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Elements Comprising the Colorado Literacy Framework:
I. The Five Components of Reading
The integration of the Five Components of Reading must inform CDE's literacy initiatives.
Multifaceted Nature of Reading Aquisition recorded webinar giving a one-hour overview of the Science of Reading.
Implications for Best Practice
Go back to the Elements outline
What are the Five Components, and why are they important?
In 1997, at the request of the U.S. Congress, the National Reading Panel, through the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), was assembled to assess the effectiveness of different instructional approaches for teaching reading in the early grades. Their findings, described in the panel's report titled"Teaching Children to Read," were released in 2000. The report identified five essential (though not exhaustive) components of reading instruction, the importance of which has been validated by subsequent research. (McCardle & Chhabra, 2004; August & Shanahan, 2008; Honig, Diamond, & Gutlohn, 2008). The components are: Phonological Awareness, Phonics, Reading Fluency, Vocabulary, and Reading Comprehension.
1. Phonological Awareness
Phonological awareness is an inclusive term that describes an awareness of all levels of the sound system used for speech including words, syllables, rimes, and phonemes.
Adams (1990) describes the brain as having multiple processors that function together to read and write . In the phonological processor, readers connect visual images (print) with speech. A meta-linguistic awareness of this occurrence facilitates later reading ability. Blachman (2000, p. 502) synthesizes this research as follows:
Research, grounded in a common theoretical framework, now provides evidence that instruction that heightens phonological awareness and that emphasizes the connections to the alphabetic code promotes greater skill in word recognition – a skill essential to becoming a proficient reader.
From birth, children have a predisposition to learn speech. The ability to distinguish between different speech patterns, words, and intonation exists even in infants. It is not until later, however, that children begin to develop an overt awareness of speech. The development of phonological awareness begins at the word level and becomes more phoneme specific, advancing through these levels: word, syllable, onset-rime, and phoneme (Gillon, 2004).
Phonological Awareness – Implications for Best Practice
Typically, early childhood programs and early literacy experiences provide the foundation in phonological awareness so that students entering kindergarten are ready for explicit instruction in phonemic awareness. Within all levels of phonological awareness there is a skill spectrum which results in some phonological tasks being more difficult than others. Over the years, educational research has proven that phonological awareness is one of the few factors that teachers are able to significantly and effectively influence through instruction (Lane & Pullen, 2004). Therefore, it is critical that teachers are aware of and plan for varying levels of student proficiency and task difficulty. Blachman (2000, p. 495) states:
Although not every child needs an explicit program in phonological awareness, every teacher of young beginning readers should know why such instruction is important and how and when to provide it… Some children will not have the necessary preschool exposure to language play and early literacy experiences that trigger these associations. Other children, because of differences or deficiencies in phonological ability, will not discover the connections between print and speech on their own, even if they have the important preschool literacy experiences and opportunities to play with oral language. Especially for these two groups of children, explicit instruction in phonological awareness and the connections between the sound segments and letters may help to close the ever-widening gap that exists between those beginning readers who lack insight in to the phonological structure of spoken words and those who seem to acquire this awareness effortlessly.
There are many types of phoneme manipulation. The skills are progressive, with isolation being easiest, and deletion and manipulation being the most difficult. Having children identify the sounds in pan (/p/ /a/ /n/) is much simpler than having them manipulate the middle sound in pan /a/, and switching it with /i/ and then identifying the new word. The ability to blend and segment words has the most impact on later reading achievement (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000). Blending is combining separate phonemes to create a known word. ("What word is /c/ /a/ /t/? Cat!") Segmenting is breaking down a word into separate phonemes. ("What sounds do you hear in map? /m/ /a/ /p/. How many sounds do you hear in kiss? /k/ /i/ /s/ three!") Research shows that it is most effective to use just one type of manipulation at a time.
Children who begin school with little phonological awareness have difficulty acquiring alphabetic coding skills and therefore, have difficulty recognizing words. (Stanovich, 2000) The best predictor of reading difficulty in kindergarten or first grade is the inability to segment words and syllables into constituent sound units (Lyon, 1995). Poor phonemic awareness at four to six years of age is predictive of reading difficulties throughout the elementary years (Torgesen & Burgess 1998).
2. Phonics and Word Study
Phonics is the term used to describe the connections between individual speech sounds (phonemes) and letters or letter combinations (graphemes). While children are predisposed to language acquisition, the matching of sounds and spellings needs to be directly taught. Additionally, the structure of English goes beyond simple phoneme-grapheme matching to include multisyllabic word reading, analogies, irregular words, morphology, and Greek and Latin roots. Phonics, or the alphabetic principle, and continuing word study are essential components of any reading program. A student's decoding ability is directly correlated to his or her comprehension as demonstrated in this table.
|Correlation Between Decoding & Comprehension (in the Connecticut Longitudinal Study)
Grade 1
Grade 2
Grade 3
Grade 4
Grade 5
Grade 6
Grade 7
Grade 8
Grade 9
Grade 1
Grade 2
Grade 3
Grade 4
Grade 5
Grade 6
Grade 7
Grade 8
Grade 9
(Foorman, et al. 1997, p. 247) Decoding
Additionally, it is estimated that more than 90% of students with significant reading problems have a core deficit in their ability to process phonological information (Blachman, 2000). These deficits can be overcome through quality instruction, which significantly accelerates students' subsequent reading and writing achievement. Therefore, once students demonstrate phonemic awareness and alphabet knowledge, they are ready to map speech to print. All students can benefit from phonics instruction, although some types of phonics instruction are more effective than others. Types of phonics instruction include synthetic, analogy, analytic, embedded, and phonics through spelling. In the meta-analysis of phonics conducted by the "Report of the National Reading Panel," the most effective phonics programs utilized a synthetic, or part to whole, approach to phonics instruction. Additional findings indicate that "systematic phonics instruction provides beginning readers, at-risk readers, disabled readers, and low-achieving readers with a substantial edge in learning to read over alternative forms of instruction not focusing at all or only incidentally on the alphabetic system (NICHD, 2000)." The CORE Teaching Reading Sourcebook (Honig, Diamond, & Gutlohn, 2008) summarizes five significant findings of the National Reading Panel stating:
Systematic and explicit phonics instruction:
- significantly improves students' reading and spelling in kindergarten and grade 1.
- significantly improves students' abilities to comprehend what they read.
- are beneficial for all students, regardless of their socio-economic status.
- are effective in helping to prevent reading difficulties among students who are at risk.
- are beneficial in helping students who are having difficulty learning to read.
Phonics – Implications for Best Practice
According to Moats (LETRS Module 7, 2009):
Phonics instruction should begin as soon as students: (a) know their alphabet letters; (b) can segment phonemes in spoken words that contain at least three phonemes; and (c) can associate a few consonants and vowels with their spellings. Phonics instruction should continue until students know all the major phoneme-grapheme correspondences and syllable patterns and can make good attempts at decoding unfamiliar words (p. 24).
The 26 letters of the English alphabet are used to map 44 phonemes to print resulting in over 200 graphemes, or spellings. Traditionally, students are first taught single letter/sound correspondences and then instruction is extended to digraphs and trigraphs, long vowels, diphthongs, r-controlled vowels, and silent-letter combinations. Since much of English orthography is predictable, the most frequent graphemes are taught first. For example, the sound /s/ is spelled with an s 73% of the time and with a c only 17% of the time, so the spelling s is taught first (Hanna et al. 1966).
Further research into the predictable nature of English spellings reveals as many as 121 phonics generalizations that can help students develop strategies for automatic word recognition. However, due to the number of exceptions within these generalizations (e.g., the word "ocean" does not follow the soft c generalization). For this reason, Adams (1990) recommends only four categories of generalizations for direct instruction:
- Pronunciation of consonants
- Accentuation of syllables
- Division of syllables
- Pronunciation of vowels
These categories represent only about 20 of the previously identified phonics generalizations. Most critically, it is imperative that teachers are aware of the generalizations as well as the corresponding recommendations for instruction.
Familiarity with the following concepts is essential:
Word Families
Just as students learn phonological chunks and generalize the skill using rime, students learn phonetic chunks and often read by analogy. The more recognizable chunks in a student's repertoire, the more words he or she is able to access without fully decoding. For example, if a student is able to read the word cold he is able to compare words such as bold, fold, hold, etc., and derive at the correct pronunciation through analogy. For this reason, word families are often included in explicit, systematic phonics instruction.
As the sound/spellings are mastered, students develop activation in both the phonological and orthographic "processors." This activation leads to a word memory when any particular word has been decoded, recoded, and encoded numerous times (Adams, 1990). This automaticity is a critical aspect of fluent reading and comprehension.
According to Stanovich (1996), when word recognition processes demand too much cognitive capacity, few cognitive resources are left to allocate to higher level processes of text integration and comprehension. In other words, the less cognitive effort that a student directs towards decoding, the more cognitive capabilities a student is able to use for context and comprehension.
Phases of Word Reading Development
Along these same lines, beginning readers develop reading skills along a predictable continuum and it is this continuum that influences the explicit, systematic phonics scope and sequence found in many research-based curricula. See the following table summarizes Ehri's Phases of Word Reading Development (1995) .
Phases of Word Reading Development
How Child Reads Familiar Words
Novice Alphabetic
Mature Alphabetic
Rote learning of incidental visual features of a word; no letter-sound awareness
Partial use of letter-sound correspondence; initial sound and salient consonants
Pronunciation of whole word on basis of complete phoneme-grapheme mapping
Variously by phonemes, syllabic units, morpheme units, and whole words
How Child Reads Unfamiliar Words
Guessing constrained by context or memory of text
Constrained by context; gets first sound and guesses
Full use of phoneme-grapheme correspondence; blends all sounds left to right; begins to use analogy to known patterns
Sequential and hierarchical decoding; notices familiar parts first, reads by analogy to similar known words
Other Indicators
Dependent on context; few words; errors and confusions; cannot read text
Similar-appearing words are confused
Rapid, unitized reading of whole familiar words is increasing
Remembers multisyllabic words; analogizes easily, associates word structure with meaning
Strings letters together, assigns meaning without representing sounds in words
Represents a few salient sounds, such as beginning and ending consonants; fills in other letters randomly; some letter names for sounds
Phonetically accurate; beginning to incorporate conventional letter sequences and patterns; sight word knowledge increasing
Word knowledge includes language of origin, morphemes, syntactic role, ending rules, prefix, suffix & root forms
Multi-syllabic Blending
As students advance from the Mature Alphabetic phase to the orthographic, or consolidated alphabetic phase, they encounter more multisyllabic words in less-considerate text. To ensure continued reading achievement at this level, formal instruction in reading longer words is necessary for many students. A basic concept that must be clarified when beginning syllable division instruction is that the spoken syllable and the written syllable are not always the same. When teaching multi-syllabic blending, it is important to focus on the written syllable, because it is the written syllable that will determine the words pronunciation. There are two critical areas of multisyllabic instruction; the six syllable types and the syllable division rules. The six syllable types are closed, which account for nearly half of all syllables in connected text, open, consonant-le, vowel team, vowel-r, and vowel-consonant-e (Moats, 2005). Teachers who know the six major syllable types and the predominant patterns for syllable divisions can help children read multisyllabic words; this knowledge also transfers into spelling and writing (Henry, 2003). These rules are helpful when teaching older elementary students as a strategy for reading longer and more complex words.
If the spelling follows the identified pattern, then divide the words as follows:
- VC/CV – Divide between the consonants. The first vowel will be short.
- VC/CCV – Divide between the consonants but keep digraphs and blends together.
- VCC/CV – Divide between words in a compound word. The first vowel will be short.
- V/CV – Most of the time the syllable division will be after the first vowel, creating an open syllable with a long vowel sound.
- VC/V – Twenty-five percent of the time, the syllable division will be after the consonant, resulting in a closed syllable with a short vowel sound.
- -Cle – This is a final stable syllable and the consonant should be kept with the –le.
- -Vowel-r – Do not separate the r-controlled vowels.
High-frequency words, irregular words, and sight words
The terms high-frequency words, irregular words, and sight words are often used interchangeably but they are not synonymous. Some words might be highly-frequent but not irregular while other words are both highly-frequent and decodable. All words hold the potential to become "sight words" for proficient, automatic readers. Some words, however, must be taught by sight or memorization because they are phonetically irregular. This is not the same as the words that appear so frequently (comprising 50% of all text) that they must be taught before students have mastered basic decoding strategies. The chart below (adapted from Moats, LETRS Module 7, 2009) shows how words can be classified in this manner).
100 Most Common Words in Written English
*Irregular Word
Morphology is the study of meaningful units, while a morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in language. It is important to include instruction in morphemes in any word study program because we spell by meaning and morphological awareness leads to better comprehension. Generally, morphology instruction includes compound words, irregular words, base words, affixes, roots, combining forms, and plurals. The layers of English orthography come from the history of the language and include Anglo-Saxon (Old English), Latin and Old French (Norman-French), and Greek origins. Word study instruction typically begins in first grade with an emphasis on phonics and Anglo-Saxon morphemic structures, advances into Norman-French during the intermediate grades, and concludes with the Greek and Latin morphemes by eighth grade (Moats, 2005).
That English spellings are not predictable is a myth. This myth can be refuted by including a phonics and word study program as part of a comprehensive literacy curriculum. A complete phonics and word study program includes instruction in sound/spelling correspondences, syllables, analogies, irregular words, morphemic structures such as affixes, roots, and combining forms, and word origin. In 1966, Hanna, et al. determined that 50% of words are fully decodable, another 36% of words are predictable with one error, an additional 10% of words can be predicted if their morphology or word origin is known, leaving only four percent of English words that are truly irregular. Students who benefit from a detailed phonics and word study curriculum thus have the potential of unlocking all words!
Fluency is the ability to read accurately, quickly, and expressively. It requires automatic word recognition, appropriate expression and intonation, as well as grouping words into meaningful phrases paying attention to punctuation (Armbruster, Lehr, &Osborn, 2001). The Voice of Evidence in Reading Research (McCardle & Chhabra, 2004 p. 188) identifies three areas of fluency:
- accuracy - reading without too many miscues
- rate - reading at a reasonable rate, and
- being prosodic - reading with expression, including rhythm, stress and intonation
Reading fluency is one of several critical factors necessary for effective reading comprehension (Allington, 1983; Rasinski, Blackowicz, & Lems, 2006). Even in the middle and high school grades, reading fluency has been found to be correlated with silent reading comprehension (Rasinski, Rikli, & Johnston, 2009). If children read aloud with speed, accuracy, and proper expression, they are more likely to comprehend and remember the material than if they read with difficulty and in an inefficient way. In general, less-fluent readers suffer from poor comprehension (Carnine, Silbert, & Kame'enui, 1997).
To become fluent, students need to learn to rapidly and accurately decode words both in isolation and connected text. Over the past decade, fluency has become a prominent part of the literacy curriculum. Teachers need to make sure they are focusing on every aspect of fluency and not just word recognition. Kuhn, Schwanenflugel, & Meisinger (2010) remind educators to focus on all aspects of reading fluency. To synthesize the research on fluency, the authors propose the following definition:
Fluency combines accuracy, automaticity, and oral reading prosody, which, taken together, facilitate the reader's construction of meaning. It is demonstrated during oral reading through ease of word recognition, appropriate pacing, phrasing, and intonation. It is a factor in both oral and silent reading that can limit or support comprehension.
Though supported by other researchers, this reinforces the important bridge between word recognition and comprehension. Fluent readers are able to identify words accurately and automatically while simultaneously focusing on comprehension. Brain research indicates the brain is capable of doing only a certain number (4-7) of processes at one time (Beckmann, 2010). So a student engaged in constantly decoding and recoding has few processes for comprehension and truly being a proficient reader (Foorman & Mehta, 2002; LaBerge & Samuels, 1974; Farstrup & Samuels 2002).
Fluent Readers
Less Fluent Readers
Recognize words automatically
Must focus their attention on decoding the words.
Group words together quickly
So much effort goes into decoding; they have difficulty understanding what they read.
Don't have to concentrate on decoding words
Give their attention to comprehension
Recognize words and comprehend at the same time
Samuels, Schermer, & Reinking, (1992)
The following graphic ( Scarborough, 2001) portrays the complexity of reading and the numerous components that must be woven together, simultaneously by the proficient reader. With regard to language skills, the reader must become increasingly strategic in applying his/her background knowledge, knowledge of word meanings (vocabulary), knowledge of language structures and verbal reasoning. Likewise, the reader's phonemic awareness, phonemic decoding and encoding, and sight word recognition must be increasingly instantaneous and automatic. The skilled reader is one who is able to weave or coordinate these underlying processes with automaticity which then results in fluency and comprehension:
Reading Fluency - Implications for Best Practice
The "Report of the National Reading Panel" (NICHD, 2000) reviewed two major areas of fluency instruction, guided repeated oral reading and independent silent reading. When practicing fluency, students need to practice at their independent reading level as much as possible. An independent level is when students can read 95% of the text accurately. If material is at a student's frustration level(able to read less than 90% of the words) it is too difficult for learners. An instructional level is when students are able to read 90-94% of the words accurately. Independent reading materials help to develop fluency and build confidence in developing readers (Allington & Cunningham, 2001). Instructional level materials may also be used to practice fluency with support and guidance from teachers and more capable peers. Round-robin reading is not the most effective practice for developing fluency and should be discouraged in a whole class setting (Ash, Kuhn, & Walpole, 2009). Not enough students receive practice when one student at a time is reading. The more time children spend practicing in appropriate text, the more they develop as skillful readers (Leinhardt, Zigmond & Cooley, 1981; Taylor, Frye, & Maruyama, 1990).
Additionally, strategies such as Drop Everything and Read (DEAR) and Sustained Silent Reading (SSR), do not benefit students' reading fluency, unless supported with scaffolding options such as "partner reading, reading-while-listening, or other forms of assisted reading " (Kuhn, Schwanenflugel, & Meisinger, 2010, p. 245). New research from Heibert & Reutzel (in press) addresses the importance of purposeful silent reading and the supports that must be in place to ensure students have the stamina and focus to read independently.
The "Report of the National Reading Panel" (NICHD, 2000) found that guided oral reading that included significant teacher support was more effective in increasing student's fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
Instructional Practices for Fluency
|Instructional Practices
Fluency-Oriented Reading Instruction
An integrated approach developed by Stahl for fluency instruction that combines repeated oral reading with teacher and peer-assisted reading. FORI is used during independent silent reading. It can be used with any core reading program and was found to be effective with any grade level (McCardle & Chhabra, 2004).
Repeated Oral Readings
Guided oral reading covers many different procedures. The "Report of the National Reading Panel" (NICHD, 2000) reviewed many repeated reading approaches for whole group and small group including assisted reading, tutor-based techniques such as partner reading, peer tutoring, and cross-age tutoring, and listening while reading.
There are a variety of ways to have students practicing re-reading text orally. Some methods have been developed to improve accuracy and rate and some have been developed to improve prosody. Here are two examples:
Rereading the passage a few times until it can be read independently helps the reader gain confidence and increase comprehension. The closer the text is to the reader's independent level, the more effective the practice will be. See Conducting Partner Reading Routine in the exemplary practices section under fluency.
One consistent finding from the process-product studies of effective teaching (Berliner, 1981), to the experimental work reviewed by the NRP (2000), to Kuhn and Stahl's (2003) study is that the amount of reading that children do influences their achievement, at least as long as the children are guided and monitored during that reading. But not all practice is equally effective (McCardle & Chhabra, 2004, p. 205).
Timed, repeated oral reading is most appropriate for slow, but accurate readers who need practice to increase their automaticity in reading. Passages selected as practice material should be relatively short (100-250 words) and at the student's instructional or independent level. To provide sufficient practice, timed, repeated oral reading should take place at least three times a week with no more than one session per day. If a student needs assistance with more than 10% of the words then the passage is too difficult and a less difficult passage needs to be selected. Students need corrective feedback on pronouncing words and reading with expression during the task. Having students monitor their progress and practice setting goals is important to their motivation. Other strategies include phrase-cued reading, choral reading, and partner practice (Honig, Diamond, & Gutlohn, 2008).
The following formula is used to calculate oral reading fluency:
Total Words Read – Errors = Oral Reading Fluency
For more information and Oral Fluency Norms, see Hasbrouck and Tindal, 2006 (Teaching Reading Sourcebook, p.331).
Reading fluency continues to be a factor in comprehension in the adolescent years as well. A body of research demonstrates the subtle effect of fluency in the reading ability of teens. In Academic Literacy Instruction for Adolescents (Torgesen et al., 2007) the authors assert "Although absolute reading rates do not increase substantially after about sixth grade" reading fluency continues to explain a variance on reading comprehension tests, even in high school. Students must continue to increase the range of words they can recognize at a single glance (sight words) in order to continue to meet grade-level expectations for reading fluency (Torgesen & Hudson, 2006). Normally students continue to increase their store of sight words as they expand their range of reading after elementary school, but if they do not maintain relatively high levels of reading practice, they can fall behind (Torgesen et al., 2007).
Students must be able to identify the new words they encounter in text with reasonable accuracy when they first encounter them (Ehri, 2002). As Torgesen et.al.(2007, p. 7) explain:
The most efficient way for readers to identify an unknown word in text is to analyze its phonological or morphological parts to link them to a known word that is part of their general vocabulary, and to confirm their guess by considering whether the newly identified word makes sense in the context of what they are reading.
This accurate word recognition will impact fluency in adolescent readers.
Vocabulary refers to the words necessary to communicate with others. Because of the verbal nature of our society, knowledge of words and the ability to use language are essential to success in school and vital for achievement in vocations and in society. Large and rich vocabularies are hallmarks of an educated individual (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002). There are two forms of vocabulary—oral and print. A reader encountering a strange word in print can decode the word to speech; and, if the word is in the reader's oral vocabulary, the reader will be able to understand it. If the word is not in the reader's oral vocabulary, the reader will have to determine the meaning. Within the two forms, there are four types of vocabulary:
Expressive types of oral and print vocabulary:
- speaking
- writing
Receptive types of oral and print vocabulary:
- listening
- reading which includes sight words as well as words that can be decoded
A comprehensive analysis of collective research studies suggests that a variety of direct and indirect methods of vocabulary instruction can be effective in vocabulary development (NICHD, 2000). Graves (2000) recommends four components of an effective vocabulary program:
- wide or extensive independent reading to expand word knowledge
- instruction in specific words to enhance comprehension of texts containing those words
- instruction in independent word-learning strategies
- word consciousness and word-play activities to motivate and enhance learning
Two instructional practices that improve comprehension are vocabulary related: ongoing, long-term vocabulary instruction (Beck, Perfetti, & McKeown, 1982) and teaching vocabulary words prior to making reading assignments (Brett, Rothlein, & Hurley, 1996). The importance of vocabulary knowledge has long been recognized in the reading skill development. Vocabulary is critically important in oral reading instruction and profound differences in vocabulary knowledge exist among students. The word knowledge gap between groups of children begins before children enter kindergarten. Hart and Risley (1995) found that three-year olds from advantaged homes had oral vocabularies five times larger than children from disadvantaged homes. According to Wolf (2007), the implication is that when words are not heard, concepts are not learned. When syntactic forms are never encountered, there is less knowledge about the relationship of events in a story, and a lack of understanding of what other people feel and experience. Vocabulary is also important in recognizing words. Young readers use the pronunciation and meanings of the words in their oral vocabulary to recognize words they see in print. When children decode words, they use their initial pronunciation and search their oral vocabulary to make sense of the text. If the word is not in their oral vocabulary, they will have a difficult time recognizing that word in print, even if they accurately decode it. Without intensive intervention, this gap between the advantaged and disadvantaged grows ever larger. This is known as the Matthew Effect where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer (Stanovich 1998).
The range of vocabulary in text grows after third grade.
Expanding students' word knowledge (vocabulary) after third grade needs to be supported in two principal ways …. First, students learn the meanings of many new words by inferring their meaning from how they are used in text and from their knowledge of word parts (morphemes). In fact, there is reasonable evidence that most of the expansion of students' vocabulary after third grade comes from their exposure to new words during reading" (Cunningham & Stanovich, 1998, p. 3).
Current research also suggests that explicit and systematic instruction in carefully selected new vocabulary should also be part of efforts to increase adolescent reading proficiency (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002; Stahl & Fairbanks, 1986). This is particularly true for struggling readers, who are often substantially behind in vocabulary growth (Torgesen et al., 2007).
For adolescent readers, specific content knowledge, vocabulary, about texts they encounter impact comprehension.
There is strong evidence that knowledge related to the content of text being read leads to better reading comprehension … Students are expected to learn from increasingly technical expository texts during adolescence, and their knowledge base must continue to grow in order to meet the demands of this text. In order to increase students' depth of understanding and to increase their knowledge base efficiently, texts that students encounter in the higher grades are written using increasingly significant assumptions about what students already know. Thus, students who do not keep pace with the increasing demands content-area texts place on prior knowledge will fall further and further behind in their ability to construct the meaning of the text. As with vocabulary, or word knowledge, students acquire conceptual knowledge and understanding through both broad and deep reading and through explicit instruction from content-area teachers (Torgesen et al., 2007, p.8).
Vocabulary – Implications for Best Practice
Vocabulary should be taught directly and explicitly even though a great deal of vocabulary is learned indirectly through wide reading. The "Report of the National Reading Panel" (NICHD, 2000) identified the importance of instructional methods that include active engagement in word learning, multiple repetitions, and the use of computers and multimedia presentations (McCardle & Chhabra, 2004). Active engagement is critical for learning vocabulary and the use of these words in student's reading, writing, and speaking. A number of studies have identified active engagement, when students are involved in an active rather than a passive manner with words,as an important factor in students learning vocabulary. Senechal (1997) reported that pre-kindergarten children learned more when they answered questions during the reading of a story instead of when the story was read straight through without questions. Baker, Simmons, & Kame'enui (1995, p. 209) state that "vocabulary acquisition is critical to academic development, not only do students need a rich body of word knowledge to succeed in basic skill areas; they also need a specialized vocabulary to learn content area material." Dole, Sloan, & Trathen (1995) found that having students consistently participate actively in learning words is the best approach. Specific examples for instruction include providing clear, accessible explanations, fortified with visual illustrations, including examples of word meanings with multiple exposures to the word in various contexts, having students act out the definitions, creating mental images, using words in writing, and actively applying word learning strategies to infer meanings. Consequently, the larger the reader's vocabulary (either oral or print), the easier it is to make sense of the text.
Comprehension is the active process of constructing meaning from text; it involves assessing previous knowledge, understanding vocabulary and concepts, making inferences and linking key ideas (RAND Reading Study Group 2002) . Comprehension, the primary purpose for reading, is an active process requiring an intentional and thoughtful interaction between the reader and the text. Harris & Hodges (1995, p. 39) define comprehension as "the construction of the meaning of a written text through a reciprocal interchange of ideas between the reader and the message in a particular text." The "Report of the National Reading Panel" (NICHD, 2000) reviewed research on comprehension instruction in three areas: vocabulary instruction, comprehension strategy instruction, and preparing teachers to teach comprehension. Readers who are taught comprehension strategy instruction make significant gains on comprehension compared to students who are trained in more traditional ways such as answering factual information questions (Pressley, et.al. 1989; Rosenshine, B., Meister and Chapman, 1996). Rote instruction will not build strong reading comprehension. Rather, it is learned through intentional instruction and exposure to multiple strategies that build understanding. The effective reading processes and strategies of proficient readers can be explicitly taught to all students and doing so improves their comprehension (NICHD, 2000).
Reading Comprehension - Implications for Best Practice
The "Report of the National Reading Panel" (NICHD, 2000) concluded that strategies employed by effective readers can be explicitly taught to improve reading comprehension. Analyzing 203 studies of comprehension strategy instruction, the panel found research support for eight direct, explicit instructional strategies.
- Comprehension Monitoring Good readers are highly cognitive (Garner, 1987). Baker and Brown (1984, p. 353) explain meta-cogntion as "the knowledge and control the child has over his or her own thinking and learning activities, including reading." Readers use monitoring or self-listening when reading silently, out loud, or listening to others read (Elliott-Faust & Pressley, 1986). Readers monitor their own comprehension by noticing when they start to lose meaning of the text they are reading. Once they realize they have lost the meaning they apply one or more fix-up strategies, which range from the simplicity of rereading to the complexity of summarizing (Taylor & Frye, 1992).
- Cooperative Learning This strategy places students with a partner or in a small group and the teacher provides clearly defined tasks that require full participation from each student. Group members help each other increase their knowledge by explaining material they are working on in their own words (Klingner, Vaughn, & Schumm, 1998). The RAND Reading Study Group (RRSG)(2002, p. 41) found that "teachers who give students choices, challenging tasks, and collaborative learning structures increase their motivation to read and comprehend text."
- Graphic Organizers This strategy helps readers to display relationships of ideas with diagrams, pictorial devices, and story maps. Graphic representations help readers to organize their ideas and understand the essential learning at a deeper level. In the book Comprehension Instruction, (2002), p. 179, editors Pressley and Block note the review of 11 studies that used graphic organizers with readers in grades 4 through 8. The findings identified that teaching readers to use systematic, visual graphs in order to organize ideas benefited readers in remembering what they read and improved comprehension and achievement in social studies and science.
- Story Structure Narrative text is organized into common elements that include the setting, initiating events, internal reactions, goals, attempts, and outcomes. Because all stories can be analyzed by these elements, the reader can comprehend stories better with knowledge of these elements than without such knowledge (Greenwald & Rossing, 1986; Singer & Dolan, 1982). Using story structure helps the reader develop a deeper understanding of the story by being able to answer the questions of, who, what, why, when, and how. It also helps the reader to construct more coherent memory representations of the story (McCardle & Chhabra, 2004). Teachers can teach story structure through the use of questioning and graphic organizers. Pressley & Block (2002) note the review of 17 studies that identified teaching students story structure improved comprehension, for all readers and especially less able readers in grades 3 through 6.
- Questioning Answering Students are often asked to answer questions at the end or during the reading of a section of text. When little to no guidance is provided, students may experience difficulties answering the questions. Strategy instruction, including teaching students how to answer the questions and locating the answers within the text, can help. Also, asking the questions before the reading and modeling for students how to find the answers while they are reading helps improve students' comprehension and recall of information (King, 1994; Davey & McBride, 1986; Rosenhire, Meister, & Chapman, 1996). Teaching this strategy also helps students to learn that not all answers are right in the text and that they have to use their own knowledge or another resource to find the complete answer. Since answering questions is a prevalent assessment practice, taking the time to teach students how to answer questions correctly is critical, especially for struggling students (McCardle & Chhabra, 2004).
- Question Generation Skilled readers use questioning to focus on connecting the content they are reading to their prior knowledge . Generating questions helps the reader to predict about the text and to identify aspects of the writer's perspective and style. Teachers model the process of generating questions during reading aloud and then provide guided practice with students in generating their own questions during reading. Evaluating student questions to determine if important information was covered helps teachers assess student success or failure comprehending the text and then provide additional explicit instruction as needed ( Pressley & Block, 2002). A meta-analysis of the research found there was strong support for using question generation as a strategy of helping students improve their comprehension (Roshenshine, 1996).
- Summarization Harris & Hodges (1995) explain a summary as a "brief statement that contains the essential ideas of a longer passage or selection." Summarizing forces the reader to focus on the most critical information in the text and not on the details. It forces the reader to process the text by disregarding irrelevant information (McCardle & Chhabra, 2004). Rinehart, Stahl, & Erickson (1986) identify that summarizing is effective in improving comprehension but not many students are explicitly taught how to summarize and few develop the skills necessary to draft good summaries. Teachers begin by teaching students how to identify a topic sentence, disregard irrelevant information, and find the main ideas within paragraphs. Then, students can move to finding the main ideas within a multiple paragraph passage. Pressley & Block (2002) note the analysis of 18 studies on summarization instruction in grades 3-8. The analysis concludes that providing instruction in summarization improved the quality of summaries and improved memory of what was read through retell and the answering of questions.
- Vocabulary Instruction "Vocabulary instruction promotes word knowledge that enhances text comprehension. It is a part of normal content area learning. Having a strong vocabulary leads to better reading and listening comprehension and to improvement in course achievement."(Pressley & Block, 2004, p. 182). See the vocabulary section of this framework for additional information.
The Use of Multiple Strategies
The "Report of the National Reading Panel" (NICHD, 2000) regards the need for multiple comprehension strategies instruction as its most important finding. Instead of teaching strategies and skills in isolation, multiple strategy instruction teaches students to apply comprehension strategies flexibly and interchangeably (Liang & Dole, 2006; RAND Reading Study Group (RRSG). (2002).). McCardle & Chhabra (2004) describe multiple strategies in the following two paragraphs. They write:
Although there are clear improvements in comprehension as a result of using any of the strategies noted so far , it is the case that skilled readers often use more than one strategy. In multiple strategy instruction, students are taught how to adapt the strategies and use them flexibly, according to the task (Pressley, Gaskins, Wile, Cunicelli, & Sheridean, 1991). Cooperative learning or peer tutoring may be used as a part of multiple strategies instruction.
One of the most well-known examples of multiple strategy instruction is reciprocal teaching (Palincsar & Brown, 1984). In reciprocal teaching, the teacher models and explains what strategies are and when to use them. Readers are guided in applying and practicing strategies while reading a passage. Ultimately students practice and implement each strategy independently. One feature of reciprocal teaching is that students assume the role of the teacher as well as that of the student. This feature is not the central characteristic of the strategy; rather, it may be a key element in learning what the strategies are and how they work.( p. 225).
Adolescent readers also benefit from instruction on comprehension strategies. Findings described in Torgesen et al. (2007, p. 9) indicate:
Studies of more and less effective readers both during and beyond the initial stages of learning to read have repeatedly shown that proficient readers are much more likely to use a variety of purposeful strategies to enhance their comprehension (National Reading Panel, 2000; Perfetti, Landi, & Oakhill, 2005). These strategies include self-directed activities such as rereading in order to resolve confusion, paraphrasing to enhance memory and understanding, making explicit connections from the text to prior knowledge and to other parts of the text, underlining and note taking, and visualizing relationships and events in the text. Good readers more actively monitor their comprehension as they are reading, and they use their knowledge of comprehension strategies to improve their understanding or to repair it when it breaks down (Pressley, 2000). As text becomes more complicated in middle and high school, and as the demands for learning from text (particularly expository text) increase, students must become more sophisticated in both the range and the flexibility of their reading comprehension strategies in order to maintain or accelerate their level of reading proficiency (Duke & Pearson, 2002). One of the most common suggestions from the research literature on adolescent literacy is that more effective instruction and support in the use of multiple, coordinated reading comprehension strategies is required in order to improve overall levels of literacy in older students (Biancarosa & Snow, 2006).
Other findings in Torgesen et al. (2007, p. 27-28) provide more guidance on comprehension instruction for adolescent readers.
Looking across experimental studies of the effectiveness of comprehension strategies, we found that several common features seem critical to the success of this type of instruction; these features are also noted in the "Report of the National Reading Panel" (NICHD, 2000).
- Initial discussions that help students become more aware of their own cognitive processes and learn about strategies they can use to help increase their understanding of what they are reading. Such discussions help establish the purpose of the work the students will be doing to improve their comprehension.
- Explicit instruction from the teacher about the particular strategies being learned, with frequent think-aloud demonstrations by the teacher to show how the strategy is used during reading. This instruction includes a discussion of why the strategy can be useful, how to do it, and when it is appropriate to use. Teacher modeling of strategy use is essential.
- Extended opportunities for students to practice using the strategies in meaningful literacy activities. Sometimes this practice is structured as small-group activities that encourage student discussion of both the text's meaning and how they are using the strategy to help them understand; sometimes it involves whole-class discussions. The purpose of this instruction and practice is to gradually transfer responsibility for selecting and using strategies from the teacher to the students.
Researchers have noted a number of important issues in implementing comprehension strategy instruction, including:
- Balance. Finding a balance between content and strategy instruction that responds to the needs of all students is important. The ideal approach is to use strategy instruction as a vehicle for effective content teaching and learning. Klingner et al. (1998) provide at least one demonstration that it is possible to do this.
- Involvement. Using small-group interactions effectively to increase the involvement of underachieving students and facilitate active discussion of both content and strategies is critical. Both Klingner et al. (1998) and Guthrie et al. (2004; reviewed on page 50 of this document) have shown how comprehension strategies themselves can provide a structure for small-group text-related discussions that not only increase student involvement but also foster learning of content and strategies. Other examples of this principle appear in work on cooperative learning (Stevens, Slavin, & Farnish, 1991).
- Number of strategies. The consensus is that it is useful to teach students more than one comprehension strategy, but it is not clear how many strategies can be effectively taught in any given period of time. The answer will likely vary, depending on teacher skill, student abilities, instructional group size, and the time available for instruction.
- Time for professional development. It takes time for teachers to become skilled in providing this type of instruction. One group with substantial experience in training teachers to provide comprehension strategy instruction (Brown, Pressley, Van Meter, & Schuder, 1996) found that it often took several years for teachers to become skilled at teaching students to use multiple comprehension strategies flexibly and adaptively.
Exemplary Practices in Action
- Arkansas DOE Phonological Awareness website
- Phonemic Awareness Instructional Routine
- Phonemic Awareness Task
- Components of an Explicit Phonics Lesson
- Instructional Templates: The Western Regional Reading First Technical Assistance Center (WRRFTAC) developed a set of instructional templates to strengthen current reading instruction by making it more explicit and systematic. The templates utilize the effective instructional techniques identified by Carnine et al. (2006). Strengths of these routines include their universal application to any curriculum, consistent formatting, the ability to differentiate instruction, and the increased repetition of accurate student practice.
- Guide for Assessing Fluency Rates and Accuracy.
- Tools for Assessing Prosody
- Instructional Routine for Vocabulary
- Oral Reading Techniques
- Tools for Vocabulary Instruction
- Partner Reading Routine
- Relationship Between Reading Achievement and Reading Participation
- Understanding the Relationship Between Reading Comprehension Skills and Strategies
- Sample Individual Literacy Plan
- Foundational Reading Skills Checklist
- The five components of reading are valued by CDE's Early Childhood Initiatives unit.
- The CDE RtI Guidebook promotes all learners' development of the five components of reading.
- The National Writing Project has particular relevance for adolescent literacy and writing.
Go back to the Elements outline


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Handbook of By Laws
Gear Rules
Games and Novelties
Horse Trials
Showing Rules and Guide
Syllabus of Instruction
There is only one source for Gear Rules and it is this book. There are no Gear Rules in the individual Discipline Rules or Event Schedules.
Gear Book 2019
Gear Rules Quick Reference Guide 2019
Having the correct saddlery and equipment (gear) is an important part of pony club life. Riders, parents/guardians and gear check stewards all need to know what is required. Compliance with Gear Rules impacts upon Insurance coverage for Clubs. Note the differences between rally and competition requirements. Competition requirements must not be enforced at rallies.
Helmet Standards: PCV is following Pony Club Australia and Equestrian Australia on Helmet Standards.
Please note that the full citation for the VG1 is VG1 (01.040: 2014-12). VG1 on the helmet label is sufficient to pass gear check.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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Focus Industries Adjustable Swivel Bullet, Directional landscape outdoor light allows you to control the highlighting of a specific spot or area. Create a desired theatrical or subtle mood by drawing attention to your plants, flowers, and sculptures. The DL-20-MR16-BLT also features a Cast aluminum Bullet, Cast aluminum adjustable swivel, Convex high impact clear tempered glass lens, Silicone high-temperature red O-ring and a Black 3 foot 18/2 zip cordAdditional Information:Manufacturer Specification Sheet
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Although output growth should be stronger next year, resource slack and unemployment seem likely to decline only slowly. The prospect of high unemployment for a long period of time remains a central concern of policy. Not only does high unemployment, particularly long-term unemployment, impose heavy costs on the unemployed and their families and on society, but it also poses risks to the sustainability of the recovery itself through its effects on households' incomes and confidence.Bernanke methodically weighed several ideas that have been circulating about how the Fed could give the recovery a push (see e.g., Joseph Gagnon and Alan Blinder).
- Reducing the interest rate on excess reserves (IOER, currently 0.25%) would provide incentive for banks to lend some of the money they are parking at the Fed. Although Bernanke said the availability of bank loans remains a problem for small business, he is not a fan of this option:
[U]nder current circumstances, the effect of reducing the IOER rate on financial conditions in isolation would likely be relatively small... Moreover, such an action could disrupt some key financial markets and institutions. Importantly for the Fed's purposes, a further reduction in very short-term interest rates could lead short-term money markets such as the federal funds market to become much less liquid, as near-zero returns might induce many participants and market-makers to exit. In normal times the Fed relies heavily on a well-functioning federal funds market to implement monetary policy, so we would want to be careful not to do permanent damage to that market.Meanwhile, Senate Republicans have blocked a bill that would funnel more credit to small business through the Treasury.
- Another option would be for the Fed to influence expectations by committing to keeping interest rates low for a given period of time, but this is tricky in practice:
[C]ommitting to keep the policy rate fixed for a specific period carries the risk that market participants may not fully appreciate that any such commitment must ultimately be conditional on how the economy evolves.Indeed, by putting it that way, methinks the chairman makes it harder to make any such future promises credible.
- Some have suggested raising the (implicit) inflation target (which I have discussed here and here). Bernanke really smacked that one down:
I see no support for this option on the FOMC.... [R]aising the inflation objective would likely entail much greater costs than benefits. Inflation would be higher and probably more volatile under such a policy, undermining confidence and the ability of firms and households to make longer-term plans, while squandering the Fed's hard-won inflation credibility. Inflation expectations would also likely become significantly less stable, and risk premiums in asset markets--including inflation risk premiums--would rise. The combination of increased uncertainty for households and businesses, higher risk premiums in financial markets, and the potential for destabilizing movements in commodity and currency markets would likely overwhelm any benefits arising from this strategy.
- That leaves more "quantitative easing" - creating money and using it to buy assets, which is, according to Bernanke, the "first option":
A first option for providing additional monetary accommodation, if necessary, is to expand the Federal Reserve's holdings of longer-term securities. As I noted earlier, the evidence suggests that the Fed's earlier program of purchases was effective in bringing down term premiums and lowering the costs of borrowing in a number of private credit markets. I regard the program (which was significantly expanded in March 2009) as having made an important contribution to the economic stabilization and recovery that began in the spring of 2009. Likewise, the FOMC's recent decision to stabilize the Federal Reserve's securities holdings should promote financial conditions supportive of recovery.
I believe that additional purchases of longer-term securities, should the FOMC choose to undertake them, would be effective in further easing financial conditions. However, the expected benefits of additional stimulus from further expanding the Fed's balance sheet would have to be weighed against potential risks and costs....
[T]he FOMC will strongly resist deviations from price stability in the downward direction. Falling into deflation is not a significant risk for the United States at this time, but that is true in part because the public understands that the Federal Reserve will be vigilant and proactive in addressing significant further disinflation. It is worthwhile to note that, if deflation risks were to increase, the benefit-cost tradeoffs of some of our policy tools could become significantly more favorable.
Second, regardless of the risks of deflation, the FOMC will do all that it can to ensure continuation of the economic recovery. Consistent with our mandate, the Federal Reserve is committed to promoting growth in employment and reducing resource slack more generally. Because a further significant weakening in the economic outlook would likely be associated with further disinflation, in the current environment there is little or no potential conflict between the goals of supporting growth and employment and of maintaining price stability.
Although many of us think there is no need to wait and see if "further action should prove necessary" (e.g. Mark Thoma) the speech should be somewhat reassuring to those, like Paul Krugman, who argue the Fed is in denial (but he is not reassured).
More reaction from Free Exchange and Calculated Risk.


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What I learned in South Africa
Posted on July 7, 2016 by Alex Vo '18.
Coming to South Africa was one of the greatest things I have done for myself in my whole entire life. I made the active choice go seek something beyond the life that I knew in America and from that I had one of the most bizarre learning experiences. Words quite honestly can't describe the immense amount of my experiences from the entirety of this trip. This trip has taught me so much about every aspect in life, and I mean everything.


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Go green, save green
These days you can find pretty much anything processed, prepared, packaged and waiting for you on a store shelf. But your wallet isn't the only one paying the price for such convenience — the planet is, too.
Luckily, there is a variety of everyday items — from laundry detergent to peanut butter — that you can make yourself, saving you money and giving you a sense of DIY satisfaction that's so rare these days. Keep reading for our suggestions for ways you can save a little green by going green. (Text: Laura Moss)


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BGilchrist necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 40 diseños de 14 diseñadores freelance.
Year of Affordable Healthcare
The Year of Affordable Healthcare (YAH) campaign is a nationwide call for increased access to affordable healthcare for American citizens. For its second year, YAH will be focusing on quality medicine and prescription drug savings.
For this we would like a logo modified from our current design to reflect the spin-off campaign. We would like to retain a similar feel as the previous design and possibly incorporate the logo in a new way. Please check us out at http://www.yearofaffordablehealth.com to get the current look and feel of our site.
This spin-off campaign will have a new name and logo attached to it. We need something that conveys quality and savings. Below are some of the potential names for the new spin-off campaign. Please use these when creating your new design.
** The Year of Affordable Healthcare's Quality Medicine Initiative
** The Year of Affordable Healthcare: Quality Medicine for America
** The Year of Affordable Healthcare: Sometimes Things are as Good as They Seem
People looking to save money on prescription medicine or looking for more information on health care policy or generic medicines.
Using the logo (the tilted man) is highly recommended when creating a design.
Colors - please use a variation of blues, greens, and white, similar to those found on http://www.yearofaffordablehealth.com
Please be creative and fun!
We'll need this logo for our new Web site and print materials
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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Lindsay Sobel came to the American Prospect in January of 2000 as the first editor of the newly-launched American Prospect Online. Before joining the Prospect, she worked for Slate magazine and covered Congress for The Hill newspaper. Sobel earned her B.A. from the University of Michigan and a master's degree in public policy from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Sobel grew up in Los Angeles and now lives in Cambridge, MA with her husband Terry Klein.


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5 steps for small business to stand out
Not getting any traction from that IDIQ you share with 500 other contractors? GSA Schedule sales down? Can't get a meeting with a program manager at that prime contractor? A reporter passes you up for a competitor to interview? Lose a bid because the agency doesn't know your company?
What's a small biz to do? How do you get on the radar and start winning more business?
Most small companies don't have the internal resources to put together a coherent and consistent marketing program. The CEO may be a techie who believes that technical skill alone is enough to win business, but that is just not the case. Growth requires a certain level of visibility.
You need to develop a cost-effective program that will raise your visibility to key audiences in the government agencies and selected primes.
There are some relatively simple and inexpensive steps that you can take to start to stand out from your competitors. These work not only in tough times like we're having now, but in good times as well.
Step 1: Define, develop and claim your differentiator
If you are an "IT services" firm, and that is what your business card, web site and collateral says, no one is going to pay attention. Small companies that offer IT services are doing nothing to stand out. Carefully define the type(s) of IT services you provide: network support, cabling, help desk - -whatever it is, be more specific. The more you differentiate your company in terms that resonate with your prospects, the more likely it is you can and will get attention.
Your differentiator is designed to separate you from the competition, not limit what you can do once you are inside a client agency. In the early 2000s Reliable Integration Services, a small woman-owned business had very direct message: Networks, nothing but networks. It was a big, bold statement when you went to their web site, and it helped them get work.
Generalists don't make the cut.
Step 2: Find, develop and share content
It is good if you can develop content pertinent to your key skill area, but if not, there are alternatives. You can find content germane to your niche and start sharing that with prospects, as long as the content is not highlighting a competitor.
There is a great deal of content available if you just bother to look. Using the search function at publication web sites (like www.GCN.com or www.WashingtonTechology.com) you are likely to find some good articles. You can also set up a Google Alert program using key words or phrases.
If you want to develop some of your own content, white papers, case studies, webinars and podcasts are good and all are low-cost.
You should be posting content (original content or from other sources) regularly.
Step 3: Share the news
Your differentiator is not a secret, so find venues to share it, starting with your business card. Ditch the catch phrase that means nothing ("Exceeding customer expectations every day" comes to mind) and replace it with a skill that resonates with your prospects.
Then start Tweeting your news and posting links to all of the above on LinkedIn in the groups where your prospects hang out online.
Step 4: Sharpen your focus
The market is not stagnant, so the differentiator of today may not be much of one in a year, so pay careful attention to how your niche is developing and make certain you have a selection of new differentiators to add to your repertoire.
Mark Amtower's Government Marketing Best Practices seminar is back in McLean, Va., May 14- email Mark for details: firstname.lastname@example.com . It will return to Columbia, Md., July 8.
Computer and network security have been with us for 25 years, but claiming "network security" as your key skills is now too general. Niche it down. Are you an expert in Information Assurance or some other aspect of network security? Your differentiator needs to make you stand out and help you fill the sales pipeline.
Step 5: Target specific clients
While you may want to do business with any and every federal agency and prime, the reality is that you need to target one or two agencies and one or two primes, all carefully selected because your differentiated skill fits a specific need they have.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but if you follow it you are going down the correct path.
About the Author
Mark Amtower advises government contractors on all facets of business-to-government (B2G) marketing and leveraging LinkedIn. Find Mark on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/markamtower.
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Mr. A--please constrain your testiness and focus it on the companies and some of their customers. Don't shoot the messenger. Yeah, GSA shapes the content of the catalogs, but the companies are willing and enthusiastic participants at the trough until they learn, what you are a master of, that they need to do more than turn the crank--but not much more. Just looking and sounding a bit different, and pricing correctly, is all they need to do. The government hardly ever buys innovation--you rarely see call for anything new in a solicitation. Read the company websites--most don't contain much differentiation from competitors. Assertions of this and of that are largely unproven--and startlingly similar from firm to firm. Yet somehow the government distinguishes among them and picks them in a pattern that, year to year, sustains pretty much the ordinal ranking of firms and even what they win. It is a big herd. Cleverness and postured differentiation in proposals--plus the old-boy network effect and lazy evaluations, as opposed to substantive quality, is what differentiates. The government rarely appreciates differences other than price. There's a lot of good to that--when most of the services sought and delivered are commoditized. And, yes, it is crowning proof that the industry is commoditized when we see that the workers are the same and they migrate like groundwater for 5-10 percent more in salary and an easier commute.
It appears that we will not agree on pretty much anything, but here are my thoughts anyway.
What appears in the GSA catalog description is dictated by GSA, ergo the commodity look, as are the labor categories.
The "lemmings" migrate to the work, which does not make it "crowning proof".
Buyers are not necessarily "a tad smarter", but are being funneled into LPTA situations.
But the focus was on differentiation. If you think differentiation is "smoke and mirrors" I suggest you view this webinar, though I doubt you'll agree with anything presented.
Ok, I admit, I over-stated the case, but just a scoche. There truly are some unique offerings, but they are rarely demanded. What is usually solicited and bought is a full schmear of commoditized services, from classic or platinum butts-in-seats to standard programming and HW. With or without project management ("hold the mayo,"?) Just look at the pricing. Look at the Sched 70 catalog descriptions of labor cats and offerings and tell me this is not a highly commoditized industry. The crowning proof is the constant migration, like lemmings, of employees across the companies as if nothing happened. It makes no diff where they are because the same stuff gets delivered regardless. And since the success rate of custom services and systems is so putrid, customers tend to stick with what they know. Profitability only has sunk because the buyers are becoming, bit by bit, a tad smarter and more discriminating (in the good sense) and the companies are stretching what was already paper-thin supervision and quality assurance. The bigger companies are as prone to failure as the small ones, but their failures are far more noticeable--and don't do the industry
s reputation any good. It is dog eat dog out there, but there always were dogs....
This is excellent advice. I do take exception with the comment that there are no real differences between firms so it is just a matter of being clever. I will agree that some folks approach it that way. But there are many ways to truly differentiate your firm. Specialization is the easiest way, but certainly not the only one. Thanks for a stimulating discussion...lwf
Maurice- thnx!
Jake- some IT services may well be considered "commodity" but what you call "cleverness" in differentiation is not accurate. If the IT service you perform involve a methodology that is different in analyzing the issue on the front end, that is a differentiator. If an IT firm has extensive experience with a specific agency, that is a differentiator. Hinge Marketing has a white paper that offer 21 distinct ways to legitimately differentiate, and there are combinations of those 21 that expand the ways companies can legitimately differentiate their service offerings.
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How Did Dangerous Chemicals Like Phthalates Slip Past Science?
How Did Dangerous Chemicals Like Phthalates Slip Past Science?You can't help but wonder how all these toxins are slipping by us. One after another, we find that chemicals we thought were safe are not. We use them in good faith, then find out they are implicated in very serious health conditions. You begin to lose your faith in science. How does this happen?
There are many reasons behind it, but one problem is the testing protocols: for the most part, the chemicals (when tested at all) are tested for high level exposure (a large quantity in a short period of time), or occupational exposure (the level isn't as high, but it is continual for eight or so hours every day.)
What they have not traditionally checked for is the effects of continuous, low level exposure in a non-occupational setting. Which is one of the reasons why, after a chemical that has been tested with traditional protocols, found to be safe, and has even been on the market for years, it is found to cause serious health conditions.
Fortunately, it is now beginning to be widely recognized that the 'standard' approach to toxicology testing just doesn't cut it. This recognition is, I believe, reflected in the changes being made at the EPA. The EPA knows they have not been providing the service we expect from them – to protect us and the environment – and they want to do something about it.
In the meantime, there are testing services that go beyond traditional protocol; testing done with the recognition that exposure other than high level or occupational can also be dangerous. These services are largely offered by companies and foundations that are considered 'environmental'.
At Naturepedic, we have our crib mattresses tested and certified by GREENGUARD Environmental Institute. Our own kids sleep on them; we know they're safe.


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If you are looking for an individual voluntary arrangement in the UK and you need assistance, please contact us now.
If you are interested in registering for an IVA, our team can offer help and assistance. Make certain to contact us now for more information.
If you are looking for IVA advice, please make certain to speak to our experts. We will provide help and professional opinions to guide you through the process.
If you are in need of an Individual Voluntary Agreement in Abergarwed SA11 4 our team can offer the very best services and top advice.
Debt management has become much more frequent in the past few years as people strive to seek a positive outcome from getting into too much debt. The reasons why they get into debt are numerous, but the fact of the matter is that ignoring it won't make it go away.
There is no need to let it go that far when there are so many options to explore for restructuring your debts. One of the most popular solutions is Individual Voluntary Agreement.
There are other options - trust deeds for example https://www.finance-near-me.co.uk/debt/trust-deed/neath-port-talbot/abergarwed/ - however you need to think aboutwhat is best for you.
Individual Voluntary Arrangements, or IVAs for short, have been around since the mid-1980's and have helped millions and millions of people to successfully restructure their debts into something much more manageable. Let's go through what IVAs are and their good and bad points.
For more information on this debt solution, please complete out contact form now and we will help you.
Let's start with the obvious; what is an IVA? Individual voluntary agreement is something that you enter into freely - it cannot be imposed on you by your creditors like bankruptcy https://www.finance-near-me.co.uk/debt/bankruptcy/neath-port-talbot/abergarwed/ can be. It is where you realise you are struggling with your finances and you appeal to your creditors to make reduced payments.
It's not just a simple as contacting your creditors and asking them to accept less money from you, there are procedures that have to be followed and criteria to be met.
You will find that most local creditors would rather receive some money from you rather than nothing at all, and the process allows them to recoup a lot of money that they might otherwise be missing out on if you were to go bankrupt instead.
If you are in Scotland you may consider sequestration https://www.finance-near-me.co.uk/debt/sequestration/neath-port-talbot/abergarwed/ rather than bankruptcy.
This is why an Individual Voluntary Arrangement is usually granted in the vast majority of cases. If the IP does not think that your financial situation will be improved by applying for an IVA then they will suggest alternative methods for you.
If you want to apply for an Individual Voluntary Agreement then you have to register with an Insolvency Practitioner first. The Insolvency Practitioner will;
There has been a steady increase in the number of companies offering to complete individual voluntary arrangements for people who are struggling with debt. Trying to find IVA companies near me will not be difficult, but the amount that they charge for their services varies drastically.
Once the arrangement has been agreed with your creditors, you will make one monthly payment to your Insolvency Practitioner who will pay your creditors on your behalf. They charge you each month for this distribution and there is also a one-off charge for setting up the arrangement in the first place.
If you would like recommendations for IVA companies nearby you in Abergarwed SA11 4 and in surrounding areas that offer a professional service without the huge price tag, contact us by completing the form below.
A voluntary arrangement is an excellent way to show your creditors that you are trying to be financially responsible. It does, however, need careful consideration as there are some drawbacks that you need to aware of before applying for a voluntary arrangement.
If you are considering applying for an IVA but need advice then we can help. We can advise you from what can and cannot be included on your household budget form, to recommending the best course of action for your particular circumstances. Please get in touch for any IVA advice you may need and we'll steer you in the right direction.
How does an IVA work? Once your Insolvency Practitioner conducts a meeting with your creditors they must vote on whether to accept your offer or not. As long as 75% of them agree then the agreement will be approved. Even creditors who voted against it must go along with it if 75% agree.
You will then make one payment a month to your IP who distributes this amongst your creditors. They usually last for five years. During this time, all interest, fees and charges are frozen on the various accounts and your creditors are not allowed to approach you for any more.
Once the agreement has been completed, any remaining debt, interest and charges are written off and you will be free of them. Your creditors cannot chase you for them.
Speak to us if we can help you with any aspect of an Individual Voluntary Arrangement in Abergarwed SA11 4 along with Insolvency Practitioners or help with your household budget. We can recommend firms who specialise in this particular area and deliver outstanding results for the best prices.


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The Ram Hunt of 2008 Revisited
Today Clinton Portis tweeted Chris Cooley the following message:
I remembered the video immediately, and how it was awesome on so many different levels. Watching it now it seems like it was yesterday, but so long ago at the same time. It's been a half decade ago and Cooley and Portis have retired, well only Clinton officially. The Cooley Zone was one of the very best sports blogs on the Internet and I was both proud and lucky enough to be apart of it.
The Cooley Zone had some great posts that still hold up to this day, and if you search the site you'll find pure blogging gold. Here's a link to the highlights of 2008. Of course the only problem with blogging as an active athlete is how disgruntled fans and media can spin a video like this. If the Redskins win it's laughs all around…if they lost then it was because Cooley & Portis don't take their profession serious enough. I can promise you this, I've watched the Redskins for 30+ years and no players gave as much on the field as these two guys.
Thanks fellas for the memories on the field and for this 2 minute video, which is the best 2 minutes you'll spend on the Internet (not including PornHub) today.
Cheers and Hail
ps. I miss your musk Vladimir
Posted by admin Date: Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Categories: Redskins
Tags: Chris Cooley, Clinton Portis, Tanner Cooley, youtubes


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Foxconn is a manufacturing powerhouse based out of Taiwan. They manufacture a large portion of the electronics that we use in our lives. Today we've got their Digital Life P45 ELA motherboard up for review. Lately, Foxconn has been making waves in the enthusiast sector with their P35 Mars and X48 BlackOps motherboards but with this board they are targeting a different group: the multimedia enthusiast.
Instead of focusing solely on overclocking, the Digital Life P45 ELA offers the consumer a blend of overclocking performance, many expansion options, and plenty of media connections. A selling point of this board is the ability for it to pull double-duty in streaming audio. It is able to output two separate sound streams making it possible to be a central HTPC capable of filling in as an HTPC and music center at the same time.
Besides its audio capabilities, the Digital Life ELA comes packed full of features including 12 USB ports, 6 SATA ports, 2 eSATA ports, three FireWire ports, one FireWire mini port, three PCIe x8 slots, and legacy support for PATA and FDD devices. If you'd like even more details about this board feel free to check out Foxconn's website on the Digital Life ELA.
Comments are closed.


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Event Details for Iziko South African National Gallery Standard Bank Young Artist award winner:
- Date/s: - 26/02/2020
- Times: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Location: Izoko South African National Gallery
- City: Cape Twn
Scroll down to see map and to leave a comment.
This song is for…
An exhibition by the Standard Bank Young Artist award winner for Visual Art 2019,
Gabrielle Goliath, opens at the Iziko South African National Gallery.
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Brewers hit wall vs. Lynn as Cards hit over it
Two homers back starter's seven scoreless as Milwaukee's streak ends
MILWAUKEE -- Insistent that he not leave his offense to pick him up again, Lance Lynn took control of Monday night's game -- an eventual 4-0 win over the Brewers -- before he ever threw his first pitch.
Mentally, he implemented micro goals of getting through the first inning unscathed, then the second, and the third. That first inning had been particularly pesky to him. Six of the eight runs he allowed in his first two starts had scored in that opening frame.
There were physical alterations, too, as Lynn, perpetually one to get stronger the longer he pitches, decided to start his outing tired. He did more pregame running, threw "rapid fire" pitches (to use his words) before the national anthem, and then followed with his normal bullpen warmup.
"I have a tendency to be over-amped to start a game, and a lot of balls get up in the middle of the zone," Lynn said afterward. "Tonight, I was in that groove that you need to be in when you start the game."
It all served as context en route to Lynn making one of the better starts of his career. Behind seven scoreless innings from him and two home runs, the Cardinals ended the Brewers' winning streak at nine games in front of 27,090 fans, who under the Miller Park roof had a respite from the snow outside.
"Today, was as good as I've seen him," said Matt Carpenter, who watched Lynn's final innings on television after his arguing a called third strike earned him a fifth-inning ejection. "And he's had some good outings."
"He was really a lot better than I've seen him in the past," Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy said. "He had it all."
Lynn's run support came via a second-inning swing from Jhonny Peralta and another in the sixth from Jon Jay, whose three-run blast rewarded manager Mike Matheny's decision to build his lineup based on matchups. Jay's inclusion as the team's starting center fielder was rooted in his past success (6-for-9) against Milwaukee starter Matt Garza.
"Jon has been an impact in all of these games that he has played in," Matheny said. "That [sixth inning] looked like it could have been a real turning point for that game. Jon did a nice job of picking us back up."
Jay did help the Cardinals salvage an inning in which they ran into outs at both home and third. After Matt Holliday was thrown out trying to score from first on a double and Matt Adams was stopped trying to advance on a grounder to the first baseman, Peralta extended the inning with a single.
Jay then clubbed Garza's 1-2 hanging slider -- Lucroy said afterward that the pitch was intended to be in the dirt -- into the right-field seats.
"[I'm] just trying to stay alive," Jay said. "He left a pitch over the plate, and I was able to handle it, and it made a big inning for us."
The blast, Jay's first of the season, ended at 26 a string of starts with three or fewer earned runs allowed by Brewers pitching.
"The worst thing is it's just a big-time momentum shift right there," Garza said. "I felt we had momentum after the tag at home, and the great plays on defense, and that [one pitch] was a back-breaker in a sense."
Peralta's third homer of the season staked St. Louis to the early lead. After being given a day off to regroup from a slow start, Peralta has responded with consecutive multihit games.
It was all more than enough help for Lynn, accustomed to being heartily supported by his offense. He averaged nearly six runs of support per start in 2013, and the Cardinals tallied seven in each of his first two starts this year.
While becoming the National League's second three-game winner, Lynn proved that he doesn't always have to be carried. Over seven innings, Lynn shut out a Brewers offense that had scored a combined 53 runs in sweeps of Boston, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. His 36 wins since the start of 2012 now place him atop the NL in that category.
"I know sabermatricians don't like it, but this game comes down to wins and losses. That's what we're preaching in here," Matheny said. "And a guy who finds a way to win, to me, needs to be given a lot of credit because that's the ultimate goal for us. Whether you're getting a lot of support or throwing a shutout, one way or another, you're finding a way to get it done, and Lance has done that."
Lynn avoided recurring first-inning trouble by getting Ryan Braun to ground into an inning-ending double play. He then retired 11 of the next 12 batters he faced, before two-out trouble brewed in the fifth. Lynn extinguished it with a strikeout of Garza. An inning later, he retired Jonathan Lucroy to strand two more.
He closed his outing by retiring pinch-hitter Mark Reynolds with his 11th strikeout of the night, one short of his career high. It marked just the third time in 67 career starts that Lynn had pitched at least seven innings without allowing a run. His four- and two-seam fastballs were especially effective throughout.
"It was just one of those days where the fastball was good, and I was able to mix some other pitches in when I needed to," Lynn said. "When you can do that, it makes for a fun night."
Carlos Martinez made quick work of the Brewers in backing up Lynn. He retired all six batters he faced to preserve the Cardinals' second shutout of the year. It was orchestrated by Tony Cruz, who was making his first start of the season behind the plate.
"As long as we get a W, to help contribute to that is huge," said Cruz, who also went 2-for-4. "[Hits] are just a bonus. Catching and helping my pitcher are No. 1."


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Serving Kentucky and Indiana Business Community For Over 60 Years
RCS Communications is the full service Wireless Communication Systems Provider throughout Louisville, Lexington, Central Kentucky and Southern Indiana. RCS is a Motorola authorized Two-Way radio dealer specializing in the sales, service, rental and installation of Two-Way radios, pagers and wireless communications systems. In addition to Motorola, we also represent major manufacturers such as ICOM, Kenwood and Vertex Standard as well as many other ancillary manufacturers and products.
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Focused on our strengths in Communications and IT Technology


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January 18, 2005 • Posted By Shaun Lyon
During a radio promotion for the tsunami relief program "Radio Aid" on Monday, Billie Piper phoned in and spoke briefly about the new series. She confirmed that it will be starting, as far as she knows, "at the end of March" and when asked who would be doing the theme tune she said "as far as I know it will be the original". The question asked of her was quite confused at this point, with both radio presenters (Zoe Ball and Shane Richie) doing impressions of the theme, so it's possible that she meant it would be the original composition rather than meaning it would be the Delia Derbyshire version, but this remains uncertain. She also put forward the "hoody" she says she wore in the first two episodes to be auctioned on eBay as part of the aid appeal. (Thanks to Dave Dickinson)


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I Am An Idiot Because ...
By J.J. Jackson
November 2, 2009
OK, I am going to have some fun this week. To accomplish this fun I am going to list for you, my readers, many of the reasons liberals think that I am an idiot. The way this is going to work is simple. I am just going to go through my email from the last week and pick out correspondence from liberals telling me that I am an idiot for [insert reason here]. Only when someone used the actual term "idiot" to describe me will their comment be included in this list but, due to time and space limitations, not all such utterances will be included. In the end, I think we will have a good picture of what the left sees as qualifying one as being an idiot.
So let us begin. What follows are the actual comments of actual liberals. I am an idiot, according to liberals, because:
" ... [I] actually think that the average person is smart enough to control their own lives! Wake up! People are dumb!"
" ... [I] want everyone to embrace capitalism ..."
" ... [I think] that people should be able to keep the money they earn! No one earns any money! Any money 'earned' is just money stolen from someone else!"
" ... [I think] that hard work is actually rewarded by those greedy SOBs on Wall Street!!!!!!!"
" ... [I] foolishly believe that there is actually some superiority to voluntarily giving money to charity compared to giving it to government to help the poor."
" ... [I] don't accept that President Obama is clearly the greatests (sic) President living or dead to ever lead this lost country called America back to greatness."
" ... [all I] have done is trash ACORN when without them no African Americans would have the right to vote!"
" ... [I] don't understand how great health care is in countries like Cuba! Instead [I am] too busy pushing [my] capitalist and anti-American agenda!"
" ... [I] refuse to accept how utterly right wing Adolf Hilter and his band of national socialists were!" (emphasis mine)
" ... [I] support the bloodsucking and evil Jews in theri (sic) conquest to take over the world and enslave all perpsons (sic) of color."
" ... [I] do not believe that people should have a right to other people's wealth in order to better their own lives and pay for their right to health care which has only been stripped by the greedy who run this nation."
" ... [I] actually quote the Constitution as IF THAT REALLY MEANS ANYTHING SINCE IT WAS WRITTEN BY EVIL WHITE SLAVEHOLDERS AND IS NOTHING BUT LIES!"
" ... [I] cannot begin to understand how rough it is to be poor in America! It is WORSE than being poor in AFRICA by any means of measure!"
" ... [I] stand up against pedophilia when there is absolutely nothing wrong with an adult having sex with underage and teenage children! EVERYONE WHO HAS READ THE RESEARCH KNOWS THAT ADULT-CHILD SEX IS BENEFICIAL TO THE CHILD!"
" ... [I] believe that the war on terror is something other than what it is, which is a war for oil and to conquer the brown man!"
" ... [I] refuse to except the clear and dominant evidence the 9/11 was in fact an inside job perpetrated by the Bush Administration to rally America into a war of oppression in the Middle East."
" ... [I] continue to spread the lie that the Democrats are the majority in both houses of Congress when [I] know that the Republicans hold both houses and have been filibustering everything President Obama has tried to do to make America great again."
" ... [I] keep spreading the conservative media's lies about Hugo Chavez and ignoring what good he is accomplishing in Venezuela by throwing his political opposition in jail to keep them from hindering his progress and returning the ill gotten gains of the greedy to the people."
" ... [I am] so ardent a believer that citizens have a 'right' to defend themselves against criminals and even those criminals perpetrating assualt (sic) on them and even suggest that it ok to 'murder' those criminals to stop them when everyone with a brain knows that it is a blatant disregard for the human rights of the criminal to allow such hideous acts."
So basically I am an idiot because I believe in liberty, free markets, the right to self-defense, the repulsiveness of child molestation, promote the truth that Democrats control both houses of Congress and the White House, dislike left wing thugs and tyrants, tell the truth about their governments, read and quote the Constitution, think people are smart enough to make their own decisions, believe that people should be able to work hard and keep the fruits of that labor without forced confiscation for government social programs, support fighting miscreants stuck in the 15th Century, don't think that Jews are the most evil force on the planet, disagree with President Obama, discuss corruption by groups that just happen to be associated with the President, and do not accept the premise that the United States is inherently evil because at one time in the past parts of the country engaged in the horrific and unconscionable act of race-based slavery?
I just want to make sure that we are clear as to why it is me, and not you folks, that are the "idiots."
J.J. Jackson is a libertarian conservative author from Pittsburgh, PA who has been writing and promoting individual liberty since 1993 and is President of Land of the Free Studios, Inc. He is the Pittsburgh Conservative Examiner for Examiner.com. He is also the owner of The Right Things - Conservative T-shirts & Gifts. His weekly commentary along with exclusives not available anywhere else can be found at Liberty Reborn.


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The party line of the anthropic camp goes something like this. There are at least $10^{500}$ flux compactifications breaking SUSY out there with all sorts of values for the cosmological constant. Life takes a lot of time to evolve, and this is incompatible with a universe which dilutes away into de Sitter space too soon. The cosmological constant has to be fine-tuned to the order of $10^{123}$. Without SUSY, the zero point energy contribution from bosons and fermions would not cancel naturally.
However, superstring theory also admits N=2 SUGRA compactifications which have to have an exactly zero cosmological constant. Surely some of them can support life? I know there are a lot more flux compactifications out there compared to hyperKahler compactifications, but does the ratio exceed $10^{123}$? What probability measure should we use over compactifications anyway? Trying to compute from eternal inflation leads to the measure problem.


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31 August, 2014
My Third ShowI had already seen the band at Radio City and Madison Square Garden on the two legs of the Unforgettable Fire tour. There was a ton of hype leading up to these shows, including a piece on the news about how the band was working with the Harlem Youth Choir on a version of I still Haven;t Found What I'm Looking For. The choir came out on stage during this show, which is what ended up on the Rattle & Hum soundtrack. But for me, one of the most memorable moments was when during the pre-show music, with the house lights still one, the band came out in the middle of Stand By Me and finished the song before taking down the house lights and continuing with the show. Even though it was a sizable venue, you felt a connection with the band thanks to that moment.
06 August, 2010
The 1st timeMy 1st time seeing the band ! Oh my god what a show!!Last night of a 5 night set ,end of the 1st leg of the tour. The sound was great & the Tree done live!! Best part was Bullit the blue sky & Bad I have been able to catch a few more shows but you alway remember your 1st.Only thing that would have been better was my choice of wives. Going to the shows in the Linc summer of 2011 with my 2nd wive (a better choice )