Education: Teaching Reading Through Comic Books and Preparing Your Classroom for the Future (all grades)

New ways to teach reading, taking a look at the history behind our education system, futurizing your classroom, and assessment based education.

Adventures in Graphica: Using Comics and Graphic Novels to Teach Comprehension, Grades 2-6 (BOOK): by Terry Thompson

Comic books and graphic novels, known collectively as "graphica," have long been popular with teenagers and adults. Recently graphica has grown in popularity with younger readers as well, motivating and engaging some of our most reluctant readers who often shun traditional texts. While some teachers have become curious about graphica's potential, many are confused by the overwhelming number of new titles and series, in both fiction and nonfiction, and are unsure of its suitability and function in their classrooms.

Drawing on his own success using graphica with elementary students, literacy coach Terry Thompson introduces reading teachers to this popular medium and suggests sources of appropriate graphica for the classroom and for particular students. Taking cues from research that supports the use of graphica with students, Terry shows how this exciting medium fits into the literacy framework and correlates with best practices in comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency instruction. Adventures in Graphica contains numerous, easy-to-replicate, instructional strategies, including examples of how graphic texts can be used to create a bridge as students transfer abstract comprehension strategies learned through comics and graphic novels to traditional texts.

American Education: A History (BOOK): by Wayne J. Urban and Jennings L. Wagoner, Jr.

Now in its fourth edition, American Education: A History is the best general history of American education in print today. With twelve chapters containing material ranging from Native American education in pre-colonial America to the advent of No Child Left Behind at the turn of the twenty-first-century, Urban and Wagoner’s textbook presents a comprehensive survey of American educational history that is unparalleled.--Jeffrey Aaron Snyder, Education Review, September 2009

Anticipate the School You Want: Futurizing K-12 Education (BOOK): by Arthur B. Shostak

How can you make sure that your classroom and students stay ahead of the curve? Anticipating can help your class be an effective propulsion point in the lives of students. As a teacher, our abilities to adapt will translate into our student’s quality of education.

Assessment-Centered Teaching: A Reflective Practice (BOOK): by Kathryn DiRanna

"All assessment is formative-what a great idea! Here's a resource to take you from good assessment ideas to good assessment practices. Building on the work of many assessment and professional development experts, DiRanna and her colleagues have created a reasoned and realistic guide to assessment-centered teaching that is grounded in the realities of the classroom and that aspires to greater student learning." –Elizabeth K. Stage, Director, Lawrence Hall of Science

"An excellent and timely resource for administrators, teachers, teacher educators, and inservice professionals. This book sheds light on the all-too-often missing link in teaching and learning: formative assessment. Applicable across subject areas and grade levels, this resource provides a very helpful balance of educational vision and rationale, practical tools and procedural guidance, and compelling stories of transformed instruction in teachers’ own words."—Pamela Aschbacher, Director of Research and Evaluation

"Makes practical the notion that teaching, learning, and assessment go hand-in-hand. Good teaching activities make good assessment tasks and vice versa. The reflective practitioner, as envisioned in this book, uses assessment information to re-engage students and move them along a progression of learning. This is a valuable book for practitioners who wish to improve their teaching and their students’ learning, and for researchers concerned with putting ideas of formative assessment into teaching practice.”—Richard J. Shavelson, Margaret Jack Professor of Education

Nutrition: Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism: Fat and Finland?

Full issues of electronic journals available in EBSCO. The August 2009 Supplement 1. Vol. 54 is focused on the importance of fat. These recent surveys, studies and discoveries in this journal are shaping how we will think and act towards the consumption of fat.


Fat and Heart Disease: Yes We Can Make a Change – The Case of North Karelia (Finland).

The exceptionally high mortality from cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the Finnish population in the 1970s ensued the initiation of preventive health interventions, which were first started in the Province of North Karelia and later on extended to all other regions of Finland. Their aim was to change population diets, especially with respect to the quality of fat: to reduce saturated and increase unsaturated fat intake. In addition, emphasis was placed on increased vegetable intake and salt reduction. The aim of this paper was to illustrate the effect of combined efforts of several stakeholders on CVD.

Consumer Perception and Insights on Fats and Fatty Acids: Knowledge on the Quality of Diet Fat.

Research indicates that consumers do not understand dietary fat, either the importance of the quality or the quantity of fats needed for health. Previous consumer surveys suggest the priority placed on fat in various nutrition communications (i.e., low fat or reduction in fats) has contributed to this confusion. Methods: This consumer study was carried out in 16 countries in two waves, investigating in total 6,426 subjects. The survey was conducted by phone, internet and face-to-face interviews, depending on the acceptable method for the population. Participants, aged 18–70 years, were the main family shopper.

Foods with a High Fat Quality Are Essential for Healthy Diets.

Fat is generally a highly valued element of the diet to provide energy, palatability to dry foods or to serve as a cooking medium. However, some foods rich in fat have a low fat quality with respect to nutrition, i.e., a relative high content of saturated (SFA) as compared to unsaturated fatty acids, whereas others have a more desirable fat quality, i.e., a relative high content of unsaturated fatty acids as compared to SFA. High-fat dairy products and fatty meats are examples of foods with low fat quality, whereas vegetable oils (tropical oils such as palm and coconut oil excluded) are products with a generally high fat quality. The aim of this paper is to explore the nutritional impact of products made of vegetable oils, e.g. margarines and dressings, and how they can be designed to contribute to good health. Since their first industrial production, the food industry has endeavored to improve products like margarines, including their nutritional characteristics. With evolving nutrition science, margarines and cooking products, and to a lesser extent dressings, have been adapted to contain less trans fatty acids (TFA), less SFA and more essential (polyunsaturated, PUFA) fatty acids. This has been possible by using careful fat and oil selection and modification processes. By blending vegetable oils rich in the essential PUFAs α-linolenic acid (vegetable omega–3) or linoleic acid (omega–6), margarines and dressings with both essential fatty acids present in significant quantities can be realized. In addition, full hydrogenation and fat rearrangement have enabled the production of cost-effective margarines virtually devoid of TFA and low in SFA. Dietary surveys indicate that vegetable oils, soft margarines and dressings are indeed often important sources of essential fatty acids in people’s diets, whilst providing negligible amounts of TFA and contributing modestly to SFA intakes. Based on empirical and epidemiological data, the public health benefit of switching from products with a low fat quality to products with a high fat quality can be predicted. For example, switching from butter or palm oil to a soft margarine shows a substantial improvement in the nutritional quality of the diet. These simple, practical dietary adaptations can be expected to contribute to the healthy growth and development of children and to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease.

Dietary Fat Intake – A Global Perspective. The objective of this review was to collect data on the dietary intake of total fat and saturated (SFA), monounsaturated (MUFA) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), especially linoleic (LA), α-linolenic (ALA), eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic fatty acids, in adults from various countries and to compare them with current recommendations for fat intake. Methods: Weighted mean intake data were collected from national dietary surveys, large cross-sectional studies and/or studies with focus on health and nutrition. Thereof, only studies with diet recalls, weighing records or food frequency questionnaires were considered.

The List of Nutrition Journals Available through EBSCO

History: The Rockefellers and the Evolution of Civilization

Axillary Sciences of History studying the changes of "Civilization" and the inner conflicts of the Rockefeller family.

The Empire of Civilization: The Evolution of an Imperial Idea (BOOK): by Brett Bowden

From the Crusades to the colonial era to the global war on terror, this sweeping volume exposes “civilization” as a stage-managed account of history that legitimizes imperialism, uniformity, and conformity to Western standards, culminating in a liberal-democratic global order. Along the way, Bowden explores the variety of confrontations and conquests—as well as those peoples and places excluded or swept aside—undertaken in the name of civilization. Concluding that the “West and the rest” have more commonalities than differences, this provocative and engaging book ultimately points the way toward an authentic inter-civilizational dialogue that emphasizes cooperation over clashes.

"A timely and significant book that advances our understanding not only of how the discourse of civilization emerged after 1492 and crystallized during the Enlightenment but, above all, how it continues to structure contemporary world politics. Bowden develops a unique multi-disciplinary approach that speaks directly to international relations, international law, and political theory. The book deserves to find its place alongside other key texts written by the likes of Richard Tuck, James Tully, and Antony Anghie."-John M. Hobson, The Eastern Origins of Western Civilization

"This is an extremely erudite book that clearly illustrates Brett Bowden's mastery of a wide variety of philosophical and historical sources. There is a lot of very interesting material here that is of enormous relevance to any contemporary intellectual reader attempting to place the concepts of `civilization' and `civilizations' in their proper historical contexts."-Patrick Thaddeus Jackson, School of International Service, American University

The House the Rockefellers Built: A Tale of Money, Taste, and Power in Twentieth-Century America (BOOK): by Robert F. Dalzell, Jr. and Lee Baldwin Dalzell

The Dalzells (George Washington's Mount Vernon) cover five generations of Rockefellers, focusing on the patriarch (called Senior here) and his son (Junior), at least as far as the mansion is concerned, while taking a stab at linking it to issues surrounding American country houses of the Gilded Age. What was different about Kykuit, the Dalzells claim, was the Rockefellers' moral aspirations, their insistence that the house be not only useful and fashionable, but good. Clean prose keeps things moving, but only the most serious Rockefeller devotees will pore over long passages detailing the process of drawing up blueprints, hiring interior decorators and strategizing housekeeping. The Dalzells chronicle every tussle over control of the house's planning between Junior and Senior and, later, between Nelson and his four brothers over Nelson's overflowing art collection. Several fine biographies exist to satisfy readers' curiosity about the Rockefeller family, and it's questionable whether there's nearly as much inherent interest in Kykuit as in Mount Vernon, the George Washington home that draws 20 times as many visitors.

Music: Arcangelo Corelli, Violin Sonatas, for Violin and Continuo

Sonatas, Violin, Continuo, Op. 5, Twelve Violin Sonatas, Op. 5 (CD): Corelli, Arcangelo, 1653-1713

Corelli's dedications of his Sonatas mark his progress among the great patrons of Rome. He dedicated his first set of twelve Church Sonatas, Opus 1, published in 1681, to Queen Christina, describing the work as the first fruits of his studies. His second set of trio Sonatas, Chamber Sonatas, Opus 2, was published in 1685 with a dedication to a new patron, Cardinal Pamphili, whose service he entered in 1687, with the violinist Fornari and cellist Lulier. A third set of trio sonatas, a second group of twelve Church Sonatas, Opus 3, was issued in 1689, with a dedication to Francesco II of Modena, and a final set of a dozen Chamber Sonatas, Opus 4, was published in 1694 with a dedication to a new patron, Cardinal Ottoboni, the young nephew of Pope Alexander VIII, after Cardinal Pamphili's removal in 1690 to Bologna. Cardinal Ottoboni became Corelli's main patron, who made it possible for Corelli to pursue his career without monetary worries, and it would seem that no composer has ever had a more devoted or understanding patron.