harryette Mullen, an awarded African-American female poet whose work questions the boundaries that shape the expectations for accessible intelligibility in African-American literature. Mullen’s poems skirt the edges of intelligibility by going beyond the expectations for a visible/intelligible form of language that would embrace the experience of blackness. I argue that writing in Mullen’s poetry works as process of miscegenation by playing on the illegibility of blackness, beyond a visible line of distinction between what is or should be considered part of blackness itself, which engages new forms of reflection on poetry as a politically meaningful tool for rethinking the role of the black (female) poet within the black diaspora.

Cutting Cursive: Is Handwriting Still Important to Today’s Preservice Teacher?

Handwriting is a tool for communication often untaught that has effects on learning and long-term development for students of the future. Handwriting used to be needed in order to function in society, however, today that skill is no longer needed. New technology, current teaching methods and societal needs have caused handwriting to be overlooked in many school districts. Classrooms are overwhelmed with information and many schools are simply running out of time to teach cursive, therefore no longer making it a priority. Handwriting is a perceptual motor skill requiring higher cognitive thinking, something that most primary school children find difficult, yet it is still needed in the school curriculum and provides a stable foundation for students of the future. The questions to be addressed by my research are to examine the factors that have led to the demise of cursive writing in elementary schools. I will research the complex issues that have contributed to the decline of cursive handwriting. This will include my investigation into the factors that technology has played, along with societal needs. I will interview preservice teachers, those students in college preparing to become teachers, and try to understand where the importance for teaching handwriting started and ended. By the end of my research I want to have constructed a timeline of events to explain the demise of this needed skill. My methodology for this research will be to gather information from various primary and secondary literature review sources. I want to understand when cursive started to disappear from the curriculum and why.

Review of The Search for a Common Language: Environmental Writing and Education Edited by Melody Graulich and Paul Crumbley

This edited collection grew out of a symposium held at Utah State University in Logan in 2002. According to the editors, the symposium's purpose was to "publicly explore the particular ways environmental writing educates the public through a fusion of science and literary expression." The Search for a Common Language achieves that purpose by including short prose pieces-ranging from memoirs, essays on specific locations, and scientific papers - as well as poetry on natural themes. The range of topics and genres and the inclusion of poetry provide a variety of ways to talk about the environment and reach out to different audiences to educate them about the natural world.

Improving Communication about Mathematics through Vocabulary and Writing

In this action research study, where the subjects were my 6th grade mathematics students, I investigated the impact of direct vocabulary instruction on their communication and achievement. I strategically implemented the addition of vocabulary study into each lesson over a four-month time period. The students practiced using vocabulary in verbal discussions, review activities, and in mathematical problem explanations. I discovered that a majority of students improved their overall understanding of mathematical concepts based on an analysis of the data I collected. I also found that in general, students felt that knowing the definition of mathematical words was important and that it increased their achievement when they understood the words. In addition, students were more exact in their communication after receiving vocabulary instruction. As a result of this research, I plan to continue to implement vocabulary into daily lessons and keep vocabulary and communication as a focus of my 6th grade mathematics class.

Writing in the Mathematics Classroom: Does It Have an Effect on Students’ Mathematical Reasoning?

In this action research study of my classroom of 5th grade mathematics, I investigate how to improve students’ written explanations to and reasoning of math problems. For this, I look at journal writing, dialogue, and collaborative grouping and its effects on students’ conceptual understanding of the mathematics. In particular, I look at its effects on students’ written explanations to various math problems throughout the semester. Throughout the study students worked on math problems in cooperative groups and then shared their solutions with classmates. Along with this I focus on the dialogue that occurred during these interactions and whether and how it moved students to a deeper level of conceptual understanding. Students also wrote responses about their learning in a weekly math journal. The purpose of this journal is two-fold. One is to have students write out their ideas. Second, is for me to provide the students with feedback on their responses. My research reveals that the integration of collaborative grouping, journaling, and active dialogue between students and teacher helps students develop a deeper understanding of mathematics concepts as well as an increase in their confidence as problem solvers. The use of journaling, dialogue, and collaborative grouping reveals themselves as promising learning tasks that can be integrated in a mathematics curriculum that seeks to cultivate students’ thinking and reasoning.