This study examines the effectiveness of the Too Good for Drugs II (TGFD II) program in impacting adolescents' substance use intentions, attitudes, and perceptions. Sixth grade students (N=1,318) from six middle schools in a large Florida school district participated in the pretest and posttest phase of the study. Posttest questionnaires were…

Describes the Rasch calibration of a portion of the Watkins Farnum Performance Scale (J. Watkins and S. Farnum, 1954), a test of instructional music performance, for 218 sixth graders. Results show how Rasch scaling allows item difficulties to be estimated, the test to be administered more efficiently, and diagnostic information to be obtained.…

Examines the reading experiences of six African-American middle school girls. Finds that their book selection processes were different than those proposed by the professional multicultural education literature; they found affirmations, support, solutions, and decision-making skills in their reading; and that what mattered were the connections the…

This study examined associations among peer victimization, psychosocial problems, physical symptoms, and school functioning across the 1st year in middle school. An ethnically diverse sample of urban 6th graders (N = 1,526) reported on their perceptions of peer victimization, psychosocial adjustment, and physical symptoms during fall and spring.…

This article describes the experiences of a sixth-grade language arts class that participated in a research and portfolio-writing exercise using the school library media center. Students in this class learned that organization and process are central to the completion of a successful research project. After learning various note-taking strategies…

This article describes a unit of instruction designed to promote a conceptual understanding of area in sixth-grade students. Students used benchmarks to estimate the areas of real houses and calculated the areas of houses based on building plans. (Contains 7 figures.)

Describes an art lesson achieved with a Very Special Artist (VSA) in residence for sixth- and seventh-grade students in which they created wire sculptures. Discusses how the VSA taught the students. Includes a list of art materials and characteristics of wire. (CMK)

Asking questions is a powerful way for students to learn. They use questions as a "pathway to wandering and wondering" and as a tool to turn confusing curriculum into meaningful learning. In this way, "student generated questions may lead to more demanding study, particularly when the prescribed curriculum is too often preoccupied with answers to…

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether relations existed between sixth, seventh, and eighth grade learners' and their teachers' efficacy beliefs and outcome expectancies and whether student perceived efficacy beliefs were predictors of reading comprehension achievement as measured by a reading comprehension subtest score on a state…

A sixth-grade student teacher developed and implemented a unit on creative writing, and one lesson in the unit on writing legends was particularly successful. A discussion of Davy Crockett and the legends surrounding his life, began the lesson. The student teacher then introduced trade books from the library station for the pupils to read.…

This study investigated the effectiveness of color coding, accomplished by highlighting, used to help students differentiate between exact meaning (explicit information) and implied meaning (implicit information) in both narrative (short story) and expository texts. Subjects were 78 sixth-grade students randomly enrolled in four language arts…

Pupils in the middle school can be motivated to enjoy and write haiku poetry. A student teacher taught two lessons to a sixth grade class in haiku writing. First, the student teacher read three haikus aloud to students. After discovering the characteristics of a haiku from two models, the class as a whole wrote a haiku based on slides from their…

This report describes a program for improving students' comprehension of the language of mathematical problems. The targeted population consists of 5th and 6th grade multi-age students and multi-age learners with special needs at a middle school located outside a major city in a Midwestern community. Evidence for the existence of this problem…

Middle school students should be involved in seeking and selecting reading materials that ensure the attention of the learner. A wide variety of topics for learners to select from in choosing sequential trade books is a must. Sequential books selected by the middle school student should harmonize with his/her present level of achievement in…

Longitudinal study showed that during 6th and 7th grades boys reported significantly higher levels of self-competence than girls. Boys were less depressed and anxious than girls in 7th grade, but not in 6th grade. Results support the hypothesis that self-competence is partially responsible for the emergence of gender differences in depression and…