What was the speaker’s main message?

Young adolescence presents a window of opportunity, “an ideal time when educators can provide effective supports and resources to help all youth thrive.”

What were the speaker’s best quotes?

“This makes early adolescence ‘a window of opportunity,’ a chance to set students on a solid path for the remainder of their education,” Ronald Dahl, director of the Institute of Human Development at the University of California, Berkeley.

Powell began and ended with a powerful concept about the perception of the today’s young adolescent, pointing out that most of the words to describe them have a negative connotation (e.g., impulsive, awkward, anxious). “But,” she reminded the crowd, “while these words may be accurate, it’s only part of the story.” She emphasized throughout the remainder of the presentation that while some of the common descriptors of young adolescents might not be inaccurate and fit stereotypes, they are certainly an incomplete picture if you don’t understand the many facets of the young adolescent.

What were the top ideas from the session?

1. Who Are Young Adolescents?

• 10 – 15-year-olds are experiencing the most rapid, significant changes of their lives other than infancy.
• Developing physically, socially, emotionally, and cognitively.
• characteristics are generalized traits, uniformity among this age group should never be assumed.
• During this time, students are developing the ability to imagine the future and think ahead. They begin to make decisions based less on impulse and more on goals.
• From brain science to social emotional development, it is now obvious that not paying enough attention to middle grades misses the profound opportunity of early to mid-adolescent development.

2. Why the Middle Grades?

• The middle grades deserve separate recognition because of the well-defined and unique nature of the students within this age group.
• The middle school experience substantially affects their overall sense of well-being and chances for high school completion and post-secondary success.
• The middle grades are the most under addressed period within the educational system in comparison to early childhood or high school.
• Young adolescents thrive when they are provided with learning environments that are responsive, challenging, empowering, equitable, and engaging.
• There is a documented, significant decline in youth engagement in school in the middle grades.
• Students in the U.S. do not start out behind students of other nations in mathematics and science, but that they fall behind by the end of the middle grades.

3. Decades of research tells us that young adolescents thrive when they have access to an education that is specifically designed to meet their unique developmental needs. That includes:

• Challenging, Age-Appropriate Curriculum—Teachers must understand students’ cognitive abilities in order to create a curriculum that is challenging and stimulates engagement rather than one that leads to frustration and disengagement.
• Supportive Relationships—Teachers who recognize students’ social-emotional needs are better equipped to build safe, caring, and trusting learning environments.
• Responsive Environments—Designing a learning environment, building relationships, and creating lessons that consider students’ developmental characteristics, along with being responsive to their social and cultural identities and experiences, are essential and enhance students’ academic and overall well-being.

What is one idea you want to learn more about?

If you are a middle level leader (anyone working with 10 – 15 year-olds, regardless of the configuration of your school), an idea that warrants closer investigation is AMLE’s foundational document The Successful Middle School: This We Believe. This document is a summary of the foundational principles of working with young adolescents, a meta-analysis of the best research in the middle grades. It is summarized in five essential attributes (responsive, challenging, empowering, equitable, and engaging) and 18 characteristics in the areas of culture and community; curriculum, assessment, and instruction; and leadership and organization.

What are resources you will check out?

With the launch of a new weblink from AMLE on Young Adolescent Development, this session was a treasure trove resources for educators who work with 10 – 15-year-old students.

Middle Schoolers 101: Keys to Young Adolescent Development—A three-minute video summarizing the key components of young adolescent development (physical, cognitive, social-emotional, and psychological). A great overview for a team meeting or social media message to parents.

National Policy Agenda for the Middle Grades—This document is an advocacy tool kit for middle grades reform with three key sections: the federal process, advocating, and talking points. Of particular interest were the talking points “Why The Middle Grades” (p. 19) and “Who Are ‘Young Adolescents?’” (p. 20). These two resources are great to share with parents, district leaders, and staff.

The Developmental Nature of Our Students—This infographic is a one-stop shop for with hyperlinks to articles, videos, and research that can be used as professional development with staff in the area of young adolescent development. You could plan an entire year of professional development from this document.

The Successful Middle School: This We Believe—This one-pager is a summary of AMLE’s essential attributes and characteristics that define the successful middle school. This is a great place to start the conversation about reform in your school.

18 Characteristics of the Successful Middle School—This document contains a series of hyperlinks to discussion questions and resources on each of the characteristics, a great resource to open or continue the dialogue if your school is looking for implement, revise, or tweak any middle grades initiative.

I can’t wait to tell my teachers about this idea:

Want to know what in the heck teens are talking about or just have some fun? Check out this primer on teen slang! Do be cheugy! This list is bussin’! No cap, this site is fire!

Notes by Todd Brist, principal of Watertown Middle School in Watertown, South Dakota. Read more session notes in the NAESP Conference Blog.