Chapter 9: Involving Parents and Communities

This is a book that lays out middle school philosophy point by point and chapter by chapter. The beginning part of the chapter gives all the reasons why parents should be involved in their children’s school work. Better grades and self esteem for the students are just two of the many reasons. A big way to improve communication between the triangle of parents, students, and the teacher is to have student led conferences. The second half of the chapter talks about the link between the school and the community. Two main ways that the school and community can interact is through community service and setting students up for jobs after high school.

I know some schools have mandatory community service requirements in order for students to graduate. My high school didn’t have that and when I was in high school I remember hearing about it and being glad that our school didn’t have that. In retrospect I was already doing community service because of NHS so I think that would’ve been a good opportunity for students not involved in clubs like that. I watched a movie in a special education class that showed how the school sets up disabled students with a job to learn so they have employment when they leave high school. It would be interesting if the school did that for all students.

Chapter 15: Parents as Partners in Twenty-First-Century Learning

This chapter was about keeping parents included in their child’s education in the transition from elementary to middle school. The main part of the chapter described how teachers can use the internet to stay super connected to parents. The book lists several websites that teachers can post assignments, study guides, and notes on so the students and parents can access them from any computer. Also parents can keep in contact with the teacher through email. The book also makes the point that some students in your class will not have access to computers. The book says to make allowances for that. Also teachers can not forget how important face to face conferences are, even with the technology, an in person meeting or conference is valuable as well.

At Mount Blue High School where I did my practicum, they have a computer program called power school. This is a program that all the teachers, parents, and students can access. It’s like an online grade book. Any time the teacher grades assignments or tests students and parents can check how a student is doing in a particular class. I noticed that this has some drawbacks. Students complain if the teacher takes more than a night to put up their grade. Sometimes if a student has missing work it will skew the grade and so an unnecessary flurry of emails can ensue. However parents can never say they had no idea their child was failing a certain subject and for that reason it is helpful.

Chapter 8: A Safe and Healthy School Environment

A very important part of any school is a healthy learning environment for the students. In schools it is important that clear expectations of behavior of students is well known. The teachers of the school also promote and model appropriate interracial and inter-ethnic behaviors. Conflict resolution and peer mediation are important tools and skills for students to learn. Counseling, knowledge of nutrition, and physical activity are all important for healthy bodies and minds of the students.

Some schools are linked to health services to further assist students. I think this is a good idea in some respects because it allows students to get assistance they wouldn't normally get if they were too shy to ask their parents. On the other hand I can see how a community could be wary about something like that because the parents want to know what their children are doing. This could be a potential problem. Every situation and community is different and it depends on how it is handled by the administration.

Chapter 4: Designing Instruction to Improve Teaching and Learning

This chapter is talking about improving teaching and learning. Tracking is a phenomenon that broke up a large heterogeneous group up into smaller homo genius groups. In theory this sounds like a good idea because then the teacher can focus a lesson to target a group of students with relatively the same needs. This has negative side effects on students' self esteem and performance. There are three models for instruction in this chapter; authentic, differentiated instruction, and WHERE.
Authentic instruction makes students process the information in the higher order thinking areas. Differentiated instruction has been defined in another blog post but this book defines it as offering students different avenues to learn. The WHERE model tells students at the beginning where and what the purpose of the lesson is. So basically it works from a rationale statement. The next few sections in the chapter seem to be out of place. It mentions using technology and then reform for language minority students. The next topic is about who should teach reading... the answer to which is its the responsibility of every teacher a student has to teach the student how to read no matter what the content of the teacher is. This chapter offers some very good ideas about how to exactly put the theories into practice.

Chapter 8: Effective Assessment

This chapter was about assessment. The basic point of assessment is to promote learning not to just measure it. There are two types of assessment formative and summative. This chapter mostly talks about summative. The first point made is to make sure the assessment has something to do with the content you are teaching. This may seem like an unnecessary comment but I have had plenty of tests that had nothing to do with anything that was covered in class. The assessment should have clear goals, focus on essential knowledge, incorporate multiple disciplines, be a valid indicator of students' knowledge, use different templates, and be easy to grade.

This really just drives home the point that assessments that do not accurately express the student's knowledge of the content is worthless. The teacher in the book talked about organizing the students grades in the book not by assignments but by the standards.

Chapter 7: Differentiated Instructions- Fitting the Lesson to the Learner

This chapter talked about differentiated instruction. A few key points mentioned in explaining the definition of differentiated instruction were: evaluating students' understanding adjusting assignments, and varying instructional approaches over time. the chapter then talks about the characteristics of a teacher who is comfortable differentiating which include: risk taking, being organized, flexible, and able to collaborate to name a few. The chapter also mentions Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences. Basically the whole process is trial and error. However effort is most important and the success can be measured.

This was an in depth exploration of the ideas we have been taught since practicum. This chapter draws the line in the sand, so to speak, as teachers. Either you will be a traditionalist and teach with outdated methods. Or to be a constructivist and do your best to implement the ideas presented in the chapter.

Chapter 6; Accountability for High Standards

This chapter is about accountability. The accountability teachers should teach their students and hold them responsible for. Then there is academic accountability which is in the form of standards. As much as educators complain about standards they are necessary as a basic framework for curriculum. The standards that students are expected to ace are moving away from rote memorization of facts in multiple choice format to short response questions asking questions higher on Bloom's Taxonomy. Standards are the basic skeleton. It is the teacher that adds the rest of the flesh and details to the body.

I thought it was really interesting that the book said, "standards are not limits, they are minimums." I had never thought of it like that. Students are allowed but never encouraged to exceed the standard. So much focus is put on just meeting the standard.

Chapter 3: Brain Research Applied to Middle School

This chapter is basically about teaching students to learn in the way that is easiest or most natural way the brain works. The book suggests learning with the five senses because that’s a way the brain stores and retrieves memory. Another term is chunking, which is a group of items associated or related to the topic and memorized in conjunction to the original idea. Emotional ties to the material also help trigger memories. Proper hydration is also talked about on the same level as Bloom’s Taxonomy. The last part is about teaching adolescents how to reason in an argument.

Brain based research into the field of education is a relatively new phenomenon. The idea of teaching students to learn in the same way memory is naturally formed seems like an automatic choice. As with all science there are new developments all the time. However this is the information that we know right now and the end of the chapter encourages the reading to implement this knowledge in the classroom and stay up to date on information as it comes to light.

Becoming a Wiz at Brain Based Teaching

My favorite part of this presentation was the association between the amygdala and armadillo and Hippocampus and a hippo. Plus the team added the visuals of stuffed animals to further the analogy. The group also shared with us information like how memory works and the attention span of middle school students. The hand out made it easier to stay focused on the lesson. I was also impressed that the group remembered some of the things we learned in practicum, like putting the agenda on the board so we knew what was going to happen next. Lastly the role model activity also made me think about myself as a person and how that was different than what who I wanted to be as a teacher. This presentation had a lot of useful knowledge and things that I will think about for a while.

Chapter 13: Outdoor Adventures

This chapter was filled with a lot of fun ideas for extended field trips that a teacher could do with students. As a future social studies teacher obviously I was partial to the reenactment ones. The argument for the benefit of this kind of trips is very self explanatory I think. As I was reading all I could think of was how much I wished I could do that sort of field trip now. There are a lot of roadblocks though. The first two major problems I thought of were funding and the permission of the principal to allow student to miss that much school time. If both of those were taken care of the next hurdle would be permission from parents. Some parents would not be comfortable with their child in a tent in the woods over night. The next problem would be getting enough chaperons and making sure someone in the group was CPR/First Aid certified. After that it would be logistical nightmare with supplies and transportation. Once all of those things are worked out, I bet the trip would be an amazing and memorable learning experience.

A Whole New Mind

I really liked the organization of this presentation. There was an introduction, a middle, and I'm sure an appropriate ending if time had allowed. I liked how the book was broken down into different chapter and the group pair each chapter with an activity to help us fully understand it. One critique I have is when the group posed a question and then each member of the team separated to help each table out. Immediately we were asked if we had any ideas yet. That kinda flustered me because I did not have an idea yet... I had about 30 seconds to even process the question first. Other than that I think the teammates helped the tables out quite a bit coming up with ideas and guiding us in the right direction. Overall it was a very effective presentation and I definitely have a general idea of what the book was about.

Chapter 4: Active Learning

This chapter was about incorporating kinesthetic intelligence into the lessons. The main example was using trees and shadows outside to discover ratios. The chapter also listed a lot of other ideas including all sorts of topics. The chapter also reasoned that adolescents’ growing bones cause them discomfort sitting for long periods of time. Movement not only helps them physically but it moves more oxygen to the brain to increase function. Students will also be able to remember better and for long periods when they can use their bodies to trigger their memories.

I will definitely use movement in my classes in the future. Just reading about the lesson ideas made me so excited to do them myself let alone teach them to my students. I know I will use role playing a lot but I want to think of other ways to understand different concepts in history. It will be good especially for the hard and boring stuff like how the government is set up or remembering different places on a map. I will have to always keep brainstorming for new ideas and listen to other colleagues talk about activities they do in their class.

Student-Oriented Curriculum A Remarkable Journey of Discovery

To be perfectly honest I probably should have written this blog Thursday night after class so I would remember exactly what I wanted to say. I think the purpose of this blog was to think about what I learned from the presentation. We have the other sheets that we used to critique the performance of the presentation. I learned that one of the most important aspects of learning involves the community. The whole purpose of student led/generated curriculum is that the students learn about something that is relevant to them. The community is very relevant and meaningful because that is the environment they interact in everyday. I also liked Lydia's point that this situation will only work with a strong teacher. The teacher has to lead and model how to build a unit that the students want to do. The teacher also has to recognize when learning is occurring and when it is not and what to do to fix it. The paradox is that most new teachers will probably not have the experience necessary to do this as effectively as veteran. But a veteran will be far more opposed to even trying a situation like this. The last thing I want to mention was i really like the end activity/wrap up/reflection. I thought that was a great way to reflect on what we had learned in the chapter. The pieces of paper made some statements that really could have two sides that would be correct. It definitely made me think.

Chapter 3: Curriculum and Assessment to Improve Teaching and Learning

This chapter was basically about the backwards design model. The three most important elements of school: curriculum, assessment, and standards are used together to help students learn the best possible way. The first section discusses how and why to select or create specific standards. In most public schools the standards are already set in stone and the curriculum is handed to the teacher. There was a section in the middle about interdisciplinary units. There are benefits and weaknesses to doing a team unit. The benefit is that it creates a more ‘real’ environment for the brain to learn. When learning takes place outside of school it is not broken down in to subjects and learned separately. Learning takes place by making connections between what the student knows and what is new information and the disciplines are in the mix. The downfall of it is sometimes the units are structured around a theme that does not connect well with what is being currently learned in each discipline. So it is ‘fluff’ content. The point of assessment is to find out if the students learned the material. So use an assessment that will measure that… enough said. Then at the end there is a last point made that it would be helpful if the teachers tried to make the lessons engaging for the students.

I really thought this chapter was a recap of everything we did in practicum. It is strange to me sometimes that this is new information to seasoned teachers. It is the first and only information about how to teach that has been presented to us so when I read it I want to yell at the text and say that I know all of this, tell me something new. Then I realize that what I know has not been completely adopted by the rest of the teaching community. I am in fact ahead of the game in this regard. This is a pleasant thing to realize.

Chapter 9: Planning for Block Scheduling

This chapter basically was an out of place argument in favor of block scheduling for middle schools. It was a basic how to guide to plan and teach a class that had block scheduling. The first part of the chapter reiterated everything we learned in practicum, how to teach an engaging lesson that differentiated for necessary students, used the multiple intelligences, and had a hook. It even talked about a reflective piece at the end of each lesson. The second half of the chapter tried to alleviate the concerns a teacher might have switching over from a 50 minute class to an 80 minute class. Two of those fears were the longer periods would cause more misbehavior and trying to catch up absent students. Basically the difference is a switch to a different level of learning that is allowed by more time to delve deeper in to the subject and understand connections.

Personally I did not find this chapter to be particularly useful except to recap and reaffirm beliefs I had already held. I had block scheduling in high school and it was really helpful in classes it took longer to understand the concepts, like math. Looking back, I can not imagine trying to fit going over the previous night’s homework questions, teaching a new concept, and answering questions about the new material all in a class period that short. We barely had enough time to fit it in with block scheduling. It was really important to my understanding of the work to go over the questions we had from the night before. I am sure that could be true for any subject that takes longer to understand.

Chapter 12: Teacher Advisories- A Proposal for Change

This chapter explained how an advisory teacher would work with his or her students. A teacher would have a group of 12-15 students to meet with as a group. Some schools have it set up where the teacher works with the group for about 20 minutes once a week. Other schools have full day experiences or field trips, small group lunches, and/or individual meetings with each student a couple times throughout the year. The story the author told at the beginning of the chapter is an example of an all day excursion. The end of the chapter lists different types of activities that can be done with advisory groups.

This chapter really cleared up some of the questions I had about the idea after I read about it in Turning Points 2000. I had originally thought that it would just be a series of interviews one on one with the student and advisor. That situation could be weird especially at first when neither really knows the other one that well. I remember how awkward meetings with my guidance counselor were at first. Not only do these small groups help the students connect with the advisor but it helps them connect with each other. This seems like it would have much more impact than just individual meetings with students. Plus any middle school student would love activities, especially fun ones.

Chapter 11: Teaming

Teaming benefits the students because each teacher can offer his or her observation, identify what the problem is and suggest solutions to it. Subject integration is great to use to help students make connections and put the information they are learning to use. It is not effective and is a waste of time when the connections are forced or weak. So it is a good thing to try if the connection can be logically made but adding silly projects just for the sake of saying that it was done is pointless. A team needs to have its goals and values stated and kept by everyone in the group. Changing and adapting to meet the needs of the students and to the needs of the others in the group is inevitable. Planning and staying focused is a huge part of teaming. The author suggests a set agenda for each meeting that way something gets accomplished and time is not wasted.

I like the agenda suggestion that the author made. No one likes to go to a pointless meeting and waste time. Any group of people needs good leadership and a team of teachers is no different. Also keeping the goals and big picture in mind will cut down on the inevitable conflict that would occur between colleagues. After all it’s all about the students.

Chapter 6: Organizing Relationships for Learning

The research concludes that the most influential part of education is the adult/teacher relationships between students. This information has led to the restructuring of middle schools into teams of teachers that all interact with the same 125 students. Smaller teams allow a group of teachers to concentrate more fully on the needs of the students and collaborate with each other to help ensure success. Planning periods for teachers are also a much needed aspect of this team teaching. Teams that have figured the process out, which can take time and practice, are characterized by planning, teamwork focused on a common goal, reevaluation and reflection of progress, and advising students.

I definitely understand the need for adult and student relationships and guidance. I am not sure how that would work effectively in a school that assigned teacher advisers to the students. The most meaningful teacher relationships I had came about naturally because I connected with those teachers. I do not think that if I had been assigned a teacher to talk to I would have either been open to it or felt comfortable because I would have felt like it was forced. I am not sure how to have a system of advising that offers the same benefit to students but have it be and feel natural. Some people just do not have anything in common and as far as pairing students and teachers it sounds like an administrative nightmare. In theory the idea sounds good; I just am not sure how it would be in practice

Chapter 2: Motivating Young Adolescents Synthesis

Abstract:
The chapter is about motivating middle school students as can be inferred from the title. There are 17 suggestion of how to do just that located within the chapter. Basically the two themes of the chapter are to know your students and provide a safe environment for them in your class. Many ideas fall under the first theme. By knowing who your students are and their interests you can create meaningful lessons that connect to their personal lives and that are fun for them. Also using your enthusiasm about the content can go along way. The class agreed that a safe environment is important for middle school students both emotionally and physically. Many of my peers mentioned not speaking up in class unless they were comfortable and how participating in class is a major part of learning. Another important aspect of an environment suitable for learning is to state the goals and objectives clearly so students know what they have to do. Two lesser bits that were pulled out of the chapter were to glean information about students from their parents and to watch stray comments because a harmless comment can destroy a middle school student’s self esteem.

Reflection:
The reflections from everyone in the class varied greatly. Some people talked about how helpful the chapter was with providing suggestions to keep up the creativity and spice of the lessons. A few found the success stories located on the sidebars of the pages in the chapter particularly enlightening. One person mentioned the difference between high school energy level and middle school energy level. Another person spoke of using these tools to motivate outside of academics, in extracurricular activities. Many mentioned the emotional and social development of this age group and how important that knowledge was in order to teach and guide these students toward being successful citizens. Keeping all that in mind; have fun. Do not be afraid to be real to your students and let your hair down once in a while and get a little crazy.

This We Believe pgs 1-7

Middle School education is perhaps more pivotal than both elementary and high school education. This is the period in the lives of young adolescents when they undergo rapid physical, mental, and emotional changes. This is also the time when they develop the morals and values that will stay with them throughout their adult lives. In light of all these facts about students of this particular age, educators of these students should be trained specifically to help nurture that growth. No student will be exactly at the same level of development as their peers. Understanding all these facts is important to effectively meet the needs of every single student. Seeing students as individuals with different learning needs and back grounds should always be a focus in education but especially with this age group. A sense of community including teachers, peers, and parents within the school can go a long way leading and shaping students to be functioning members of society.

Pages 9-19

The culture of a school is important in determining the ability of a school to achieve its goals. This section talks about different aspects that would help cultivate a climate in which middle school students could learn the best way possible according to current research. The first step listed is having adults and teachers in positions of leadership that have been trained for this age group and are grounded in the philosophy of the school. This makes sense because the leaders will direct the progress of the school and keeping the goals in mind are important. A safe environment, both physically and emotionally, is important for budding adolescents to risk the effort to try and really learn. The last major point of emphasis is the need for every child to have an adult advocate. The transition from complete support to self sufficiency required at the high school level happens in middle school. A balance of independence and of assistance is critical. The first section of the book stated how important middle school education is. This section states the environment or culture a school would require to make that quality of education occur.

Pages 19-34
Curriculum is basically the only reason why students are forced to come to school, to learn something. Middle school curriculum should be relevant, challenging, integrative, exploratory, and prepare students for the 21st century. However there is the underlying curriculum that affects what students really learn. It’s hidden because it consists of social interactions between students and students and the teacher. Skilled teachers will harness the power of the hidden curriculum and use it to further the lesson. Technology, meaningful assessment, and constructive teacher/student relationships all assist in the learning process. It is also important to keep the students’ health, mental and physical in mind. All of these things factor in to make a middle school successful. That success is measured by the students’ learning.

Pages 35-51

Basically what the last part of the book was divided into three sections: a call to action to implement the philosophy of the essay, different ways the reader could change the middle school they are involved in depending on their role, and a break down of the changes and attitudes of adolescents. I found this particularly helpful because it is one thing to discuss the ‘beliefs’ outlined in the essay but it is another to put those beliefs in action. This book really wants the ideas in the book out and being used in the schools. The book has always put the students first and how to best serve them. I think that is a very important part of teaching to always keep in mind.

Chapter 17: The Truth About Middle School Students

This chapter was a final recap of the importance and achievement capabilities of young adolescents as the conclusion to the book. The author reminds that sometimes the students are difficult but they are just kids and have not completely grown up yet. He also states that a lot of the negative attitude of the general population about middle school students has to do with the negative attention the media gives them. Adolescents’ brains are growing, it’s just that everything else is growing too and sometimes academics take the back burner in that brain, but it doesn’t have to be like that. The chapter includes sayings that his students have written, some show an incredible amount of thought while others are less than intellectually engaging. It reminds us to consider how a middle school teacher has the immense ability and responsibility to shape and mentor the capable youth of America.

This chapter struck me as not only a conclusion to the book but a persuasive recruitment to teach middle students. The author acknowledges the good and the bad but points out the possibilities of so much more good. He enlists our help not only to teach but to help change the overall public opinion of middle students and what they are capable of. I have only read three chapters of this book but I am almost sold to want to teach middle school. Each grade level has its challenges and I know I will know which I will prefer when I student teach.

Chapter 2: Motivating Young Adolescents

The main point of the chapter was to discuss ways to motivate middle school students. Each section of the chapter is broken down to cover different ideas or suggestions and the reasons why that would work. The first two ideas I think are the most important. Knowing your students and using their interests to make the lessons more interesting and creating an emotionally safe environment in which students feel safe to share their ideas and opinions. Some other examples are use stories, create vivid lessons, have enthusiasm for the subject, state the objectives clearly, and meet every student’s learning needs. Adolescents are interested in themselves and the world and are bored easily. If the lessons are vivid, the teacher is interested, and the students understand what is expected of them it will go a long way to keep the students attention.

Motivating students has always been a challenge in schools. I did my practicum in the high school at Mt Blue in a freshman geography class. The book said that middle school students like to move around and can’t sit still. In the high school the students are lethargic to put it nicely. Asking them to move to group up was like asking them to run a marathon. Learning from the chapter that middle school students like doing activities is interesting.

Chapter 1: Stoking the Fires Within

This chapter was about attitude and the motivation of why teachers teach. An important point the chapter made was that adolescents cannot separate a teacher from the teacher’s attitude; the two are one in the same. This is important to recognize when working with students of that age. A teacher’s attitude every day in class can have a significant impact on the students’ ability and willingness to learn. The focus should be on the students and their needs in order to learn. Personal connections between the teacher and middle school students are an emphasis in this chapter.

This affects me as a future teacher because I could possibly teach middle school in the future and I learned a lot about students of that age group in this short chapter. I am by nature a sarcastic person and sometimes my humor is not understood by my peers. The author of this chapter stated that he needed to be careful not to offend his students by careless comments. This is hugely important for me because a careless comment that I let out without thinking could shut a student down permanently from learning anything more from me. So this chapter was very helpful to me in that respect.

Chapter 2: A Design For Improving Middle Grades Education

This chapter goes into depth about the changes that this updated version of Turning Points has. The biggest change is that there are now 7 points and not 8. Two of the points were combined, parents and community support, because in practice one cannot be had without the other. The other points are clarified with examples of some methodology of how to implement the points. The idea that the goal must always be in sight was mentioned and elaborated on. That change is not necessarily progress unless it moves you closer to the goal. The biggest point of emphasis is that all students can learn. The editors of the new version did not believe that people understood this point effectively so they changed the wording to that every student can learn.

This chapter affects me by going into more detail about the new version of the Turning Points so that I know the most recent research and information. The point the chapter really hammered home for me was the discussion about change. If site of the goal is lost then the means instead of the end becomes the goal. This will cause people to stop after change is made and not pursue on to the end to reach the goal. Curriculum, instruction, and assessment are all intricately connected. Changing one without altering the others will achieve nothing. It has to be a complete commitment with the eye on the prize that will have a shot at achieving the goal. That goal is that every student can achieve at a high level.

Chapter 1: A Decade Later

The chapter primarily consisted of explaining the history of the original Turning Points model, the purpose of the book, and a brief summary of each of the following chapters. The original Turning Points was a list of 8 points on which middle schools throughout the country needed to improve. This list was generated in the early 1990s and its model was implemented throughout middle schools across the nation. Based on the results on standardized tests, schools that had implemented the model scored higher than the counterparts that did not. The chapter then explains that this book is an attempt to build on the gains of the first movement because improvement is not the goal it is just progress. Achievement is the goal and should be the goal for all middle school students. Each chapter then explains a different aspect of reaching that goal.

This chapter was useful to me so that I could understand the history of Turning Points. I did not attend a junior high that was a part of this model. My siblings did and I remember them talking about how they had teams of teachers and they had classes with the same general group of students. They also mentioned doing units and projects about the same topic for different classes. The chapter also made a clear point that the reforms were not complete until every student was achieving at a high level. I think this sometimes can tie into a teacher’s personal philosophy of teaching. Some teachers do believe that not all students can achieve at high levels because that is what they see day after day. I imagine a specific aim of this book is to change that perception.