To promote independent reading in middle school, teachers must understand why adolescents choose to read or not read a specific book. Yet, there is limited research on the factors that students consider when evaluating books that teachers have introduced them to in class. This study aimed to describe factors that 43 Grade 7 and 8 students noted as…

Shannon Hale, Dean Hale, and Nathan Hale's graphic novel set "Rapunzel's Revenge" (2008) and "Calamity Jack" (2010) features fractured fairy tales that take up the issue of 'the damsel in distress,' questioning and complicating traditional gender roles in fairy tales. Throughout both graphic novels Rapunzel's character…

This paper explores how students, as multimodal storytellers, can weave powerful narratives blending modes, genres, artefacts and literary conventions to represent the real and imagined in their lives. Part of a larger ethnographic case study of student writing in a middle years class for immigrant students learning English as an additional…

Described is a project in which seventh graders in Newark explored the racial attitudes implicit in a short story as they made slides to illustrate the story. (LS)

THIS TEST--"MYTH"--WAS DESIGNED BY THE OREGON CURRICULUM STUDY CENTER FOR A SEVENTH-GRADE LITERATURE CURRICULUM. IT IS INTENDED TO ACCOMPANY THE CURRICULUM UNITS AVAILABLE AS ED 010 139 AND ED 010 140. (MM)

Presents a five-step series of lessons which introduce seventh-grade language arts students to literary criticism and analysis as they progress through a text, moving from surface evaluation to thoughtful analysis. (SR)

THESE THREE TESTS--"ORIENTATION,""TRADITIONAL BALLAD," AND "THE LITERARY BALLAD"--WERE DESIGNED BY THE OREGON CURRICULUM STUDY CENTER FOR A SEVENTH-GRADE LITERATURE CURRICULUM. THEY ARE INTENDED TO ACCOMPANY CURRICULUM UNITS AVAILABLE AS ED 010 135 AND ED 010 136. (MM)

THESE TWO TESTS--"SHORT STORY" AND "FABLES, PROVERBS, AND PARABLES"--WERE DESIGNED BY THE OREGON CURRICULUM STUDY CENTER FOR A SEVENTH-GRADE LITERATURE CURRICULUM. THEY ARE INTENDED TO ACCOMPANY CURRICULUM UNITS AVAILABLE AS ED 010 137 AND ED 010 138. (MM)

Many teen-agers readily identify with the family portrayed in "Cheaper by the Dozen" and, consequently, the novel is good supplementary reading for a unit on "The Family." A main objective of one class study of the novel was an analysis of Mr. Gilbreth's personality and his philosophy of life. Students noted his character…

Violent episodes in realistic fiction in children's books between 1960 and 1970 were analyzed according to the total space devoted to violence, details or intensity of descriptions, the role assumed by the heroes, villains, kinds of violent acts perpetrated, the relationship of participants in the aggressive act, value judgments expressed, and the…

THE SEVENTH-GRADE STUDENT PACKET, PRODUCED BY THE NEBRASKA CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT CENTER, BEGINS WITH THE UNIT ENTITLED "THE MAKING OF STORIES" IN WHICH STUDENTS CONSIDER WRITERS' AUDIENCES AND METHODS OF COMPOSITION AND PRESENTATION. SUCH MATERIAL AS "A CHRISTMAS CAROL" AND SELECTIONS FROM "THE…

THE TEACHER PACKET FOR THE SEVENTH-GRADE ENGLISH PROGRAM OF THE NEBRASKA CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT CENTER INCLUDES, AS DO ALL SECONDARY UNITS, TWO SUBJECT-MATTER SECTIONS--LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION, AND LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION. THE LITERATURE PROGRAM CONCENTRATES ON THE CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH VARIOUS CULTURES CREATE STORIES, THE SOCIAL FUNCTIONS…

Gender attitudes are usually viewed as products of the socialization process and therefore may be viewed as modifiable behaviors. Of great practical importance is the discovery of how they are formed, how they are organized in the mind, and how they may be changed. A study attempted to determine if exposing middle school students to…

A year-long study of the writing growth of eight seventh grade children was conducted to determine whether knowledge of reading rhetoric could be directly applied to personal writing behavior. It was assumed that active comprehension of a distinctive literary model would provide awareness of the structure of narrative prose and improve the…