I had a feeling that the changing in school structure for middle level students would change. I don't remember my years in middle school thankfully, but I am sure it is because I have buried them deep within my memory. I like the idea of turning the schools into a place that nuture the students interest into helping them learn. That is one connection I made between the readings I have done and this article. If kids are not interested, they are going to do that exact same thing, which is not care.
Puberty is another issue that I can understand. There may be distractions within schools because of new emotions and hormones going crazy, but there is still a way around that. I don't think we should go as far as the one school did by separating the sexes, but I do believe if we keep their interests occupied, there won't be a need to separate the kids because they will be too involved. If we have to separate kids because of distractions, then we are not doing our jobs as educators by keeping them attentative when it comes to literature and school altogether.
I believe that a lot of the ideas that focus around changing the middle level structure are great ideas, but I believe the only way to honestly capture the students and their academic minds is to observe what they are experiencing and apply those experiences through different elements of literature that those kids could connect with. This is basic information that Dr. Stearns has been feeding us. This is basic information that shouldn't even need to be told to us. This should be second nature. It is common sense. As far as the teachers go, I believe they are honestly trying a new path which is wanderful. Teachers are adapting to their environment and to their children and I believe teaching the middle level would be one of the most difficult tasks because of the emotions that are flaring.
I believe the work we do together in class and the other class I had with Dr. Stearns is a prime example of how it SHOULD be done. Everyone is in control of their own work, student responsibility is instilled on multiple levels, and a sense of "ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS" is in place. I do not know how many times I have had to hear some teachers I know say "Well we had a quiz and I forgot to ask who did what on this day". It is always basic information. If you read the book, what is the point in having a quiz on something as basic as a name???? The right questions would be placing those characters in scenearios, putting the shoes of the characters on the students and have them figure out situations that arise from within the text they are reading. That is the real goal people!@! Who cares who hit who or who went to the hospital in chapter 7. ASK CRITICAL QUESTIONS, NOT BASIC KNOWLEDGE QUESTIONS. As far as the book selection goes, I am not too sure on how that is done, but in my opinion something needs to be done. More books that I have seen in the teen reading section should be in schools. I learned more from a book about a bunch of teenage junkies than I learned in "To Kill A Mockingbird"!!! I understand certain books are necessary, but come on!!! "To Kill A Mockingbird" is a great novel and I have no qualms when it comes to teaching it. Does it have to be the only one??? Don't get me wrong, but what are the chances that these kids are going to build a time machine and go back in time to live in the old days and experience what Scout and Jem experienced? I seriously doubt anytime soon, and I doubt they would want to when a time machine finally is invented. We should be making these kids more aware of the problems that could really affect them in society. If not that, there are plenty of teen novels based around interests that have to do with coming of age in this time era.
The idea of this article is to adapt to what we are doing wrong. It isn't rocket science to figure out that things need to change. We all know this...
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Hi Jon, I agree with all that you say here especially when you say that "asking the right questions" is the critical skill teachers NEED to learn if they are going to prepare students to navigate a 3.0 world.
One of those questions is, "why am I doing this? Why am I asking kids to do this?" What are the short and long term benefits for my students to tackle these tasks and not others.
At Lehman Wed. I couldn't help but apply all that we have been learning to what Chris Sperry is doing with his kids.
Their taking positions on the Middle East, and, we hope, as a result better understanding what the US is facing when it becomes involved in ME politics seems like essential knowledge to me.
I would like to see those debates because I believe that we would see students who own the learning and who will be deeply engaged in a collaborative venture.
Do say more about the Friedman chapters and the video I posted last week.
I'm interested too in how you are changing in your construction of who the English teacher is.
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