The Teacher of Reading: The First Twenty-Five Years Are the Most Challenging

This study investigated approaches to reading acquisition used in four first grades of a suburban elementary school. Individual teacher interviews established the differences in program emphases. Group A used the basal reader program; Group B, the basal reader and an additional phonics program; Group C, the basal reader and the language experience approach; Group D, the language experience approach and a wide range of supplementary readers and trade books. All groups participated in supportive language arts activities. Nine randomly selected subjects from each class participated‐‐three from each high, middle, and low reading group. Informal reading inventories were individually administered and scored for levels of word recognition in context and reading comprehension. Results support the use of a language experience approach as a viable alternative to the basal reader approach for teaching reading and writing.     

Clusters of Suicidal Events Among Young People: Do Clusters from One Time Period Predict Later Clusters?

We sought to compare clusters of suicidal events between two different time periods and examine the extent to which earlier clusters predict later clusters. We included data on suicides and suicide attempts from New South Wales between July 2001 and June 2012 and Western Australia between January 2000 and December 2011. Suicide attempts included admissions to hospital for deliberate self‐harm and suicides were deaths due to deliberate self‐harm. We combined data on suicides and suicide attempts and grouped them into two equal time periods. We detected clusters in each period using Poisson discrete scan statistics adjusted for socio‐economic status. We estimated the predictive values of earlier clusters on later clusters. The results showed that clusters from earlier time period had a moderate power (36%) in predicting later clusters. During the later time period, some additional cluster areas (14%) were found and some earlier cluster areas subsided (64%). Historical clusters predict 36% of the subsequent clusters, which is probably not sufficient for targeting interventions. Our study highlights the need for other strategies to detect emerging clusters, for example, up‐to‐date data.     

The impossibly twisted Pulfrich pendulum

Two Pulfrich pendulums swinging in opposite phase present impossible twisting effects and also size-constancy effects.