The purpose of this study was twofold. One purpose was to identify the locally negotiated literate practices that defined ways of communicating information and knowledge across the curriculum in a fourth/fifth grade classroom. Through an ethnographic and sociolinguistic set of analyses, this investigation illustrated how the teacher worked to…

In this article we examine student performance on mandated tests in grades 3, 4, and 5 in one state. We focus on this interval, which w e term "the fourth grade window," based on our hypothesis that students in grade four are particularly vulnerable to decrements in achievement. The national focus on the third grade as the critical…

Under Title III of the No Child Left Behind Act ([NCLB], 2001b) every state needs to show linkage between state content standards and state English language development (ELD) standards as input to the development of state English proficiency tests. This paper argues that Title III presents a unique opportunity to explore how different content…

This paper presents case studies of four students' experiences with writing in a fourth/fifth grade classroom. The paper focuses on the following questions: What is the relationship between children's social and intellectual identities and their successes or struggles in writing? How do writing instruction and assessments mediate that…

Out of the 38 nations studied in the 1999 "Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study" (TIMSS), children in Singapore scored highest in mathematics (National Center for Education Statistics, NCES, 2003). Why do Singapore's children do so well in mathematics? The reasons are undoubtedly complex and involve social aspects.…

This study examined whether children's psychosocial self-evaluations mediated the relationship between general academic self-concept and self-reported depression. Self-evaluations in three psychosocial domains were assessed: General self-worth, intellectual ability, and social acceptance. Results indicated three significant findings. First, a…

Although the highly popular Accelerated Reader (AR) book reading incentive program claims to motivate children of all reading ability levels, very little independent empirical research has examined this assertion. To help fill this void, we used two related three-factor mixed designs with Method (AR vs. Control), Gender, and either Grade Level…

This article explores the writing opportunities provided to Spanish-speaking and mandarin speaking English Language Learners at the fourth and fifth-grade level across the various classroom settings in which they participated daily: an all-English speaking classroom, an English-as-a-second language (ESL) classroom, and a native-language classroom.…

These proceedings contain the papers of the 11th International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA 2014), October 25-27, 2014, which has been organized by the International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS) and endorsed by the Japanese Society for Information and Systems in…

The study examined the role student, teacher/classroom, and school characteristics play on the "digital divide" in access and utilization of various technology tools among elementary school students. Survey data was collected from 1,027 fourth- and fifth-grade students in 48 classrooms in northeastern Ohio. A two-level hierarchical…

In recent years metacognition has been receiving increased attention in mathematics education. Special attention has been focused on metacognition and its essential role in achievement settings. The basic difficulty of the study on the field of metacognition is to develop and use valid tasks in order to measure metacognitive ability especially for…

This article talks about how a teacher from Rail Road Flat Elementary School, Randall Youngblood, handles his class of 4th, 5th, and 6th graders through discipline. Discipline and the kind of teach-to-the-test learning that has become endemic in the era of No Child Left Behind has kept his students' energy channeled. Such rote learning often gets…

Academic assessment for students with challenging behavior is often overlooked. Confronted with a curriculum that is above or below their instructional needs, students may engage in a range of inappropriate behaviors (e.g., acting-out, withdrawal, social avoidance). In that behavioral and learning problems are reciprocal, academically related…

The reliability and stability of Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (ERAS) scores were examined for the recreational and academic subscales and for the total scale. The responses of 718 students in fourth, fifth, and sixth grades were included in the analyses. A seven-day interval between testings was used. The recreational and academic subscale…

The developmental significance of children's academic reputation among peers was examined in a longitudinal study of 400 children in Grades 3, 4, and 5. In the fall of Year 1, teachers rated children's academic skills and behavior, and peers provided nominations describing classmates' academic skills, social acceptance versus rejection, and…