Being a young person today is considerably more complex and unpredictable than it was even a half-century ago. For example, older children and adolescents tend to spend much less of their leisure time with adults and much more of it with their peers. Many young people hold down jobs in addition to going to school. And many anchor their lives and interests not in their families, but in community-based organizations, such as community centers, churches, and park district programs.

For the past decade, Shirley Brice Heath has been studying young people's activities. From this work she has gained insights into the benefits that accrue to older children when they work on projects involving multiple participants with different types and levels of expertise. She will describe possible effects on young people's communicative development of not working with adults and discuss the essential requirements for effective learning environments for older children and adolescents. Professor Health's work has tremendous implication for improving the lives of young people, especially those from diverse linguistic, social, cultural, and economic backgrounds.

Cosponsored by: Department of Anthropology, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Department of Educational Policy Studies, Department of English, Department of History, Department of Linguistics, Department of Psychology, Department of Sociology, Department of Speech Communication, Center for the Study of Readying, Center for Writing Studies, Children's Discourse Study Group, Division of English as an International Language, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory, Women's Studies Program