This document consists of an article and a two-page illustration "Putting Together the Pieces of the Puzzle." Noting that individual schools and communities throughout Indiana continue to struggle to meet the needs of young adolescents, the article discusses the work of the Stakeholder Steering Committee of the Middle Grades Reading…

This booklet presents descriptions of 19 reading programs that encourage Indiana middle-grade students to read. The programs described in the booklet were part of the Middle Grades Reading Network and were funded with competitive $5000 "minigrants." Essays (descriptions of the reading programs) in the booklet are: "Building a…

This report describes and evaluates the first year of the "Parents Sharing Books" project, a parent outreach program for Indiana middle and junior high schools. The project focuses on increasing interaction between parents and middle school children with books that they read together, encouraging parents and children to share books and…

Describes how a student managed and operated book store put inexpensive, high-quality literature into the hands of students at 61 middle and junior high schools in Indiana. (MG)

The amount of time students spend in classrooms is relatively short--"13% of the student's waking hours in the first 18 years of life" (Walberg, Paschal, and Weinstein, 1985). They are developing intellectually, socially, and emotionally all the time, and parents are their models and teachers most of the time. This report describes and…