The effects of wait-time, the pause following a teacher question and the pause after a student response, on the length and number of student responses were analyzed at different cognitive levels. Data were obtained from 95 students in grade 4 and from 5 teachers using a wait-time of 5 seconds. Four oral discussion sessions by teachers and students…

A study examined what children write when responding to literature they have read in school. The study investigated whether girls' writing differed from that of boys in the same classroom, as well as whether a classroom teacher responded differently to her children's journal writing based on gender or reading proficiency. One sixth grade class,…

A study examined the effect of an alternative language arts program designed to encourage children to take up reading and writing in ways that they find personally, socially, and politically relevant. Throughout a school year, the development of the alternative language arts program in a third/fourth grade classroom in an urban school was…

This study assessed whether girls and boys write differently in their reader response journals for the classes of one sixth-grade teacher over 2 years. A literature-based reading program was used, and the students kept reader response journals. Journals from 9 girls and 11 boys from the first year and 8 girls and 8 boys from the second year were…

A study/research partnership between university teacher educators and teachers was formed when teachers at the third-, fourth- and fifth-grade levels decided to implement an innovation called Literature Response Groups in their classrooms. The setting was an urban elementary school in northern California. Participants included six elementary…