Meet Me in the Middle: Becoming an Accomplished Middle Level Teacher

264 Pages·2001·1.52 MB·English

by  Rick Wormeli

Meet Me
inthe
Middle
Meet Me in the Middle: Becoming an Accomplished Middle-Level Teacher.Rick Wormeli. Copyright © 2001.
Stenhouse Publishers. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted without permission of the publisher.
Meet Me in the Middle: Becoming an Accomplished Middle-Level Teacher.Rick Wormeli. Copyright © 2001.
Stenhouse Publishers. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted without permission of the publisher.
Meet Me
inthe
Middle
Becoming an Accomplished Middle-Level Teacher
Rick Wormeli
Rachel Carson Middle School
Herndon, Virginia
Stenhouse Publishers
Portland, Maine
National Middle School Association
Westerville, Ohio
Meet Me in the Middle: Becoming an Accomplished Middle-Level Teacher.Rick Wormeli. Copyright © 2001.
Stenhouse Publishers. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted without permission of the publisher.
Stenhouse Publishers National Middle School Association
477 Congress Street, Suite 4B 4151 Executive Parkway, Suite 300
Portland, ME 04101 Westerville, OH 43081
www.stenhouse.com www.nmsa.org
Copyright © 2001 by Rick Wormeli
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, or any information
storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.
Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders and students for permission to
reproduce borrowed material. We regret any oversights that may have occurred and will be
pleased to rectify them in subsequent reprints of the work.
This book includes material that has been adapted from articles and columns first pub-
lished in Middle Groundmagazine and/or The Crucial Link.The author and the publisher
are grateful to the editors of these magazines for their permission.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wormeli, Rick.
Meet me in the middle : becoming an accomplished middle-level teacher / Rick
Wormeli.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-57110-328-7 (alk. paper)
1. Middle school teaching. I. Title
LB1623.W67 2001
373.1102—dc21 2001031173
Manufactured in the United States of America on acid-free paper
07 06 05 04 03 02 01 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Meet Me in the Middle: Becoming an Accomplished Middle-Level Teacher.Rick Wormeli. Copyright © 2001.
Stenhouse Publishers. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted without permission of the publisher.
To my wife, Kelly, and my children, Ryan and Lynn,
for their laughter, imagination, and unconditional love.
Meet Me in the Middle: Becoming an Accomplished Middle-Level Teacher.Rick Wormeli. Copyright © 2001.
Stenhouse Publishers. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted without permission of the publisher.
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Meet Me in the Middle: Becoming an Accomplished Middle-Level Teacher.Rick Wormeli. Copyright © 2001.
Stenhouse Publishers. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted without permission of the publisher.
Contents
Foreword by Ed Brazee ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction xv
Part 1 Creating a Culture of Learning 1
1 Stoking the Fires Within 1
2 Motivating Young Adolescents 7
3 Brain Research Applied to Middle School 19
4 Active Learning 40
5 Games in the Classroom 49
Part 2 Higher Student Achievement Through Innovative
and Accomplished Practice 59
6 Accountability for High Standards 59
7 Differentiated Instruction—Fitting the
Lesson to the Learner 68
8 Effective Assessment 89
9 Planning for Block Scheduling 102
10 Writing in the Content Areas 116
Part 3 Extending Our Professional Practices 135
11 Teaming 135
12 Teacher Advisories—A Proposal for Change 144
■ vii ■
Meet Me in the Middle: Becoming an Accomplished Middle-Level Teacher.Rick Wormeli. Copyright © 2001.
Stenhouse Publishers. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted without permission of the publisher.
■ viii ■ MeetMe in theMiddle
13 Outdoor Adventures 150
14 Mentoring New Teachers 164
15 Parents as Partners in Twenty-First-Century
Learning 171
16 National Board Certification 177
17 The Truth About Middle School Students 187
Appendixes 193
References 227
Index 233
Meet Me in the Middle: Becoming an Accomplished Middle-Level Teacher.Rick Wormeli. Copyright © 2001.
Stenhouse Publishers. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted without permission of the publisher.
Foreword
Let me say this simply—teachers need this book. At a time when only test
scores matter, when pedagogy means “hand out more worksheets so stu-
dents can practice for the tests,” when teachers are reluctant to select cur-
riculum and teach in a way they know is better for their students, Rick
Wormeli lays out a clear vision of what responsive middle-level teaching
should be. This is a book for all reasons—help for the novice teacher to focus
on the essential, support for the mid-career teacher wanting to improve her
craft, and inspiration and confirmation for the later-career teacher as well.
But make no mistake, this book is much more than an exhortation to do
better for young adolescents. Wormeli does a masterful job pulling together
seemingly disparate threads—connecting middle school philosophy with
standards; current brain research with multiple intelligences theory.
Wormeli’s discussion of differentiated instruction may be the most powerful
section of the book for any teacher.
After a fast start in the 1960s through the early 1990s, middle-level edu-
cation is now under ever-increasing criticism and scrutiny. While some
school districts claim that middle school philosophy and practices have not
served them well, other schools recognize an essential truth—the middle
school teacher is the most important element in creating a successful middle-
level classroom. In Meet Me in the Middle: Becoming an Accomplished Middle-
Level Teacher,Wormeli shows how this is so.
Many books about teaching consist of long to-do lists—to be an effective
teacher one must be willing to take risks, enjoy ambiguity, and have a sense
of humor. Important, yes, but not exactly words to get us through next week!
Rick Wormeli doesn’t waste time telling us what we must do; rather he shows
us what we must be to be effective teachers of ten- to fourteen-year-olds. His
ideas on motivating young adolescents are less prescriptive dos and don’ts
than ideas about forming connections with kids and building strong learning
communities. This book is definitely more strategy than technique, as it
should be.
Anyone who sees Wormeli in his classroom, hears him present at a con-
ference, or reads his work, in this book or his columns in Middle Ground, ■ ix ■
Meet Me in the Middle: Becoming an Accomplished Middle-Level Teacher.Rick Wormeli. Copyright © 2001.
Stenhouse Publishers. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted without permission of the publisher.