instructional processes (Brown & Knowles, 2014).
Instructional Advice
Many students offered advice on how to teach them. Timmy describes some of his classes: “In school we are told to sit down, listen, take notes, and then we get quizzed on it. That isn’t effective; we feel trapped inside our own minds because we can’t be creative or share our ideas.” Learning experiences for young adolescents must be active and engaging in order to promote meaningful learning and brain growth during this critical period (Jensen, 2015).
Chris wants teachers to know, “We are underestimated and capable of things people wouldn’t usually expect.” Challenging students is an essential component of middle level classrooms via active and exploratory learning opportunities. Simultaneously, many young adolescents’ academic skills are below grade level, and their learning experiences should be designed to meet their needs to insure academic success. Maia’s comment is a powerful suggestion: “If you care about your students, and want them to thrive, as a good teacher should; you should not be satisfied with their failure.”
Conclusion
Brinthaupt (2013) reminds middle level educators of why they must listen to their students:
Early and middle adolescence are characterized by the elaboration and differentiation of social-related roles and self-attributes. These developments are accompanied by a susceptibility to all-or-none thinking, inaccurate over-generalizations, and instability and conflict regarding one’s self-perceptions and self-evaluations. Based on these changes and issues, it would seem that early adolescence is a crucial time for schools and teachers to provide self-perception guidance to their students. (p.4)
Without hearing students’ thoughts and feelings, educators may believe that they are meeting their students’ needs—but that would be a misconception—one that middle level educators can ill-afford to make. Middle schoolers will reveal their fears, concerns, challenges, and needs as long as their teachers are listening to them—and students notice when teachers are listening. Effective middle level schools address students’ social, emotional, identity development, and physical needs via explicitly planned advisory sessions, formal and informal conversations before and after class, and through carefully chosen curricula that address responsible, social and moral decision making. Brown and Knowles (2014) remind educators, “The middle level movement was borne from these simple courses of actions—knowing who young adolescents are, listening to them, and responding to their needs” (p. 68).
educators can ill-afford to make. Middle schoolers will reveal their fears, concerns,
challenges, and needs as long as their teachers are listening to them—and students notice when teachers are listening. Effective middle level schools address students’ social, emotional, identity development, and physical needs via explicitly planned advisory sessions, formal and informal conversations before and after class, and through carefully chosen curricula that address responsible, social and moral decision making. Brown and Knowles (2014) remind educators, “The middle level movement was borne from these simple courses of actions—knowing who young adolescents are, listening to them, and responding to their needs” (p. 68).
References
Brinthaupt, T. M. (2013). Should schools be in the business of enhancing student self-
perceptions? In K. Roney & R. P. Lipka (Eds.),
Middle grades curriculum: Voices and visions of the self-enhancing school (pp. 1-16). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Brown, D. F., & Knowles, T. (2014). What every middle school teacher should know (3rd. ed.).
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Jensen, F. E. (2015). The teenage brain: A neuroscientist’s survival guide to raising adolescents and young adults. New York, NY: Harper.
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What Students Want Us to Know
“We are underestimated and capable of things people wouldn’t usually expect.”