This study examined the effect of formal instruction on the acquisition of three grammatical structures (simple past tense, present perfect, and passive construction) by Chinese adolescent learners of English. Comparison focused on the effects of two methods: explicit formal and implicit formal instruction. In the explicit method, students are…

This report summarizes the work of the Connecticut Task Force on the Education of Early Adolescents, which convened to make recommendations for reform policies in middle grade education. Prompted by a report issued by the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, this report is the result of efforts to define the specific tasks that needed to be…

This study examined the personal value systems of 98 at-risk seventh- and eighth-grade students in a public middle school in southwest Baltimore County, Maryland. The study sought to determine differences in the value orientations, or personal beliefs and attitudes, of: (1) males and females; (2) minority and nonminority students; and (3) Asian…

This study compared the acquisition of an initial place value skill when presented in a concrete, semiconcrete, abstract teaching sequence to acquisition of the same skill when presented at the abstract level only. The 24 subjects were elementary and middle school students (ages 8-13) with learning disabilities who were randomly assigned to…

This document contains a set of activity sheets designed to enhance the self-esteem of middle school and high school students while helping them to develop a number of important life skills. Designed to be a supplement to other self-esteem enhancing strategies teachers are using, the activities in this book can be infused into the regular…

American children do not bring uniform characteristics to the school setting. The at-risk student actually learns, behaves, and thinks differently from the student considered ideally suited to traditional programming. The poor "fit" between the at-risk students' natural characteristics and the expectations of the traditional school…

A pilot study examined the effect of a read-aloud literature program on the attitudes of middle school students toward reading. A randomly selected group of 70 teachers and 1,673 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students from four regions of the United States and one region in Europe participated. Testing the hypothesis that student attitudes…

"Write in the Middle: A Workshop for Middle School Teachers" is an eight-part professional development workshop designed to help teachers learn effective practices and strategies to use with middle school students in writing instruction. Through classroom footage of excellent teachers modeling successful strategies and interviews with teachers,…

Although there has been great concern about the incidence of bullying in American schools, there has only recently been research conducted in American schools on this problem. This volume considers the difficulties involved in various definitions of bullying, theoretical perspectives on bullying, current clinical research findings on the dynamics…

This chapter discusses the development of achievement motivation during adolescence from the perspective of expectancy-value theory, and explains how adolescents' expectancies for success and achievement values change during adolescence, particularly during educational transitions such as that from elementary to middle school and from middle to…

This curriculum was designed for teachers in middle grades and for other professionals working with youth. It deals with the extent of hate crime in the United States and strategies that are proving effective in reducing hate crimes among youth. The curriculum was pilot tested in middle schools in Massachusetts and Florida and a Catholic school in…

This collection of curriculum units in U.S. history tells some of the untold women's stories that describe some of the historical events and social settings of the past and illustrate some trends for the future. These stories are intended to encourage middle school and junior high school students to explore contemporary women's history themes that…

This collection of curriculum units in U.S. history tells some of the untold women's stories that describe some of the historical events and social settings of the past and illustrate some trends for the future. These stories are intended to encourage middle school and junior high school students to explore contemporary women's history themes that…

This report describes a program for improving performance of 54 sixth and seventh grade students with special needs included in a computer applications class. The targeted students exhibited deficiencies in basic computer classroom performance. Probable causes for poor performance were identified through a review of literature and an analysis of…

Intended for parents of 10- to 15-year-olds, this book is a guide to mastering the ups and downs of early adolescence. The book draws together the latest information from experts, supported and advised by the National Middle School Association, and insights from surveys of parents, teachers, and the children themselves to cover every facet of the…