Background: More and more children are experiencing what have been termed adverse childhood experiences. An individual's response to these stressful events determines whether or not they are considered traumatic -- whereby the experience is so overwhelming that it engulfs their coping mechanisms leading to lasting negative effects on wellbeing.…

A psychoeducational unit on stress is provided for school counselors or other educators working with secondary school-aged students. The unit can be utilized as part of a guidance curriculum. An overview of stress response during adolescent development is provided. A brief historical and contextual description of guidance curriculum and its role…

When school communities are troubled by violence, or threats of violence, at the hands of young people, educators have an opportunity to learn about aggression and adolescent identity development. A disturbing threat incident provides the point of departure for this principal's reflection on how high school curriculum can better meet the identity…

Recently, in an effort to improve the education and subsequent life opportunities of our nation's children, 48 states have committed to use newly developed, common national academic standards and possibly institute some common measures for assessing student learning related to these standards. This is an impressive undertaking. However,…

Middle school students are naturally curious about their expanding possibilities. This stage of their lives is a time of transition, of figuring out who they are and where they belong in the world. Many students also think that the world they look at through the classroom window is distant and unconnected to the world of chalkboards and pop…

This paper presents the authors' experience in designing and teaching a parenting class for adolescent parents who returned to the high school setting after having a child. A detailed discussion relates the salient developmental characteristics of adolescence and early parenthood to the use of specific classroom strategies. (Author/CJB)

Question/Answer session with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, D.J. and C.S. Davidson Professor of Psychology at the Drucker School of Management, Claremont Graduate University, and author of "Becoming Adult: How Teenagers Prepare for the World of Work." Covers such topics such as student engagement, challenge, and flow experience. (PKP)

Describes how 40 middle-school students and 2 teachers design a curriculum integration program centered on student-generated learning, characterized by strong student-to-student and student-to-teacher relationships. Covers choosing the students, setting the stage, and determining what to study. Provides examples of student-developed themes. (PKP)

The middle school originated out of an understanding for the need of a learning environment geared specifically to the needs of the early adolescent. The transition from concrete to formal operational thought and the affective and psychomotor developmental stages demonstrate the uniqueness of the early adolescent experience. (JN)

The rationale, description, and evaluation of a course about adolescence taught to university students. This interdisciplinary approach includes materials from literature, philosophy, history, and the arts. Primary source material is extensively used. (Author/MLF)

Continuous progress education is designed to relate to the special interests, needs, and abilities of each individual learner. A curriculum responsive to the needs of early adolescents would include the elements of content organization, learning activities, time allocations, student assessment, staff and materials development, and budget. (JN)

An awareness of the developmental needs of adolescents is important in planning for students in a Montessori program. Six important principles to consider when planning for young adolescents are time; thematic, integrated curriculum; choice; time to be together; time to be alone; and technology and nontext reading materials. (TJQ)

Describes the School of the Woods' (Houston, Texas) middle school environment, a learning environment developed to create trust and community, provide meaningful work, and allow adolescents to create a vision for their future. Explains the school's philosophy in terms of adolescent psychology, trust, and curriculum. (TJQ)

Discusses early adolescence as the second most critical stage of development, and the importance of recognizing this when planning a middle school program. Describes how one school met the pressures of logistics and community expectations to develop a classroom that was responsive to the individual student in light of the characteristics and needs…

The educational needs of middle school students are truly unique. In no other period of PreK-12 education can one find such a wide range of physical, social, and cognitive development among students. For students, the middle school years can be a time of both great vulnerability and great responsiveness to change. These years are highly formative…