Presents four articles for elementary teachers. The first shows how teachers can guide students to write stories from personal experiences. The second offers suggestions for mathematics instruction, focusing on primary level geometry and intermediate level problem solving. The third focuses on folk-art barn paintings. The fourth uses pumpkins to…

Focuses on acquisition of English by speakers of Jamaican Creole. Examines historical data drawn from reports from the colonial period and highlights the systemic failure of pupils to acquire English. Discusses a recent investigation of secondary schools in postcolonial Jamaica, which finds a similar cycle of underachievement among Creole…

Presents examples of how computer-mediated communication (CMC) affects language learning, describing a successful CMC project involving a Minnesota middle school and a school in France. Students exchanged electronic mail over two years and eventually produced a student-written, bilingual, multicultural play. Though students differed in age and…

Reports on a study of a collaborative relationship between faculty at the University of Michigan and teachers and students at a comprehensive urban high school. The ethical and epistemological (validity) considerations have to do with using high school students as paid coresearchers. The study is illustrated with excerpts from student meetings and…

This study evaluated the impact of Reading Recovery early literacy intervention on children and classes in London schools. The progress in the 2005-6 school year was compared for 234 of the lowest achieving children in 42 schools serving disadvantaged areas. The children, aged around 6, who received Reading Recovery during the year, were compared…

Although Chinese has become the third largest mother tongue in both Canada and the USA, Chinese/English biliteracy development has received little attention in educational research. This article explores three Chinese-Canadian first and second graders' biliteracy (Chinese/English reading and writing) and trilingual (Mandarin, Cantonese, and…

This case study explored the effectiveness of telementoring as a vehicle for preservice teachers to hone skills in the teaching of writing, to establish a mentoring relationship with urban high school students, and to help struggling writers improve writing skills necessary for student achievement. Inherent in this research was the goal to develop…

In the rapidly changing environment of language learning and teaching, electronic literacies have an increasingly important role to play. While much research on new literacies focuses on the World Wide Web, the aim in this study is to investigate the importance of corpus consultation as a new type of literacy which is of particular relevance in…

This study investigates achievement in second language learning (Chinese) in primary school in relation to learner variables such as amount and duration of instruction and home language background. Currently in the State of Victoria it is recommended that all students learn a second language from the beginning of primary school to the end of Year…

This study gathered data on Spanish public school teachers' use of existing technologies to teach culture. A questionnaire gathered data on teacher background, use of technology, competence to teach culture, the inclusion of culture courses in degree programs, and courses on teaching culture. Observations over a three-year period provided…

An online writing center developed at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, called Calliope, provides a modular platform aimed at enhancing learners' professional writing skills in five different languages: Dutch, English, French, German, and Spanish. It supports courses in business and technical communication. The current version includes modules…

Background: Learning conceptions may be studied as specific implicit theories based on theory of mind. Previous studies suggest that a developmental shift from a direct implicit theory of learning to an interpretative one occurs during childhood. Here we explore the development of children's autobiographies of learning to write by adopting this…

This report offers a number of specific teaching techniques that research suggests will help 4th- to 12th-grade students in this nation's schools. The report focuses on all students, not just those who display writing difficulties, although this latter group is deservedly the focus of much attention. The premise of this report is that all students…

Waterford Early Reading Program[TM] is a software-based curriculum for students in Kindergarten through second grade. The curriculum is designed to promote reading, writing, and typing, incorporating literacy skills such as letter mastery, language stories, spelling, basic writing skills, reading and listening development, and comprehension…

A growing research base on adolescent literacy supports an emphasis on direct instruction in the reading and writing skills needed to perform these more complex literacy tasks. However, many middle and high school teachers have little or no preparation for teaching these skills within their content-area disciplines and have few resources upon…