Introducing Sheltered Instruction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Introducing Sheltered Instruction - Essay Example According to the research carried out by National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition, (2002), it is known that each year proportion of non- English speaking students is increasing at more rate than actual number. And many states are not up to that level to deliver language and other services that these immigrant students actually need. As per the work by Moss & Puma (1995), Ruiz-de-Velasco (2000) & Fix and Waggoner (1999), these students have less grades and high dropout rate as compared to US-born students in spite of having high attendance rate. It is evident from these studies that most schools are not satisfying the requirement of educating linguistically and culturally diverse students. To achieve high levels of educational standards and accommodate the requirement of 'No Child Left Behind Act (2001)', federal and state governments expect all students to have adjusted national and state assessments. English learners enter U.S schools with wide range of language profi ciencies and subject matter knowledge, based on their background, socioeconomic status, age of arrival and personal experiences. To succeed students with varieties of criteria the teacher development, program design, curriculum and materials, and instructional and assessment practices should be modified. This paper will address especially strategies for improving teacher development and instructional practices. Many standards have been ... High-stake test has been adopted in many states as result of 'No Child Left Behind Act (2001)'. This was benefited to English learning students as teachers and schools concentrated on overall progress, including LEP students, so as to reach benchmarks laid. In spite of these many adaptation, students exit before they become proficient in academic English due to several reasons. First reason is being standardized test designed for US born students, EL students at beginning level found it difficult to meet criteria as they can not read, write or speak English fluently. Thus program failed to confirm that EL students learn academic content primarily, with learning English. Second reason for failure of high-stack tests was lack of certified ESL and bilingual teachers. To compensate this shortage, principals started hiring less-qualified teachers, using substitutes, canceling courses, increasing class size, or asking teachers to teach outside their field of preparation. The Sheltered Instruction Approach and SIOP model The growth in numbers of students learning English as an additional language and the shortage of qualified ESL and bilingual teachers raised the need of sheltered content instruction approach. "sheltered instruction is an approach that can extend the time students have for getting language support services while giving them a jump-start on the content subjects they will need for graduation" (Echevarria, 2004, p.10). It is not a set of instruction techniques need to added or replaced by teacher's original techniques, but an approach that complements those methods and strategies. Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) model has been designed for flexibility and confirmed with wide range of classroom

touch senses :: essays research papers

The skin contains numerous sensory receptors which receive information from the outside environment. The sensory receptors of the skin are concerned with at least five different senses: pain, heat, cold, touch, and pressure. The five are usually grouped together as the single sense of touch in the classification of the five senses of the whole human body. The sensory receptors vary greatly in terms of structure. For example, while pain receptors are simply unmyelinated terminal branches of neurons, touch receptors form neuronal fiber nets around the base of hairs and deep pressure receptors consist of nerve endings encapsulated by specialized connective tissues. Receptors also vary in terms of abundance relative to each other. For example, there are far more pain receptors than cold receptors in the body. Finally, receptors vary in terms of the concentration of their distribution over the surface of the body, the fingertips having far more touch receptors than the skin of the back. Other types of receptors located throughout the whole body, including proprioceptive receptors and visceral receptors, receive information about the body's internal environment. Proprioceptive or stretch receptors, located in muscles and tendons, sense changes in the length and tension of muscles and tendons and help to inform the central nervous system of the position and movement of the various parts of the body. Each stretch receptor consists of specialized muscle fibers and the terminal branches of sensor neurons. The muscle fibers and sensor neuron endings are very closely associated and are encased in a sheath of connective tissue. Visceral receptors monitor the conditions of the internal organs. Most responses to their stimulation by an organ are carried out by the autonomic system. Several visceral sensors, however, produce conscious sensations such as nausea, thirst, and hunger. Touch Receptors are the nerves cells that tell your brain about tactile sensations. There are several types of touch receptors, but they can be divided into two groups. Mechanoreceptors that give the sensations of pushing, pulling or movement, and thermoreceptors that tell you about sensations of temperature. The mechanoreceptors contain the most types of touch receptors. Free nerve endings inform the brain about pain, and they are located over the entire body. Located in the deep layers of dermis in both hairy and glabrous skin, the pacinian corpuscles detect pressure, telling the brain when a limb has moved. After the brain has told a limb, such as an arm, to move, the pacinian corpuscles tells the brain that that limb has actually moved into the correct position. touch senses :: essays research papers The skin contains numerous sensory receptors which receive information from the outside environment. The sensory receptors of the skin are concerned with at least five different senses: pain, heat, cold, touch, and pressure. The five are usually grouped together as the single sense of touch in the classification of the five senses of the whole human body. The sensory receptors vary greatly in terms of structure. For example, while pain receptors are simply unmyelinated terminal branches of neurons, touch receptors form neuronal fiber nets around the base of hairs and deep pressure receptors consist of nerve endings encapsulated by specialized connective tissues. Receptors also vary in terms of abundance relative to each other. For example, there are far more pain receptors than cold receptors in the body. Finally, receptors vary in terms of the concentration of their distribution over the surface of the body, the fingertips having far more touch receptors than the skin of the back. Other types of receptors located throughout the whole body, including proprioceptive receptors and visceral receptors, receive information about the body's internal environment. Proprioceptive or stretch receptors, located in muscles and tendons, sense changes in the length and tension of muscles and tendons and help to inform the central nervous system of the position and movement of the various parts of the body. Each stretch receptor consists of specialized muscle fibers and the terminal branches of sensor neurons. The muscle fibers and sensor neuron endings are very closely associated and are encased in a sheath of connective tissue. Visceral receptors monitor the conditions of the internal organs. Most responses to their stimulation by an organ are carried out by the autonomic system. Several visceral sensors, however, produce conscious sensations such as nausea, thirst, and hunger. Touch Receptors are the nerves cells that tell your brain about tactile sensations. There are several types of touch receptors, but they can be divided into two groups. Mechanoreceptors that give the sensations of pushing, pulling or movement, and thermoreceptors that tell you about sensations of temperature. The mechanoreceptors contain the most types of touch receptors. Free nerve endings inform the brain about pain, and they are located over the entire body. Located in the deep layers of dermis in both hairy and glabrous skin, the pacinian corpuscles detect pressure, telling the brain when a limb has moved. After the brain has told a limb, such as an arm, to move, the pacinian corpuscles tells the brain that that limb has actually moved into the correct position.

IT Planning at Modmeters Essay

Introduction This paper discusses the various aspects of IT planning at Modmeters Company which has two strategies of expanding globally and providing direct-to-customer sales. The role of IT is important in the expansion initiatives of Modmeters. The executives of various departments held a meeting to identify the budget requirements for the expansion. The plan is to establish new plants in Asia and Eastern Europe where the infrastructure facilities are not sufficient required for the operations at Modemeters. Brian Smith, CIO of Modmeters is worried about these two initiatives as the IT funding was very poor. The company has never invested in reengineering the existing systems, instead, they always introduced new systems on top of the other. John Johnson, CEO wanted to change the name of the company as MM for this updated strategy. The current budget levels at the company are not going support the expansion initiatives. Surprisingly, only 2% of the revenue was allocated to IT. According to Brian, 80% of the IT budget was fixed for running the existing systems and fixing errors. The remaining 20% was allotted based on ROI, where majority of the budget was used by manufacturing department, Human resources and marketing departments having minor share. Brian believed that this kind of budgeting is not effective for their new business strategies (McKeen & Smith, 2012). Brian explains the need to implement flexible systems to support the updated strategies. He stresses on the budget requirements to buy new infrastructure and problems with the existing systems. The systems are not integrated and use different terminologies in different divisions. IT needs investment for infrastructure, underlying processes and to manage the information. However, the outcomes of the budget meeting after having a long discussion were to prioritize the IT projects depending up on their contribution to the key objectives of the company and also how each of them is adding value to the Modmeters. To develop the direct-to-customer sales, the marketing department needs more investment to get the resources. Hence, to implement the new strategic  initiatives at Modemeters, the budget allocated to IT and marketing plays a key role. Recommendations An IT planning process needs to be developed to meet the demands of the new projects. First of all, the IT architecture has to be changed such that the systems are flexible to use. All the divisions should use similar terminology to manage the information and communicate with other divisions. A data dictionary need to be developed to address the terminology issues. IT should be involved in decision making at Modmeters. An enterprise architecture need to be developed to get the best out of IT. Though, I accept that IT projects should be measured in terms of ROI, the current situation at Modmeters is different. The systems are never reengineered and the communication between the systems look like a spaghetti, where failure of each system may lead to a complete failure. There is a need to invest on improving the architecture considering long term advantages of the investment. The IT and business should have a common goals and objectives in developing the existing business. The needs of the manufacturing, marketing, R&D and HR need to be understood and allocate the budget accordingly. Identify the core competencies of IT and a cost-benefit analysis should be made for the projects. The business employees’ opinions should be taken in using technologies. The key business staff needs to be identified and made account managers. They should present their findings to the top management so that, the governance body can look for interoperability of the systems. In the IT vision, guiding principles should be developed which links the business strategies. Meanwhile, existing business requirements and operations should be addressed as a continuous process. A departmental approach should be taken while prioritizing the projects. This approach focuses on improving the business by expanding globally, enabling direct-to-customer sales, satisfying Stan’s auditing needs, making use of existing projects and improving the infrastructure. Account managers should analyze how the proposed project would benefit their respective departments. The IT and business people should work closely while developing strategies. A SWOT analysis should be made while developing the plan. IT should be given enough budget and team work is essential to implement new strategies. The people need to be trained by allocating budget required to HR department.  The resources should be used effectively for the global expansion. A centralized IT structure is essential for Modmeters to share the information between the divisions. Fred, VP of manufacturing should understand the value of IT. At Modmeters, business needs should be understood by IT to deliver the best technology meanwhile, business people should provide necessary funding to IT. Apart from the ROI, Customer satisfaction, greater efficiency, product quality, cash savings and other intangible benefits need to be considered while assessing the business value of a project (Ferris, 2012). The marketing department funding needs to be increased. It is important to enable smooth transition while expanding and change should be managed carefully to be successful. Also, the policies and procedures in the IT plan should comply with the regulations. To conclude, IT and business collaboration is important in strategic IT planning. IT value should be understood by business and business needs should be understood by IT. At Modmeters, reengineering the existing systems, taking a departmental approach, satisfying the departmental needs and funding sufficiently will help to implement the two strategic initiatives. References Mckeen, J. D., & Smith, H. (2012). Delivering Value with IT (2nd ed). New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc. Ferris, B. (2012, June 12). How to Measure the Business Value of a Project. Retrieved February 17, 2015, from http://cobaltpm.com/measuring-business-value-of-a-project/

The American Automotive Industry Incurred A Major Crisis

Between 2008 and 2009, the American automotive industry incurred a major crisis, on the heels of the housing market collapse occurring in 2007 (Klier Ribenstein, 2013). General Motors was already in a financial vulnerable situation at this time, having already filed a $10.6 billion dollar loss three years earlier (United States Securities and Exchange Commission, 2005). In 2007, General Motors losses for the year were $38.7 billion and its sales had dropped a full forty five percent from the year before (Weardenm, 2009; Usborne, 2008). By the end of 2008, the company was in such bad shape that analyst predicted that the company would have the liquidate or discontinue operations without any assistance from the government (Bosco Plante,†¦show more content†¦This restricting led to the death of three of its brands, Saturn, Pontiac, and Hummer, and the selling of another (Sweden’s Saab) to Spyker, a Dutch auto group (Krebs, 2009; Ahlander Bailey, 2010). The company was left with five business segments and only four brands (Chevy, Cadillac, Buick, and GMC) (Senter McManus, 2013; Maynard, 2009b). This decision to file for bankruptcy and restructure the company was an excellent one because studies have shown that restructuring of the internal workings of an organization increases both the efficiency of the company and its value to the stockholders (Brickley Van Drunen, 1990). The positive effects of this restructuring is evidenced by the ability of the government to successfully sale the entirety of its GM stock in 2013 for a total price of $39 billion and General Motors realizing a 19% increase in sales in 2014 (McGrath, 2015; Isidore, 2013). To determine which vehicle models in the remaining brands of Cadillac, Buick, Chevy, and GMC to continue producing, the new General Motors would have needed to undergo some research process to determine which brands had the most growth potential and were the most value maximizing. There are three types of research that I would propose for General Motors to undergo: a statistical analysis, a consumer survey, and a dealership survey. The statistical analysis would study the past and