Discusses the developmental characteristics of the middle school years child. (DD)

Working with students grouped by three conceptual levels offers one way of looking at students and recognizing what can be done to provide them with a stimulating environment for learning. (RL)

Discusses several contradictory misconceptions exacerbating the problems of American education and discouraging original thought by students. (DD)

Proposes that offering students activities that exercise right-brain functions (nonverbal, nonrational, spatial, and intuitive) helps students become more fully developed human beings and better writers. (RL)

Contends that a metaphor can be a teaching tool, a way of explaining something so that students can better grasp and remember it. Asserts that teachers can improve their effectiveness by exploring the metaphors that educators live by. (MS)

Reviews research on the relationship between creative dramatics and language development, cognitive development, and attitude change. (DD)

Suggests English teaching activities to which students must respond using the neural functions in both hemispheres of their brains. (DD)

Discusses a variety of lessons that one teacher learned from reading the story John Wain's "A Message from Pig-Man." Describes the central importance of story or anecdote as a means of groping toward a recognition of oneself and one's experiences. (JD)

Describes technique used to teach students to think; the teacher is the discussion catalyst rather than the purveyor or arbiter of information," and student response in group discussion increases. (Author/SP)

Argues that the real danger of the next decade is the technical form of thought and planning that is beginning to restrict English teaching, and the unwitting contributions English teachers make to the restriction of their own effectiveness. (DD)

Argues against direct formal grammar instruction in middle school. Notes that even students with high IQ's frequently score low on cognitive development measures, with children in the concrete stage of thinking usually unable to identify simple subjects and verb phrases. Recommends that until students achieve a level of formal reasoning they…