Two teacher researchers examined the nature of mentoring relationships occurring among and between team teachers at one middle school as they planned for and taught a common group of students. There were five types of (simultaneous) mentoring among teachers: collaborative, clerical, professional teacher, interdisciplinary content, and…

During 1990 Northeastern Conference of American Council on Teaching of Foreign Languages, a panel of experts agreed that young Americans will require an advanced proficiency in foreign languages and an appreciation for cultural diversity. Language study should be intertwined with culture, social issues, and other dimensions. The middle school is…

The interdisciplinary team organization allows teachers to allocate time to accommodate the curriculum and young adolescents' instructional needs. For maximum flexibility, several scheduling options may be considered: large-group instructional time, one less period daily, heterogeneous class grouping, and "top class" team scheduling. Advantages,…

Foreign language programs that link the study of cultural diversity to an interdisciplinary approach increase students' cultural sensitivity, while strengthening learning across many disciplines. Such exploratory courses promote academic skills by formalizing thought processes both in the target and native languages and also prepare students for…

Service learning provides early adolescents with a unique opportunity to integrate curriculum and school activities. Because integration emerges from various needs or commonalities, service learning can become a team or single-class project, a one-shot or ongoing effort, a schoolwide or community activity. Initiators should develop a vision,…

In interdisciplinary teaming, each student belongs to a manageably sized group of students associated with an in-common, shared group of teachers. Study comparing professional and student involvement in team versus departmental organizational structures supports interdisciplinary teaming for middle schools. Teaming's participative climate is…

Many schools are implementing collaborative, interdisciplinary approaches (cooperative teaching, collaborative consultation, and teacher assistance teams) to help teachers meet students' diverse needs. This article, which shows how a rural eastern Virginia middle school developed coteaching as an alternative to special education pullout programs,…

Teams are incompatible with the scientific management philosophy underlying traditional curricular and organizational theory. This article examines J. R. Hackman's book "Groups That Work (and Those That Don't): Creating Conditions for Effective Teamwork" (1990), as it illuminates the experience of teaching on a middle school…

Describes use of portfolios with middle school students, highlighting assessment purpose, structure, evidence, implementation, grading, validity, and cost considerations. Portfolios have the potential to revise schools' roles in preparing students for the future. Convincing parents and the public that portfolio completion is a demanding task will…

Theme studies are worth doing if they support the study of universal ideas, broaden students' understanding of their world and human experience, are interdisciplinary, reflect students' genuine interests, and lead to student inquiry. Themes can be developed from students' common interests, adolescent literature, textbook topics, current events,…

Shows how the philosophies of middle school education and special education overlap and complement one another, focusing on six concepts: learner-centered instruction, bridging or transitioning emphasis, interdisciplinary teams, advisory programs, block scheduling, and exploratory courses. Continued collaboration between special and middle-level…

Teacher-directed content, immovable subject divisions, and rigid scope and sequences perpetuate mismatch between middle school curricula and young adolescents' needs. Teachers at one Florida middle school are experimenting with Coalition of Essential Schools processes such as backward curriculum design and units of joy. Curriculum becomes an open…

Although the Holocaust was an assault on Jews, gypsies, and gays, it has universal implications for everyone. This article explains several approaches to teaching the Holocaust, including literature about teenagers facing complex moral issues, interdisciplinary methods, interviews of survivors, field trips to temples or synagogues, research…

Briefly reviews the development of core curricula and interdisciplinary teaming in junior high/middle schools from the mid-1950s to the present. A recent study of 15,000 Maine eighth graders shows that schools using the middle-school, interdisciplinary approach outscored their junior high school peers enrolled in single-discipline subjects by 58…

Studying global economic system helps middle-school students unravel complexities of world economics by focusing on other countries, their motivations as consumers, and their decision-making processes. By examining interrelationship of economics and everyday life, students can see their place in economic chain. Concepts such as marketing, stock…