| Français
   

Middle School Program

The decision to open up a middle school* was made after much research and reflection. After analyzing the make up of the best environment for developing adolescents, we realized that what we do naturally every day at Écolita Trilingue is exactly what these pre-teens and young teens need to thrive. To better understand what we mean, let’s look at the teenager’s developmental characteristics and the pedagogical implications based on years of research done by the National Middle School Association (www.nmsa.org).

Physical Development

  • Rapid, irregular physical growth
  • Reduced coordination
  • Concerned with bodily changes
  • Develop sexual awareness as secondary sex characteristics appear
  • Ravenous appetites, unusual tastes, poor healthy nutritional habits (possible experimentation with drugs)

Implications for our Middle School

Because these physical peculiarities can affect learning, educators need to understand how these characteristics interact with young adolescents’ psychological and socio-emotional development. Rather than ignore physical changes, teachers are encouraged to discuss with students the natural developmental changes that are common to the human experience. Competition between early and late maturing students must be minimized. Instead, we need to offer educational experiences in nutrition, exercise, and other healthful behaviours.

Further, we need to provide appropriate instruction on drug use, pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases. Teachers need to provide active learning experiences such as role-playing, simulations, service learning, etc. rather than passive activities, and provide learning experiences that promote student involvement and collaboration. In sum, young adolescents need access to accurate sources of information about how their bodies are changing and differences between their changes and those of their peers.

Intellectual Development

  • Wide range
  • Development of prefrontal cortex (planning, anticipating consequences, longer attention, decision making)
  • Transitioning from concrete to abstract thought
  • Metacognitive ability
  • Intense curiousity
  • Egocentric
  • Preference for active learning, peer interaction
  • Interest in the future, personal goals, issues
  • Increasingly sophisticated humour

Implications for our Middle School

When planning instruction for young adolescents, teachers need to consider their varying intellectual development and individual differences by providing learning experiences that are appropriate for students’ cognitive levels. Tweens who are concrete thinkers need teachers to scaffold learning experiences. Abstract thinkers need opportunities to experience higher order thinking skills and cause-effect relationships. Expert teachers must provide authentic learning experiences for students (analysis and synthesis or data, problem solving, and experimentation), and allow students to explore the reason for school and home rules. All educators have to recognize students’ changing interests and adapt educational experiences accordingly as well as understand the connection between intellectual and moral reasoning.

Moral and Ethical Development

  • Idealistic, sense of fairness
  • Begin to consider others
  • Interested in participatory democracy
  • Show compassion
  • Develop personal values
  • Consider moral matters, but can’t always cope
  • Aware of flaws in others, slow to acknowledge own
  • Reflective, introspective, analytical

Implications for our Middle School

Rather than critique young adolescent moral development, middle grades educator need to understand these complexities and capitalize on the relationship between intellectual and moral reasoning. For example, when teachers are planning, they need to address both higher order thinking skills and higher levels of moral reasoning. In doing so, teachers provide opportunities for students to consider moral and ethical dilemmas in social and personal situations. Teachers must also provide opportunities for students to explore the concepts of justice and equity and opportunities for students to examine issues such as racism, sexism, and discrimination.

Psychological Development

  • Experience mood swings
  • Exhibit erratic and inconsistent behaviour
  • Seek independence and adult identity
  • Concerned about peer acceptance
  • Self-conscious, lack self-esteem, sensitive to criticism
  • Exhibit concern about physical growth and maturity
  • Believe personal problems, feelings, experiences are unique

Implications for our Middle School

It is very important to provide young teens with opportunities to form relationships with adults who understand and are willing to support their development. It is incumbent upon caring adults to help young adolescents understand that shifting allegiances within themselves are normal developmental occurrences. Adults need to serve as role models demonstrating the importance of friendships for positive psychological development. Therefore, we must provide opportunities through curricular experiences, organizational patterns, instructional approaches, exploratory programs, and advisory programs to build students’ self-esteem.

Social/Emotional Development

  • Need to belong
  • Fiercely loyal to peer group
  • Rebellious toward, but strongly dependent on family
  • Place more importance on peer approval
  • Desire recognition for efforts and achievements
  • Challenge authority; test limits
  • May exhibit immature behaviour (Sudden, intense emotions originating from the amygdala and the not yet fully developed prefrontal cortex)
  • Can be aggressive or argumentative
  • Need frequent affirmation from significant adults
  • “Who am I?” (developing personal identity, pleasing peers, separating from family, growing independence)

Implications for our Middle School

Keeping in mind the dramatic socio-emotional roller-coaster ride, one can understand the difficulty teachers and parents share when working with young teenagers who are becoming closely associated with new peer groups. All adults charged with the education and well-being of young adolescents must influence them in positive and constructive ways.

To do this, adults must understand the importance of young adolescent friendships and the impact on their positive socio-emotional development. In fact, parents and teachers can help teens understand that pursuits of freedom and independence should not lead to dangerous or unsafe practices. This can be achieved through educational experiences that teach these young people to handle social situations. Teachers have to encourage debates and other outlets for students to be argumentative in an appropriately supervised, controlled setting such as a classroom. It is also important to recognize gender differences in socialization and friendship formation, without generalizing or stereotyping. The school can plan gender responsive social situations to address this emergent socio-emotional growth.

Still based on years of research done on middle schooling, successful schools for young adolescents are characterized by a culture that includes:

  • Educators who value working with this age and prepared to do so
  • Courageous, collaborative leadership
  • Shared vision
  • Inviting, supportive, safe environment
  • High expectations for every member of the learning community
  • Students and teachers engaged in active learning
  • Adult advocate for every student
  • School-initiated family and community partnerships
  • Curriculum that is relevant, challenging, integrative, exploratory
  • Multiple learning and teaching approaches that respond to diversity
  • Assessment and evaluation programs that promote quality learning
  • Organizational structures that support meaningful relationships and learning
  • School-wide efforts and policies that foster health, wellness, and safety
  • Multifaceted guidance and support services

Écolita Trilingue wants to offer the following recommended components in its middle school to ensure every student’s success:
Curriculum
  • Relevant, challenging, integrative, exploratory
  • Challenging and engaging, tapping young adolescents’ energy and interests, supporting them in meeting high standards
  • Grounded in standards, relevant to young adolescents’ concerns, based on how students learn best
  • Addresses academically rigorous essential learning
Instruction
  • Multiple learning teaching approaches respond to young adolescents’ diversity
  • Instructional methods prepare all students to achieve high standards, differenciating instruction to take advantage of students’ diversity.
  • Variety of instructional methods honour students’ histories and cultures, support high expectations for every student. They are geared to student individual needs and consistent with ways students learn.
Assessment

Just as there are many ways of teaching someone something (differenciated instruction), there are many more ways of assessing whether a student has mastered a skill besides having him answer questions on a sheet of paper. Variety is critical to assessment practices, with a focus on providing multiple and authentic opportunities to demonstrate learning.

Educators

Educators are obviously crucial to the success of middle grades students. Our teachers are specifically prepared for teaching the middle grades and committed to enhancing their knowledge and practise through ongoing professional development and research.

Relationships

Relationships make or break the quality of education and the quality of everyday life in a school. Virtually all research points out the benefits of small communities for learning as the foundation for positive relationships between and among students and teachers. Teams of teachers who share responsibility for student success lead those small communities.

Decision Making

Decision making is a constant activity for educators, with hundreds of decisions, both large and small, to be made on any given day. A shared vision of success focussed on teaching and learning should drive those decisions; collaborative, democratic leadership is the best way to achieve that shared vision.

Health, Wellness, Safety

Physical and mental health are crucial to student success. At Écolita, we continuously strive to foster health, wellness, safety, and positive, respectful interactions.

Parents, Families, Communities

It is essential for the school and the families to have ongoing communication despite the teenager’s natural need to separate from his parental unit. Whether inside or outside the school walls, teens are constantly learning from every adult they encounter. Écolita also forms partnerships with our community to offer students expertise which we do not have at our school such as horseback riding instructors, Taekwondo experts, health professionals, police officers, etc.

*Permit Pending
To reach us by E-mail | To reach us by telephone : 450.510.5454