Indicates that sentence combining and kernel identification training enabled sixth-grade students to comprehend longer, syntactically more complex sentences than control group students and to retain this ability over a six-week period. (HOD)

Finds that words written in dialect are difficult for black students to comprehend while reading silently, which does not agree with previously advanced hypotheses by other researchers. (RB)

Efferent teaching asks the student to read for a predetermined answer, focusing on another person's ideas of the text's meaning. Aesthetic teaching allows for literature to be read and experienced as art through the reader's personal transaction with the text which focuses on one's own interest to create and understand the meaning. This paper…

England's National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies are designed to raise standards for all pupils. Though the skills they address are basic and need to be built up throughout the primary years, at the early stage of implementing the strategies, many older pupils will not have reached the standards expected of Year 6 pupils in future years. This…

This study was done to see if sixth grade students could improve their drawing abilities by looking at lines more abstractly--by drawing a picture viewing the original upside down and comparing it to the same student's drawing done viewing the original right side up. Pairs of works were scored on the basis of line quality, proportion, and likeness…

This study argues that instructional organization affects student perceptions of academic competence, which in turn control the distribution of power. It is indicated that classroom social power is more closely related to perceived competence and more hierarchized under unidimensional than multidimensional conditions. (Author/GK)

Effects of cognitive style matching on interaction patterns in teacher-student dyads were investigated. Cognitive similarity/dissimilarity was not associated with the interaction patterns. Dyadic interaction was affected by factors including cognitive style and sex of teachers and students and contextual factors, particularly whole class v…

The keyword method of foreign vocabulary learning was studied in five experiments. This method proved superior to challenging control conditions when subjects had to produce English responses, given foreign equivalents. In one experiment a hint of facilitated foreign word recall was produced by the keyword method. (Author/RD)

Recounts the difficulties and ultimate success of a production of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" by fifth-and sixth-grade students. (RL)

Role playing is part of a violence-prevention program for sixth graders in Richmond (Virginia) Public Schools called Responding in Peaceful and Positive Ways (RIPP). The district includes nine middle schools with about 2,000 students; 95% are African Americans. The program stresses personal responsibility, respect for others, and a peaceful future…

Describes how a teacher new to social studies created a social studies curriculum that was real, authentic, and interesting by teaching social studies through language arts with current events as the framework. (SR)

Offers an interpretive case study designed to provide insights about students' thoughts, feelings, and actions when not initially motivated for literacy tasks, and ways in which some students were able to become intrinsically interested. Reveals three different patterns of engagement (or lack thereof), represented in three different "Situations"…

Notes how the authors visited a sixth-grade classroom in an urban setting to teach students about jazz using children's literature. Describes how they played the music, talked about its basic structure and unique characteristics, read books aloud about the major musicians, and encouraged the students to experience the music for themselves. (SG)

Reports observations made to explore sixth grade students' changing awareness of the characteristics of text, self as reader and writer, and monitoring strategies during the reading and writing of narrative and expository text. (SR)

Investigates whether intermediate-grade readers' vocabulary learning and comprehension is affected by displaying texts on a computer screen that provides the meaning of difficult words. Concludes that the results support and help explain previous studies that found increases in comprehension when computer-mediated texts were used to expand or…