Search

The GALAXY Classroom is a package of integrated curricular and instructional approaches, supported by the first U.S. interactive satellite communications network designed to facilitate the introduction of innovative curricula to improve student learning in elementary schools. GALAXY Classroom Science for grades 3-5 features the organization of instruction around themes presented through television broadcasts and classroom hands-on activities that are facilitated by fax technology and ongoing teacher support. The broadcasts are built around a video adventure series that dramatizes the GALAXY themes through the real-world adventures of a multicultural group of students, the S.N.O.O.P.S. The report describes the effects on students and teachers of the various curricular, technological, and staff development components of the program in schools throughout the United States. It was concluded that the GALAXY Science program was successful in getting students and teachers excited about science and motivating them to begin exploring and asking questions. GALAXY's broadcasts motivated student interest and provided a realistic context for the hands-on science activities. The thematic structure of the curriculum helped to integrate a wide variety of experiences: participating in hands-on inquiry, writing and communicating through the fax, and doing take-home activities. (JRH)

The GALAXY Language Arts Demonstration Program is a package of integrated curricular and instructional approaches that features the organization of instruction around themes presented through television broadcasts, children's literature, classroom activities, and the use of interactive technology. During the GALAXY Project demonstration phase for language arts in grades 3 through 5, classrooms in 37 schools were connected by an interactive satellite communications network. Seven successive themes were used, including such issues as fairness, personal privacy, and first impressions. Television broadcasts dramatized the GALAXY themes through a continuing show about the lives of a multicultural group of students. Specifically, GALAXY classrooms utilized a core of six literature books for each of the seven themes, a take-home magazine ("The Second Story"), a periodic response bulletin ("The Max"), a teacher's guide with suggestions on reading and writing strategies, and a wide choice of classroom activities for before, between, and after the two broadcasts for each theme. Measures of student learning were administered in all GALAXY classrooms and in two kinds of comparison classrooms, classrooms which were not using the program in GALAXY schools and others in demographically similar schools where GALAXY was not being implemented. Additionally repeated observations and interviews were carried out in five case study schools throughout the United States. Testing 2,826 students in GALAXY and comparison classrooms showed that GALAXY students outperformed others in reading and vocabulary growth, but GALAXY students did not outperform the others in writing achievement. Eleven appendixes provide technical information about the study, sample performance assessments, scoring guides, and results from a teacher survey. (Contains 8 figures, 37 tables, and 19 additional tables in the appendixes.) (SLD)

An overview of the salient issues in adult English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) literacy is presented as reported in the literature on adult education and applied linguistics. Emphasis is on programs that have implemented promising practices and effective approaches to help ESL students develop their literacy skills. Characteristics of effective adult ESL literacy programs are first outlined, and then several major themes are discussed, including: theoretical bases for different views of curriculum; varying approaches to literacy development in a second language; and assessment issues such as providing meaningful evidence of student progress both to funding sources and to students and teachers. The issue of teaching native language literacy to support the learning of English is also discussed, with emphasis on biliteracy and Spanish language literacy. Several promising practices are outlined, including using the language experience approach with ESL literacy students, and developing techniques for dealing with the multi-level classroom composed of literacy students with varied exposure to print. Lists of teacher resources are provided that include textbooks, ESL literacy guides and manuals, and other resources such as authentic materials. Contains approximately 300 references. (LB) (Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse on Literacy Education)