In the spring of 2011, a teacher allowed his fourth and fifth grade students to draw and write on their classroom tables. What began as a few names eventually turned into a series of frenetic marks that completely covered the tabletops. Over the course of two years, new groups of students brought with them another cycle of marking that evolved in…

Fifth-grade inner city boys engaged in reader response via e-mail with preservice teacher education candidates. Books and laptops were provided via funding from a federal grant. At the semester break, the boys were assigned new partners with which to correspond regarding their reading. All e-mails were filtered through the classroom teachers and…

This study discusses the successes and failures that resulted when fifth grade students used email to compose response journals. Every student was required to send at least one email a week to the teacher describing and reacting to the novel they were reading independently. The teacher would respond each evening. The study was conducted in an…

Describes a collaborative project between a college elementary education course and a fifth-grade class that used electronic mail to learn about teaching reading and language arts. Highlights include the idea of the fifth graders as the experts; reducing computer anxiety; evaluation results from both student groups; and future revisions. (LRW)

The Indiana Weather Project (IWP) investigated how the joint application of situated learning and constructivist theory might support elementary school students' understanding of weather systems. Results indicated significant cognitive gains during the multimedia weather unit. (SD)