New titles teach healthy eating.

Since the Surgeon General declared childhood obesity as an epidemic in 2001, the problem has only gotten worse. According to the American Obesity Association, since 1976 the prevalence of childhood obesity has doubled for ages 6 to 11 and more than tripled for 12-to 19-year-olds. In addition, Carolyn Thompson of Certified Family Consumer Sciences says doctors are diagnosing children in all grades with diabetes and high blood pressure, diseases that typically affect adults.

In response to legislation demanding that schools combat this epidemic, many districts are turning to a new category of software that teaches students about making healthier choices. Three of the most popular titles are HealthSmart, Dole 5-A-Day Adventures and Nutrition Interactive. "Asa solo medium, it [healthy living software] won't be the answer, but thus far we have been trying to teach healthy living by standard methods and the obesity problem still grows," says Kathleen Zelman of WebMd.

At the end of last year, the Pascagoula (Mo.) City School District served as one of several pilot schools nationwide for HealthSmart, a scientifically based wellness-education software program designed in accordance with the new USDA food pyramid. The title provides teachers with lesson plans, worksheets, student activities and classroom discussion suggestions. It also allows students to continue learning outside the classroom in a computer labor at home. After students piloted the three-week HealthSmart curriculum, they took tests to evaluate their nutrition knowledge. Results revealed a 31 percent increase over their pretest scores. "Students know the difference between healthy and unhealthy nutrition, they are expressing what they need to have to be healthy, and they are telling other children what they need to be healthier," says Dianna Krebbs, Pascagoula's food service director.

www.healthsmart.net

www.dole5aday.com

How to Improve Reading Instruction

The 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress revealed that 26 percent of eighth graders have below basic reading skills. Beverly Enns, a faculty chair for curriculum and instruction and reading/literacy at Capella University in Minneapolis, says secondary classroom teachers need to understand the fundamentals of reading instruction and integrate this knowledge with content acquisition. Sarah Mahurt, associate professor of literacy and language at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., offers these strategies to help teachers get started:

* Engage the student in dialogue Instead of asking students to just give an answer, encourage them to explain their understanding of the material and how they arrived at the answer.

* Assign more writing on the reading By slowing down the thinking process, writing allows students to explore and articulate their own connection to the material.

* Avoid worksheets Students learn more by generating their own questions that engage the student in dialogue, rather than filling in blanks.

* Categorize the text Help students identify different types of text, like narratives and research papers, so that as they process the material they can determine which information is the most relevant.