Real-world connections
Effective middle grades teachers find ways to help students apply what they have learned to solve real-world problems and to engage them as lifelong learners. According to research, “Young adolescents need varied learning activities linked to challenging academic content and opportunities to use new skills and concepts in real-world applications.”1 Research also shows that one way teachers demonstrate caring for their students is by assigning work that matters [to the student].2 Hands-on projects and real-world learning experiences motivate students to learn.
In the Spotlight
Templeton Middle School (Outside Source), Templeton Unified School District. Students at Templeton helped plan and run mock elections attended by more than 330 students. The mock election—designed to be as much like the national elections in November as possible—did not include local races but did cover statewide offices and propositions. Student participation was voluntary, and organizers boasted a 67 percent turnout during the lunch hour event. Those who participated received "I voted" stickers after casting their paper ballots in the staged election area on the softball field.
Cognitive research findings show that the ability to retain and understand knowledge grows when students make connections and analogies to what they already know. For example, a class studying the human cell compared the cell components to soccer: the nucleus was the referee because the nucleus controls the cell and the referee controls the game. The teacher compared the cell wall to the goalie, who keeps things out of the cell just as the wall provides a barrier.3
In the Spotlight
Nobel Middle School (Outside Source), Los Angeles Unified School District. An orienteering activity combines geography, cartography, and math skills to identify a specific location in the community. The sixth-grade math project called Market Place challenges students to create and oversee a business, produce a product, and sell it to the school community (proceeds go to a charity that is chosen by the students). A graphing project requires students to enlarge an ordinary object using scale drawing, ratios, and measurements.
Research on school dropouts reinforces the importance of real world learning:
Eighty-one percent of survey respondents [high school dropouts] said that if schools provided opportunities for real-world learning (internships, service-learning projects, and other opportunities), it would have improved the students’ chances of graduating from high school. Outside studies have noted that clarifying the links between school and getting a job may convince more students to stay in school.4
In the Spotlight
Reyburn Intermediate School (Outside Source), Clovis Unified School District. The agriculture class is a hands-on elective that reinforces academics and helps students in this agricultural community prepare for jobs. Students conduct experiments (science), keep logs about animal growth and care (math), and write reports on their work (English/language arts). Class projects, such as an auction, also require students to use math skills to determine the lot, litter, and birth order of the animals as those variables affect sale prices. Similarly, using information about the age of the animals helps students determine nutritional needs and feeding amounts. High school students assist their younger peers as tutors, role models, and model auctioneers.
Many tools are available to help teachers create real-world relevance. For example, advisory classes provide a forum for teachers to encourage students in discussing issues that concern them. The Internet gives students many exciting options for creating meaningful projects. Learning tools, such as Raytheon's Math MovesU (Outside Source), connect students to people and projects related to math. Raytheon’s commitment to mathematics education is an example of a business partnership—see Chapter 12, "Partnerships,” for more examples.
In the Spotlight
Gaspar De Portola Middle School (Outside Source), a Schools to Watch™-Taking Center Stage 2006 model, San Diego Unified School District. To connect learning to the real world, De Portola Middle School offers the Stock Market Game (math), a “Coffee House Anthology Night” (English), Civil War reenactments (history), labs (science), and student participation in creating a class syllabus in multimedia.
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Gaining relevance through visual and performing arts
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Career technical education
Footnotes
1 John M. Bridgeland, John J. DiIulio, Jr., and Karen Burke Morison, The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts (PDF; Outside Source), a report by Civic Enterprises in association with Peter D. Hart Research Associates for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, March 2006, p. 12.
2 Preston D. Feden, Robert M. Vogel, and Robert Mark Vogel, Methods of Teaching: Applying Cognitive Science to Promote Student Learning. N.p.: McGraw-Hill, June 2002.
3 Academic Achievement in the Middle Grades: What Does the Research Tell Us? (PDF; Outside Source), Atlanta, Ga.: Southern Regional Education Board, 2003, p.19.
4 Linda Darling-Hammond and Olivia Ifill-Lynch, “If They'd Only Do Their Work! Helping Struggling Students,” Educational Leadership,Vol. 63, No. 5 (February 2006), 8-13.
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