The stamped markings
Where the stampings are
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Globe summary
So, to sum up, there are three types of Ford offered Globes.
The 72 Globe, small centre hole, small screw on cap, and flat rim.
The 73-76 Option 54 and XC Cobra Globe, large centre hole, large screw on cap, flat rim.
The 82 XD ESP Globe, large centre hole, push through cap, lipped rim.
The 72 Globe, small centre hole, small screw on cap, and flat rim.
The 73-76 Option 54 and XC Cobra Globe, large centre hole, large screw on cap, flat rim.
The 82 XD ESP Globe, large centre hole, push through cap, lipped rim.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Art
"Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures." -- Henry Ward Beecher
Bad news
Mr. Johnson walked anxiously to the house and knocked. When a nice old lady answered, he said very sad, “I’m sorry, madam, but I have some bad news. “I’m afraid I have run over your cat. I… I would like to replace it.”
The little lady looked him up and down and said, “I’m game, but how are you at catching mice?”
The little lady looked him up and down and said, “I’m game, but how are you at catching mice?”
Thursday, August 09, 2007
New Charter for Australian Primary Schools
By The Hon Julie Bishop
The Minister for Education, Science and Training, the Hon Julie Bishop MP, today announced Australian Government support to create a new charter to redefine the role of primary schools in the community. The Australian Primary Principals Association will receive $60,000 for a national forum to develop a draft charter.
Minister Bishop said the new charter is important as it will provide a framework to ensure primary school students receive a high quality education.
“Schools have been asked to provide a huge range of services that go far beyond what was traditionally the role of schools, and this has the potential to have a negative impact on their ability to teach students and allow them to develop the fundamental skills in areas such as reading, writing and mathematics,” she said.
“The charter will help to define the role of primary school education and to allow schools to focus on the vital task of educating young people.
“I welcome this initiative from the Australian Primary Principals Association and look forward to working with them in the completion of their works.”
“The Australian Government wants a greater focus on higher standards for every Australian student and greater national consistency and quality across the education sector,” Minister Bishop said.
The Minister for Education, Science and Training, the Hon Julie Bishop MP, today announced Australian Government support to create a new charter to redefine the role of primary schools in the community. The Australian Primary Principals Association will receive $60,000 for a national forum to develop a draft charter.
Minister Bishop said the new charter is important as it will provide a framework to ensure primary school students receive a high quality education.
“Schools have been asked to provide a huge range of services that go far beyond what was traditionally the role of schools, and this has the potential to have a negative impact on their ability to teach students and allow them to develop the fundamental skills in areas such as reading, writing and mathematics,” she said.
“The charter will help to define the role of primary school education and to allow schools to focus on the vital task of educating young people.
“I welcome this initiative from the Australian Primary Principals Association and look forward to working with them in the completion of their works.”
“The Australian Government wants a greater focus on higher standards for every Australian student and greater national consistency and quality across the education sector,” Minister Bishop said.
Take a guess
A young and foolish pilot wanted to sound cool on the aviation frequencies. So, this was his first time approaching a field during the nighttime. Instead of making any official requests to the tower, he said: "Guess who?"
The controller switched the field lights off and replied: "Guess where?"
The controller switched the field lights off and replied: "Guess where?"
XW GT Wheels
XW GT’s from 1969 to approximately 2/70 had Kelsey Hayes (Canada) riveted, 6 inch wide, 12 slot wheels of 14 inches diameter. From 2/70 onwards, XW GT’s had riveted, 6 inch wide, 5 slot Kelsey Hayes (Canada) wheels of 14 inches diameter. Hubcaps for both wheels were plain, flat dishes. The Canadian riveted wheels have a reputation for having pressing splits where the hub sticks through the rim.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Some different aspects of self-awareness
- Know yourself - Explore who you are: your defences, your blocks, your talents, your aspirations, etc.
- Accept yourself - We are at war with ourselves when we resist or deny certain aspects of who we are. Acknowledge the truth of who you are right now - the positives and the negatives. Only when we own our present reality can we change.
- Control yourself - Set clear, conscious intentions and discipline yourself to meet them.
- Express yourself - Go to your heart to identify what has meaning and purpose for you. Live your truth. Identify ways you can give back to life and be in service.
We work on each of these aspects all the time. But as our lives go through cycles, we predominantly work on one of them more than the others. Which aspect are you more conscious of lately?
"Our lives improve only when we take chances ... and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves." -- Walter Anderson
- Accept yourself - We are at war with ourselves when we resist or deny certain aspects of who we are. Acknowledge the truth of who you are right now - the positives and the negatives. Only when we own our present reality can we change.
- Control yourself - Set clear, conscious intentions and discipline yourself to meet them.
- Express yourself - Go to your heart to identify what has meaning and purpose for you. Live your truth. Identify ways you can give back to life and be in service.
We work on each of these aspects all the time. But as our lives go through cycles, we predominantly work on one of them more than the others. Which aspect are you more conscious of lately?
"Our lives improve only when we take chances ... and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves." -- Walter Anderson
Wild animals
Did you hear about the two explorers, Bob and John who were going through the jungle when a ferocious lion jumped out in front of them?
Bob whispered to John to keep calm. Bob asked John if he remembered what they had read in the book on wild animals. “If you stand absolutely still and look the lion straight in the eye, he will turn tails and run away,” said Bob. John said, “Fine. You’ve read the book, I’ve read the book, but has the lion read the book?”
Bob whispered to John to keep calm. Bob asked John if he remembered what they had read in the book on wild animals. “If you stand absolutely still and look the lion straight in the eye, he will turn tails and run away,” said Bob. John said, “Fine. You’ve read the book, I’ve read the book, but has the lion read the book?”
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Steven Wright
Steven Wright, a famously erudite scientist and comic, once said: "I woke up one morning and all of my stuff had been stolen and replaced by exact duplicates."
Here are some of his other gems:
1 – I would kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.
2 - Borrow money from pessimists -- they seldom expect it back.
3 - Half the people you know are below average.
4 - 99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
5 - 82.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
6 - A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.
7 - A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
8 - If you want the rainbow, you have to put up with the rain.
9 - All those who believe in psycho-kinesis, raise my hand.
10 - The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
11 - I almost had a psychic girlfriend, but she left me before we met.
12 - OK, so what is the speed of dark?
13 - How do you tell when you are out of invisible ink?
14 - If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
15 - Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.
16 - When everything is coming your way, you are in the wrong lane.
17 - Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.
18 - Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pays off now.
19 - I intend to live forever. So far, so good.
20 - If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?
21 - Eagles may soar, but weasels never get sucked into jet engines.
22 - What happens if you get scared half to death twice?
23 - My mechanic told me: "I could not repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder."
24 - Why do psychics have to ask you for your name?
25 - If at first you do not succeed, destroy all evidence of having tried
26 - A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.
27 - The hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the bread.
28 - To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.
29 - The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.
30 - The sooner you fall behind, the more time you will have to catch up.
31 - The colder the x-ray table, the more of your body is required to be on it.
32 - Everyone has a photographic memory; some just do not have the film.
33 - If your car could travel at the speed of light, would your headlights work?
Here are some of his other gems:
1 – I would kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.
2 - Borrow money from pessimists -- they seldom expect it back.
3 - Half the people you know are below average.
4 - 99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
5 - 82.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
6 - A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.
7 - A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
8 - If you want the rainbow, you have to put up with the rain.
9 - All those who believe in psycho-kinesis, raise my hand.
10 - The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
11 - I almost had a psychic girlfriend, but she left me before we met.
12 - OK, so what is the speed of dark?
13 - How do you tell when you are out of invisible ink?
14 - If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
15 - Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.
16 - When everything is coming your way, you are in the wrong lane.
17 - Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.
18 - Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pays off now.
19 - I intend to live forever. So far, so good.
20 - If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?
21 - Eagles may soar, but weasels never get sucked into jet engines.
22 - What happens if you get scared half to death twice?
23 - My mechanic told me: "I could not repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder."
24 - Why do psychics have to ask you for your name?
25 - If at first you do not succeed, destroy all evidence of having tried
26 - A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.
27 - The hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the bread.
28 - To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.
29 - The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.
30 - The sooner you fall behind, the more time you will have to catch up.
31 - The colder the x-ray table, the more of your body is required to be on it.
32 - Everyone has a photographic memory; some just do not have the film.
33 - If your car could travel at the speed of light, would your headlights work?
Monday, August 06, 2007
Emotions
Don't let emotions push you into action or reaction. Just STOP and PAY ATTENTION. Allow them to be and to speak to you. Once they are acknowledged, their energy is released.
"Instead of resisting any emotion, the best way to dispel it is to enter it fully, embrace it and see through your resistance." -- Deepak Chopra
"We have to become more conscious of our feeling-world. By learning to identify the ‘emotional baggage’ and manage our feeling-world reactions, we can view life based on current information instead of being held captive by our past." -- Doc Childre
"Our feelings are our most genuine paths to knowledge." -- Audre Lorde
"Instead of resisting any emotion, the best way to dispel it is to enter it fully, embrace it and see through your resistance." -- Deepak Chopra
"We have to become more conscious of our feeling-world. By learning to identify the ‘emotional baggage’ and manage our feeling-world reactions, we can view life based on current information instead of being held captive by our past." -- Doc Childre
"Our feelings are our most genuine paths to knowledge." -- Audre Lorde
Black magic
This old man was feared by all his neighbors because they believe he practiced black magic and was responsible for missing cats and dogs and strange sounds at all hours. Every time he had a confrontation with his wife, screams and yelling could be heard deep into the night along with the same statement. “When I die I will dig my way up and out of the grave to come back and haunt you for the rest of your life!” Well he died abruptly under strange circumstances and the funeral had a closed casket. After the burial, the wife went straight to the local bar and began to party as if there was no tomorrow. The cheerfulness of her actions was becoming extreme while her neighbors approached in a group to ask these questions: are you not afraid? Worried? Concerned? That this man who practiced black magic and stated when he died he would dig his way up and out of the grave to come back and haunt you for the rest of your life? The wife put down her drink and said, “Let the jerk dig. I had him buried upside down.”
XT GT Wheels
XT GT’s had a 6 inch rim made by R.O.K. (Australia), and ROK is stamped on one of the three hubcap lugs. There is an additional smaller hole between two of the wheel nut holes. XT GT’s also had the same hubcap as the XR GT but had different length wheel nuts to compensate for the 1/2 inch wider rim. These hubcaps and wheel nuts were also used on the later XW and XY GS range. Wheel diameter was 14 inches.
XT Front
XT Front
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Bright ideas for this week
Preferred Activity Time (PAT)
"The underlying premise to PAT is this: If the children give me time to teach, then I have time to give them to play an educational game -- and I am still teaching. I use PAT as a reward for the time the class earns for positive behaviour, minus the negative behaviour. They earn minutes/seconds for positive, appropriate behaviour, and they lose minutes/seconds for negative, inappropriate behaviour. These are minutes earned for the entire class. Some examples your teachers might like to try include:
Adjective Charades
Hand out to each student a slip of paper that contains an adjective-noun phrase, such as raging river, hungry boy, or glowing fire. The student must act out the phrase for the class to guess. The child who is the first to guess correctly gets to act out the next phrase or, if that child has had a turn, choose a person to act it out.
Buzz
Students sit in a circle and take turns counting in sequence from 1 to 100. Every time a number has a seven in it or a multiple of seven, the student says "Buzz." For example: "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Buzz, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, Buzz, 15, 16, Buzz, 18, 19, 20, Buzz, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, Buzz, Buzz ..." If a student misses, the class starts over. This time, a different student starts the game. The class wins when the students finally reach 100. This game can be played with different numbers.
Charades
Hand out to each student five slips of paper on which to write the name of a famous person, a book title, a cartoon character, a song, or a sports figure -- one per slip. Divide the class into two teams. One person acts out what is on a paper for his or her team mates to guess. If they guess the correct answer in the time allotted, the group gets a point.
Endless Chain
Divide the class into teams; each team starts with 10 points. Choose a category, such as "cities," and have the first team give a word within that category. The next team notes the last letter of the word given and gives a word that fits the category and begins with that letter. Teams take turns until a team cannot continue the chain. (Within a chain, no word can be repeated.) A team that cannot continue the chain loses a point. Choose a new category, and the teams begin a new chain.
PAT = FUN + LEARNING
"The underlying premise to PAT is this: If the children give me time to teach, then I have time to give them to play an educational game -- and I am still teaching. I use PAT as a reward for the time the class earns for positive behaviour, minus the negative behaviour. They earn minutes/seconds for positive, appropriate behaviour, and they lose minutes/seconds for negative, inappropriate behaviour. These are minutes earned for the entire class. Some examples your teachers might like to try include:
Adjective Charades
Hand out to each student a slip of paper that contains an adjective-noun phrase, such as raging river, hungry boy, or glowing fire. The student must act out the phrase for the class to guess. The child who is the first to guess correctly gets to act out the next phrase or, if that child has had a turn, choose a person to act it out.
Buzz
Students sit in a circle and take turns counting in sequence from 1 to 100. Every time a number has a seven in it or a multiple of seven, the student says "Buzz." For example: "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Buzz, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, Buzz, 15, 16, Buzz, 18, 19, 20, Buzz, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, Buzz, Buzz ..." If a student misses, the class starts over. This time, a different student starts the game. The class wins when the students finally reach 100. This game can be played with different numbers.
Charades
Hand out to each student five slips of paper on which to write the name of a famous person, a book title, a cartoon character, a song, or a sports figure -- one per slip. Divide the class into two teams. One person acts out what is on a paper for his or her team mates to guess. If they guess the correct answer in the time allotted, the group gets a point.
Endless Chain
Divide the class into teams; each team starts with 10 points. Choose a category, such as "cities," and have the first team give a word within that category. The next team notes the last letter of the word given and gives a word that fits the category and begins with that letter. Teams take turns until a team cannot continue the chain. (Within a chain, no word can be repeated.) A team that cannot continue the chain loses a point. Choose a new category, and the teams begin a new chain.
PAT = FUN + LEARNING
Mind your language
Student: I would love for you to teach me a foreign language.
Teacher: Certainly. French, German, Russian, Italian, Spanish?
Student: Oh, which is the most foreign?
Teacher: Certainly. French, German, Russian, Italian, Spanish?
Student: Oh, which is the most foreign?
Saturday, August 04, 2007
Meeting the Demand for Global Leaders
Global Leaders: The Reality of Multiple Complexities
How do organizations navigate the challenges of local vs. global expectations? How do you work in a global context and contribute to teams who are geographically dispersed? Answer our reader survey and look for results in next month's issue of Leading Effectively.
Global leadership is complicated, requiring leaders to operate amid myriad challenges. "The role of a global leader has a particular complexity, one that is categorically different from the complexity faced by domestic and even regional leaders," says Ancella Livers. Global leaders operate with layer upon layer of complexity and challenge. "The rules of engagement understood by one group or culture may not be relevant to another. This creates an environment of multiple complexities — what we call a multiplex environment," says Livers.
The leap from being a successful manager in your home country to a global leader is a big one. "Previously successful strategies and preferred ways of leading may not translate well in a global setting," Livers adds. The challenges leaders face when they are immersed in the multiplexity of working globally include:
Handling culture conflicts. Global leaders work across multiple cultural groups simultaneously. In this context, they face situations or incidents where two or more cultures' priorities or values conflict. Sometimes the cultural conflict is glaring; more likely, the differences are subtle and easy to miss.
Adapting one's own behaviours. Cultural assumptions and behaviours play a role in a leader's identity, too. "Global leaders need to be highly aware of the influence of culture on their own thinking - and then have ability to go beyond that," explains Livers. "They cannot limit choices and actions to reflect only their culture. Leaders need to be skilled at accurately reading people and situations and then adjust their behaviours accordingly."
Creating shared goals and implementing shared work. Leaders in global organizations need to find ways to find common ground while honouring differences. "Global leaders must be able to understand and appreciate other cultural perspectives, while at the same time creating alignment around the work and the mission," Livers says.
Managing the relationship between corporate and local. A significant challenge for global leaders is to understand and manage the tensions between organizational headquarters and regional or local offices. When do local needs, customs, regulations, practices or markets drive decisions? How do corporate-level expectations get infused at the local level? How can leaders navigate the constant duality?
Communicating across barriers. Communication can be a challenge in any setting; it is more complex and even more essential to communicate effectively when you are operating from a distance. Effective global leaders learn to overcome geographic, culture and language barriers.
Understanding and managing external forces. Doing business globally requires leaders to learn the governmental, legal, historical and economic factors that influence their work. External forces do impact the way organizations operate; often, leaders must accept that these factors are outside of their control.
"We know that to be effective outside of familiar domestic or regional settings, leaders need to think and act in new ways," says Livers. "By identifying the challenges, we are better able to help leaders gain the knowledge and the tools they need for global assignments."
How do organizations navigate the challenges of local vs. global expectations? How do you work in a global context and contribute to teams who are geographically dispersed? Answer our reader survey and look for results in next month's issue of Leading Effectively.
Global leadership is complicated, requiring leaders to operate amid myriad challenges. "The role of a global leader has a particular complexity, one that is categorically different from the complexity faced by domestic and even regional leaders," says Ancella Livers. Global leaders operate with layer upon layer of complexity and challenge. "The rules of engagement understood by one group or culture may not be relevant to another. This creates an environment of multiple complexities — what we call a multiplex environment," says Livers.
The leap from being a successful manager in your home country to a global leader is a big one. "Previously successful strategies and preferred ways of leading may not translate well in a global setting," Livers adds. The challenges leaders face when they are immersed in the multiplexity of working globally include:
Handling culture conflicts. Global leaders work across multiple cultural groups simultaneously. In this context, they face situations or incidents where two or more cultures' priorities or values conflict. Sometimes the cultural conflict is glaring; more likely, the differences are subtle and easy to miss.
Adapting one's own behaviours. Cultural assumptions and behaviours play a role in a leader's identity, too. "Global leaders need to be highly aware of the influence of culture on their own thinking - and then have ability to go beyond that," explains Livers. "They cannot limit choices and actions to reflect only their culture. Leaders need to be skilled at accurately reading people and situations and then adjust their behaviours accordingly."
Creating shared goals and implementing shared work. Leaders in global organizations need to find ways to find common ground while honouring differences. "Global leaders must be able to understand and appreciate other cultural perspectives, while at the same time creating alignment around the work and the mission," Livers says.
Managing the relationship between corporate and local. A significant challenge for global leaders is to understand and manage the tensions between organizational headquarters and regional or local offices. When do local needs, customs, regulations, practices or markets drive decisions? How do corporate-level expectations get infused at the local level? How can leaders navigate the constant duality?
Communicating across barriers. Communication can be a challenge in any setting; it is more complex and even more essential to communicate effectively when you are operating from a distance. Effective global leaders learn to overcome geographic, culture and language barriers.
Understanding and managing external forces. Doing business globally requires leaders to learn the governmental, legal, historical and economic factors that influence their work. External forces do impact the way organizations operate; often, leaders must accept that these factors are outside of their control.
"We know that to be effective outside of familiar domestic or regional settings, leaders need to think and act in new ways," says Livers. "By identifying the challenges, we are better able to help leaders gain the knowledge and the tools they need for global assignments."
Library
What time does the library open? The voice on the phone asked.
“Nine A.M.” came the reply. And what is the idea of calling me at home in the middle of the night to ask such a question? Asked the librarian
“Not until nine A.M.?” the man asked in a disappointed voice.
“No, not till nine A.M..!” the librarian said, “Why do you want to get in before nine A.M.?”
“Who said I wanted to get in? The man sighed sadly. “I want to get out.”
“Nine A.M.” came the reply. And what is the idea of calling me at home in the middle of the night to ask such a question? Asked the librarian
“Not until nine A.M.?” the man asked in a disappointed voice.
“No, not till nine A.M..!” the librarian said, “Why do you want to get in before nine A.M.?”
“Who said I wanted to get in? The man sighed sadly. “I want to get out.”
XR GT wheels
XR GT’s had a 5.5 inch rim which was manufactured by Rubery,Owen and Kelmsley (ROK Australia). They had a fully polished stainless steel hubcap which came from the 1966 Mercury Comet Cyclone GT in the U.S. Special chrome wheel nuts were used that protrude through the hubcap. Wheel diameter was 14 inches.
Friday, August 03, 2007
Richness
"There are three kinds of people and three kinds of richness:
- people who want to have, to collect
- people who want action, work and labour
- people who want to be
The real richness is in be-ness. People can take all that you have, all that you collected. People can stop your labour, or an accident can stop you. When you are, you never lose what you are." -- Torkom Saraydarian
- people who want to have, to collect
- people who want action, work and labour
- people who want to be
The real richness is in be-ness. People can take all that you have, all that you collected. People can stop your labour, or an accident can stop you. When you are, you never lose what you are." -- Torkom Saraydarian
Recipes
Two bachelors, Larry and Frank were out to dinner. The conversation drifted from office, sports to politics and then to cooking.
“I got a cook book once” said Larry. “But I couldn’t do anything with it.”
“Too much fancy stuff in it, huh?” asked Frank.
“You said it, Larry replied, nodding. “Every one of those recipes began the same way: “Take a clean plate…”
“I got a cook book once” said Larry. “But I couldn’t do anything with it.”
“Too much fancy stuff in it, huh?” asked Frank.
“You said it, Larry replied, nodding. “Every one of those recipes began the same way: “Take a clean plate…”
Glass, glass, everywhere
Here is some later glass, as fitted to a 1976 P6 LTD, a model whose production ran from 1976 until 1979.
Pilkington changed the lettering to that shown above. Having shortened the previous ‘APPROVED’ to ‘APP’ they flipped the months and quarters. The dots under the ‘ASRI’ signify the quarters of the year, and the dots under the ‘APP’ signify the month in the quarter.
The letters under the ‘TOUGHENED’ signify the year, and if there is no dot, it refers to the year 0.
Hence the above glass was struck in October, 1976.
Pilkington changed the lettering to that shown above. Having shortened the previous ‘APPROVED’ to ‘APP’ they flipped the months and quarters. The dots under the ‘ASRI’ signify the quarters of the year, and the dots under the ‘APP’ signify the month in the quarter.
The letters under the ‘TOUGHENED’ signify the year, and if there is no dot, it refers to the year 0.
Hence the above glass was struck in October, 1976.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Creating Literacy-Rich Schools for Adolescents
Adolescent Literacy in Perspective by Gay Ivey and Douglas Fisher
What does it mean to be literate? More important, what does it mean to be literate in the 21st century? People answer these questions in so many different ways. For some, literacy is the ability to decode words on a page. For others, literacy is about reading and writing grade-level texts. For still others, literacy involves reading, writing, speaking, and listening—known collectively as the language arts.
Over time, the definition of what it means to be literate has changed and evolved. Conceptions of adolescent literacy in particular now consider the vital nature of the nonschool types of literacy skills and habits evident in students' out-of-school activities (such as video games and popular music), as well as the interplay of students and contexts for learning (Moje, Young, Readence, & Moore, 2000). Learning to read and reading to learn are no longer seen solely as traditional academic processes. To fully prepare students for life now and in the future, educators need to ask different questions: What will students need to know to participate more fully in a technological world? To act as productive citizens? To become critical consumers of information? To live high-quality personal lives?
Given that you are reading this, we can infer that you are interested in the literacy learning of secondary school students. We imagine that the various readers of this book come with a range of notions about what it means to be literate, but what we all likely have in common is the belief that we could be doing a better job of supporting and motivating students to use reading, writing, listening, and speaking as a way to learn and think both now and in the future. We begin with a familiar question in discussions of secondary literacy: Is every teacher a teacher of reading?
How many times have you or the teachers you work with heard the popular catchphrase that says, “Every teacher is a teacher of reading”? It has become cliché, like so many other popular education slogans, including “All children can learn.” It is important to note that in each of these clichés resides a glimmer of hope, a vision of what education could be. Each of these clichés also discounts the complexities of the educational enterprise and the hard work that must be done to realize dreams.
So is every teacher a teacher of reading? Consider the following real-life scenario. A group of math teachers is sitting in a room poring over textbooks. They are an elected adoption committee from a school site who will recommend one book for their school. These teachers, and their colleagues across the content areas, have arguably had more training on “content literacy strategies” than most high school faculties (see Fisher, 2001b). A consultant comes into the room to discuss one of the textbook series. She starts by saying, “All teachers are teachers of reading, and our program helps you ...” All the math teachers in the room cross their arms and listen politely as the consultant continues. It is clear to anyone who knows them that they will not be purchasing this series.
Following the meeting with the consultant, the group is asked about their reaction to the comment that all teachers are teachers of reading. One of them replies by asking, “Would we say that all teachers are teachers of algebraic thinking?” Another says, “It just makes me mad that our discipline seems less important and that reading is all that matters.” The department chair says, “What about writing? Or speaking, for that matter? Do we not need to worry about that—just reading?”
In response, they are asked to consider their classrooms and the learning they hope to facilitate. They are asked if they think that learning requires language. As a group, they respond affirmatively. Then they are asked if “all learning is language based.” Again they respond positively.
Learning requires reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing. Until we can download information directly into our brains (hopefully while we're sleeping), we will learn with and through literacy processes. Thus we do not subscribe to the idea that all teachers are teachers of reading. Rather, we know that learning is language based and that all teachers have a role to play in students' understanding and use of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing.
In this book, we hope not to perpetuate the “every teacher is a teacher of reading” mantra. We have seen advertisements for countless workshops and have read numerous professional materials in which middle and high school teachers are urged to “incorporate reading and writing strategies” or “teach reading within the subject areas.” No doubt, the popularity of these phrases stems from the underlying belief that in order to raise students' literacy achievement, all teachers need to pitch in, and students need lots of reading instruction. We are completely in favor of increasing students' literacy achievement. But we would argue that, primarily, students need lots of rich, literacy-based learning experiences across the school day, and sometimes those experiences require specific instruction in reading, but all have the ultimate goal of learning and thinking.
An example from a middle school classroom will help to clarify this distinction. At the onset of a unit on the civil rights movement, a 7th grade teacher reads aloud to her class the following excerpt:
The body had swollen to almost twice its normal size; the head had been severely beaten, “torture, horrible beating,” said one deputy. One side of the victim's forehead was crushed, an eye had been ripped raw by the barbed wire wrapped around it. The beatings and three days in the river had turned the face and head into a monstrous mess of stinking flesh. The remains were so grotesque and mangled that deputies could only determine that it was a young Black male. (Crowe, 2003, p. 64)
Students were surprised to learn that the body described here refers to a 14-year-old boy, and it's just enough to make them want more information. The teacher briefly tells the story of Emmett Till and how his murder by white men, followed by the publication of a photograph of his mutilated corpse in Jet magazine, served as a catalyst for what would become the civil rights movement. She shows the book she has just read from, Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case (Crowe, 2003), and tells students it will be available for them to read throughout the unit. Immediately, five students raise their hands to ask if they can borrow it first. Throughout the next several days, she builds students' curiosity and interest in the topic by reading excerpts from other related texts (i.e. My Dream of Martin Luther King, Ringgold, 1995; Now Is Your Time!, Myers, 1991; I've Seen the Promised Land, Myers, 2004).
She gets students to think about the issue of civil rights, what they already know, and what they want to know by having them view a photograph appearing in Toni Morrison's picture book, Remember: The Journey to School Integration (2004). In this picture taken in Cambridge, Maryland, in 1963, a white restaurant owner is shown breaking raw eggs over the heads of white and black protesters kneeling on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. The teacher asks students to write for five minutes about any images they observe in this photo, feelings it evokes, and links to their own knowledge on the topic and personal experiences.
As students progress through the study of civil rights, the teacher maintains a good balance between specific information required by the official curriculum and other high-interest angles on the topic that students find intriguing. For instance, to explore specific required topics such as bus boycotts, school segregation, and the influence of Martin Luther King, the teacher creates readers theater scripts from these three texts: I Am Rosa Parks (Parks, 1997), Through My Eyes (Bridges, 1999), and I Have a Dream (King, 1997). Students are divided into three groups, each taking one of the scripts to study, rehearse, and perform (see Worthy, Broaddus, & Ivey, 2001). Through repeated practice and familiarity with the text, each group is able to perform a text—that is, to read dramatically, with fluency and understanding. The gist of each topic is clear to the rest of the class as the students listen intently to their classmates, who now sound like expert readers.
Also along the way, the teacher asks students to select a topic within the overall unit that they find personally interesting and wish to study more explicitly and deeply. Students focus on a range of topics, from the life and rhetoric of Malcolm X to the Negro baseball leagues. As students read to learn and collect information from multiple sources in preparation for creating an original piece of writing on their topic, their teacher takes advantage of an opportunity to teach reading strategies that seem particularly useful to students at this point, such as how to summarize what they read and how to identify the main idea. She explores with students various genres and forms of writing, such as persuasive essays, journal entries, and newspaper articles, that might be outlets for their own work. One student, inspired by the interviews published in Oh Freedom! Kids Talk About the Civil Rights Movement with the People Who Made It Happen (King & Osborne, 1997), sets out to do some fieldwork by interviewing members of her own family who were affected by the civil rights movement.
This brief description of a social studies classroom driven by rich, literacy-based learning experiences is a far cry from what we believe most people think of when they hear the phrase “every teacher is a teacher of reading.” Reading and writing are not simply added to the curriculum. Reading instruction is not just “included.” Rather, learning depends on and is enriched by engaged reading, writing, listening, and viewing. Literacy and language are fundamental to learning.
This scenario and this book are grounded in some common beliefs about literacy learning for adolescents. Recently, the people who think a lot about adolescent literacy have felt it was worthwhile to describe some principles to guide us in our thinking. In 1999 the International Reading Association published a position statement framed by a list of seven areas of support all adolescent literacy learners deserve:
• Access to a wide variety of reading material that appeals to their interests.
• Instruction that builds the skill and desire to read increasingly complex materials.
• Assessment that shows their strengths as well as their needs.
• Expert teachers who model and provide explicit instruction across the curriculum.
• Reading specialists who assist students having difficulty learning how to read.
• Teachers who understand the complexities of individual adolescent readers.
• Homes and communities that support the needs of adolescent learners.
In 2004 the National Council of Teachers of English created an additional list of guidelines for supporting adolescent learners, summarized here:
Adolescent readers need—
• Experiences with diverse texts and multiple perspectives.
• Authentic, student-initiated discussions about text.
• Experiences to reflect critically on their own literacy processes.
• Experiences examining texts critically.
Teachers of adolescents need—
• Adequate reading materials that span difficulty levels and relate to students' interests.
• Professional development that helps them to link students' personal literacy with school literacy, to use literacy within their disciplines as a way of teaching their disciplines, to identify students' dilemmas in reading and respond with appropriate support, to support student-led discussions about text, and to create contexts in which students can critically examine texts.
What does it mean to be literate? More important, what does it mean to be literate in the 21st century? People answer these questions in so many different ways. For some, literacy is the ability to decode words on a page. For others, literacy is about reading and writing grade-level texts. For still others, literacy involves reading, writing, speaking, and listening—known collectively as the language arts.
Over time, the definition of what it means to be literate has changed and evolved. Conceptions of adolescent literacy in particular now consider the vital nature of the nonschool types of literacy skills and habits evident in students' out-of-school activities (such as video games and popular music), as well as the interplay of students and contexts for learning (Moje, Young, Readence, & Moore, 2000). Learning to read and reading to learn are no longer seen solely as traditional academic processes. To fully prepare students for life now and in the future, educators need to ask different questions: What will students need to know to participate more fully in a technological world? To act as productive citizens? To become critical consumers of information? To live high-quality personal lives?
Given that you are reading this, we can infer that you are interested in the literacy learning of secondary school students. We imagine that the various readers of this book come with a range of notions about what it means to be literate, but what we all likely have in common is the belief that we could be doing a better job of supporting and motivating students to use reading, writing, listening, and speaking as a way to learn and think both now and in the future. We begin with a familiar question in discussions of secondary literacy: Is every teacher a teacher of reading?
How many times have you or the teachers you work with heard the popular catchphrase that says, “Every teacher is a teacher of reading”? It has become cliché, like so many other popular education slogans, including “All children can learn.” It is important to note that in each of these clichés resides a glimmer of hope, a vision of what education could be. Each of these clichés also discounts the complexities of the educational enterprise and the hard work that must be done to realize dreams.
So is every teacher a teacher of reading? Consider the following real-life scenario. A group of math teachers is sitting in a room poring over textbooks. They are an elected adoption committee from a school site who will recommend one book for their school. These teachers, and their colleagues across the content areas, have arguably had more training on “content literacy strategies” than most high school faculties (see Fisher, 2001b). A consultant comes into the room to discuss one of the textbook series. She starts by saying, “All teachers are teachers of reading, and our program helps you ...” All the math teachers in the room cross their arms and listen politely as the consultant continues. It is clear to anyone who knows them that they will not be purchasing this series.
Following the meeting with the consultant, the group is asked about their reaction to the comment that all teachers are teachers of reading. One of them replies by asking, “Would we say that all teachers are teachers of algebraic thinking?” Another says, “It just makes me mad that our discipline seems less important and that reading is all that matters.” The department chair says, “What about writing? Or speaking, for that matter? Do we not need to worry about that—just reading?”
In response, they are asked to consider their classrooms and the learning they hope to facilitate. They are asked if they think that learning requires language. As a group, they respond affirmatively. Then they are asked if “all learning is language based.” Again they respond positively.
Learning requires reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing. Until we can download information directly into our brains (hopefully while we're sleeping), we will learn with and through literacy processes. Thus we do not subscribe to the idea that all teachers are teachers of reading. Rather, we know that learning is language based and that all teachers have a role to play in students' understanding and use of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing.
In this book, we hope not to perpetuate the “every teacher is a teacher of reading” mantra. We have seen advertisements for countless workshops and have read numerous professional materials in which middle and high school teachers are urged to “incorporate reading and writing strategies” or “teach reading within the subject areas.” No doubt, the popularity of these phrases stems from the underlying belief that in order to raise students' literacy achievement, all teachers need to pitch in, and students need lots of reading instruction. We are completely in favor of increasing students' literacy achievement. But we would argue that, primarily, students need lots of rich, literacy-based learning experiences across the school day, and sometimes those experiences require specific instruction in reading, but all have the ultimate goal of learning and thinking.
An example from a middle school classroom will help to clarify this distinction. At the onset of a unit on the civil rights movement, a 7th grade teacher reads aloud to her class the following excerpt:
The body had swollen to almost twice its normal size; the head had been severely beaten, “torture, horrible beating,” said one deputy. One side of the victim's forehead was crushed, an eye had been ripped raw by the barbed wire wrapped around it. The beatings and three days in the river had turned the face and head into a monstrous mess of stinking flesh. The remains were so grotesque and mangled that deputies could only determine that it was a young Black male. (Crowe, 2003, p. 64)
Students were surprised to learn that the body described here refers to a 14-year-old boy, and it's just enough to make them want more information. The teacher briefly tells the story of Emmett Till and how his murder by white men, followed by the publication of a photograph of his mutilated corpse in Jet magazine, served as a catalyst for what would become the civil rights movement. She shows the book she has just read from, Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case (Crowe, 2003), and tells students it will be available for them to read throughout the unit. Immediately, five students raise their hands to ask if they can borrow it first. Throughout the next several days, she builds students' curiosity and interest in the topic by reading excerpts from other related texts (i.e. My Dream of Martin Luther King, Ringgold, 1995; Now Is Your Time!, Myers, 1991; I've Seen the Promised Land, Myers, 2004).
She gets students to think about the issue of civil rights, what they already know, and what they want to know by having them view a photograph appearing in Toni Morrison's picture book, Remember: The Journey to School Integration (2004). In this picture taken in Cambridge, Maryland, in 1963, a white restaurant owner is shown breaking raw eggs over the heads of white and black protesters kneeling on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. The teacher asks students to write for five minutes about any images they observe in this photo, feelings it evokes, and links to their own knowledge on the topic and personal experiences.
As students progress through the study of civil rights, the teacher maintains a good balance between specific information required by the official curriculum and other high-interest angles on the topic that students find intriguing. For instance, to explore specific required topics such as bus boycotts, school segregation, and the influence of Martin Luther King, the teacher creates readers theater scripts from these three texts: I Am Rosa Parks (Parks, 1997), Through My Eyes (Bridges, 1999), and I Have a Dream (King, 1997). Students are divided into three groups, each taking one of the scripts to study, rehearse, and perform (see Worthy, Broaddus, & Ivey, 2001). Through repeated practice and familiarity with the text, each group is able to perform a text—that is, to read dramatically, with fluency and understanding. The gist of each topic is clear to the rest of the class as the students listen intently to their classmates, who now sound like expert readers.
Also along the way, the teacher asks students to select a topic within the overall unit that they find personally interesting and wish to study more explicitly and deeply. Students focus on a range of topics, from the life and rhetoric of Malcolm X to the Negro baseball leagues. As students read to learn and collect information from multiple sources in preparation for creating an original piece of writing on their topic, their teacher takes advantage of an opportunity to teach reading strategies that seem particularly useful to students at this point, such as how to summarize what they read and how to identify the main idea. She explores with students various genres and forms of writing, such as persuasive essays, journal entries, and newspaper articles, that might be outlets for their own work. One student, inspired by the interviews published in Oh Freedom! Kids Talk About the Civil Rights Movement with the People Who Made It Happen (King & Osborne, 1997), sets out to do some fieldwork by interviewing members of her own family who were affected by the civil rights movement.
This brief description of a social studies classroom driven by rich, literacy-based learning experiences is a far cry from what we believe most people think of when they hear the phrase “every teacher is a teacher of reading.” Reading and writing are not simply added to the curriculum. Reading instruction is not just “included.” Rather, learning depends on and is enriched by engaged reading, writing, listening, and viewing. Literacy and language are fundamental to learning.
This scenario and this book are grounded in some common beliefs about literacy learning for adolescents. Recently, the people who think a lot about adolescent literacy have felt it was worthwhile to describe some principles to guide us in our thinking. In 1999 the International Reading Association published a position statement framed by a list of seven areas of support all adolescent literacy learners deserve:
• Access to a wide variety of reading material that appeals to their interests.
• Instruction that builds the skill and desire to read increasingly complex materials.
• Assessment that shows their strengths as well as their needs.
• Expert teachers who model and provide explicit instruction across the curriculum.
• Reading specialists who assist students having difficulty learning how to read.
• Teachers who understand the complexities of individual adolescent readers.
• Homes and communities that support the needs of adolescent learners.
In 2004 the National Council of Teachers of English created an additional list of guidelines for supporting adolescent learners, summarized here:
Adolescent readers need—
• Experiences with diverse texts and multiple perspectives.
• Authentic, student-initiated discussions about text.
• Experiences to reflect critically on their own literacy processes.
• Experiences examining texts critically.
Teachers of adolescents need—
• Adequate reading materials that span difficulty levels and relate to students' interests.
• Professional development that helps them to link students' personal literacy with school literacy, to use literacy within their disciplines as a way of teaching their disciplines, to identify students' dilemmas in reading and respond with appropriate support, to support student-led discussions about text, and to create contexts in which students can critically examine texts.
Ad
A man placed an ad in the classifieds: "Wife wanted."
The next day he received a hundred letters.
They all said the same: "You can have mine."
The next day he received a hundred letters.
They all said the same: "You can have mine."
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Believe in Merit Pay?
My dentist is great! He sends me reminders so I don't forget checkups. He uses the latest techniques based on research. He never hurts me, and I've got all my teeth. When I ran into him the other day, I was eager to see if he'd heard about the Federal Government's latest program for improving the dental health of our children by introducing merit pay for dentists.
"Did you hear about the new federal program to measure effectiveness of dentists with their young patients?" I asked.
"No," he said. He didn't seem too thrilled. "How will they do that?"
"It's quite simple," I answered. "They will just count the number of cavities each patient has at Grades 3,5,7,9 and average that to determine a dentist's rating. Dentists will be rated as excellent, good, average, below average, and unsatisfactory. That way parents will know which are the best dentists. The plan will also encourage the less effective dentists to get better," I said. "Poor dentists who don't improve could lose their licenses to practice."
"That's terrible," he replied.
"What? That's not a good attitude," I said. "Don't you think we should try to improve children's dental health in this country?"
"Sure I do, but that's not a fair way to determine who is practising good dentistry," he ventured.
"Why not?" I asked. "It makes perfect sense to me."
"Well, it's so obvious," he said. "Don't you see that dentists don't all work with the same clientele, and that much depends on things we can't control? For example, I work in a rural area with a high percentage of patients from deprived homes, while some of my colleagues work in upper middle-class neighbourhoods. Many of the parents I work with don't bring their children to see me until there is some kind of problem, and I don't get to do much preventive work. Also, many of the parents I serve let their kids eat way too much sweet food from an early age, unlike more educated parents who understand the relationship between sugar and decay. To top it all off, so many of my clients have tank water which is untreated and has no fluoride in it. Do you have any idea how much difference early use of fluoride can make?"
"It sounds like you're making excuses. I can't believe that you would be so defensive. After all, you do a great job, and you needn't fear a little accountability," I said.
"I am not being defensive!" he said. "My best patients are as good as anyone's, my work is as good as anyone's, but my average cavity count is going to be higher than a lot of other dentists' because I chose to work where I am needed most."
"Don't get touchy," I said.
"Touchy?" he said. His face had turned red, and from the way he was clenching and unclenching his jaws, I was afraid he was going to damage his teeth. "Try furious! In a system like this, I will end up being rated average, below average or worse. The few educated patients I have who see these ratings may believe this so-called rating is an actual measure of my ability and proficiency as a dentist. They may leave me, and I'll be left with only the most needy patients. And my cavity average score will get even worse. On top of that, how will I attract good dental hygienists and other excellent dentists to my practice if it is labelled below average?"
"I think you are overreacting," I said. "Complaining, excuse-making and stonewalling won't improve dental health'...I am quoting from a leading member of the DOC," I noted.
"What's the DOC?" he asked.
"It's the Dental Oversight Committee, a group made up of mostly lay persons to make sure dentistry in this state gets improved," I answered.
"Spare me! I can't believe this. Reasonable people won't buy it," he said hopefully.
The program sounded reasonable to me, so I asked, "How else would you measure good dentistry?" "Come watch me work," he said. "Observe my processes."
"That's too complicated, expensive and time-consuming," I said. "Cavities are the bottom line, and you can't argue with the bottom line. It's an absolute measure."
"That's what I'm afraid my parents and prospective patients will think. This can't be happening," he said despairingly.
"Now, now," I said, "don't despair. The Federal government will help you some."
"How? he asked. "If you receive a poor rating, they'll send a dentist with a wealthy clientele to show me how to work on severe juvenile dental problems with which I have probably had much more experience? BIG HELP!"
"There you go again," I said. "You aren't acting professionally at all."
"You don't get it," he said. "Doing this would be like grading schools and teachers on an average score made on a test of children's progress with no regard to influences outside the school, the home, the community served and stuff like that. Why would they do something so unfair to dentists? No one would ever think of doing that to schools."
I just shook my head sadly, but he had brightened. "I'm going to write my representatives and senators," he said. "I'll use the school analogy. Surely they will see the point."
"Did you hear about the new federal program to measure effectiveness of dentists with their young patients?" I asked.
"No," he said. He didn't seem too thrilled. "How will they do that?"
"It's quite simple," I answered. "They will just count the number of cavities each patient has at Grades 3,5,7,9 and average that to determine a dentist's rating. Dentists will be rated as excellent, good, average, below average, and unsatisfactory. That way parents will know which are the best dentists. The plan will also encourage the less effective dentists to get better," I said. "Poor dentists who don't improve could lose their licenses to practice."
"That's terrible," he replied.
"What? That's not a good attitude," I said. "Don't you think we should try to improve children's dental health in this country?"
"Sure I do, but that's not a fair way to determine who is practising good dentistry," he ventured.
"Why not?" I asked. "It makes perfect sense to me."
"Well, it's so obvious," he said. "Don't you see that dentists don't all work with the same clientele, and that much depends on things we can't control? For example, I work in a rural area with a high percentage of patients from deprived homes, while some of my colleagues work in upper middle-class neighbourhoods. Many of the parents I work with don't bring their children to see me until there is some kind of problem, and I don't get to do much preventive work. Also, many of the parents I serve let their kids eat way too much sweet food from an early age, unlike more educated parents who understand the relationship between sugar and decay. To top it all off, so many of my clients have tank water which is untreated and has no fluoride in it. Do you have any idea how much difference early use of fluoride can make?"
"It sounds like you're making excuses. I can't believe that you would be so defensive. After all, you do a great job, and you needn't fear a little accountability," I said.
"I am not being defensive!" he said. "My best patients are as good as anyone's, my work is as good as anyone's, but my average cavity count is going to be higher than a lot of other dentists' because I chose to work where I am needed most."
"Don't get touchy," I said.
"Touchy?" he said. His face had turned red, and from the way he was clenching and unclenching his jaws, I was afraid he was going to damage his teeth. "Try furious! In a system like this, I will end up being rated average, below average or worse. The few educated patients I have who see these ratings may believe this so-called rating is an actual measure of my ability and proficiency as a dentist. They may leave me, and I'll be left with only the most needy patients. And my cavity average score will get even worse. On top of that, how will I attract good dental hygienists and other excellent dentists to my practice if it is labelled below average?"
"I think you are overreacting," I said. "Complaining, excuse-making and stonewalling won't improve dental health'...I am quoting from a leading member of the DOC," I noted.
"What's the DOC?" he asked.
"It's the Dental Oversight Committee, a group made up of mostly lay persons to make sure dentistry in this state gets improved," I answered.
"Spare me! I can't believe this. Reasonable people won't buy it," he said hopefully.
The program sounded reasonable to me, so I asked, "How else would you measure good dentistry?" "Come watch me work," he said. "Observe my processes."
"That's too complicated, expensive and time-consuming," I said. "Cavities are the bottom line, and you can't argue with the bottom line. It's an absolute measure."
"That's what I'm afraid my parents and prospective patients will think. This can't be happening," he said despairingly.
"Now, now," I said, "don't despair. The Federal government will help you some."
"How? he asked. "If you receive a poor rating, they'll send a dentist with a wealthy clientele to show me how to work on severe juvenile dental problems with which I have probably had much more experience? BIG HELP!"
"There you go again," I said. "You aren't acting professionally at all."
"You don't get it," he said. "Doing this would be like grading schools and teachers on an average score made on a test of children's progress with no regard to influences outside the school, the home, the community served and stuff like that. Why would they do something so unfair to dentists? No one would ever think of doing that to schools."
I just shook my head sadly, but he had brightened. "I'm going to write my representatives and senators," he said. "I'll use the school analogy. Surely they will see the point."
More glass
Here is the rear window from a hardtop.
Note that the glass is now called ‘ARMOURFLOAT’ which now has eleven letters, but the years still count from the first letter, this being a 1973, fourth quarter piece of glass. This is also ‘ANTISUN’ glass, which means it is tinted, something no doubt well needed on the big flat pane on the rear of the hardtops.
Note that the glass is now called ‘ARMOURFLOAT’ which now has eleven letters, but the years still count from the first letter, this being a 1973, fourth quarter piece of glass. This is also ‘ANTISUN’ glass, which means it is tinted, something no doubt well needed on the big flat pane on the rear of the hardtops.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Help!
Three Boy Scouts, in uniform, were fishing in a boat one day when they heard cries for help. They followed the sounds and found another boat capsized as a man struggled to keep his head above water. Being Boy Scouts, they went to his aid and fished the man out.
As it turned out, the man was Bill Clinton. The president toweled himself off and caught his breath, and thanked the three scouts. He asked if there was anything he could do for them.
"I'd sure like a tour of the White House," the first scout said.
"No problem," said Bill. "How's next week?"
"I'd sure love to go for a ride in Air Force One," said the second scout.
"We'll leave aboard her tonight," Bill replied.
"I'd like to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery," said the third.
"I'm sure we can arrange that," said Bill. "But son, you're awfully young to be worrying about that, aren't you?"
"You don't know my Dad," the scout replied. "When he finds out I helped save your life, he's gonna kill me!"
As it turned out, the man was Bill Clinton. The president toweled himself off and caught his breath, and thanked the three scouts. He asked if there was anything he could do for them.
"I'd sure like a tour of the White House," the first scout said.
"No problem," said Bill. "How's next week?"
"I'd sure love to go for a ride in Air Force One," said the second scout.
"We'll leave aboard her tonight," Bill replied.
"I'd like to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery," said the third.
"I'm sure we can arrange that," said Bill. "But son, you're awfully young to be worrying about that, aren't you?"
"You don't know my Dad," the scout replied. "When he finds out I helped save your life, he's gonna kill me!"
Glass
In 1973, Pilkington changed from using the name ‘Pilkington’ on their glass to the symbol which is shown in the first picture. Some 1973 cars could end up with both 1972 and 1973 marked glass on the same car, as in this XA RPO which was a later 1973 car, yet has some 1972 glass.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Luck
"Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect." --Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet and philosopher
One up
This man in a Ford Bronco pulls up next to a guy in a Rolls Royce at a stop sign. Their windows are open and he yells at the guy in the Rolls: "Hey, you got a telephone in there?"
The guy in the Rolls says, "Yes, of course I do."
"I got one too... see?"
"Uh, huh, yes, that's very nice."
Then the man in the Falcon says, "You got a fax machine?"
"Why, actually, yes, I do."
"I do too! See? It's right here!"
"Uh-huh."
The light is just about to turn green and the guy in the Bronco says, "So, do YOU have a double bed in back there?"
And the guy in the Rolls says, "NO! Do you?"
"Yep, got my double bed right in back here — see?!"
The light turns and the man in the Bronco takes off.
Well, the guy in the Rolls is not about to be one-upped, so he goes immediately to a customizing shop and orders them to put a double bed in back of his car. About two weeks later, the job is finally done and he picks up his car and drives all over town looking for the Bronco. He finally finds it parked alongside the road so he pulls his Rolls up next to it.
The windows on the Granada are all fogged up and he feels a little awkward about it, but he gets out of his newly modified Rolls and taps on the foggy window of the Bronco. The man in the Bronco finally opens the window a crack and peeks out.
The guy in the Rolls says, "Hey. remember me?"
"Yeah, yeah, I remember you. What's up?"
"Check this out — I got a double bed installed in my Rolls."
And the man in the Bronco says, "YOU GOT ME OUT OF THE SHOWER TO TELL ME THAT?!"
The guy in the Rolls says, "Yes, of course I do."
"I got one too... see?"
"Uh, huh, yes, that's very nice."
Then the man in the Falcon says, "You got a fax machine?"
"Why, actually, yes, I do."
"I do too! See? It's right here!"
"Uh-huh."
The light is just about to turn green and the guy in the Bronco says, "So, do YOU have a double bed in back there?"
And the guy in the Rolls says, "NO! Do you?"
"Yep, got my double bed right in back here — see?!"
The light turns and the man in the Bronco takes off.
Well, the guy in the Rolls is not about to be one-upped, so he goes immediately to a customizing shop and orders them to put a double bed in back of his car. About two weeks later, the job is finally done and he picks up his car and drives all over town looking for the Bronco. He finally finds it parked alongside the road so he pulls his Rolls up next to it.
The windows on the Granada are all fogged up and he feels a little awkward about it, but he gets out of his newly modified Rolls and taps on the foggy window of the Bronco. The man in the Bronco finally opens the window a crack and peeks out.
The guy in the Rolls says, "Hey. remember me?"
"Yeah, yeah, I remember you. What's up?"
"Check this out — I got a double bed installed in my Rolls."
And the man in the Bronco says, "YOU GOT ME OUT OF THE SHOWER TO TELL ME THAT?!"
Glass
The two examples below show the form of Armourglas with and without the ‘Pilkington’ badge. Both are from 1972 cars, but different quarters. The Pilkington badge was introduced between these two quarters.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
RED MARBLES
by Anonymous
I was at the corner grocery store buying some early potatoes. I noticed a small boy, delicate of bone and feature, ragged but clean, hungrily apprising a basket of freshly picked green peas. I paid for my potatoes but was also drawn to the display of fresh green peas. I am a pushover for creamed peas and new potatoes. Pondering the peas, I couldn't help overhearing the conversation between Mr. Miller (the store owner) and the ragged boy next to me.
"Hello Barry, how are you today?
"Hello, Mr. Miller. Fine, thank ya. Jus' admirin' them peas. They sure look good."
"They are good, Barry. How's your Ma?"
"Fine. Gittin' stronger alla' time."
"Good. Anything I can help you with?"
"No, Sir. Jus' admirin' them peas."
"Would you like to take some home?" asked Mr. Miller.
"No, Sir. Got nuthin' to pay for 'em with."
"Well, what have you to trade me for some of those peas?" "All I got's my prize marble here."
"Is that right? Let me see it" said Miller.
"Here 'tis. She's a dandy."
"I can see that. Hmmmmm, only thing is this one is blue and I sort of go for red. Do you have a red one like this at home?" the store owner asked.
"Not zackley but almost."
"Tell you what. Take this sack of peas home with you and next trip this way let me look at that red marble". Mr. Miller told the boy.
"Sure will. Thanks Mr. Miller."
Mrs. Miller, who had been standing nearby, came over to help me. With a smile she said, "There are two other boys like him in our community, all three are in very poor circumstances. Jim just loves to bargain with them for peas, apples, tomatoes, or whatever. When they come back with their red marbles, and they always do, he decides he doesn't like red after all and he sends them home with a bag of produce for a green marble or an orange one, when they come on their next trip to the store."
I left the store smiling to myself, impressed with this man. A short time later I moved to Colorado, but I never forgot the story of this man, the boys, and their bartering for marbles.
Several years went by, each more rapid than the previous one. Just recently I had occasion to visit some old friends in that Idaho community and while I was there learned that Mr. Miller had died.
They were having his visitation that evening and knowing my friends wanted to go, I agreed to accompany them. Upon arrival at the mortuary we fell into line to meet the relatives of the deceased and to offer whatever words of comfort we could. Ahead of us in line were three young men. One was in an army uniform and the other two wore nice haircuts, dark suits and white shirts...all very professional looking. They approached Mrs. Miller, standing composed and smiling by her husband's casket. Each of the young men hugged her, kissed her on the cheek, spoke briefly with her and moved on to the casket.
Her misty light blue eyes followed them as, one by one, each young man stopped briefly and placed his own warm hand over the cold pale hand in the casket. Each left the mortuary awkwardly, wiping his eyes. Our turn came to meet Mrs. Miller. I told her who I was and reminded her of the story from those many years ago and what she had told me about her husband's bartering for marbles. With her eyes glistening, she took my hand and led me to the casket. "Those three young men who just left were the boys I told you about. They just told me how they appreciated the things Jim "traded" them. Now, at last, when Jim could not change his mind about colour or size ....they came to pay their debt."
"We've never had a great deal of the wealth of this world," she confided, "but right now, Jim would consider himself the richest man in Idaho ."
With loving gentleness she lifted the lifeless fingers of her deceased husband. Resting underneath were three exquisitely shiny red marbles.
The Moral: We will not be remembered by our words, but by our kind deeds. Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath.
I was at the corner grocery store buying some early potatoes. I noticed a small boy, delicate of bone and feature, ragged but clean, hungrily apprising a basket of freshly picked green peas. I paid for my potatoes but was also drawn to the display of fresh green peas. I am a pushover for creamed peas and new potatoes. Pondering the peas, I couldn't help overhearing the conversation between Mr. Miller (the store owner) and the ragged boy next to me.
"Hello Barry, how are you today?
"Hello, Mr. Miller. Fine, thank ya. Jus' admirin' them peas. They sure look good."
"They are good, Barry. How's your Ma?"
"Fine. Gittin' stronger alla' time."
"Good. Anything I can help you with?"
"No, Sir. Jus' admirin' them peas."
"Would you like to take some home?" asked Mr. Miller.
"No, Sir. Got nuthin' to pay for 'em with."
"Well, what have you to trade me for some of those peas?" "All I got's my prize marble here."
"Is that right? Let me see it" said Miller.
"Here 'tis. She's a dandy."
"I can see that. Hmmmmm, only thing is this one is blue and I sort of go for red. Do you have a red one like this at home?" the store owner asked.
"Not zackley but almost."
"Tell you what. Take this sack of peas home with you and next trip this way let me look at that red marble". Mr. Miller told the boy.
"Sure will. Thanks Mr. Miller."
Mrs. Miller, who had been standing nearby, came over to help me. With a smile she said, "There are two other boys like him in our community, all three are in very poor circumstances. Jim just loves to bargain with them for peas, apples, tomatoes, or whatever. When they come back with their red marbles, and they always do, he decides he doesn't like red after all and he sends them home with a bag of produce for a green marble or an orange one, when they come on their next trip to the store."
I left the store smiling to myself, impressed with this man. A short time later I moved to Colorado, but I never forgot the story of this man, the boys, and their bartering for marbles.
Several years went by, each more rapid than the previous one. Just recently I had occasion to visit some old friends in that Idaho community and while I was there learned that Mr. Miller had died.
They were having his visitation that evening and knowing my friends wanted to go, I agreed to accompany them. Upon arrival at the mortuary we fell into line to meet the relatives of the deceased and to offer whatever words of comfort we could. Ahead of us in line were three young men. One was in an army uniform and the other two wore nice haircuts, dark suits and white shirts...all very professional looking. They approached Mrs. Miller, standing composed and smiling by her husband's casket. Each of the young men hugged her, kissed her on the cheek, spoke briefly with her and moved on to the casket.
Her misty light blue eyes followed them as, one by one, each young man stopped briefly and placed his own warm hand over the cold pale hand in the casket. Each left the mortuary awkwardly, wiping his eyes. Our turn came to meet Mrs. Miller. I told her who I was and reminded her of the story from those many years ago and what she had told me about her husband's bartering for marbles. With her eyes glistening, she took my hand and led me to the casket. "Those three young men who just left were the boys I told you about. They just told me how they appreciated the things Jim "traded" them. Now, at last, when Jim could not change his mind about colour or size ....they came to pay their debt."
"We've never had a great deal of the wealth of this world," she confided, "but right now, Jim would consider himself the richest man in Idaho ."
With loving gentleness she lifted the lifeless fingers of her deceased husband. Resting underneath were three exquisitely shiny red marbles.
The Moral: We will not be remembered by our words, but by our kind deeds. Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath.
Glass part 3
This is ‘ARMOURGLAS’ on an April, 1970 XW Falcon and, as another example, corresponds to the date coding described above.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Practice Being Like a Child
by Jim Rohn
Be like children and remember there are four ways to be more like a child no matter how old you get...
1) Curiosity - Be curious; childish curiosity. Learn to be curious like a child. What will kids do if they want to know something bad enough? You're right. They will bug you. Kids can ask a million questions. You think they're through. They've got another million. They will keep plaguing you. They can drive you right to the brink.
Also kids use their curiosity to learn. Have you ever noticed that while adults are stepping on ants, children are studying them? A child's curiosity is what helps them to reach, learn and grow.
2) Excitement - Learn to get excited like a child. There is nothing that has more magic than childish excitement. So excited you hate to go to bed at night. Can't wait to get up in the morning. So excited that you're about to explode. How can anyone resist that kind of childish magic? Now, once in awhile I meet someone who says, "Well, I'm a little too mature for all that childish excitement." Isn't that pitiful? You've got to weep for these kinds of people. All I've got to say is, "If you're too old to get excited, you're old." Don't get that old.
3) Faith - Faith like a child. Faith is childish. How else would you describe it? Some people say, "Let's be adult about it." Oh no. No. Adults too often have a tendency to be overly sceptical. Some adults even have a tendency to be cynical.
4) Trust - Trust is a childish virtue, but it has great
merit. Have you heard the expression "sleep like a baby?" That's it. Childish trust. After you've gotten an A+ for the day, leave it in somebody else's hands.
Curiosity, excitement, faith and trust. Wow, what a powerful combination to bring (back) into our lives and yes, our schools.
Be like children and remember there are four ways to be more like a child no matter how old you get...
1) Curiosity - Be curious; childish curiosity. Learn to be curious like a child. What will kids do if they want to know something bad enough? You're right. They will bug you. Kids can ask a million questions. You think they're through. They've got another million. They will keep plaguing you. They can drive you right to the brink.
Also kids use their curiosity to learn. Have you ever noticed that while adults are stepping on ants, children are studying them? A child's curiosity is what helps them to reach, learn and grow.
2) Excitement - Learn to get excited like a child. There is nothing that has more magic than childish excitement. So excited you hate to go to bed at night. Can't wait to get up in the morning. So excited that you're about to explode. How can anyone resist that kind of childish magic? Now, once in awhile I meet someone who says, "Well, I'm a little too mature for all that childish excitement." Isn't that pitiful? You've got to weep for these kinds of people. All I've got to say is, "If you're too old to get excited, you're old." Don't get that old.
3) Faith - Faith like a child. Faith is childish. How else would you describe it? Some people say, "Let's be adult about it." Oh no. No. Adults too often have a tendency to be overly sceptical. Some adults even have a tendency to be cynical.
4) Trust - Trust is a childish virtue, but it has great
merit. Have you heard the expression "sleep like a baby?" That's it. Childish trust. After you've gotten an A+ for the day, leave it in somebody else's hands.
Curiosity, excitement, faith and trust. Wow, what a powerful combination to bring (back) into our lives and yes, our schools.
Hair cut
A guy walks in to the Barbershop. Barber says, "What will it be today?" Guy says, "well I want it going with my waves on top, faded on one side, plug the other, and just make it all out of shape and messed up." Barber says, "Now why in the world do you want your hair cut like that."
Guy says, "That’s how you cut it last time"
Guy says, "That’s how you cut it last time"
Glass continued
This is from a replacement door window on an XB four door.
You can see that there is a printed dot above the ‘O’ in ARMOURGLAS, and that ARMOURGLAS is spelt with one ‘S’. This is to allow there to be ten letters in the word, and each letter corresponds to a year in the decade. The years number from the first letter, so, ‘A’ would be 1971, for example; ‘B’ would be 1972, and so on. The decades also roll back around on themselves, so that the last letter, ‘S’ is also the year 1970.
You can also see that there is a printed dot under both the words ‘APPROVED’ and ‘ASRI’. The dots under the first four letters of ‘APPROVED’ mean the four quarters of the year; A = Jan-Mar, P = Apr-Jun, P = Jul-Sept and R = Oct-Dec. Hence the glass above was originally - and originally is an important consideration - struck in the second quarter of 1974, for fitting to an XB Falcon.
The dots under the ‘ASRI’ signify the month within the quarter, and use the ‘SRI’ letters. Hence, in the above glass, the letter under ‘S’ in the ‘ASRI’ indicates the first month of the quarter.
To sum up, the glass pictured above was struck in the first month of the second quarter of 1974, in other words, April, 1974.
The glass above was sourced from Australia to be fitted to an XB that was originally exported to New Zealand.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Bodly language
Students read your body language to know what they can get away with in your classroom. With your body language you signal your priorities -- what is important or unimportant, and what you are committed or not committed to doing. By reading your body language, students can read your mind.
THE BODY LANGUAGE POKER GAME
Poker is a simple game. You either bet or fold. In the body language poker game, teachers fold when they turn a way from the situation before the students have folded. The students fold when they abandon pseudo-compliance and actually get back to work. You have to stay in the game until the students fold.
A note to the uninitiated -- you cannot fool a child. Children can smell a bluff a mile away. Nagging rather than moving is a bluff. Bluffing gets no respect in this poker game.
Walk: Take a relaxing breath, omit silly talk, and walk to the edge of the desk of the student most likely to be the instigator (assuming typical kids rather than abused kids whose personal space is large and who become anxious when that personal space is invaded). Pseudo-compliance by the student will look like a partial turn toward his or her work rather than a full turn. You have just been raised.
Visual Prompt: Bend over slightly, put one palm flat on the table, and with the other motion for the student to bring his or her chair all of the way around. If you had a teacher who told you when you were a kid to "bring your chair all of the way around," that teacher knew a thing or two about pseudo-compliance. We start with a visual prompt, however, because it runs a lower risk of generating backtalk than would a verbal prompt. Pseudo-compliance by the student would be another partial turn, perhaps three-quarters of the way around. You have been raised again.
Verbal Prompt: With an accompanying hand gesture, ask the student to bring his or her chair all of the way around. The specificity of your prompt leaves very little room for the student to "play dumb." To stay in the game with one more raise, the student must engage in either blatant noncompliance or backtalk. In either case, poker goes from penny-ante to high stakes. For that reason, most students fold at this juncture.
Monitor with Praise: Stay down and watch the student work until you get a stable pattern of work. If the student looks up briefly, his or her body is saying, "Oh, are you still here?" Take another relaxing breath, and stay down a little longer. After observing the student working, thank them warmly and stay down. When you are confident that the student is truly on task, repeat the routine with the second student before standing slowly.
Follow Through: Observe the students as you take a relaxing breath. If one of them looks up, take a second relaxing breath before slowly moving away. Track the students carefully as you work the crowd.
THE BODY LANGUAGE POKER GAME
Poker is a simple game. You either bet or fold. In the body language poker game, teachers fold when they turn a way from the situation before the students have folded. The students fold when they abandon pseudo-compliance and actually get back to work. You have to stay in the game until the students fold.
A note to the uninitiated -- you cannot fool a child. Children can smell a bluff a mile away. Nagging rather than moving is a bluff. Bluffing gets no respect in this poker game.
Walk: Take a relaxing breath, omit silly talk, and walk to the edge of the desk of the student most likely to be the instigator (assuming typical kids rather than abused kids whose personal space is large and who become anxious when that personal space is invaded). Pseudo-compliance by the student will look like a partial turn toward his or her work rather than a full turn. You have just been raised.
Visual Prompt: Bend over slightly, put one palm flat on the table, and with the other motion for the student to bring his or her chair all of the way around. If you had a teacher who told you when you were a kid to "bring your chair all of the way around," that teacher knew a thing or two about pseudo-compliance. We start with a visual prompt, however, because it runs a lower risk of generating backtalk than would a verbal prompt. Pseudo-compliance by the student would be another partial turn, perhaps three-quarters of the way around. You have been raised again.
Verbal Prompt: With an accompanying hand gesture, ask the student to bring his or her chair all of the way around. The specificity of your prompt leaves very little room for the student to "play dumb." To stay in the game with one more raise, the student must engage in either blatant noncompliance or backtalk. In either case, poker goes from penny-ante to high stakes. For that reason, most students fold at this juncture.
Monitor with Praise: Stay down and watch the student work until you get a stable pattern of work. If the student looks up briefly, his or her body is saying, "Oh, are you still here?" Take another relaxing breath, and stay down a little longer. After observing the student working, thank them warmly and stay down. When you are confident that the student is truly on task, repeat the routine with the second student before standing slowly.
Follow Through: Observe the students as you take a relaxing breath. If one of them looks up, take a second relaxing breath before slowly moving away. Track the students carefully as you work the crowd.
How do I look?
A large woman put on a dress and asked her husband if the dress made her look different.
Her husband said, " You’re asking the wrong person, I saw you before you put it on."
Her husband said, " You’re asking the wrong person, I saw you before you put it on."
Glass
Here are some of the markings on glass fitted to Falcons.
The first is from the rear screen on an XB GT hardtop.
The first is from the rear screen on an XB GT hardtop.
Live now
"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." -- Annie Dillard
We lose the power of the moment because we're so rarely in it. We're reliving the past or speculating about the future. We continue to believe that tomorrow's the day when I'll be more capable, more wealthy, more fit and more loving. Meanwhile, I'm just putting in time, dreaming of better things but not making any concrete move to realize them.
When you find yourself thinking of the future or the past, bring your awareness into the present moment. Really experience how you feel and what’s happening around you, without judgment. If we can treasure each moment, our lives will be rich, no matter what we have accomplished.
"Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered for they are gone forever." -- Horace Mann
"If, before going to bed every night, you will tear a page from the calendar, and remark, 'there goes another day of my life, never to return,' you will become time conscious." -- A. B. Zu Tavern
We lose the power of the moment because we're so rarely in it. We're reliving the past or speculating about the future. We continue to believe that tomorrow's the day when I'll be more capable, more wealthy, more fit and more loving. Meanwhile, I'm just putting in time, dreaming of better things but not making any concrete move to realize them.
When you find yourself thinking of the future or the past, bring your awareness into the present moment. Really experience how you feel and what’s happening around you, without judgment. If we can treasure each moment, our lives will be rich, no matter what we have accomplished.
"Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered for they are gone forever." -- Horace Mann
"If, before going to bed every night, you will tear a page from the calendar, and remark, 'there goes another day of my life, never to return,' you will become time conscious." -- A. B. Zu Tavern
Doctor?
Three medical students were discussing what specialties they were planning to go into when they finished school.
One said, "I want to be a brain surgeon. That's the frontier, the cutting edge of medicine, where so many discoveries are being made."
The second said, "I want to be a heart surgeon. There are so many people who need that kind of help; look at all the good I could do."
The third said he wanted to be a dermatologist. When the others had finished laughing, they asked him why on earth he wanted to be a skin doctor.
"Listen," he replied. "Your patients never die, they never get well, and they never get you up at night."
One said, "I want to be a brain surgeon. That's the frontier, the cutting edge of medicine, where so many discoveries are being made."
The second said, "I want to be a heart surgeon. There are so many people who need that kind of help; look at all the good I could do."
The third said he wanted to be a dermatologist. When the others had finished laughing, they asked him why on earth he wanted to be a skin doctor.
"Listen," he replied. "Your patients never die, they never get well, and they never get you up at night."
Can I have a push?
A couple is in bed sleeping when there's a rat-a-tat-tat on the door.
The husband rolls over and looks at the clock, and it's half past 3 in the morning.”
I’m not getting out of bed at this time," he thinks, and rolls over.
Then, a louder knock follows. So he drags himself out of bed, goes downstairs, opens the door, and there's a man standing there. I t didn't take the homeowner long to realize the man was drunk.
"Hi there," slurs the stranger, "Can you give me a push?"
"No, get lost. It's half past three and I was in bed," says the man as he slams the door.
He goes back up to bed and tell his wife what happened and she says, "That wasn't very nice of you. Remember that night we broke down in the pouring rain on the way to pick the kids up from the baby-sitter and you had to knock on that man's house to get us started again? What would have happened if he'd told us to get lost?"
"But the guy was drunk," says the husband.
"It doesn't matter," says the wife.” He needs our help and it would be the Christian thing to help him."
So the husband gets out of bed again, gets dressed, and goes downstairs.
He opens the door, and not being able to see the stranger anywhere, He shouts, "Hey, do you still want a push?"
And he hears a voice cry out, "Yeah, please."
So, still being unable to see the stranger he shouts, "Where are you?"
The drunk replies, "Over here, on the swing."
The husband rolls over and looks at the clock, and it's half past 3 in the morning.”
I’m not getting out of bed at this time," he thinks, and rolls over.
Then, a louder knock follows. So he drags himself out of bed, goes downstairs, opens the door, and there's a man standing there. I t didn't take the homeowner long to realize the man was drunk.
"Hi there," slurs the stranger, "Can you give me a push?"
"No, get lost. It's half past three and I was in bed," says the man as he slams the door.
He goes back up to bed and tell his wife what happened and she says, "That wasn't very nice of you. Remember that night we broke down in the pouring rain on the way to pick the kids up from the baby-sitter and you had to knock on that man's house to get us started again? What would have happened if he'd told us to get lost?"
"But the guy was drunk," says the husband.
"It doesn't matter," says the wife.” He needs our help and it would be the Christian thing to help him."
So the husband gets out of bed again, gets dressed, and goes downstairs.
He opens the door, and not being able to see the stranger anywhere, He shouts, "Hey, do you still want a push?"
And he hears a voice cry out, "Yeah, please."
So, still being unable to see the stranger he shouts, "Where are you?"
The drunk replies, "Over here, on the swing."
XC Tail lights
The XC sedan featured a modification of the XB style, splitting the lens horizontally with a chrome bar to fit in with the trim and fitting white reversing lights. Previously, Australian Fords used the rather unusual system of lighting both side indicator lamps for reversing lamps.
Whereas the hardtop remained the same as the XB, but painted black on some models.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Go ahead, Show those Pearly Whites
by Josh Hinds
Your smile can brighten the world around you. That's right, one of our most valuable assets is our smile. Think about it for a moment... I mean really think about it, your smile is the first opportunity you have to make a difference in the lives of those around you.
With one flash of your pearly whites you can cause a mini- chain reaction from that person, to the next person they come into contact with and so forth. While you may not change the world with one friendly gesture to a passerby, you will have a positive impact on them just the same -- and everything has to start somewhere doesn't it?
So with that said, I hope you'll make the conscious effort not to let this wonderful opportunity pass you by. Sure at times people might look at you a bit funny. However, all and all you'll be amazed at the effect that sharing your smile will bring about.
Best of all as I touched on before, you'll be making a positive impact on another person, who in turn is likely to do the same with the next person they come into contact with. It really can kick off a bit of a snowball effect.
In the end there's no way of knowing just how big an impact your simple act of kindness can have. Who knows... it might even make its way all the way back to you. Now that's exciting stuff, but it all starts with your decision to share that smile of yours -- so don't be stingy with it!
Put your smile to work, starting right now by setting out with the knowing that you have inside you the ability to positively impact those around you.
Your smile can brighten the world around you. That's right, one of our most valuable assets is our smile. Think about it for a moment... I mean really think about it, your smile is the first opportunity you have to make a difference in the lives of those around you.
With one flash of your pearly whites you can cause a mini- chain reaction from that person, to the next person they come into contact with and so forth. While you may not change the world with one friendly gesture to a passerby, you will have a positive impact on them just the same -- and everything has to start somewhere doesn't it?
So with that said, I hope you'll make the conscious effort not to let this wonderful opportunity pass you by. Sure at times people might look at you a bit funny. However, all and all you'll be amazed at the effect that sharing your smile will bring about.
Best of all as I touched on before, you'll be making a positive impact on another person, who in turn is likely to do the same with the next person they come into contact with. It really can kick off a bit of a snowball effect.
In the end there's no way of knowing just how big an impact your simple act of kindness can have. Who knows... it might even make its way all the way back to you. Now that's exciting stuff, but it all starts with your decision to share that smile of yours -- so don't be stingy with it!
Put your smile to work, starting right now by setting out with the knowing that you have inside you the ability to positively impact those around you.
Justice
A man and his wife were sitting in the living room discussing a “Living Will”.
"Just so you know, I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle. If that ever happens, just pull the plug."
His wife got up, unplugged the TV and threw out all the beer.
"Just so you know, I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle. If that ever happens, just pull the plug."
His wife got up, unplugged the TV and threw out all the beer.
XB Tail lights
Both of the XA designs, while very stylish, suffered problems from dirt and dust settling in the recess and reducing the effectiveness of the lamps, and were changed for the XB model.XB sedan.
And XB hardtop
Both versions are flush fitting, and on the sedan moved the indicator to the outside.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Best teachers get top marks from study.
Sydney Morning Herald, John Garnaut. May 21, 2007
SCHOOL students who have good teachers take half as long to learn their course material as those with poor teachers, new research shows. The report provides the first objective evidence of which teachers are adding value to the academic performance of their students - and which teachers are letting children down. "The top 10 per cent of teachers achieve in half a year what the bottom 10 per cent achieve in a full year," says the author, economist Andrew Leigh, of the Australian National University.
Dr Leigh tracked three years of numeracy and literacy exam scores for 90,000 primary school students and matched them against 10,000 teachers. Good teaching - measured by improvements in exam scores - has almost no relationship with teacher experience, qualifications or any of the criteria currently used by most schools to hire or reward teachers. Instead, the best teachers appear to be good at their jobs because of innate factors like personal drive, curiosity and ability to relate to students.
"Most of the differences between teachers are due to factors not captured on the payroll database," said Dr Leigh. The study shows female teachers are more likely to improve student literacy, while males are better at teaching maths. Surprisingly, it shows students in large classes performed better than those in small ones - although it doesn't claim a causative link. It also finds no positive effects of teacher qualifications on test scores, a finding which challenges the Federal Opposition's policy of paying teachers more for better academic qualifications rather than for observed ability.
The study is likely to receive a frosty reception from teacher unions and state education bureaucracies which say exam scores cannot be used to measure teacher quality. But it has been seized upon by private schools and the Federal Government. The executive director of the Association of Independent Schools of NSW, Geoff Newcombe, said Dr Leigh's "groundbreaking" findings paved the way for teachers to be partly rewarded by the exam score improvements of their students. "It's complex but we can't stick our head in the sand and say it's too hard," he said.
The Federal Education Minister, Julie Bishop, said the report supports her policy of introducing performance pay for teachers next year. "This makes a mockery of education union and Labor Party claims that teacher performance cannot be measured," she said. The schools data for Dr Leigh's study, which includes year 3 and 5 numeracy and literacy exam scores and information about individual teachers, was provided by the Queensland Education Department after NSW and Victoria had refused to make their information available. As well as being used to identify, reward and retain the best teachers, Dr Leigh says his methodology could be used to send the best teachers where they could contribute most. If indigenous students had teachers from the top quarter rather than the bottom, then the findings imply the two-year black-white test score gap could be closed within seven years.
SCHOOL students who have good teachers take half as long to learn their course material as those with poor teachers, new research shows. The report provides the first objective evidence of which teachers are adding value to the academic performance of their students - and which teachers are letting children down. "The top 10 per cent of teachers achieve in half a year what the bottom 10 per cent achieve in a full year," says the author, economist Andrew Leigh, of the Australian National University.
Dr Leigh tracked three years of numeracy and literacy exam scores for 90,000 primary school students and matched them against 10,000 teachers. Good teaching - measured by improvements in exam scores - has almost no relationship with teacher experience, qualifications or any of the criteria currently used by most schools to hire or reward teachers. Instead, the best teachers appear to be good at their jobs because of innate factors like personal drive, curiosity and ability to relate to students.
"Most of the differences between teachers are due to factors not captured on the payroll database," said Dr Leigh. The study shows female teachers are more likely to improve student literacy, while males are better at teaching maths. Surprisingly, it shows students in large classes performed better than those in small ones - although it doesn't claim a causative link. It also finds no positive effects of teacher qualifications on test scores, a finding which challenges the Federal Opposition's policy of paying teachers more for better academic qualifications rather than for observed ability.
The study is likely to receive a frosty reception from teacher unions and state education bureaucracies which say exam scores cannot be used to measure teacher quality. But it has been seized upon by private schools and the Federal Government. The executive director of the Association of Independent Schools of NSW, Geoff Newcombe, said Dr Leigh's "groundbreaking" findings paved the way for teachers to be partly rewarded by the exam score improvements of their students. "It's complex but we can't stick our head in the sand and say it's too hard," he said.
The Federal Education Minister, Julie Bishop, said the report supports her policy of introducing performance pay for teachers next year. "This makes a mockery of education union and Labor Party claims that teacher performance cannot be measured," she said. The schools data for Dr Leigh's study, which includes year 3 and 5 numeracy and literacy exam scores and information about individual teachers, was provided by the Queensland Education Department after NSW and Victoria had refused to make their information available. As well as being used to identify, reward and retain the best teachers, Dr Leigh says his methodology could be used to send the best teachers where they could contribute most. If indigenous students had teachers from the top quarter rather than the bottom, then the findings imply the two-year black-white test score gap could be closed within seven years.
Help
Pilot: Have you ever flown in a small plane before?
Passenger: No, I have not.
Pilot: Well, here is some chewing gum. It will help to keep your ears from popping.
Pilot (after the plane landed): Did the gum help?
Passenger: Yep. It worked fine. The only trouble is I can’t get the gum out of my ears.
Passenger: No, I have not.
Pilot: Well, here is some chewing gum. It will help to keep your ears from popping.
Pilot (after the plane landed): Did the gum help?
Passenger: Yep. It worked fine. The only trouble is I can’t get the gum out of my ears.
Tail lamps 2
The XA sedan had very stylised tail lamps, reminiscent of the U.S. Dodge Superbee with separate, prominent lenses.
The XA hardtop had integrated tail lamps, but the lenses were recessed and angled.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
School principals rethink merit pay
by Anna Patty Education Editor
NSW school principals are designing their own plan to reward quality teaching in defiance of the Federal Government's push to link performance pay to student results. The body representing 460 high school heads has rejected the Government's "ideologically driven" model. They are wary of Labor's alternative, saying it is still too thin on detail. The president of the NSW Secondary Principals Council, Jim McAlpine, said the council's plan would be "based on merit rather than performance".
"[The federal Minister for Education] Julie Bishop's performance pay is going to be based on results of students in tests and that is a very narrow performance measure," he said. "But teachers who take on additional responsibilities, who undertake additional professional learning, who contribute to the further development of other teachers, merit extra pay." From January 2008, first-year teachers in NSW Government schools will earn an annual salary of $50,250 and receive an increase each year for the following nine years up to $75,000. They will then receive no further increase unless they take up a position as a head teacher, deputy principal or principal.
Top principals earn $119,000. In all there are 21 pay points in teaching, based on merit, years of experience and school size. The principals suggest creating extra salary steps for teachers who, for example, complete master's degrees and use them to help their colleagues. This would recognise the collegiality of the profession, where a number of teachers may contribute to a pupil's development.
The state Minister for Education, John Della Bosca, has also said he is open to a system of merit pay not based on student results. Mr Della Bosca and his state and territory colleagues last month rejected Ms Bishop's proposal to pilot performance pay in schools from next year, saying they would develop their own plans. Since then, Ms Bishop has said schools will be rewarded with up to $50,000 for outstanding results in numeracy and literacy. Schools could divide the money among their best teachers.
Federal Labor has said it would reward quality teaching using a merit-based system that took into account extra qualifications, professional development and working in rural and remote areas. The Prime Minister, John Howard, has said that from 2009 he would tie Commonwealth funding to the states and territories to the introduction of performance pay for teachers, giving principals more autonomy to hire and fire and providing parents with more detailed information on school performance. That information should also include cases of bullying and violence. The principals' plan is separate to another being devised by the national teacher union, the Australian Education Union.
NSW school principals are designing their own plan to reward quality teaching in defiance of the Federal Government's push to link performance pay to student results. The body representing 460 high school heads has rejected the Government's "ideologically driven" model. They are wary of Labor's alternative, saying it is still too thin on detail. The president of the NSW Secondary Principals Council, Jim McAlpine, said the council's plan would be "based on merit rather than performance".
"[The federal Minister for Education] Julie Bishop's performance pay is going to be based on results of students in tests and that is a very narrow performance measure," he said. "But teachers who take on additional responsibilities, who undertake additional professional learning, who contribute to the further development of other teachers, merit extra pay." From January 2008, first-year teachers in NSW Government schools will earn an annual salary of $50,250 and receive an increase each year for the following nine years up to $75,000. They will then receive no further increase unless they take up a position as a head teacher, deputy principal or principal.
Top principals earn $119,000. In all there are 21 pay points in teaching, based on merit, years of experience and school size. The principals suggest creating extra salary steps for teachers who, for example, complete master's degrees and use them to help their colleagues. This would recognise the collegiality of the profession, where a number of teachers may contribute to a pupil's development.
The state Minister for Education, John Della Bosca, has also said he is open to a system of merit pay not based on student results. Mr Della Bosca and his state and territory colleagues last month rejected Ms Bishop's proposal to pilot performance pay in schools from next year, saying they would develop their own plans. Since then, Ms Bishop has said schools will be rewarded with up to $50,000 for outstanding results in numeracy and literacy. Schools could divide the money among their best teachers.
Federal Labor has said it would reward quality teaching using a merit-based system that took into account extra qualifications, professional development and working in rural and remote areas. The Prime Minister, John Howard, has said that from 2009 he would tie Commonwealth funding to the states and territories to the introduction of performance pay for teachers, giving principals more autonomy to hire and fire and providing parents with more detailed information on school performance. That information should also include cases of bullying and violence. The principals' plan is separate to another being devised by the national teacher union, the Australian Education Union.
Tail lamps
To accomodate the changes in the styling of the cars, and to conform to new lighting regulations, the tail lamps of the XA, XB and XC altered through the years also.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Learning From What Doesn't Work
Gay Ivey and Douglas Fisher
Older students can read with enthusiasm and understanding, especially when teachers avoid ineffective practices that promote disengagement.
Educators are flooding the professional learning community with requests for strategies that work to improve reading comprehension in the upper-elementary and secondary grades. In these achievement-driven times, we want to know what works best to raise test scores, improve comprehension, and motivate students to read. The answers are not simple for most students, particularly for older students still learning about literacy. The needs of adolescent readers are complex and varied (Ivey, 1999), even within specific cultural groups (Alvermann, 2001) and linguistic groups (Rubinstein-Avila, 2003–2004). To make blanket assertions about what works for all students would be misguided and shortsighted.
Getting to the bottom of older readers' comprehension and motivation difficulties requires careful, ongoing assessment of instructional practices and students' literacy needs. We believe, like Guthrie and Wigfield (1997), that real engagement in reading is not the product of strategies alone but a fusion of self-efficacy, interest, and strategic knowledge.
What we can report with more certainty are common practices that create barriers to engaged reading and comprehension development. We invite you to consider five ineffective strategies for developing reading comprehension in older students. Before asking “What works?”, it might help to ask “What doesn't work?”
Ineffective Strategy 1: Don't let students read.
A new high school principal “put an end to reading” and gave back to teachers time formerly used for Sustained Silent Reading. He warned teachers that students should be “focused on the instruction at hand” rather than “sitting around reading” during class time. In a discussion about these policy changes, the principal explained, “Students have to be taught. We need more time focused on direct instruction.”
During the next two years, book circulation rates at the high school library plummeted, and the school's overall achievement on the content standards tests declined. Teachers understood why taking away students' time to “just read” might have resulted in a decline in reading scores, but they were shocked that scores sagged in history and science as well.
Compare this with the approach of principal Doug Williams, a former math teacher. He announced to the faculty of Hoover High School, “If we are going to teach our students to read, we need to provide them with opportunities to read.” He allocated 20 minutes each day for Sustained Silent Reading and provided his staff with the resources and professional development necessary to ensure that students had time to read books of their choice (Fisher, 2004).
The result? Hoover has met state accountability targets, and students' average reading level as measured by the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test has risen from 4.3 to 7.2. Although the independent reading initiative cannot take full credit for this, Hoover teachers credit the Sustained Silent Reading time with a significant portion of the increased achievement.
In addition to such schoolwide approaches as a formal Sustained Silent Reading period (Pilgreen, 2000), providing students with time for independent reading during content-area classes increases their motivation, background knowledge, and vocabulary. In fact, students report that having time to read actually affords them the opportunity to think and comprehend (Ivey & Broaddus, 2001). How many years of piano, tennis, or driving practice do we need to excel at those skills?
We often hear the argument that we should focus on the basic skills, even in high school, before using valuable instructional time to let students read. We know of programs for struggling readers that emphasize word-level reading skills for several years to the exclusion of real reading. This kind of instruction certainly helps students read words more accurately, but it doesn't necessarily equate to improved reading comprehension, nor does it increase student motivation to read. Students need instruction, but mostly they need opportunities to negotiate real texts for real purposes. For example, 7th grader Manuel struggled to read materials above the 2nd grade level, but he became more skilled and motivated to read when his teacher found easy books for him to read and Web sites for him to peruse on platypuses and leopards, two animals that had piqued his interest in science class.
Ineffective Strategy 2: Make students read what they don't know about and don't care about.
Insisting that every student needs to read enduring works of literature, Ms. Prewitt distributes a copy of Things Fall Apart (Achebe, 1958) to each of her students, along with a packet that requires the students to summarize each chapter, identify the characters, and respond to specific prompts.
With no background knowledge and little interest in the book, students read one chapter each night for homework. They complete the assigned section of the packet before discussing the chapter in class. The book takes several weeks to complete; students rush to catch up on the packet work on the final day. One student uses CliffsNotes to hurriedly complete his packet; another student copies from a peer. When asked about the book, Anthony admits, “I don't know what it was about, really. All we had to do was this” (he shows the packet). When asked, “Did you make any connections between this book and your own life?”, Anthony confesses, “I barely read it. I just searched for the answers. Man, it's not like I need to know this.”
Alternatively, Mr. Jackson, a history teacher, was discussing the Reformation with his students. Each student had selected a book from a wide range of texts on the topic and appeared interested in the subject at hand. When asked how he engaged his students, Mr. Jackson replied,
You build on what they know and on what they care about. You also give them books to choose from so they can extend what they know.
Observing this classroom at work revealed a number of practices ensuring that students comprehended the content. First, Mr. Jackson used a wide range of texts and media to inundate students with intriguing information about the topic, drawing also from contemporary issues that would help students see connections between history and events currently happening in their world and in their personal lives. As students worked on generating questions for a game simulation, they reviewed their individual readings from the textbook and several trade books as well as their notes from class lectures, discussions, and a video that they had watched.
One page of Daveen's notes focused on the role of the Pope. Daveen's conversation with us confirmed his interest in and comprehension of the subject. After Daveen explained to us the role of the Catholic Church during the Reformation and the process of selecting a Pope, we asked whether he realized that the Pope had just died. “Yeah,” he said. “I watched it on TV. I'm not Catholic, but it was cool to see history being repeated.” When asked whether he planned to watch the Pope's funeral on television the next day, Daveen grinned and said, “Oh yeah, I'll watch it. You know, Elvis holds that record [for the biggest funeral in history]. I hope the Pope doesn't beat out the King.”
Students can find curriculum-based topics interesting, and they can comprehend what they read in school. Unfortunately, we do not always use texts and methods that highlight what is interesting about the subjects that we teach. Think about how much more compelling students would find a study of genetics, for example, if we used trade books to connect the topic to the fascinating details of solving crimes (Silent Witness, Ferllini, 2002) or of multiple births (Twin Tales: The Magic and Mystery of Multiple Birth, Jackson, 2001).
We are not saying that students shouldn't read the great, enduring works of literature, nor that they should read only adolescent fiction. We are simply wondering whether a whole class needs to read the same book at the same time and whether this practice tends to produce engaged, interested students who are extending their knowledge.
Teachers who understand their students' backgrounds, prior knowledge, interests, and motivations are much more likely to make the connections that adolescents crave. Although volumes have been written on the importance of and strategies for building background knowledge (Marzano, 2004), good teachers understand that making their content relevant also matters. Studies further suggest that we must provide students with opportunities to draw from what they already know—popular culture and media, for example—so they can more easily learn new information (Goodson & Norton-Meier, 2003).
Ineffective Strategy 3: Make students read difficult books.
Four students of various reading levels sit in a cluster to read together Camus' The Guest from their 12th grade literature anthology. Three of these students take turns reading; one follows along. When they reach predetermined places in the story, they stop to take stock of their understanding using the guidelines set forth in a popular strategy known as reciprocal teaching (Palincsar & Brown, 1984), in which students (1) summarize the section, (2) clarify confusing parts, (3) ask questions, and (4) predict what will come next.
Each student takes responsibility for one part of the process. The three students who volunteered for the oral reading fulfill their roles productively in the intermittent discussions. This strategy appears to help these students make sense of what they read as they move through the text. The fourth student, who is designated as the person to ask a clarification question, seems timid and confused when it is her turn to talk.
When she is finally convinced to take a turn reading aloud, it is clear that the text is far beyond her comfort level. In a paragraph of roughly 150 words, she misreads mused, circumstances, alliance, fraternized, fatigue, essential, and musings, and she takes a substantial amount of time to figure out fluttered, presence, imposing, ancient, community, armor, and heavier. Even with such solid scaffolding as reciprocal teaching, the difficulty of this text makes comprehension too much of a challenge for this student.
If we want students to comprehend what they read, we must begin by letting them experience texts that make sense to them. Unfortunately, we hear of school districts that have declared that to get students reading at grade level, all students must practice reading in grade-level texts exclusively: “The test is written at an 8th grade level, so students have to learn how to read 8th grade passages!” We know of no student who got better at reading by reading books that were too difficult for him, and we know of no student reading at a 4th grade level who learned to read at an 8th grade level by reading only 8th grade-level books.
Ineffective Strategy 4: Interrogate students about what they read.
An 8th grade English teacher begins class with the proclamation. “Today, we are focusing on comprehension.” Any observer can see that this is indeed the intention because one of the state curriculum standards dealing with comprehension is written prominently on the chalkboard. “You need to know how to comprehend what you read on the state test coming up in April,” the teacher explains. With no further discussion, she asks for a volunteer to begin reading aloud from I Had Seen Castles (Rylant, 1993).
Some students follow along as their classmate reads, while others stare out the window, work on assignments for other classes, or whisper to a neighbouring student. After several paragraphs, the teacher interrupts: “Can somebody explain what is happening so far?” After three students fail to adequately summarize the story, the teacher throws out a series of literal-level comprehension questions. Facing blank stares from the students, she ends up giving her own summary. This cycle of assigning the reading, questioning, coming up short, and summarizing continues for the rest of the class period.
Now consider a 6th grade small-group reading of Welcome to Dead House (Stine, 1995). As students read, the teacher interrupts with, “I wonder what those noises are in the house? When I have questions like this, it sometimes helps me to look back in the chapter.” Before she can finish her thought, several students yell out, “The voices are from dead people!” The teacher goes on to tell students that she has seen movies in which the ghost of a person who once lived in a house communicates with the current residents. A student muses, “I wonder whether this ghost will be like Casper.” Students and teacher negotiate the text together.
Despite the long-standing practice of literal-level questioning after reading, we have no reason to believe it actually creates better readers. People often confuse teaching comprehension skills with testing comprehension. This common practice persists in schools despite decades of research indicating that comprehension is a proactive, continual process of using prior knowledge, metacognitive awareness, and reflection to make sense of a text.
When adults think back to what reading comprehension meant when they were in elementary school, they may recall workbook pages that required them to “find the main idea” for a series of unrelated short passages. If you were asked to find the main idea enough times on your own, the thinking went, you would eventually figure out how to do it. We now realize that specific strategies can help students determine what is important in the texts they read and how they can be more strategic before, during, and after the reading so that understanding texts is not such a mystery (Duffy, 2002).
In our work across the United States, we consistently find that many teachers have not yet had the opportunity to study the nature of reading comprehension, even their own. Most new curriculum materials for teaching reading include a focus on strategies, but these materials may not always provide teachers with the theoretical underpinnings of reading processes and of effective comprehension instruction. A good start in the shift from interrogation to teaching would be a schoolwide professional development study of reading comprehension.
Ineffective Strategy 5: Buy a computer program and let it do all the work.
Enter the skills lab. Students wearing headphones sit at their terminals. They look engaged in the task at hand, and they click away on the keyboard and mouse as their teacher wanders around the room. The school recently purchased a reading comprehension program that promises a “complete solution” to the reading needs of struggling adolescents. During the sales presentation, the administrator was told that the program was “teacher-proof” and that students would improve their test scores in a matter of weeks.
But let's take a closer look. As we join Taheen at his monitor, we see that he has the reading program running in one window and a chat room running in another. He periodically glances up from the chat room to answer a computer-generated comprehension question. He gets all the answers right and doesn't seem to be trying. At the computer across from Taheen, Fernando is getting frustrated. He doesn't know the answer, and the computer is unable to offer him any help.
In another classroom, we join Ryan and Clay, two 8th grade students who are most comfortable reading 1st grade-level texts, such as Spider Names (Canizares, 1998) and Tiny Terrors (Kenah, 2004). Although these books are easy-to-read nonfiction, they nevertheless include information that even older readers would find fascinating.
The teacher capitalizes on the students' background knowledge by having them talk as they work on their current project. They are dictating to her a story to accompany an intriguing illustration from the wordless picture book The Mysteries of Harris Burdick (Van Allsburg, 1984). They debate the most interesting word choices (for example, hurt as opposed to devastated) while their teacher acts as scribe. They are eager and able to reread this lengthy and complex story—written in their own words—and revise it to make it more interesting and grammatically accurate. Their teacher explains certain conventions of language and draws their attention to literary devices that other authors use as they write. For example, when the boys decide that they need to let readers know early in the story that something bad is going to happen, the teacher locates several picture books that include examples of foreshadowing. This not only gives the students ideas for their own writing but also inspires them to recognize this tool in their strategic reading. This teacher is indispensable.
Although computers and Web sites may reinforce skills, they can't provide the specific feedback that students require. Intervention programs need to increase, not decrease, teacher involvement (Ivey & Fisher, in press). In addition, intervention programs—computerized or not—must be based on assessment information and provide students with reading comprehension instruction rather than focus on a single aspect of reading or writing, such as phonics, fluency, or spelling.
What It Will Take
Improving reading comprehension and instruction in the upper-elementary and secondary grades will require a great deal of time and effort. There is no magical set of strategies you can get from an inservice workshop. Real changes in literacy learning and teaching will most likely result from a schoolwide literacy plan and strong leadership (Ivey & Fisher, in press).
Bringing about such a change means devoting resources to literacy-related personnel and to large volumes of high-quality, diverse, multileveled reading materials in all subject areas. It requires a commitment to providing literacy assessments of all students for the purpose of designing purposeful and appropriate instruction. It means creating a culture of collaboration and peer coaching. Finally, it requires that professional development focus on building teacher knowledge and expertise.
Is this a tall order for schools when the immediate need is to improve their current students' reading comprehension? Absolutely. But we are doing struggling students no favor when we perpetuate strategies that do not work.
Older students can read with enthusiasm and understanding, especially when teachers avoid ineffective practices that promote disengagement.
Educators are flooding the professional learning community with requests for strategies that work to improve reading comprehension in the upper-elementary and secondary grades. In these achievement-driven times, we want to know what works best to raise test scores, improve comprehension, and motivate students to read. The answers are not simple for most students, particularly for older students still learning about literacy. The needs of adolescent readers are complex and varied (Ivey, 1999), even within specific cultural groups (Alvermann, 2001) and linguistic groups (Rubinstein-Avila, 2003–2004). To make blanket assertions about what works for all students would be misguided and shortsighted.
Getting to the bottom of older readers' comprehension and motivation difficulties requires careful, ongoing assessment of instructional practices and students' literacy needs. We believe, like Guthrie and Wigfield (1997), that real engagement in reading is not the product of strategies alone but a fusion of self-efficacy, interest, and strategic knowledge.
What we can report with more certainty are common practices that create barriers to engaged reading and comprehension development. We invite you to consider five ineffective strategies for developing reading comprehension in older students. Before asking “What works?”, it might help to ask “What doesn't work?”
Ineffective Strategy 1: Don't let students read.
A new high school principal “put an end to reading” and gave back to teachers time formerly used for Sustained Silent Reading. He warned teachers that students should be “focused on the instruction at hand” rather than “sitting around reading” during class time. In a discussion about these policy changes, the principal explained, “Students have to be taught. We need more time focused on direct instruction.”
During the next two years, book circulation rates at the high school library plummeted, and the school's overall achievement on the content standards tests declined. Teachers understood why taking away students' time to “just read” might have resulted in a decline in reading scores, but they were shocked that scores sagged in history and science as well.
Compare this with the approach of principal Doug Williams, a former math teacher. He announced to the faculty of Hoover High School, “If we are going to teach our students to read, we need to provide them with opportunities to read.” He allocated 20 minutes each day for Sustained Silent Reading and provided his staff with the resources and professional development necessary to ensure that students had time to read books of their choice (Fisher, 2004).
The result? Hoover has met state accountability targets, and students' average reading level as measured by the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test has risen from 4.3 to 7.2. Although the independent reading initiative cannot take full credit for this, Hoover teachers credit the Sustained Silent Reading time with a significant portion of the increased achievement.
In addition to such schoolwide approaches as a formal Sustained Silent Reading period (Pilgreen, 2000), providing students with time for independent reading during content-area classes increases their motivation, background knowledge, and vocabulary. In fact, students report that having time to read actually affords them the opportunity to think and comprehend (Ivey & Broaddus, 2001). How many years of piano, tennis, or driving practice do we need to excel at those skills?
We often hear the argument that we should focus on the basic skills, even in high school, before using valuable instructional time to let students read. We know of programs for struggling readers that emphasize word-level reading skills for several years to the exclusion of real reading. This kind of instruction certainly helps students read words more accurately, but it doesn't necessarily equate to improved reading comprehension, nor does it increase student motivation to read. Students need instruction, but mostly they need opportunities to negotiate real texts for real purposes. For example, 7th grader Manuel struggled to read materials above the 2nd grade level, but he became more skilled and motivated to read when his teacher found easy books for him to read and Web sites for him to peruse on platypuses and leopards, two animals that had piqued his interest in science class.
Ineffective Strategy 2: Make students read what they don't know about and don't care about.
Insisting that every student needs to read enduring works of literature, Ms. Prewitt distributes a copy of Things Fall Apart (Achebe, 1958) to each of her students, along with a packet that requires the students to summarize each chapter, identify the characters, and respond to specific prompts.
With no background knowledge and little interest in the book, students read one chapter each night for homework. They complete the assigned section of the packet before discussing the chapter in class. The book takes several weeks to complete; students rush to catch up on the packet work on the final day. One student uses CliffsNotes to hurriedly complete his packet; another student copies from a peer. When asked about the book, Anthony admits, “I don't know what it was about, really. All we had to do was this” (he shows the packet). When asked, “Did you make any connections between this book and your own life?”, Anthony confesses, “I barely read it. I just searched for the answers. Man, it's not like I need to know this.”
Alternatively, Mr. Jackson, a history teacher, was discussing the Reformation with his students. Each student had selected a book from a wide range of texts on the topic and appeared interested in the subject at hand. When asked how he engaged his students, Mr. Jackson replied,
You build on what they know and on what they care about. You also give them books to choose from so they can extend what they know.
Observing this classroom at work revealed a number of practices ensuring that students comprehended the content. First, Mr. Jackson used a wide range of texts and media to inundate students with intriguing information about the topic, drawing also from contemporary issues that would help students see connections between history and events currently happening in their world and in their personal lives. As students worked on generating questions for a game simulation, they reviewed their individual readings from the textbook and several trade books as well as their notes from class lectures, discussions, and a video that they had watched.
One page of Daveen's notes focused on the role of the Pope. Daveen's conversation with us confirmed his interest in and comprehension of the subject. After Daveen explained to us the role of the Catholic Church during the Reformation and the process of selecting a Pope, we asked whether he realized that the Pope had just died. “Yeah,” he said. “I watched it on TV. I'm not Catholic, but it was cool to see history being repeated.” When asked whether he planned to watch the Pope's funeral on television the next day, Daveen grinned and said, “Oh yeah, I'll watch it. You know, Elvis holds that record [for the biggest funeral in history]. I hope the Pope doesn't beat out the King.”
Students can find curriculum-based topics interesting, and they can comprehend what they read in school. Unfortunately, we do not always use texts and methods that highlight what is interesting about the subjects that we teach. Think about how much more compelling students would find a study of genetics, for example, if we used trade books to connect the topic to the fascinating details of solving crimes (Silent Witness, Ferllini, 2002) or of multiple births (Twin Tales: The Magic and Mystery of Multiple Birth, Jackson, 2001).
We are not saying that students shouldn't read the great, enduring works of literature, nor that they should read only adolescent fiction. We are simply wondering whether a whole class needs to read the same book at the same time and whether this practice tends to produce engaged, interested students who are extending their knowledge.
Teachers who understand their students' backgrounds, prior knowledge, interests, and motivations are much more likely to make the connections that adolescents crave. Although volumes have been written on the importance of and strategies for building background knowledge (Marzano, 2004), good teachers understand that making their content relevant also matters. Studies further suggest that we must provide students with opportunities to draw from what they already know—popular culture and media, for example—so they can more easily learn new information (Goodson & Norton-Meier, 2003).
Ineffective Strategy 3: Make students read difficult books.
Four students of various reading levels sit in a cluster to read together Camus' The Guest from their 12th grade literature anthology. Three of these students take turns reading; one follows along. When they reach predetermined places in the story, they stop to take stock of their understanding using the guidelines set forth in a popular strategy known as reciprocal teaching (Palincsar & Brown, 1984), in which students (1) summarize the section, (2) clarify confusing parts, (3) ask questions, and (4) predict what will come next.
Each student takes responsibility for one part of the process. The three students who volunteered for the oral reading fulfill their roles productively in the intermittent discussions. This strategy appears to help these students make sense of what they read as they move through the text. The fourth student, who is designated as the person to ask a clarification question, seems timid and confused when it is her turn to talk.
When she is finally convinced to take a turn reading aloud, it is clear that the text is far beyond her comfort level. In a paragraph of roughly 150 words, she misreads mused, circumstances, alliance, fraternized, fatigue, essential, and musings, and she takes a substantial amount of time to figure out fluttered, presence, imposing, ancient, community, armor, and heavier. Even with such solid scaffolding as reciprocal teaching, the difficulty of this text makes comprehension too much of a challenge for this student.
If we want students to comprehend what they read, we must begin by letting them experience texts that make sense to them. Unfortunately, we hear of school districts that have declared that to get students reading at grade level, all students must practice reading in grade-level texts exclusively: “The test is written at an 8th grade level, so students have to learn how to read 8th grade passages!” We know of no student who got better at reading by reading books that were too difficult for him, and we know of no student reading at a 4th grade level who learned to read at an 8th grade level by reading only 8th grade-level books.
Ineffective Strategy 4: Interrogate students about what they read.
An 8th grade English teacher begins class with the proclamation. “Today, we are focusing on comprehension.” Any observer can see that this is indeed the intention because one of the state curriculum standards dealing with comprehension is written prominently on the chalkboard. “You need to know how to comprehend what you read on the state test coming up in April,” the teacher explains. With no further discussion, she asks for a volunteer to begin reading aloud from I Had Seen Castles (Rylant, 1993).
Some students follow along as their classmate reads, while others stare out the window, work on assignments for other classes, or whisper to a neighbouring student. After several paragraphs, the teacher interrupts: “Can somebody explain what is happening so far?” After three students fail to adequately summarize the story, the teacher throws out a series of literal-level comprehension questions. Facing blank stares from the students, she ends up giving her own summary. This cycle of assigning the reading, questioning, coming up short, and summarizing continues for the rest of the class period.
Now consider a 6th grade small-group reading of Welcome to Dead House (Stine, 1995). As students read, the teacher interrupts with, “I wonder what those noises are in the house? When I have questions like this, it sometimes helps me to look back in the chapter.” Before she can finish her thought, several students yell out, “The voices are from dead people!” The teacher goes on to tell students that she has seen movies in which the ghost of a person who once lived in a house communicates with the current residents. A student muses, “I wonder whether this ghost will be like Casper.” Students and teacher negotiate the text together.
Despite the long-standing practice of literal-level questioning after reading, we have no reason to believe it actually creates better readers. People often confuse teaching comprehension skills with testing comprehension. This common practice persists in schools despite decades of research indicating that comprehension is a proactive, continual process of using prior knowledge, metacognitive awareness, and reflection to make sense of a text.
When adults think back to what reading comprehension meant when they were in elementary school, they may recall workbook pages that required them to “find the main idea” for a series of unrelated short passages. If you were asked to find the main idea enough times on your own, the thinking went, you would eventually figure out how to do it. We now realize that specific strategies can help students determine what is important in the texts they read and how they can be more strategic before, during, and after the reading so that understanding texts is not such a mystery (Duffy, 2002).
In our work across the United States, we consistently find that many teachers have not yet had the opportunity to study the nature of reading comprehension, even their own. Most new curriculum materials for teaching reading include a focus on strategies, but these materials may not always provide teachers with the theoretical underpinnings of reading processes and of effective comprehension instruction. A good start in the shift from interrogation to teaching would be a schoolwide professional development study of reading comprehension.
Ineffective Strategy 5: Buy a computer program and let it do all the work.
Enter the skills lab. Students wearing headphones sit at their terminals. They look engaged in the task at hand, and they click away on the keyboard and mouse as their teacher wanders around the room. The school recently purchased a reading comprehension program that promises a “complete solution” to the reading needs of struggling adolescents. During the sales presentation, the administrator was told that the program was “teacher-proof” and that students would improve their test scores in a matter of weeks.
But let's take a closer look. As we join Taheen at his monitor, we see that he has the reading program running in one window and a chat room running in another. He periodically glances up from the chat room to answer a computer-generated comprehension question. He gets all the answers right and doesn't seem to be trying. At the computer across from Taheen, Fernando is getting frustrated. He doesn't know the answer, and the computer is unable to offer him any help.
In another classroom, we join Ryan and Clay, two 8th grade students who are most comfortable reading 1st grade-level texts, such as Spider Names (Canizares, 1998) and Tiny Terrors (Kenah, 2004). Although these books are easy-to-read nonfiction, they nevertheless include information that even older readers would find fascinating.
The teacher capitalizes on the students' background knowledge by having them talk as they work on their current project. They are dictating to her a story to accompany an intriguing illustration from the wordless picture book The Mysteries of Harris Burdick (Van Allsburg, 1984). They debate the most interesting word choices (for example, hurt as opposed to devastated) while their teacher acts as scribe. They are eager and able to reread this lengthy and complex story—written in their own words—and revise it to make it more interesting and grammatically accurate. Their teacher explains certain conventions of language and draws their attention to literary devices that other authors use as they write. For example, when the boys decide that they need to let readers know early in the story that something bad is going to happen, the teacher locates several picture books that include examples of foreshadowing. This not only gives the students ideas for their own writing but also inspires them to recognize this tool in their strategic reading. This teacher is indispensable.
Although computers and Web sites may reinforce skills, they can't provide the specific feedback that students require. Intervention programs need to increase, not decrease, teacher involvement (Ivey & Fisher, in press). In addition, intervention programs—computerized or not—must be based on assessment information and provide students with reading comprehension instruction rather than focus on a single aspect of reading or writing, such as phonics, fluency, or spelling.
What It Will Take
Improving reading comprehension and instruction in the upper-elementary and secondary grades will require a great deal of time and effort. There is no magical set of strategies you can get from an inservice workshop. Real changes in literacy learning and teaching will most likely result from a schoolwide literacy plan and strong leadership (Ivey & Fisher, in press).
Bringing about such a change means devoting resources to literacy-related personnel and to large volumes of high-quality, diverse, multileveled reading materials in all subject areas. It requires a commitment to providing literacy assessments of all students for the purpose of designing purposeful and appropriate instruction. It means creating a culture of collaboration and peer coaching. Finally, it requires that professional development focus on building teacher knowledge and expertise.
Is this a tall order for schools when the immediate need is to improve their current students' reading comprehension? Absolutely. But we are doing struggling students no favor when we perpetuate strategies that do not work.
You see this ant?
A man was sent to prison for 20 years. He was so bored while in there; he found an ant and decided to teach it tricks - like beg, play dead, roll over, jump hair etc. He served his time and was released. He took his ant with him in a matchbox. The first place he went was to a bar. He sat down, took out the matchbox and emptied out the ant. He then said to the guy beside him, "you are not gonna believe what this ant can do".
He showed him all the tricks and the guy was impressed. He told him that he could make a fortune with the ant. The guy with the ant was excited and called the bartender over and said "you see that ant?" The bartender put his finger on the ant, twisted it and said "sorry sir it won't happen again."
He showed him all the tricks and the guy was impressed. He told him that he could make a fortune with the ant. The guy with the ant was excited and called the bartender over and said "you see that ant?" The bartender put his finger on the ant, twisted it and said "sorry sir it won't happen again."
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