This packet contains materials to help fourth and fifth grade teachers provide their students with background information for field trips to the California State Capitol Museum (Sacramento). The working museum focuses on the theme areas of California history, the state government/legislative process, and state symbols. The packet presents teacher…

This report describes a program for increasing student comprehension of nonfiction text by incorporating picture books into the social science curriculum, teaching students to use text elements, to generate questions about the content, and to make connections while reading. The targeted population consisted of fifth grade students in a…

A case study explored the roles played by a teacher and her students in a classroom learning community with diverse students as they practiced and developed their literacy knowledge and skills to participate in Book Club, a literature-based instruction program. Specifically, it examines instructional scaffolding, a strategy which assists learners…

This report describes a program for improving students' comprehension of the language of mathematical problems. The targeted population consists of 5th and 6th grade multi-age students and multi-age learners with special needs at a middle school located outside a major city in a Midwestern community. Evidence for the existence of this problem…

This practicum was designed to increase the literacy skills of first-grade students. Students were to improve their reading strategies necessary for success in reading through support from their families and through the use of cross-age reading tutors. A cadre of parent volunteers who presented four parent and child workshops focusing on early…

This study described how a fifth grade reading and writing class utilized short stories to comprehend how authors used eight different writing techniques in their own writing. The researcher found that when the fifth grade students comprehended how to use a writing technique they were able to apply it to their own personal, expressive writing. The…

When educators lack the knowledge, understanding and acceptance of their students' language and culture, especially when it differs from their own, a huge mismatch can and often does occur between school and home. What happens to African American children who are raised speaking Black English but schooled in standard English? How do teachers help…

This report summarizes results of AISD's Technology Applications Readiness Grants for Empowering Texas (TARGET) program activities for the 2003-2004 school year.

Study results showed that, while students (fifth graders, tenth graders, and college students) believe that teachers and they themselves show more appreciation of effort exertion than ability, they would like to be perceived more as having ability than exerting effort. (Author/RM)

A study focused on whether self-care instruction in health education can affect locus of control in fifth-grade students. Individual responsibility for self-care was encouraged. Results indicate that the instruction did increase the extent to which the children viewed health as the result of their own actions. (Author/PP)

The relative effectiveness of a structured physical fitness program for fifth-grade students was compared with the effectiveness of the customary physical education activities. Students in the structured exercise program showed significant improvement in flexibility, strength, and endurance, and maintained gains during the summer. (Author/PP)

Mathematics curricula in Japan, Taiwan and the United States are compared for concepts and skills, and a cross-national test of mathematics achievement is described. Among selected first- and fifth-grade children, students in Japan and Taiwan consistently outperformed their American counterparts. Achievement levels and curriculum content do not…

Grades four to six in three school districts representing rural, suburban, and urban school settings were exposed to a nutrition program. Results disclosed that students having access to the nutrition unit significantly out-performed students lacking access and that teachers needed to receive pre-implementation inservice education regarding the…

Reports on a classroom technique (social interaction) for improving fifth-grade students' performance in the task domain of controlling variables. The technique involved asking students why something happened, asking for justification/evidence, suggesting alternative explanations and asking for evaluation of the same, and accepting explanation…

This study examined curriculum materials used by 11-year-olds in schools in six states and categorized the materials according to the Annehurst Curriculum Classification System. Most materials were in the language arts and mathematics fields and were classified as low in the human dimension categories measured by the Annehurst System. (Authors/PP)