The third in a series of reports from P/PV's three-year study of the role Boys & Girls Clubs play in the lives of the youth they serve, "Making Every Day Count" examines how Club participation is related to youth's positive and healthy development in three outcome areas identified by Boys & Girls Clubs of America as central to its mission: good…

This unit is one of a series that presents specific moments in history from which students focus on the meanings of landmark events. This unit challenges the idea that Africa was backward and unknown to the outside world before the arrival of the Europeans. It shows that strong leadership and well organized societies had existed in Africa long…

This program is intended for students in grades 8 and 9 who have experienced difficulty in learning and may function a year or more behind their age peers. It is designed to provide for the development of essential knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed by students to become responsible citizens and contributing members of society. Major emphasis…

This curriculum guide for grades 7-9 describes a sequential course focusing on: (1) drawings (the ways of recording visual information and discoveries), (2) composition (the way images are put together to create meaning), and (3) encounters with art (where people find art and how they respond to it). In drawing, students acquire a repertoire of…

This document is a collection of lessons for teaching a unit on ancient Chinese history. The unit focuses on a specific dramatic moment in history from which students can explore the deeper meanings of selected landmark events and their wider context in the great historical narrative. Continuing narrative provides the contest in which the dramatic…

The inclusion of more sociology related materials in the 8th and 9th grade civics curriculum can push the margins of civics education to a more broadly conceived notion of citizenry and make civics and sociology more relevant to students' lives. The goal should be to help students understand society, not the discipline of sociology. Sociology…

Prepared by a team of Haifa teacher trainers, this article analyzes 11 English textbooks, showing in tabular form the strengths and weaknesses of each. Criteria included presentation of language skills, vocabulary, grammar, communicative activities, and dictionary skills. (LB)

This unit begins by examining the problem of rural poverty in China in the 1940s. A variety of solutions attempted by the Chinese government between the mid 1940s and the present all aimed at the improvement of peasant living standards in the countryside. Because 80 percent of China's people are peasants, the Chinese Communist party saw the…

This unit is one of a series that represents specific moments in history from which students focus on the meanings of landmark events. By studying a crucial turning-point in history, students become aware that choices had to be made by real human beings, that those decisions were the result of specific factors, and that they set in motion a series…

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)

Introduces students in grades seven-nine to the sometimes ambiguous differences between abstract and realistic art. Explores ways in which the same idea can be expressed in both formats, using Cy Twombly's "Synopsis of a Battle" as an example. Students research a war and create both abstract and realistic pictures of the battlefield…

The Alberta (Canada) curriculum for 7th, 8th, and 9th grade French immersion instruction is presented. An introductory section describes the rationale and objectives of the program and provides a brief bibliography. The next section charts the types of discourse on which the curriculum focuses within each language skill area (listening, speaking,…

The purpose of this unit is to explore the ideas and ideals of the 18th century Enlightenment thinkers called the Philosophes, and to understand how they continue to influence basic notions about the nature of man and his world. The unit introduces key members of the Philosophes through short excerpts from their works. The selections illustrate…

This teacher's guide begins with sample unit plans for junior high school art teachers. Unit plans cover specific themes, approaches, objectives, concepts, motivation, resources, study approaches, evaluation, and related activities. A description of how the units relate to the objectives and concepts of the art program's curriculum guide is also…

Provides a lesson plan that introduces students in grades seven-nine to artistic depiction of a specific time and place. Explores Joseph Mallord William Turner's "Burning of the Houses of Parliament" as both visual record and emotional interpretation. Lists instructional strategies for description, analysis, interpretation, and judgment.…