Meet Me in the Middle Chapters 6,7,8

Chapter 6

In Chapter 6, Wormeli addressed the issue of accountability and how it relates to several parts of teaching. First, he writes about ways to use accountability to encourage students to produce quality work. One of these options is to tell students that their work will be displayed somewhere that their peers or other teachers will see it. I think that this would encourage students to put time into their work, as they would be concerned about what others think of them. I think a better way to get students to put effort into their work would be to have a real audience for what they are producing. That way they see a purpose and it is not just scaring them into doing well by forcing them to face the judgement of their peers.

           

One thing I found questionable in this chapter was the section about using accountability to control student behavior. In theory, I think this would work. However, something about filming students and forcing them to watch themselves or having their parents sit with them in class just seems cruel and embarrassing. I do not think accountability means embarrassing and shaming students into doing what we want them to do.

Chapter 7

I feel like I have already learned so much about differentiated instruction throughout this class and Practicum, but this chapter did give some new insight into the practice and how it related to Middle Education. One point that I found interesting is that middle school students are all over the place when it comes to their level of development. While this is still somewhat true in High School, I feel like there can be huge differences in middle school settings. I think this issue is something that really needs to be considered when differentiating for a middle school classroom.

            

Another good point Wormeli makes about differentiating is that it does not just mean adding or taking away the amount of work, it means changing up the complexity and difficulty of work. For example, Wormeli writes, “Requiring gifted students to complete more of the same type of problem that they have already mastered is a recipe for boredom or rebellion.” I think this quote perfectly illustrates why teachers should not differentiate by adding or removing quantity.

Chapter 8

Assessment is another topic that I feel like is highly focused on in Practicum, but this chapter actually addressed some of the problems I have with this type of assessment. For example, it makes the point that—while some assessment ideas proposed may seem light, fluffy, and easy—if you really consider all of the knowledge, time, and skill needed for the project, you will see that is really is a fair assessment.

However, as an English concentration, I have some concern with how many of these projects move away from writing. I think teaching writing is extremely important, and having students practice this writing whenever they can is ideal. If there are not any writing assignments for, for example, books we have read, I feel like the students will be missing out on practicing and learning and important form of writing. While I understand that there can be separate units on writing, I also feel like incorporating writing assignments into other topics is also quite important as an English teacher.

Student Oriented Curriculum

Upon hearing the title of this book, I thought that there was no way that it could be interesting. It just sounded so dry. However, I am actually very interested in this book and would like to read it. I have never even considered running a classroom in this way, but I think it really makes sense. If students have a say in what they're doing, it totally makes sense that they will be more interested and invested in their work. While I do still have some concerns about this, such as if teachers would be able to meet necessary standards, I think that reading the book would help me see that these concerns may not be valid. I think I have a much clearer idea of what student-oriented curriculum actually is now: previously I just thought it was designing lessons to suit the needs of students. However, I now see that it is allowing students to take control and actually design the unit themselves. After all, who knows the student's needs better than the students themselves?

Meet Me in the Middle Chapter 3

I thought that this chapter was basically about using multiple intelligences and differentiated instruction in the classroom and how important it is in a middle school setting. However, the chapter also touched on how memory works—it is important to move information from working memory to long term memory. To do this, students can use chunking, which is basically storing a lot of little details to help recall something. Something I found interesting in this chapter is that using emotions in teaching can help adolescents learn. This makes a lot of sense since this age group, and people in general, are very emotionally charged. I think that people can identify with emotions because they are a common human experience. People will always pay more attention and learn better when there is something they can relate to—we are often told to try to incorporate student interesting into our teaching—so it makes sense that emotions will help information stick in their minds.

Another thing in this chapter I found interesting was the idea to change the order of what is taught in the classroom. Since studies show that students remember most what is taught first, an idea is to put the most important information at the very beginning of the period. The author points out that the first fifteen minutes of class are typically consumed by matters such as announcements and attendance. This means that it would be necessary to restructure the way the class works.

Meet Me in the Middle Ch. 4 and 13

These chapters discuss how to get students involved in different kinds of learning experiences, with emphasis on suiting the needs of naturalist and kinesthetic learners. Chapter 4 offers many idea of how to incorporate physical activity in the classroom in ways that are simple and can be used in many different lessons and disciplines. For example, one of the suggestions is to just simply place the turn in box in a space where students will have to get up to get to. Another suggestion was to have students stretch every 30 minutes. These ideas are simple, but can make a big difference for some students for whom sitting is exhausting.  

Chapter 13 focuses on a naturalist perspective, mainly bringing students on outdoor field trips or overnight camping trips. I think that there are a lot of things that can be learned out on trips like this that cannot be learned in a classroom—not necessarily things that we plan to teach, but unexpected experiences that students will remember and learn from. I went on a few outdoor field trips when I was in middle school and I remember enjoying them and learning from them, as well as bonding with other students in my team. I never had the opportunity to go on an overnight camping trip but I think that—for those students who choose to participate—it would be a good bonding and educational experience. However, I do not think that all students would enjoy an overnight camping trip and smaller day trips would be more beneficial for the students as a whole.