This document reports on an evaluation project to determine the effectiveness of the Fast Track method of instrumental music instruction as applied to beginning band instruction. The Fast Track music system is unique because it simultaneously aids both visual and aural learning by using a book and cassette tape approach to instruction. Traditional…

A study examined the effectiveness of semantic mapping instruction as a technique for increasing vocabulary. Subjects, 38 fourth grade students in two classrooms, were divided into experimental and control groups. Both groups were pretested for their knowledge of selected words taken from the Scott, Foresman Reading Program, Grade Four. The…

An instructional study was conducted (1) to explore the efficacy of using an explicit instruction model versus a basal approach to teach the comprehension or critical reading skills of discerning fact and opinion and evaluating evidence, and (2) to learn whether adding a functional aspect to the instruction would affect the students' acquisition…

Analyzes the level of comprehension which can be achieved by students in a teacher-less group discussion. (RB)

Presents a collection of teaching activities suitable for students in the upper grades. These activities focus on practical programming projects, use of word processors for learning a foreign language, an Atari program for making a starburst, and a program (with deliberate errors) to determine the thickness of folded paper. (JN)

Ten fourth and fifth grade teachers, after two training workshops, led discussions of critical thinking with groups of six children from their own classes. Audiotape analysis revealed differences in teacher and pupil participation before and after the training. Results and implications for teaching thinking skills are presented. (Author/MT)

This study describes the synthesis of the cloze technique with story-mapping techniques resulting in the Cloze Story Map (CSM) and tests the immediate and long-term usefulness of CSM with both expository and narrative texts. Results are discussed. (Author/MT)

Reports on an innovative program for providing daily 10-minute Latin classes to 12,000 fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade students in the Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) School District. Describes a typical class, objectives of the program, and the instructional principles followed. (PGD)

Offers practical activities that make spelling drill more interesting and more applicable to vocabulary development. (FL)

The purpose of this study was to document and trace how students' understanding of situations that involve finding a fractional part of a fraction developed during a course of instruction in which students explored and represented various kinds of situations using each of the five representational systems. A class of 5th grade students (n=22)…

Describes a poetry writing exercise that used photographs as a stimulus. Presents some poems produced by this exercise. (JL)

The construction of a peep-box satisfies the objectives for art education in Denmark. Ten-year-old students select a theme for their boxes and construct them with a variety of materials. (AM)

The author proposes a design for science instruction in the middle school years, ages 9-13. (SJL)

A teacher explains the procedures she uses to prepare her fifth and sixth graders for taking multiple-choice standardized tests. (SJL)

Examines the Schooldisc program developed jointly by the American Broadcasting Company and the National Education Association and compares Schooldiscs with "ThinkAbout," an instructional television series produced by the Agency for Instructional Television. (IRT)