This highly regarded work brings together prominent authorities on vocabulary teaching and learning to provide a comprehensive yet concise guide to effective instruction. The book showcases practical ways to teach specific vocabulary words and word-learning strategies and create engaging, word-rich classrooms. Instructional activities and games…

Examined usefulness of independent group contingency system for decreasing inappropriate behaviors. Twenty-five fourth graders in regular classrooms participated in intervention, which involved public posting system using positive reinforcement for desired behaviors. Targeted behaviors showed marked decreases across eight-week treatment period and…

Examined developmental effects of bibliotherapy-based classroom guidance curriculum. Students (n=22) in experimental group participated in 12 bibliotherapy-based lessons using titles selected for literary merit; control students (n=20) participated in 12 guidance lessons. Results suggest that use of stories to help students solve problems or…

Describes how a class of fourth graders effectively used their reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills to take action (regarding the laws governing trophy hunting) and to change a piece of their world. (SR)

For 8 weeks during 1991, a project was conducted in which literacy was emphasized within the context of one fourth-grade social studies classroom. The overall goal for this unit of instruction was to create language-rich experiences that would stimulate higher order thinking about the concept of Liberty. Additionally, students were to become more…

Argues that skepticism is the force that keeps inquiry in motion. Describes how two fourth-grade classes' ongoing investigations of birds fostered a skeptical stance. Relates stories from these classrooms to illustrate three strategies that support learning to be skeptics: examining knowledge in context; challenging the assumptions of models; and…

Discusses the factors involved in determining text difficulty. Discusses some of the reasons children choose to read certain materials, such as personal connections, culture and language, interest, and expertise. Illustrates these factors through descriptions of work with individual students, classroom observations, and research on students'…

Describes storytelling and imagemaking activities used in The Stories Project to provide a guide for teachers who wish to promote the development of oral and written language through storymaking--the process of making a story from a story. Finds that most students, regardless of ability, and given the right encouragement and support, discover they…

Describes how sketch journals are used at various times throughout the day and consistently throughout the year in the author's classroom. Presents a demonstration of the theme of experience and the powerful role that it can play in helping teachers improve. Notes how the author encourages students to reach deeper and to enter their own doorways…

Provides a lesson to familiarize students in grades four-six with the many ways that artists use the technique of collage. Students observe and discuss ways artists make use of materials other than paint on canvas. Examines how the introduction of foreign materials to a surface affects the illusion of space. (LS)

Describes the Legends Project in Indiana in which a class collaboratively researches, writes, and illustrates a local legend and sends it via computers and modems to other classes across the state. (SR)

Illustrates the possibilities of critical literacy by discussing a project a class of fourth-grade students undertook to write and produce a play about the conditions of apartheid, the history of resistance, and the upcoming South African elections. Concludes that students felt empowered as social activists and believed they had a mandate and the…

Examines the use of the Herringbone technique as a writing tool with fourth-grade children. Notes that the Herringbone technique provides students with a structure for identifying and organizing important story elements and observing relationships when reading or writing. Demonstrates that the Herringbone strategy is a useful tool for effective…

Coordinates sociocultural perspectives of literacy with semiotic theories of literacy. Examines the semiotic nature of literacy activities in a fourth-grade classroom in which the students had computers on their desks and five multimedia workstations in their classroom with Internet access. Indicates that the children's literacy activities had…

A study determined if reading aloud to fourth-grade students would have a positive effect on their attitudes toward reading, and if there would be a difference between the attitudes of boys and girls. In Jersey City, New Jersey, 28 fourth-grade students were read aloud to on a daily basis for 15 minutes over 14 weeks. A pretest and posttest were…