Successful Middle Schools -- Adolescent Psychology Applied to Education

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Subject: Successful Middle Schools

Author:
Danielle Murphy

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Date Posted: 12:45:51 03/29/08 Sat

I found the points on how to make a middle school successful to be interesting. Although I do not teach, with my current graduate assistantship I spend a lot of time observing in middle and high school classrooms. This has given me the opportunity to visit a variety of middle schools in MCS and Nashville. The book pointed out that developing smaller communities within large schools can help lessen the impersonal nature that goes along with big schools. I have noticed that middle schools that are setup to have teams or separate wings often seem to run smoother and teachers have stronger rapport with students (I'm sure various other factors play a part, too). Splitting grades up into teams that rotate for core classes among a small group of teachers seems to allow students to have clearly defined expectations and a more structured routine each day. Teachers know exactly how each student is doing in each class because four or five teachers rotate the same group of students each day. This always allows middle schoolers to transition from elementary to high school more smoothly. Instead of going from having one teacher all day with the same group of classmates to having a different teacher for every subject and different classmates each period, students are able to build relationships with their classmates while still experiencing the concept of changing classes. Team teaching also helps to connect the subjects instead of having rigid, disconnected curriculum in each class. The school I have been in that employ these concepts seem to have more structure and have time and support to do less direct instruction and while trying out other instructional techniques.

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