Background: When exposed to evaluative situations, up to 40% of students develop test anxiety, reflected, namely, by extensive worry, intrusive thoughts, and physiological arousal. Though the negative influence of test anxiety on later school performance is well documented, the role of students' initial achievement in the development of later test…

Poor retention rates for Core French, combined with the federal government's action plan to increase bilingualism in Canada, have led to the introduction of Intensive French (IF) in Grade 6 as an alternative for learning French. While anecdotal reports suggest that IF has no negative impact on English language skill development, empirical evidence…

This study aimed to examine the evolution of test anxiety during the transition to secondary school, a challenging period that includes a set of contextual factors that could potentially increase students' test anxiety. In addition, to further understand the contribution of different individual factors that might increase the susceptibility to…

Purpose: In this paper, the authors engage with embodied critical literacies through an exploration of the possibilities provided by the use of improvisational comedy (improv) in the classroom. The purpose of this paper is to extend understandings of critical literacy to consider how embodied critical literacy may be transformative for both…

In this article, we explore how we live among students and teachers as a/r/tographers and how we become creatively immersed in the wholeness of the classroom experience as a result. This is in contrast to our initial intentions of using ethnographic techniques and qualitative methods. As we began our project, it became apparent that another lens…

Responses to a questionnaire about the language arts teaching practices of 180 grade six teachers in Calgary public schools. Tables of the ten most-used and ten least-used teaching practices are included. (AA)

In this study, we identified factors that influence the academic performance of grade-6 students in a large city school system in language arts and mathematics. For language arts, five student variables, seven class variables, and two school level variables accounted for approximately 50 per cent, 75 per cent, and 90 per cent of the initial…

This study surveyed the teaching practices of instructors of grade six language arts in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Teacher characteristics of (sex, number of university courses in language arts, length of teaching experience, and number of language arts inservice courses) were correlated with the frequency of use of selected teaching practices. One…

This booklet provides Grade 6 teachers, administrators, and students with samples of students' writing that exemplify the criteria used to score students' written responses on the June 1988 Grade 6 English Language Arts Achievement Test. The writing assignment required students to read the beginning of a story and use their imaginations to…

This implementation guide is intended to support the Grade 4 to Grade 6 portion of the Ukrainian Language Arts Kindergarten to Grade 9 Program of Studies. It was developed primarily for teachers, yet it includes information that may be useful for administrators and other stakeholders in their efforts to plan for and implement the new Ukrainian…

Describes a telecommunications project which linked a grade six classroom in Montreal with a grade seven classroom in Povungnituk (in northern Quebec). Discusses how the project was organized and the benefits in terms of how it helped to develop communication skills and promote cultural awareness. (MG)

Part of the Alberta (Canada) Education's "Program of Studies for Elementary Schools, 1978" (amended 1981), this publication presents the curriculum specifications for the grade six language arts achievement test. These curriculum specifications integrate a taxonomy of levels of thinking skills with a set of five communications…

The annual report on achievement testing in Alberta (Canada) includes test results for third-grade students in language learning (for the regular English program), sixth-grade students in social studies, and ninth-grade students in science. Results are regarded in terms of curriculum standards, assessment standards, and achievement standards.…

Intended for parents as a companion to the Alberta Curriculum Guides, this summary, in English- and French-language versions, uses an "at a glance" schematic to list the curricular goals for Grade 6 in Alberta. In addition to English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies, goals cover art, music, health and life skills,…

Parental involvement is critical to a child's success in school. This handbook provides parents with information about the Grade 6 curriculum in Alberta, Canada. Based on the Alberta Education "Program of Studies: Elementary Schools," the handbook describes the knowledge, skills, and attitudes students in Alberta are expected to…