Third Grade Classrooms and Foldables Essay Example for Free

Third Grade Classrooms and Foldables Essay Good educators, especially in the lower levels of education, are always looking for effective ways to improve students’ learning and interest in subjects that may not be as appealing. Any activity that promotes reading and encourages critical thinking is especially valued by teachers (Angus, 1993). One of the key developments promoted by Zike is the use of Foldables in the classroom (2007). These are three-dimensional hands-on manipulative/graphic organizers. Foldables can quickly organize, display and arrange data making it easier for students to grasp concepts, theories, processes, facts, and ideas, or to sequence events as outlined in the content standards. They can result in student-made study guides that are compiled as students listen for main ideas, read for main ideas, or conduct research (Zike, 2007). This study examined the use of Foldables to promote the reading and retention of social studies information with third grade students and to enhance their attitude toward social studies (Zike, 2007). It was hypothesized that Foldables do have a positive influence on learning in the classroom, more so than using the standard lecture/worksheet technique. Specifically, comparisons on cognitive and affective assessment measures were made between those taught using Foldables and those taught using lecture with worksheets. The Experiments This study took place in an elementary school in a rural community in East Tennessee. Manufacturing and retail are the major area employers and residents are in the low to middle income level. One out of 11 elementary schools in the county was selected for this study, based on convenience (Casteel, 2006). The K-5 school where the study took place had 625 students enrolled, with over 95% being white students. Of those 625 students, 63% receiving free or reduced lunch, which gives an idea about the income status of the family (Casteel, 2006). Out of five third grade classrooms, three were randomly selected to participate in the study. The first classroom was referred to Classroom A, while the second one was referred to as Classroom B. According to Casteel’s findings, students from the third classroom were randomly divided in half with half the students joining Classroom A and half joining Classroom B for this study (2006). The resulting gender distribution for Classroom A was 15 male and 14 female, while for Classroom B it was 16 male and 11 female. A control group experimental design was used in this study. In the first two week period of instruction on history timelines, Classroom A (n=29) served as the control group while Classroom B (n=27) served as the treatment group (independent variable). In the second two week period of instruction on maps, Classroom B became the control group while Classroom A served as the treatment group. The treatment groups were taught the subject through the use of Foldables, while the control groups were taught the subject using lecture with worksheets (Casteel, 2006). At the beginning of the unit, a pretest (dependent variable) toward social studies was administered to each student, along with a cognitive measure of knowledge on history timelines. At the end of the unit, the measure toward social studies was again given, along with the knowledge on history timelines (Casteel, 2006). These were the posttest measures. The treatment and control groups were then switched and another measure of knowledge on maps was given as a pretest to each group. The posttest measure from the first instructional time period served as the pretest for the second instructional time period. At the end of the second instructional unit on maps, the measure of social studies was again administered along with the measure of knowledge on maps (Casteel, 2006). Results and Conclusions Initially the pretest scores of the two groups were compared to ensure that they had equivalent attitudes toward social studies, which they were. The changes in scores from pretest to posttest for each group (Lecture/Worksheet and Foldables) were then compared using a paired samples t-test. Casteel researched that the Lecture/Worksheet group had a . 69 point mean gain from pretest to posttest, which was not statistically significant, while the Foldables group had a 2. 67 point mean gain from pretest to posttest, which was statistically significant (2006). This study was designed to compare the effectiveness of two teaching methods (Lecture/Worksheet and Foldables). The Lecture/Worksheet and Foldables groups had equivalent pretest scores, meaning they were equivalent in attitudes toward social studies at the beginning of the units. Only those taught with Foldables had a significant increase from pretest to posttest on affective scores (Casteel, 2006). The experimental data indicated that Foldables are a promising alternative to the traditional method of Lecture/Worksheet. Using Foldables significantly improved students attitudes toward the material (Zike, 2007). Additionally, teachers who participated in the study commented about the improvement in attitudes when using the Foldables. Furthermore, several teachers indicated that students were applying the Foldables across the curriculum, for example, using them to learn fractions as a part of a math unit. One teacher commented that when using Foldables there were fewer discipline problems since the students remained more engaged with the material (Zike, 2007). This preliminary research indicated that an improvement in attitude is possible through the use of the Foldable technique.

Buffalo Wild Wings :: essays research papers

In order for us to obtain our goal of increasing the profit by 3% in a 12 month period we needed to come up with who, what, how, and why we are going to get this goal accomplished. There are four different major categories of people that we are going to try and target. The first are the local sports families. The second are the typical sports fanatic. The third are the College Students. And the fourth are the traffic goers on route 24.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Our slogan at the time is â€Å"ALL THE ESSENTIALS†. But in order for us to reach different types of target market we need to add maybe another phrase after our slogan. For instance tagging on the phrase â€Å"Food, Fun, Beverages and your favorite sports† for the sports families and college students. But for the older group of sports fanatics and people who are looking for a cold one with the boys or with the gals, tagging on the phrase â€Å"Wings, Beer, and your favorite sports†. We will use these different phrases with the places that we are going to advertise to these specific targets, which we will get to next.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first type of media we are going to use is event sponsorship to reach to sports fanatics and older men and women. Year around there are bowling leagues and softball leagues and soccer leagues that need to have team sponsors in order to pay for their equipment. This would be a perfect way to get our logo on a jersey and to promote coming to hang out after the game. I know that if I was sponsored by Buffalo Wild Wings that me and the boys would head to our sponsors place after the game. My personal favorite that we are going to do is our support media outdoor signage on route 24 targeting the flowing traffic coming from Fort Wayne, IN and Toledo, OH. There are going to be ten signs involved, five coming from either direction. One sign will be placed at the 69-24 loop and the other placed at the 75-24 loop just stating the Buffalo Wild Wings logo and promotion for Defiance, OH. Then when you are a mile out from each direction another promotion sign saying Buffalo Wild Wings next exit and another line saying â€Å"Count With Us!†. Then three more signs with the numbers 3, 2, and 1.

The Dead and the Living

The importance of knowledge and truth is sometimes not fully comprehended until it no longer exists in the lives of many people. Authors often use realistic ideas to prove a point to their readers. These ideas can come from a simple figure of speech, such as a paradox. The paradox of being both dead and alive is seen in the lives of both people and machines throughout the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Mildred, the emotionless wife of main character Montag, displays the qualities of being both dead and alive. From the very beginning of the story, Mildred showed no signs of life within her.When we are first introduced to her, she is laying motionless in a dark room, having overdosed on sleeping tablets. Bradbury describes Mildred’s face as being â€Å"a snow-covered island upon which rain might fall, but it felt no rain; over which clouds might pass their moving shadows, but she felt no shadow† (13). Even with Mildred’s faint breathing, the room was still à ¢â‚¬Å"empty†. Like a corpse, Mildred shares no emotion for those around her. When Montag is sick, Mildred doubts him and refuses to believe he needs her help. Further on in the book, Mrs. Phelps, Mildred’s friend, begins to sob after Montag reads aloud a poem.In response to her friend’s sudden outburst, Mildred cries â€Å"You’re all right, Clara, now, Clara, snap out of it! Clara, what’s wrong? † (100). These instances allow the reader to see the full effect that society has had on Mildred and how technology has numbed her ability to have real human interactions. As Montag himself begins to change, he realizes just how braindead his wife really is. While talking with Faber, he exclaims, â€Å"No†¦ My wife’s dying† (81). Montag already knows that Mildred is mentally dead, but finally he accepts that after years of overdosing and staying home, his wife’s physical body is also shutting down.The effects that society has had on Mildred are evident throughout the book as she is described as being both dead and alive. The life-like machines that have replaced humans in Montag’s society are described by Bradbury as being both dead and alive. Throughout the novel, the machines that dominate Montag’s world represent the majority of the half-dead, half-living people that he comes in contact with. The very first machine that is seen is the â€Å"Snake† that is used to clean the poisons that Mildred has put in her body. The snake â€Å"fed in silence with an occasional sound of inner suffocation and blind searching.It had an Eye† (14). Though it is a machine, this snake is described as having human-like qualities such as an â€Å"eye† and performing human-like tasks such as â€Å"drinking up† the green matter that was inside of Mildred. The hound that lives in the firehouse is another major example of a machine possessing humanoid qualities. This hound â€Å"slept but did not sleep, lived but did not live† (24). The Mechanical Hound possesses the power to paralyze, wound, and even kill its victims with the release of poison from a needle inside his nose.By having an incredible ability unlike any other living animal, the hound represents the human-like attributes of the machines in this society. The tv parlor that takes up so much of Mildred’s life also serves as a symbol of something being both dead and alive in this novel. Mildred refers to the people on the tv programs that she watches as her â€Å"family† and even has a speaking part in the episodes. Like the other machines, these characters are only on a screen, but they are such a large part of so many people’s lives that they almost seem alive.Like the people in Montag’s society that are â€Å"empty†, the machines also possess the qualities of being half-living, half-dead. Clarisse, a minor character in the story, represents the alive and alert qualities that are lacking from the society. Clarisse represents what the people in Montag’s world have lost over the course of many years. Unlike the other teenagers around her, she finds enjoyment in doing things the rest of society would find abnormal such as sitting on the porch and talking with her family and going on hikes. Even Clarisse’s appearance is more alive than most of the â€Å"dead† people around her.When Montag first meets the seventeen year old, he describes her face as being like â€Å"the strangely comfortable and rare and gently flattering light of the candle† (7). Montag was initially intrigued by Clarisse because of her innocence and curiosity which is lacking from everyone else in his life. Though she dies early on in the novel, Clarisse is more alive after her death than most of the people in the society that are â€Å"living†. Clarisse is the catalyst of change in Montag’s life because she possesses the liveliness a nd compassion that the rest of the world is missing.The comparison of being dead and alive is exemplified in the characters and human-life machines that live in the society described in Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury uses the paradox of being both dead and alive to highlight the lack of knowledge and understanding in Montag’s world. Except for a select few, the people that Montag comes in contact with have lost their ability to think and communicate because they have depended upon technology to entertain them. Though we have not reached the extremities that are present in Bradbury’s society, the effects of this technology dependence is already present in the world we live in today.

Margaret Knight - Queen of Paper Bags

Margaret Knight was an employee in a paper bag factory when she invented a new machine part that would automatically fold and glue paper bags to create square bottoms for paper bags. Paper bags had been more like envelopes before. Workmen reportedly refused her advice when first installing the equipment because they mistakenly thought, what does a woman know about machines? Knight can be considered the mother of the grocery bag, she founded the Eastern Paper Bag Company in 1870.   Earlier Years Margaret Knight was born in York, Maine, in 1838 to James Knight and Hannah Teal. She received her first patent at the age of 30, but inventing was always part of her life. Margaret or ‘Mattie’ as she was called in her childhood, made sleds and kites for her brothers while growing up in Maine.  James Knight died when Margaret was a little girl. Knight went to school until she was 12, and began working in a cotton mill. During that first year, she observed an accident at a textile mill. She  had an idea for a stop-motion device that could be used in textile mills to shut down machinery, preventing workers from being injured.  By the time she was a teenager the invention was being used in the mills. After the Civil war, Knight began working in a Massachusetts paper bag plant. While working in the plant, she thought how much easier it would be to pack items in paper bags if the bottoms were flat. That idea inspired Knight to create the machine that would transform her into a famous woman inventor. Knights machine automatically folded and glued paper-bag bottoms – creating the flat-bottom paper bags that are still used to this very day in most grocery stores. Court Battle A man named Charles Annan tried to steal Knights idea and receive credit for the patent. Knight did not give in and instead took Annan to court. While Annan argued simply that a woman could never design such an innovative machine, Knight displayed actual evidence that the invention indeed belonged to her. As a result, Margaret Knight received her patent in 1871. Other Patents Knight is considered one of the female Edison, and received some 26 patents for such diverse items as a window frame and sash, machinery for cutting shoe soles, and improvements to internal combustion engines.   A few of Knights other inventions: Dress and skirt shield - 1883Clasp for robes - 1884Spit - 1885Numbering machine - 1894Window frame and sash - 1894Rotary engine - 1902 Knights original bag-making machine is in the  Smithsonian Museum  in  Washington,  D.C. She never married and died on October 12,  1914,  at the age of 76. Knight was inducted in the  National Inventors Hall of Fame  in 2006.