As a teacher, your class has just finished an intensive unit on tall tales, or perhaps an author’s study. You’ve read numerous examples of vivid, powerful writing, discussed these, pointed out the salient characteristics, listed the aspects of story that really brought them to life. All in all, an extremely rich, satisfying, language arts experience. So motivating, in fact, that you decide a terrific culminating activity would be to have students use what they learned as a jumping off point for creating stories of their own. Give the children an opportunity to apply the stuff of good writing to their own writing - using literature as the jumping off point.

Your students begin the writers’ workshop with a little less enthusiasm than you anticipated. Some students get off to a great start, but are “finishing” fifteen minutes later. They seem resistant to revision - after all, they’re “done”. Others spend an inordinate amount of time “thinking” about what to write about and cannot seem to put pencil to paper. Another student has visited the pencil sharpener about seventeen times, grinding the offending pencil into a stub. Meanwhile, some students, claiming to be involved in a “peer conference” are disrupting the class with chatter, another is “illustrating” while another is reading the latest Harry Potter book, looking for inspiration. Still other students launch into creative, but rambling tales that become near epics, from which a successful conclusion seems impossible. A number of students have their hands raised, or approach your desk, all wanting your attention and input at the same time. You have a knot in your stomach and are overwhelmed by the sense that things are spiraling out of control. Three weeks later you’ve managed to conduct individual conferences with only a handful of students, you’re needling, redirecting, challenging, and somehow it doesn’t seem as though much progress has been made. The luster has gone out of this project, that seemed so bright at the start. The students are bored, you’re frustrated, and most everyone in the class looks forward to being done with it.

Does this scenario sound familiar? What exactly is it that can bridge the gap between great literature and its application to student writing?

The answer is twofold — skills and a practical methodology that works in the real world of the classroom.

There is a common misconception that if we read a lot, talk about what we read, and then provide plenty of outlets for writing, that in the process, good writing will emerge. Truthfully, for the extremely well-read, self motivated, or innately gifted writer, there is some possibility of this. However, for most students and teachers, something is missing. Simply encouraging students to engage in “free-writing” followed by a conference is not enough to produce a community of strong, enthusiastic writers. What is missing are specific instructional strategies designed to teach the specific skills inherent in powerful writing!

During the whole language era, the idea of teaching discrete skills took on a negative connotation. Somehow, practicing specific writing skills seemed to suggest “basel-izing” the writing process. This was unfortunate, because, in all art forms - in music, theater, the visual arts, and in writing, powerful communication is delivered through carefully honed skills. For example, a talented pianist did not become proficient by simply sitting down and “just playing”. A skilled teacher will provide the young pianist with age appropriate, stimulating pieces of music, as well as scales, arpeggios, and exercises to strengthen the fingers and build dexterity. The student learns how to read notes, hear pitches, and learn musical expressiveness through carefully planned exercises and etudes. All of this “skill-work” does not hamper creativity, rather, it provides a vehicle for the successful expression of creative, personal musical thought, sentiment, and intention. In other words, the skills disappear in an invisible support and delivery system that informs and empowers the musician. The same thing is true in writing.

What are the skills necessary to inform and empower good writing? In narrative writing (writing characterized by a main character who experiences a significant event or problem, within a setting, who grows or changes in the process) the skills necessary to shape and support a story are as follows: - an entertaining beginning that draws the reader in and gets the story rolling - powerful elaborative detail that focuses on story critical characters, settings, and/or objects - a sense of suspense or anticipation which builds story tension, and inspires the reader to read on - a single, significant main event (problem, adventure, or life-changing experience)

- a conclusion which draws the main event to a close and an extended ending which demonstrates how the main character has grown or changed.

Once the basic skills are identified, educators need to have a practical, effective methodology for teaching these skills. The methodology needs to be based on solid educational theory and needs to be proven successful in the real world of the classroom. During an instructional improvement program at our school (Mill Hill School in Fairfield, CT) designed to improve student writing, we developed a methodology for the delivery of these key writing skills for our students in grades 2 - 5. The methodology involved whole class instruction, delivered minimally twice a week for 30 - 45 minutes. Whole class instruction provided consistency and assured experiences for all students, that was often lacking in the teach-on-demand scenario common in the writers’ workshop conference model. There are also many other benefits associated with whole class instruction. These include a greater level of directed conversation between students about writing, and opportunities for the class as a whole to benefit from the writerly conversations.

The whole class instruction looks like this:

1. INTRODUCE/DEFINE SKILL through the use of literature. (Middle grade novels provide the best examples of all of the key skills.)

* 2. MODELING - The teacher models the skill in isolation, asking productive questions and “thinking out loud” as an author. (The quality of the questions you ask will determine the quality of student responses. This also is the most powerful method of building vocabulary.)

3. GUIDED PRACTICE - Provide students with an opportunity to practice the skill you’ve modeled. This is a “before and after” revision exercise. Circulate and offer suggestions, share strong examples and excellent attempts.

Steps 1, 2, 3 are repeated numerous times before step 4: Application.

4. APPLICATION - Students apply the skill to a process piece or a timed prompt.

*Most important step!

This methodology made the teaching of writing more manageable, provided a common vocabulary for writing, ensured a greater level of objectivity and accountability, established a powerful reading writing connection, and ultimately nurtured a community of confident, enthusiastic writers. In fact, during the five years we spent developing the specific skill lessons and delivering these skills through the methodology described above, our narrative writing scores for our fourth graders on the Connecticut Mastery Test improved dramatically:

YEAR Percent of students at goal —– ————————— YEAR 1 47%

YEAR 2 65% YEAR 3 75% YEAR 4 81% YEAR 5 92%

These results were not limited to Mill Hill School. In Wilson’s Mills School in North Carolina, as well as in districts in Rhode Island and Alberta Province Canada, to name just a few, when this approach was used consistently, similar results were common. More importantly, students began to become confident, enthusiastic, lifelong writers, and teachers began to feel successful and fulfilled as the facilitators of a practical, effective instructional program that gets results. Eventually, the lessons and methodology became available through an educational consulting firm and publisher, Empowering Writers.

So now think back to the frustrated, disillusioned teacher and class first described and imagine how her scenario would be different using the Empowering Writers methodology.

Simply put a lamp is a device that generates light, heat or some sort of therapeutic radiation (like the laser ones). The word that derives its roots from Middle English lampe or Latin lampas is one everyday device that can gets taken for granted but can slice through any density of darkness with a flick of the switch.

The humble lamp started out as far back as the Stone Age, historians suggest. Back then it was just a hollow rock, probably filled with absorbent moss or something similar that could be soaked with animal fat. Since then it has seen several modifications and has been improved upon to give it its present form and now the term is used for all types of lighting devices used for illumination. Though it’s shape, fuel used, the wick…all have changed forms, the basic working principle is still the same.

This simple illumination device has been part and parcel of mankind’s collective history and was used in various forms across cultures in ancient times. Egyptians and the people of Central Asia used terracotta saucers, the Greek invented torches, the Romans improvised them with multiple spouts and the Hebrews used the seven-branched candlestick. Most religious ceremonies use a lighting device of some kind because light is a universal symbol of everything sacred. These devices were usually cumbersome but now, you just have to press an electrical switch and there you are!

We use them in our everyday life to illuminate a room, to set a particular mood, to showcase our prized possessions or even to burn the midnight oil. This humble light source is traded in flea markets, dime stores, branded retail houses and even the Internet. Some people collect them others use them to beautify their homes. Whatever the reason, there is always need to let there be light.

Richard Dornell for www.lamp-source.com

Most browsers use search engines and directories to search for information on the internet. And therefore search engines are an effective way of acquiring visitors to your website. But good rankings in search engines, you’ll need the help of a web content writing service to write key word rich quality web content. And one way to do this is to outsource your Web Content writing to India. But, if you want to make sure your visitors keep coming back for more, then you need good quality web content.

The first part of the this process is getting more visitors to your website through search engine promotion and other conventional marketing methods. And the better your website content, the higher your chances. For this you’ve to increase the visibility of your web site. A common technique that these web content writing companies in India, often, use to ensure good ranking in search engines is to write articles pertaining to your site’s topic. And keeping an archive of such articles on your website will help build your knowledge base. And anyone searching for information on the topics that you’ve written about in your web site will find your articles listed in their search engine results. And the chances are that they’ll probably buy something from you once they visit your web site.

And with increased visibility, more visitors will come to see at least to see what this hype is all about. The second part is the more difficult one: keeping the visitors interested and making them come back for more. For this to happen, you need to provide quality web information on your web site. And for this, the best option is to seek the help of offshore web content writing services that are easy to access. Quality website content will go a long way in increasing a web site’s search engine visibility. It’ll also improve the site’s conversion rate. Quality website content means happy visitors, which in turn means a web site recognized as an authority and with good ranking in the search engines.

Then, the key here is web content. So, for good quality web content, you’ll need the help of a good web content writing service in India. And the best way to decide if the web content writing service is any good is to take a look at some samples of the kind of work that they’ve done. One thing that you need to check to see is, if the content is relevant to your web site. The content should have an apparent pertinence, suitability and purpose, to the topic at hand. Another important thing to keep in mind with regard to web content writing is that the information provided in your web site should be reliable, and linked to reputable external resources.

Also, all the information that a visitor to your web site requires should be easily retrievable via the main body content, “site search” text entry box, site map, site index, or plainly and sensibly categorized archives.

If you want to earn an associates, bachelors, masters, doctorate degree, or certificate or even just improve your work skills, an online degree program may be for you. These programs are a prime option for those who cannot attend traditional classes for whatever reason. Maybe you have a substantial career and simply do not have the time, or maybe you are a working mother with childcare issues that prevent you from being able to do so. Those who are disabled, retired, or live in a rural area may find it difficult to commute for classes also can benefit from these programs. Degree programs online solve all of the problems of these people and many others who wish to take higher learning courses but cannot for one reason or another.

There are some personal characteristics that you will find will further your success in an online degree program. First, you must be committed to your goal of an online degree or certificate. Just because you are taking a course online does not mean it will be any easier than a traditional course. On the contrary, many online courses are more challenging than traditional courses.

Besides being committed, it will also help if you are a highly motivated person. There will be many times when you are alone and had rather just watch television, go to sleep, or go out instead of working on your courses. It is also difficult because you will not have any other students of professors to turn to in case of questions or for advice and feedback. An online degree program will make it necessary for you to motivate yourself and make yourself work even when you do not want to.

It will help your cause a great deal if you are organized and disciplined. When enrolled in an online program you will have to make yourself complete assignments and study for tests and exams, and therefore you will have to schedule your time accordingly. It will also help if you are able to teach yourself. You will be planning and scheduling much of the course load yourself.

The most important thing you will need to begin an online degree program is access to a computer that is able to meet certain requirements, whether it is at home, work, or elsewhere. It will help make things easier on you if you don’t mind sitting in front of a computer working, often times for a couple of hours a day.

While none of these (except Internet access) is required to begin an online degree program, they will certainly help you become more successful. If you are able to manage your time and make disciplined to work, study, and finish assignments, you will succeed at the program and have an online degree in no time.

For more information about an online degree, visit http://www.onlinedegreeanswers.com and http://www.onlinecollegedegreeanswers.com

School leavers in South Africa are forging their certificates in order to have a better chance of finding employment when they leave school. The statistics are not pretty. Only 25% of school leavers will find employment in the formal sector. This means that 75% of people leaving school will not find work! So what do they do? Well many of these unfortunate people end up having to, out of necessity, start their own businesses.

When one considers that my domestic worker who is 27 years old, unmarried and mother of two, has not been able to find any permanent work for 9 years. She has worked on a contract basis, on a seasonal demand basis, for a company that manufactures calendars. She has been employed for 3 months out of 12. The rest of the year she has no work. So the one day we are able to employ her a week, helps in a tiny way to alleviate her rather impossible situation.

In addition to this, the education system that existed when she wrote her final exams in 1998, had very little or no relevance to her challenges that would face her in later life after school. Since then, the Department of Education has tried to address the lack of relevance in education through introducing Outcomes Based Education and specifically courses such as Economics and Management Sciences (EMS). EMS is aimed at trying to equip learners with relevant skills they so desperately need in life after school. This assumes that firstly teachers have the time, training and inclination to effectively impart this knowledge onto their learners and secondly, that the EMS curriculum is relevant to the demands facing them when they enter ‘the real world’. It is a long road before this situation is rectified. Don’t believe me? Ask the minister of education Naledi Pandor. She will tell you that she could do with all the help she can get.

To create as many jobs as we need is not going to happen over night. It is going to take years for that to happen. So it’s not about school leavers finding a job! They need to create their own! They need a relevant education system that allows them to look after themselves as they leave the safe schoolyard walls and enter the harsh realities of life in the ‘real world’! There has to be a better way, a different way a way that works!

We have to find a better way. The Status Quo is just not working! For those who are interested in helping us turn the old order upside down, shake it all around and come up with a relevant approach, a novel approach an innovative approach that works, one where we somehow can find a ‘different way’, then please visit my website on http://www.ka-chi ngworld.com/programmes/ and let me know how together we can do this.

“Health is above wealth”, says the saying. Really, what is more valuable than the condition of your body when all the systems function well? It must be our first concern and we have to treat out bodies properly. But today we seem to forget what is the most important. We ignore all the signals of our body until the pain is unbearable.

Then you put away your visit to the supermarket, your work on custom research papers, and your plans for the day and get the rest of our strength together to go and consult a doctor. People don’t feel positively about any hospital. The direct association is with pain and illnesses. No matter how friendly staff is, no matter how well the interior is designed, you will not see a lot of smiling faces around. So, you are on your way to the hospital with pains but entering the building you wonder what doctor you need to consult. If you are not familiar with fields of practice of different specialists visit a pediatrician first. He will advice you where to go next. Still feeling bad not only because of the pain but also because of being in the hospital, you go to see the right specialist. And here you meet with another typical trait at public hospital, extremely long lines. You see at least a dozen people waiting in front of you and think about a custom research paper left at home. You could finish it by the time you get to see the specialist. But you came for purpose and will wait till needed. After an hour and a half of waiting you finally get to consult a specialist, who makes you go through seven circles of hell. You had to do various not quite understandable movements that made you exhausted. Angry on yourself, the doctor and the whole system you run out of the lab with a sheet of paper. This is medication required along with a dozen of so called “useful advice”. Regretting about the whole thing you buy expensive medication and go home, hoping for the pain to disappear under attack of different remedies. After a week you have to go back and show up for the doctor to see the result. Here is one more unpleasant visit and another strain. Finally, you go out of the hospital with assurance that you are fine.

You are cured but what is the price? Numerous strains and worries still sit in your head and you keep thinking that there is still something radically wrong with you. During your life you are to visit a hospital quite a few times. How to lower the frequency? Try to keep fit and there will be no problem. Why do we become concerned only after there is no other way but to go to the hospital? When you hear or feel the first signal that there is something wrong, try to delete the cause immediately and start working on improvement. You don’t necessarily need to stay on medication to be healthy. There are a lot of other ways to avoid an unpleasant visit. If you seek, you’ll find a way, but the first step is to love your body and treat it the right way to prevent trouble from happening. If you don’t agree with proposed advice you can decide what the lesser evil is: To follow it or to prepare for the better world.

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Graduation Diploma Certificates are the ones that we will have for our lifetime with us. They are the ones, which are proof of our achievement. It is not easy to get a certificate for graduation, there is many years hard work put into it. The college diploma courses are the ones in which we often enroll ourselves in. The graduation diploma courses that we get into contain a lot of aspects to be noted and be wary of, before we can get onto the stage of getting the certificate. It is a remarkable achievement in any one’s life.

Graduation Diploma Certificates

The graduation certificates more often contain the information about the courses we were in and the grade we have obtained, and are a picture of our quality. The college diploma holders often get the memory of their own college days with the photograph of their graduation ceremony. The graduation certificates are not the only ones that we want to be associated with. There are many graduation packages available for you out there and these can make your day much more happier one. The graduation diplomas that you get have their real meaning only on the day when you move around with a graduation diploma certificate and exciting package attire to add-on to you.

The Turning point of Life

The diploma is a course, which is more like a turning point to our life. That is the period of our life when we come across the various kinds of people around and we come to know the best and worst of life during this period. Therefore, we like to have long lasting memories in tact for our lifetime. The diploma courses have their best charm on the day of conferring the certificates and this day is when you should feel elated and greatly happy.

Memories to Cherish

All the things that we remember of, after a certain period of time are necessarily the best and happy moments we heartily enjoyed. To make the certification day and the certificates lovely memoirs of yours, the one thing you have to do is to have happy joyous moments associated with it, the graduation packages help you to do so. The colleges and institutes do not lose their hold on you until you have yours certificates. The graduation diploma certificates thus are not only the indicators of achievement but also the memoirs of happiness and the joyous moments where one has felt he was great in his achievement.

So, its simple! Go through our catalogue and choose your favorite one. It is just a click away!