What is the Role of a Middle School Student?
How Community Building & Service Leads to the Best Experience for Middle School Students:
Intro:
The first proper question we might want to ask ourselves, is through what lens should be examining the role of a middle school student? From the lens of a policymaker, perhaps the role of the middle school student is someone who is deemed proficient academically, and can demonstrate said proficiencies, as promulgated by state and federal guidelines. An educator might see through the lens of having a middle school student achieve academic success, as well as building on a foundation of previous knowledge and social skills (in some cases, foundations for some students may be stronger than others, considering puberty causes differing levels of development at different time periods). What might parents and students see though? It would be fair to assume the aforementioned aspirations and expectations for students may be similar, but let’s build on top of that. All stakeholders in education alike might be concerned about belongingness, and empathy as well. It should be noted that there is not singular correct answer on what the proper role of the student is, but there should be enough overlap where there is a general agreement. Based on the parameters from different stakeholders, it would be relatively fair to define the role of a middle school student is someone who is able to be proficient in core content areas, as well as developing social intelligence and interactions with others to foster a community of lifelong learners. I don’t want to undermine the daunting task we have just laid out for ourselves either, it is certainly worth mentioning the barriers that middle school students face and how we can thwart said barriers and provide the most thoughtful and meaningful learning experience for middle school students.
The Barrier:
Throughout the multitude of experiences I have had in middle school, both as a student, and a pre-professional educator, I have found that the quintessential barrier for students within the middle school environment to be empathy and a sense of belongingness. Middle school is a time of varying transitions occurring at different times for students. In an environment where there is social and personal turbulence, it can be a daunting task to thrive in school, let alone be expected to be proficient, but it is our job as educators to ensure, to the best of our collective abilities, that we can work with students to foster a community that strives to benefit our students lives.
How to Cultivate Community
Students from Yes Prep Middle School provide
testimonies on the benefits of community service.
I believe invariably, that we can diminish, or completely remove the doubt of belonging within the classroom, while also building a classroom community where our students feel compassion for each other, and the community at large. These ideals can be achieved through utilizing class, or an advisory time to work on in/out of school community service projects that students can develop. I have provided both evidence and ideas that would cultivate a sense of belonging and community through examining ideas of student choice, critical thinking, and collaborative efforts:
Why Student Choice is the Most Necessary Step:
There is substantial academic evidence showcasing the importance of student choice within the classroom and how it engages students. Student engagement is necessary for students to feel connected both to the material in the class, but more importantly, they become a part of the academic conversation, and they are able to feel belonging through participation, active listening, and having some level of control in their lives at middle school. How does this necessarily relate to community service and problem-solving though? Students do not take choice for granted, and as long as there is an appropriate level of facilitation by the educator, students can and will be intrinsically motivated to learn more. Although there are many strategies in regards to engaging students through choice, whether it is through personalized learning, learning menus, or what format of assessment they might want to use for a test, these elements of choice are slightly extraneous, but equally as important as community building through choice. Humans are naturally curious creatures, and being able to utilize natural curiosity in a way that enhances learning, while engaging students is imperative. This idea can even be pushed further through utilizing learning and curiosity for problem-solving either within the lives of the students, or the community at large.
Middle school students are providing meals for the local homeless population
Some school districts within the United States have successfully been able to integrate elements of student choice with community service. For example, the New York City Department of Education offers a public database in which volunteering opportunities are posted. This allows for educators to work with students to offer an array of opportunities where students can, and have decided which community service option would be best for the class.
Critical Thinking Leads to Solving Tangible Problems:
For school districts and cities that lack a database with community service opportunities, students and educators can work together to determine the best means of improving the community. Aside from the extrinsic benefit of tackling a community issue, students learn and develop skills pertaining to critical analysis, time management, and learning about the role of government and citizens.
Students can learn best from these opportunities of community service when an educator is able to neatly tie an academic lesson based on the rationale for volunteerism. This educational connection can be easily showcased with a teacher utilizing a theme within the class that can be practiced beyond the classroom. For example, a social studies class might be learning about the Constitution, which represents the unity of 13 former colonies. An educator can then work with students to think of ways in which the community could be better unified, which might entail students identifying a disconnect with the elderly community and the rest of the community. Students then might volunteer as a class to create a senior citizens prom, or write letters of appreciation and deliver them to the local senior center. At the end of the service, the educator can ask students to reflect on their experience with unifying the community and the importance of unity with America on the local and federal level.
Building Community in the Classroom: An Examination and Re-Imagining of Advisory
In the end, what exactly would advisory look like if community service was an integrated component to our students lives? Though there is a multitude of ways in which community service can be truly integrated into the classroom, let’s examine how advisory specifically could be utilized for volunteering
- Establishing Expectations/Norms: Before students go out and improve the lives of our community, students should first work with an educator to establish norms for what the classroom community should look like. Being able to practice classroom citizenry provides a necessary foundation in order to have students interact outside of the classroom. Additionally, this is where the discussion of community ensues, the idea of a community might be abstract for some students, so this is where advisory time can be used to showcase what community truly means. When students are grounded with the concept of community, students will be able to best understand community issues.
- Discussing/Identifying Community Problems: Every community is different, whether it is a rural community that is dealing with a lack of resources, or an urban community that is facing issues of pollution, students will determine, with the guidance of an educator, what is the most pertinent and relevant issue affecting the community. It is imperative to note here that the educator should guide students in a direction where middle-grade students can most effectively solve/work on a community issue. During advisory, this process may be a week or two in which the educator discusses community themes that have relevance to the local region (ex: environmental, safety, food, belongingness, etc...). For additional information on themes that students/educators can utilize, please refer to this link HERE. There is also flexibility with the timing of this advisory, this does not necessarily need to be a year long commitment, but this could be, however, a unit or a semester long project that advisors work on with their students. It is completely up to the discretion of the educator for how long/often they wish to pursue this project in the classroom, community service planning could happen once a week like in the Triangle Day School Advisory (which can be seen HERE), or there could be daily advisories that devote a chunk of time with examining societal and community-based problems.
- When students do discuss these themes, the final vote on what theme to tackle, should be a democratic process, in which all students had the opportunity to present why they believe a certain theme is most relevant to the community.
- Brainstorming Solutions: Once a general consensus is met with deciding a theme, students then can work within that theme to find a particular issue within the community. For example, students may have picked a theme of food. From here students and the educator would determine a specific approach they should take with said theme. This may look like students wanting to have a garden at the school, or this might relate more with volunteering at a local food bank. For educators, there are multiple resources that provide themes and examples for themes within community service, which can be viewed HERE.
- Planning time could be very loose here, depending on which issue is being tackled within the community. The solution could be a one-time fix, or it could be an ongoing task for the students. Depending on how the advisory is being run for community service, the educator may want to add some restrictions on what students can do and the time frame they have to execute. This is also where it gets exciting, students have to create a solution, which really harnesses problem-solving and organizational skills that are necessary to have when students leave the school. Students will have to collaborate, and work together to make a solution happen.
- Execution: When students have a laid out a strategy in which the class has agreed upon, students will then be able to execute their solution. This would mean having a date in which students work on the community service project. This could potentially be done during the school day, advisory time, or on a weekend, depending on availability and the length in which the solution would need to be executed. Additionally, not all students could be able to have the transportation necessary to work on community service during the weekend, but that doesn’t mean students are left out either. The students that couldn’t arrive to help on the weekend hypothetically, could be responsible for presenting the community service, or having these students act as liaisons between the advisory and whatever group the class is trying to work with. One of the prevailing ideas with community service during advisory is to ensure that students feel a sense of purpose and belonging.
- Reflection: In order for students to best understand their purpose for improving the community, there should be a period of reflection in which students are able to connect ideas and themes between their advisory, their work outside of the classroom, and potentially other classes. This doesn’t necessarily have to be at the end of the advisory. This could be a journal that students keep throughout the timeframe, where students can reflect on their successes and barriers.
Conclusion:
Students in middle school can best understand their purpose within the community when they are allowed to be active participants. The role of the educator is to harness the potential and natural curiosity of students in order to generate outcomes that students wish to pursue, as well as facilitating the opportunity of giving back to the community, in order to feel purpose and belongingness within their lives.
For a list of additional resources and an annotated bibliography, please refer to the link provided here: Annotated Bibliography
