“time on task: The number of minutes during an hour and the number of hours during a day that students spend actively engaged in learning in the classroom, as opposed to the amount of time changing classes, chatting, or engaging in other nonlearning situations.”
Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.
“study skills: Learning strategies that help and individual organize time, materials, and information. Special educators long ago recognized the importance of teaching study skills to students with learning disabilities; such skills have recently become a part of many school curricula starting in the elementary grades.
While some students seem to succeed in school with only basic study skills, many learning-disabled students benefit greatly from being taught ideas such as how to maintain a notebook and how to organize materials in each class. Time management is another essential study skill needed to complete long and short assignments on time as well as to schedule time for appointments, friends, and work. Note-taking and active reading strategies are also important study skills for all students, including those with learning disabilities.”
Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.
As state legislatures around the United States (and I am most definitely looking at you, Florida) pass “right-to-remain-ignorant” laws and impose them on educational institutions, now seems like the perfect moment to post this Cultural Literacy worksheet on academic freedom. This is a half-page worksheet with a once-sentence–a longish compound, nota bene–reading and two comprehension questions.
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“threshold hypothesis: The belief among advocates of bilingual education that individuals with high levels of proficiency in two languages experience cognitive advantages in language skills and intellectual growth over those with low levels of proficiency in two languages, who have significant cognitive deficits.”
Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.
“Formalism or Russian Formalism: Russian school of literary criticism that flourished 1914-28. Making use of the linguistic theories of Ferdinand de Saussure, Formalists were concerned with what technical devices make a literary text literary, apart from its psychological, sociological, biographical, and historical elements. Though influenced by the Symbolist movement, they sought to make their analyses more objective and scientific than those of the Symbolists. The movement was condemned by the Soviet authorities in 1929 for its lack of political perspective. Later, it became influential in the West, notably in New Criticism and structuralism.”
Excerpted/Adapted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
“spatial relationships: The relative positions of objects in a space. Children learn about spatial relationships at an early age as they manipulate toys and other objects. Academically, spatial relationships are involved in the acquisition of reading skills and mathematics: a child must perceive the space between words in a sentence in order to understand the concept of a sentence. In math, understanding spatial relationships is essential for developing many types of math skills such as computation, graphing, and understanding a number line. For example, a child can recognize that the toy is on top of or above the bed; in looking at a picture, a child can recognize that the moon is above the ground, This understanding is often obvious in children’s drawings.”
Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.
“small schools movement: A movement initiated in the 1970s, mainly in New York City, to establish small schools. Some of these schools were alternative schools for adolescents in need of intensive remediation, whereas others set out to demonstrate that students would get a better education in schools containing fewer than 500 students. Interest in the small schools movement was propelled by pioneers Deborah Meier and her Central Park East schools in East Harlem in New York City and Theodore Sizer and his Coalition of Essential Schools. The movement continued to grow during the 1980s and 1990s and gained momentum with the commitment of $1 billion by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in the late 1990s. With funding from the Gates Foundation, many cities across the United States agreed to divide their high schools into small schools. Advocates claim that small schools offer a warmer, more personalized climate than do large schools and consequently boast higher achievement, attendance, and graduation rates. Critics contend that the small schools are unable to mount a strong curriculum with advanced courses and that the administrative costs of small schools are excessive, the burden on teachers is greater, and the academic results are uncertain.”
Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.
“perseveration: Persistent repetition of a behavior or activity regardless of the result, or having trouble switching from one activity to another. Extreme examples of perseveration may be seen in individuals with a developmental disability or autism., for whom repetitive hand motions, rocking, or other movements are common characteristics. More typical examples in childhood might involve singing a song from a video again and again.
In a school setting, perseveration can be used to describe the fixation on a specific element in a broader task, such as spending all of the time of an exam on a single essay question. Psychologists often encounter perseveration in students they evaluate for learning disabilities. For example, if a student is told to copy six small circles in a straight row, the student may make all the circles all the way across the width of the page, drawing 30 or more. Teachers and parents often report perseverative behaviors among students with learning disabilities and ADHD. For example, if they ask the student to hop four times on the left foot, the student may hop 20 or more times or until he or she lose balance.
This type of behavior may be caused by inflexible strategies and problems in shifting from one task to another.”
Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.
“neuropsychological examination: Testing that explores a number of broad areas in the brain and behavioral functioning, including intellectual functioning, attention, language, sensorimotor functions, executive functions, and social and emotional functions. They also measure specific skills, such as memory, concentration, problem solving, and learning.
A neuropsychological examination typically involves administration of a complex battery of tests designed to identify levels of functioning within specific areas and to compare abilities and problems in all areas.
Also called ‘information processing tests,’ this type of testing reveals how the brain and nervous system interact. A complete neuropsychological evaluation begins with information about a child’s education and physical, social, and psychological development. Then tests are used to measure a wide range of areas, including focus and attention, motor skills, sensory acuity, working memory, learning, intelligence, language, arithmetic skills, problem solving, judgment, abstract thinking, mood, temperament, the ability to interpret and apply meaning to visual information, and other skills.
A neuropsychological examination might be recommended if a child has experienced a medical condition or injury that could affect brain health, a sudden or unexpected change in thinking, failure to improve with therapy or special education help, or complex learning and behavior patterns that other evaluations have not identified.”
Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.
“African languages: Languages indigenous to sub-Saharan Africa that belongs to the Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan, Khoisan, and Afroasiatic language phyla. Africa is the most polyglot continent; estimates of the number of African languages range from 1,000 to 1,200. Many have numerous dialects. Distinctions in tone play a significant role in nearly all sub-Saharan languages. Contact between people who do not speak that same language has necessitated the development of lingua francas such as Swahili in eastern Africa, Lingala in the Congo River basin (see Bantu languages), Sango in the Central African Republic (see Adamawa-Ubangi languages), and Arabic across much of the Sahel.”
Excerpted/Adapted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
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