Middle school education should be a gift for educators, but it is not being utilized. Many elementary school children come into middle school with deficits from things they failed to master while in the primary grades. Often, these children haven’t learned their multiplication and division facts well, they have forgotten or don’t feel comfortable with fractions, many don’t know how to write a strong sentence. Some students have never learned how to use commas or other forms of punctuation, while most don’t know how to write good solid sentences or can’t organize an essay. These students fail in their ability to have strong writing skills, they don’t know how to organize their writing, they don’t remember the literary terms that they have learned, and they don’t know the different types of writing such as persuasive writing. They are missing so many of the basic skills that will allow them to be successful in high school. On the other hand, some children have some of these skills and yet the middle school curriculum doesn’t support them either.
The middle school curriculum is made up of a “mish-mash” of random topics put together instead of a cohesive flow that would help best prepare a student for high school. Middle school could be used to allow teachers the time to help students get prepared for the rigors of high school. Students could be assessed and put on different tracks (which may differ from subject to subject) based on their ability. If a student is still counting on their fingers, doesn’t know their multiplication and division facts, and can’t work with fractions, now is the time to fix these problems rather than follow through with the random mix of 6th-8th grade math. If a student has mastery of these subjects, the student should be moving onto Algebra I – some should start Algebra 1 at a slower pace than one would in high school while others may be ready for the traditional pace. But, the current curriculum of a little geometry, a little Algebra, a little arithmetic, a little probability, and a little statistics each year does not help our students become successful in math in high school. They are only relearning things they learned but not in a better way that focuses on remediation or they are learning snippets of things to come that will be better learned in the context of Algebra or Geometry when the time comes.
In language arts, students should spend their time becoming good writers and really making sure they have a grasp of grammar and sentence structure. The focus of middle school language arts should be on getting students ready to read, analyze, and write papers for high school English. They need to actually be taught these things, however, so many teachers do not seem to understand that these skills don’t just happen for most students and actually hands-on lessons need to be provided where sentences and essays are broken down piece by piece until the student understands how to put them together in a cohesive format.
I look at my kids’ education and just wonder what teachers are thinking these days. One son is in 6th grade, he has never been taught any sentence grammar or sentence structure. He has never been taught any punctuation except at the end of a sentence. So, I gave him a lesson on when to use commas. It will take a while for him to integrate this information as one lesson in one day isn’t going to make him start using commas in his writing but I hope it helps. I asked my 17 year old, did he learn commas? – yes, he finally did in 9th grade English at his non-Public school. I don’t think he would have learned it if he had been in public school and still he didn’t learn until 9th grade!
Ideally this is what I think the middle school math curriculum should look like:
Track 1: Remediation Track – Goal – kids leave this track with the ability to add and subtract without using their fingers (teach strategies), kids have number sense (learn things like 54 / 10 = 5.4 -> concepts they should have and be able to do in their head), kids are solid on multiplication and division facts (teach strategies to those who can’t memorize), kids can work with fractions (multiply, divide, add, and subtract), kids can do long division by hand (only because they need to for Algebra long division), kids can problem solve (use calculator) – when kids master track 1, they move to track 2
Track 2: Geometry Only Track – all students complete this one Geometry only track because these topics are not taught in regular High School Geometry – Finding area, perimeter, volume, and surface area, basic idea of what happens when you change a dimension on a side what happens to volume – applications to real world, (use calculator for all)
Track 3: Algebra 1 (slow pace): This is a regular Algebra 1 class but worked through at a very slow pace for kids who struggled with math – this again allows us to use the gift of middle school – we have this extra time to teach Algebra very slowly and make sure students understand it, so use the gift! – Algebra 1 for these kids may take the rest of middle school.
Track 4: Algebra 1 (modified pace): Algebra 1 for kids who come to middle school and understand all the concepts from elementary school – skip pre-algebra, move into Algebra at a modified pace, not as fast as high school but no pre-Algebra is needed.
Track 5: Geometry: once Algebra is finished, students do HS Geometry
Track 6: For students who finish Geometry, Algebra 2 is an option, as with this streamlined approach, more students will be ready for Algebra 2 than before without all this random middle school math.
Language Arts Curriculum: Goal – Make students effective writers for high school English, prepare students with the literary terms used in High School English, increase student vocabulary, teach needed grammar for students to be effective writers
Students will read, write, and study vocabulary during middle school language arts. Their reading will be chosen so they can talk about rhetorical strategies used by authors as a preview to high school English. They will leave middle school as effective writers and be able to write different types of essays. They will understand the organizational process of writing an essay, use appropriate sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and their sentences will be complex with good strong vocabulary words.
Students will need to be broken into tracks again. Some students will need to start at the very basic level based on where they are and grow from there, others will come in as very strong writers and should grow well beyond a sixth – eighth grade level but each track has the same goals just the starting and ending points will be different because of the level of the student.
Subjects such as science and social studies should be integrated into their English writing as it makes sense to teach this as an integrated topic with language arts teachers working closely with science and social studies teachers. Students should have to write essays relating to their science and social studies lessons to show their knowledge in these subjects and they should be written with the same level of expectations as their English essays.
With this plan, students leave middle school with the skills needed to be successful in high school. With our current curriculum, students leave with a bunch of fragmented knowledge pieces that are still all considerably weak and they have the same struggles in high school. Middle school is a gift, we should use it!