Research revealing the continued dominance of narrative texts in primary-grade classrooms, coupled with shifts in the American cultural and textual landscape, have prompted educational policy urging teachers to increase the variety of informational texts students read and the authenticity with which students use those texts. The purpose of this…

In this qualitative case study, we provide a series of vignettes illustrating a Grade 1 teacher's experiences integrating iPad technology into her instruction over a school year. We use the digital didactic model to deconstruct these vignettes and draw upon the teacher's reflections to gain further insights about her instructional experiences…

Wishing to explore the complexity of the conceptual, didactic and institutional aspects of learning a scientifically defined object of knowledge, we chose to study the link between the personal relation to numeration developed by six-year-old pupils in first grade ("cours preparatoire" the first level of primary school in France), and…

Two Hispanic-American first grade girls were studied for one year by naturalistic and qualitative methods. The child for whom the teacher had low expectations did very well at reading, whereas the child of whom more was expected did less well. Why this occurred is discussed. (SLD)

Included in this document are two reports of studies using data from the same l5 research sites in Alberta, Canada. The first study, "Critical Variables in ECS-Grade One Articulation," documented factors associated with successful articulation of Early Childhood Services (ECS) and primary school programs. Data were collected through…

An investigation is presented of a regular classroom teacher's socio-psycho-linguistic experiences with the non-English speaking children in her classroom. Audiotaped interviews were conducted with Mrs. Walters (pseudonym), a first grade teacher with a large number of foreign students in her classroom. In addition to interviewing the teacher, the…

This study sought to determine how retained first grade students function in a whole language classroom after meeting with failure in a traditional first grade setting. Data collection for the five retained students, plus six "at-risk" students, involved naturalistic observation. Reading began from language experience stories that the students…

Types of questions asked in first-grade mathematics classes in Japan, Taiwan, and the United States were investigated. Observations of 311 lessons by 16 Japanese, 20 Taiwanese, and 33 U.S. teachers suggest that the kinds of questions asked in Taiwan and Japan contribute to more sophisticated mathematical knowledge. (SLD)