This teachers' manual is to be used with the textbook "Better English: Grade Five" by Jeschke, Potter, and Gillet. It includes notes that explain briefly the first principles of language study and teaching, and suggestions for the conduct of the individual lessons. [For "Better English: Grade Five," see ED623250.]

Results of a study that measured rankings of achievement in arithmetic by self, peers, and teachers, and their relation to arithmetic achievement measured by standardized tests. (DR)

In this article, the author discusses how she made a major improvement to her fifth-grade lesson plan by providing a hands-on Internet experience before students worked on their own oil pastel still life. It was a success with beautiful finished products and highly motivated, engaged students. Details of this lesson are described in this article.

Research documents that transient students who change schools frequently oftensuffer from low academic achievement. This article investigates standardized group measures by disentangling elementary achievement scores. Located in a highly transient area outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Main Street School had their fifth grade Pennsylvania…

If we have articulated in the school mission statement that all students can learn, what do we do when some are not performing at a proficient level? This was the question the principal and faculty at Skyview Elementary School in Thornton, Colorado, asked themselves when they saw the test scores in the spring of 2002, indicating that a majority of…

Leaders in schools with grades 5 to 8 face unprecedented responsibilities in working with young adolescents. As schools respond to the mandates of No Child Left Behind, more than half of the students tested annually will be enrolled in these middle grades. This means that the success or failure rate of schools nationwide will be largely determined…

The goal of this study was to investigate Grade 5 children's knowledge of a common word pattern in English, to double the final consonant of a one-syllable word when adding ed. Significant correlations were found between ed spelling and general spelling ability, as well as correct pronunciation of ed words in isolated word reading and spelling.…

In this essay, the author, a 5th-grade teacher, questions how well a standardized test can measure his students. This article presents a letter he wrote for the Washington state science test scorer regarding his students' test scores. He shares stories about some of the students in his class. He points out that tests can turn out to be more like…

In this article, the author discusses an art adventure with her third, fourth, and fifth grade enrichment kids to the Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art in Colorado. The author demonstrates and teaches her students how to use the art tissue paper and oil pastel complementing the creative spirit of the Jaune Quick-to-See Smith work presented…

As an art educator, the author understands how simple materials can be used to create complex structures. Yet, sometimes what everyone needs is a spark of inspiration to connect those available materials to have an idea grow to fruition. When teachers allow themselves to think creatively, they can inspire their students to greater understanding of…

This article tells the story of an elementary school principal, a former high school mathematics teacher, who uses the geoboard in her work with a group of fifth-grade students. As the investigation of polygons progresses from symmetry to area to perimeter, hands-on applications of advanced mathematics topics such as the Pythagorean theorem and…

Objectives: To describe the development of an original scale that measures perceived school climate for active travel in fourth- and fifth-grade girls and boys. Methods: The data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to provide evidence of factorial validity, factorial invariance, and construct validity. Results: The CFA supported…

In this article, the author describes a short activity which introduces third- to fifth-grade students to animal classification. The Tree of Animal Life activity is a simple, sorting exercise that can help them see a bigger picture. The activity sets the stage for learning about animal taxonomy and introduces the characteristics of various animal…

Federal educational policy, "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001", focused attention on America's education with conspicuous results. One aspect, "highly qualified classroom teacher" and "principal" (HQ), was taxing since states established individual accountability structures. The HQ impact and use of data-informed…

This study involved an investigation of the effects of strategy instruction integrated with the concrete-representational-abstract teaching sequence on students with learning disabilities. A multiple probe design across subjects with one replication was used in this study. Two sets of data were analyzed to determine effectiveness of the…