The more students know about themselves and the world of work, the more likely they are to make satisfying decisions about their future. Middle-level school counselors can offer students a variety of career awareness experiences via interest inventories and aptitude tests, career cluster exploration, computer-assisted guidance, field trips,…

Conventional experimental research in mental imagery and visualization presents conflicting findings. Naturalistic inquiry offers an alternative approach for the study of mental imagery and problem solving. Paulo Freire, for example, used a naturalistic approach that emphasized active involvement in learning. Imagery can play an important role in…

Concept of cooperative literacy implies an obligation of educators to increase all students' literacy and numeracy skills. Adapting cooperative learning as both a classroom management and a learning strategy helps manifest this responsibility across the curriculum. Two self-monitoring strategies are the Team Tally Sheet (to help students manage…

A Florida survey shows middle school students' favorite advisement activities to be parties, holiday and special day celebrations, discussion, service projects, games, group activities, and freedom to choose activities. Teachers' favorites are student of the day/week, academic advisories, organization and goal-setting days, career exploration,…

Although the Holocaust was an assault on Jews, gypsies, and gays, it has universal implications for everyone. This article explains several approaches to teaching the Holocaust, including literature about teenagers facing complex moral issues, interdisciplinary methods, interviews of survivors, field trips to temples or synagogues, research…

Studying global economic system helps middle-school students unravel complexities of world economics by focusing on other countries, their motivations as consumers, and their decision-making processes. By examining interrelationship of economics and everyday life, students can see their place in economic chain. Concepts such as marketing, stock…

Describes a thematic, interdisciplinary, middle-school curriculum that integrates visual and language arts. Curriculum embodies three principles: (1) visual and verbal responses depend on meaningful interaction among the artist (writer), the art object (text), the viewer (reader), and the environment (context); (2) visual and verbal thinking are…

Drama is a way of learning through role playing and problem solving. The dramatic process calls for self-awareness, communication skills, concentration, and group cooperation. A linear drama approach enables teachers to provide drama activities in a comfortable step-by-step sequence. Incorporating drama into content instruction allows students to…

A study examined a comparison of the effectiveness of cooperative learning in small groups with whole classroom instruction using the Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) during reading. Subjects for the 8-week study were 53 sixth-graders from 2 classes in Brooklyn, New York. The stories used all came from the same basal reader. A reading…

Using a unit on earthworms, this article shows how science and language arts can be successfully integrated in a middle school classroom through hands-on observation, interviewing, and writing exercises. The integration process engages students, uses class time more efficiently, encourages dialog, and improves outcomes and appreciation of the…

When busing limits number of afternoon activities and students do not seem interested anyway, principals must look for opportunities during day to involve students. One inner-city middle-school principal helped teachers initiate program of morning clubs and assemblies to increase student self-esteem and encourage student and parent involvement…

Describes the results of a classroom trial activity to encourage communication in mathematics. Students were asked to write a short story or a joke or to create a cartoon about an aspect of mathematics, which was in this case isolating the variable or property of negative 1. The activity revealed creativity and allowed the teacher to determine how…

In recent years, many schools have turned to Integrated Learning Systems (ILSs) to facilitate instruction and assist with raising state standardized test scores. Typically, these ILSs are utilized in a computer lab with students working individually on computer-based instructional lessons for an allotted time period. Using ILSs in this manner has…

The goal of this study was to take a first step in evaluating the potential of virtual reality (VR) as a learning environment. The context of the study was The Technology Academy, a technology-oriented summer day camp for students ages 5-18, where student activities center around hands-on exploration of new technology (e.g., robotics, MIDI digital…

This report describes the development and evaluation of mathematics activities manuals for grades K-8, correlated with the Tennessee state mathematics curriculum. Seventeen elementary teachers and seven secondary teachers met during January-June 1989 to write draft versions of the manuals and demonstrate activity-based mathematics and…