The Elementary School Proficiency Assessment (ESPA) is the state test taken by students in the fourth and fifth grade. It is designed to give a school information about how well the students are achieving in the areas required by New Jersey's Core Curriculum Content Standards. For 2001, a new subject Social Studies has been added to the ESPA. The…

Describes how fifth-grade teachers and a school library media specialist in Malvern, Pennsylvania collaborated in a student reenactment of the Ellis Island experience. Includes a bibliography of immigration resources and sample background information, identification, entrance papers, and experience of a simulated immigrant. (PEN)

Considers different fifth-grade students' transformations through expressing themselves with poetry. Claims the content of children's writing suggests a complete revision of standard educational ideas about who the children are, what they know, how they think, and how much they can learn if teachers only know how to tap into their brilliance. (SC)

Summarizes research for teaching writing to students with learning problems. Develops, from the literature review, a checklist of instructional features and uses of the checklist to examine two fifth-grade basal textbooks. Concludes by recommending modifications: add modeling to the instruction, make parts of the instruction more explicitly…

Each year, fifth graders at Kamehameha Elementary School produce a play about American history. Students do research, write scripts and songs, design costumes and the stage sets, act, and promote the event. The article explains how the students accomplished this over several months and notes how the activity tied into their schoolwork. (SM)

One of eight papers from Project Seed, this paper considers the difficulties many parents experience when talking to their children about sex. It describes a program that responds to how, when, and what to say to children about sexuality by involving both parents and children in four 2-hour evening workshop sessions on building communication…

This planning grid for teaching visual arts in grade 5 in Delaware schools outlines the following six standards for students to complete: (1) students will select and use form, media, techniques, and processes to create woks of art and communicate meaning; (2) students will create ways to use visual, spatial, and temporal concepts in creating…

Describes how Michigan's English Language Arts Assessment (ELA) takes parts of the old fifth-grade writing assessment and fourth-grade reading tests, adds new elements, and wraps everything around a theme. Presents a seven-step activity to help prepare fourth graders for the ELA. Concludes that the overall impact on scores is not known. (SG)

This document presents 10 released items from the Health/Physical Education Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) test given in the spring of 2000 to fifth graders. Items from the test sessions include: selected-response (multiple choice), constructed-response, and a performance event. The selected-response items consist of individual questions…

Describes the use of a variety of strategies to teach estimation and other mathematics concepts in an inclusive urban fifth-grade classroom. The collaborative program (involving the teacher, the mathematics consultant, and the special-education consultant) utilized cooperative learning, estimation techniques, calculators, graphic organizers, links…

New York's Division of Substance Abuse Services conducted a major survey in 1989-1990 of students in grades five through twelve: past surveys of the Division had included only students in seventh through twelfth grades. Students in the fifth and sixth grades answered a separate, self-administered questionnaire, which included questions about the…

Based on common curriculum goals outlined by the Oregon Department of Education, this curriculum map is designed to assist fifth grade teachers in evaluating and revising their current curriculum. Instructions describe how teachers can effectively use the material provided to gather information and tally and analyze results. The map consists of…

These unit planning grids for grade 5 music education in Delaware public schools outline nine standards for students to attain in music. Standards cited in the grids are: (1) students will sing, independently and with others, a varied repertoire of music; (2) students will perform on instruments, independently, and with others, a varied repertoire…

Shares how a teacher, librarian, and fourth and fifth grade students collaborated and wrote book reviews for new books in their school library so other students could read about the new acquisitions. (MG)

Developed from a year-long collaboration between researchers and a fifth-grade teacher, this paper presents case study materials designed for use with prospective and experienced teachers interested in thinking and learning about students' writing development. Several kinds of information regarding the progress of "Billy" are included in…