Middle School Students

1
Chapter 2

• Middle School Students

2
Young Adolescents

• Ages 10 (5th grade) to 14 (8th grade)
• Teacher needs to utilize info of children that age

3
Transescence

• Donald Eichhorn defined transescence
• Begins w/ onset of puberty extends to early
  adolescence
• Based on physical, social, emotional, and
  intellectual changes
• 1962 Tanner reports that children are maturing
  biologically at an accelerated rate
• Age ten through fourteen is the chronological age
  of the transescent

4
Transescence cont.

• Developmental stages and relation to academic
  performance
• A matter of degree rather than of kind
• Success related more to affective domain
• Student attitude is directly related to learning
• School climate relates to learning

5
Characteristics of Middle School Students

• Intellectual Development
• Exhibit independent critical thought
• Face decisions
• Intensely curious
• Academic goals are secondary
• Displays a wide range of individual intellectual
  development
• DAP___________________________________

6
Characteristics of Middle School Students (cont.)

• Physical development
• Biological development for MS is five years
  sooner than nineteenth century students from 17
  yrs. To 12 yrs.
• Mature at varying rates
• Boys tend to lag behind girls
• Health science curriculum emphasizes
  self-understanding
• Opportunities for interaction among students of
  different ages
• Emphasis on intramural programs
• DAP___________________________________

7
Characteristics of Middle School Students (cont.)

• Psychological development
• Easily offended and sensitive to criticism of
  personal shortcomings
• Erratic and inconsistent in their behavior
• Psychologically at-risk
• Searching for adult identity and acceptance
• Encouragement of self-assessment
• DAP________________________________

8
Characteristics of Middle School Students (cont.)

• Social development
• Act out unusual or drastic behavior
• Fiercely loyal to peer group values
• Challenges authority figures
• Desires love and acceptance from significant
  adults
• An active student government allows students to
  establish their own standards
• DAP___________________________________

9
Characteristics of Middle School Students (cont.)

• Moral and ethical development
• Idealistic and have a strong sense of fairness in
  human relationships
• Opportunities for students to examine various
  behaviors and study the consequences of various
  actions
• DAP________________________________

10
Characteristics of Middle School Students (cont.)

• DAP to you
• _______________
• _______________
• _______________
• _______________
• _______________

11
The Middle School in a Nation of Rapidly
Increasing Diversity

• To most effectively teach students who are
  different from you need skills in
• (1) Establishing a classroom climate in which
  students feel welcome and that they can learn
• (2) Building on students learning styles,
  capacities, and modalities
• (3) Techniques that emphasize cooperative and
  social-interactive learning and that deemphasize
  competitive learning
• (4) Strategies and techniques that have proven
  successful for students of specific differences

12
Middle School in a Nation of Increasing Diversity
(cont.)

• The traditional two-parent, two-child family now
  makes up about 6 of U.S. households.
• One-half of the children in the U.S. will spend
  some years being raised by a single parent.
• By the year 2010, minority youths in the
  school-age population will average close to 40.

13
Middle School in a Nation of Increasing Diversity
(cont.)

• That population boom will be led by Hispanics and
  Asian Americans.
• The U.S. is truly a multilingual, multiethnic,
  and multicultural country.

14
Styles of Learning and Implications(Refer to
separate BBL, MI, LS handouts)

• Brain Laterality
• Term referring to the left and right hemispheres
  of brain.
• Referred to as brain laterality or brain
  hemisphericity.

15
Styles of Learning and Implications(Refer to
separate BBL, MI, LS handouts)

• Learning Modules
• Refers to the sensory portal means by which a
  student refers to receive sensory reception, or
  the actual way a student learns best.
• As a general rule, young adolescents prefer and
  learn best by touching objects.
• Feeling shapes and textures, by interaction, and
  by moving things around.
• Learning by sitting is difficult for them.

16
Styles of Learning and Implications(Refer to
separate BBL, MI, LS handouts)

• Learning Modules (cont.)
• Learning style traits are known that
  significantly discriminate between students who
  are at risk of not finishing school and students
  who perform well.
• Students who are underachieving and at risk need
• (1) Frequent opportunities for success
• (2) Options and choices
• (3) A variety of instructional resources,
  environments, social groups, rather than routine
  and patterns
• (4) Opportunities to learn during late morning,
  afternoon, or evening hours rather than early
  morning
• (5) Informal seating
• (6) Low illumination
• (7) Visual introductory resources reinforced by
  kinesthetic

17
Styles of Learning and Implications(Refer to
separate BBL, MI, LS handouts)

• Learning Styles
• Defined as independent forms of knowing and
  processing information.
• Classifications
• A learning style is not an indicator of
  intelligence, but rather an indicator of how a
  person learns.
• David Kolb describes two major differences in how
  people learn how they perceive situations and
  how they process information.

18
Styles of Learning and Implications(Refer to
separate BBL, MI, LS handouts)

• Learning Capacities The theory of MI
• Many educators believe that many of the students
  who are at risk of not completing school are
  those who may be dominant in a cognitive learning
  style that is not in sync with traditional
  teaching methods.
• Traditional learning methods are typically
  presented in a logical, linear, sequential
  fashion (Verb/Ling, Log/Math, Intrapersonal).
• See the classroom example show in Figure 2.1 on
  P. 44.
• Howard Gardners Project Zero Web site at
  http//pzweb.harvard.edu/HP Zpages/Whatsnew.html

19
Instructional Practices that Provide for Student
Differences General Guidelines

• (1) Plan learning activities so they follow a
  step-by-step sequence from concrete to abstract.
• (2) Collaboratively plan with students
• (3) Concentrate on employing student-centered
  instruction
• (4) Establish multiple learning centers in
  classroom
• (5) Maintain high expectations
• (6) Make learning meaningful by integrating
  learning with life

20
Instructional Practices that Provide for Student
Differences General Guidelines

• (7) Provide a structured learning environment
• (8) Provide ongoing monitoring of individual
  student learning
• (9) Provide variations in meaningful assignments
• (10) Use direct instruction to teach to the
  development of observation, generalization, and
  other thinking and learning skills

21
Instructional Practices that Provide for Student
Differences General Guidelines

• (11) Use reciprocal peer coaching and cross-age
  tutoring
• (12) Use multilevel instruction
• (13) Utilize interactive computer programs and
  multimedia
• (14) Use small-group and cooperative learning
  strategies

22
Recognizing and Working with Special-Needs
Students

• To the extent possible, students with special
  needs must be educated with their peers in the
  regular classroom.
• Public Law 94-142, The Education of Handicapped
  Act of 1975.
• IDEA, Individuals with Disabilities Education
  Act.
• This legislation requires provision of the LRE.
• An LRE environment is one that is as normal as
  possible.

23
Recognizing and Working with Special-Needs
Students (cont.)

• Inclusion is a commitment to educate each
  special-needs child in the school and, when
  appropriate, in the class that child would have
  attended had the child not had a disability.
• Individualized Educational Program (IEP), is
  devised annually for each special-needs child.
• An IEP is developed for each student each year by
  a team that includes
• Special education teachers, the childs parents
  or guardians, and the classroom teachers.

24
Recognizing and Working with Special-Needs
Students (cont.)

• The IEP contains a statement of
• Students present educational levels
• Educational goals for the year
• Specifications for the services to be provided
• Extent to which the student should be expected to
  take part in the regular education program
• Evaluative criteria for services to be provided

25
Guidelines for Working with Special-Needs Students

• Break complex learning into simpler components.
• Move from most concrete to the abstract, rather
  than the other way around.
• Maintain consistency in your expectations and in
  your responses.
• Plan interesting learning-bridging activities
  that help students connect with the real world.
• Use PowerPoint in class.

26
Guidelines for Working with Special-Needs
Students (cont.)

• Provide for and teach toward student success.
• Use student portfolios which can give evidence of
  progress and help in building student confidence.
• Provide help in the organization of students
  learning.
• Have a three-hole punch available for putting
  papers into notebooks.
• Ask students to read their notes aloud to each
  other in small groups.
• Encourage and provide for peer support.

27
Recognizing and Working with Students of
Diversity and Differences

• Avoid jargon or idoms that might be
  misunderstood.
• Divide complex language into smaller, more
  manageable units.
• Use a variety of examples and observable models.
• Encourage student writing.
• Learn as much as possible about the students
  native language.
• Plan for and use all learning modalities.
• Use techniques that emphasize cooperative
  learning.

28
Recognizing and Working with Students who are
Gifted

• Estimated that between 10 and 20 of school
  dropouts are students who are in the range of
  being intellectually gifted.
• Giftedness must be identified first.
• Personal behaviors may identify them as being
  gifted, but academically disabled, bored, and
  alienated.

29
Recognizing and Working with Students who are
Gifted (cont.)

• Behaviors to recognize
• Antisocial students
• Creative, high-achieving
• Divergent-thinking students can develop
  self-esteem problems.
• Perfectionists may exhibit compulsive behaviors.

30
Recognizing and Working with Students who are
Gifted (cont.)

• Behaviors to recognize (cont.)
• Sensitive students who are also gifted may become
  easily depressed.
• Students with special needs may be gifted. ADD,
  Dyslexia, hyperactivity, and other learning
  disorders sometimes mask giftedness.
• Underachieving students can also be gifted
  students that are seldom or never challenged by
  classroom teachers.

31
Recognizing and Working with Students who are
Gifted (cont.)

• Providing meaningful curriculum options
• To ensure success, most experts agree that
  schools should be organized around nontracked,
  thematic programs of student design.
• This prepares students for entry into both higher
  education and high-skill employment through
  intellectually rigorous practical education.

32
Recognizing and Working with Students who are
Gifted (cont.)

• Additional Guidelines for Working with Gifted
  Students
• Identify and showcase the students special
  gifts.
• Involve the students in selecting and planning
  activities.
• Plan and provide optional and voluntary
  enrichment activities.
• Plan assignments and activities that challenge
  the students to the fullest of their abilities.
  This does not mean overloading them with homework
  or giving identical assignments to all students.
  

33
Recognizing and Working with Students who are
Gifted (cont.)

• Additional Guidelines for Working with Gifted
  Students
• Provide in-class seminars for students to discuss
  topics and problems that they are pursuing
  individually or as members of a learning team.
• Use pre-assessments.

34
Recognizing and Working with Recalcitrant Students

• Slower-learning students who are willing to try
  are simply slower learners.
• They may be slow because of their learning style
  or for genetic reasons, or a combination of the
  two.
• Being a slow learner may, in fact, be quite
  gifted or talented in some way.

35
Recognizing and Working with Recalcitrant
Students (cont.)

• Guidelines to follow
• At the beginning, learn as much about the student
  as you can. Look into past history of student,
  but do not use this as something to be held
  against the student.
• Avoid lecturing to these students.
• Work out an IEP with each student.
• Engage the students in active learning with real
  world problem solving.

36
Recognizing and Working with Recalcitrant
Students (cont.)

• Guidelines to follow (cont.)
• Concentrate instead on students learning some
  things well.
• Help students develop their studying and learning
  skills.
• When appropriate, use frequent positive
  reinforcement.
• Be sure to praise the deed, rather than the
  student.

37
Teaching Toward Positive Character Development

• Reminiscent of the 1930s and late 1960s.
• Resurgence of interest in the development of
  students values.
• Stimulated by a perceived need to act to reduce
  students antisocial behaviors and to produce
  more respectful and responsible citizens.
• Many school districts are developing curricula in
  character education with the ultimate goal of
  developing mature adults capable of responsible
  citizenship and moral action. (ie., Character
  Counts)

38
Teaching Toward Positive Character Development
(cont.)

• (1) Provide a classroom atmosphere conductive to
  such development.
• (2) Be a model the students can emulate.
• (3) Build a sense of community.
• (4) Collaboratively plan with students action and
  community-oriented projects.
• (5) Teach students to negotiate and conflict
  resolution.
• (6) Advocating a particular stance on a
  controversial issue.
• (7) Make student service projects.