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The knowledge teachers in an elementary school had of constructivist principles in the context of standards-based teaching and assessment was investigated and then addressed through a graduate-level course developed by the researcher. The knowledge level of the teachers was studied through interviews, classroom observations, and responses of 46 teachers to a Scale of Constructivist Approaches developed and administered by the researcher. The researcher then developed and implemented a practicum as a three-credit graduate level course through a local college accompanied by the development of a training and mentoring presentation on CD-ROM. Analysis of the data for the 16 teachers who completed the course and the 7 who continued in the 5-month training and mentoring project that followed the course indicated that after the course and the subsequent training and mentoring, participants were able to use effective questioning strategies to prompt student use of metacognitive strategies and use varied questioning levels to address the needs of all learners. They were able to prepare adequate assessment prototypes promoting higher level thinking skills and to prepare standards-based assessment instruments within a constructivist framework. Participants indicated improvement in their ability to apply constructivist principles to their standards-based classrooms. Seven appendixes contain supplemental information about the practicum, including the initial survey. (SLD)

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