Prior to a curriculum unit on European exploration of the New World, a class of fifth grade U.S. history students stated what they knew (or thought was true) about the discovery of America and what they wanted to learn about it. After the unit, they reported what they had learned about the general topic of European exploration of North America. In…

This project examines the degree to which fourth and fifth grade children can master the skills needed to operate a full-text CD-ROM database, the New Grolier Electronic Encyclopedia, following minimal instruction. Fourth and fifth graders in an elementary school receive a group introduction to the CD-ROM encyclopedia during their library…

The newspaper program at the New Suncook School, Lovell, Maine, is a multi-level, language arts based unit designed to develop in students strong writing and interpersonal relationship skills, and to bring relevance to writing. The monthly newspaper features interviews, surveys, news, and some fiction stories written by students. The newspaper is…

A study examined the differences in what boys and girls choose, or are free to choose, to do on the playground during recess. Given the apparent problem that boys dominate the playground area, leaving girls on the perimeter, it was hypothesized that girls engage in passive, non-competitive, small group activities, whereas boys engage in…

The newspaper is a familiar tool to many teachers. This book explores another use for the newspaper in the classroom. As an aid in the teaching and remediating of basic mathematics skills, the newspaper adds variety to classroom instruction. The suggested newspaper activities and teaching ideas presented here are specifically designed to reinforce…

A study was conducted to examine the implementation of reciprocal teaching with fourth- and fifth-grade students as they read their social studies and science textbooks. A distinctive feature of the study was that reciprocal teaching procedures were used in a whole-class, rather than a small-group instructional setting. Three teachers and 67…

Many studies have addressed the relationship of locus of control to gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and achievement. One area which has not received as much attention is the correlation of locus of control to the condition of being at-risk. Most research involving at-risk students has focused on identifying this group with in-school…

Fifth Graders (N=626) from public, Catholic, Christian, and home schools reacted to values of forgiveness versus retribution in the two main versions of "Cinderella" by choosing which ending they preferred for themselves, for a 4-year old sister, and for a 4-year old brother. Girls preferred the forgiveness ending for themselves…

The U.S. Department of Education is supporting a 3-year program involving Virginia Tech's computer department and a rural public elementary school. The project seeks to determine whether immersive access to networked computing by students and their families has measurable effects on long-term student achievement. A fifth-grade classroom was…

The purpose of this study was to determine if reading aloud to children regularly would have an effect on their motivation and desire to read independently. Subjects, 100 fourth and fifth grade students in Wayne, New Jersey, participated in the study. One fourth and one fifth grade class were read to on a daily basis for 30 minutes. The second…

A program was developed for improving listening skills so as not to interfere with the cognitive processing of directions. The targeted population consisted of third, fourth, fifth, and eighth grade students in a growing middle class community located in the Midwest United States. Problems of decreased listening ability were documented through…

Using a social constructivist theoretical framework, the case of Ella demonstrates how one fifth-grade, African-American student who participated in a writing process classroom appropriated the dialogue from social interaction and transformed it to use in her own texts and in her talk with others. During the teacher-student writing conferences,…

This paper, organized into three sections, describes the development, implementation, and supervisory aspects of a cooperative learning program in a typical fifth-grade classroom. Discussed from the teacher's point of view, section 1 addresses: (1) development of teams; (2) social skills development; (3) teammate interdependence, heterogeneous…

An excessive number of non-fiction books were shelved incorrectly in an elementary school media center where, due to budget cuts, the media specialist depended on fifth grade student volunteers for book shelving assistance. A 12-week training program was developed for the fifth grade media volunteers, who met once a week for 40 minutes. The…

Results of two studies that investigated the effects of guest readers on the reading attitudes of second- and fifth-grade children in the Meridian (Mississippi) schools are presented. Twenty-nine second graders and 29 fifth graders participated. Local television personalities, school personnel, former teachers, and parents were among the guests…