Focus Article: Middle School Students Are Co-Researchers of Their Media Environment: An Integrated Project

The authors of this article have presented a wonderful amalgamation of opportunities to have quality discussion with our professional learning communities. The research that is shared with us through this article stimulates conversation around diversity, project-based learning, and authentic, meaningful curriculum. As most media headlines bombard society with high-stakes testing statistics, the author team has posed an engaging conversation that invites our middle school communities to embrace learning experiences that help educators reflect on teaching and learning that is directly relevant to their students' lives and engages the students in reflection on the media and how it impacts their decisions.

There are many ways to involve this study in collegial dialogue.

Set Up

• Ask your teaching team to individually reflect on something they learned to do well. Ask each individual to note how they learned the task or skill.
• After a few moments, have the teachers share their answers in pairs, small groups, or large groups, depending on the size of the learning community. Commonly, the experiences will include some of the following descriptions:
  1. I really wanted to learn how to do it.
  2. I was very interested in the topic.
  3. The directions made sense.
  4. The instruction was broken into meaningful steps.
  5. I had a chance to practice.
  6. It was okay to do it wrong in order to do it right.
• After a brief discussion, use the identified characteristics to frame the article. Ask the team to read the article.

After the Reading

• Discuss the research project. What are its components? Ask the following questions:
  1. Why did the students enjoy the research project?
  2. What skills did the students use?
  3. Are the skills the same or different from the skills assessed on high-stakes tests?
  4. Do you think the students are likely to remember the learning that took place during the research study that involved several subject areas? Why?
  5. In addition to math, language arts, and science skills, what other skill areas are the students developing?
  6. Do these learning experiences meet the needs of learners that are in the concrete thinking stage? The abstract thinking stage? How?
• Discuss how we know what learning is taking place. What types of assessment could or should be used in integrated studies like media research? How can we show what the students are learning? Is it okay to use rubrics, quizzes, and tests with integrated units?
• Discuss the impact of the study on young adolescent development. Through this research, the young adolescents were given information and asked to interpret data collection based on media usage and diversity. In addition to learning and honing skills in the academic arenas, in a safe way, the students were asked to interpret statistics on media, gender, and race. How will this benefit the students? Their families? Their school? Their community?

As the authors have cited, research on the education of young adolescents continues to state that curriculum should be meaningful and developmentally appropriate. The project on media and the young adolescent is intriguing to the 10- to 15-year-olds because it is about them! The project also connected skill sets across the disciplines. By discussing the project and its benefits, teams of teachers can more comfortably embrace integrated studies.

The authors have invited each of us to engage in a study showing the correlation between integrated studies and test scores.

Related Readings

Bohnenberger, J., & Terry, A., (2002). Community problem solving works for middle level students. Middle School Journal, 34(1), 5-12.

Deering, P., Perez, A., Wong, C., Leong, D., & Yap, J. (2003). What's driving you crazy? A question to drive collaborative, inquiry-based middle school reform. Middle School Journal, 34(5), 31-37.

Warner, M., & Leonard, J. (2004). An emergent problem-based course for prospective middle grades teachers. Middle School Journal, 35(4), 33-41.

Warren, L., & Flinchbaugh, M.(2003). Engaging students in meaningful, integrative environmental lessons. Middle School Journal, 34(3), 47-50.

This issue of "Using Middle School Journal for Professional Development" was written by Laurie Bottiger, founding head of school at Esperanza Academy, School of Hope (www.esperanzaacademy.org). Laurie has worked in several inner-city and independent school settings. She is a doctoral candidate at the University of Kansas.