Chapter 15: Parents as Partners in 21st Century Learning Synthesis and Analysis

Synthesis

This chapter was about how to bring parents closer into the classroom. With the help of technology, innovation, and invitation, parent communications can be improved now and in years to come. The internet is a powerful tool in the hands of teachers and parents because it can help teachers post homework assignments, test and quizzes, project directions, samples of students work, reminders... the possibilities are endless! The author describes many electronic bulletin boards that he finds useful such as MyClass.net, Schoolnotes.com, Funbrain.com, and of course Blackboard.com. Emailing parents is another way of contacting them if they tend to forget to check the assignments on these bulletin board sites.

Even though the author raves about the wonders of the internet, he does recognize that some parents and families do not have computers or access to the internet. With this in mind, he still keeps a personal touch when talking with parents of his students. Wormeli suggests sending postcards to the parents about how their child is doing. He also suggests having parents come in to visit whenever they can and sometimes visiting the student's home to fully understand that student. Index card inquires seemed to be a popular approach when having conversations with parents so that the teacher is sure of what the parent and student wants out of his/her class. Having parents fill out a form or answer a few questions on an index card about their child would help the student immensely.

Analysis

People thought it was great that the author put this in the book. There weren't many tips but great ideas. Everyone seemed to agree on how important it is to include parents in the classroom. Using the internet is a great way to post assignments so parents can check on what their children need to do for that class and everyone agreed this is a good way to communicate past, present, and upcoming projects. Everyone realized that not all parents and families have the internet so the Post Card idea was so great. Another way to have parents discuss their concerns with their children is to fill out forms. Some people did not agree with the suggestion of going to the students' houses to talk with the parents.

Boys and Girls Learn Differently

I really liked the beginning activity with putting the pictures in order and splitting up the groups into girls, boys, and mixture. The activity made sense when the group explained the difference between how boys and girls would put the pictures in order. The different stations all had valuable points about different styles of teaching and procedures being done at some schools. Separating boys and girls for some classes such as math and science would make sense, but separating them all during the day or having just girl school or just boy school would stir up controversy. Even though boys and girls are distracted by the opposite sex around this time, I still feel that it is important for them to interact together in order for them to strive socially. The mandatory uniforms or sports sections of the book brought up such gray area. I could see how each of these could be beneficial and how they could be troublesome. Lastly, the guidance section was really important. I liked how boys do better when talking when they are doing something else, like walking. I also liked the fact that boys open up more to male counselors and girls with females. This made sense to me. Out of all the book talks I found this one to be the most controversial.

Parents as Partners in Twenty-First Century Learning

This chapter had many awesome ideas on how to connect with parents of students. I like the idea of having some type of online resource parents and students can use to keep up with the class. I'm pretty sure most high schools or middle schools have sites where parents can track their students' grades but it would be great to have a discussion board where parents can talk to the teacher and with each other. Also, if the homework is posted online, students can be reminded and parents can monitor the homework being done. I also liked the index card inquire where the author asked parents questions about their child/children such as "What do I need to know about your child to teach him/her better?" Sometimes it would be better to ask this throughout the year to get feedback. The only concern I would have is that parents may not participate.

Chapter 9: Involving Parents and Communities

I really like the statistics in the beginning of the chapter. Students are more likely to achieve in school if the student's family is able to create a home environment that encourages learning, express high (but realistic) expectations of children's achievements, and become involved in children's education at school and in the community. Doing these things benefits students by increasing their grades and test scores, better attendance, and higher graduation rates. Some key aspects for effective parent-school relations are establishing continuity between home and school, monitoring students' work (both the parent and the teacher), directing children toward constructive learning outside the school, and assisting directly in school's effort to improve.

Chapter 8: A Safe and Healthy School Envirnment

Creating a safe and healthy environment in school will ensure students themselves are safe and comfortable. Managing your classroom and discipline important for creating that environment. The criteria mentioned in the book included clarifying the consequences of misbehavior, having all staff members assume responsibility,and increasing consistency and follow-through. I especially think the follow-through is important because I have had so many teachers not follow through on their disciplines and therefore students would walk all over them and not take them seriously. Another thing I found interesting in this section was the peer mediation. This process brings in a third person perspective. I see this working in a middle school more so than an elementary or secondary school. I also see this working more if the "mediator" were a member of staff or administration.

Chapter 5: Designing Instruction to Improve Teaching and Learning

This was a hefty chapter about designing instruction. What sticked out to me in this chapter was the three models for organizing instruction: authentic instruction, WHERE, and differentiated instruction. For authentic instruction, I liked the criteria the book described such as constructing their knowledge, engaging in cognitive work that requires them to rely on knowledge, and accomplishing value beyond the classroom. I feel that no matter what authentic form of assessment or instruction you have, if students can do these three things, then they fully understand the material. The WHERE design tool is something I'm sure everyone who's done Practicum. The system has guidelines such as: Where are we heading? Hook the students, Explore the subject and equip the students, Rethink our work and ideas, Evaluate results. Differentiated instruction is another form of instruction that we learned in Practicum. This caters the lessons to students' specific needs and backgrounds. As the book says, it maybe difficult for teachers to have the time, skill, tools, and resources needed to use the model correctly.

In my opinion, the WHERE design is a very effective way to design lessons.

Becoming a "Wiz" at Brain Based Teaching

AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME job guys! I really enjoyed the entire presentation and all the stations. I learned a lot from each exercise. With the memory station, I saw that repetition may not be the only way to memorize something. The facts on the cards were really helpful and resourceful! The activity for the assessment portion was so creative and really got the point across. The point being to let students know what they are going to be assessed on and to use portfolios once and a while rather than tests. Emotions are important to know when dealing with middle schoolers. I liked the idea about having students putting like sticky-notes or post-its with different colors to show that the teacher and other students will know who's having a good day or bad day. The atmosphere section of the presentation gave me some great idea about how I will set up my classroom. I really thought the idea of playing music will make students more comfortable in my classroom.

Again, fantastic job guys! The food, the games, the lessons were all excellent!

Chapter 8: Effective Assessment

I think it's really important for teachers to set clear goals for students when it comes to assessing students. Students need to know what is going to be on the test beforehand and set goals for themselves when figuring out what they want to get for a grade. Using different formats for the assessment should get students engaged and excited about showing the teacher all the knowledge they gained. Using forms of assessment such as debates, movie presentations, journals, etc. rather than an exam will have students wanted to be tested. The author also talks about how teachers should grade assessments and assignments. Using spot-checking style of reviewing homework can save a teacher a lot of time. This would be something I would use in my classroom when check math homework.

Chapter 7: Differentiated Instruction- Fitting the Lesson to the Learner

Differentiated instruction is so important in any level of education. I liked the section about taking risks. Teaching is about experience and taking risks with the lessons and seeing what works then making mental notes for the next class. Doing something outside the curriculum like assigning a writing assignment in math may be different for students but you won't know their reaction unless you try it. Being able to collaborate and make decisions with other teachers or students is a great skill to have when planning a differentiated lesson. Seeing if students respond positively or negatively to differentiated instructing is essential. It requires a lot of reflection on the students' behalf and the teacher's.

Chapter 6: Accountability for High Standards

I liked this chapter because it was about making students accountable for their actions. I think this is a great thing to introduce to students at the middle level because this is an important skill to have for the future. I like the idea of having students teach themselves, like using Jigsaw or scaffolding assignments. This makes them accountable for their own knowledge. I also liked the idea in the book about having students revise old assignments for "extra credit" rather than having students do another assignment. It's also important for teacher to tailor their lessons to their students learning styles. They must hold themselves accountable if there are not enough options in a lesson or if some of the students don't understand because of the lesson. This is really important for teachers to realize.

Chapter 4: Active Learning

The beginning of this chapter talks about having kids move around and using examples in life to engage their interest in the subject. The author described the classic example of using ratios to find the height of something really tall relative to the height of shadows. I would definitely use this in my classroom because it doesn't only get the students outside and moving, but it's a real world application. Another way to get students engaged is to relate the material to their own bodies. This would be great for most areas of science. The author then goes on to list many other ideas to engage students in the classroom such as carousel brainstorming and setting up Olympics courses. These are all great ideas and can be tailored to any content area.

Book Talk 1: Student Orientated Curriculum

This presentation went really well. I liked how it was separated into sections according to scheduling, assessment, etc. Each leader knew a lot about their content. I liked the idea of student-run classrooms and I can see how it will be beneficial to students and teachers in that class. Having portfolios at the end of the year to mark their progress is a great idea. I would use some of the student led activities in my classroom but I'm skeptic to giving them full responsibility of the class.

Chapter 13: Outdoor Adventure

In this section of the book, the author suggests taking students on an overnight camping trip. To me, this seems rather risky. I understand the idea of making students work as a community and accomplish real life situations. Ideally this would be quite an experience. I especially liked the section about how math relates to a camping trip. All of the author's suggestions could deeply relate to the naturalist intelligence which would make math creative. Actions such as determining average width, rate flow, and depth of a creek include concepts such as math, art, hiking, measuring, ratios, and geometry. Then maybe students can stop saying the infamous phrase "What will we need this for?" when talking about math.

Chapter 3: Brain Research Applied in Middle School

In this chapter the author tries to get in the head of middle schoolers. He discusses how emotions play a big role in students' behavior especially when it comes to lying and cheating on assignments. Adolescents like to test limits and cross lines. A set of ground rules need to be determined early on and when a student slips up, they need to take responsibility for their actions. One way to help adolescents to think critically is to discuss logical fallacies. Talking about gray-area issues in the world will help students gain individuality as they form an opinion. However, with opinions it's easy for students to create misconceptions. It's important for teachers to ask straightforward questions, revisit topics frequently, reward questioning, and many other things. Middle school is where students form identities and it's important for teachers to place students in the right direction.

Waiting For Superman

This documentary was a real eye-opener for a lot people: teachers, parents, students, administrators, etc. When the narrator first started talking about the "drop out" factories, I was not expecting there to be so many across the United States. However, it does make sense that these under-achieving schools are near cities where there are more people. It also surprised me that principals and other administrators are aware that most of the students who enter their school will drop out. It has got to be difficult knowing that. Another fact that surprised me was that spending money on a prisoner for four years in jail is more than putting a child through private schooling for 13 years! Hmm... what's wrong with this picture? I can safely say my jaw officially dropped after hearing that statistic. I liked the statistic that America is the most confident country when it comes to how well we did on tests, even though our scores are very low. This made me laugh, especially after the clip of the guy trying to jump a building on a bike.

The part of the documentary that really got to me was the ending- where all the children the documentary followed were trying to get into better schools by the lottery. This made me think about the schools I went to when I was their age. My parents took charge and enrolled me and my sister into a private, Catholic school. They could have just as easily enrolled us into a public school but they wanted us to get the best education we could. These parents want the same for their children but were not as lucky financially as my family was. I am so grateful for my educational experience from kindergarten to where I am now. Through hard work both on my part and my parent's part got me to where I am today. I just wish everyone was so lucky.

Chapter 3: Curriculum and Assessment to Improve Teaching and Learning

In this chapter there were three things discussed: the Backwards Design, assessments, and the standards. The Backwards Design I learned in Practicum. It's a really great way to put the teacher in the students' shoes; this way it would be clearer to see what students will understand at the end of the lesson. For assessments, it's important to have variety. This way, students will not get bored with the routine, and it is a great way for students with different strengths to shine. It is also important to have standards within a school. This way, teachers can have a common goal. It would also be a good way to stay focused when teaching. Standards could bring school and the community together by creating a common goal- to educate children.

Chapter 9: Planning for Block Scheduling

This chapter talked about planning for a block schedule. In middle school it would be beneficial to have longer periods. Throughout this chapter, the author plans out his day according to the block period schedule, writing down his thoughts. I found that it was important for teachers to not fill the entire 80 minutes with lessons. Have students take breaks. The ideas of having more time for formative and summative assessments is ideal for students because the assessments can have more dimension to them. They can relate to real life and will be more engaging than a written test.

Chapter 6: Organizing Relationships for Learning

This chapter in Turning Points 2000 explains the importance of working in groups. What really stood out to me, and was different than the other chapters on groups, was "The Anatomy of Effective Teams". Some of the advice was the same as past readings but this book explained the tips in greater depth. It explains that the smaller the team size the better, but that doesn't necessarily make it easier for the teacher. When planning to have students in group, the teacher must put aside a lot of time. If teachers make a schedule of tasks the team must complete by a certain time, students will be more likely to finish the tasks. Creating a designated area for certain teams to be could add working time in the schedule. Finally, teachers need to stick with the teams in order for the process to be effective. These are all excellent points and it does make sense that this process would be difficult to get use to but highly effective.

Chapter 12: Teacher Advisories - A Proposal for Change

Teacher Advisories in middle school is a good way for students to reflect. It should be up to the students whether they want to reflect on school work or themselves. It was a really good idea to have advisory days been an all day activity. This will ensure that students are getting to know their advisor and that the advisor is getting to know his or her students. Getting students moving around and making connections is really the key to advisory days. Having students do what they want to do, maybe even based on their specific intelligence (bodily, logic, music, etc.) they can feel more comfortable about themselves. If I had advisory days in my middle school I would have definitely looked forward to it and maybe would have made better connections with the students in my class.

Chapter 11: Teaming

Chapter 11 of Meet Me in the Middle was about the benefits of having teams- for teachers or for students. The first section talked about teachers forming into groups when discussing a particular student with his or her parents. This way, the parents can get different teachers' points of view and can really understand how their child is doing. Another good point made in this chapter was about integrating the subjects in a middle school. This also requires teachers to get together and discuss ideas, but it really does make sense. In life, people use a mixture of subjects to perform a task, do their job, etc. Once and a while integrating English class with History or Math and Science class would be both entertaining and beneficial to the students. Forming students into groups when doing a project can also help out in a classroom. If there are clear core values as rules for working in groups, then students will take the exercise seriously and they will be able to learn from their peers.

This We Believe

Pages 1-26

One of the ideas that stood out to me the most between pages 1 and 26 was the idea that teachers in middle schools are inevitably role models. Their behaviors send influential messages to young, developing minds. In order to remain positive, they will need to provoke leadership and the ability to work together. By learning from one another, the teacher can ensure that the students understand the material. What I got from this is that anything I do, as a teacher, can be translated into a lesson. This means I am going to have to think about my actions and methods. I will also have to be quick and cleverly avert a discussion to the material if the discussion becomes off topic.

Pages 27-33

This section of the book discussed leadership and organization characteristics. The first idea in this section was about making decisions when dealing with a middle school. It is important to have many different opinions from different people affiliated with the school. School leaders should ask students, teachers, administrators, families, board of education members, and the community for their input. Another point I found interesting was that administrators should further their education on education. They should research to find the best practices. This is an awesome idea- I wonder if any of my middle school teachers have changed their methods of teaching to up to date practices.

Pages 33-42

It is important for culture and community to take part in a middle school. Like a discussion in class, the social aspect of a young adolescent's life should not stop outside the classroom. Integrating academics and social lives will ensure success in any student. Making the classroom a community will ensure the students will respect themselves, others classmates, and their teachers. These personal and academic developments should be monitored by an adult advocate- someone who the student can trust. This could be a guidance counselor or teacher, but I feel it would be better for someone in the school could watch them.

Pages 43-63

There were two main parts to this section of the text. The first part was research supporting This We Believe. One part that stood out to me in this section was under Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment. It was cited that for a classroom to be safe and supported there must be active learning where "students and teacher hold joint responsibility for their interactions and learning" (pg. 47). I like how it reveled that the students were also responsible for the amount they learn. If they are not motivated to learn then they would not want to learn, but that is where the teacher comes in. The second part of the section discusses the characteristics of young adolescents. There are lists that the authors came up with that describe what is happening to adolescents physically, mentally, morally, etc. One characteristic I thought was interesting was that adolescents are curious- but not necessarily in a specific content area. They are curious about the world around them, and that is why it is so important for teachers to relate content to the real world. This way, young students can relate to the content themselves and gain interest.

Chapter 17: The Truth about Middle School Students

In this chapter the author tells us about a method of expression he uses in his classroom. He has blank paper on one of his boards where students can write quotes, anecdotes, or essentially whatever they want “as long as it would be acceptable to their parents and grandparents, would not violation any school policies, or would not be derogatory to anyone” (pg. 188). He puts examples of what students put on the board. It surprised me that the students were mature enough to do something like this and I really liked the idea. I love quotes and would really be interested in any my students would have to offer. This is another way of building that personal relationship with your students.

Chapter 2: Motivating Young Adolescents

Chapter 2 gives a lot of examples on how to keep young adults attention during a lesson. When reading the chapter, I noticed a lot of the same methods that high school teachers use in their classrooms. It was mentioned to use cooperative learning strategies, such as “jigsaw” grouping. Also, another great suggestion was over exaggerating concepts so that they are easily remembered. Some multiple intelligences were also mentioned like musical and kinesthetic. I think it would be a good idea to introduce different learning styles and such mentioned in this chapter early in a child’s education. This way, when the student gets to high school, they can perfect the styles and methods; they would know what to expect.

Chapter 1: Stoking the Fires Within

In this introductory chapter, there was one section that really stood out at me. This section was about listening to your students. When students have concerns in the class, and they definitely will, the teachers need to listen fully and not have a response ready before the student has finished talking. Also, the author suggests that when you paraphrase the student’s words or ask a clarifying question, it shows that you are listening. I think that this is very important for teachers to learn this quickly. The process of listening to your students and not taking the critiques personally really emphasizes the student-teacher relationship. Dealing with these types of situations with poise will ensure that students will respect you.

Chapter 2: A Design for Improving Middle Grades Education

This chapter mentioned the seven recommendations for improving middle grades schools. These recommendations, I thought, were similar to suggestions to high school teachers. For example, it’s suggested that teachers teach the curriculum on bases where the students should know and be able to perform the tasks related to the content. This is very similar to the idea of the Know, Understand, Do (KUD) process that is presented at a high school level. The seven recommendations mentioned in the text are very informative and have great potential; however, if there is no structure for these accommodations, the results will be unsatisfactory. Richard Elmore made the suggestion of “dividing teachers and students into teams, modifying schedules, and creating decision-making teams” (pg. 29), but if these processes are not carried out all the way through, then the teacher will not get his/her desired results.

Chapter 1: Turning Points: A Decade Later

The section that most jumped out at me was the section about why it is important for students to succeed in middle school. The reason why America’s middle schools should be redesigned is because “every young adolescent truly deserves an equal opportunity to achieve at the very highest level” (pg. 15). I found this statement somewhat obvious and I was shocked that this needed to be stated at all. I do, however, like how this ties into what students overall learn in middle school: social justice and national economic self-interest. It would not be smart to educate adolescents poorly during this time because how can they be expected to move on in a world where higher education is success? I also find it interesting how social justice is important in middle school because that is where you make friends, enemies, and bonds with other human beings.