After reading chapter one I can comfortably say that my 1980's middle school was a middle school in name only. Classes changed every 50 minutes or so. Subjects were taught as isolated entities and the few electives available could be divided into two categories: artistic or domestic. If you had interests in both wood shop and drama you were out of luck. Classroom instruction was entirely lecture-style and athletics were competitive to an almost aggressive degree. I survived, but I can only imagine how much better my experience might have been in a true middle school model.
I experienced year-round education at Valeska Hinton Early Childhood Center. The alternative schedule appeared to work well for students, especially those who were more at risk for regressing during a longer summer break. I would be interested to see the model in action with older students.
I just completed Novice Teaching at Quest Charter Academy. They currently offer grades 5-8. Teachers are arranged into collaborative teaching teams by grade level and block scheduling exists for Language Arts, Science, Mathematics, and Social Studies. From my experience, macroperiods can seem awfully long if the teacher does not include enough hands-on or inquiry-type learning opportunities for the students. From a middle-school student's perspective, taking notes is equivalent to not 'doing' anything in class. I see their point.
By Kristin H: Hi Melissa! I like what you have brought up. Our book is very against the traditional middle school, and I was almost thinking "well, that's all that is around still!" but I'm really thankful that it is not! The Middle School I'm going to be student teaching at is very interdisciplinary and I'm really excited to be putting into practice what this book has been outlining for us! I think that the biggest reason why students can't retain information longer than a test is that they are not really digging deep into what is taught: we don't give opportunities for hands-on experience or even within the community experience. The block schedule really helps because it gives time for experiments, going out into the community, or building a project. A lot of students in 50 min. periods think that "Oh, I only have 10 minutes, I can't get anything done," where in longer periods they can see the time they have to be productive!
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