Explores how dialog writing, in which two participants "converse in writing," incorporates the interactive aspects of oral communication and the self-directed aspects of essay writing. Includes passages written over a year's time by a sixth grade student in a "dialogue journal" showing the development of his writing. (HTH)

This study examines the functioning of an instrument for measuring elementary school students' motivation to learn about technology. The theoretical framework of the study is based on expectancy-value theory, which focuses on cognitive factors in determining achievement behaviors. Participants were 129 sixth grade students. A questionnaire was…

This book provides an inside look at an extraordinary teacher, Linda Rief--specifically, how she converses with students and promotes their conversations among one another. The book offers insights into Linda's teaching that even she had not seen. It presents an inside look at Linda Rief in action as she establishes goals, teaches, triumphs, and…

This study examined the effects of background classical music on silent reading in a sixth grade class, in order to determine the amount and type of influence it would have on the reader's written response to what was read. Thirty-four suburban sixth graders from two history classes were selected for this study. The data was obtained over a period…

In the primary school classrooms, students spend almost three terms (20-25 hours) doing project work in groups of 4-5. In order for any learning task to be conducted effectively, the students need to know how to work collaboratively in their groups, and teachers need to find out how their students perceive one another while working in their…

This book provides a resource for mathematics teachers to understanding the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' (NCTM) standards and implementing these standards in their teaching. Five standards are overviewed: (1) number and operation; (2) algebra; (3) geometry; (4) measurement; and (5) data analysis and probability. Lesson plans are…

For one instructor, years of working with children in the art classroom suggested that talking with children is necessary and vital to understanding how they learn artistically and how to teach them. This paper focuses specifically on children's talk about their art in relation to the children's view that their world is separate and distinct from…

A study was conducted in order to determine the specific classroom qualities and characteristics that promote and motivate students to develop attitudes and behaviors conducive to civic participation. One classroom is a bi-lingual sixth grade, located in an older neighborhood school in a coastal southern California city and the other is a…

This study was a secondary analysis of data collected by staff of the Program for Complex Instruction (PCI). The purpose of the larger study was to investigate the effect on learning gains of having students know the content and performance standards on which they will be judged as well as the effect of using evaluation criteria. This study looks…

This report investigated to what extent a curriculum designed to actively teach critical thinking skills resulted in students utilizing higher-order thinking skills (e.g., analysis, synthesis and evaluation). An intervention strategy was designed for a sixth grade class located in a diverse suburban community in northern Illinois. The intervention…

Attempts to obtain information in regard to children's willingness to skip passages when answering reading comprehension test questions. (RB)

The construct validity of three subtests of the Structure-of-Intellect Learning Abilities Test ( (1) Divergent Production of Figural Units (DFU), (2) Divergent Production of Semantic Units, and (3) Divergent Production of Symbolic Relations) was investigated and generally supported, although results were somewhat mixed with respect to the DFU…

Concludes that, if sex role stereotypes have developed prior to school entrance, they have partially diminished by grade six. (FL)

Examines the effectiveness of instructional support provided in three treatments for sixth grade children interpreting metaphor in poetry. (HOD)

This study investigated differences in performance when sixth graders were presented with fractions in three contexts (understanding the meaning of fractions, computation with fractions, and solving word problems with fractions). Student performance varied significantly in different contexts, with the lowest performance observed on the…