This chapter discussed how to make middle school curriculum reach out to every student. The authors suggest that teachers who want to create a curriculum that will make students succeed should focus on tying them to the standards. They call this concept the backward design, because teachers would first pick a standard they want to meet and go from there. Most of the rest of the chapter discussed how to chose standards and implement them; some of their suggestions were making sure that when choosing standards they are useful and clear, brief, and if it’s possible for the students to cover all the standards the teachers want. After they discussed the curriculum, the authors discussed the different assessment methods that teachers can use to connect with the standards. When teachers are assessing they should make sure that they assess students both formally and informally in multiple ways. The authors suggested that teachers focus on authentic assessment because it makes the assessment real and interesting for the students. By using authentic assessment, teachers are given students the chance to demonstrate their knowledge in a real way.
I thought this chapter was interesting because a lot of what was discussed was new information and I would like to see it implemented before I pass judgment. The authors really brought up a lot of good points when they discussed how to pick standards for instruction. For example, they suggest that a standard should be feasible and developmental; this is something that we constantly see schools fail at. Students will get this huge textbook on the first day of school and they never actually make it through the entire thing. I can’t tell you how many different years I covered the same topics just in different ways. Schools always seem to end right around World War I or II. I liked many of the suggestions because I felt that if they had been implemented when I was in school I probably would have paid more attention to certain subjects.
In these few pages the discussion was about how important middle grade education is and how to create a successful school. The NMSA believes that middle school’s should not chose some of the characteristics that they have created; they believe that for a middle school to be successful it will take hard work and implementing all of the suggestions the NMSA have come up with. In the first seven pages is a look at all the different factors that young adolescents are facing during this time period. At this point in a young adolescents life they are changing rapidly, experiencing puberty, looking to peers for support and beginning to develop a sense of right and wrong. Overall, in these first opening pages, the NMSA presents their ideas of how to create a successful middle grades education system.
I felt like the NMSA’s suggestions were very similar to what was presented in the Turning Points 2000 book. I thought they raised many good reasons on why it is important to have a middle grades education system. At this point in their life, young adolescents are facing many different things that can help them be successful or cause them to lose focus on their goals. I believe that the suggestions the NMSA created would, when implemented, create a successful middle school.
Pages 9 – 19:
I had a hard time reading the ten pages out of this book since they were identical to the reading in chapter six of Turning Points 2000. Nonetheless, I liked what was discussed in this section of readings; I feel like the suggestions of including everyone in the learning cycle would create a good atmosphere. I think it is very important that people are aware of what they are getting themselves into when they think about teaching middle school because it is not for everyone. I believe that it takes a very special type of person to foster the development of young adolescents. I also believe that to have an encouraging middle school environment teachers have to form a collaborative team; they have to demonstrate the ideals that they are trying to teach their students. For example, if a teacher is respectful to another teacher, students will witness this and try to demonstrate the same behavior. At this age students are very “monkey see monkey do”, so it’s important to always try to maintain a professional image that will promote a good environment for students.
Pages 19 – 34:
In these pages the topic of discussion is how to create a middle school curriculum. The NMSA suggests that curriculum should be relevant, challenging, integrative and exploratory. They suggest to curriculum should be relevant in such that it allows students to ask questions about the world and search out the answers. When teachers do this, they are allowing students to become actively involved in their own learning; doing this helps keep students interested in what they’re learning because they are playing a role in the education system. To create a challenging curriculum the NMSA believes that curriculum should get students actively involved in their learning and keep them interested. I like this suggestion, because I can remember many times as student where I would ask what the point of an assignment was. I believe that having an integrative assignment is so important if you want your students to succeed; when they go from one class to another and the topic is the same, it really helps them better understand the topic. Lastly, to create an exploratory curriculum teachers have to allow students to have the chance to figure things out on their own. When students have the chance to seek things out on their own they are excited! Young adolescents love being given the opportunity to do “adult” things and will gleefully discuss their findings with you.
I really agreed with what the NMSA suggested to create a successful middle school. I believe that as teachers we are facing a more difficult time in creating middle school curriculum because of how diverse middle schools have become. Schools aren’t just facing the difficulty of creating curriculum, but they are also facing all the changes students go through. For example, middle school is the time when students begin to experiment with drugs, alcohol, dieting, and sex. It can be hard to get your students focused on you when they are focused on what’s going on outside the curriculum. Overall, I liked this section, but again felt like it was repeating what we had already read in other books.
Pages 35 – 51:
In pages 35 – 51 the main topic of discussion was an overview on the steps necessary for the education system to put the NMSA’s suggestions into practice. Another topic of discussion was the characteristics of young adolescents. In the implementation plan all of the people in the education system were told what they would to take to put the suggestions into place. All the people mentioned were: teachers, principals, parents, superintendents, local and state boards of education, departments of education, and teacher educators. What I found interesting was that they didn’t mention anything about students being involved which is odd considering what we have talked about in class.
I felt like the characteristics of young adolescents are being slammed into our brains repeatedly; quite of few of the readings we have done lately have been about young adolescents. For this I am grateful, because I feel like I have a much better grasp on the different changes young adolescents are experiencing. One thing I found funny was how they repeatedly mention that this book is meant to be used with the companion volume, but we’ve never looked at the companion volume. Overall, I liked this book and would have rather read from just this book instead of some of the other readings that were eerily similar in topics.
In this chapter Wormeli discusses his belief of making sure that students are allowed and encouraged to be active during classes. Wormeli recognizes how this is a hard time for young adolescents during this time period because of the fast physical changes that take place in their bodies. Because of this he suggests getting students up and out of their seats at least every ten to fifteen minutes. He suggests allowing students to hand in their papers, switch seats, or work with another group. Wormeli recognizes that these suggestions are not the only ways teachers can get their students to be active. He suggests creating lessons that get students up and out of their seats. He used the example of going outside and using trees to demonstrate ratios.
I really liked this chapter and agree with what Wormeli suggested; I think that it is important to get students up and active. I liked a lot of the activities that he suggested especially measuring trees for ratio; when we did ratio in math, our worksheets would put pictures of a person and a tree, which now that I look back at it seems so funny. They gave us worksheets that we could have easily gotten rid of if we had just gone outside and done the work ourselves. The one thing that I disagreed with was his suggestion to have students get up every ten to fifteen minutes. I do think that students should have many different opportunities to stretch and move around, but if they’re up every ten minutes you’ll never have the opportunity to teach.
In this chapter Wormeli supports his belief that with block scheduling students get a better education. He believes that with the longer eighty minute block teachers are able to better plan out an effective class period. He gives an example of how he would plan out an eighty minute block. First the teacher comes up with the objectives they want the students to meet in the lesson, how to get students involved in the lesson, the teacher then will create the lesson sequence and extensions. Wormeli also stresses the importance of summarizing the lesson for students over the course of the lesson so that they don’t forget the material or get confused. Also, Wormeli suggests that teachers should assess students both formative and summative means. Lastly, Wormeli raises the issue of student absences; when a student misses a day of classes in a block schedule they miss a much larger class period. His suggestions were to have students have partners they can go to for missing work, have a homework posting service, or make yourself more available to the students to go over the missing work. Overall, Wormeli believes that having middle schools use a block schedule creates a better atmosphere since there is less transition time and more time for teachers to get the material across to students.
I agreed with some of the points that Wormeli raised, but others I thought were crap-assed. For example, block scheduling does not lessen the amount of absences students have. I’ve been to multiple schools that were block schedule and they had huge problems with attendance and mischief. For example, one year between classes (eight different times) students managed to write bomb on various items and cause the entire school to evacuate. I think that a big plus of block scheduling is it prepares students for college, because you have a day in between to get the homework done. The one thing I didn’t like about block schedules was the amount of homework you would have. Since we would cover more material in class, we would have more homework. I believe that you get more homework in a block schedule then you do when you have all your classes in one day. I’ve had both systems and I feel like block scheduling is really difficult for students to deal with. It can be confusing and it is a large chunk of time to expect a student to pay attention without a break. I think that I like the other type of schedule more since it’s more consistent, but then again that just suits my personality type.
This chapter discussed how to organize a middle school that would create the best environment for young adolescents. A key component in a young adolescent’s life is relationships and it’s very important that this is incorporated into their education. When young adolescents have relationships in middle school they are more successful. In this chapter the authors suggest that it is better for middle schools to maintain a smaller size; their suggestion is schools should not exceed a population of 600 students. They recognize that it is not always possible to have a school of this size, so they recommend that when dealing with a larger student population to create “houses”. Doing this will allow students to have a more personalized education and would create the feeling of a smaller school. With the creation of “houses” students become more familiar with their teachers and build a relationship that benefits them; it is also suggested that teachers should have the same students for an extended period of time so this relationship can further develop. In “houses” teachers form teams that work together to create an effective environment in which students can succeed academically. Teaming is not easy for teachers to do, for it to be successful there is a need for support from the entire faculty, time for planning, and a clear chain of command.
I think that this chapter raises a lot of good points, but would like to see this implemented. While one of the middle schools had this system in place it was more of an in name only thing. There were “houses” and advisory programs, but they were not successful. Even so, I liked the suggestions and would love to work in a school that successfully implemented them. I think that it would make for a better educational experience if schools and the teacher to student ratio were smaller. I like the idea of working on a team because you have other people you can turn to for guidance; I know that there are times when teachers need another opinion and working with a group of fellow teachers would be great. I know that one of my worries as a future teacher has been how to teach when you have so many students; I like the concept of having a more manageable classroom because you get to know your students and are better equipped to help them.
