A perceptual-recognition task was used to assess whether utilization of orthographic structure in letter recognition varies with reading ability. Good and poor college readers showed equally large effects of orthographic structure on task accuracy, whereas poor sixth-grade readers did not. (Author/GK)

Describes a project in which preservice teachers and sixth grade students exchanged correspondence. Notes that the preservice teachers learned important things about the writing of sixth graders. Finds that the students' abilities in letter writing developed without direct instruction. (RS)

Two studies involving 448 sixth graders and 329 college undergraduates investigated the categorization of students' correct and incorrect responses to domain-specific analogy problems. Cross-study results provided support for the response categories proposed by P. Alexander (1990) and their hierarchical structure. (SLD)

Describes a joint effort in a school/university partnership to develop, implement, and evaluate a literature-based approach to sixth grade social studies. Discusses theory and rationale; designing the unit; addressing prior knowledge; think sheets; head, hand, and heart of citizenship; developing personal responses; and program effectiveness. (SR)

Explores journal writing exchanges through the observations of a classroom teacher and a college professor as their students connected with one another in an authentic literary experience. Offers four suggestions for helping a journal exchange to proceed smoothly. (MG)

Management students taught basic business concepts to sixth graders and managed business projects with them. The management students applied knowledge of marketing, human resources, and operations management and developed reflective learning skills through project reports and coaching sessions. (SK)

Explores the reading-writing relationship using control and treatment groups from two separate populations--college remedial readers and sixth graders. Finds a significant increase in reading comprehension and a significant decrease in writing errors for the sixth grade experimental group and an improvement in writing complexity in the college…

A middle school classroom teacher and a college instructor describe an activity in which 14 students in a sixth-grade special education class corresponded with college students enrolled in a language arts methods course. The middle school students were excited about writing and motivated to do their best, and their writing grew in complexity,…

Argues that intuitive and computational knowledge can be combined by focusing more explicitly on referential and quantitative meanings in division of fractions problems. Recommends teaching mathematics as problem solving, communication, reasoning, and connections to help students overcome misunderstandings and connect their intuitive knowledge…

The effects of gender bias and number of errors as unintentional determinants of essay grades were studied with 22 undergraduate education majors grading four essays by sixth graders in stereotypically male or female handwriting. Essays believed to be written by boys were graded higher than those believed to be written by girls regardless of…

Two related studies were conducted to determine whether students read all-capital text and mixed text displayed on a computer screen with the same speed and accuracy. Seventy-seven college students read M. A. Tinker's "Basic Reading Rate Test" displayed on a PLATO computer screen. One treatment consisted of paragraphs in all-capital type…

A study was conducted to determine the relationship between processing load and ability to locate text segments containing intersentence contradictions. It was hypothesized that less able readers fail to exhibit comprehension monitoring skills because most tasks overload their processing capacity. Subjects were 87 fourth and sixth grade students…

Examines preservice teachers' exchange of dialogue journals with sixth graders. Finds that preservice teachers experienced the value of journal-based written and oral discourse activities for understanding and fostering both their own social and academic development and that of their younger partners. (PA)

A study investigated whether children and adolescents use commas and the principle of Late Closure to guide sentence parsing decisions as adults do in processing syntactically ambiguous sentences. The study consisted of three experiments, conducted similarly but with different subject groups: 24 university students; 24 fourth-graders; and 19…

Describes the "Neighborhood Walking Tour" project in which gifted sixth graders worked with college students in Duluth, Minnesota to compile histories of buildings located in their neighborhoods. Evaluation results show that the project results in a greater awareness of appropriate sources for the collection of various types of data. (RM)