The purpose of this research study was to investigate teacher perspectives of implementing standards-based grading in kindergarten through fifth grade in language arts and math in Southern Illinois. This mixed-methods explanatory research study examined the challenges teachers encountered when implementing standards-based grading, and the changes,…

The Common Core Standards for the English Language Arts (CCSS) provide explicit guidelines matching grade-level bands (e.g., 2-3, 4-5) with targeted text complexity levels. The CCSS staircase accelerates text expectations for students across Grades 2-12 in order to close a gap in the complexity of texts typically used in high school and those of…

For educators, the content of the curriculum really is like oxygen: it is the necessary precondition for improving schools, closing the achievement gap, engaging parents, and preparing teachers. However, when educators take the content of the curriculum for granted, they lose opportunities to coordinate and collaborate. Good curriculum instruction…

There are two purposes of the current study. First was to examine whether or not children in the elementary school in Taiwan who had received Montessori early childhood education obtain significantly higher scores on tests of language arts, math, and social studies than children who attended non-Montessori pre-elementary programs. Second one was…

This literature curriculum for second graders introduces nine story types in 33 lessons, covering more than 40 separate concepts about literature. Designed to be used with telelessons, each of the nine units, corresponding to a specific story type, presents a lesson for each story of that type. Lessons provide lesson objectives and a program…

Developed by the Oregon Elementary English Project, this curriculum unit on language games and activities is intended for grades one and two. The games and activities are designed to make the child aware of language indirectly by requiring him to construct sentences of various kinds, observe relations between parts of sentences and between words,…

This curriculum guide, one of a series designed for use in kindergarten and the elementary grades, has been compiled with the recognition that the basic ingredients of a language arts program--composition, speaking, listening, literature, and problem solving--are interrelated and constantly complement one another and that this entire process is…

Presented are several elementary school lessons dealing with marine shell-bearing animals. Among the aspects of mollusk biology investigated are anatomy, diversity of form, adaptations, and classification. Learning strategies used include field trips, creative writing exercises, art activities, poetry, and scientific observation. A set of 40…

Presents examples of classroom writing activities that can be incorporated into language arts textbooks for grades two, five, and eight to encourage civic thinking on issues such as nationhood, leadership, cultural differences, taxation, and war. (RS)

A project in which second graders learn language arts through media production activities. (SF)

This booklet provides ideas for a multidisciplinary storytelling course designed to train fifth grade students to act as tutors for second grade students. The various sections of the booklet contain the following: the rationale and objectives for the course, hints on planning the course, an introduction to storytelling, suggestions for teaching…

Developed by the Oregon Elementary English Project, this curriculum unit on composition games and activities is intended for grades one and two. Each lesson contains a sequence of teacher-directed activities intended to arouse children's interests, help them discover things they wish to say, and then lead them to present their thoughts and…

The primary purpose of this study was to determine if there were significant relationships between the 12 subtest scores of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA) and the seven scores of the verbal and figural tests of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT). The subjects were a stratified random sample of 40 second grade…

In this study, an evaluation was made of a second grade experimental written composition program based on the social and psychological nature of children, on principles of written composition, and on effective classroom procedures. The distinguishing feature of the experiment, which involved 82 children, was the use of chalkboard compositions to…

This report examines student performance on a test composed of items developed to be aligned with the Charleston County School District (CCSD) Language Arts Comprehension Curriculum. The report contains a data analysis section that explains the relationship between two basic concepts of the Rasch measurement model, item difficulty and student…