List courtesy of the Port Huron, Michigan New Teacher Induction Program

 To effectively instruct today's youth, our educators must not only be academically prepared to teach in the content areas but also be equipped to respond to the linguistic needs of diverse students. Research indicates that teaching students to read and write effectively can improve student performances in all subject areas. Test scores in low-performing schools rose last year in the wake of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). NCLB requires testing and quantifiable goals to reform the country's schools. Merrill Vargo, consultant and director of Springboard Schools, talks with Steve Inskeep  on NPR  about what she advises schools to do to raise their test scores. One key cornerstone is to recognize that literacy skills are crucial to academic success across the curriculum, NCLB currently makes improving children’s reading skills a centerpiece of its reform agenda. A  newsletter from the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory offers insights about how to reach NCLB reading standards at all levels, K-12, and provides specific advice for principals on school wide reading initiatives. Reading across the curriculum enables students to comprehend the expository text in their textbooks. 

 Reading is only a partial step, writing and writing well completes the picture, especially for the older students. Teaching Middle School And High School Students to Read and Write Well- Six Features of Effective Instruction is a great article about implementing reading and writing. Fortunately, teachers across disciplines have added writing as part of their assignments.  Writing assignments are very beneficial. They enhance students' general writing ability and increase the understanding of content. The biggest concerns are time and fairness in the grading process. The University of Virginia has produced a great article called “A Method for Grading Essays in Any Course.  Rubrics are also an excellent grading tool. Rubrics can help cut down on grading time while ensuring more objective grading practices.  Creating grading rubrics for a writing assignment is another article that can assist you in creating effective rubrics.

 A great site that can assist teachers is writing across the discipline is OWL (On-line Writing Lab) produced by Purdue University.  

Two great free online classes that can give you insight are Reading in the Content Areas: It's Just Different and Writing in Content Areas: Understanding Content.

 A list of useful strategies  are:

• Before reading begins, good readers can prepare for reading content material by identifying what they already know about the topic, writing specific questions that they would like answered and making specific predictions about what they think they will learn.
• During reading, good readers should generate mental pictures about what they are reading; occasionally summarize their reading; answer the questions they prepared earlier; check their predictions; and identify concepts or ideas that are confusing.
• After reading, good readers can create a summary of what they learned and how they can apply the information they have learned. Some readers record their summary information on a before reading/after reading chart. There are various kinds of before reading/after reading charts for students to use.
• A KWL (Know, Want to know and Learned) chart is another useful technique that builds on a reader's prior knowledge before new knowledge is introduced. KWL charts can be done individually or in cooperative learning groups.
• A quick reference for students to use is Comprehension System "8" (1989). It utilizes key words (Look, Think, Predict, Picture, Question, Read, Reread, Write and Ask) with graphics to remind students of strategies to use before and after reading.
• Direct explanation lesson and reciprocal teaching are two strategies that also utilize information gained before, during, and after reading. Both strategies provide students with ample opportunities to set the purpose for the text reading by questioning, summarizing, predicting and clarifying text elements.
• Graphic organizers provide verbal and visual structures for new vocabulary as well as the organizational structure of the text. Graphic organizers can also be used as a comprehensive framework, providing a means by which students can analyze and visualize relationships of key concepts. One version of a graphic organizer, mindmapping, utilizes graphic symbols to represent ideas and details.
• Chapter mapping, or webbing, is a different kind of note taking and outlining. It is a visual representation of key concepts or main ideas and supporting details in textbook chapters. To develop a map, students identify the central purpose of the chapter, unit, or title and put it in the center of the paper or chart. Map or web out from the center of the major idea and add supporting details from each.

I have a confession to make. I have a serious addiction. I am a “bird watcher”. I am not a hard core AA (Audubon Association) document everything I see but I am powerless over it.  Bird watching  make my life much more manageable. It is the spiritual power it has over me. I can watch and contemplate my life and begin to understand the real meaning of life. I do have an inventory of the birds in my life. I live on the bayou of Lake Sinclair were the river and lake meet. Blue Herons, Egrets, KingFisher (belted), Canadian Geese, Mallards, Wood Ducks, & Tree Swallows are regular lake companions. I have to admit to a wrong doing- I prefer the tree swallows the best. They delight me with their swooping and movements. I also have a pair of Ospreys that I follow in the fall which bring me great excitement.

I guess my addition would not be such a defect in character if I left my bird watching to the lake but my shortcomings continue into my yard. I am an official Nutty Birdwatcher. I have feeders & bird boxes attached to my deck, trees, and poles.  Dallas & I are constantly harming the squirrels and black birds by chasing them off the feeders. The inventory of my backyard birds continue. Woodpeckers, Titmouse,  Nuthatch, Finches, Cardinals, Blue Jays, Robins, Mourning Doves, Blue Birds and Brown Thrashers are the regular bird watching menagerie .

I awake every morning to a cup of coffee and my daily fix of bird watching. It is the time I meditate and thank God that I have such a wonderful existence. I guess my spiritual awakening is a message to each of you- find something in your life that brings you peace, harmony, and closeness to nature. I know it makes me a better person and teacher.

I am rewriting a class about the Nature & Needs of the Middle School Learner. This particular group of students are challenging and gratifying to work with. They fluctuate between being gown and engaging to being an emotional basket case within a 2 minute time frame. I sometimes believed there is not a lot of difference in a 2year old & 13 year old emotionally. 

What are the Developmental Characteristics of Middle Schoolers?

Physical- “Am I Normal?

Intellectual- “Do I Have To Learn?”

Social/Emotional-“Do You Think I Am?”

I have been in and out a number of Middle Schools in my job at RESA.  They all varied according to the administrative mind set.  What is a Middle School?  It is the three to five years between the elementary and high school which focuses on the educational needs of students in these in-between “Transence” (Transence: the stage of development which begins prior to the onset of puberty and extends through the early stages of adolescence) years and is intended to be designed to promote continuous educational progress for all concerned. The Georgia Department of Education (GDOE) has Middle School Program Criteria.   

What makes a Middle School Exemplary? According to research done by the National Middle School Association  (NMSA) an exemplary middle school addresses the distinctiveness of these early adolescences with research proven instructional and organizational components. These five components include:

  Interdisciplinary teaming

  Advisory programs

  Varied instruction

  Exploratory programs

  Transition programs

  George & Shewey's research indicated that several factors were essential to the long-term success of middle schools (pp. 67-106). The percentages indicate respondents who felt identified attributes were contributors to the long-term effectiveness of middle schools:

The best Middle Schools I have seen have been lead by caring and supportive administration.

What makes a good  middle school principal?  Michelle Pedigo, a national principal of the year, described a quality principal this way:

 First and foremost, a true LOVE for KIDS and the ability to show them you love them by being around them a lot.

  An understanding that middle level teachers are "different" because middle level kids are different. Expect them to engage their students in activity, not the junior high "sit and gets".

An understanding that all middle level schools must strive for academic excellence by being developmentally responsive to the middle level students' needs, and by looking for ways to be socially equitable through organizational supports.

Tenacity to persevere beyond the "nay Sayers."

Adolescents

David Puckett

I
do
see
them:
lively,
young,
growing
by leaps
and bounds;
bursting out
of poorly sewn,
mass-produced jeans,
to become individuals;
secure in their uniqueness;
no longer dependent on parents
or the uniformity of their own nonconformity:

castings dissatisfied with the constraints of the mold.