A seventh grade student in Nebraska asked for information about becoming a teacher in middle schools. The letter was forwarded to present and former members of the National Association of Secondary School Principals' Council on Middle Level Education. Ten responses provide a broad look at the complex question, "What makes a successful teacher at…

Participating in a transition to a middle-level school provides the most potential for professional growth within a given school culture. In this article, a former middle school principal shows how a content-oriented, somewhat inflexible veteran seventh-grade social studies teacher reluctantly embraced middle-school teaming and eventually…

Analyzes four informal science-related writing tasks produced by seventh-grade students (n=374) from two schools with different socioeconomic populations. Demonstrates that students' informal writing in the science context can provide a rich source of information regarding students' cognitive and attitudinal engagement with science. (Author/CCM)

A parent deplores the overemphasis on socialization and collaboration in his son's seventh-grade classroom. He believes cooperative learning limits his son's educational opportunity, intellectual growth, and motivation to achieve. In the wake of corporate downsizing, there's even greater need for individual initiative and expertise. Social…

This theme issue covering elementary and prevocational programs examines agriculture education in elementary and middle schools, motivational activities for exploratory agriculture, utilizing the Food for America program, benefits of the Food for America program, elementary agriculture education curriculum, and vocational agriculture for seventh…

Relates how one teacher restructured her classroom to use reading and writing workshops. Describes how three at-risk students in her classroom, in the course of the academic year, moved from being at risk of academic failure to being on the path to promise and success. (SR)

Tim Tyson, the principal of Mabry Middle School in Marietta Georgia, is a self-described geek with Ph.D. in education. Tyson was responsible for making the seventh graders at Mabry to attain above grade level in reading. To attain this goal, Tyson has made sure that the technology used at Mabry was thoughtfully integrated across the school's…

Relates a middle school teacher's experiences using the project-based science approach with two groups of seventh graders. Describes the features of project-based science and the content and activities of the units taught. Discusses the challenges of implementing this approach and compares the strengths and weaknesses of project-based and…

This paper describes 2 years of international telecommunications experiences between seventh grade reading classes in Florida and England. The report is presented in five sections: (1) Telecommunications and Reading Instruction--telecommunications and how it can motive students, develop their confidence, and empower them, and how…

A seventh-grade teacher describes how her students gradually became engaged in a year-long project on Thoreau. Although initially resistant and unenthusiastic, the students became interested after two field trips involving living-history experiences, and went on to write a play involving Thoreau, his contemporary and 20th-century…

This article makes a case for special classes for gifted students and answers objections to special classes raised by the middle school movement and the cooperative learning movement. A sample "Celebration of Me" unit taught to gifted seventh graders which involved poetry, literature, personal development, art, music, and physical fitness is…

A central fallacy of traditional science education is its focus on laboratory science as the touchstone against which science teaching and learning should be compared. This approach teaches students to see the world with the eyes of science rather than to build their own view of the world; it favors students becoming conformist rather than…

A middle school teacher presents three case studies of seventh-grade students who began the school year poorly but then decided to change. All three students had challenging home situations but, after becoming motivated to succeed, showed dramatic and rapid improvement. Such motivational changes are seen as stemming ultimately from reasons…

Students can learn a number of words in any given day from television, parents, through reading, and through classroom activities. The activity in this lesson plan focuses on students expanding their written vocabulary to make writing passages more vivid and pleasurable to read. The lesson provides an opportunity for individual and group work, all…

The efforts of Cleveland's intermediate level mathematics teachers to change their curriculum from computation to a dual emphasis on application and computation are described. This paper reports on the second year of a project to enhance mathematics instruction. A natural history ethnography was conducted, which focused on the work of seven…