7th Grade English Language Arts teacher

[Marilyn]

New York City has implemented the "Balanced Literacy" program in the Middle Schools. However, this program was design for grades K-5. There is minimum
instructional materials for the middle school teachers. Few of the novels to be used in class have been leveled by this program. Yet, 30% of our class library must be leveled to meet the student's individual reading needs. No one is really paying attention to this situation. Meanwhile, we are required to have centers in the classroom, such as writing, conferencing, reading etc. There is no support and we are told to apply the Elementary school curriculum to the middle school students. It is too prescriptive and offers no room for creativity for teenagers who are already physically, mentally and socially challenged people. We are required to have a rug and sit on the floor with 12 and 13 year olds who are at times taller and bigger than the teachers and whose hormones are kicking. Realistic? NO
I feel that the program would work if someone would ask the input of experienced middle school teachers to meet the needs of the students whose age level is greatly ignored and for the teachers. How are we preparing these students for high school and further more, for life?
Does any one have any suggestions or advice that would ease the anxiety?


Marilyn
teacher
NYC

[Unregistered]

hey sup????

[Stuart Little]

you, my dear fellow teacher, are complaining to the wrong people. take it up to your superintendent. and don't go by yourself. find a support group - family, fellow teachers, and students - who will walk up with you to battle this out.

here where i am from, they are forcing all teachers (except high school teachers) to teach reading mastery in the elem. schools and corrective reading in the middle school. both reading mastery and corrective reading are programs created by Engelmann (and others, i suppose) that require direct instruction (which by the way is a strategy and not a program) for 90 minutes everyday and/or more depending on what the students need. the problem(s): (1) many teachers are not fully trained and experienced to do this; (2) not all students are meant for this program; (3) we weren't given a choice.

how am i coping with this? i do it for the students. i've tried it out and find that it's good for most students (ahem, but not all). i talk about my problems with the program to other fellow teachers. and i complain.

[Mrs.Tygard_roxanne]

I think our students are getting way too much homework. They never have it with them, and are always stressed out and tired for staying up late doing it. Their parents are mad at US for giving too much work, but it is not our fault.

[trevor]

Marilyn-

Are you, perhaps, also part of America's Choice? I'm also in NYC (teaching 8th grade ELA) and my school implemented AC into the ELA program. No rugs at my school, though. (sheshh... some of my students are already over 6' tall, I can't imagine how I would ever arrange them...)

best,
trevor

[Unregistered]

dude!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Unregistered]

that person is right1 we students are geting to much hw!

[Kellie Leaver]

You sound quite frustrated--and reasonably so--in your message. "Balanced Literacy" is yet another wave in the education pendulum. The title itself has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? In my primary education, my so-called balanced literacy included sitting on the rug and listening to the teacher read aloud after lunch. I had a "center" to rotate to during the daily routine of "seatwork" which was called "S.R.A." (Today, I couldn't tell you what the acronymn stands for.) "S.R.A." is a fancy way to say time for silent reading comprehension skills work. Furthermore, I read from a standard text of an anthology of stories ranging from poetry to fiction and non-fiction. Finally, we had journal writing and creative writing times threaded throughout our year in each grade level. Sound familiar? Yes. It's called "balanced literacy."

In essence, I encourage you to take a deep, cleansing breath, think about the term balanced by itself, then literacy by itself. To me, it means creating times for students to involve themselves in all aspects of communication via writing, reading, speaking, and listening. How you set it up is really up to you. Sitting on a rug with your overgrown adolescent students isn't as daunting as you may presume. How about going to some garage sales and buying some twenty-five cent pillows to toss on the floor? I've regularly scoured such sales and have invested very little spare change on minor creature-comforts as these, and have allotted each Friday language arts class a read-aloud time where everyone "flops" as I sit comfortably in my (garage sale) directors' chair and read aloud from a young-adult novel which is current, and interesting to read. Try finding City of Ember by Jean DuPerau (I think I misspelled her last name), or how about Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson-Haddix? These are great titles kids this age are hooked on from the first read-aloud.

Finally, I suggest you form a network of colleagues to meet and brainstorm ideas for this so-called balancing act in your rooms. Has your administration offered the use of the Accelerated Reader program, for example, to help you grade-level the books you are using? Do you have access to a good source on-line to assist you with grade-leveling books for your kids? Our book ordering club is called Scholastic Books. You can try them at scholastic.com and see if you can research your titles and if they have levels that they recommend. Often, teacher support comes in the form of one another. We frequently gather at our local pub to blow off steam, and lo-and-behold, we end up sharing great ideas and laughing a few hours as well!

Good luck!

[Unregistered]

Check out www.stepup4learning.com and their product 6 Trait Power Write, it was created by a middle school teacher who struggled with the same issues.

[Unregistered]

Hi - I just came across this board looking for materials. I am starting my second year teaching ela in a middle school in Brooklyn, NYC. I have to adhere to all of the requirements of balanced literacy since my school in under a microscope. I have a rug in a meeting area in the front of the room and allow the students to bring their chairs to the meeting. We have it worked out where the front two table turn around and the rest of the students bring chairs, however the meeting takes up half of the classroom anyway. I have a great deal of books from upper elementary and then books that I have asked my school to gradually purchase to beef up the library that would be age and reading level appropriate for my preteen and teenage 7th graders.

I will not lie, I have made modifications sparingly to the workshop model as academically lacking students may not always pick up the concept in 8-10 minutes of teacher talk then independent work.

One of my biggest problems is how foreign this model is to older students who went through elementary school learning a different way (more teacher directed) Unfortunately some of my students dont yet have a love of reading which the now famous workshop modeal assumes as well as a strong reading and writing background in order to excell.

Although the idea of trade books and authentic material is a nice feature of the balanced literacy, it in conjunction with the workshop model of teaching need to be carefully looked at for use effectively in the middle school setting, especailly in an underperforming, economically challanged school such as mine.

Would love to hear back - good luck all teachers :-)

[Unregistered]

I think our students are getting way too much homework. They never have it with them, and are always stressed out and tired for staying up late doing it. Their parents are mad at US for giving too much work, but it is not our fault.


Yes i do agree with the situation. I am a mother of a 12 year old girl. Sometimes she forgets to bring an assigment home. I know that school is rough on her. Although it may not be the boards fault, you are the people that can change the homework policy. So do not say that this is not your fault because in a way it is. You have the ability to change it. If you know how much homework students get, and you know how stressed it can make them, why not change that? Take this into consideration.
Thanks,
Teacher from NYC

[Unregistered]

I have been a teacher for almost seventeen years, i am a seventh grade spanish teacher. Some kids are very difficult to work with. I certainly should know. Even though i have the almost smartest children in the middle school; (because in order to get a language they had to get a B+ average last year in sixth grade) some act like they are in second grade. But you've got to love them, right?!

[readingisgood]

Although the term has been around for a long while, it's most recent incarnation comes primarily from Michael Pressley. It refers, simply, to the idea that reading instruction should be neither all explicit skills instruction, nor all implicit whole-language/immersion. Instead, "balanced literacy" says students should recieve a little of both, explicit skills instruction coupled with authentic reading experiences. There are a number of best practices associated with the idea, but really it is only this notion of teaching in the middle ground between phonics and whole language that defines balanced literacy.

I find it odd that a school or school system would mandate that you have students sit on the floor for a read aloud. Where students sit has nothing whatsoever to do with the mode of instruction (explicit or implicit or a mix of both). Middle school students can benefit from a read/think aloud just as well sitting in their groups as they can sitting on a carpet. It's the reading/thinking aloud that matters, not where their bottoms rest.

Did your school system base their "program" selection on a particular model, author, or basal? I'd be very interested to know whose research they are pulling ideas from.

[Unregistered]

Contact Shelly Klein; she is an amazing consultant! She does her BEST work with all middle school teachers, not just L.A. teachers.

[gleeming]

Dear Marilyn, (I hope you are the original postee.)

I can sense your frsutration with this. IT is very frustrating that there doesn't seem to be very much out there for middle school teachers. I also am encountering that problem. I can tell you that center activities don't need to be for just the little ones. Center activities give a great amount of responsibility and choice to students that they wouldn't otherwise have. In this case centers are ideal. It's what to put IN them that is difficult. I have to create everything.

One of the foundations of my classroom is the utilization of the UCI Writing Project--created by Carol Booth Olson. She has a book of multicultural lessons that bring students through the writing process from reading to scaffolding to writing drafts, peer edits etc. Good stuff.

I also know that the Alliance at Brown University has done much research on middle school writing. You might want to check with them as well.

Janet Allen is also a great resource for research based on her experiences with middle school children. Her book "It's Never Too Late" is awesome.

I hope this helps. Go slowly. Do some things that are comfortable for you and introduce "new" things slowly. You'll get there.

-Jennifer

[Unregistered]

This is my first year teaching and while I agree that students receive a lot of homework, I think that what many people fail to realize, including parents who at times think it's too much, is that as educators it is our responsibility to challenge kids in all aspects while they are in school. But, more importantly, having just graduated from college, I know exactly what students will face as soon as they arrive, so wouldn't I **************** if I didn't share this knowledge with my students? Life is not easy and neither is obtaining an education and if we simply handed these kids everything on a silver platter, we'd be doing nothing more than adding to their overweight, unmotivated generational ways who already needs every bit of guidance that we can offer them. So, you say "we give too much homework" and I say "yes" but at least they won't be the ones who fail out of college because they weren't prepared.

[Unregistered]

New York City has implemented the "Balanced Literacy" program in the Middle Schools. However, this program was design for grades K-5. There is minimum
instructional materials for the middle school teachers. Few of the novels to be used in class have been leveled by this program. Yet, 30% of our class library must be leveled to meet the student's individual reading needs. No one is really paying attention to this situation. Meanwhile, we are required to have centers in the classroom, such as writing, conferencing, reading etc. There is no support and we are told to apply the Elementary school curriculum to the middle school students. It is too prescriptive and offers no room for creativity for teenagers who are already physically, mentally and socially challenged people. We are required to have a rug and sit on the floor with 12 and 13 year olds who are at times taller and bigger than the teachers and whose hormones are kicking. Realistic? NO
I feel that the program would work if someone would ask the input of experienced middle school teachers to meet the needs of the students whose age level is greatly ignored and for the teachers. How are we preparing these students for high school and further more, for life?
Does any one have any suggestions or advice that would ease the anxiety?


Marilyn
teacher
NYC

It IS an anxiety!!!! Is there anyway to tweak the 5/6th grade info so that they are updated to 7th grade materials? How about unit themes? You sound like you will need LOTS of hands on work with your class! How about writing themes? Spelling bee? Art? Lots of using the internet!!!!

[Unregistered]

I think our students are getting way too much homework. They never have it with them, and are always stressed out and tired for staying up late doing it. Their parents are mad at US for giving too much work, but it is not our fault.

hey ' oh too me learn anything at math and read !!

[Unregistered]

perhaps because I started with balanced literacy i don't have the same feelings you do. I will say, that i struggled with the jargon at first. i felt like i was decoding a foriegn language. For a while, i stuggled figuering out how to put together a curriculum. Then, a year ago in February, i spent 3 days over the winter break at a TC workshop given by Mary Ehernworth. She laid it all out in such a clear organized and exciting manner. Changed my life! Further workshops since have continued to build on that original workshop.

Even though the meeting area, and sitting on the floor can be tough for kids, my 8th graders have been doing it for the last two years. It's just a way of bringing them all together close to you so that you can teach a mini lesson with less distraction going on around the room, and I have found that once the kids realized I was serious, they got into it. The initial routines just have to be put into place and insisted upon and rewarded by short excellent mini-lessons.

The leveling of books can be frustrating because there are so many titles not leveled. However, I really am a believer in the concept of matching kids to books at their level and getting them to read a lot. Almost all my students are below grade level in reading, but assessing and leveling has helped them.

These are just a few thoughts. Good luck in the coming year!