Dr. William Alexander, a noted curriculum authority and a central founder of the middle school movement, shared in a presentation in 1963 that teachers must have a goal of stimulating a "love for learning, an attitude of inquiry, a passion for truth and beauty, a questioning of mind." He asserted, "Learning the right answers is not…

There is an emerging curriculum vision that transcends the subject-centered and multidisciplinary approaches characterizing most junior high schools and middle schools. This article addresses practical issues (course content, teacher identities, planning, classroom life, and larger purpose) that have arisen around the integrative curriculum…

Details changes in programs and practice to improve middle level education. Examines characteristics of developmentally responsive middle schools. Identifies barriers to efforts to provide meaningful learning experiences through curriculum integration. Maintains that changes should revolve around expanding teachers' models of learning to…

A teacher-designed study of 46 eighth-grade students in a southeastern middle school showed that a majority of students (male and female of high, average, and low ability) liked integrated curriculum, though males favored it more highly than females. This information lends support for middle-school curriculum reform efforts focusing on life skills…

Offers suggestions for selecting picture books for use in the middle school classroom to integrate and extend content and skills in various curricular areas, including reading and language arts, social studies, science, mathematics, and fine arts. Includes a bibliography with titles in each area. (JPB)

Discusses the role of foreign language studies in middle school reforms. Considers how foreign language instruction works with the middle school curriculum to integrate learning through an interdisciplinary approach that connects meaningful experiences in school to the students' community and understanding of life outside school. (JPB)

Discusses intellectual, practical, and accountability problems of the integrated curriculum model. Notes the need for improving basic classroom instruction before reform. Argues for the potential of the basic theory of curriculum integration. (JPB)

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…

Discusses ways to improve collaborative communication between core and exploratory curriculum teachers in interdisciplinary team-taught middle schools. Considers techniques of curriculum integration, homebase/advisory alliances, extended teams, core-exploratory liaisons, rotating team connections, exploratory teams, equalized assessment,…

Notes that summer school has been affected by current curricular reform and high stakes testing. Describes an innovative summer school program, created through transformational teacher leadership, that developed a new vision for integrated curriculum--one that revolved around rebuilding a boat. Presents implications for both an integrated academic…

Discusses an approach for integrating book clubs across middle school subject areas. Describes the major elements of the TAB discussion sequence, explains the procedural elements, and provides classroom examples of work with middle school teachers and students. (JPB)

Very few students in the fifth through eighth grades have mastered basic reading/writing/thinking strategies. Improving language arts outcomes is the responsibility of all middle school teachers. The first step is achieving faculty and community consensus on ideal student outcomes in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Implementing language…

Interviews two principals of middle schools using integrated curriculum: Molly Maloy of Carver Academy, Waco, Texas, and Camille Barr of Brown Barge Middle School, Pensacola, Florida. Considers issues of transforming theory into daily practice, reforming and developing curriculum, and building teacher leadership. Provides backgrounds on the…

Presents four opinions from middle school educators concerning curriculum integration: (1) the inexperienced may transition better; (2) middle level education needs a clear vision for children and ways to deliver it; (3) middle level educators need to learn from past success and failures; and (4) middle school educators can provide guidance to…

Examines how teams of teachers can develop units of study that move the middle school curriculum toward integration. Describes a project conducted at an Arlington, Virginia middle school connecting society, technology, and science in the study of westward migration in the early 1800s. Describes students' projects to illustrate how they began to…