Middle School Centers

In school, children participate in two worlds: the official school world and the unofficial social world. The official school world consists of school work that is evaluated by authoritative figures and scrutinized by administrators of standardized tests. The unofficial social world is created by peers. Caroline Maurer describes the advantage of merging these two worlds together: "When children are put together in an official school world, they use peer talk to share ideas, exert power and gain control over an unofficial world... an unofficial world that exists under the radar of adult influences" (Meeting Academic Standards through Peer Dialogue at Literacy Centers).  Although Maurer's article focuses on centers in an elementary classroom, I believe that there is great insight to be gained and tailored for middle school students. At an age where peer approval is prioritized and active engagement is desired, I find the use of centers to be developmentally appropriate in a middle school Language Arts classroom. Centers provide physical movement in the classroom and intellectual stimulation as the students work on things that are important to them, and develop social skills while allowing time to building relationships with peers. In addition, centers encourage the students to take on responsibility for their own learning and help to develop a level of accountability.

It is more than likely that a teacher will run into management problems with the use of centers. What if the students get off task? What if they need extra help? How can you, as the teacher, be facilitating every group at once? It is important to plan to avoid these problems all together. The teacher should have explicit instructions at each center instructing the students on what to do. Each student should be assigned a particular role to rule out the chance that one or two students will emerge to carry the rest of the group. For struggling readers, it might even be necessary to have the instructions and activity recorded in order to guide them through the process. The teacher should rotate through the groups to answer any additional questions or help where difficulties arise, or work with a specific group individually. A question I would like to pose, however, is how the groups should be determined. Should students always work with the same groups to build a level of camaraderie with group members or should the groups be scrambled every so often? Should the groups be assigned according to ability or should each group have a mix of strong and struggling students? And how much time should be alloted to each center?

I think this approach would be extremely effective in a reading and writing workshop, with each center focusing on a specific skill. In a reading workshop I might assign students to the center that they are struggling the most with, encouraging them to develop in one area and move onto another. In a writing workshop I might allow a little bit more freedom, letting the students choose a particular station. Each workshop would benefit from the use of centers, because both reading and writing are skills that can continually be developed at the pace of the individual. There are so many aspects to reading and writing, it would be helpful to break it up and allow room for discussion with peers.

The National Middle School Association Conference in 2007 published a helpful guideline for establishing centers in a middle school classroom. Launching Learning Centers in the Middle Grades is great place to begin brainstorming ideas for centers in your own middle school classroom.

Fun With Words

If there is one thing I have learned in class this week, it is that learning vocabulary is an ACTIVE process. And it can be fun!

The English language is incredible when it comes to its ability to adapt and mold to the things and ideas it needs to describe. Have you ever wanted to clearly get a thought across, but you just could not think of the right word to use? For example, for the past two weeks I have been dancing around the word "finesse." Every day in soccer practice, it's at the tip of my tongue and I just wanted to shout out "Finesse! You need finesse on your touch!" But for the life of me, I could not find that word. So my instruction went a little like "softer! smoother! no...just tap it through nicely!" When the word finally came to me, it snapped my mind into sharper focus. I had a word to accurately describe my thoughts. Middle schoolers, in a world of chaotic change and self-discovery, can find peace at least when it comes to being able to voice their thoughts and opinions. Vocabulary plays a major role in this ability - it separates the mature, successful student from the struggling student. The need for vocabulary knowledge comes into play across the curriculum...so play with vocabulary and set your students up to be successful!

Learning vocabulary is an active process. You cannot just hand your student a list of words and a dictionary and say "write the definition for each words 3 times, and I expect you to begin using them on a regular basis." This is especially true when it comes to the definitions that contain the word you are trying to define (courageous: having or possessing courage). The teacher must talk the students through the definition and engage their minds in finding concrete examples of the word. A funny thing about the English language is that there are so many nuances to different words that cannot be explained by a single, written definition. For example, what is the difference between "to question" and "to inquire"? If you look at a dictionay, "to question" means to inquire and "to inquire" means to question. So why are there two words? Yes, English is a funny language and your students can have a blast playing with words and definitions!

Every time I read I come across words I do not know. I have learned to recognize this and take appropriate measures to find out for myself. I believe that we need to teach our students to do this as well. I love the idea of providing each student with a bookmark that they can write new words on when they come across them in a text. Then, in class, we can discuss some of these stumpers. What are some other ways we can excite our students about words and teach them new vocabulary in an active, fun way?

Independent, Lifelong Learners

This is the purpose of teaching: That my students won't need me anymore.

This is one of many statements that Lindsey Anderson made last spring during a discussion led by herself and Professor Mike Borka. Lindsey Anderson is a recent St. Bens graduate and now teaches at Orono. She teamed up with Mike Borka to explore reading and writing workshops in elementary schools and led a discussion about what they had discovered. The above statement is one that has stuck with me.

Ask any teacher what they love most about teaching and many of them will tell you that "seeing the lightbulb turn on" is what makes everything else worth it. They love working diligently with a student to the point where "it" finally "clicks." As future teachers, I think we are all excited to be the person that the student can count on. We like to call the shots, give information and watch the students soak it in. What happens, though, when the teacher is no longer there? Where will students turn to get their questions answered and who will stimulate deeper thought on a given subject? As teachers, we need to give our students the tools to know how to learn and to know that they are capable.

I think that the most important learning goal for middle level students is to develop the skills needed to become independent, lifelong learners. Middle level students are very impressionable and teachers should use this to the students' own advantage when considering teaching in a middle level school. Elementary years are for laying the groundwork; high school years are about honing those skills for future use in settings outside the high school classroom. Middle level years should be used to ignite a love for learning and to develop the skills needed for success in every area of their lives: reading, writing and thinking. We should develop avid readers, reflective writers and curious thinkers. After all, the future of our world is in the hands of our youth... we need to prepare those hands to gently handle this precious burden and mold it into a beautiful place welcome to all.

So how does a teacher embark upon this journey of molding independent, lifelong learners? She demonstrates that she, herself, is one of those, too. This teacher is passionate about learning. She is knowledgeable about her subject but willing to learn more. She is a student as well as a teacher. And this is demonstrated by her eagerness to show her students why and how that happened. Within the context of a language arts classroom, she reads from a variety of genres and frequently talks about the books she is reading; she questions aloud about the author's intentions and wonders to her students about the plot, argument or theme. She writes constantly and shares her work with her students, inviting them to offer their thoughts and criticism; she praises the solace and comfort she finds in giving her thoughts a voice on paper. She does not tell her students how to learn and sit back and watch; she explores the many ways to learn and ventures down the path with her students at her side.

I am proud to say that I am an independent, lifelong learner. I have learned the skills and strategies necessary to question my world and find answers in unlikely places. My groundwork has been established, my skills honed, and now education is able to originate internally rather than externally. I have yet to develop, however, the skills and strategies for externalizing my behavior. My curiosity and thirst for knowledge comes from a bottomless well within me - I need to find a way to raise the bucket and let my experience overflow and influence the minds of my students. That being said, my goal for this course is to reflect on why learning is so close to my heart and experiment with ways to externalize my findings. This class is an opportunity to explore and practice - after all is said and done, I want to look back at my experience and know that I left my students with more than a few nuggets of knowledge; I want them to have found a new place in their heart where their love for learning has taken root and will continue to grow throughout their lives.

Intentional

I have a new favorite word that really stands for a whole mindset. Intentional. Be intentional with your time, be intentional with your words, and be intentional with your actions; in the blogging world, be intentional will your posts and with your comments.

When creating a new post, as I mentioned in an earlier blog, harbor an open mind! Do not weave an opinion into an absolute fact. Not only can this be misleading but it also distances yourself from your readers. Be careful also not to generalize. Pose your ideas concisely in such a way that allows others to enter the converstaion and turn it into a explosion of thoughts and ideas!

The feedback offered on collaborators' posts should be contructive and well-thought out. You must consider the author and the purpose of the post and respond accordingly; that being said, whether you agree or disagree with what the author is saying, agree or disagree with the IDEA, not the person. Feedback should also be relevant to the content contained within the post - new ideas, meaningful insights and answers to posed questions are welcome. Personal connections to the post are interesting and welcome as well. However, when the comments veer off track it takes away from the original purpose of the post. Respect the author's space and ideas.

As Pete said in his blog, blogs can "quickly devolve into the online equivalent of grunting apes." Let's keep our blogs clean and classy. And remember, use the writing process - blogs are a published piece of writing so consider your purpose, support your ideas and polish it off with some pretty spelling and punctuation.