This year's report examines the critical role community plays in education. Integrating learning that takes place inside and outside of school has always been a powerful strategy to support student success, but it gained special relevance this year, as school closures made family and community members integral parts of students' daily learning.…

Responding to the needs of estranged youth, a group of Benjamin Tasker Middle School teachers created the Thoughtful Pedagogy Model. The program allows adolescents to reconstruct images of the adult world through self-exploration; participate in field trips, assembly programs, and adult/adolescent bonding activities; and experience the love and…

Involvement in community service can benefit middle-school students by helping them feel valued, teaching responsibility, and improving teacher-student relations. A rural Pennsylvania middle school evaluated community-service opportunities and then employed StarServe, a resource kit encouraging students to develop their own service projects.…

Debate is an activity which can help young children learn to be part of a team without experiencing the intense competition that is present in athletics. For children, a focus on developing communication skills rather than on competition in debate can help foster attitudes of open-mindedness, fairness, and tolerance for the viewpoints of others.…

Describes an intergenerational, interdisciplinary program for older adults and middle school students. Reviews program goals and benefits to both groups. (ABB)

Describes 16-week intergenerational computer tutoring program in two replacement language-arts classes called Ambassadors of the Computer Age. Special-needs middle-school students improved their language-arts skills while teaching older adults how to use computer technology. (PKP)

Describes an Adopt-a-Grandparent program involving seventh-grade students and area senior citizens. Describes aspects of program implementation and organization, including advance preparation, contacting and meeting grandparents, funding, and visits. Discusses program outcomes, including behavioral observations, studies related to…

Recognizing the need for opportunities for children to interact meaningfully with older adults, this fastback discusses the organization and implementation of intergenerational programs in elementary and middle schools. It begins with a description of effective programs, focusing on the impact of two programs on students and older adults. The…

Community service links the school with society and should be part of the middle-level curriculum. Ediger's article describes three sixth-grade community service projects involving a nursing home entertainment program, the police department, and a trash-awareness project. Hamilton and Hanna describe a "points of light" project involving…

A teacher of fifth to seventh graders with learning disabilities describes a community-based gardening project which served elderly residents of a rest home while exposing the children to elderly people and encouraging development and application of environmental, writing, mathematics, and communication skills. The project integrated curriculum in…

Attempted to determine whether there would be a change in 15 sixth graders' attitudes toward aging after intergenerational contact with nursing home residents. Found that increased contact with the elderly during the remotivation group interaction program resulted in a slight improvement in children's perceptions of the elderly. (ABB)

Describes the dynamics of establishing school-based community services through interagency partnerships, using a case study of the creation of an intergenerational learning center at a public middle school. Results indicate that agency partnerships can result in school restructuring that encourages school-based community services. (SLD)

This report discusses an intergenerational project instituted in 1989 at the Jewish Community Center--JCCS David G. Neurman Senior Center in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania). The project is based on the idea that children and older adult immigrants could share a learning environment in order to meet specific language objectives. Project objectives and…

Students with behavioral or learning disabilities are important resources for their community. Through two service-learning projects (reading to elementary-school students and interviewing senior citizens), special-needs students at one New Jersey middle school gained confidence in their skills and developed a sense of pride and community…

The Youth Services Director of the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County, NC, has involved the community in encouraging children to read with summer reading programs, story-telling festivals, author and illustrator visits to schools, family reading programs for babies through kindergartners, and a year-round middle school reading…