Simple but innovative strategies that fourth-grade California teachers can use for building student knowledge of California geography while reinforcing map skills throughout a typical fourth-grade state studies curriculum are presented. (RM)

This paper focuses on two questions: (1) Can visual arts be an effective way for students to express what they have learned in social studies?; and (2) Can creative activity improve motivation, participation, attitude, and enhance learning in social studies? The sample for study was drawn from 75 fifth-graders in 3 classes in a school located in a…

This study, based on interviews and classroom observation, evaluates what seven fifth-grade teachers in California did one autumn when a controversial new state-approved social studies textbook arrived at their doors. By tracking the teachers' daily curriculum decisions for social studies during the first few months following receipt of the…

Discusses teachers' knowledge and beliefs about mathematics and how mathematics is best taught and learned. Considers interrelationships between beliefs and teachers' classroom practices. Argues that instruction is shaped by teachers' knowledge and beliefs and that meaningful change in instruction will entail fundamental changes in what teachers…

THE 1965 SUMMER PROGRAM FOR MIGRANT CHILDREN IN MARYSVILLE, CALIFORNIA, INCLUDED KINDERGARTEN, PRIMARY, AND INTERMEDIATE CLASSES WHOSE OBJECTIVES WERE--(1) TO TEACH ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE TO THE CHILDREN, AND (2) TO IMPROVE EACH CHILD'S SELF CONCEPT. TRANSPORTATION AND MEALS WERE PROVIDED FOR ALL OF THE CHILDREN, AND CLOTHING WAS FOUND FOR…

Contends that learning skills taught in science classes are of equal value for social studies. Discusses a two-step formula for establishing principles, hypotheses, and theories and then validating them. Presents and discusses eight skills used in science instruction that are applicable to social studies. (CFR)

Seven recommendations are made by the California Art Education Association (CAEA) for a high quality middle school visual arts program for all students in California's middle schools. The seven recommendations are: (1) a sequential middle school visual arts curriculum should be developed by art educators and focus on art as a discipline requiring…

This case study illustrates an important change in one fifth grade teacher's views about mathematics teaching that occurred over the course of a year as a result of California's movement to reform mathematics teaching. However, the change did not appear to be reflected in the teacher's classroom practices. (BB)

To test the hypothesis that if given a curriculum designed to develop cognitive functioning and taught by strategies designed to develop cognitive skills, students would then master more sophisticated symbolic thought earlier and more systematically than could be expected if this development had been left to the accidents of experience or if…

A middle school reform initiative, sponsored by the Program for Disadvantaged Youth of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation 4 years ago, has taken hold in 12 urban middle schools nationwide. The article discusses that reform, noting the lessons about change to accommodate student diversity that urban middle schools can teach. (SM)

Details a series of service learning projects conducted by a California middle school social studies class. Creative, inexpensive, and substantive, the projects included writing to Manuel Noreiga in prison, creating a feed-the-homeless garden, and translating city documents into other languages. (MJP)

This report presents findings of a case study of the education of second language learners in a middle school of approximately 2,000 students undergoing middle school reform in California. The purpose of the study was to gain an understanding of the challenges faced by a school experiencing rapid demographic changes in a predominantly…

A bilingual teacher in a multiage 4th-6th-grade classroom has met the special academic needs of limited-English-speaking migrant students who immigrated from Mexico with little previous schooling. Her strategies and techniques include an accepting classroom environment, high expectations for every student, building on student background knowledge…

This project involves the collaboration of researchers with 24 teachers in a study aimed at investigating and improving the vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension of 4th and 5th grade students for whom English is a second language. Cross sectional and longitudinal data were collected on various aspects of vocabulary knowledge, vocabulary…