Downloads & Free Reading Options - Results

A project was undertaken to create a community of caring, interdependent, intrinsically motivated learners among 21 freshmen students in a community college preservice teacher preparation seminar. Interviews with students at the beginning of the seminar had revealed that most viewed the classroom as individualistic, competitive, and threatening and that all students disagreed with the top-down hierarchical structure. Methods used to create the learning community included allowing students autonomy regarding covering the student syllabus; setting a schedule for student-instructor contacts outside of class for informal discussions, tutoring, and feedback; forming a student advisory committee to create a strong peer culture that perceived teaching as a shared enterprise; and developing collegiality and social skills through cooperative learning groups. To gauge student responses and the level of community formed, students were asked to keep journals and structured, open question interviews were conducted with all 21 students in the 12th session. Analysis of journals in the 6th and 12th sessions indicated that 6 out of 7 students recognized the transformation of the seminar into a community of learners. Similarly, journal entries and interviews revealed that all students felt empowered by the two-way communication system between themselves and the college through the advisory committee and instructor. A self-evaluation instrument, the syllabus, a reflection rubric, and a social skills checklist are appended. (KP)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert