Understanding Kids in the Middle

     What a great “hook”!  I was totally taken in by the author's first paragraph. An assessment of young people today included such things as; they have bad manners, disrespect old people, contradict their parents, tyrannize their teachers, and I am  reading along going yeah, that’s right, they do... And then the assessment is attributed to Socrates in 400 B.C. The point being that the developmental needs of young adolescents is the same now as it was over 2000 years ago.

  This article is written specifically for educators dealing with middle school students.  The foundation of the article is identified as the importance of teachers understanding the Physical, Intellectual Emotional and Social (PIES) development of this age group.  Clearly identified are some specifics within each of these areas of development. A sampling of these are:  Physical  - “musculoskeletal alterations” leading to “a difficult time sitting still for any length of time”, Intellectual - moving “from concrete to abstract thinking”, Emotional - “intense and unpredictable mood swings” and Social - needing to belong to a group.  

Excellent strategies are offered for structuring a middle school classroom and designing and delivering lessons to middle school students.  Some of these suggestions include having students get up and move around, providing students with choices for completing an assignment, providing praise and support and using cooperative learning groups.  I would like to have seen more details for the strategies offered or at least a link or list of resources for them.  One of the suggestions is “tiering assignments” and in my 17 years of teaching I have not encountered this term and would like to know more about it.

  My first full time teaching contract was to teach 5 periods of 7th grade World History.  I was ill prepared to work with this age group. This article would have given me a great first step in understanding this age group. I highly recommend this article to all middle school teachers.  You need to be prepared to deal with students who tend to be “self-conscious, lacking in self-esteem, concerned about peer pressure and highly sensitive to personal criticism.”

Weiner, C. (2007). Understanding Kids in the Middle. Principal (Reston, Va.), 86(4), 74-5. Retrieved from Education Full Text database