Effective Middle School Curriculum

As teachers, it is important to provide any student with the best education, but most importantly, middle school students need some special loving. Young adolescents are considered to be ten-to-fifteen year olds. During this time, young adolescents experience a large amount of changes in life. This age group experiences changes physically, cognitively, intellectually, morally, psychologically, socially, and emotionally. Young adolescents experience physical development by rapid growth which may cause them to be extremely tired or in pain. They also experience cognitive and intellectual development by attempting to think outside of the box. Moral development occurs when young adolescents are able to identify what is right and what is wrong.

First, a developmentally responsive curriculum insures that all needs of young adolescents are being met. A challenging curriculum is in order to show the students that they are held to high standards, but that they can also meet these standards no matter their learning style. The purpose of a challenging curriculum is to ensure that students are the best person they can be. Thirdly, it is important to empower young adolescents with all of the knowledge and skills that are needed in the real world. When you really think about, not only are we teaching the current generation that is sitting in our classrooms, but we are also teaching the future generations as well. Lastly, a teacher must be an advocate for the students and make sure that every student’s needs are being met. It also means that teachers provide equal opportunities for all students no matter their skill set or the accessibility of tools outside of the classroom. As a teacher, we need to make sure that the students are receiving the best education experience possible. If we feel as if they are not, then we need to be willing to speak up for our students and address any

Once again, it reiterates that as teachers, we provide a challenging curriculum for the students as well as make it explorative, integrative, and relevant. By incorporating these into the curriculum, it allows for young adolescents to be able to explore various topics that pertain to their own interests. I believe that it is very important to form relationships with every student to see what similar interests they have. This will be easier when developing a lesson plan, because not only are you covering one student’s interest, but you may be able to connect with more. An integrative curriculum allows for the content to be based around questions that the students ask in order for them to be more engaged. When educators make the curriculum relevant that means that they are incorporating real world issues and allowing students to address the issue and dig deeper to fully understand what is going on. Another important characteristic is that the teachers need to be organized. Recently, I had an awful experience with a teacher who was so disorganized that it affected the classroom management and time management. In the end, I barely learned anything from that class except what not to do as an educator. If educators are organized, then every lesson plan will run smoothly, and students will have the ability to learn more. Lastly, it is extremely important for teachers to have a