Throughout the school year I invited children in a Grade Two/Three learning strategies classroom to participate in a visual narrative inquiry. The intention was to explore children's knowledge of community in artful ways; the children photographed and wrote in what was often an iterative process, where writing/talking and photographing…

For years this author has been a keen advocate of co-operative talk as a way of learning and has felt confident that her pupils are learning from each other. She creates opportunities for her Year two class to talk and work in pairs and groups across the curriculum, with many such interactions occurring each day. As part of an action research…

In this paper we describe the action research projects of two second-grade teachers. Using the state-mandated content on famous Americans, the teacher/researchers developed foundational levels of historical thinking in their second grade students. To develop temporal understanding, the first teacher employed a time line of visual images to place…

This paper describes a program for minimizing students' inability to relate present day school mathematics to real-world experiences, including the high-tech communities around them. The targeted population consisted of second grade elementary students in a growing middle class community located in a suburb of a large metropolitan area in the…

This article describes the experiences of a second grade teacher who teaches in a heterogeneous bilingual classroom in a large district, and his assignment in a graduate class to conduct action research. This teacher was concerned about the academic performance and motivation of two gifted, but underachieving Hispanic boys in his class. Both of…

Teachers in a multiage classroom developed a new spelling program that allowed students to select spelling words. Student interviews examined how they chose the words and why they considered words easy, medium, and hard. Three general areas of learning emerged: students' autonomy, real life connections, and the future. (SM)

Describes one teacher's experience with looping between first and second grades. Highlights responses to surveys, whereby parents and students demonstrated positive social, academic, and emotional advantages to looping, including improved student-teacher relationships, less anxiety, and improved teacher's understanding of students' strengths and…

This study with a second-grade child with multiple disabilities in an inclusive setting applied (1) self-management instruction, (2) generalization methodologies (general case programming and multiple exemplars), and (3) a high level of teacher involvement in designing and monitoring the self-management plan. Implications for researchers and…

A second-grade teacher helped her students improve self-confidence and self-esteem by making them active in their assessment. Using cooperative learning, portfolio assessment, surveys, and interviews, she examined whether students could assess their own abilities and improve classwork. Students gained pride in their work and participated more…