Glossary

Middle School Fact Sheet

While middle schools are developing in different parts of the nation under the direction of many different people, there are a number of frequently common elements. Some of these are:

1. Absence of the “little high school” or “big elementary school” atmosphere.

2. Absence of the “star system” where a few special students dominate everything, in favor of an attempt to provide successful experiences for a numbers of students.

3. An attempt to use instructional methods more appropriate to this age group: individualized instruction, variable group sizes, multi-media approaches, beginning independent study programs, inquiry oriented instruction.

4. Increased opportunities for teacher-student guidance. May include a homebase or advisory group program.

5. Increased flexibility in scheduling and student grouping.

6. At least some cooperative planning and team teaching.

7. At least some interdisciplinary of multidisciplinary studies, where teachers from a variety of academic areas provide opportunities for students to see how the areas of knowledge fit together.

8. A wide range of exploratory opportunities, academic and otherwise.

9. Increased opportunity for physical activity and movement, and more frequent physical education.

10. Attention to the skills of continued learning; these skills which will permit students to learn better on their own or at higher levels.

11. Accent on increasing the student’s ability to be independent, responsible and
self-disciplined.

12. Flexible physical plant facilities.

13. Attention to the personal development of the student: values clarification, group process skills, health and family life education where appropriate, career education.

14. Teachers trained especially for, and committed to the education of the emerging adolescent.

2. Provide a curriculum of basic skills in English, math, science, and the social sciences.

3. Provide a required reading program for all students at all grade levels.

4. Provide a required exposure to exploratory courses in fine arts and practical arts.

5. Provide a physical education program for all students which stresses conditioning activities and team and individual sports based upon the physical development level of the individual student.

6. Provide opportunities for enrichment experiences for students.

7. Provide opportunities for remediation experiences for students.

8. Provide a co-curricular program of mini-courses or special interest courses or programs offered during the school day on a regularly scheduled basis.

9. Provide a time for school clubs or interest groups to meet during on a regularly
scheduled basis.

10. Provide a teaching staff skilled in the ability to understand, relate to, and work with students of this age group.

11. Provide appropriate planning times for members of the teaching staff, including common planning times for teaching teams.

12. Utilize a school-wide schedule which includes blocks of time within which teachers have the flexibility to group students in varied ways for specified instructional purposes.

13. Utilize community involvement in the on-going school program by bringing community members and parents into the school and permitting students to explore the community from outside the school doors.

14. Utilize multi-materials approaches to instruction, including both print and non-print materials.

15. Provide learning experiences at appropriate cognitive development levels: concrete, formal, etc.

16. Provide a program centered around the developmental needs of the student rather than a traditional content-based program.

17. Consider both the physical and emotional development of the students and thus provide differing types of extracurricular social programs for the students.

18. Consider both the physical and emotional development of the students and thus provide athletic activities for the students (sports, intramurals, etc.)

DEFINITION OF PERTINENT TERMS

Block Schedule; scheduling that provides large blocks of time in which individual teachers or teams of teachers can organize and arrange flexible groupings of students for varied periods of time. This allows teachers to plan for specific instructional needs without disrupting the schedule of the entire school. For example, this could allow a qualified teacher to teach English and social studies to a single class of students for the equivalent of two class periods. This could decrease the number of students the teacher sees daily, and could double the time the teacher spends with each student.

Common Planning Time; regularly scheduled time during the school day when staff members who teach the same students meet for joint planning, parent conferences, or materials preparation. Teachers are able to plan a more comprehensive educational program which better integrates subject areas, skills, and individual needs.

Continuous Progress; students advancing at their own academic rate. Since there are wide variations of development, each early adolescent must be helped to progress at his/her own pace, taking into account the individual’s learning style.

Cooperative Learning; allows small groups of students to work together and share successes. They are actively involved in the learning process. Cooperative learning is a basic instructional strategy which stresses student cooperation rather than competition. It emphasizes positive inter-dependence, individual accountability, shared leadership, social skills, and group problem solving.

Core Curriculum; that portion of the curriculum considered essential for every student, regardless of station or future occupational plans. This translates into general education content, skills, and information which all youth need to learn. In some middle level references, core is used interchangeably with interdisciplinary, integrated, or fused curriculum.

Curriculum; includes all experiences which are available to students during their middle level school experience.

Developmental Age Characteristics; those common characteristics that occur for virtually all humans between ten and fourteen years of age. They consist of the physical, social, emotional, and intellectual characteristics which, when taken as a whole, indicate an individual’s development relative to others during this period of life.

Early Adolescence; the developmental stage youngsters experience as they approach and begin to achieve puberty. This usually occurs between ten and fourteen years of age and deals with the achievement of the developmental age characteristics previously identified. Also see Transescence.

Exploration; short term curriculum experiences designed to help youngsters explore their changing needs, aptitudes, and interests. These include experiences in core curriculum, special interest areas which may be part of the core curriculum, and purely interest-centered experiences.

Heterogeneous Grouping; a grouping strategy which does not divide learners into groups based on their ability, learning achievement, or physical characteristics. It is used in programs in which students can learn from others even though they have wide ranges of ability and achievement.

Homogeneous Grouping; a grouping strategy which usually divides students into groups organized around specific levels of ability, and/or achievement. It is used in programs in which having students with common backgrounds can increase student learning, such as special education, gifted and talented education, and competitive performing groups.

Interdisciplinary Programs; instructional programs that combine subject matter ordinarily taught separately, such as history, literature, or science, into learnings under a single organizational structure.

Interdisciplinary Teams; an organizational arrangement of two or more teachers representing different subject areas. The team of teachers share the same students, schedule, areas of the school, and the responsibility for teaching more than one subject. This utilizes block scheduling techniques and puts curriculum planning, grouping, and scheduling decisions in the hands of a team of teachers who are aware of the changing instructional needs of the students.

Learning Centers; a station or center organized in a specific location of the school or classroom where a student can pursue independent learning.

Middle Level Education; the term used to indicate a district category of school units and organizations distinguished from elementary and secondary levels. It is based on the current developmental research of ten to fourteen year old youngsters.

Middle School; a middle level school organization which usually includes some combination of grades five through eight. The middle school is built on a rationale that most fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth graders demonstrate learning and human characteristics similar to those formerly found among sixth through ninth grade youngsters. This earlier maturity means that most ninth graders have more in common with high school students as peers than they do with younger students.

Mini-Courses; short term courses (academic and high interest) usually found within an exploratory program. They may last from two to twelve weeks in length. Mini-courses are typically centered on a particular activity or topic. They may supplement or replace regular year long courses. Examples include computers, guitar, chess, rocketry, and video production.

Multi-Age (Cross-Age) Groupings; students from more than one grade or age level placed in the same class to facilitate Continuous Progress (see earlier definition) and develop long term interpersonal relationships between teachers and among students themselves. This practice is based on research indicating that achievement, interest, physiological development, social maturity, emotional readiness, and intellectual levels of students may be overlooked when grouping is based solely on chronological age.

School-Within-a-School; also known as houses, teams, clusters, or pods. These grouping strategies are designed to reduce the impact of large numbers of students in a single school by dividing students into sub schools or little schools, each with its own faculty. The major objective of the school-within-a-school is successful transition from the self-contained, single teacher classroom found in many elementary schools to the larger departmentalized school environment in secondary schools.

Team Planning; the process followed by a group of teachers who plan interdependent instructional objectives, evaluation procedures, and management techniques appropriate to the group of students in their charge. This provides the necessary subject matter specialization required beyond the elementary grades and helps teachers on the team become aware of holistic needs of students. Team planning can achieve fairness and consistency of expectations for students.

Team Teaching; two or more teachers with the shared responsibility for planning, conducting, and evaluating learning experiences for a common group of students. Team teaching grows out of team planning but cannot function without the foundation of team planning described above. Team planning allows teachers to plan interdependent learning objectives, but team teaching extends this into commonly planned classroom procedures and activities. Team teaching becomes a formalized approach to instructional strategies and tactics.

Unified Arts/Allied Arts; a coordinated program which provides exploratory opportunities within the humanities, the practical arts, and the fine arts. This component is an essential part of an effective middle level school program.