The efficacy of an applied behavior analysis model for enhancing creativity is reported. The model was implemented through teacher inservice training. Results indicate the positive effects at a much more time- and resource-economical level than methods previously demonstrated. (Author/GK)

Investigates the relationships between the occurrence of mazes (garbles, word tangles, or false starts), sentence complexity, and the use of connectives in 20 fifth-grade students. (HOD)

Explores responses of 10 fifth graders to the dialog of a play. Creates 12 speech act interruption points and asks children to write predictions for the character's line. Examines these for conversational cooperativity. Finds children's oral explanations for their predictions revealed two major interpretive stances--an interactive focus and a…

Describes how the author, a fifth-grade teacher, found the desire, the inspiration, and continuing motivation and rewards to break out of her traditional teaching practices and implement the Reading Workshop in her class. (SR)

How certain ability-related academic self-perceptions are organized in the self-systems of fifth graders was studied with 190 children who completed questionnaires. Confirmatory factor analysis indicates that children differentiate their ability-related perceptions in ways that current models of academic self-perceptions cannot account for fully.…

A study involving 633 Grade five Chinese students in Hong Kong found significant sex and popularity group differences in peer-nominated creativity and popularity group differences in teacher-rated creativity. Overall, peer status and perceived creativity were highly related. Students perceived boys as more creative than girls. (DB)

Explores the effects of football (soccer) in the social construction of hegemonic masculine practices among a group of Year 6 English junior school boys. Argues that football (soccer) acts as a model for the boys in which they utilize the game as a means of constructing, negotiating, and performing their masculinity. (CMK)

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…

Examines the effect of key concept mapping strategies on reading comprehension and writing performance of fifth grade students using basal reading materials. Concludes that key concept mapping enhances comprehension of factual/informative text, but has no effect on written composition. Finds that literary mapping strategies enhanced neither…

Examines the influence of pre-reading instruction versus prior experience on factual and inferential comprehension. Concludes that prior experience affects factual and inferential comprehension more than does pre-reading instruction, and that younger students need to have relevant knowledge externally activated, while older students can activate…

Examines the effects of teaching individual word meanings and deriving word meaning from context. Concludes that instruction in individual word meanings effectively teaches specific word meanings, training in deriving meaning from context improves students' ability to derive word meanings, and practice in either method leads to higher levels of…

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)

Examined fears of fifth grade students and ways in which their parents perceived the fears. Responses from 66 students and 47 parents suggest that children have more fears than parents think they have. Children reported concerns over accidents, nuclear war, and death, while parents expected children to have more fears about scary movies, the dark,…

The organization of the most effective seatwork for fifth grade mathematics instruction was characterized by: (1) sufficient preparation; (2) efficient management; and (3) high intensity of active supervision that corrected and supported students in a discrete manner. (JD)

Examines whether some of the problems that average and below average readers have in comprehending expository texts stem primarily from lack of familiarity with conjunctions or a tendency to ignore them. Reports that all reading levels benefited from the highlighting of explicit conjunctions. (MM)