Summarizes research for teaching writing to students with learning problems. Develops, from the literature review, a checklist of instructional features and uses of the checklist to examine two fifth-grade basal textbooks. Concludes by recommending modifications: add modeling to the instruction, make parts of the instruction more explicitly…

Notes that inquiry allows the author's students to learn on their own every day; it gives them the opportunity to investigate, explore, and discover the world around them by developing and using their own questions, thoughts, and interests. Concludes that her intention is to promote her students' feelings of self-esteem, success, self-worth, and…

Uses an activity to assess students' understanding and use of the vocabulary of 'difference between' with four middle-ability children from years 1, 3, and 5. (Contains 14 references.) (ASK)

Discusses separating good readers from poor readers. Defines strategies for accomplishing academic tasks. Finds that poor readers lack appropriate strategies to correct their comprehension problems. Reports results of interviews with 60 fifth-grade expert readers. Concludes that through direct, systematic teaching and guided practice of reading…

Investigates the changing voices of boys in the fifth and sixth grades. Categorizes their voices by J. M. Cooksey's changing voice stages and uses his criteria for determining stages (highest and lowest pitches sung, overall range, and pitch of the speaking voice). Results indicate an earlier voice change than previous research. (CMK)

Describes a partnership involving fifth grade students, preservice teachers, a classroom teacher, and a university faculty member in introducing students to the basic anatomy of a cell using three-dimensional models, analogies, and hands-on/minds-on activities. (ASK)

Describes what some fifth-grade students read in the summer and why. Discusses 39 children's books in the following categories: summer experiences, trips and journeys, family experiences, and the lives of children in troubled times. Offers an excerpt from a discussion of middle school readers in response to reading the books on children in…

A study of 364 fifth graders investigated distractibility of animated graphics in a computer-based tutorial about Newton's Laws of Motion. Found no difference in post-test performance for those with high, medium, or no distraction graphics. Students in the two distraction conditions took less time to process instructional frames than students in…

Discusses planning and designing schools that serve fifth and sixth graders. This combination of grade levels is seen by many to be the school's greatest strength: fifth graders have the opportunity to transition from the elementary environment, while sixth graders are removed from the adolescent peer pressure of seventh and eighth graders. (EV)

Examines how dimensions of reading motivation related to students' reading activity and achievement. Finds that the strength of the relations between reading motivation and reading achievement was greater for girls and for white students. Demonstrates that reading motivation is multidimensional and should be regarded as such in research and in…

Analyzes videotaped lessons of 5th grade students on equivalent fractions from seven American and six Japanese classrooms in terms of a recurrent pattern in public discourse among a teacher and students. Found two approaches to the teaching-learning of the criteria for evaluating mathematical arguments. (Contains 17 references.) (Author/ASK)

Examines the use of drawing as a learning strategy for 5th- and 6th-grade students reading science text. Three experimental drawing conditions and a reading control tested the hypothesis that drawing is effective only when students are supported during the construction process. Results were generally consistent with the proposed hypotheses.…

Discusses the importance of planning for art projects by first producing sketches and then selecting the best sketch. Illustrates this by describing an activity used with fifth-grade students in which they make cut-paper collage turkeys and turkey disguises. Lists possible turkey disguises. (CMK)

Presents one first-year teacher's experience with incorporating literature into her fifth grade class. Notes the lack of support from the administration and fellow teachers. Observes that when readers talk together about books, their "socially" constructed meanings can represent the range of their experiences, ideas, and backgrounds. Aims to…

Previous computer-assisted problem-solving systems have incorporated all the problem-solving steps within a single stage, making it difficult to diagnose stages at which errors occurred when a student encounters difficulties, and imposing a too-high cognitive load on students in their problem solving. This study proposes a computer-assisted system…