Considers that when students from different ethnic backgrounds interact in multicultural schools, misunderstandings can arise due to the uncertainties present in encounters between people from different backgrounds. Identifies experiences students report as promoting positive interethnic relationships and those which negatively impact interethnic…

Examined educators' perceptions of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, based on the results of a statewide survey among 286 fifth- and sixth-grade teachers and principals. Educators gave highest ratings to teacher/officer interaction, role-playing exercises, and the graduation ceremony. Ratings of program quality and impact were high.…

As part of a feasibility assessment of the level of education in the Netherlands, oracy skills of 6th-grade students, aged 10 to 12 years, were measured. Oracy tasks were constructed from the answers of teachers, parents, and educational experts to a questionnaire on desirable skills for the age group. The six tasks developed were administered to…

Compares Possible Sentences with traditional vocabulary instruction to examine the effect on student ability to pronounce and define targeted basal words. Finds that subjects were able to correctly pronounce many terms when they were presented in story context prior to actual instruction, but they could not define them. Encourages supplementing…

From a group of 107 Australian sixth graders, a treatment group completed 10 weeks of career education activities. They had better understanding of occupational information sources, more interest in career information, and better perception of the relationship of school to potential jobs than did the control group. Many had gender stereotypical…

Discusses problems experienced during the prewriting phase of a sixth grade writing lesson, observations of the lesson, and advice from leading educators on how to initiate an effective writing lesson. Presents an account of one writing lesson that typifies writing lessons that the author has observed during the evaluation of student teachers. (SG)

Describes the results of one part of a two-year-long classroom study of sixth graders' engagement with and responses to nonfiction trade books. Considers what motivated these sixth graders to read the nonfiction titles they chose for small-group and voluntary reading. Concludes that when students are given the opportunity to select nonfiction…

Assesses the value of looking at reading scores of cohorts of children to identify different changes in attainment. Analyses the reading standards of seven cohorts of Year 6 children from five British primary schools. Highlights the increasing numbers of poor readers and decreasing numbers of very good readers in upper-level cohorts. (DSK)

Explores the unique reading strategies needed for the World Wide Web. Considers additions needed in the repertoire of teaching reading strategies when computers are the medium. Argues that Internet technology has had a significant impact upon reading strategies, resulting in a need to reshape thinking about classroom reading practices. (SG)

A year-long naturalistic case study investigated teacher-initiated change efforts in language arts by examining the experiences and influences of a single sixth-grade teacher. The teacher was observed in multiple contexts (both in and out of her school), interacting with varying groups of individuals, not all of which were located within the…

An alcohol misuse prevention study (AMPS) curriculum was developed, implemented, and evaluated with over 5,000 fifth and sixth grade students. The AMPS program, emphasizing peer resistance skills, focused on the immediate effects of alcohol, risks of alcohol misuse, and social pressures to misuse alcohol. Schools were randomly assigned to…

Offers an interpretive case study designed to provide insights about students' thoughts, feelings, and actions when not initially motivated for literacy tasks, and ways in which some students were able to become intrinsically interested. Reveals three different patterns of engagement (or lack thereof), represented in three different "Situations"…

Describes how in the examination of a sixth-grade girl's participation in the language arts classroom that is driven by high-stakes testing and by a regimented classroom culture, the authors came to view students' approaches to literacy events as "stances" and their negotiation of their subjectivities in response to literacy events as…

Behavioral descriptors were identified as variant or invariant predictors of perceived popularity in a sample of 516 fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children located in 26 majority-Black or majority-White classrooms. Athletic ability, prosocial behavior, being "cool", social withdrawal, and "personal privilege" (i.e., having a lot of expensive…

A study examined the effect of Direct Instruction (DI) on the reading achievement of sixth graders. Subjects were 72 Chicago Public School students, nearly 100% minority. In the school year of 1994-95 no students received DI. A sample of 30 students who performed poorly, with stanines of 1, 2, and 3 on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) were…