Discusses reasons for involving middle-school students in genuine historical inquiry, including that it will foster perspectives, attributes, and critical-thinking skills required of informed citizens in a democratic society. Notes that requiring students to do so requires careful guidance and thoughtful preparation. Discusses nine considerations…

Argues that science should be taught in a conceptual manner in elementary and middle school, after which (and only after) formulas, concrete strategies, and specific, isolated facts should be taught. Discusses linear versus conceptual learning, how boys and girls learn, how middle school teachers can approach this, preparing new science teachers,…

Reports a year-long study of middle school language arts students. Finds that average students who are instructed in the art of reflective analysis by way of the systematic use of reflective questions and reflective events do, in fact, over time become more aware of the increasingly more sophisticated challenges that writers face. (SR)

Offers an overview of research on cross-age tutoring. Describes a successful cross-age tutoring program pairing 7th-grade with 3rd-grade students. Offers guidelines for developing a successful cross-age tutoring program. (SR)

Reports on "Writing Day at Barnes," an intermediate school program implemented to introduce writing skills in every subject area. Presents an overview of teacher training, program framework, sample lesson plans, and guidelines for developing similar programs which focus on the improvement and reinforcement of specific writing expression…

Offers a brief report on a private elementary and middle school located in northwest China. Discusses opportunities and dilemmas of private education in China, including access, teacher hiring/firing and pay, tuition, and class size. (SR)

Argues that teachers should, in most cases, follow their own and school rules set for students. Surveys teachers and principals from middle and junior high schools on their typical school behaviors. Offers suggestions for preservice and inservice teacher education to heighten teacher consciousness of the classroom behaviors they model--elements of…

Describes a three-day unit for eighth-grade geography classes that uses a videotape of an ABC News Special to combine a lesson on the Bosnian Civil War with a media-analysis activity. (SR)

Shows how a first-year science teacher met the challenge of an innovative program in which all sixth-grade content teachers at one school assumed responsibility for teaching content-area literacy. Describes the various strategies he taught for reading and learning in content-area instruction, including compare and contrast, sequencing activities,…

It is crucial for students to believe that their home and community languages and cultures are acknowledged and valued (Faltis and Hudelson 1998). Furthermore, it is of equal importance that system-created contradictions between institutional literacy (school-based) and family-based literacy be blurred or eliminated (McCaleb 1997). It is this…

Describes a collaborative project in which university faculty members, graduate students, public and private school teachers, and sixth and seventh grade students worked closely together to develop and evaluate a new middle school social studies curriculum. (HOD)

Provides a developmental chronicle of how a middle school administrator developed, introduced, and maintained a "walking advisement" program at his school. (FL)

Notes discrepancies between what middle grade teachers thought they should do and what they were doing as far as grouping practices in reading instruction (both multiple groupings and individualized programs). Indicates the need for more teacher training in how to use objective data when making instructional decisions. (RL)

Describes two interdisciplinary units that can be used in most middle school classrooms, one on the sinking of the "Titanic" and one on Pickett's charge at Gettysburg during the Civil War. Describes how each unit involves English, math, social studies, and science classes and activities. (SR)

Outlines a model for examining research on middle grades reform. Suggests that high levels of implementation of the recommendations set forth in "Turning Points: Preparing Youth for the 21st Century" will improve teacher work life and job satisfaction as well as school climate and student support. (SR)