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

Describes an English teacher's experiences when one of his ninth grade classes studying language in advertising was filmed for national television. He found that he and his students all enjoyed their celebrity status, but the glamor surrounding the medium itself obscured the intent of the lesson. (AM)

The ninth-grade students are helped in finding their writing voices by using a traditional African poem as a model. With the teaching of this poetry project, it is observed that having a well-defined structure allows students to think and write creatively.

Defines "culture,""identity," and "struggling reader" and explores several assumptions underlying the cultural construction of struggling readers and how such assumptions influence their reading identities. Uses those assumptions to interpret a case study of a ninth-grade boy. Offers suggestions based on the student's case for working with other…

In this paper, the author offers lesson plan ideas that are designed to guide teachers of art and science to encourage their students to see connections between art images and physics principles. The four works of art discussed are examples that can be linked visually and conceptually to physics properties in mathematics, space, energy, and light.…

The efforts of a ninth grade teacher Dotie Hyatt are reviewed as she struggles to work within the school district's expectations to meet the needs of her students. Various problems and needs of students are mentioned.

The experience of one high school in New York State offering physics to freshmen is described. Advantages and disadvantages of this approach are discussed. Curriculum alternatives within the New York State guidelines are presented. (CW)

Uses reading responses of a ninth grade class and a teachers' study group to examine the social memberships and constituencies that reading and discussion disclose through the response process. Maintains that teachers should base reading lists on an understanding of their own and students' memberships rather than on some abstract notion of…

In spite of attacks upon the United Nations, even critics admit the world would not be as well off without it. The important work of its humanitarian agencies needs to be more widely publicized. Describes a required global history course in New York as an example. (CS)

Describes the comprehensive curriculum approach and teacher training program on the Jewish Holocaust that has been developed for adolescents by Facing History and Ourselves, a nonprofit organization. Course objectives, problems teachers will encounter, and student response are discussed. (MBR)

English teachers developed several activities for their ninth- and tenth-grade students using basic word processing capabilities. The materials described include guided writing (a job application form); passages involving cloze and pair work; relating details from a story; and work with a song and its written text. (CNP)

This article describes an interdisciplinary classroom project in which ninth graders simulate a "World Council on Genetic Technology." Students in small groups take on the persona and interests of individuals from specific countries in the group effort to develop a covenant for regulating the use of biotechnology. The benefits of having gifted…