Articles that focus on the young adolescent
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Making a Personal Connection with Young Adolescents

Projects Can Work for Parents too!
Middle Level Sports Done Right
Designing Curriculum that Works
Living With & Teaching Young Adolescents: A Teacher's Perspective by Rick Wormeli

 

 

 

 

 

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April 2007 • Volume 10 • Number 4 • Pages 40-41 Making a Personal Connection with Young Adolescents David Polochanin Interest seems to pique in my sixth grade English class when I speak of "randomness," a term I use to describe divergent, off-the-topic thinking. It occurs, also, when I discuss my propensity to misplace things, including my lesson plans. Students love when that happens. They enjoy stories about my weird personal writing process, something the young adolescents are discovering for themselves. I'll tell them, for instance, that the first few lines of many of the columns and essays I've had published in newspapers over the years began as scribbled notes on paper scraps, written against my car's steering wheel. Sometimes, I tell them, I pull over if my idea needs to be completely legible. My students are interested to hear that I've procrastinated nearly every important project in my life, failed a college class, have had less than $100 in my bank account at times, and that, when I need to release stress, I like to ride my mountain bike while listening to Led Zeppelin. Sometimes, I have to play a clip, or all eight minutes of "Kashmir" to let them know who Led Zeppelin is. I contend that this is all time well spent. Making personal connections, if only briefly, is important regardless of the grade level, but it seems especially important to middle school students. Teachers who share of themselves by revealing personal anecdotes and insights concerning who they are outside the classroom are taking a leap toward establishing trust—and even credibility—with their students. And, as most middle school teachers know, trust becomes a suddenly important concept for a 12- or 13-year-old. In my experience, teachers who create comfortable learning environments by revealing themselves (while controlling classroom behavior, of course), are ultimately rewarded—with rich discussions, fewer behavioral problems, and increased student effort. This isn't done all at once, but rather through vignettes and "teachable moments" throughout the year. Spanning the Gaps Young adolescents, I believe, are more complex learners than those in other grade levels because their lives are in massive transition. Every facet of their lives—academic, emotional, social, and physical—is in flux. Every day, I witness an intellectual gap among students in my school. For instance, I've had students read—and understand—adult novels, such as Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code or Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven. The fact that 12-year-olds are even interested in these books reflects their maturity level. Other students, meanwhile, might read The Series of Unfortunate Events or a book in the Goosebumps series and have trouble with them—if they're interested in reading at all. I witness a social and emotional gap, too. Some kids stay up until midnight chatting with friends on their computer. These children are ahead of their time—and behind on their sleep. Others hit the sack without encouragement by 8 p.m. clutching their favorite teddy bear. Outside my homeroom, I see the seeds of romance, as couples awkwardly, and sometimes not-so-awkwardly, form. At the same time, I see across the hall, children who have no desire stronger than to just go outside and play when they get home. Physically, young adolescents' differences can be striking. The 11-year-old girl who towers over a boy by a foot is not unusual. The cracking of a boy's voice is sometimes apparent. Physical differences such as these can affect self-esteem, popularity, performance in sports, and attitude in general. I'm intrigued by this developmental chasm. I teach children who in many ways are ready for ninth grade. And I teach children who could fit seamlessly into a fourth grade class. I don't know of any other grade level where this range is true. Making It Stick When I recently asked my students to write about the most memorable classroom lessons they've experienced in fifth and sixth grade, the phrase that came up again and again was that they liked "interactive" learning. One student noted: "I like teachers who show students how to do things, and not just talk." Here are more of their ideas: Reading suspenseful books aloud Working in groups to construct buildings out of marshmallows and toothpicks Making clay bridges Dissecting a cow's eye Playing Jeopardy-type games in any subject Simulating life as an immigrant Using PowerPoint Learning longitude and latitude by tracking hurricanes Learning to shoot marbles to tie in with a short story Allowing students to lecture and ask questions to one another Teacher humor Learning shortcuts in math and solving challenging problems Releasing butterflies as part of a Spanish project Listening to music in class They embrace challenges. They are curious. They want to do, not sit passively. They enjoy activities that integrate the curriculum with the real world. Four months after I solicited student comments about their favorite lessons, I asked a similar question to teachers during a professional development workshop: "What lessons have you taught that you feel have effectively reached young adolescent learners?" They wrote one idea on a note card and swapped with a colleague. What followed was a rich discussion. Interestingly, many of the same ideas that my students listed came up. Reading aloud Letting students teach the class Sharing personal information with students Using cooperative learning groups Using computer programs such as PowerPoint and Excel Creating game shows as a way to review for quizzes Having high expectations Composing original music Using humor to lighten the mood The fact that there are similarities between the lists speaks volumes about teaching young adolescents. A Cooperative, Caring Effort I believe a common thread determines how effective teachers are with young adolescent learners: teachers must understand them. Twelve and 13-year-olds are impressionable, opinionated; they're beginning to ask serious questions about the world they live in. Yet, as some did on a recent field trip, some still sing "The wheels on the bus go round and round … round and round … round and round." Not only did practically the whole bus sing this, but they did so with great enthusiasm, applauding after the song. It's also important to recognize that, unless we challenge them and diversify our lessons, activities, and assessments, we will not get the most out of these children. Recent developments in brain-based learning have improved the manner in which we teach young adolescents. Wilson and Horch, writing in the September 2002 issue of Middle School Journal, offer sound recommendations. They suggest that teachers need to employ a multidisciplinary and multisensory approach to learning. Teachers can do this by asking students to develop their own projects; using simulations; integrating music, smell, touch, and emotion into learning tasks; encouraging student reflection and collaboration; and providing students with problems that can be solved in different ways. The early adolescent years are arguably the most important in reinforcing learning habits and lifelong values. As pressures—internal, societal, peer, and parental— confront students, educators play a key role. We must provide an atmosphere of intellectual challenge and support; stimulate curiosity of children with appropriate projects and activities; and create a culture that serves the exceptional emotional needs of this population. David Polochanin, a former journalist for The Boston Globe and Providence Journal, teaches sixth grade Language Arts at Gideon Welles School in Glastonbury, Connecticut, where he is active in professional development. E-mail: polochanind@glastonburyus.org. 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Designing Curriculum that
Works with Young Adolescents

Young adolescents, roughly students in grades 5-9, are undergoing tremendous physical, emotional, social, intellectual, and moral changes.  This time of rapid growth in a child’s life is only surpassed by the first year of infancy.  Consequently, thoroughly understanding adolescent development is a great tool in assisting the teacher to design appropriate and effective curricula for this age level.

An examination of the various characteristics of young adolescents easily reveals suggestions of curriculum design that works with this age group: the student is engaged and productive, resulting in better class climate and fewer behavior management challenges.

Intellectual Development

Egocentricity:  The YA tends to be self-focused.  Projects such as research papers or reports should involve a student’s personal interests, allow for exploration to identify interest, or permit the student to describe some aspect of himself or herself.  Some suggestions are The Three-Search paper, interest inventories, heritage explorations.

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Living With and Teaching Young Adolescents:
A Teacher's Perspective

by Rick Wormeli

    The middle level years are an extraordinary period of our human development.  The only other time we grow as much physically, emotionally, and intellectually is from ages zero to two.  But early adolescence is much more than just tripping over large feet and calling friends on the phone to discuss who likes whom.  The way we deal with conflict, relationships and personal development as adults have direct connections to specific experiences we had between the ages of ten and fourteen.  We can create a very positive future, then, when we provide careful and compassionate experiences for today's young adolescents.

The Truth About Young Adolescents

One of my middle school students is the oldest in her family.  She cooks dinner and does laundry for her young siblings because both parents work at night.  She also bathes her siblings and puts them to bed before starting on her homework.  Last year, another student coordinated the building of an elevated sidewalk through a mud pit at the back entrance to a local school.  In May, one of my students raised over $22,000 for the National Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.  Other students at my school came in second for having the most soda cans recycled.  Several students performed the National Anthem at a regional swimming Olympics program attended by thousands.  One seventh grader was a volunteer performer at a Virginia plantation re-enactment, and another was an opera singer who performed at the Kennedy Center.

Bragging?  You bet.  The great thing is that anyone who works with middle schoolers can probably make the same claims about students in their area of the nation.  In transition from child to adult, these morphing humans are amazing doers and thinkers.  Their comments can be profound, pithy, honest, absurd, and juvenile, all at the same time.  They reveal developing wisdom, deep understanding, free spirit, and are a generation of thinkers in the making.  They are a far cry from the inept persona some journalists assign to this stage of human development.

With good reason, my wife and I ask middle school students to baby-sit our six and seven-year-old children rather than most high school students.  Why?  Young adolescents are ceaselessly conscientious.  They are not apathetic in positions of trust.  Doing the right thing matters to them.  They want to be taken seriously so badly that they go overboard to make sure they are perceived as responsible.  When I've taught students who had challenges at home or personal problems such as diabetes, other middle school students are often the most mature and tender sources of help.

The young adolescents in my school can analyze news articles that disparage their age group using logical fallacies such as false dichotomies or emotional appeal arguments.  They can analyze President Hoover's political actions with big business during his term of office and compare them to today's issues with the Microsoft court case.  They can determine the exact among of paint needed to completely cover an L-shaped office building minus the spaces for doors and windows.  They can prepare entire multi-media presentations with proper presentation etiquette and student-enhanced digital photography worthy of any corporate boardroom.  They can run their own television studios, and they can speak and sing in front of thousands.  They can also tell you what personal pronoun is third person, plural, objective case.

In the next breath, however, young adolescents can be absurd, on purpose or by accident.  Tough kids get their braces stuck in classroom pillows or glue their armpits so they can't raise their arms without ripping hair, both of which recently happened in my classroom.  Seemingly sophisticated students laugh until they cry when someone passes gas during a test, and they all ask questions that were answered four seconds earlier.  They get dramatic about budding romance, and they bump up against the rules society has imposed on them and have to face the consequences. Those of us who work with middle schoolers delight in seeing the world through their eyes.  It keeps everything fresh.  Our classes are full of human in the making and we have a front row seat as coaches and referees.  Never, however, do we use student indiscretions and confusions to paint the whole picture of the charges before us.

Numerous young adolescents who gave me nothing but frustration and less than acceptable work in their middle school years went on to become wonderful students in high school and college.  Somewhere inside them they were germinating the seeds of what they could become.  With each one, we look past the frustrating years, and we do not hold their current state of development against them.  What would we have become if we had been held to the labels placed on us as young adolescents.  We're farmers who trust that the crop will produce, even before the first seed has sprouted.

Though their accomplishments are often exceptional, most middle schoolers cannot be held accountable for adult-level expertise and expression, either.  For example, I can't compare their first attempts at technical writing to that of accomplished technical writers in the field.  We can barely do that with accomplished high schoolers.  Nor can I get angry over their inability to express themselves coherently.  They're closer to being children than they are to being adults.  It was relatively recently that they were sleeping with the light on while wearing their favorite super hero pajama, stuffed animals lining the beds.  They laugh when people trip, and their tongues become lead when someone on whom they have a crush walks by.  To expect them to perform at adult levels is cruel.  We're there to do everything possible to ensure their success, not to critique inadequacies.

 

So How Are They Different?

 

As adults we sometimes forget that most young adolescents:

• don't remember a world with anything other than Windows 95 or 98 or a Pentium processor

• have not known a time without mini-vans

• assumed there has always been an African American and a woman Supreme Court Justice

• have never known movie tickets to be less than $6 or $7

• don't know what freshly run ditto paper smells like

• have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan era or the Persian Gulf War

• weren't even alive when the Space Shuttle, Challenger, blew up

• have never known the world without AIDS

• don't understand the expression "you sound like a broken record"

• think that roller-skating has always meant inline

• think that the Vietnam War is as ancient history as World War I or even the Civil War.

Young adolescents are physiologically different from adolescents and those in late childhood.  They undergo rapid physical, intellectual and moral growth.  They move from concrete to abstract thinking, and from absurdity to rationality, and back again.  They deal with tremendous pressures from peers, parents, and society, all the while searching for identity, purpose, security, and acceptance.  These shifts produce strong emotions.  Acting out, feeling hurt, defining authority by defying it, and alternating between being a child and being an adult all create situations that demand guidance from compassionate adults who have lived through those phases.  Young adolescents crave:

• positive social interaction with adults and peers

• structure and clear limits

• physical activity

• creative expression

• competence and achievement

• meaningful participation in families, school and communities, and

• opportunities for self-definition.

If we don't meet these needs at home and at school, young adolescents will become alienated, lack self-esteem and a sense of belonging, and choose destructive methods of coping, including delinquency and drugs.  Early adolescence is the last point of effective intervention before their reversible downward spiral toward self-destruction that can occur if we do not provide developmentally responsive learning environments for these students.  Children between the ages of ten and fourteen do not need either the protected coddling of elementary school nor the alienating subject departmentalization of high school.  They need a bridge between the two levels, something that is age appropriate, focusing on unique intellectual, social, emotional, moral, and physical needs.  Young adolescents are forging autonomy and identity.  Their physical changes are so rapid, they often don't have time to adjust.  Discomfort or embarrassment occur.  They are needy, moving from extreme egotism to thoughtful humility.  They are champions for what is fair to the point where that's all that matters in some conversations.  And just to make it exciting, they are all maturing at different rates with varying degrees of intensity.

Parents and Schools Working with Young Adolescents

Today's middle school classrooms can include students' parents in every step of the middle school experience.  Current technology, innovation, and invitations improve upon yesterday's middle school approaches to parent communication.  We're only on the first rung of a ladder to many new opportunities for parent-teacher communications.  On-line posting services are one of the most amazing phenomena to hit middle schools in the past few years.  Teachers can post daily, weekly, and monthly homework, tests and quizzes, project directions, maps, student work, vocabulary lists, chalkboard notes, and much more.

Moms and Dads should realize their continuing -- but different -- role.  Don't let the middle school years be the time to let your child fly solo.  Some parents back off from their children's lives when their children enter middle school, claiming that their children need to meet consequences on their own, good or bad.  Experience and collective wisdom from those who've passed this way before, however, all disagree.  Early adolescence is a time to actually increase parental involvement, not reduce it.  Parents wouldn't stop mid-stride from teaching 11-month-old Kenny how to walk when he was a toddler; they shouldn't back off from helping him develop strong character and academic success in his early adolescence.  It's important for young adolescents to know that an adult's being in their presence is time well spent.  It's affirmation that they count for something.

Educating and Raising Healthy Young Adolescents

Eighty percent of all jobs our students will one day hold haven't been invented yet.  Experts say, in fact, that the overall amount of knowledge that exists is doubling every ten to twelve months, whereas it used to double every decade, then every few years.  Futurists add that current young adolescents do not need teachers who see themselves solely as dispensers of all there is to know about particular subjects.  They need dynamic adults offering a solid core of current knowledge but ones who create the ability and inclination to learn more in the years ahead.  We have to respond to an evolving future before it happens.  John W. Gardner was right when he said, "All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants.  Content preparation isn't enough."  Benjamin Franklin once said, "Tim was so learned that he could name a horse in the nine languages, [but] so ignorant that he bought a cow to ride on."  Future employers and the community want more than individuals who can cite facts and figures.  Companies want employees who can also self-educate, solve problems, anticipate needs, collaborate with others, think for themselves, and behave ethically.

The modern middle school approach has developed four important components that distinguish it from the traditional junior high school.

First, it incorporates some form of an advisory program so that every student is a part of a small group of students (less than 20) assigned to an advisor.  Such a program develops close relationships between students and adults, gives them a sense of belonging and an advocate.

Second, it features interdisciplinary teaming wherein a core of academic teachers is assigned to the same group of students.  These teachers have a common planning period, so they are able to respond collaboratively to the needs of individual students, meet jointly with parents, and design instructional units that relate the subjects to one another and to life.

Third, they utilize varied approaches to instruction in conducting a rigorous curriculum that also addresses students own questions and focuses upon real life issues, calling for their active engagement in problem-solving while mastering fundamental knowledge and skills.  Lots of hands-on activities are possible in a flexible block schedule under the direction of the team.  Service projects and varied learning strategies meet their needs for creative expression and meaningful participation in our communities.

Finally, they include exploratory programs and enrichment experiences that capitalize on the innate curiosity of young adolescents, exposing them to a wide range of academic, vocational, and recreational subjects for career options, community service, and enrichment.  Here they may discover aptitudes, talents, interests that will impact the rest of their lives.  Exploratory areas include foreign languages, home and family living, technological arts, music, art, speech, drama, careers, consumer education, creative writing, intramurals, interest clubs, and other activities.

Middle school teachers are committed both to young adolescents and to their subject area.  They have very high expectations for all students, not just those who show promise early on.  They assess learning authentically, frequently, and in such a manner as to diagnose and teach, not just document deficiencies.  They find academic and physical competitions for students to enter then coach them on how to study.  They teach them how to cope with disappointment and with success, give them positions of real responsibility, and require them to do some things which they are not entirely sure of themselves, standing by their sides every step of the way.  They affirm positive risk-taking and include everyone who wants to participate.  All students who want a speaking part in this year's Shakespeare play, for instance, receive one, even if it means we have to split a longer speech into two speeches.

Attitude can turn a blob of sand into King Arthur's castle.  The reality is that teachers and parents of young adolescents teach more by what they are theanby what they say.  Young adolescents often do not separate the teacher from his or her attitude -- the teacher is the attitude.  Students are looking for hope.  The adults in their lives inspire them to do the right thing.  They exemplify the virtues they teach.  They model making a positive contribution to the world and being of service to others.  They strive to merit respect.  And they enjoy themselves while doing it!  Good spirit is contagious.
 

Assessment and Accountability for Young Adolescents

Middle school teachers are judicious in how time is spent in the classroom.  They do things with young adolescents that can only be done when everyone is together.  They don't waste precious time on activities that can do done at home or ones that enable teachers to grade papers while students do busy work.  Accountability pervades the whole middle school concept.  Because we are so committed to becoming aware of student strengths and areas for improvement, then taking specific action and establishing high, rigorous goals as a result of that knowledge, today's middle school is far more demanding than yesterday's junior high school ever was.  The use of authentic and alternative assessments alone qualifies for intense accountability towards a high standard.  The feedback and responsibility are clearly delineated.  Students and teachers are pushed towards excellence, not mediocrity. 

When being assessed, young adolescents respond well to real audiences.  When someone in the outside world witnesses middle school students efforts, they become highly motivated.  For instance, I get nearly 100 percent participation from all 140 of my students on our class literary magazine when they know those magazines will be displayed in hospital and dentist waiting rooms across our community.  Whenever possible, middle schools and parents should use real audiences for middle schoolers' work -- real scientist can review students science projects; members of the community can review student literary and news magazines in offices; the town historian can give feedback on student community histories; and a local landscaper can work with students to landscape their school grounds.  If they know their science messages or art projects might be handing in the local Jiffy Lube or the dentist's office, students become accountable to their community, friends and family.  They put more effort into achieving the high standards we've set.

As we assess young adolescents, we use frequent and formative feedback.  Good assessment of young adolescents' work should never be saved for the end of a unit.  We evaluate along the way, giving students feedback on their performance while they're learning.  Football coaches don't wait until the football game is over to tell their players what they were doing wrong.  An end-of-unit grade on a six-week project does little to motivate young adolescents.  Multiple confirmations of success or redirection motivate students, however.  Peer critiques, self-critiques and think-alouds motivate students.

Much of a young adolescent's academic success is influenced by abilities in reading comprehension.  Reading comprehension, however, has more to do with students' background and readiness than it does with the mere ability to decode or define words.  Teachers and parents who want students to understand and remember concepts spend time creating background experiences prior to intense study. Before giving students a reading assignment, for example. we can show them pictures of video excerpts to provide a context.  We can ask them to role-play, hear testimonials, watch demonstrations, listen to stories, do simulations, or participate in a relevant field trip.  The reverse is true as well; before we take them on a field trip, students do several readings about their destination so that they have a readiness to benefit from the location.  The idea is to create some familiarity about content before engaging in it at a challenging level.  If done, young adolescents remember the material and can use it intelligently.

In today's middle schools, we try to fulfill Oscar Wilde's declaration that the goal of every teacher is to put himself our of a job.  Good teachers and parents of young adolescents find ways for everyone to experience depth and competence, no matter where their standardized test scores fall.  No one is left to the shallows, and no young adolescent will be considered less than worthy of intellectual challenge.

Conclusion

Teaching young adolescents is one of the most demanding and rewarding jobs in life.  We must apply extremely varied instructional strategies in concert with substantive content and skills, all while navigating hormonal storms and identity expeditions from humans at their most awkward stages.  The mental dexterity and commitment to excellence of middle school teachers is beyond reproach.  Middle school teachers are on the frontline, shaping a very real tomorrow.

I love being on those front lines.  Teaching young adolescents is a combination of serving in the Peace Corps, organizing an amoebae circus, competing in the Decathlon, being a salesman, and vying for an Academy Award.  In no other job do you laugh aloud, ignite someone's imagination, bring peace, pose conflict, kiss frogs, quell fears, affirm goodness, stand amazed, and read a crumpled love note that assures the end of the world by 3:00 that afternoon.  And that's just the end of first period!  I wouldn't miss it for anything.  After teaching for two decades, I believe that the world is going to be a better place for these individuals' substantive contributions.  Middle school teachers are the bridge between the past, present, and future, not just the bridge between elementary and secondary levels.  We are many things to many people, but most of all, we, along with their parents, are the significant others in the lives of these vulnerable young people.

Want to really affect the future?  Spend time with a young adolescent!

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Middle Level Sports Done Right

There is no doubt that sports are important for young adolescent development, but what type environment helps them learn the right lessons?

Sports experiences should promote exploration and not specialization. Young adolescents should have opportunities to try a variety of different sports just for the sheer joy of learning something new. No pressure. No championships. No fans watching from the stands. This is not the time for youngsters to limit themselves to playing one or two sports all year.

Second, middle school students should strengthen their fundamental skills in a variety of activities, not just basketball, volleyball, and baseball. Sports like swimming, cross country skiing, and tennis are excellent lifelong activities. These are sports they will participate in long after they've played their last basketball game in high school.

Finally, being part of a team, developing sportsmanship, and building meaningful relationships are lessons that have long lasting implications for life outside of sports. This is really the heart of "sports done right" for young adolescents.

For more information about middle level sports, see the newly released report from the University of Maine, Sports Done Right , available online at www.mcce.umaine.edu/index.htm.

Adapted from the 2005 • Volume 9 • Number 3 issue of Family Connections, a publication of the National Middle School Association (NMSA), as part of our ongoing commitment to middle level education.  For more information about NMSA please call 1-800-528-NMSA, or write to us at 4151 Executive Parkway, Suite 300, Westerville, OH 43081. 

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Projects Can Work for Parents, Too
 by Judith Baenen

Almost all middle school teachers use projects as a form of teaching and learning. Projects really work because they lead to active, hands-on experiences, which are so crucial for young adolescents.

Projects give teachers a vehicle for integrating curriculum and an opportunity for brain-based teaching and differentiated learning. Often projects require structures for cooperative learning and give students a chance to hone their social skills as well as pull together the subject matter.

Projects are great for middle schoolers—but they drive parents crazy.

It has been said that today's school-aged children are the most supervised generation yet to be seen. Playpen manufacturers went out of business years ago; doctors admit that children receive antibiotics more than ever because of demanding parents; and parents not only attend every game, but every practice, every music lesson, every dance class.

It's not surprising that many parents also wish to supervise homework, especially big assignments like projects.

Here are some tips for teachers in helping parents through a project:

Be sure that parents understand the goals of the project. Be as specific as possible. "Understand the trials of immigrants coming to the United States" isn't as helpful as "Trace the specific route immigrants from Ireland traveled from their hometown to the United States and describe the difficulties they encountered along the way." The first sentence (understand the trials…) is your pedagogical objective, but it can be easily misinterpreted as a project goal by both parents and students.

Distribute all directions multiple times, and do what you can to assure that parents have seen them. One of the big complaints that teachers hear is, "My child doesn't know what she's supposed to do." Distributing the information one time isn't enough, even for students, and it certainly doesn't assure that the parents received a copy. You might include a sheet that parents can sign to indicate that they've received and posted the information at home.

Break the assignment into meaningful parts with intermediate deadlines. The second biggest complaint from parents is that they didn't know the assignment was due and their child started the project at the last minute. A well-structured assignment with multiple deadlines cannot be left until the last minute. You and the student will know if he or she is behind schedule, and you can inform parents before things get out of hand.

If working as a group is important, let students and parents know. If students learning how to work together is one of the goals of the project, say so.

Help students and parents understand how the project will be graded. Be clear in advance what each step of the project is worth. Is a PowerPoint presentation going to be worth more than a poster board? Will decorations and drawings count? If the project involves group work, explain how you will determine who in the group did what on each section, and whether or not you will assess each student individually.

Most importantly, make up your mind that the project is a learning experience, not a goal in itself. In spite of what seems like a lot of babying of students, the fact is that you are teaching them the process of developing a project. As you teach this process again and again, the students begin to understand the procedure, and by the end of eighth grade, most students can work the process on their own.

Parents will see the growth in their children and will be willing to let go a bit. They also trust that teachers aren't frivolously assigning overwhelming tasks that "no one could do in the time allowed." Projects are a terrific tool for middle schoolers, and when well-organized, they also work for parents.

 

Adapted from the March 2005 • issue of Middle E-Connections, a publication of the National Middle School Association (NMSA), as part of our ongoing commitment to middle level education.  For more information about NMSA please call 1-800-528-NMSA, or write to us at 4151 Executive Parkway, Suite 300, Westerville, OH 43081. 

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