This American Life: Middle School

As "The American Life" presents middle school in multiple different scenarios I found the theme of social status to be running throughout most all of the discussions. There is a great concern for middle school students with what drama is going on, who is friends with who, how to act towards people, and how other students are seeing them. Early on in the episode a middle school teacher comments on how due to all of this he is not sure if the students are actually learning anything. There is a humorous discussion about this, saying how at this age they might as well not even be in school, but the conversation continues on to explain how educators for this age group need to be creative about their teaching, listen to the students need, and find ways to help them grow. This reminds me of the discussion with Amber Ward on how she trusted her students to make their own decisions in regards to their projects. She explains that they are beginning to establish their independence, as also talked about in Kerlavage. Ward demonstrates positive and creative ways of teaching middle school students in her Fantasy Facebook assignment as she allows the students to make art based upon their interests, listens to the students need for working with ideas that they are individually interested in, and is helping them grow by having them develop their self-identity. It is clear that the idea of self-identity is certainly important in these years as seen in the American Life episode along with Ward's article and my classroom observations. The middle school teacher I observed had the students working directly with creating a character portrait involving many things that they are interested in. The students were figuring out what was most important to them to place in their collage of who they are as individuals. The young girl at the beginning of the episode discusses this in saying that middle school is a time to grow up and establish who you are, as frustrating and even terrible as it may be. Another predominant theme was in students being influenced by and listening to their peers. This was especially seen the last segment of the episode especially, with the students in the class and the way in which they turned their isolation of the angry student into trying to help him instead. Also, Ward briefly addressed this in our discussion in how students will conform to what their classmates are doing. I feel as though what is important to remember in relation with educating middle school students is that they are capable of a lot more than one may give them credit for. As much as they are going through a time of turmoil they are also at a point where everything is new and experimentation is key. As Kerlavage explains, they are beginning to develop their own sense of artistic expression as they are establishing their roles in the adult world. Keeping this in mind, art educators can assist them greatly in their decisions about who they are.