Leading from the middle
If you are one of the just over 1,000 educators from Hawai'i who attended last week's two-day national AMLE Middle Grades Summit at the Hawai'i Convention Center, then you have certainly by now shared stories about the humorous keynote speaker, the numerous best practice sharing sessions, and your new learning that has invigorated your classroom plans.
When we talk about education planning, we often focus on early learning education and college and career pathways, yet the adolescent years of our students must receive equal attention. These are important formative years as our young people move from childhood into their teenage years, maneuvering through an increased sense of independence, questioning assumptions about their world, and realizing that they must develop a self that is independent from parents. It's a time for exploration, curiosity, questioning, and growing. The beauty of this time period in terms of the learning process is that students are ready to learn both independently and in groups. They are open to and excited by all types of exciting pedagogy from inquiry (they love open ended arguable questions!), to creativity (art, music, movement, design), to project-based learning (designing with friends!). The challenge and opportunity for teachers is how to keep changing up their teaching approach because adolescents transition from needing well defined structure and systems in grades 4 and 5 to needing more creative space in grades 6 through 8.
Adolescents are also highly susceptible to influencers. This is where character education, setting norms of respect and peer support, and creating a collaborative, positive culture built on concepts of equity and voice can create a dynamic, engaging learning environment in which students take ownership and contribute.
During the conference there was certainly agreement that to teach in the middle grades you have to bring a certain amount of your own quirkiness, high energy and love for the adolescent years. You also have to be highly flexible and love a change environment in order to embrace the explorers in our youth. Whether it is integrating social media, technology applications, cooperative learning, personalized learning, flexible grouping, student decision-making, peer grading, or movement, the point made over and over again is that middle/intermediate schools have to use time, curriculum, space, and student work in a way that is designed around the adolescent.
Of the many great sessions presented by teachers from throughout the U.S., I want to highlight one by our very own Washington Middle School teachers Jyoti Castillo, Rebecca Arlander and Lucy Alexander, focused on Cultivating Collaborative Civic Spaces for Adolescent Learners. (You can view it on the DOE Intranet here.) This team shared their best practice using the inquiry process to engage student voice and choice through student designed essential questions, critical thinking exercises and argumentative position papers, all within a dynamic group. The power of their practice is in the student engagement approach, the rigor of the lesson, the opportunity for students to explore their thoughts and positions, and the use of multiple and varied source documents. I left this session wanting to enroll in their classes!
As our middle/intermediate schools continue to work on designing schools uniquely for the adolescent, I look forward to hearing about your innovative practices that are providing rigorous, engaging learning environments for our middle schoolers.
Looking for summary reviews of recent research articles on the adolescence? http://www.amle.org/Publications/ResearchSummaries/TabId/621/PgrID/2110/PageID/1/Default.aspx.
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