Describes a class for ninth graders at a private school that used the study of music to help develop six basic intellectual skills and to provide a foundation for further creative work. Discusses using the inquiry/discovery method, applying the intellect, listening to and learning from pop music, the dangers of this approach, and the final exam…

Describes the Meaningful Other Person (MOP) program instituted at a North Carolina ninth grade center that reduced the dropout rate by 50 percent. (FL)

Argues for the importance of applying theory to practice and reports on a study in which a teacher used process-oriented theories of writing in her classroom and found that they led students to examine their own writing processes more carefully and to become more excited about their writing. (FL)

The author asserts that, in both the junior high school movement and the more recent middle school movement, the ninth grade was considered expendable. He suggests that it is time to resolve the bothersome questions as to whether the ninth grade belongs in the junior or senior high school. (SJL)

Describes an elective course for at-risk ninth-grade students that focuses on sports literature--articles and columns in the daily newspaper, young adult novels, and a sports anthology. (SR)

Discusses the problems, methodology, and positive results of an 8-week course in cultural literacy for 34 ninth grade students at Brooklyn's John Dewey High School. Provides sample materials in 4 appendixes. (NH)

Investigates what would happen when a ninth-grade honors English teacher taught a poem that he was encountering for the first time along with his students compared with what happened when he taught a poem that he had read and taught many times before. Notes that the teacher and the students felt the classroom dialogue improved when the teacher was…

Summarizes the results of a project to make a class of learning disabled ninth graders aware of their individual learning styles. This seemed to increase their self-esteem and thus they worked according to their strengths and their grades improved. (NKA)

Describes a program to improve mathematical skills of off-track students through a partnership among a university, public school, local telephone company, and the community (including families and social agencies). Shows significant improvements in students' academic achievement, and notes that all of the teachers felt the social work aspect had a…