French Pupils’ Lexical and Grammatical Spelling from Sixth to Ninth Grade: A Longitudinal Study

This paper presents the results of a longitudinal spelling study conducted among 496 school children, from sixth grade (the first year of middle school in France) to ninth grade (the fourth and final year of middle school in France). Its first objective is to examine the evolution of both lexical and grammatical spelling skills in a deep orthography and to present new findings on the advanced mastery of spelling skills. Its second aim is to provide insight into pupils’ orthographic knowledge and remaining difficulties at the end of French compulsory schooling. Pupils were assessed using the same text dictation when they were sixth graders and when they were ninth graders. The data show that both lexical and grammatical performance increased from the sixth to ninth grade and that these interact with each other. The qualitative analysis of errors allows points of resistance in the acquisition of French orthography to be highlighted.

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The development of academic coping across late elementary and early middle school: Do patterns differ for students with differing motivational resources?

International Journal of Behavioral Development ◽

10.1177/0165025419896423 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 44 (4) ◽

pp. 339-353 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ellen A. Skinner ◽

Emily A. Saxton

Keyword(s):

Middle School ◽

Sixth Grade ◽

First Year ◽

Developmental Patterns ◽

Ways Of Coping ◽

Fifth Grade Students ◽

School Year ◽

Academic Coping ◽

Learning School ◽

Motivational Resources

The way that students cope with the difficulties and setbacks they encounter daily in their academic work can make a material difference to their learning, school success, and capacity to re-engage with challenging educational activities. Because of their potential importance to students’ everyday academic resilience, educators and researchers are interested in the development of adaptive and maladaptive ways of coping—both how they improve or deteriorate over students’ educational careers and the factors that underlie their differential development. Using information on self-reports of 5 adaptive and 6 maladaptive ways of coping, collected from 1,018 American third through sixth graders in fall and spring of the same school year, this study examined (1) the normative progression of these 11 ways of coping across fall of third to spring of sixth grade, and (2) whether developmental patterns differed for students with differing motivational resources. A generally stable profile of constructive coping was evident during Grades 3 and 4 (in which adaptive strategies were high and maladaptive responses low), followed by modest improvements across fourth to fifth grades. Marked shifts were apparent across the transition to middle school. Compared to spring of fifth grade, students in fall of sixth grade reported lower levels of all adaptive and higher levels of all maladaptive ways of coping, and this trend persisted across the first year of middle school. Although motivational resources did not produce differing developmental trends, they did seem to organize coping. Highest levels of adaptive coping were found for students high in both personal and interpersonal assets, just as the highest levels of maladaptive coping were found for students high in both personal and interpersonal liabilities. Findings suggest that both motivational and developmental approaches are needed to fully account for patterns of age-graded trends in academic coping across late elementary and early middle school.

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iPadding Sixth Graders to Impact Language Learning

IALLT Journal of Language Learning Technologies ◽

10.17161/iallt.v45i1.8548 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 45 (1) ◽

pp. 23-43 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Sonia Rocca

Keyword(s):

Empirical Study ◽

Language Learning ◽

Mobile Technology ◽

Mobile Device ◽

Sixth Grade ◽

Sixth Graders ◽

First Year ◽

Fundamental Properties ◽

The Impact ◽

Better Than

This paper reports on an empirical study in mobile language learning,with the purpose of exploring how mobile technology affects thelearning of a foreign language.Mobile devices possess fundamental properties, such as portability,individuality, interactivity and connectivity, that are essential tolanguage learning, in that they enhance exposure and noticing,promote interaction and calibrate corrective feedback.The mobile device adopted for this study is the iPad, which can fulfillthe functions of a computer with the additional plus of beinglightweight and therefore easily portable. It has a wide high-resolutiontouch screen, which enhances input as well as learners’ attention,making them focus on key language features and raising theirawareness. Furthermore, the iPad is compatible with the most recentapplications for the development of interactive skills.The author investigated the impact of iPad on a class of sixth gradersin their first year of learning Italian and compared their learning to anon-iPadded class over two years’ time, first in sixth grade and then inseventh grade. Results show that, thanks to mobile technology, theiPadded sixth graders generally progressed better than the noniPaddedsixth graders, but, remarkably, even better than the noniPaddedseventh graders in oral interactive tasks.

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Christi Makes Sense of Sixth-Grade Mathematics

Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School ◽

10.5951/mtms.5.6.0367 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 5 (6) ◽

pp. 367-373

Author(s):

Candice L. Ridlon

Keyword(s):

Middle School ◽

Classroom Teacher ◽

Basic Skills ◽

Sixth Grade ◽

Sixth Graders ◽

Low Achievers ◽

Overhead Projector ◽

New Curriculum ◽

Public Middle School

IN FALL 1997, A LOCAL PUBLIC MIDDLE school granted me permission to try a new curriculum with twenty-six sixth graders for nine weeks. I wanted to study children in ordinary classrooms using commonly available materials, like an overhead projector and worksheets. These students were randomly selected from 153 low achievers in mathematics on the basis of scores from the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS)—scores below the fortieth percentile—and recommendation by a classroom teacher.

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Unpacking Middle School students’ perceptions regarding influences on academic success

Educational Practice and Theory ◽

10.7459/ept/41.2.04 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 41 (2) ◽

pp. 43-64

Author(s):

Tracy Worthington

Keyword(s):

Middle School ◽

Academic Success ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Sixth Grade ◽

First Year ◽

School Students ◽

Student Centered ◽

Teaching And Learning Environment ◽

Community Influences ◽

Sixth Grade Students

This single site case study examined influences on student success, as perceived by twelve selected sixth grade students (ages 11-12), at a mid-West U.S. middle school (grades 6-8). Using a strengths-based positivist approach, it examined how and why participants thought they had been academically successful during their first year of secondary school. Analysis of the resulting student-centered narrative applied elements of ecological systems theory to determine home, school, and community influences on academic success. This study reinforces the importance of listening to students, recognising the role student voice can have to improve the overall teaching and learning environment.

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Cultivating the collective: exploring the American dream with sixth graders

Social Studies Research and Practice ◽

10.1108/ssrp-08-2017-0045 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 31-45

Author(s):

Sarah Elizabeth Montgomery ◽

Zak K. Montgomery ◽

Sarah Vander Zanden ◽

Ashley Jorgensen ◽

Mirsa Rudic

Keyword(s):

Middle School ◽

Social Justice ◽

Middle School Students ◽

Service Learning ◽

American Dream ◽

Sixth Grade ◽

Sixth Graders ◽

School Students ◽

Content Type ◽

Arts And Humanities

Purpose The concept of an American Dream was interrogated during a service-learning partnership between university students and a multilingual, racially diverse class of sixth graders. The one-on-one service-learning partnerships were at the heart of the semester-long project and sought horizontalidad, or non-authoritarian democratic communication and shared knowledge creation. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach This project leveraged the arts and humanities within the context of social studies education to promote youth civic engagement. This project used Photovoice methodology in which all participants took photos and wrote about their American Dream. Participants then shared their photography and writing at three public gallery events in the community in an effort to educate others about their perspectives, experiences, and hopes regarding the American Dream. Findings Findings from the reciprocally minded partnership centered on the sixth-grade students taking a collective approach to the American Dream. Specifically, they noted their commitment to their families and desire to support others, with some sixth graders even sharing a commitment to promoting social justice. Some participants demonstrated a “we consciousness,” or a collective approach to social justice. Originality/value The study provides insights into how educators can engage middle school students in democratic practice as active citizens in a service-learning partnership. Through a service-learning themed project about the American Dream, middle school students were able to share their voices and experiences with the larger community via a project rooted in horizontalidad.

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A Description of Middle School Male Singers’ Voice Change and Voice Part Assignment

Update Applications of Research in Music Education ◽

10.1177/87551233211018209 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 875512332110182

Author(s):

Ryan Austin Fisher ◽

Nancy L. Summitt ◽

Ellen B. Koziel

Keyword(s):

Middle School ◽

Sixth Grade ◽

Eighth Grade ◽

Voice Change ◽

Stage 4 ◽

Public Middle School ◽

Middle School Choir ◽

Choral Programs ◽

Stage 1 ◽

The Voice

The purpose of this study was to describe the voice change and voice part assignment of male middle school choir members. Volunteers ( N = 92) were recruited from three public middle school choral programs (Grades 6-8). Participants were audio-recorded performing simple vocal tasks in order to assess vocal range and asked to share the music they were currently singing in class. Results revealed 23.91% of participants’ voices could be categorized as unchanged, 14.13% as Stage 1, 3.26% as Stage 2, 10.87% as Stage 3, 26.09% as Stage 4, and 21.74% as Stage 5. The majority of sixth-grade participants were classified as unchanged or in Stage 1 of the voice change and the majority of eighth-grade participants were classified in Stages 4 to 5 of the voice change. Of the participants labeled “tenors” in their choir, over 60% were classified as either unchanged voices or in Stage 1 of the voice change.

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On Track or Derailed? Race, Advanced Math, and the Transition to High School

Socius Sociological Research for a Dynamic World ◽

10.1177/2378023120980293 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 ◽

pp. 237802312098029

Author(s):

Yasmiyn Irizarry

Keyword(s):

High School ◽

Middle School ◽

Longitudinal Study ◽

Ninth Grade ◽

Transition To High School ◽

Performance Factors ◽

Recent Scholarship ◽

Racial Gaps ◽

Accelerated Math ◽

Research And Policy

Recent scholarship has examined how accelerated math trajectories leading to calculus take shape during middle school. The focus of this study is on advanced math course taking during the critical yet understudied period that follows: the transition to high school. Data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 are used to examine advanced math course taking in ninth grade, including both track persistence among students who took advanced math in middle school and upward mobility among students who took standard math in middle school. Results reveal sizable racial gaps in the likelihood of staying on (and getting on) the accelerated math track, neither of which are fully explained by prior academic performance factors. Interactions with parents and teachers positively predict advanced math course taking. In some cases, interactions with teachers may also reduce inequality in track persistence, whereas interactions with counselors increase such inequality. Implications for research and policy are discussed.

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Effect of Age on Congruence between Adults' and Youths' Ratings of Life Event Stressors

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/pr0.1989.65.3.1017 ◽

1989 ◽

Vol 65 (3) ◽

pp. 1017-1018 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Ronald D. Taylor ◽

Gary A. Spiess

Keyword(s):

Sixth Grade ◽

Ninth Grade ◽

Life Event ◽

Sixth Grade Students ◽

Points Of View ◽

Ninth Grade Students ◽

Effect Of Age

Life event stressors were rated by 60 sixth grade students from their personal points-of-view and by two adult samples ( ns = 11 and 17) on the basis of how they believed a typical 12- to 14-yr.-old today would rate events. Ratings of adults and sixth grade youth indicated strong congruence and were significantly different from the rating relationship previously reported between adults and ninth grade students. Adults' familiarity with youth strengthened but did not significantly improve congruence of ratings.

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