Teaching Middle School

Middle school is a level of schooling between primary and high school. The age of middle school pupils varies from country to country, but middle schools normally team children between 10 and 15 years old. Unlike primary schools, where a year group class is usually taught by a single teacher covering all subjects, middle schools involve many teachers, each of them teaching a different ...

Middle school is a level of schooling between primary and high school. The age of middle school pupils varies from country to country, but middle schools normally team children between 10 and 15 years old. Unlike primary schools, where a year group class is usually taught by a single teacher covering all subjects, middle schools involve many teachers, each of them teaching a different discipline.

Starting at middle school can be daunting. The prospect of having more classes, more teachers with different personalities and expectations and new rules to obey can be scary for some children. Middle school pupils are often beginning puberty and adolescence. They start searching for identity, try to understand themselves and the others around them. At this stage of life, children gain more independence from their parents and start building new relationships.

Middle school pupils need firm guidelines and at the same time require the feeling that they are being looked after by a concerned adult who knows and respects them individually. Pupils may face challenges with literacy as a result of both a change in the teacher's expectations and their own lower engagement in the school system. During these years, some pupils' literacy standard may regress, rather than progress. The reasons vary, ranging from lack of interest to lack of ability to cope with higher demands.

In order to help students rise to the new challenges, teachers should mix words, images and design in their activities. Teachers should stay informed about children's books and they should engage them with topics they are interested in or which spark their curiosity. Classroom activities may involve making them share their interests and previous experiences in reading and writing.

At this stage of education, knowing the spoken language is no longer sufficient to support writing and reading. Students have to use abstract notions, construct complex sentences and put them in context. Building complex sentences may challenge students' ability to pay attention to grammar rules. Another challenge of literacy is the use of paragraphs. It is the first time pupils will have had to pay attention to the whole meaning of the text they are producing and the relation between sentences. Teachers should engage them in activities aimed at identifying the main ideas of a text and organizing themes.

Mathematics is another challenge for middle school pupils. It is very important for pupils to see it as a meaningful and relevant subject, which they will use in everyday life. Teachers must assist mathematics-anxious students to overcome their fear of mathematics and put them in the position of applying their knowledge to solve real tasks.

Good assessment plays a significant role in this stage of a child's education. Teaching, learning and assessment are inseparable in academic development. Assessment can be summative, referring to tasks and tests which show what students can do at a certain time, and formative, which takes place during a course and provides feedback to students and instructors which will lead to teaching and learning development.

Formative assessment, either formal or informal, provides diagnostic information about gaps in knowledge or learning difficulties or disabilities of the students which must be addressed. Summative assessment results in the calculation of a grade. It is usually made at the end of a course, the term or semester, or even a topic. Summative assessment evaluates how well students have acquired the knowledge presented during the given period. Assessment cannot be purely summative of formative. The challenge is to offer a balance between both which will result in informing and guiding the pupils' educational development.

However, one of the most important factors in education is a student-teacher relationship based on mutual respect. Research confirms that teachers getting well with their students generate positive academic results.