"Of
Particular Interest" Archives
(continued)
Articles
from the last several years our "Of
Particular Interest" feature are archived here. Older articles
may be found in the Resources section,
by topic. Articles from previous years are also stored in no particular
order on these pages.
Some links will change over time as providers update their websites. If
you'd like some help resolving a broken link, send
us a copy of the complete entry in an e-mail and we'll see if we can
find it for you!
ELECTRONIC
PORTFOLIOS FOR MIDDLE GRADES TEACHERS
Our colleague Brenda Dyck, who helps edits our conversation
strings from the MiddleWeb Listserv, wears many hats. Most recently,
she's become the "Electronic Threads" columnist for Middle Ground,
the NMSA magazine. Here's Brenda's first column, a reflection on the value
of electronic portfolios for professional reflection. "My work as a reflective
practitioner came alive when I decided to explore how technology might
help define and evaluate my learning and teaching practices." (Cross-posted
at the MidLink Magazine website.)
TWO
MIDDLE SCHOOLS: COMMUNITY & CONFLICT
Author-researcher Betty Achinstein studied conflict in the context of
community at two middle schools in California. Her new book from Teachers
College Press, "Community, Diversity and Conflict Among Schoolteachers:
The Ties That Blind," is reviewed in this article at the Teachers College
Record website. "She has written an insightful account of the teachers
in these schools and the ways in which they dealt with diversity and conflict
in their pursuit of community," writes reviewer Ernest Rose. The results
of her studies, Rose says, "bring to light contrasting philosophies between
the two teaching staffs that are eerily textbook in their differences."
(To read this article and hundreds of other resources at the TCR website,
you must sign up for a free membership.)
PROMISING
MIDDLE SCHOOL PRACTICES
Making Middle Grades Work, a program of the Southern Regional Education
Board, is built upon a comprehensive improvement framework of key elements
and conditions that successful schools address to raise student achievement.
At this page, the program's staff presents a sample of promising practices
in network schools. A report to be published later in the school year
will describe the practices more fully. This list includes school names
and email contacts.
Don't miss this reflection on researcher Judith Langer's new book, "Effective Literacy Instruction: Building Successful Reading and Writing Programs," in the September 2002 issue of The Council Chronicle, published by the National Council of Teachers of English. Much of Langer's research took place in middle schools. The article also highlights MiddleWeb's reading/writing workshop project and listserv, and our list moderator Juli Kendall, who keeps a weekly literacy journal at MiddleWeb.
BOLTS
OUT OF THE BLUE
Students (Gr. 6-8, 9-12) research different types of lightning patterns
and compare their origins to an experiment on static electricity in this
lesson plan at the New York Times Learning page. All of the NYT lessons
are standards-based and prepared in partnership with the Bank Street College
of Education.
In this recent article at the Education World website, teacher/author Brenda Dyck shares excerpts from the MiddleWeb listserv during that tragic day one year ago. "...(B)efore my eyes I see brief listserv postings suddenly transformed from random emails to meaningful historical documents that expose the strength and courage of the educators who walked the nations' children through the initial shock of the September 11th terrorist attacks on America. " FREE INTERACTIVE LESSONS
You'll find a full gross of free interactive lessons at the Interact website. Interact sells teacher-authored materials that emphasize integrated curriculum, cooperative learning, writing to learn, and authentic assessment. These free activities are obviously designed to build your interest in Interact's product line. They probably will! (Activities cover many content areas and are classified by grade level. Most are appropriate for the middle grades. The descriptions are not very helpful. Try opening a few items and you'll see the quality is good.) FULL-SERVICE COMMUNITY MIDDLE SCHOOL
The latest issue of Edutopia, the on-line magazine of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, features a powerful partnership between NYC's IS218, home to nearly 1,700 middle schoolers, and the Children's Aid Society. In addition to the school's academic program, students can get immunizations, have their teeth cleaned, build their own bikes, gain access to state-of-the-art computers, and learn to play the cello or dance a Broadway jazz number. "And it's a safe place where there is always a trusted adult available, whether it's to help with homework or to lend a sympathetic ear." (Go to the GLEF homepage and select "The Power of Partnerships." Video also available.) USE SURVEYS TO BUILD YOUR SCHOOL DATABASE
No single form of data can tell us accurately how a school is doing. Test scores and graduation or dropout rates measure school and student outcomes, but they cannot explain those outcomes. Other kinds of data such as surveys can help uncover what is happening in schools by revealing the perceptions and attitudes of a broad audience - school staff, parents, community members, and students - and by pinpointing strengths and weaknesses. The Annenberg Insitute's Survey Tool Drawer offers background information; practical suggestions for choosing, developing, and administering surveys and for using the results; and the experiences of users.
PREPARING
MINORITY MIDDLE SCHOOLERS FOR COLLEGE
Urban minority students typically lack the support they need to make informed
choices about postsecondary education. This report from ACT (the college
admissions exam folks) recommends consistent, structured help, beginning
in middle school, on how to prepare for college admission, how to select
the right college, and how to apply for financial aid. Go to this page
at the ACT website and find the download link for "Creating Seamless Educational
Transitions for Urban African American and Hispanic Students."
WEIGHTED
GRADING IN THE MIDDLE GRADES
Seventh grade social studies teacher Max Fischer shares his approach to
grading, which takes into account all elements of his students' performance.
It's a weighted system that Fischer believes truly reflects the needs
of his students -- and it has the support of parents too. At Education
World's "Voice of Experience" pages.
During the summer, a group of MiddleWeb Listserv members explored a gender equity curriculum. List member Bill Ivey has prepared a special page reporting on the results. Using the principles of Understanding by Design, group members created an essential question to guide our work, generated enduring understandings which would serve as goals of various units and unit components, designed a preliminary assessment tool, and outlined ideas for units. It's a work in progress - join in!
BEYOND
SURVIVAL-BASED TEACHING (PDF File)
It's one thing to "understand standards." It's quite another to understand
how to help students develop to the point where they can perform at standard.
In this essay, middle grades reform advocate Hayes Mizell underscores
a fundamental flaw in most state-level school reform efforts. States assume
that if they tell educators what to do, educators have the skills and
knowledge to do it. If they fail to comply, state leaders tend to attribute
this failure to stubborn resistance, not a lack of capacity. But Mizell
notes that most teachers and administrators do not know how to help all
their students perform at significantly higher levels. In many cases,
their pre-service education did not prepare them for the realities of
today's high-pressure classroom. These educators have operated in a model
of "classroom survival," framed by the expectation that some students
would do well, many would get by, and some would fail. Mizell explores
how states must improve and increase professional development if they
expect to realize the goals of high-stakes accountability. (Small PDF
file)
This "classic" article from KAPPAN magazine (April 98) is actually titled "Seventeen Reasons Why Football Is Better Than High School." But it strikes us, after visiting hundreds of middle schools across America, that it could easily apply to that particular brand of middle school that never got past being a "junior high." And perhaps equally well to some middle schools that went through the motions of "reinventing" themselves but never achieved lift-off. A good article to revisit. With school beginning, can crisp football weather and exciting touchdown plays be far behind?
THINK
OUTSIDE THE CLOCK
The latest issue of "Tools for Schools," the useful newsletter from the
National Staff Development Council, includes a cover story (online) about
schools that are finding the time for staff development. There's also
a resource list. The print version offers vignettes from a dozen schools
using time-saving strategies. Subscribe!
MIDDLE
SCHOOL READING RUBRICS - Updated!
The four rubrics on this page were developed by a middle school teacher
and recommended by a participant at MiddleWeb's Reading Workshop listserv.
They cover Global Understanding, Developing Interpretations, Personal
Response, and Critical Stance.
National Middle School Association has moved the start of this year's professional development webcasts back two weeks to allow folks more time to settle into the new school year. The first session on differentiated instruction will begin on October 1. Other webcasts will address integrated curriculum, school leadership, schoolwide literacy, and classroom management. Visit the Association's webpage for more info.
SEPTEMBER
11 RESOURCES
A page of web-based resources developed by MiddleWeb.
HELPING
STRUGGLING MIDDLE GRADES READERS
At various times during the past year, we've featured the Reading Workshop
journal of Juli Kendall, a teacher/coach in the Long Beach (CA) schools.
Juli's first year of journals is now complete and we recommend them to
you highly. In her final entry of the year, she reported that nearly 100
percent of the failing students assigned to her special program made enough
progress to meet the district's promotion benchmarks for sixth grade.
Juli will continue her journal this fall, with a new focus on Writing
Workshop and the reading-writing connection. If you're interested in these
issues, you can join a year-long listserv
chat with Juli and dozens of like-minded teachers and literacy support
people.
The Annenberg Institute has just released a video package ($50) designed to help teacher leaders, principals, and district administrators understand and use peer observations to build collaborative learning and reflective practice among adults in their schools and districts. The package offers suggestions for conducting video-discussion workshops on peer observation as well as guidelines for promoting peer observation practices. Two videotapes give viewers an close-up look at peer observation practices in seven very different schools (including middle schools). "TO DISTILL SOME WATER" - READING, WRITING, AND SCIENCE
This fact-filled science fiction tale, based on Jack London's "To Build a Fire," describes an astronaut's urgent search for something to drink on Mars. Some of our middle grades science teacher friends are using this story to work on reading in the content area and to help build science vocabulary. You'll find resource links at the end of the story -- including a link to the London original. As one teacher says: "The additional resources at the end just scream for a collaborative assignment between the language arts and science teachers!"
MIDDLE
SCHOOL MATH MAGAZINE
If you aren't a member of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics,
you may not have seen the magazine "Mathematics Teaching in the Middle
School." Here's a free issue posted on-line, obviously meant to entice
you to join NCTM. Perhaps it will! See, for example, "Bad
Jokes Make Good Mathematics." (PDF file)
ANCIENT
HISTORY LESSON PLANS
The civilizations of ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome are among the most
engaging of teaching themes. Education World offers five lessons for teaching
about those ancient cultures.
MIDDLE
SCHOOL TEACHER GOALS FOR THIS SCHOOL YEAR
We asked members of the MiddleWeb listserv discussion to share their goals
for the coming school year. We were impressed with the ambitious aims
of teachers across the curriculum. A few constant themes: more differentiated
instruction; portfolio assessments; reflective teaching; and the perennial
favorite -- better organization!
RESEARCH
ON SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT MODELS
The Leave No Child Behind legislation has revved up interest in "research-based"
school models. The "Study of Instructional Improvement" is an on-going
six-year effort by the Consortium for Policy Research in Education to
track the implementation of three leading school improvement programs
-- Accelerated Schools, America's Choice, and Success For All. This special
CPRE website shares SSI project papers and research instruments.
What happens when a well-organized community group sets out to hold a large urban school system accountable for the quality of middle grades education? Education writer Anne Lewis examines the evolution of Louisville's Community Accountability Team in her report titled "Waking a Sleeping Giant." Available at the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation website in PDF format. LEAVE NO PARENT BEHIND
Organizations interested in developing education leadership in communities and "offering eye-opening experiences for parents" will want to visit the website of an intriguing new partnership -- Parent Leadership Associates. PLA brings together the resources and talents of two groups -- the for-profit KSA-Plus Communications, a leading education communications firm, and the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, a Kentucky-based nonprofit whose parent leadership institutes are nationally acclaimed. PLA will provide problem-solving assistance to clients through consulting, training, advocacy guides and how-to manuals. The partnership's start-up is being supported by a three-year grant from the Ford and Annie E. Casey foundations and the Pew Charitable Trust. EARTH AND SKY RESOURCES
Here's the companion web site to the Earth and Sky Radio Series (heard on many NPR stations). You'll find recordings of the award winning daily show, plus -- as the Internet Scout service puts it -- "oodles of supplementary science material." If you've heard the show, you know that middle schoolers will have no trouble with the content. The site includes a teacher's lounge with virtual text book, resources, and tips for using Earth and Sky in the classroom.
OUT-OF-FIELD
CRISIS IN THE MIDDLE GRADES
About 70% of middle-grade math classes in high-poverty and high-minority
schools nationally are assigned to a teacher who lacks even a college
minor in math or a math-related field (including math education). A new
report from The Education Trust, "All Talk, No Action: Putting an End
to Out-of-Field Teaching," examines updated federal SASS data and concludes
that "after years of talking about teacher quality and closing the achievement
gap," the most significant change has been an increase in out-of-field
teaching in high-poverty schools. Data analysis by researcher Richard
Ingersoll finds that the problem "reaches crisis proportions" when analyzing
middle-grades separately.
FIRST
DAYS OF MIDDLE SCHOOL - ICEBREAKERS
Each fall Education World offers icebreakers that can help teachers get
to know their new students -- and help students get to know one another.
This year EW has gathered 13 getting-to-know-you activities from teachers
around the globe. On this page, you'll not only find the current icebreakers
list, but links to seven previous volumes. Also see EW's collection of
class management tips from teacher listservs and bulletin boards, which
they've titled: "Teachers,
Start Your Engines."
TEN
IDEAS FOR ESTABLISHING CLASSROOM RULES
Many teachers involve students in establishing classroom rules, says Education
World editor Gary Hopkins in this useful article. "Surprisingly, student-created
rules are often much the same as - or even tougher than - rules a teacher
might create." Hopkins summarizes 10 activities teachers are using to
involve students in creating a positive classroom environment. See all
of EW's classroom management resources here.
MAKING
MIDDLE SCHOOL OPEN HOUSE A HIT
With so many parents and children leading very busy lives, schools need
to do more than simply open their doors during open house activities;
they need to draw families inside. This story at Education World highlights
some "key" strategies in place at Edwards Middle School in Rocky Mount
NC.
ADVICE
FOR BRAND-NEW MIDDLE GRADES TEACHERS
As a new school year approached and many excited but nervous new teachers
joined the Listserv looking for support, MiddleWeb editor John Norton
asked the Listserv's veteran teachers to share some of their hard-earned
wisdom. The responses- even the disagreements - benefited new and experienced
teachers alike. If you're a new teacher or working with new teachers,
don't miss this one!
ADVICE
FOR THE FIRST-YEAR MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHER
After five years St. Louis' inner-city schools, MiddleWeb diarist Ellen
Berg received her first "permanent" contract. In this 2001 entry, she
reflected on some of the lessons she learned during her apprenticeship.
YOUR
FIRST DAY OF TEACHING
Teachers who will be stepping in front of their first classes this fall
may appreciate the "first day teacher's script" shared in this column
by Harry and Rosemary Wong (Teachers.Net Gazette, June 2000). At the end
of the column, you'll find links to many other columns written for new
teachers. The Wongs are co-authors of the popular book "The First Days
of School."
PLANNING YOUR FIRST DAYS OF SCHOOL
MIDDLEWEB'S "FIRST DAYS OF MIDDLE SCHOOL" RESOURCES
MIDDLE
GRADES COMPREHENSIVE REFORM MODELS
This overview from the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform
describes Comprehensive School Reform Models that focus on the middle
grades. You'll find a brief description of each model with background
and history, design features, and research results thus far. There's also
a link to each model's website for more information. Among the models
included: AIM at Middle-Grades Results; Different Ways of Knowing; Making
Middle Grades Work; Making Schools Work; Middle Start; Talent Development
Middle School Model; and Turning Points Transforming Middle Schools.
One of our friends who's a middle grades media specialist recently attended a workshop on "technology-rich learning," featuring Annette Lamb. She recommends this page at one of Lamb's websites. It features articles and resources from the on-line publication "Activate: The Journal of Technology-Rich Learning."
MIDDLE
SCHOOLERS CAN BECOME RESEARCHERS!
The idea behind the Worldwide Search for the Dominant Trait is
simple: "Let's ask a lot of people all over the world which traits they
have." The project (9/6 to 12/6) will be managed by the Center for Improved
Engineering and Science Education (CIESE) at Stevens Institute of Technology.
"One way for students to learn how their physical characteristics, or
traits, are inherited is by gathering a great deal of information about
specific, easily-seen human features. Students can analyze this information
to determine which traits are controlled by dominant genes and how often
such dominant genes occur." Everyone is welcome and sign-up is easy.
FREE
WEB-BASED TOOL TO KEEP PARENTS INFORMED
Gradeworks.com is a free, web-based tool for teachers that promotes communication
between parents, teachers and students by giving the families easy access
to grades, assignments, schedules and class activities in a secure environment.
Parents no longer need to be totally dependent on their kids for all class-related
information between report cards. The site includes a thorough "Frequently
Asked Questions" page and a "How It Works" page. According to the developers
(RocketWorks, Inc.), teachers "can have a live professional-looking Web
site in five minutes. It's as simple as filling out two forms and your
site is ready to go."
CLASSROOM
GUIDE TO CROSS-CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING
The "Building Bridges" guide includes short, adaptable lesson plans and
activities "that build cross-cultural awareness, respect, and communication
in your (Gr. 6-12) classroom." Lessons are flexible, easy to use, and
standards-based. The lessons follow Understanding by Design principles
and include "enduring understandings" and "essential questions." The entire
guide can be accessed on the Web at the Peace Corps website.
EXCELLENCE
IN URBAN MIDDLE SCHOOLS
Over a three-year period, Education Development Center, Inc. selected
and studied three urban middle schools that intentionally set out to serve
*all* of their students, including those with identified disabilities,
those acquiring English proficiency, and those recently immigrated to
the United States. Although these schools have developed different cultures
around academic excellence, they share a number of common features. This
paper discusses seven features that characterize these learning communities.
(Posted at NMSA's "Research in Middle Grades Education Online.")
RESEARCH-BASED
SCHOOL REFORM
The U.S. Department of Education recently awarded a five-year, $18.5 million
contract to develop a national What Works Clearinghouse, which
will "summarize evidence on the effectiveness of different programs, products,
and strategies intended to enhance academic achievement and other important
educational outcomes." The Clearinghouse project director will be Rebecca
Herman, a principal research analyst at the American Institutes for Research.
She is also lead author of "An Educator's Guide to Schoolwide Reform,"
which ED describes as "the premier review of scientifically based evidence
on the effectiveness of prominent school reform models." This link leads
to the Guide.
THE
VIEW FROM SIXTH GRADE
Recently, the Connect for Kids website (supported by the Benton Foundation)
interviewed sixth grade teacher and MiddleWeb diarist Ellen Berg about
her life with young adolescents. About her diary, CFY writes: "(She) pulls
no punches when it comes to describing troubles with discipline, burnt-out
colleagues, struggles with her principal, and challenging students. But
it also reveals the joys and pleasures of working with children at the
famously moody and mercurial age between childhood and adolescence." Ellen
is also a restless, accomplished teacher, as this interview reveals.
Education World offers this list of the best sources for often-used and hard-to-find teacher templates. "Are you spending your evenings writing welcome letters to parents, carefully ruling seating charts, designing award certificates, and creating learning center signs? Why reinvent the wheel? All those printable documents are available online at the click of a mouse." TAP INTO MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES
The Disney Learning Partnershp and Thirteen Ed Online have developed a great introduction to teaching with multiple intelligences in mind. This self-paced "Concept to Classroom" workshop begins with a clear explanation of the theory and leads teachers through several steps toward practical application in the classroom. Begin at this page. It's free! LEAD TEACHERS IN THE MIDDLE GRADES
The authors of this paper at the NMSA website write: "While much research has been conducted concerning students and teaming at the middle school level, no research could be found concerning instructional lead teachers. The purpose of this study was to examine the work of a middle school instructional lead teacher and to chronicle his efforts to emerge as an instructional leader." WHAT TEENS WANT AFTER SCHOOL (PDF File)
The Center for Teen Empowerment surveyed more than 400 teenagers and staff to find out more about the optimum characteristics of effective after-school programs. This report presents their findings and a series of actions recommended by Boston teens. (One mg. PDF file) MIDDLE GRADES READING INITIATIVE
Nick Boke, co-director of the Vermont Strategic Reading Initiative, describes his state's search for "the most effective and efficient ways of helping students beyond grade 3 become independent readers, strategic readers, reflective readers - people who can understand, analyze, and interpret the material they're asked to read in school." The Initiative seeks, in part, "to get more and more teachers in all subject areas to pay attention to reading" in the middle grades and high school. SCHOOL GRANT OPPORTUNITIES
Here's a list of *lots* of grant opportunities that are national in scope. Many have no particular deadline. Check them out!
MIDDLE
GRADES TO HIGH SCHOOL: A WEAK LINK?
What experiences in eighth grade are linked to success in higher-level
ninth grade math and English courses? A study by the Southern Regional
Education Board that tracked the performance of a large group of students
from the end of eighth through the end of ninth grade found three middle
grades experiences that appear to make a difference for students: (1)
studying "something called algebra" in the middle grades; (2) reading
a great number of books in grade eight; and (3) expecting to graduate
from college. SREB also found that eighth graders with similar characteristics
were more likely to succeed in *higher-level* ninth grade courses than
in coursework that was less challenging.
MAKING
SENSE IN SOCIAL STUDIES
"ReadingQuest: Making Sense in Social Studies" is a website designed for
social studies teachers who wish to more effectively engage their students
with the content in their classes. "ReadingQuest is designed to provide
you with the philosophical bases for sound comprehension strategy instruction,
directions for a range of comprehension and content reading strategies,
and printable handouts and masters for transparencies." See, for example,
the History Frames/Story Maps (strategies section) which adapts a popular
language arts strategy for use in social studies. Great stuff!
Here's a middle grades reciprocal teaching plan from the Miami-Dade school district website called "Four O'Clock." A teacher/coach Friend of MiddleWeb writes: "Lesson plans, teacher and student scripts, bookmarks, prompting cards, all done with a lot of great research behind them and they're cute as a button to boot! I especially liked the group worksheet they had which really functioned as a great scaffold for the students." Also visit the district's main page about reciprocal teaching to find out more about this strategy. A SERVICE-LEARNING BOOK BY SEVENTH GRADERS
Written by 56 seventh graders, *Fridays at Glenwood* tells the stories of residents of Glenwood Towers, a retirement home for seniors on fixed incomes, whom students visited weekly (on Fridays) as part of a service-learning project begun the previous year. "The quality of the writing befits the students' view of their book as a 'permanent monument to our friendship,'" note the editors of What Kids Can Do, the website dedicated to sharing student views of school and the world. Find out more about the project and read excerpts from the book. MEMORIALS: AN 8TH GRADE PERFORMANCE PROJECT
Eighth grade teacher John Chase is featuring the results of of an interesting performance project at his M.U.S.I.C. website. The project requires students to carry out independent research about an important and deserving event or person. Then they design and build a model of a memorial for their chosen topic. Some key components include location, building materials, and use of symbols to visually represent essential themes, ideas and issues. There's more! Visit Chase's site and click on the Gallery section, then scroll down to Memorial Projects, and take a look at some of his students' work. Chase was inspired by the eighth grade "rite of passage" project at Wellwood MS in Fayetteville, NY. See the "how to" pages at the Wellwood site. A NON-ZERO SUM GAME
Want to explore the issue of competition vs. cooperation in your classroom? During a discussion of "The Courage to Teach" at the MiddleWeb Listserv, a participant recommended this lesson plan, called "The Game of Gotcha." It helps students consider the consequences of "zero-sum" thinking. Zero-sum games are games where the amount of "winnable goods" (or resources) is fixed.Whatever is gained by one actor, is therefore lost by the other actor. THE JOY OF ACHIEVING (small PDF file)
We can understand the pure joy expressed by this seventh-grader at West Hardeeville School in Jasper County SC after her Academic Challenge team bested teams from four area private schools. Jasper has long been recognized as one of the South's most impoverished counties, and its schools have rarely earned any respect . In this account of her team's victory, Kenya McCarthan writes that she and her teammates just wanted "to showcase our knowledge and to prove to others that we were more than just a 'low-down' school." (From the Southern Regional Education Board's "Spring 2002 Update.")
BEST
MIDDLE SCHOOL LESSONS
As the 2001-02 school year drew to a close, we asked teachers on the MiddleWeb
Listserv to answer three questions: What was the most successful teaching/learning
experience that's took place in your classroom this year? What made it
successful? What will change about your teaching as a result of your success?
Among the many intriguing responses were a "reality show" about plagiarism,
staged by middle grades teacher/author Rick Wormeli; a project that connected
a classroom to students in Israel; a childhood memory narrative project;
a history unit based on Judy Chicago's "Dinner Party"; a "hands-on" study
of an asteriod; and a backpack activity that taught ratios and percentages.
COMBINING
WRITING AND MATH IN THE MIDDLE GRADES
Lynn Havens, director of Project CRISS, offers an example of how the CRISS
writing approach (Creating Independence through Student-owned Strategies)
can be used with seventh grade pre-algebra students to help them "be metacognitive"
and "improve their comprehension and retention of mathematics concepts."
Havens describes her work with a middle grades math teacher to integrate
four types of short, informal, and non-graded writing assignments into
the teacher's regular routine. Find out more at the CRISS website.
VIRTUAL
FIELDTRIPS IN THE MIDDLE GRADES
Middle grades teacher Brenda Dyck describes how she and her students experienced
Ellis Island on a virtual field trip titled "And the Streets Were Paved
with Gold." In this article from Meridian, the middle school technologies
journal, Dyck writes: "As a result of using one of the most powerful virtual
fieldtrips the Net has to offer, my grade six students experienced firsthand
what it was like to be an immigrant...at the turn of the century." The
project "challenged these students to rethink their mental models about
immigration, attributes of racism and prejudice, (and) the myths that
beckoned immigrants to this country."
THE
MAGIC OF TEACHER DIALOGUE
"The act of collaboration must start with dialogue," begins this article
in The Nonprofit Quarterly (Fall 2001). "You cannot build relationships
without having an understanding of your potential partners, and you cannot
achieve that understanding without a special form of communication that
goes beyond ordinary conversation." Daniel Yankelovich, market-research
guru turned civic reformer (he founded Public Agenda), shares his principles
of good dialogue -- equality and the absence of coercive influences; listening
with empathy; and bringing assumptions into the open -- and offers 15
strategies that can help would-be collaborators use dialogue "to bind
us together as communities."
HIGH-STAKES
TESTING & THE MIDDLE GRADES
The National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform will be distributing
the Forum's new position statement on high-stakes testing at an upcoming
national conference on the federal No Child Left Behind legislation. This
link leads to the statement and background materials. In part, the Forum
"supports the use of multiple measures to make decisions about a student's
progress." Read a press release in PDF format.
Keith Look, a researcher with the Philadelphia Education Fund, recently shared some findings and opinions, drawn from his own experience with a K-8 school project and his dissertation research on the topic. This message to the MiddleWeb Listserv includes a link to more of Look's research posted at the Fund's website.
MIDDLE
SCHOOL READING: PRACTICES THAT WORK (PDF File)
Language arts teacher Linda Rief eloquently describes what she's learned
about effective reading practices in the middle grades in "The Power of
Reading: Practices That Work" (NCTE's Voices from the Middle, December
2000). She includes a reading list for eighth grade; a reader-writer poster;
a list of recommended read-alouds, and 13 "what works" tips.
MiddleWeb diarist Marsha Ratzel is a technology integration specialist in Overland Park, KS. She writes: "I am a huge National Public Radio fan. One of my absolute favorites is a program jointly sponsored by National Geographic and NPR called Radio Expeditions. Reporters travel to exotic destinations and tell the story of that place. As we are trying to motivate our 7th graders into becoming world citizens, this feature has proved very engaging. The sounds of the radio show are amazing and, if you use the online photo galleries to have something for them to look at while they listen on a classroom TV monitor or video projector, it's fabulous." Take a look for yourself. and be sure to explore the large archive or past expeditions. MAKING SCIENCE MATTER IN MIDDLE SCHOOL (PDF File)
The Arizona Science Center asked 400 students in three middle schools what they would most like to be remembered for. "This age group is passionate about curing the ills of the world," says Center vice president Laura Martin. This story in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Bulletin examines the proposition that "middle school, it turns out, is a now-or-never window for engaging youngsters in science." Clicking on this link begins a PDF download. MIDDLE SCHOOL ALGEBRA FOR ALL
Robert Moses has developed a special curriculum to make algebra more accessible to all students, and his organization -- The Algebra Project trains local teachers in his method. The Project currently reaches 10,000 students in 13 states, the majority at middle schools in the South. Moses' rationale is straightforward: Studies show that students who take rigorous math and science courses are more than twice as likely to go to college as those who don't. But they also reveal that many minority and low-income students are steered away from such courses or attend schools that don't offer advanced math. (Mother Jones, May-June 2002) LESSON PLAN ABOUT EATING DISORDERS
In this lesson, students research various eating disorders and their treatments. They then create fictional case studies of teenagers suffering from these disorders and synthesize their understanding by writing suggestions for treatment. Prepared by the New York Times and Bank Street College. (May require free registration at NY Times website.)
THE
MESSAGE OF MIDDLE SCHOOL REFORM
Hayes Mizell, director of the Program for Student Achievement at the Edna
McConnell Clark Foundation, has been your editor's mentor for more than
30 years. With that disclaimer out of the way, let me urge you to visit
this page at the EMCF website, where you can download or order a free
copy of "Shooting for the Sun," a just-published collection of Mizell's
speeches and essays on improving student success in the middle grades.
As Foundation president Michael Bailin notes in the introduction: "Every
speech you will read here resonates with the same core message: The surest
way to break the cycle of underachievement is to make absolutely certain
young people gain the skills and knowledge they need to become self-sufficient,
lifelong learners. And the surest way to reach this goal is to hold every
student and every educator to high standards."
"Slates, Sliderules, and Software: Teaching Math in America," sponsored by the National Museum of American History, examines the evolution of math technology from the beginning of the nineteenth century through the end of the twentieth century. Also included on this site is a Web resource section for math teachers that provide links to other math sites dealing with polyhedra and manipulatives, teaching tools and resources, and math history and education. (from The Scout Report) DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION IN MIDDLE SCHOOL
Here's an interesting "Q and A" between middle grades teacher Amy Heinsma and teacher/trainer Rick Wormeli about differentiated teaching in the middle school. Rick covers this topic in his Stenhouse book "Meet Me in the Middle" and is also featured in an ASCD video "At Work in the Differentiated Classroom." In this informal e-mail exchange, Rick shares some of the nitty-gritty work of differentiating -- the kind of information teachers want to hear. For example, "How do you grade differentiated assignments?" Amy and Rick are both members of the MiddleWeb Listserv. MIDDLE GRADES WRITING: AN OUTLINING TOOL
According to the CO-NECT website, this online resource ("The Arrow") offers a tutorial "with everything middle schools students will need to improve their thought process and the organization of their writing. The site includes tips on freewriting, brainstorming, and other writing exercises." One of CO-NECT's Top Ten picks. (CO-NECT, by the way, is a comprehensive school reform model.)
HIGH
PERFORMING, HIGH POVERTY MIDDLE SCHOOLS
In her article "Common Elements of High Performing, High Poverty Middle
Schools" (Middle School Journal, March 2002), Susan Trimble reviews
the research and points to some common characteristics among a group of
high-poverty high-performing middle schools in southeast Georgia which
were the subjects of a three-year case study. During a three-year case
study, Trimble found that all the successful schools used a grant writer
or a team of grant writers who knew how to generate grant proposals that
obtain additional funds to implement reform initiatives; they used teams
to do their reform work, and they developed goals and used specific strategies
to meet their goals.
If this headline has excited you (rather than spooked you!), then you'll be delighted to discover this website developed by the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. The home page presents a graphic displaying the complete framework for the cognitive foundations of learning to read, with links to background information about each component. Middle schools who are serious about addressing reading problems may find this a useful resource. As one of our middle grades teacher friends put it: "Amazing what's out there!" CREATING WEB-BASED LESSONS
Helpful tools and many examples of webquests and other web-based lesson materials developed by teachers. At the Texas Region 20 Education Service Center.
PUTTING
RESEARCH ON THE STREET -- A MIDDLE GRADES EXAMPLE
"Education researchers have a vital role to play in bringing their results
to those who will put them into place in the classroom," says this thoughtful
article at the website of the National Center on English Learning and
Achievement. CELA worries that new federal action "places strong emphasis
on additional and more rigorous research in education and pays little
attention to the development process." To make the point about the importance
of the "D" in "Research and Development," the authors use the example
of MiddleWeb's year-long Reading Workshop discussion list, supported by
the weekly
journal of Juli Kendall, a reading teacher/coach in Long Beach CA.
Middle school teacher Ron Adams asks: "Why practice writing phony business letters from a textbook when students can write authentic letters that matter?" In this article from NMSA's Middle Ground (08/01), Adams recounts his 15-year experience with a unit he calls "Writing Wrongs," which allows students to learn about effective written communications and contemporary civics while expressing their outrage about things that are "not fair" through personal activism. CULTIVATING SCHOOL CULTURE
"The question facing educational leaders is not 'Will our school have a culture?' but 'Will we make a conscious effort to shape our culture?' The culture of a school – the assumptions, habits, expectations, and beliefs of the school's staff – exists as clearly as the school building itself." So begins the article "Pull Out Negativity by Its Roots" in the Summer 2002 issue of the Journal of Staff Development. Authors Rick DuFour and Becky Burnette identify four "weeds" in need of eradication and propose actions schools can take to get the weeding job done. MIDDLE GRADES LESSON: SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS
Thirteen Ed Online, a service of the NYC public TV station, offers resources that help students and teachers examine scientific progress, building on the four-part documentary "Red Gold" – a social history of blood. You'll find two lesson plans for grades 5-7, comments from students, and information about viewing the video. KIPP MIDDLE GRADES ACADEMIES
KIPP, the Knowledge Is Power Program, became a high-profile comprehensive school model through its successes with "educationally underserved" students in the Bronx and Houston. The program currently operates charter middle schools in five communities. This link leads to a selection of news stories, including a column by Jay Mathews of the Washington Post, who wrote that KIPP "is one of the most rigorous – and to me most interesting – educational programs in the country at the moment." From this page, you can explore the KIPP website and find out more.
STUDENT
REFLECTION - MULTIMEDIA PROJECTS
*Quick and Helpful Department* – Here's a tool teachers can use to
help students think through a multimedia project on the "front end." Developed
by a staff member at SRI, it's titled "Questions for Student Reflection
About Multimedia Projects" and is located at a CA school district website.
The Annenberg Foundation has just released the final report on its eight-year school reform effort. The Annenberg Challenge generated more than $1 billion in school-change investments, reaching 1.5 million children and 80,000 teachers in 2,400 schools in 35 states. Among the lessons and reflections: "Public schools in most major cities are still not doing the job they must," but schools "are better today than they were a decade ago and teachers are better equipped to help children overcome obstacles and achieve higher standards." And: "Schools cannot improve without accountability. However, those who set the policy and allocate the resources should also be accountable." At this page read a press release, highlights, and download or order a free copy of the full report.
FREE
BOOK! POWERFUL PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Dennis Sparks' new on-line book "Designing Powerful Professional Development
for Teachers and Principals" is available as a free download at the National
Staff Development Council website. Sparks, NSDC's executive director,
has assembled in one place his ideas for connecting the quality of teaching
and leadership to the improvement of schools. In this 14-chapter book,
Sparks makes his case for powerful professional learning and then demonstrates
to readers how their schools and school systems can provide that learning
for their teachers and principals. Not available in printed form, so go
to this page and learn how to download a free e-copy!
Here's a *great* feature story by Lynn Olson of Education Week, describing the Lincoln NE school district's evolution toward a standards-based classroom assessment system controlled by well-prepared teachers. Nebraska, Olson notes, is one of two states without a statewide high-stakes exam. Instead, the state's leaders require each district to set learning goals for what all students should know, or use the state's model standards. Districts may use whatever measures they wish to gauge student achievement against those standards, including teachers' classroom assessments. Read how the Lincoln system has embraced this flexibility and created a bottom-up assessment approach that most districts only dream of.
REFORM MODEL FOR LOW-PERFORMING MIDDLE SCHOOLS
First Things First is a comprehensive intervention to transform low-performing public schools (including middle schools). The program model, based on the best practices of schools that have successfully served high-risk students, was developed by the Institute for Research and Reform in Education (IRRE) and first introduced in 1998. Promising early results led OERI to support the initiative's expansion in additional urban and rural settings. This April 2002 interim evalution describes the program's strategic approach. (This link leads to the executive summary. PDF of full report available.)
HELPING
MIDDLE SCHOOLERS BLOOM
Middle grades educator Brenda Dyck writes in the voice of her students
about her efforts to challenge them to use more thinking skills at the
higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy. She helps students see how these advanced
skills require a strong foundation as she builds their awareness of high-level
thinking. Full of links to tools and student work samples.
A
QUESTIONING TOOLKIT
This five-year old resource published in "From Now On: The Educational
Technology Journal" has a long shelf life! It describes 17 types of questioning,
from "essential" and "organizing" to "strategic" and even "irrelevant"
questions. Cluster diagrams help organize the different kinds of questioning,
and the descriptions are written so that they can be excerpted or reproduced
"as is" on classroom posters.
TEACHER
WEBSITES: SOME OF THE BEST
Through its regular "Web Wizards" feature, Education World highlights
teacher-developed websites that support student learning, help colleagues
swap lessons and strategies, and model good classroom technology use.
This page includes links to all the websites identified so far.
Fostering literacy is "at the heart" of the America's Choice Comprehensive School Reform Design and literacy workshops play a central role in the Design's strategy to move all students toward high standards of performance. This study, one of a series of evaluations of America's Choice by the Consortium for Policy Research in Education, examines the implementation of readers and writers workshops in 42 elementary and middle schools. The analysis focuses on two areas: teachers' fidelity to the structures of the literacy workshops and their depth of understanding of the instructional philosophy and techniques upon which the workshops are based. Among the many findings: "(E)lementary school teachers were having more success implementing the structures of the literacy workshops, whereas middle school teachers appeared to be struggling with the implementation...." PARENT LEADERS AND SUCCESSFUL SCHOOLS (PDF File)
The Boston-based Institute for Responsive Education (IRE) is a long-time advocate of meaningful partnerships among schools, families, and communities focused on quality education for all kids. This recent report from IRE's Parent Leadership Exchange Project, "Supporting Parents as Leaders: Stories of Dedication, Determination, and Inspiration," profiles successful parent leaders who share their knowledge and experience in creating effective partnerships. You'll also find interviews with educators who describe their experiences building partnerships that improve student outcomes. IRE identifies several themes that tie these stories together, including these two: "Schools need to be creative in how they involve parents," and "Schools can't do it alone; parents can't do it alone."
CLASSROOM
ASSESSMENT IN THE MIDDLE GRADES
"Students hold the key to what they know and are able to do," say the
authors of this article from NMSA's Middle Ground magazine (10/01). "But
too often, they are the last people teachers consult when designing assessments.
Instead of examining assessments for new insights about instruction, many
teachers use tests to prove what they already know about students." The
authors, members of Alpha Team at Shelbourne (VT) Community School share
their assessment strategies, which are built around a student portfolio
"which provides concrete evidence of learning and represents the perfect
format for students to discuss progress with their teachers and parents."
THE
LEARNING-CENTERED PRINCIPAL
The focus on the principal as instructional leader is flawed, says Rick
DuFour, whose writings and workshops have made him a widely recognized
spokesman for better educational leadership. After devoting years of principal
time focusing on teacher performance, DuFour says, he finally realized
he was aiming at the wrong target. The principal should not be an "instructional"
leader. She or he should be a "learning" leader, focused on student (not
teacher) outcomes. (Educational Leadership, May 2002)
A
BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO DIFFERENTIATED TEACHING
Minnesota middle school teacher Kari Sue Wehrmann shared her successful
ideas about differentiating instruction in this Educational Leadership
article (September 2000) titled: "Baby Steps: A Beginner's Guide." Among
her tips: "The best way to meet the needs of the gifted in a mixed-ability
classroom is to raise the bar for everyone. Yes, there are times when
I specifically target an activity for the gifted and talented, but many
times I open an alternative learning experience to the whole class. By
doing this, I communicate to my students that I think each of them is
capable of high achievement."
What happens when you give secondary school teachers small awards of money and freedom to develop their own ways of involving parents or the community in their work in the school? Good things, according to this paper by Don Davies, founder of the Institute for Responsive Education. In "Middle School and High School Teachers as Initiators of Parent Involvement Projects," Davies examines a Rhode Island Foundation program that invited teacher "fellows" to develop projects that offered new and innovative approaches to family-school engagement. For many of the fellows, the experience reshaped their views of parent-school relations. One important finding: The latitude given to teachers to create their programs engendered "feelings of professionalism, status, and freedom that teachers so often feel are lacking in the bureaucratic settings in which they work." IF THIS DISTRICT CAN DO IT. . .
"We're not on the cutting edge of reform here, we're on the bleeding edge of reform," says Bob Crumley, executive director of instruction and assessment for the Chugach (Alaska) School District. Deep changes have produced dramatic increases in student achievement and earned the district the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award -- the first ever given to a school system. This article in NSDC's "Results" newsletter (05/02) recounts the district's new approach to schooling, built on individual student assessment and sharply focused professional development. MIDDLE GRADES DROPOUTS INCREASE
As test-based grade retention policies leave more over-age students in the middle grades, more students are dropping out from Boston's middle schools, according to data compiled by retention/dropout expert Anne Wheelock and available at the FairTest website. Among Wheelock's findings: The number of students dropping out of Boston middle grades has been on a steady upswing for the past five years. The majority of middle grades dropouts are leaving with less than a seventh grade education. Because these students are not included in dropout rates, official statistics are underreporting the increase in the district's dropouts. Middle grades dropouts quadrupled from 1996 to 2000, and the number of African American students who dropped out doubled in one year alone. SOME USEFUL SOCIAL STUDIES RESOURCES
The National Council for the Social Studies website has a great "teaching resources" page. One of our favorite offerings is the annual list of notable social studies books for young people. You'll find links to the NCSS annotated list for the years 1998-2002. Other material of interest: an NCSS-developed curriculum on the mountains of the world; a selection of articles from NCSS publications; September 11 resources and links; listings of professional resources for SS teachers; and much more.
THE
COLLABORATIVE ASSESSMENT CONFERENCE
The Collaborative Assessment Conference, developed by Harvard's Project
Zero, can be used for a variety of purposes: to hone teachers' ability
to look closely at and to interpret students' work; to explore the strengths
and needs of a particular child; to reflect on the work collected in student
portfolios; to foster conversations among faculty about the work students
are doing and how to support that work. This page at Annenberg's Looking
at Student Work website not only describes the conference process -- it
includes a "Virtual Protocol" session
where you can follow an actual LASW experience featuring a elementary
school writing sample. The participants are mostly members of the National
School Reform Faculty. This is the best demonstration of the LASW process
we've seen on the Web. And we get around!
The new issue of NCTE's "Voices in the Middle" is full of articles about expository text, including work by Harvey Daniels, Janet Allen and Laura Robb, plus "Expository Text and Middle School Students: Some Lessons Learned" by Chris Street. Although the articles are labeled "members only" we had no trouble downloading the PDF files. Give it a try. If you're involved in middle grades reading/English, you should probably join NCTE, just to get this very useful journal! THINKING ABOUT COLLEGE IN MIDDLE SCHOOL
For students at Grant Middle School in Escondido CA, planning for college begins early because they, their families, and their teachers need extensive preparation, writes the school's GEAR UP grant coordinator Charles Prickett. "Most of our students will be the first members of their families to attend college. To be successful, these students must view college as an attainable objective, our students' parents and guardians must be made aware that college is possible and will not bankrupt them, and the teachers at Grant must believe in their students' ability to achieve academically." Prickett describes the school's strategic approach in this article from Principal Leadership (May 2002).
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