Turning Points: Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

This chapter discussed how to get parents and the overall community more involved into the school. There have been many studies about the effect parental involvement has on a student’s academic achievement. When there is high parental involvement in a student’s life the student will have an increased achievement, enhanced self-esteem, improved behavior, and better student attendance. Regardless of what the evidence shows to support parental involvement, it is a known fact that as a student moves through their academic career their parents become less involved. This happens because parents feel that students need more independence, because the parents are unable to help them with their school work, and also some parents are even intimidated since they never finished their school career. Another factor that can improve a student’s success in school is being involved in the community. This involvement can happen in a variety of ways; students can become more involved by participating in service learning projects, have career education, go to after-school programs or have a full-service community school. All these aspects work together to help create an encouraging environment for students at school, but as well in the community.

The big thing that I liked about this chapter was the inclusion of community involvement because as we all are aware many parents aren’t around much. I know that for me personally it wasn’t my parents that gave me support throughout my school years, but people in my community. I wish that more schools were even more open to the community because they play such an important role in encouraging development in students. As the panel of teachers discussed they make sure to allow community members into their schools because they have so much that they can offer to the students that parents and even teachers cannot. I do feel that it’s important to take into account where you are when considering ways to get parents and the community involved. If you live in an area that is very low-income you probably aren’t as likely to get much involvement, but I believe that if you have a positive attitude and demonstrate that you want to learn from the community members you would probably see an increase in involvement. I feel like parental involvement is so difficult because as a society we push independence; we want our students to be independent, but at the same time we’ve realized that they need more scaffolding to succeed in life. Parental and community involvement can be successfully done as long as there is a balance. I know that when I teach I will want parental involvement because I feel it’s important and this chapter gave me some great ideas on how to approach it.

Meet Me in the Middle: Chapter 15

Chapter 15:

This chapter discussed the various ways to get parents involved in the classroom. To get parents involved in the classroom Wormeli suggests using technology to communicate with parents. There are a variety of websites that can be used for parent teacher communication; some example websites are blackboard.com, myclass.net, and funbrain.com. He realizes that not every parent will have access to the internet or a computer, and for those parents he suggests using more old fashioned methods of communication. His suggestions are: postcards, having parents visit the classroom, teachers visiting the student’s homes, newsletters, report cards, surveys, and index cards. Each of the above suggestions are cheap, quick and effective ways that teachers can communicate with parents.

I thought this chapter was interesting because it gave so many suggestions on how to get parents involved in their student’s academic life. As we’ve discussed many times in class there is a decline in parental involvement when students enter middle school because parents try to give their students more space to grow. I also appreciated the fact that he realized not all parents have access to a computer and tried to come up with other ways to keep in contact with parents. Overall, I feel that this chapter was very helpful because it gave me a lot of ideas of how to get my parent’s actively involved in the classroom.

Boys and Girls Learn Differently

I thought this presentation was really interesting and got all of us actively involved in the presentation. I really liked the use of the various activities and my more anal side appreciated the fact that you included an agenda for us to see. Your website was very impressive and showed you were well prepared and knew exactly you wanted to present to us. I applaud your organization and upbeat attitude throughout the entire presentation. Another aspect I liked was your inclusion of Dr. Grace in the activities, because in many of the other presentations she’d been more of an observer and not a participant. I felt you accurately addressed some of the major conflicts faced in middle school such as bullying and the continued argument over same sex education.

The problem I had with the presentation was I didn’t feel like you told us anything. I liked Lincoln’s activity with the difference in ways boys and girls learn, but there was no explanation about why there were those differences. I left the presentation feeling very confused about what your book was actually about. I know that it was separated into three parts and that was the point in the different activities, but it wasn’t very clear what each part was about. I wish you had gone into more detail about the book and its various parts; things were mentioned (i.e. continuum) and weren’t really explained. Overall, I thought your presentation went really well so please don’t think I’m being a hater. I just really wanted to know more and I do realize that the reason you didn’t go into such depth may have been the lack of time or your author didn’t provide you with the information. So Good Job!

Turning Points 2000: Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

This chapter discusses how educators can create a safe and healthy school environment; as the authors stress if a student doesn’t feel safe they can’t be expected to perform academically. Teachers interviewed said they felt discipline was a big problem in their schools; the authors suggested the following strategies: common expectations for all students’ behavior, clarifying the consequences of misbehavior, having all staff members assume responsibility for student discipline, specifying teacher and administrator roles in handling discipline problems, and being consistent when implementing school wide discipline policies. Another problem in middle schools is the increased awareness of racial and ethnic differences between students. Lastly, the authors stress that teachers be aware of students risky behavior because there is an increased use of drugs, alcohol, and unsafe sex.

For me this chapter was nothing new, but it was a good recap of things I had heard from other classes. I actually found this chapter funny because all the topics the authors covered was recently discussed in my Special Education classroom; we had to create a positive classroom management plan. In this plan we had to include positive and negative consequences, a specific hierarchy, how to address cultural differences and classroom rules. I feel like because of this plan I am more prepared to create a safe and healthy environment for my students. The one aspect that I need to address when I’m in the field is how to encourage students to deal with risky behavior. Overall, I liked this chapter because I felt it discussed a lot of important issues that we face as pre-service teachers.

Turning Points 2000: Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

This chapter discussed how to plan effective instruction for middle grade students. There are three key aspects of teaching: curriculum, assessment and students; these three aspects are vitally important when planning effective instruction. Instruction needs to be available for every student in schools regardless of their abilities and encourage students to meet high expectations. The authors introduce three different models that teachers can use when planning effective instruction. The first model is authentic instruction; in this model students construct or produce knowledge, engage in deep thinking and questioning, and where their accomplishments have value beyond a grade. The second model is WHERE; in this model teachers keep in mind the purpose of an assignment, hooking students attention, allowing students to go deeper into material by use of extensions, reflecting on how an assignment went and changing it as needed, and lastly encouraging students to self-assess. The third model the authors discuss is differentiated instruction; teachers can differentiate in three different ways: they can change the content, process, and product based on student’s abilities. Another topic the authors stressed was the important of incorporating technology into the classroom; they want teachers to use technology not for fun and games, but using it in a way that encourages high order thinking.

At this point in the semester this information wasn’t very new to me; by now I have heard most of this information by someone in education. I felt the WHERE model was very similar to what Dr. Grace tries to get us to do with our lesson plans, but personally I liked the authentic instruction model the best. I feel like authentic instruction would really benefit high risk students because it allows them to see the value of an assignment outside of school which is always difficult to do. I liked how the authors mentioned teaching reading across content areas because it reminded me of the panel that was here. They mentioned how in their district they are trying to work on their literacy rates and because of that each content area has to incorporate literacy. This of course makes my English side cry with joy, because I find it said that in today’s world we have people that can’t read. I can understand not being solid in your multiplication facts, but in today’s world a lack of reading kills you. Everything incorporates reading and without a high literacy rate we cannot move forward as a nation.

Meet Me in the Middle: Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

This chapter discusses effective assessment and how to create it in your own classroom. Wormeli quotes Jay McTighe who said that assessment should promote learning, not just measure it. He demonstrates this by describing a situation when he assessed a student’s musical performance instead of assessing the student in a standard fashion. Wormeli has eight suggestions that teachers should keep in mind when grading; these suggestions are: defining clear goals, rigorous and motivating assessment, focusing on essential knowledge, using multiple disciplines, valid indicator of student’s knowledge, source of reliable information, using various formats, and easy to grade. Defining clear goals is important because then students are aware of what they are working towards so they aren’t surprised later on at the end of the unit. He suggests even going so far as to give students a copy of the test so they know what to prepare for. Wormeli suggests that assessment should be rigorous and motivating because students will put in more effort then they would for a standard assessment.

I liked this chapter because whenever I’m creating a lesson I always stumble when I get to the assessment part because I’m not quite sure what to do. I always hated worksheets so I like trying to find creative ways to assess students so that students can express their knowledge in a way that suits them. In my practicum I had to do a multi-genre paper for my Lit professor and it was so amazing! My topic was the Great Depression and I presented it in a letter, newspaper article, menu, and various other ways. I thought that was the best thing in the world and ended up doing it with my students; which didn’t exactly work, but I had the best of intentions. Overall, I really liked this chapter because it gave me a lot of ideas that I can use in my own classroom.

Meet Me in the Middle: Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

This chapter is about how to provide differentiated instruction to students that require it. Wormeli stresses how important it is for teachers to provide differentiated instruction to students because it’s impossible to expect students to learn at the same rate. He emphasizes that differentiating instruction doesn’t just mean giving easier or harder assignments; it’s supposed to be about changing the complexity of an assignment. Based on his own personal research, Wormeli created a list of characteristics on how to approach differentiated instruction. Some of his characteristics are: risk taking, being empathetic, organized, flexible, tenacious, resourceful, and able to collaborate. Wormeli also discusses how differentiating instruction based on the multiple intelligences can be helpful for students. He ends with saying how he felt that if he had tried to differentiate instruction sooner then he may have been able to help particular students succeed academically.

This is a topic that we hear about frequently over our education career. Differentiated instruction is probably the most important thing a teacher can do, but it’s also probably the most difficult. In my practicum class I had 2 severely autistic students, 1 student with emotional disturbance, 3 more with learning disabilities, 2 gifted and talented students, and then the rest of the class. I remember planning a lesson felt like walking through a mine field because I was never quite sure where I could or couldn’t go based on the student’s various levels. The high note was at the end of a unit of the Revolutionary War my students presented about a person that played an important role in the war. I told them they could present the information however they wanted and I can remember the look of pride on my two students with autism when they showed their poster board. I feel like differentiating instruction is an area I struggle in, but hope to improve.