Describes an interdisciplinary instructional approach that links historical content and literature to develop historical literacy in fifth-grade students, fostering understanding and encouraging interpretation of stories told through the voices of the past. (SR)

Describes ways to enable fifth-grade students to lead discussions about provocative books without an adult and to enjoy discussions as much as they enjoy simple retellings. Describes preparing for, setting up, and ending the discussion. (SR)

Describes a cooperative learning activity in a fifth-grade class in which students researched, wrote, and sponsored classroom resolutions honoring African Americans during Black History Month. Discusses how literacy has the power to connect students with their heritage or with any heritage they choose to connect with. (SR)

Concludes that the reciprocal student-teacher questioning procedure was more effective in developing interpretive reading abilities than the unilateral teacher questioning procedure. (Author/RB)

Describes how "speedwriting" requires that all learners become actively engaged in their own learning because, rather than generating ideas orally, students are instructed to write down all their ideas as quickly as they can. Considers how the social engagement of discussion and the sharing of ideas during the writing phase drew even the…

Describes an activity used with fifth graders to keep the children using new vocabulary acquired during a shared literature study. (PRA)

Discusses research the author undertook with a class of fifth graders, in which they read and discussed popular series books. Shares examples of their talk about the topic and what that talk reveals about the potential of the classroom as a space to reveal, complicate, and challenge gendered assumptions about what is desirable or appropriate…

Shares how one teacher used literature to extend her fifth graders' multicultural knowledge of African-American culture. Discusses how fiction and nonfiction books were coupled with a literature-based basal program and integrated into existing classroom themes to provide a natural impetus for meaningful individual and group dialogue about other…

Reports on a study that examines the effects precis writing and outlining have on students' ability to identify ideas in a text and generate and elaborate on those ideas in a written form. (FL)

Uses question-and-answer relationships (QARs) to help students identify the purposes of various multiple-choice questions. Shares how the authors taught fifth-grade students to use the QAR framework as they attacked charts, tables, figures, and other graphics. Details the sequence of their instruction and describes the success that they had using…

Reconceptualizes the idea of curriculum integration to include "cultural imagination." Uses the example of a fifth-grade child's responses to literature to demonstrate the types of connections that can be made. (SR)

Concludes that insertion and omission miscues made by either good or poor readers at instructional or frustration levels cause little syntactic and semantic distortion, and that, consequently, time spent coding and interpreting such miscues is probably wasted. (FL)

Describes how a fifth-grade social studies class used poems by Langston Hughes and integrated literature, drama, music, and dance to make history more human and meaningful for students. (SR)

Describes the use of a graphic organizer with fifth graders to teach problem-solving skills and to teach reading skills helpful for comprehending mathematics materials. Suggests that the strategy was effective with students of all ability levels. (SR)

Describes Body Parts Writing, an activity which focuses on the reader's own text-based and self-based interpretations of literature. Notes that the purpose of this activity is to invite and support readers' personal responses and give them a forum to discuss their individual interpretations. Concludes that it provides readers with another way to…