School In The Middle (1970s)

the Charlottesville Virginia public school system has taken a long and creative stride toward developing middle schools designed to enhance the developmental processes of emerging adolescence what is a middle school clearly not all middle schools will be identical indeed they will be different but the differences should not vary greatly in quality instead middle school should be characterized by A diversity of [Music] [Applause] Excellence when Robert Lewis Stevenson was a young boy he sat by his window at dusk one evening quietly watching the lamp lighter as he proceeded to make his rounds lighting the gas burners in the street lights and his mother was quite concerned about the lengthy period of silence and when she called upstairs and asked Robert what he was doing Robert replied I'm watching a man punch holes in the dark and this classic reply exemplifies I believe one of charlottesville's major goals and responsibilities the film that you are about to see depicts one of our efforts to try to put it all together to develop a school for young people who who are in the pre-adolescent stage of their lives what isn't depicted in this film are the many planning sessions that were held for teachers and for administrators The Untold number of efforts to inform the public about uh our coming journey into a new form of Education the continual retraining programs for teachers and the professional commitment of a total school system from the school board to the school administration to the classroom teachers on the firing line our quest in Charlottesville is to have secure and confident teachers the kind of people who can lead our young people in a style that says to each and every one of them we trust you you are a worthy human being you are important and you are successful in Charlottesville this is our possible dream and we believe our reachable star the film is not intended to provide definitive answers to all of the various problems now existing in education but rather and hopefully it will provide the spark that will ignite the conversation that is needed to begin creative thinking and planning for the emerging middle school program that will permeate the Commonwealth in Charlottesville we have read much about team teaching about interdisciplinary studies about courses of very short duration we have read about the role of teachers as advisers to students and the need for a strong activity program in lie of an athletic program and with the need for a reporting system that says to the parent something more than a b or c and a program that values the effective domain as highly as it does the cognitive and also of course the advantages of an open space facility in our movement from the junior high school to the Middle School concept that is what we have attempted to do we believe that we've made tremendous gains with a Bountiful Harvest Yet to Come however we realized full well that if our dreams are to become a reality it will require and continue to require a total commitment from the student body from the teachers from the school administrators and from the parents no one Middle School Organization has Universal applicability the middle schools visited in this film are attempting a variety of approaches to teaching a variety of pupils the overall curriculum theme for Charlottesville middle schools is a study of man past present and [Music] future team teaching is the basic organizational pattern used in meeting the great student diversity in grades 6 through 8 how would you describe your interdisciplinary team well the interdisciplinary teams here at Buford are made up of six teachers in a full-time Aid there are two social studies two language arts and two science teachers who plan together 90 minutes a day of Team Planning and come up with interdisciplinary units based around a theme of American studies past and present some of the units we've taught this year in the seventh grade team are adaptation youth in the law the study of the community a unit on colonialism and the westward expansion and we're now working on a new unit that we'll start in several weeks on influence how much planning time does the team have in the schedule planning sessions are 90 minutes of Team Planning a day although we find that uh we get together on the weekends and sometimes after school at night to to do more planning what do you think about the team teaching we've been doing this year has it made any difference to you in your classes definitely first of all it's more interesting to me I like working with six other teachers I like having other teachers around in the area it's much more flexible as far as planning goes it's uh it's more fun too I also feel that it takes a lot more time to plan but it's worth it don't you you think yeah I think that uh the scheduling particularly the we can break up into any size group we want we can schedule students we can split up students if we can handle behavior problems better and it allows us to have a wider range of activities I think that particularly in various science and various disciplines we can see that we can go outside into the community which we couldn't do before plus we can share the expertise of the different members of the group so I think you get a team effort and it doesn't just hang on one person we all share the responsibility teachers in the middle schools utilize a wide variety of media films records tapes film strips Learning Centers teachers also use many forms of printed materials and games not only must the media of learning be expanded but so must the learning process the emphasis is from telling to doing from focusing on the gifted and the disadvantaged to focusing on all children early adolescents are active individuals and need active participation in an environment that encourages learning science is an excellent example of the doing process middle school students are involved in more laboratory activities they are being asked to collect data from experiments and to suggest explanations from what they have observed to establish rules and to test their generalizations [Music] what are the students doing at this Learning Center all our unit is called current world problems and we have about 33 Learning Centers here developed for our study in pollution and poverty in certain regions this particular Learning Center has to do with immigration to the United States it shows reading and also charts and graphs for the students to work on the many forms of media strategies and techniques encourage the development of particular skills rather than the learning of facts these skills include Reading Writing spelling and the skills of listening communication and [Music] discussion in your independent study groups you've been studying pesticides and I find that you've come up with arguments for and against its use I've been wondering what have been those pros and cons Betty well take the brown pelican um DDT almost brought it to extinction because it was in the fish they ate and since the B of used of DDT the brown pelcon has been coming back in parts of California but how can you stand to see these birds die well how can you stand to see people die every year millions of people all over the world die because of lack of food if we the teacher is a discussion leader and a resource person not the dominant figure in small group work but uh it's erupting our food chain and uh thousands and thousands of animals are dying each year especially in certain birds and it's and they can't the eggs and the birds the shells have been thin and they Crush And So It just erupts the food chain Al together but we have to use it or else people will just die we just have to use it there's any other way money it it takes too much money to do more research it's even coming up the food chain to us some people claim that the uh pesticides won't ever hurt us if they get through the food chain if you consider and put it all together it is finally getting to us and it's going to start building up in us and it finally will really harm us millions of people are being born each year and the um the want for food is going up and if we don't use pesticides or at least not enough to to control the insects then more is just going to be destroyed and 1.6 billion of damage is being done every year to crops but if people the skills of communication are fundamental to any creative and productive response to the complex society in which students must learn to function they can also use a less harmful pesticides uh students are scheduled for math on a daily basis with an emphasis on individualizing the [Music] program why have you individualized your math program it helps the students who's working fast to work as fast as he can students who work slow will not have to try to keep up with the fast student a variety of instructional modes ranging from Independent Learning to small group seminars to the conventional lecture is used by the mathematics team why do you prefer the individualized approach to math well last year when we worked on our math we had to work all together in one class and like if somebody was real slow and something you work faster then then you could work you you had to wait for them or you had to go as fast as everybody else so now today when you work here you can work however you want if you're really good in something you can work real fast and if you're not very good you can work as slow as you need to every pupil has an exploratory experience in as many intellectual ual and cultural activities as the school can provide these exploratory activities are scheduled as 9 or 18 we units the nature of the Middle School child necessitates the need for short-term high-interest courses students may elect two exploratory courses each 9we period home economics offers courses in foods and baking both boys and girls are encouraged to enroll in these offerings other courses of instruction focus on household ecology knitting beginning sewing and furniture refinishing youngsters learn new skills that they can use in the future Industrial Arts is also available to boys and girls sixth grade students have a required introductory 18we course in the related arts area while seventh and eighth graders may elect courses in computer electronics metal work mechanical drawing and woodworking [Music] band is a popular selection of many students although the band is not a marching unit they do perform for ptas conduct seasonal concerts and perform for the student body la [Music] sixth grade students are scheduled into a basic art program for 18 weeks to prepare them to select in depth electives at the seventh and eighth grade levels elective courses in art include nine week units in crafts drawing sculpturing oil painting ceramics watercolors and [Music] design sixth graders are offered an 18we exploratory course in French and Spanish this provides them with a basis to make a selection of the conventional French or Spanish course offered to seventh and eighth grade students Plum Plum is a regular daily program of health and physical education is crucial significant cellular glandular muscular and skeletal changes are occurring with Dynamic speed and intensity during this early adolescent period the library media center is an area for quiet study and research if any middle school is to be truly successful then it must utilize fully the library and capable media Personnel in addition to the academic and related arts programs there are approximately 45 different mini course offerings from which the student may choose according to his or her particular interest these courses meet for 30 minute periods 3 days a week for 6 weeks a student may select as many as five different many courses during the school term all many courses are scheduled on a non-graded basis since the area of study in the many course program is chosen by the student he usually has a greater interest and involvement than he may have in the regular curriculum many courses establish Rapport between teachers and students by building upon their common interest [Music] a [Music] the teacher advisor program is unique it is a 30 minute period of time two or 3 days a week where the teacher advisor has the opportunity to know 20 students very well it is a period of time for open discussion questions and guidance the advisor period is a much needed security base for for youngsters at this age is the advisory program an extension of the guidance Services well the teacher advisors actually serve as our best guidance workers they work directly with the students and as a result of that they make information available to us to work with student needs and the various things that do come up we work with the groups we work with the individuals as far as the advisers are concerned but it gives us a basis for our guidance program we I guess we would really be said to serve as advisers to the advisor to the advisers in their program and in doing that we do spend our time working on activities in service and all of the things that would help the advisers to serve their guidance function with the group in the beginning when we first started advisory program we did not spend a whole lot of time on academic goals we spent a lot of time on learning to become able with the major changes that came through with the school year learning to know each other better learning to deal with the new school rules the open space getting to classes on time and learning to feel real comfortable with each other as the year progressed we've spent more time now on developing personal potential doing well in classwork through study groups learning to work together as a team whether it's in sports or in competition within the classroom working in small groups and in large groups and learning to get along in school the best POS possible way that we can the teacher is indeed the key to an effective Middle School teachers working with emerging adolescents should be knowledgeable of age characteristics and should possess techniques which permit them to function effectively with this maturation level thus the middle school is emerging as an institution in which early adolescent develop intellectual social and psychological capabilities for the life they must live in a dynamic and rapidly changing democracy Charlottesville Virginia has embarked on an exciting Journey their progress their problems their pitfalls and their potentials Merit the serious attention of all persons dedicated to enhancing the quality of Education provided to the children youth and adults of America [Music]