Children ages 2-18 spend between two and four hours per day watching TV, a calculation that is even higher if DVDs, videos and the Internet are included. Although the amount of television watched by today's children has raised concerns about their literacy development, captions could hold a key to turning television into an educational asset.…

The calendar was creeping into June. It was late spring, a time when many students' thoughts were sliding toward summer vacation. But it wasn't a problem in Lori Lowe's classroom. Her students had bigger things on their minds--like whether or not the Civil War would turn out the way they hoped. For many weeks, these fourth graders had been…