One of the most challenging daily experiences of teaching young adolescents is helping them transition from Piaget's concrete to the formal operational stage of cognitive development during the middle school years. Students who have reached formal operations can design and test hypotheses, engage in deductive reasoning, use flexible thinking,…

Provides guidelines for choral directors who are choosing and adapting music for middle school singers (grades 4 through 9). Discusses three types of ensembles (treble, mixed, and tenor/bass choirs) in which the voicing is appropriate to the adolescent voice. Includes a selected repertoire for middle school choral groups. (CMK)

Designed to provide useful information for middle school teachers and administrators involved in planning and implementing microcomputer programs in their schools, this focus paper begins with a brief discussion of the "who, what, when, where, and why" of microcomputers in the schools, followed by discussions of two types of relevant research: the…

The Mathematics Assessment Process (MAP) for the Middle Grades gives teachers and school reform leaders new tools to examine and systematically realign mathematics programs. MAP engages an interdisciplinary coalition within a school in an exploration of mathematics instructional excellence. Through an extensive self-study, a school answers the…

This document, which was developed with input from 14 Illinois middle schools, is a comprehensive guide to planning and implementing career development activities in middle schools. The following are among the topics discussed: (1) background information (the rationale for and importance of career development; young adolescents' interests and…