scholarly journals A study of the elementary math program utilized by a mid-Missouri school district

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Lisa J. Barabas
Keyword(s):  
School District ◽  
Program Improvement ◽  
Fifth Grade ◽  
Math Instruction ◽  
Grade Levels ◽  
Math Program ◽  
Elementary Math ◽  
Accelerated Math ◽  
Missouri School District ◽  
Math Students

This qualitative study focused on one Mid-Missouri school district and was designed to collect and analyze teachers' and administrators' perceptions regarding the elementary math program for the purpose of program improvement. The district utilized ability grouping including acceleration for elementary math instruction. This study was analyzed using a constructivist framework and consideration was given to the theories of both Piaget and Vygotsky. Based on teachers' and administrators' perceptions, the accelerated math classes met the needs of the highest ability math students. Overall, according to teachers, the elementary math program did not meet the needs of the lowest students at the fourth and fifth grade levels where the accelerated math classes were being utilized.

Music Activity Preferences of Elementary Students

1998 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chelcy L. Bowles
Keyword(s):  
First Graders ◽  
Traditional Music ◽  
Music Programs ◽  
Fifth Grade ◽  
Music Classroom ◽  
Classroom Activities ◽  
Fifth Grade Students ◽  
Grade Levels ◽  
Music Program ◽  
Activity Preferences

A questionnaire regarding music classroom activity preferences was administered to 2,251 kindergarten through fifth-grade students. Students stated whether they liked to participate in 13 traditional music-classroom activities and eight music-program-related activities, and they identified their favorite activity among six. Students preferred playing instruments above all other activities within and across grade levels, and 50% reported instrument playing as their favorite activity. Singing and listening were about equally liked within and across grades. Students preferred creative movement over dance within and across grades; first graders responded less positively to dance than to any other activity. Positive attitude toward composing declined with advancing grade level. Eighty-one percent liked to perform in music programs, and more than half liked to perform in small ensembles. Students responded very positively to attending concerts and having performers come to the classroom, but were less positive about participating in music contests.

scholarly journals An Analysis of the Features of Words That Influence Vocabulary Difficulty

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elfrieda H. Hiebert ◽  
Judith A. Scott ◽  
Ruben Castaneda ◽  
Alexandra Spichtig
Keyword(s):  
English Learners ◽  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Fifth Grade ◽  
Content Areas ◽  
Fifth Grade Students ◽  
Grade Levels ◽  
Part Of Speech ◽  
Curriculum Instruction ◽  
Word Location

The two studies reported on in this paper examine the features of words that distinguish students’ performances on vocabulary assessments as a means of understanding what contributes to the ease or difficulty of vocabulary knowledge. The two studies differ in the type of assessment, the types of words that were studied, and the grade levels and population considered. In the first study, an assessment of words that can be expected to appear with at least moderate frequency at particular levels of text was administered to students in grades 2 through 12. The second study considered the responses of fourth- and fifth-grade students, including English learners, to words that teachers had identified as challenging for those grade levels. The effects of the same set of word features on students’ vocabulary knowledge were examined in both studies: predicted appearances of a word and its immediate morphological family members, number of letters and syllables, dispersion across content areas, polysemy, part of speech, age of acquisition, and concreteness. The data consisted of the proportion of students who answered an item correctly. In the first study, frequency of a word’s appearance in written English and age of acquisition predicted students’ performances. In the second study, age of acquisition was again critical but so too were word length, number of syllables, and concreteness. Word location (which was confounded by word frequency) also proved to be a predictor of performance. Findings are discussed in relation to how they can inform curriculum, instruction, and research.

Multiplication of Fractions: Teaching for Understanding

1991 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 34-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Cramer ◽  
Nadine Bezuk
Keyword(s):  
School District ◽  
Great Difficulty ◽  
Fifth Grade ◽  
Lower Quartile ◽  
Teaching For Understanding ◽  
Fifth Grade Students ◽  
Large School ◽  
Whole Number ◽  
Multiplication Of Fractions

Multiplication of fractions is a deceptively easy skill for students to learn. In a large school district in Minnesota, fifth-grade students identified as being in the lower quartile on the district's mathematics competency test had great difficulty with all the fraction items except multiplication of fractions. Although only 18 percent of these students could find the sum of 1/2 and 1/8, 75 percent could find the product of 2/3 and 4/7. Students can successfully multiply, for example, 2/3 and 4/7, using their whole-number ideas. The answer. 8/21, can be calculated without considering the meaning of either of the fractions or of the answer.

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