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Breaking Ranks in the Middle - Tools and Resources

Detailed Documentation on Breaking Ranks in the Middle

Documents

  • Teaming - Recommendations in Practice
    A number of schools featured in Breaking Ranks in the Middle highlight effective teaming practices that banish anonymity, limit the number of students with whom teachers have instructional contact, experiment with alternative uses of time, and integrate the curriculum.
  • Take It Personally: The Millennial Middle Level Student
    Our classrooms are filled with Millennials, those born after 1981 who, like the Generation Xers and Baby Boomers, possess certain generational characteristics. Fortunately, those characteristics can inform the way we reach those students each day in our schools.
  • Reach, Teach, and Engage with Service Learning
    Through service learning, students acquire knowledge, find a sense of purpose, experience self-discovery, and have the opportunity to interact with others, all while improving their communities and world. It is education brought to life.
  • Connecting Eighth Grade Students to Americanism Through Service and Our Veterans
    A middle level teacher describes a project that has enhanced the study of U.S. history by connecting students at her school with local veterans.
  • Service Learning: Project HAM
    A middle level leader shares a service learning project that students began in 2001 after learning about the needs of a local shelter for the homeless.
  • Leadership Priorities for Novice Middle Level Principals
    NASSP Middle Level Task Force members Ken McEwin and Nancy Chodoroff provide guidance in setting priorities for new middle level administrators remind us of what’s important for experienced school leaders as well.
  • Practical Suggestions for Developing Leadership Capacity in Others
    A compilation of ideas gathered from the NASSP Middle Level Task Force and other seasoned middle level leaders for building leadership capacity in others in your school.
  • Building Leadership Capacity: From a Teacher-Leader’s Viewpoint
    Middle level task force member Nancy Chodoroff shares her thoughts on how she was able to move into the role of a teacher-leader.
  • Middle Level Practices That Promote Personalization
    Four middle level principals discuss practices at their schools that personalize the learning environment.
  • A Framework for Rigor
    NASSP middle level task force members Rose Colby (administrator-in-residence, New England League of Middle Schools) and Patsy Dean (principal, Upson-Lee Middle School, Thomaston, GA) share a framework for rigor that helps middle level leaders identify practices that promote rigor in the classroom.
  • Collegial Collaboration: An Important Component of Developing a Rigorous Curriculum
    Julie Fondell, Director of Assessment and Staff Development at DC Everest Middle School in Weston, WI (and an NASSP Middle Level Task Force Member) recounts collaborative work between a teacher and the media specialist that resulted in challenging literature units.
  • High Expectations for All
    Principal Janice Koslowski explains how rigor has become an integral part of school life at Eagle Ridge Middle School in Ashburn, VA.
  • Practices and Programs that Increase Rigor
    Principal Terry Wolfson (NASSP Middle Level Task force member) shares challenging practices currently in place at West Hopkins Junior High in Minnetonka, MN.
  • Increasing Rigor through Questioning Strategies
    Principal Rob Stephenson of Farnsley Middle School in Louisville, KY, analyzes classroom questioning as an indicator of rigor and has adapted a quick observation tool to look specifically at the rigor of the verbs teachers use in questioning and task design.
  • Student Council in the Middle: Gotta Have It!
    While middle level administrators and educators may have diverse viewpoints of the purpose, place, and structure of student councils in a middle school, the bottom line is that student councils can fulfill multiple roles within the educational, personal, and social growth process of young adolescents, especially in creating a positive school climate.
    By Jeff Sherrill
  • Suggested Activities for Leadership Groups
    Successfully working with middle level students calls for creativity, enthusiasm, and a constant variety of new ideas.
  • Developing a Leadership Program
    It takes an enthusiastic and skilled leader with a heart for young adolescents to run an effective leadership program. Just as you want to hire the best math teacher to teach math, you want the best person possible to serve as the adviser to your leadership program, and that person may not be a teacher or administrator.
  • Advisories: Advice from the Field
    Two former middle level teachers share their expertise on effective advisory programs. In What Works, Jill Spencer shares her observations of what elements are necessary for an effective advisory program, and in AA (Advisor-Advisee) Throughout the Day, Theresa Hinkle explains how her team was able to maintain the core of their program even after advisory time was eliminated from the schedule.
  • Advisory Design and Implementation: What Are Our Insights?
    For the past three years, a small cadre of public school and college middle level educators with advisory experience has provided assistance to approximately 35 Rhode Island middle level schools as they have designed and implemented their individual advisory programs.
  • Leadership and Effectively Integrating Educational Technology: Ten Lessons for Principals and Other Educational Leaders
    Effective integration of technology is about increasing student engagement and learning. And it’s not just about changing the way education happens. It’s also about changing the way we think about teaching and learning.
  • From the Field: Examples of Technology Implementation
    There’s no question that technology and its continual advances has had a dramatic impact on schools. Things are changing so fast it’s hard to keep up with what’s available. Take a look at how a few principals from schools across the country are using technology to enhance learning.
  • What I Wish I Had Known When I Was a Middle School Principal
    Reflecting on the perceptions that she held for so many years, Maureen Furr shares the following as counsel for others who may not have yet had the breadth of experience she now enjoys.
  • From the Field: Middle and High School Collaborations