Unlocking Potential in AA Students

After I read this article I felt that the ideas that Jackson suggested should be used in any classroom setting with any student. All Students need understanding, motivation, and confidence. These things are very important in order for quality learning to take place. I understand her perspective on connecting with the African American student and the importance of making a culturally different student feel no less important than his classmates. We all have encountered situations where we did not connect with someone (regardless of race or cultural differences). This is where we as educators need to realize when we may feel this way and work harder to make connections with those students who are needing motivation, understanding and confidence.

Differentiated Instruction

I have had some exposure to this concept. However, in my training we developed lessons that targeted a specific learner, such as the hands on learner or the visual learner. As I read the posted article, the concept was more complex that what I had learned. I do see the advantage of incorporating differentiation into a single lesson -- as it reaches out to the whole class, not just a single group of individuals. I also see that this concept could make lesson planning rather tedious and complex. I would like more formal training on this one! I am also eager to see how you all incorporate it in you lessons.

middle school changes

The two things that I believe have changed for the better in the modern middle school movement is 1) the change from junior high school to middle school and 2) the formation of team teaching within the middle school system. As I stated in class last week, my junior high school experience was difficult. The curriculum and environment was very similar to high school. Once I got to high school the only things that was different was that I was in a new and larger school with more people.

Fast forwarding to my training in eduction, I was exposed to my first middle school during this time. The first thing that captured my attention was that the school that I was required to do my observations in was divided up into "pods" and the hallways were colored coded. Each grade was divided into a blue pod, a green pod, a yellow pod and so on. The "pods" were actually a cute way a saying that the school was actively team teaching. The students were divided into groups and were place in a pod or with a group of teachers that taught them all year. I thought that this school design was brilliant. (This specific middle school was Pulaski County middle school in Pulaski, Virginia.) To me this is a Huge advancement from where I came from.

The one thing that I still see pros and cons with is block scheduling. This is definitely different from the traditional 6 or 7 period classes that meet each day. I think that the time length is adequate for high school students, but I not sure about middle school age kids. Mentally, it may be too long for middle school students. I am also not sure if meeting every other day is good for middle school kids either. I am thinking that many will forget what has been covered, therefore the teacher will be spending more time reviewing material than necessary. Either way, the changes that have occurred over time with in the middle school movement have proved to be beneficial to middle school aged children more so than the old days of junior high school.

historical development of a unique middle school curriculum

Although, I have very little concrete experience in teaching I see how curriculum, instruction and assessment has evolved over the past several decades. As I think back to my training while I was earning my M.S. degree, the instructional focus was to deliver material in a manner where students would have the opportunity to have hand-on activities and lots of cooperative learning with in the classes. This is a more suitable learning environment than just entering a classroom and opening a book and taking notes. Examples of assessments that I incorporated were writing reports on instructed material, checklists indicating if objectives had been met and then the traditional multiple-choice, fill in the blank test. The curriculum was a little different. Because I was Ag Ed, there was no set curriculum to follow. It was pretty much what ever one wanted to teach. I know that is not the case with the core academic classes. Regardless of the type of class, I recognize that curriculum, instruction, and assessment have made many changes over time. I also do see that the traditional ways of teaching are still present and in some cases are still necessary.
Once I do obtain my classroom, I plan on incorporating different instructional and assessment methods in my teaching. I know that this is necessary to reach out to multiple learners.