Integration of curriculum has been a concern of educators since before the start of the 20th century, and today middle schools are embracing a variety of approaches to integrate the curriculum. The study reported in this paper began with a review of the relevant literature, which identifies a synthesized continuum with five levels of curriculum…

This qualitative study examined the attitudes and interests of 284 gifted readers in grades 6, 7, and 8. Students were from a high socioeconomic status, suburban school district in the midwestern United States and were either identified as gifted or had a history of involvement in a program for the gifted. Data collection instruments included a…

This practicum was designed to provide an after-school activity program to middle school students not engaged in interscholastic sports. Utilizing community volunteers, an enrichment-prevention program that featured 19 different activities in 2 class sessions per week over a 10-week period was developed and implemented. Activities included…

Students need, through their school mathematical experiences, to build on and formalize mathematical knowledge gained in out-of-school situations. This study examined middle school students' perceptions of how they use mathematics outside the classroom in an attempt to learn more about students' everyday mathematics practice and to close the gap…

The goal of this research was to determine the effectiveness of a middle school science curriculum designed to inspire students to think about science through studying the patterns of humans. The curriculum focuses on human behavior, evolution, ecology, and performance and is based on the notion that pattern recognition is highly correlated with…

A 16-month evaluation sponsored by the National Institute of Justice compared the separate and combined impact of two New York City middle school violence prevention programs from February 1993 to June 1994. Project Schools Teaching Options for Peace (S.T.O.P.), a traditional conflict resolution program with a curriculum and peer mediation was…

The transition from elementary school to middle school or junior high school can be exciting, stressful, scary, and fun all at once for young adolescents. The stress of this transition can either be diffused or augmented by school procedures for introducing these students to the school. In this study, a needs survey was given to a heterogeneous…

The need for developing cognitive skills in early adolescents as they move from concrete thinking to more abstract operations has been documented. College students seeking the middle school endorsement in education were trained to utilize matrices as graphic constructs of textual materials. By examining these content matrices, prepracticum…

This paper examines some cultural misconceptions about young adolescents, describes the outcomes of this distortion, and offers suggestions for the ways in which curriculum can begin to liberate and empower them. Given that early adolescents in the United States are neglected, ignored, stereotyped, and negatively affected by certain social forces,…

Guilford County School District is the third largest school district in North Carolina. It includes urban, suburban, and rural neighborhoods and a full range of income levels with a population that is approximately 60% white and 40% minority, predominantly African American. When three previous school districts merged to form Guilford County…

This two part curriculum includes a student's guide and a teacher's guide designed to help upper-elementary and middle school students better understand violence and work to prevent it in the schools and community. Developing violence prevention plans will help students express their ideas about solutions to violence and will help students examine…

The education system of the United States is rated on the performance of students on large-scale standardized tests. In addition, a major portion of a student's grade for a course is based on the level of performance on classroom tests. Since this is the case, the education system must take testing and the results of testing very seriously. The…

The effectiveness of the Student Assignment Center program (SAC), an inschool suspension program implemented in the Houston Independent School District, is evaluated in this report. The program provides instructional and counseling support services for middle-school students who risk suspension or expulsion for conduct code violations. Goals are…

This workbook presents activities for training middle school student peer listeners. The first of the workbook's 10 chapters contains an introduction to peer listening. Activities include a pretest on a series of true-false statements called the "Peer Listening Inventory," defining the meaning of the words that describe the qualities of a peer…

Focusing on the culture of students with disabilities allows teachers to add another real-world dimension to the multi-cultural atmosphere of their classrooms. While Public Law 94-142 (the Education for All Handicapped Children Act) legislates what opportunities must exist for the differently able, volunteer program such as "Kids on the…