Author: Curtis Griffin

Moving from the protective environment of an elementary grades classroom—where in most cases, students spend the day with the same teacher and the same group of students—to the middle grades—where students may need to rotate between three or more teachers and interact with a larger group of students—can be challenging and intimidating for students. This transition often results in a reduction of the number of friendships in students’ lives,1 which can be an additional adjustment. Research indicates that when students transition to the middle grades, there is an increase in incidents requiring school discipline (e.g., in-school suspension) for disturbance to the class learning environment or unwillingness to follow rules.2 There is also evidence of a predictive association between the number of disruptive behavior incidents during elementary and middle grades years and school failure in high school, even when socioeconomic status and intellectual differences are taken into consideration.3 Middle grades students need common academic behavior and academic expectations, rewards, and consequences. Think of a middle grades student’s experience throughout the day. If it is vastly different from classroom to classroom, he or she will not internalize strong behavioral and academic norms.

This chapter identifies ways schools can support middle grades students through these challenges. First, we describe what research has shown to be effective school wide strategies for reducing the risk of students’ dropping out or disengaging from school. Second, we show how to develop and maintain a school climate and culture that emphasizes high academic achievement and student success supported by every member of the school faculty, and we emphasize effective strategies for forming a school-family-community partnership. Third, we describe specific school wide strategies for behavior support through the use of clear and common expectations. We also present targeted activities to motivate students and improve attendance, as well as academic and social behavior. Finally, we outline the expectations for effective extended learning opportunities that enable students to continue to learn in a way that is integrated with their regular school day and are also geared towards meeting students’ needs.

The following content dimensions are included in this chapter on student supports that enhance learning:
• Dropout Prevention
• School Climate, Culture, and Partnerships
• Student Behavior Supports and Motivation
• Extended Learning Time

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The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) increased awareness of educational accountability and the need for greater focus on educational outcomes. Education stakeholders—from school boards to parents, teachers, superintendents, and even state legislators—are now using data as an important lever in education reform. This is a necessary condition for implementing performance management as a framework for improving school and student performance. For the purposes of this discussion, the term performance management has been borrowed from the field of business to describe an approach to building the capacity of educators at all levels to use data to prioritize activities that advance core goals, measure progress toward meeting these goals, and make informed decisions about the best ways to improve student achievement. Looking systemically at how all the components of the education system work together to support student learning is the primary goal of this new management approach.

While much of the strategic planning for performance management happens at the district level, implementation happens at each school site in a school district. School principals are on the front line, carrying out new programs, interventions, and curriculum and instruction. As managers of teacher and student performance, principals need information about how every part of the school is operating. Education indicators provide leaders with new understanding of capacity and productivity to meet students’ educational needs and can inform teachers and other educators of progress on improvements to the education system. Annual trends and outcomes, as well as day-to-day information on attendance, course performance, behavior, etc., are needed to monitor and fine-tune system performance. A primary goal of performance management is to aid schools and staff as they shift from an attitude of compliance to a new commitment to continuous improvement.

What follows are five practical and evidence-based principles that can be used to develop and implement effective performance management strategies in the middle grades, along with a description of the rationale behind each principle, and a few specific practices and examples that schools can follow to ensure success. These principles provide direction on using data to improve instruction and learning, monitoring progress toward goals, and evaluating the effectiveness of decisions.

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Writing is an integral tool that supports and connects learning in all content areas in the middle grades. Students must master writing processes, knowledge, and skills. Students “learn to write” and “write to learn.”

VIDEO GOES HERE!

Overview of Writing Principles and Practices

Principle 1: Establish consistent schoolwide practices for using writing as a tool to support student learning in all content areas.

• Practice 1: Ask students to analyze, interpret, or personalize in writing information that has been read or presented.
• Practice 2: Ask students to provide written summaries of material read or presented in class.
• Practice 3: Ask students to take written notes about material read or presented in class.
• Practice 4: Ask students to answer questions in writing about material read or presented in class.

Principle 2: Explicitly and systematically teach students the processes, knowledge, and skills of e active writing.

• Practice 1: Analyze and emulate model text to discover the characteristics of good writing and the features of speci c types of text.
• Practice 2: Model and teach strategies for planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing written work.
• Practice 3: Teach students how to construct complex sentences. Practice 4: Re ne students’ spelling, grammar, and usage skills.

Principle 3: Establish word processing as the common medium for student writing.

• Practice 1: Make enough word processors available in the school so that all students can use them to complete writing assignments.
• Practice 2: Teach keyboarding skills and how to use word processing programs and software.

Principle 4: Assess and monitor student writing to improve instruction and identify students who require more intensive writing instruction.

• Practice 1: Monitor students’ progress as writers.
• Practice 2: Provide students with feedback about their writing.
• Practice 3: Teach students how to give one another feedback about their writing.
• Practice 4: Teach students how to assess the quality of their own writing.

Principle 5: Provide extra assistance and instruction to students who experience difficulty learning to write.

• Practice 1: Provide students with intensive and extra instruction to acquire the strategies, knowledge, and writing skills that still need to be mastered.
• Practice 2: Teach students how to use word processing programs and software that provide assistance for targeted writing strategies and skills.
• Practice 3: Provide to students experiencing di culties intensive and extra instruction in using writing as a tool to support content learning.

Principle 6: Discontinue using practices that are NOT associated with improved outcomes for students.

• Practice 1: Take stock of all of the instructional practices and models currently implemented and determine whether they are necessary and associated with improved outcomes for students.

Principle 7: Improve teacher capacity to teach writing and use it as a tool for learning.

• Practice 1: Provide ongoing in-service professional development to all teachers to increase their capacity to teach writing.
• Practice 2: Have teachers create learning groups to share their best writing practices and work together to discover new ones.

View and Download Writing Section in the MSM Field Guide More Writing Resources