Presents a case study of the library media program at Old High Elementary School, Bentonville, Arkansas, which uses production of audiovisual materials to build extrinsic motivation into reading programs for grades five and six and special education classes. Five measurement techniques used to evaluate the program's effectiveness are also…

Based on 21 physically handicapped/learning disabled/emotionally disturbed children's self-evaluation on the Personal Attribute Inventory for Children and comparison with responses of 21 normal children, results suggest that negative stereotypes of exceptional children held by teachers and nonhandicapped peers may not be readily adopted by…

A survey of 1,015 fifth and sixth graders in a southern Plains state compared American Indian, African American, Hispanic, and White students' perceptions of mathematics, own ability to "learn" mathematics, role models, teacher treatment of different racial or ethnic groups, teaching practices, and academic goals. Contains 25 references.…

Collected observations of parental behaviors of fifth graders and then obtained adjustment measures for the fifth, sixth, and seventh grades. Supportive, aware parenting was associated with early adolescents' positive academic, social, and psychological adjustment in fifth grade and with further improvement in adjustment in seventh grade. (RJM)

Examined the relation between the nature of teacher discourse and sixth-grade students' reports of affect and behavior in mathematics classrooms students perceived as emphasizing both mastery and performance goals. Found that students in the classroom in which there was constant and explicit support for autonomy and intrinsic motivation, positive…

Argues the usefulness of timelines for fourth, fifth, and sixth grade history instruction, contending that timelines reveal history's unfolding better than fact-recall techniques. Presents ways to use timelines, including autobiographical, large display, and manipulative timelines, and combining timelines with biographies. Suggests timelines help…

Fifty-five boys, aged 6 to 8 and 10 to 12 years, were administered EEGs while they silently read short passages. Subjects were then tested on the passages. Age differences in the relationship between hemisphere activation during silent reading and reading comprehension were discovered. (TJH)

The effects of a school's age organization (age-segregated versus age-mixed) were examined within a quasi-experimental design with 702 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students. Factors measured include popularity, perceived competence, and mixed-age and cross-sex friendships. (TJH)

Three student feedback instruments--a group associative inventory and semantic differential and Likert-type rating scales--assessed 229 sixth-grade and 174 junior high school Israeli students' perspectives concerning classroom testing. The instruments assessed salient meaning components of tests, group differences via evaluation of semantic…

Analyzes the structural and thematic elements of three stories written by a sixth-grade Navajo girl to challenge the notion that a linear pattern of growth is followed by all children as they learn to write stories. The results question the assumption that certain kinds of narratives and their American Indian authors are less able or less…

Reports an example of one lesson from a sequence of lessons on fractions from a sixth grade class in which the teacher revises her plans after observing students' small-group work and interactions. The lesson illustrated the teacher's knowledge of mathematics, how students think, and how to observe that thinking. (MDH)

Guidelines for developing performance assessments in science education allied with current research and reform are presented. The guidelines are applied to 3 hands-on science investigations performed by over 300 fifth and sixth graders and scored by science educators. Although difficult to develop, such assessments can be scored reliably. (SLD)

A cooperative activity involving eight sixth grade students over five days focused on inventing static representations of motion. In generating, critiquing and refining numerous representations, strong metarepresentational competence was found. An intricate blend of the children's conceptual and interactional skills, their interest in and sense of…

Effects of instruction, grade level, and sex on persuasive writing were investigated using 55 fourth graders, 55 sixth graders, and 49 eighth-graders instructed in writing with 1 of 4 strategies. Older children wrote better than younger children. Girls wrote better than boys in assessments immediately after the study, but not two weeks later. (SLD)

Reports a study which looked for measurable differences between the vocabulary achievement scores of remedial reading elementary students (mostly Hispanic) taught with teacher instruction and those taught with computer assisted instruction (CAI). Although the differences were not statistically significant, consistent improvement was measured for…