Building a Culture without Cracks

Developing a school culture that puts student academic success at the center of all decisions is crucial to a school’s success.  In the middle grades, it is important to develop the whole student.  Great schools don’t allow any student to fall through the cracks. 

1. A strong team or teams-Teams drive much of what we do in the middle school.  The purpose of the team must have student driven decisions. 

2. Kid Centered-When students are at the center of decisions rather than curriculum, everything else falls into place.

3. Never give up attitude-I believe that schools often tell parents and student why we can’t do something.  Instead of telling people what our limitations are as a school, why not explore all options that could help an individual student.

4. Putting Programs in Place-With a never give up attitude, it would be easy to get frustrated if programs aren’t in place to support teachers that never give up.  As an example, if zeroes are not an option, then set up programs to support this belief.

5. Developing a unified approach to student behavior-It is also important that the approach to student behavior fits the kid centered, never give up attitude.

Motivating Middle School Students

Relevance
Students must see school as relevant.  Interdisciplinary projects can be one way to increase relevance.  When students see what they learn being used in all of their classrooms, they begin to see it as more relevant.  Math knowledge is not isolated just in the 45 minute period that they sit in Math class.

Relationships
Teaming can provide an outstanding way to develop relationships.  It creates a small school inside of a bigger school.  For us at Arlington, we already have a small school.  When we created the Middle School Team, it allowed our teachers the ability to discuss student issues.  Additionally, students all had the same teachers.  The schedule became simplified.  All of the students were together at the same time.  This then allows flexibility so that you can experiment with the schedule.  At one point this year, for about a month, the 8th graders were tracked by gender.  This allowed the teachers to develop a different relationship with the students.

Making School an Experience
Fridays are activity days.  Our Middle School splits into 4 different teams based on their homeroom class. Students participate in competitions and activities for a 20 minute period.  This is a break from the normal routine and has students looking forward to Friday activities

Our teachers also develop interdisciplinary projects.  When we kick off the project, the teachers make a kickoff video.  The students all come together to watch the video.  During one kick off, the students then got to eat food from the time period they were studying in Social Studies.  They also do other hands on activities on these days.

Here are some links to videos that our Middle School Team created for the unit kickoffs:

Egypt Unit: Mummy Part I:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl7ebhBJ2XE&feature=fvsr

Egypt Unit: Mummy Part II:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoayMpzjHE8&feature=related

Ancient Rome Unit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJKG1L403Pg&feature=related

Recognizing Effort
Additionally, our state tests are called NeSA tests.  Our tradition has been to set goals with our students.  This year, if we are 95% proficient on the writing test, we will go to the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo.  On our other tests, it is not based on results as much as preparation.  If the students exhibit the behaviors that make you a successful test taker, we will have half a day at the local softball field where students will get to play, have lunch, and just have a fun day.  Celebrate success and effort together as a school and this increases student motivation.

Motivation
Recognizing that they should not spend their entire life going to school and then going home for a second shift of school through excessive homework is also critical.  Nothing kills motivation faster than constant homework and the lack of recognizing what students enjoy. Celebrate successes and successful effort.  Once the school establishes systems promoting relevance, relationships, making school an experience, and recognizing effort, then students become more motivated.

Homework Grading Practices

Grading practice (homework or independent practice) can be counterproductive.  When students are learning, they need feedback but that feedback should not simply be a check mark on a paper.  If students are sent home with homework and know that the next day that homework will be graded, then often the student is doing that assignment for homework completion and not for learning.  Students need to be allowed to practice without it impacting their grades.

Homework Completion vs. Learning

When homework is about completion, then you will create situations where cheating is rewarded.  It also punishes students whose parents can't help them complete the assignment.  When it's all about homework completion, a student might complete the homework but not know any of the answers on the in class assessment.  Did the student learn?

Difficulty for Teachers

It is difficult for teachers who have always graded homework to give this practice up.  Teachers ask, what will the motivation be to complete the assignment?  Are we going to lose rigor?  Are the students grades going to go down (many students are saved by the homework grade)? What if some of the students stop doing homework?  This is a scary proposition.

Relevant Homework


So why would a student do the homework?  The homework must be relevant.  Students must  see the relationship between doing homework and learning.  If the student doesn't do the homework, they will not know the correct questions to ask in class.  The homework must advance learning towards the stated objectives.  Use brain research to find best practices for homework.  Don't just send students home with what we didn't get finished in class.  Students should be practicing the skill that was taught, not teaching themselves at home.  Teachers should check for understanding and do guided practice before sending students off on their own.

Students View of Homework as Practice


In a conversation in a teacher's class that uses the approach of not grading homework, an 8th grade student said "I wish you graded homework, then my grade would be better."  Another student replied, "Don't give her that idea, then if I don't get it (understand the homework) at home, then I will panic because I have to get it done."  The student identified that learning is the most important thing in this teacher's class.  In this class, if you don't "get it", you can ask without being punished with a bad grade.

Another student told me, the nice thing about Middle School is that it's not a battle about getting homework done.  Students and teachers work together to make sure that we (students) learn.

Things to consider when not grading homework

1. Homework is most productive in Math.  Other areas show little, if any, correlation between homework and learning.
2. Homework should be limited.  Add a zero to their grade for minutes of homework.  Sixth Grade = 60 minutes.  Each subject area should be at about 10 minutes because this is a total, not per class.  The default answer should be no homework and hopefully students rarely get to 60 minutes of homework.
3. Assess students with several small quizzes. 
4. Allow students to re-take quizzes.
5. Check for understanding during class.
6. Do Guided Practice during class.
7. Create systems that require students to complete homework when they regularly don't do homework and do poorly on assessments (like a lunch time homework opportunity).
8. Leave your answer book open-let students self check.
9. Learning can and should happen in groups but the assessment should be to find out what an individual knows.
10. Have an in-class test or assessment that is based on standards.  Assessments shouldn't be fluff.  In-class assessments and tests are the way to find out how much the student learned.

Homework at the Middle Level

Homework must be meaningful and must be limited.  When students get to the Middle School level, they are now moving between classes.  Teachers must plan together to assign the appropriate amount of homework.  Rick Wormelli talks about adding a 0 to the grade the student is in to determine how much homework a student should get.  If the student is in 5th grade, the appropriate amount of homework is 50 minutes.  An important point here is that 50 minutes is the total amount for all teachers to give as homework.  If we limit homework to the 4 core classes, each class should give no more than 12 minutes of homework per day. "No homework tonight" should be the default choice, not, "There is homework tonight." (Wormelli, p 41)

What amount of work takes 50 minutes?  That answer is going to be significantly different for different students.  It is important to either differentiate homework or send the homework home with a time limit.  The teacher can assign a number of problems for practice and tell students to practice for 12 minutes and then draw a line upon the completion of those 12 minutes.  Some problems will not get done.

If teachers are able to collaborate, then they should talk to each other about the amount of homework that is being given on a particular day.  If a large assignment is being given in Math, then maybe that day there is no assignment in Science.  Even then, the Math assignment should be reasonable.  Homework should not be assigned unless students have already been exposed to a topic and they have adequate background knowledge to complete the homework without additional instruction.  Homework should not simply be what we didn't get done in class.  Students should learn the topic before being sent off to practice on their own.  Following ITIP, teachers should check for understanding, then do guided practice in the room.  After guided practice is complete, then you can assign work to be done as independent practice.

Grading of homework is also an important issue.  Students' grades should not be based on their homework, but rather on in-class assessments.  Once work leaves the classroom, no guarantees can be made about who did the homework.  If in-class assessments are the way students are graded, then a student will gain no advantage by parents helping to complete the work or copying other students work.  The focus becomes learning, not homework completion.  Students begin to see a connection between the work they do and the learning that happens.

Works Cited
Wormelli, Rick. "Teaching in the Middle: Homework How we Assign it." Middle Ground:The Magazine of Middle Level Education. 11.4 (2008): 41-42. Web. 5 Feb. 2012. <http://www.amle.org/Publications/MiddleGround/Articles/April2008/Article18/tabid/1666/Default.asp&xgt;.

Grade Recovery Intervention Program

Creating a culture where failure is not allowed is certainly the first step.  Then programs must be put into place.  One size fits all approache rarely work.  In the Middle School portion of our 7-12 school, we use the Eagle Success Program when students don't do their homework.  This is held during lunch which is nice because such a large portion of our 7th and 8th graders are bus riders and many of our parents work out of town.  For our 9-12 grade students, we have the Grade Recovery Intervention Program (GRIP).  This program is designed for students who are struggling academically and are not completing homework. Individuals are assigned GRIP only if the student has a D or F.  They are also assigned a GRIP only when they are missing work.  Other programs are in place for students who have D's or F's but have completed all of their homework as these students are typically struggling more for an academic reason.  Not turning in work is a behavior and when that behavior creates a problem with grades, it is addressed.  GRIP is held after school from 3:35-4:15.  The teacher fills out a Google survey.  On that survey, it identifies the student, the assignment, the teacher assigning the GRIP, the students current grade, and any additional instructions that the GRIP coordinator needs to know.  This form takes less than one minute to fill out.  The simplicity of the form is important as teachers are very busy and as administrators, we want our teachers to use this program as needed.  The GRIP coordinator then looks at the Google spreadsheet at the end of the day.  Our GRIP coordinator is a para who comes to school 45 minutes late and stays 45 minutes after the school day.  The coordinator then assists the students in completing homework or supervises depending on the students needs.  At the conclusion of GRIP, the coordinator puts in comments to the google spreadsheet so that the teacher knows what gone finished during GRIP.  That spreadsheet is shared with the teacher so they can simply read the spreadsheet and see what got accomplished during GRIP.

GRIP is not one size fits all.  At times, we have made arrangements to serve GRIP to be in the morning.  This is only if the student doesn't need academic assistance as the coordinator will not be there to assist in at that time.  This is rare and only done for good reasons.  Additionally, as the semester comes to a conclusion, we assigned GRIP's to students who were struggling and had failed a test in which in appeared they had not studied.  The teacher and administrator worked together with the GRIP coordinator to make sure that the student studied during GRIP time and later did a re-take on the test.

It is important that the number one reason for putting a student in GRIP is a genuine concern for that student.  We want to see all students succeed.  At the same time, it is a consequence for the behavior of not turning in homework.  Therefore, this is a consequence for incomplete homework.  This consequence is greater for some students and more immediate than failing a class.  This year, we saw a significant decrease in the number of students failing courses.  At the conclusion of the first semester, we only had one student grades 9-12 fail one course.  This is down from an average of around 30 courses failed per semester.

To see examples of a GRIP form, you can look at the example in the Lunch ESP blog.  This form is very similar to that of the GRIP form.

Academic Labs-Failure is Not an Option

The creation of academic labs benefit our students by giving them an additional opportunity to learn in the core areas. In 2010-2011, we experimented with what we have called labs.  During periods 2-6, all 7th and 8th grade students have TA (homeroom), Math, English, Social Studies, and Science.  All 7th graders are in Math/Science and all 8th graders are in English/Social Studies at the same time.  Then we had Academic Labs followed by the other half of the core classes where 7th and 8th graders took the other 2 core classes.  These Academic labs were created for enrichment and remediation. Students would rotate through the academic labs with their homeroom classmates.

10-11 Labs (over 4 days, all students would go to each lab)

• Reading
• Writing
• Science
• Math

In 11-12, we modified our labs.  Labs are now right after TA.  Students are assigned a guided study hall or a lab depending on their academic need.  The High Ability Learners have an afternoon class that is designed to push them academically.  The labs now focus on enrichment and all students are invited to come to these labs but some students are assigned the lab.  Focus on math, reading, and writing is because our belief is that these are fundamental skills that students need to master to have a better understanding in all classes.  Students not assigned to labs are put in a guided study hall. These students do take advantage of the labs as needed based on either teachers recommendation or their own desire to get better at a  certain skill.

11-12 Labs

• Guided Study Hall 
• Reading/Writing
• Math

Our focus has been to make sure that we create an environment where all students will succeed.  These labs give students additional support.  In the last 2 years, we have had one student fail one course.  This would have been unheard of prior to the 2010-2011 school year.  This was one of many reforms we have made in our school but I believe it to be an important piece of the puzzle.

Time of Change: Transition to a Middle School

Two years ago, Arlington Jr/Sr High School embraced the "middle school" philosophy.   We are still a 7-12 building but grades 7-8 are treated in what we feel is a more developmentally responsive way.  We wanted to makes some changes that would benefit our students.  We have now completed 3 semesters in this new system.  During this time, we have only had one student fail one course.  Prior to this system, we would regularly have students fail courses. The data is beginning to prove that this system has increased academic achievement.

Challenges of a small 7-12 school
1. Shared staff-We share music, art, PE, K-12.  Of all of the teachers who teach 7th and 8th grade, one teaches only Middle School.  The rest teach at least one high school section.
2. Scheduling-Our staff was completely shared prior to the change to a middle school.  Many classes are offered only once.  This makes a schedule difficult to create.  All of the juniors and seniors that want to take sociology, as an example, have to take it 5th period during the first semester.  This really limits what classes can be taken and offered for all students in grades 7-12.  As we changed to a middle school, our concern was that by blocking off the morning for middle school core classes, this might negatively impact our high school students abilities to get into their chosen classes.
3. Difference in needs of 7th graders and 12th graders-12 year olds are nervous about using lockers for the first time.  The 18 year olds are worried about their cars, varsity sports, and graduation.
4. High School mentality-We hired most of our teachers to teach "high school."  The administration were also called High School Principal and High School Assistant Principal.  The focus can easily be on the upper grades.  Sometimes teachers can get "stuck" teaching middle schoolers and once they get seniority in their department they move "up" to teach high school classes.  For us, the problem was more structural than attitude.  In our structure,we had few opportunities to discuss 7th and 8th grade student needs.

Changes
1. Creation of an Interdisciplinary Team-Our Middle School team meets every day.  Our Middle School core teachers teach both 7th and 8th grade.  We only have 40 students per grade.  Team allows teachers to discuss middle school specific issues.  Here is our schedule of topics: M-Lesson Plans-find out what days others are giving tests/quizzes homework, T-Student issues, W-Interdisciplinary Unit discussion, Th-Professional Development, F-Homeroom Activities and Misc.
2. Creation of the Eagle Success Program-Whenever I present at a conference, this is what always gets the most interest.  I will do a separate blog about this on a different day.  ESP is a system that doesn't allow student to not do their homework.
3. Creation of Academic Labs-Students either go to a guided study hall, Math Lab, or English Lab for 30 minutes.  This is based on academic need assigned by the teachers.  However, we have several students who go to labs on their own.
4. Flexible Scheduling-we block out periods 2-6 for core academic time.  If we need to make a change an have a long period for science to meet, we can simply shorten other classes.  Math-Science meet at the same time and Eng-Soc St meet at the same time so we can make simple changes.  We also can drop homeroom or lab.  We can lengthen either homeroom for a day.
5. Interdisciplinary Units-We have amazing, creative teachers who have done some really neat things.  They create an interest in school by having fun with these units.  We begin these units with videos that the teachers make.  I will write an entire blog on these at a later date.
6. No Zero Policy-zeroes kill a students grade.  The hardest part for some teachers was how will we motivate students to complete work?  After doing this now for 5 years, I can tell you we have less missing work now than before.  Students who struggle in school are not motivated by zeroes.  They tend to be more motivated by social time.  Therefore we created the Eagle Success Program to help students complete their homework.
7. Structure of Administration/Focus on Middle School students-We created a Middle School Coordinator that acts as the administrator in charge of the Middle School.
8. Middle School Lunch-Grades K-4 eat first, then 9-12, then 5-8.  In the old system, we simply had Lower Elementary Lunch and then 2 high school lunches.  We would have 5th graders and Seniors in the same lunch and this was less than ideal.
9. Development of Living Above the Line-this is our discipline system designed for middle school students.

These are some of the changes we have made that have shifted focus to the 7th and 8th graders.  The structure of the buildings don't matter.  With some creativity, positive changes can be made and a middle school philosophy can be implemented anywhere that you have students grades 4-9.