Secondary School Teaching A Guide To Methods and

Secondary School Teaching A Guide To Methods and Resources Chapter One Secondary School Teaching Today: Recognizing and Understanding the Challenge

9 Key Points- of chapter 1 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Define & differentiation between a middle school, junior high school and a high school Key characteristics of a exemplary school Small learning community concept Key developmental characteristics of 1018 year olds Quality education for each student Teacher as a reflective decision maker Trends, problems, issues N. C. L. B Parents, guardians and the community

• Secondary School: combination of grades 7 -12 • Middle School: usually grades 6 -8 • High School: combination of grades 9 -12

Multi Cultural Education • As a teacher today you must be knowledgeable and skilled in using teaching strategies that recognize, celebrate, and build upon the cultural diversity in your classroom • One out of every six students age 5 -7 speaks a language other than English at home • English language learners– 5. 5 ELLs in the U. S. public schools – 80% speak Spanish – 400 different languages

How Effective Teachers Accommodate Differences • Establish a classroom climate in which all students feel welcome, can learn, and are supported in doing so • Use techniques that emphasize cooperative social-interactive learning • Building upon students’ learning styles, capacities and modalities • Used strategies and techniques that have proven successful for students of specific special characteristics and differences

To Become and Remain an Exemplary School/Teacher • The school/teacher must be in a continual mode of inquiry, reflection, and change; the advantage of utilizing a combination of practices concurrently is usually greater in helping all students succeed in school. • Schools and the teacher must constantly change; there is no single shoe that fits all children in all neighborhoods. America is too large and too diverse fro that to ever be the case.

Teaching Teams • Collaborative Teaching Teams: several teachers work together to reflect, plan and implement a curriculum for a common cohort of students. • Team Teaching: two or more teachers simultaneously providing instruction to students in the same classroom • Teaching Teams: can be all teachers from one grade level, subject, or interdisciplinary

Community of Learners • An interdisciplinary teaching team and its common cohort of students can be referred to as a community of learners, where each team of teachers is assigned each day to the same cohort of students for a common block of time. Within this block of time. • Teachers on the team are responsible for building the curriculum and instruction around their students interests, perspectives, and perceptions.

Advantages of a Community of Learners • Within a community of learners students are able to make important and meaningful connections among disciplines • It also provides both peer and adult group identification, which provides a very important sense of identity and belonging.

Block Scheduling • Block scheduling: for at least a portion of the school day or week , blocks of time ranging from 70 -140 minutes or more replace the traditional 50 minute period. Alternate day block planning is also know as A-B planning • Advantages: greater satisfaction among teachers and admin. – Improvement in behavior and learning of all students – Students do more writing , peruse issues in greater depth, enjoy school more – Teachers get to know their students better and are able to respond to the students needs better

• Disadvantages of block scheduling – Possible mismatch between content actually covered and that expected by state mandate testing – Content in course may be less than traditionally covered – If teachers do not use a variety of teaching techniques students tend to get bored and become unengaged • Alternatives • Modified block or Split block • Flexible block

Responsive Practices for Helping Each Student Succeed • Perception that all students can learn when given adequate support, although not all students need the same amount of time to learn the same thing • Attention to coping skills and the emotional development of each child • Engagement of parents/guardians as partners in their child's education • High, although not necessarily identical, expectations for all students • Highly qualified teachers, specialist teachers, and smaller schools with smaller classes

Responsive Practices for- cont • Peer tutoring and cross-age coaching • Personal attention, adult advocacy, scheduling, and learning plans to help students learn in a manner by which they best learn • Time and guided attention to basic skillsespecially those of literacy, thinking, and social-rather than solely on rote memory

Junior High School Middle School Most common grade span organization Traditional 50 min. periods 6 per day Flexible usually block Subject organization Departmentalized Integrated Interdisciplinary Guidance / Counseling Separate session w/ counselor as needed Advisor/Advisee relationship between student Teacher in homeroom Full time counselor Exploratory curriculum Electives by choice Common wheel of experiences for all Teachers Subject centered Grades 7 -12 Interdisciplinary teams- student centered k-8 or 6 -8 Instruction Traditional lecture Skills and repetition Thematic units Discovery techniques and study skills Athletics Interscholastic. Competition focused Intramural. Participation focused

Middle-Level Education • Are school based on a philosophy that incorporates curricula and instructional practices specifically designed to developmental needs of young adolescent students (students between the age of 10 -15).

Common Traits of Committed Teachers • • Knowledgeable about the developmental characteristics of the age of students the teach Understand committed to the schools philosophy or mission statement Know the curriculum and how best to teach it Are enthusiastic, motivated, and well organized Demonstrate effective communication and interpersonal skills Are willing to listen to the students and risk trying their ideas (French fry story) Acknowledge students’ strengths, not their limitations Are reflective and responsible decision makers

N. C. L. B. Act of 2001 • No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) Executive Summary • http: //www. asha. org/about/legislationadvocacy/federal/nclb/exec-summary. htm

Home and School Connections • Although not all schools have a parent/guardian organization, many have adopted formal policies about home and community connections. • Enrollment of entire families as members of a learning team • Home visitation programs • Homework hotlines • Involvement of students in community service learning • Parents/guardians volunteer to co-teach in the classroom

Community Service Learning • Through community service learning students learn and develop during active participation in thoughtfully organized and curriculum-connected experiences that meet community needs.

Current Actions • Changes in standards for teacher certification • Emphasis on education for cultural diversity and ways of teaching and working with E. L. L • Helping students make connections between what is being learned and the real world • Connections between subjects in the curriculum and between academics and vocations • Emphasis on standards based education • Improving test scores • Improving home, school and community connections

Key Trends and Practices • Continuing influx of immigrant and language minority students throughout the U. S • Smaller cohorts of students • Reflective thinking and self discipline • Holding high but not always identical expectations for all students • Movement to grades K-8 & 9 -12 • Personalized instruction • Providing students with time and opportunity think and be creative, rather than simply memorizing and repeating information

Major Problems and Issues • • • Controversy over the value of N. C. L. B Funding gaps- state budgets Deteriorating schools Recruiting and retaining the best teachers and administrators Scarcity of the male/ 2 out of 10 Scarcity of minority role models Increasing youth at risk dropping out Using standardized test scores to judge and reward the performance of schools and teachers Resegregatiom that is occurring in schools

Meeting the Challenge: Recognizing and Providing for Student Differences • Communicate with students in a clear, direct, respectful, and consistent manner • Maintain high expectations, although not necessarily identical, for every student; establish high standards and teach toward them without wavering • Provide tiered assignment, with optional due dates that are based on individual student abilities and interests • Use interdisciplinary thematic instruction • Use multilevel instruction • Use reciprocal peer coaching & cross age tutoring

Developmental Characteristics of Young Adolescents 9 -14 • Physical Development-young adolescents tend to: – Be self conscious and concerned about their physical appearance, especially increases in acne, height, and weight – Be physically at risk: homicide, suicide, accidents and leukemia – Experience fluctuations in basal metabolism that can result in a lack of energy or spurts of activity – Face responsibility of sexual behavior before full emotional and social maturity has occurred – Have ravenous appetites and particular tastes – Mature at varying rates

Developmental Characteristics of Young Adolescents 9 -14 • Social Development-young adolescents tend to: – Be vain and want to show off – Be self-conscious about social behaviors – Want social acceptance. They can be fiercely loyal to peer group values and sometimes cruel or insensitive to those outside the peer group – Strive to define sex role characteristics and search to set up positive social relationships with members of the same and opposite sex – Challenge authority figures and test the limits of acceptable behaviors – Be rebellious towards parents but will be strongly dependant on parental values

Developmental Characteristics of Young Adolescents 9 -14 • Cognitive Development-young adolescents tend to: – Be egocentric, display and increased ability to convince others, and exhibit independent critical thought – Display increased imaginative powers – Be interested in primarily in activities outside of school – Be able to reason, judge, and apply experiences – Exhibit strong willingness to learn what they consider to be useful and to enjoy using skill to solve real life problems – Prefer active to passive learning experiences and favor interaction with peers during learning activities

Developmental Characteristics of Young Adolescents 9 -14 • Cognitive Development-young adolescents tend to: – Sulk and show anger – Fall in and out of love frequently – Be psychologically at risk. At no other point in human development is an individual likely to meet so much diversity in relation to one's self and others. – Want to be popular and have friends – Want interdependence from adult control but return to caring adults for help and reassurance – Be optimistic, hopeful, and sensitive to what others think

Developmental Characteristics of Older Adolescents 15 -19 • Physical Development-older adolescents tend to: – Be concerned about their physical appearance but with increasing self-confidence – Need extended periods of rest, perhaps more than at any time since infancy – Sometimes display annoying physical habits, which are age-normal displays of their attempt to become independent

Developmental Characteristics of Older Adolescents 15 -19 • Social Development-older adolescents tend to: – Be socially at risk, tend to have a naïve “but it won’t happen to me” attitude. Adult values are largely shaped conceptually during adolescence, and their negative interactions with peers, parents and teachers may compromise their ideals and commitments. – Refer to peers as sources for standards and models of behavior. Media heroes are singularly important in shaping both behavior and fashion. – Search to set up positive social relationships with members of the same and opposite sex

Developmental Characteristics of Older Adolescents 15 -19 • Emotional Development-older adolescents tend to: – Have few close friendships – Have a sense of humor based on increased intellectual ability to see abstract relationships – Want greater independence from adult control – Want to be seen as an original or unique person – Work well with teachers they admire and respect and who treat them with respect – Have a sense of humor based on increased intellectual ability to see abstract relationships

Developmental Characteristics of Older Adolescents 15 -19 • Cognitive Development-older adolescents tend to: – Be able to reason, judge, and apply experiences with a greater degree of maturity – Give increased thought to their lives after high school – Be interested in activities outside of school – Display increased imaginative powers – Exhibit a strong willingness to learn what they consider to be useful and enjoy using those skills in their lives – Have a greater degree of responsibilities outside of school

Conclusion Regardless of all the legislation and other responsive school practices, in the end it is the dedication, commitment , and understanding of the involved adultsthe teacher, administrator, bus driver etc. that remain the incisive in children’s learning . Marzano & Marzano, 2003 have concluded that it has been made clear that teachers’ actions in their classrooms can have a far greater impact on student achievement than school matters of curriculum, assessment, staff collegiality, and community involvement.