Describes a year-long teacher action-research study involving fifth graders that used trade books to teach students various reading-comprehension strategies. Finds that students retained and transferred strategy learning to other texts and contexts; valued reading more and reported reading more; and demonstrated enhanced appreciation for books and…

Discusses the PCs for Families experiment, a longitudinal quantitative and ethnographic study of networked computing in the fifth-grade classroom examining how networked computing affects students' educational achievements, attitude and professional development of teachers and support instructors, and how families support students and react to the…

Describes a study of high ability, highly verbal fifth-grade students that was conducted to identify students' use of learning strategies, their encoding processes, and their navigational decisions in a hypermedia lesson on propaganda techniques which contained an associative-linked structure. (Author/LRW)

Examines first-, third-, and fifth-grade children's ability to hear two simultaneous melodies. Finds that older children identify two melodies faster and more accurately than do younger children, and that register and timbre combinations affect which melody is identified first. Notes implications for elementary music education. (DSK)

Describes a fifth-grade teacher's year-long unit of study on memoir. Addresses getting started, mini-lessons, drafting, and embellishment and voice. Notes that even reluctant writers became involved in writing memoirs and that the teacher followed her own advice and began writing a memoir about her grandmother. Appends a rubric for evaluating…

Discusses a 2000 federal trial court decision upholding a Kentucky district's termination of a tenured teacher who presented a curricular segment on industrial hemp as part of a "save-the-trees" unit. The decision underscores teachers' severely limited constitutional rights in the curricular context. (MLH)

Describes a program where at-risk fifth-grade students were treated to a writing program that utilized prewriting activities to see if their written expression and writing anxiety would improve. Compares students' before and after papers utilizing their holistic scores on written expression. Demonstrates that student writing anxiety can be lowered…

Concerns development of children's understanding of data and classification. Studies three intact classrooms worked over several sessions to categorize drawings made by children and progressively mathematize their categorization rules. Concludes that by engaging with data characterized by prototypic rather than crisp membership values, students…

Focuses on the role played by a cultural and linguistic mediator in helping to elucidate the literacy learning opportunities of a Hmong child in that child's fifth-grade mainstream classroom. Notes important implications for working with second language children in mainstream classrooms and for the educative potential of viewing sessions when…

Fifth- and sixth-grade girls identified by their teachers as having few friends participated in group treatment sessions consisting of a praise phase, interpersonal problem solving, and an activity phase. At posttest time, the treatment group spent less time alone, more time initiating conversations, and more time interacting with others. Offers…

Helps show the journey of a teacher finding the path to good teaching and the ways in which she helped her student. Presents insights into teacher learning as well as some useful assessments and instructional techniques used with a child who struggled in reading and writing. (SG)

Describes a fifth grade art activity inspired by a restaurant logo that consisted of angled faces fragmented down the middle, with geometric profiles, in bold colors. Explains the process of creating the abstract split faces, from the initial drawing to adding colors. (CMK)

Discusses an art project for fifth and sixth grade that was inspired by a Laurel Burch plate with a jungle motif. Explains that students choose a project name, make lists of images associated with their chosen name, and use those images in their round designs. (CMK)

Demonstrates the connections among authenticity, technology, and geography by discussing the use of the Internet and a Geographic Information System (GIS). Describes an online community-based project in a three-step process (research a local issue, create a Web site, and submit the site to an online community). (CMK)

Tells the story of three African American children's responses to literature by and about African Americans, showing the importance of connecting literature to the lives and interests of children. (SR)