Taking Ownership: Student Led Teaching Assignments and the Middle School Philosophy

We begin our foray into student led teaching assignments this week. I have always enjoyed this particular section of the curriculum. We take about three weeks examining different aspects of Thomas Jefferson’s Presidency. While the content is important, the format of having students lead the instruction is the portion that is the most satisfying. Students are charged with the responsibility of absorbing the material as a group, then developing a plan of instructing students. Then, they have to compose a lesson to instruct their colleagues, develop a visual aid to help students retain the information, create handouts that students can use while instruction is transpiring, develop an authentic homework task, collect and assess it, and then finally compose and grade a portion of the exam. Students have to teach their colleagues, develop a plan of instruction, and bear responsibility for others’ learning. One of the greatest components of this unit is when I become a student as well as an observer. As the students teach, I will be typing comments on my laptop regarding their instruction, and then students have to grade and assess my homework assignments. Former students come back and reflect on this particular task as one of their most fond.

Something formidable this way comes...
Over the last couple of weeks, I have been noticing that students are listening to the current discourse of the constitution of a middle school. As we concluded the examination of the political parties, the issue of a middle school under the philosophy of republican and federalist factions was scrutinized. Students voiced the divergent reactions of our stakeholders. While I held my opinions to myself, I found the discussion interesting. As we progress through this discourse and find a level of authentic resolution, I believe that as middle school teachers, our tasks and methods should reflect tenets of the middle school philosophy. One such idea is the notion of differentiated instruction. Stakeholders seem to be rightly concerned with the idea that their particular student is not challenged through content. Differentiated instruction meets this need for it matches instruction to the particular learner. I believe that the student led teaching tasks for chapter nine is an example of differentiated instruction on two levels. The first is that students, themselves, match up their understanding with the task’s aims of how to teach this content to others. The second example of differentiated instruction is the students must develop different means to communicate this content to themselves and their colleagues. One of the beautiful aims of this task is that if forces students to consider multiple paths to meaning and understanding. As middle school teachers, we account for this with almost every breath. When students are discharged with this responsibility, the promise of more relevant teaching and learning is exhibited.
Another particular aim of middle school philosophy is the notion of community. The middle school was conceived as a social experiment in developing community. Our institutional language fosters this. Wings, teams, core extension, flexed schedule, and advisory are a few of the terms which daily address the idea of community and learning as a social construct. I believe that this particular task meets this aim because it forces all students to consider the social dimensions to learning. Initially, when students collaborate with one another to divide up responsibilities, one sees the social construction of learning. The dialogues that build this discourse enhance this: “I can do this....” “Can you do this...?” “I can help you with this…” “I think this might work….” When students are determining how to teach their material to their colleagues, one sees the analysis of material in others’ eyes. When students hold study sessions and distribute back assignments to their peers, explaining what was done well and what required improvement, and when students have to maintain a 70% class average on their particular component of the exam, there is a social construction of learning and community is highly evident. One last point here to be made is the idea that communitarian notions of learning best happen when there is a heterogeneous and intellectually diverse presence. When students are engaging in the analysis of how others’ learn, it is important and almost essential to gather as many points of view as possible on the topic. This happens best when divergent and multiple voices are included in the discourse.
The last component of a middle school philosophy that I will offer in this missive is the role of teacher. As already extensively detailed, middle school is a time of change. It is accordingly fitting that the conception of the teacher be changed, as well. When students assume control of teaching content, the role of the teacher is one of advisor, practitioner, and collegial learner. When the teacher submits homework assignments that are to be graded, there is a change evident. Even the discussion between student and teacher changes; from one predicated on power to one where the discourse is more level and more productive towards a higher end.

We start this task on Monday night, when students receive the task description. I believe that our students, emerging scholars, and soon to be teachers will exceed standards and develop a new and unique stamp on the curriculum. As with all that we have done this year, a new and fascinating song in the garden is waiting to be sung.

All best, happy hunting and even happier teaching.
Mr. Kannan