We read early on in this course that adolescents begin to think a bit more mature but still require a parent or guardians support and guidance. They also begin to feel insecure about their appearance like their weight or acne. They care what others think about them. Around this time students may begin experimenting with alcohol, drugs, smoking and sex. These behaviors do not come without consequences. Around this age it is important that these young adolescents have a trusted adult. If they don't have a trusted adult, they may be trusting their peers that may have wrong advice but because of their need to fit in they will sometimes trust the peers more than an adult.
We later read in AMLE about the 4 essential attributes that must be present when educating, guiding and supporting young adolescents which are the following: Developmentally Responsive,Challenging and Empowering.
Within these 4 essential attributes we learned about the 16 characteristics that must be present when educating, guiding and supporting young adolescents. This is why i said that the book " This We Believe: Keys to Educating Young Adolescents is a must read for parents and or educators of adolescents. I will not talk about all of them as I have already talked about some of them in my previous blog posts. Here is an Image with an overview of the 4 attributes and the 16 Characteristics.
I feel that ALL 16 characteristics are very important to have when educating adolescents. However, I also believe that the 6 characteristics that fall under CULTURE & COMMUNITY are very important to lay the foundation in educating students in middle school. If we can become fluent in these characteristics as parents, educators, a school or community the academics and organization will flow together because we have created a warm and welcoming place for our middle school students to thrive. We will be courage educators and build schools with vision that all stakeholders believe in, especially our students.
Coincidentally I was learning about differentiating in my other class at the same time that we read article about teaching diverse learners. The biggest take away for me in this area was that creating a classroom that incorporates lessons in a Universal Design for Learning will benefit all students. Differentiating is mainly done as needed per classroom. If I teach incorporating UDL, I will have differentiated prior to the need. The big difference being that in DI, the teacher makes changes according to need. In UDL, the teacher implements the changes prior to the need so that all students have access.
Overall, I really enjoyed the readings, the blog posts, my classmates blog post. The assignments were really engaging in this class which really motivated me to do my best as a student and apply what I learned in my home with my own teens and in my future middle school classroom. I will be buying this AMLE book to refer to. Here is a link to the AMLE website if you would like to refer to it as well.
I, too, was a big fan of the AMLE text. For a little book it packed quite a punch. It was very succinct which was refreshing compared to other class experiences. I found myself being more thoughtful about what I read. I also sought more information "for fun" on my own, which I don't always get the opportunity to do in other courses. Taking this course in conjunction with the middle school methods course was quite helpful, if daunting at times with the volume of work.
ReplyDeleteFinally I'd like to say I relate to the nervousness at the outset of class. I, too, had any number of concerns regarding my confidence and the workload. I was completing these two courses and finishing up a prereq too. My three kids are little yet, at nearly 8, just 6 and almost 3. It was hard to keep up with their schoolwork and mine but I feel a bit better prepared for the few short years until they hit these middle grade years. :)