Structures of the Middle School

STRUCTURES

People + Time + Place

TEAMING

TEAMING

“No single educational idea has come to characterize the middle school concept as certainly as interdisciplinary teaming” (Lounsbury, 1991, p. 58)

Teams share time, space, instructional and curricular emphases, and philosophies. They make a big school seem smaller. Teachers and students are known and belong.

Explain…

• “An individual can make a difference: a team can make a miracle.”

Team Organization

• Most often interdisciplinary• Each teacher teaches a core subject area• Should not grow too large (4 teachers, 120

students; less than 90 students- no “one size fits all)

• Goal: to create an effective organizational scheme that produces a learning environment conducive to middle level students.

Guidelines for successful teams:

• Choice of teachers: varying expertise, backgrounds, personalities

• Composition of students placed on each team

• Quality of teaming: setting goals, provide consistent support, communicate openly, collaborate willingly

Types of teams and advantages:

• Two- person• Three person• Four or Five person

Use of Team Time

• Recent research has shown a positive correlation between:

• Teams who meet for 45 minutes 4-5 times a week and contact with other building resource staff (counselors, resource teachers, administrators)

• Have an agenda (p. 125, fig 5.3)

Effective Teams…

• Name• Motto• Philosophy• Group and re-group students for instruction• Plan curriculum together• Student welfare guides all decisions and actions• Put students FIRST

Team Leadership and Membership

• Team Leader: responsible for agendas, extra meetings with other school personnel, the organizer

• Team Members: participate in discussions, share ideas, follow through on decisions made by team, trusting/trustworthy, help with team goals, attend all meeting and arrive on time

• Team recorder- responsible for team minutes (handout)

Benefits of Teaming: Teachers

• Get to know students well• Procedures and routines are consistent• Decisions are made collaboratively• Collegiality and professionalism are enhanced• Synergy is created by combining strengths• Intellectual stimulation is result of collaboration• Sharing instructional strategies• Curriculum integration is easier to implement• Assessment is enhanced by joint evaluation• Classroom management is more consistent

Benefits of Teaming: Students

• Teachers get to know students well• Learning environment is more

personalized• Sense of belonging is created• Connections among curricular areas are

more obvious• Support from teachers is comprehensive• More opportunities for grouping and re-

grouping exist

Creating Team Identity

• “This is who we are”

• The teachers’ vision for the team leads the team to a unique recognizable identity

• “Welcome to team 8B” or “Welcome to the Trailblazers”

• Or let the students name the team

• Team colors and motto

Creative Grouping Alternatives

• Multi-age grouping may be implemented for institutional or pedagogical reasons by the administration of the school, but the outcome is that students are able to interact across age groups and have long-term relationships with other students and teachers. In a multi-age middle school program students from more than one grade level learn side by side. The oldest students eventually move on and are replaced by a new group of younger students each year.

Creative Grouping Alternatives Con’t

• Looping is a popular elementary school practice somewhat similar to multi-age grouping. However, in looping, students from a single grade level remain with the same teacher for more than one school year. At the end of the time, the teacher loops back to the same grade as at the start. It is an old notion, reminiscent of the one-room schoolhouse

Creative Grouping Alternatives Con’t

• Schools-within-a-school: In large middle schools separate communities may be established through teams-known as a “house plan”.

• Each “house” has its own area of the building (core classes) and stay together for X number of years

• Sometimes only done with support people

Ask what the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community

want for all of its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon, it destroys our democracy.

—John Dewey, School and Society

Structures of People

• Tracking

• Homogeneous v- Heterogeneous Debate

Which do you stand for?

• Articles

TO TRACK OR NOT TO TRACK

Socratic Method

• THE PROS & CONS OF TRACKING/ABILITY GROUPING IN SCHOOLS•   • Pros:

• Allows "gifted" students to take high level class with no one holding them back

• Allows teachers to teach same curriculum but go into more depth with high ability students.

• Offers more wide ranging class options for students. • Teachers are used to, and are train to teach to this idea • "Targets instruction and course content to the student's ability and prior

knowledge" (Mickelson, R.A.; Heath, D; 1999)

• Cons:

• Creates social improprieties. Students socialize with students in the same tracks, and discriminate against others that are different.

• Favors middle upper class white citizens. • Teachers place unfair expectations on students. Such as if they are in a low

track they cannot do any better. • Minorities often suffer from tracking. They are unfairly placed in lower tracks.

Especially African Americans.

• THE PROS & CONS OF"DETRACKING" SCHOOLS

•  

• PROS:

• Gives all students the same opportunity

• Raises expectations to low achieving students

• "Remedies the unequal provision of educational opportunities to African American children" (Welner K. 1999).

• Creates more social harmony and understanding

• Requires different styles of assessment

• May require parents to become more involved. Increasing parent involvement will help the overall quality of a child's life.

• CONS:

• May slow down or hamper the achievement of "high ability" students

• Teacher may lower their expectations to the lower students instead of raising expectations of lower students to meet those of the high students (Welner K. 1999).

• Lower ability students are often disciplined unfairly (Welner K. 1999).

• Have to retrain teachers

• May require more parental involvement. (Not all parents are willing to give the extra effort)

 

“To track or not to track is a serious issue with potentially far-reaching consequences” (Powell, 2005, p. 121).

“Keep in mind that a homogeneous middle school class is an oxymoron. There are not 2, much less 20, middle school students who respond in the same way at the same time to any given scenerio” (Powell, 2005, p. 121)

June 17• Advisory Programs• Scheduling• The ClassroomJune 22Loose endsFinal Exam-in classJune 24No class- work on Developmentally Responsive

Middle school ProjectsJune 29- Presentations (6 people)July 1- Presentations (6 people)