Presents a description of a 15-day European tour accompanied by a diverse group of colleagues and led by a geography professor with expertise in the culture, language, and sites of Germany, as well as its surrounding areas. Shares the author's thoughts and experiences regarding learning abroad. (SC)

Explores procedures for improving the teaching of reading through the use of a direct instruction staff development model based on research that includes the application of five principles of effective staff development. Includes theory presentation, demonstration, guided practice, classroom practice, feedback, and coaching. (PRA)

Clarifies the efficacy of targeting the area of vocabulary as a means of increasing reading level. Concludes that the acquisition of new vocabulary words is related to reading proficiency. Offers five guidelines for teachers regarding direct vocabulary instruction. (SR)

Discusses one approach a department of elementary education has taken to prepare faculty regarding the incorporation of technology use for preservice preparation. Presents individual application of technology use in three different methods courses as well as the staff development program used to prepare faculty members. (RS)

Offers guidelines for effectively organizing materials in in-service reading programs. (RL)

Presents a technique designed to help most readers' vocabulary grow with their every day reading. (JM)

Describes how the College of Education at the University of Kentucky is implementing Internet communications training for pre-service teachers and for teacher professional development programs. (RS)

States that the acquisition of writing skills and vocabulary building are especially important for minority students. Describes how the systematic study of prefixes, suffixes, and word roots; the generation of student-originated vocabulary lists; and special testing techniques were used for improving writing skills and building vocabulary in a…

Describes an advanced reading course at Mississippi State University that is designed to increase vocabulary, comprehension, and reading rate. Notes that unteaching reading habits necessary to beginner's instruction is a large part of increasing students' effective reading rate. Presents student performance statistics. (RS)

Finds that fourth graders were more likely than fifth and sixth graders to understand story characters in terms of immediate situation rather than overall story context and in terms of individual perspectives rather than social relationships. Finds that adults differ from fifth and sixth graders in the same way. (SR)

Describes the evolution, development, and characteristics of a developmental reading program at a private four-year college. Discusses student placement, class structuring, tutoring, and program rationale. (FL)

Argues in favor of simultaneously studying the contributions from Blacks and Whites so that students can gain a perspective of the common bond existing between diverse cultures. Provides examples of such an approach in the study of four chronological periods of American literature. (RL)

Points out that reading professionals are often encouraged and expected to write for publication and proposes a graduate level course that would improve the writing skills of such people. (FL)

Identifies 10 areas representing significant coverage in 459 articles published in three major reading education journals between June 1976 and June 1978: material description, comprehension, program designs, testing/evaluation, teacher variables, affective domain, content area reading, phonics, readability, and bilingual concerns. (FL)

Finds that college freshmen's opinions on vocabulary acquisition agree with the results of recent research, which states that free reading is the most efficient and effective means of acquiring vocabulary in a first language. Results contrast with a study of university foreign language students, most of whom did not value reading as a means of…