The process through which teachers transform the curriculum over time is best explained by incremental change theories. Teachers will tinker at the margins of the curriculum, effecting incremental change, until they begin to feel comfortable with the dissolution of disciplinary boundaries, and they are willing to cede control of some curricular…

The middle school team project described in this article was part of a larger district initiative, started in 2001 by the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) to create a systemic model of school improvement for increasing student achievement in low-performing schools. Academic teams were established as the conduit for ensuring that…

Research has documented that skilled and highly effective teachers make a positive difference in student learning and achievement. Research has also shown that more time spent on quality professional development means more effective teaching. Hence, the National Middle School Association (NMSA) asserts that more research is needed that connects…

Conventional wisdom dictates that learning comes in incremental bits and gradually builds up from the bottom. But conventional wisdom should always be questioned. This article describes what a cohort of 17 preservice middle grades teachers encountered as they learned to "stroke the crawl" in a curriculum class that was to provide an unconventional…

The turn of the century brought a profound change in the accreditation of teacher preparation programs. This shift--from curriculum-based reviews to standards-based reviews--took place in the context of the accountability movement of the late 20th century. The 21st century ushered in what many refer to as "a culture of evidence." From P-12 to…

In the fall of 2005 the principal and teachers at Knickerbacker Middle School (KMS) were worried. KMS was a "School in Good Standing" but had not hit federal or state benchmarks because of low subgroup scores on the English Language Arts (ELA) test--especially scores received by economically disadvantaged students, about half of this urban…

This article describes the Voices of American Teens project in which seventh grade reading students were engaged with multicultural short stories. The steps taken to select texts and prepare materials for the projects are explained, and the project's implementation is described. Examples from students' projects and written responses demonstrate…

Today, it is a challenge for teachers to convince resistant readers that literature holds secrets, adventures, and revelations worthy of their time and attention. When teachers demonstrate how to explore literature and guide students in doing so, teachers help break down barriers that are common among middle school students. Unfortunately, when…

Since the U.S.S.R. released Sputnik I into space in 1957, American science teachers have been focused on preparing scientifically literate students. New instructional approaches have emerged, with the 5E learning cycle being one of the more popular methods used. The 5E learning cycle gets its name from its five stages: Engage, Explore, Explain,…

As Jackson and Davis noted, "the main purpose of middle grades education is to promote young adolescents' intellectual development. It is to enable every student to think creatively, to identify and solve meaningful problems, to communicate and work well with others, and to develop the base of factual knowledge and skills that is the essential…

In the new millennium, the No Child Left Behind Act (2001) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) (2004) ask educators to maximize opportunities for students with disabilities to succeed in inclusive classrooms. To make autonomy and integration seamless, many students with special needs will need to make use of…

For the middle school students in a Virtual Reading Group (VRG), it was easy to see their virtual discussion peers and their virtual teacher; all participants appeared simultaneously on a screen, with a separate box for each participating site. In this article, the authors offer an account of how the "realness" of virtual others was constructed by…

In the past five years, at least a half dozen major reports have focused on adolescent literacy and providing adolescents with age-appropriate instruction. What is age-appropriate instruction for middle school students? As recent reports on adolescent literacy, such as those of the Carnegie Corporation and the ACT make clear, age-appropriate…

Few middle school educators have escaped the numerous warnings regarding face-to-face school bullying. While this threat is certainly real, the more common danger inflicted via technology, cyberbullying, is relatively unknown to teachers and parents. Cyberbullying has moved bullying behaviors from the schoolyard to a worldwide audience. This…

This article describes how the author, in an effort to build some common language about "good writing" and to teach effective revision strategies, involved her students in an action research project using the Worse/Better Writing Strategy developed by Andrews-Beck. In her dissertation, Andrews-Beck described a worse/better writing strategy that…