Helping Us Grow into Confident Learners

How they are doing in school affects middle school students’ sense of themselves. They are newly able to measure themselves through the eyes of others, their peers, and their teachers. They are eager to feel confident and successful, even when the rest of their lives feels so out of balance. And they look to their teachers to notice their competence, even before they see it themselves.

“My math teacher pushed us and pushed us, and if you needed help, he’d take his lunch break off and teach it to you a million times until you got it. By the end of the year, I got that I had to study. But he was also very funny. If we were having a bad day, or if you looked like you were really sad, he would find a way to make us feel better.” —Heather

“One thing that makes me feel kind of dumb is when the teacher acts sarcastic with you. Like if you say something that you think is correct and she just says, ‘Oh yeah, that’s correct’—and then goes, ‘Not.’” —Canek

“The science teacher, one time he kept me after school. I thought it was for like a bad reason, but he just wanted to talk to me. He wanted to get me more involved and he said that he knew I could be outspoken and participate, if I just knew what I was doing. So he helped me. It made me feel like I knew what I was doing, and I just started to get more ideas.” —Kenson

Using Our Energy to Help Us Learn

Even when they come to class eager to learn and ready to work, students in the middle grades are still learning to manage their attention and energy. As kids’ attention wanders, their restless energy goes up. When you vary what you do in class, however, the focus of middle schoolers takes a turn for the better. Students are better able to harness their attention and energy when they find the work—both what they do and how they do it—appealing.

“Teachers should take things serious, but not very serious. They should let the kids have some free time once in a while and just do fun things. After being in class a couple of hours, you need to have a break in the yard and play on the structure and play some ball and stuff. I sometimes get a headache. And I feel like there’s too much stuff in my head and it’s going to blow up.” —Edward

“Steal the Bacon is not only fun, but actually kids want to get the right answers. Everybody wants to win, so people go and study. You actually feel excited to learn it, instead of like, ‘Oh, I have to learn this, I don’t care.’” —Amelia

Make Way for Parents

By the time kids reach the middle grades, they are renegotiating their relationship with their parents. They want their parents’ help and support, but they want it in new ways.

“In school, a lot of the kids don’t act the same when their parents [are] around. Because some of the kids just act up when the parent isn’t around. You see some of the loudest kids in my school so quiet, when the parents come in to meet them.”  —Amelia

“I want him to be there [at parent conferences] so that he knows what’s going on with me and homework and school. And I don’t want him to be there, because he might find out some stuff that might be bad, and then he might get mad at me.” —Canek

“If I had a problem because of the teacher, my mom would come to the school and start arguing with the teacher, saying, ‘Why are you doing this to my daughter?’ and asking a whole bunch of questions. And I feel embarrassed. Like, after that, the teacher would take all of his angriness out on me, like give me bad grades, because my mom came to the school.” —Genesis

The Ninth-Grade Transition

Young teenagers realize that ninth grade marks the beginning of a new, high-stakes period of their lives. Out in the real world, people tell them, it will really matter how they behave and whether they succeed in high school.

“That’s all I was thinking about all summer long, staying up late, was what’s high school going to be like.”—Heather

“All my buddies told me that high school was going to be a zoo, people running around, nobody going to class. Up on every corner, people just standing there like light posts, with no worry about getting an education. It’s so big, there’s like 2,000 kids. I’m thinking, ‘How they gonna manage it?’” —Brian

“The high schoolers can come talk to the kids about how it feels to be in high school. What changes they have to go through, who they have to go through it with. And where they will be going—like if the campus is big, they can bring maps, they can take them to the school and give tours.” —Nyesha

1   2    « Previous Page

» What We Know About Ourselves

« Return to Voices from the Middle Grades