Standard 1: Young Adolescent Development

Middle level teacher candidates understand and apply the major concepts, principles, theories, and research related to young adolescent development that support student development and learning.

            Through the Young Adolescent Cultural Inquiry Project I was able to apply middle grades standards 1. Throughout the entire project I learned information that applies to this standard and learned more about this standard. Since I have completed this project I have a better understanding of young adolescent development.

            To do this project I had to do much research on the county, Ashe, where my middle school was located. I learned many statistics like race, religion, jobs, education, and age makeup of the county. Once I learned these statistics, I was able to observe how these statistics affected the students’ behavior. For example, since most of the students were white the students did not have as good an understanding of different cultures as students that went to a diverse school. This means that the teachers had to take extra care to teach students about other races’ cultures.

            A part of this project was to give a survey to the students to understand them better. This survey really helped me to understand what middle school students are going through right now and what their interests are. By knowing these things I can better prepare the students for the world outside of school. I can create the curriculum to meet these needs of students and thus maximize their learning. 

            By knowing the differences different schools face help us as teachers to understand the needs of our students. For example, I learned that Ashe County is not a rich community, so it can be assumed that some students may not have all the resources they need to succeed. By knowing this, teachers can be responsive and provide food and supplies to these students. This will help students have the chance to succeed. 

            The Young Adolescent Advocacy Project helped me meet standard one by having to look at specific groups of adolescents and learn how to best accommodate different groups of students. This project helped me to understand the different situations students are going through during this age. I now know how to deal with these situations and make sure students get the help they need to get through this situations and grow into mature adults.  

            Through advisory activities I learned a variety of ways to help prepare students for the world outside of school. Middle school is the time when students start to grow into adults and mature. Middle school teachers need to help students develop and the advisory activities did just that. They gave skills to the students they can use outside the classroom. The activities also covered social topics and other non-academic topics, like dealing with bullying, that will help students outside the classroom.  

Standard 1 tells middle grade teachers that we need to be responsive and that we need to adjust things to best suite our students. By doing these projects I learned how to adjust the curriculum and the school environment based on demographics, about different groups of students and how to fit their needs, and how to create activities that will help students grow into productive citizens. Overall standard 1 has helped me to understand the non-academic situations students are going through and the importance of focusing on these situations.