Our
staff will review many of the core tenets of middle school philosophy over
the next few months and into the summer. A great place to begin is the
concept of teaming and Turning Points 2000. Despite a little age, the
philosophical underpinnings expressed by Jackson & Davis (2000) still
apply today.
The
balance of this post will share recommendations from Jackson & Davis
(2000) about the structure of teaming in a model middle school. Although
technology continues to rewrite what education looks like in our classrooms
and how it best occurs in a digital world, the structural recommendations
from Turning Points maintain their relevance today for the middle level
learner.
Jaskson
& Davis (2000) on Middle School Teaming:
Teams enable young adolescents and educators to interact daily on a formal
and informal basis (2000, p. 125).
Teams provide a psychological home within the school that helps reduce the
stress of isolation and anonymity (2000, p. 125).
Teams can provide peer group affiliation that is important to young
adolescent’s emotional development and school success (2000, p. 125).
On a team each student is able to receive the attention of a group of
concerned adults and the individual attention of one teacher who aims to
become the school “expert” on that particular student (2000, p. 125).
Teams provide the opportunity for collaborative group work (2000, p. 128).
Teams enable teachers to create a composite picture of each student’s
approach to learning (2000, p. 128).
No team should be larger than 125 students and 5 teachers (2000, p. 128).
Students should spend most of the day with other students on the team,
allowing the team’s teachers to decide how to use most or all of the time
available for instruction (2000, p. 133).
Teamed teachers classrooms should be located near each other (2000, p. 133).
Teams must have substantial autonomy in decisions about student instruction
(2000, p. 137).
Effective teams identify goals for student learning, strategies and realistic
timelines for implementing them, team members’ roles and responsibilities,
and the materials, professional development, and other resources that
the team will require to reach its learning goals for students (2000, p.
140).
Effective teams do not spend an inordinate amount of time on the behavioral
problems of a few students or on other issues that distract the team from the
main business of the team: improving student learning (2000, p. 141).
Effective teams critique how they work together to ensure that they are
functioning in a way that enables them to achieve their goals (2000, p. 142).
An advisory period of 25 to 30 minutes each day is recommended to develop
strong interpersonal bonds (2000, p. 143).
REFERENCE
Jackson, A. W., & Davis, G. A. (2000) Turning points 2000: Educating
adolescents in the 21st century. NY: Teachers College Press.
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