Lessons from Primary

There was a time when I thought I wanted to teach kindergarten, but when the time came to choose which certification I would pursue, I chose middle school. I did so because I remember middle school being hellish for me: I was awkward, I was ugly, and I didn't fit in with any group but desperately wanted to, causing me to do some really stupid things (like the time I cut my own hair, but we don't need to go into that). So I felt that I could relate to middle-school kids and make a difference for them.

Superheroes

Plus, there's somewhat of a status symbol attached to being a middle school teacher. See, when a person says she teaches elementary, the response generally goes, "Awwww, so sweeeet! What fun! They're so cute!" and much cheeky smiling follows. When a person says she teaches high school, the response is, "Nice! Very cool," and respectful handshaking follows. Now, tell people you teach middle school, and they lurch backward, their eyes go wonky, and they say, "Whoa! Middle school. God bless you," and sympathetic pats on the back occur until the awestruck parties slink away, thanking their lucky stars that their job is not as hard as yours. I relish the fact that all my years in education have been spent nurturing the one age group that everyone thinks is insane. It's like a badge of courage. Or a superhero cape.

Happy little people

Now, in my new position as a secondary ELA strategist, I am navigating many challenges and tests. Today's test came in the form of pint-sized people. I was assigned a campus (apparently at random) to help out with first-day-of-school madness. This particular campus is a pre-school campus. Despite what you may be thinking, I must first say that there was no madness. First-day-of-school arrival worked like a well-oiled machine, and dismissal was just as orderly, despite a drenching downpour that thundered in just as parents arrived to pick up their babies. So I feel obligated to share some ideas that are used in pre-school that could totally work in middle school as well.

Singing

It's no secret that music makes everyone feel better. Primary grades use singing for many purposes: to welcome students in the morning, for transitions between activities or lessons, to celebrate achievements, to say goodbye at the end of the day. They sing about the weather, they sing about their friends, they sing about numbers, they sing about colors, they sing about tying shoes and going to the bathroom and eating their food and washing their hands. They sing about everything, all the time, every day. And then in middle school, the singing stops. Why? Incorporating songs and music into lessons during the school day would brighten moods and quash the monotony. One school in our district has music playing in the hallways at all times. What a cheerful place to be!

Color-coding

At the pre-school where I was stationed today, colors meant everything. There was a blue hall and a red hall and a yellow hall; there were yellow tags that helped match child to parent; there were teachers in colored shirts that I surmised must correspond with some secret color code. And all of these colors helped children and parents know where to go and what to do. Color coding could be beneficial in middle school, too, what with all of the different classes, projects, and homework kids need to keep straight. You'd have to be careful, though, because in the pre-teen years, some kids become concerned with gang colors. I once had a student who refused to use a pencil that was generously offered to him because it was red, and his gang of choice was the blue one. To combat that issue, you could use pastels or fluorescents. I'm pretty sure that there is no gang affiliation with Pepto pink or mint green.

Recess

I did not have the privilege today of joining the pre-school children at recess, but I saw the playground. What a fun, colorful, inviting place it was. All children need some time each day to run off some energy, unwind, and socialize -- even older kids. I hate that recess is taken away in middle school. I think having a little recess would cut down on a good chunk of the behavior issues that teachers encounter in middle school. I mean, even prisons have outdoor recreation time.

Perkiness

If there's one difference between teachers of primary-grade children and teachers of secondary children, it is perkiness. Teachers of older kids (myself included) tend to look a bit haggard, perhaps grumpy, a little put out. Not all the time, of course, but, well, most of the time. It's not their fault -- remember the superhero thing. Teachers of little ones are smiley, happy, cheerful -- literally bouncing with joy. And that makes all the difference. At the pre-school where I was stationed, a great crowd of us gathered at the front entrance and welcomed the new students and their parents, and those faculty who were used to this sort of thing were positively dripping with cheer. (My cheeks hurt after an hour of welcome duty.) With such a positive opening to the school day, it was impossible for anyone to be anything less than thrilled to be there. We should bring some joy back to the secondary school setting. Take a note from the Ron Clark Academy and roll out the red carpet for our scholars. Make them feel like they are entering the best place in the world.

Spending some time at a pre-school building was a real eye-opener for me. It made me reflect on the primary-grade experiences that are thrown out as kids get older but don't really need to be. With a little adjustments for maturity, so many "little-kid" procedures and methods can and should be continued all the way into high school.

I have a few products in my TeachersPayTeachers store that bring a little elementary style into the mix. One of them is this one:

A Fun Way to Practice and Review Roots and Affixes

So I have a confession to make: I never enjoyed teaching roots and affixes. The workbooks and worksheets available for such lessons were torture for me and the students. Foldables were not as engaging as they were with other concepts. Even the educational board game I tried to use in class was too difficult for my students. And I was just plain bad at teaching this aspect of word work.

That being said, I know how crucial it is for children's vocabulary development and reading comprehension skills to practice roots and affixes. It is a vital part of vocabulary instruction. So this summer, while playing around with some vocabulary card game ideas, I came up with one for roots and affixes. The game is played similarly to UNO, sans colors and numbers. Players are dealt seven cards each, and the rest of the deck is placed face-down in the center, with one card turned face-up in a discard pile to begin the game. The first player begins by playing off of the word part shown on the starting card. If the starting card says trans, and the first player has a card that says port, he can play that card to make transport. Now the next person must play off of port. Or he can play off of transport. The first person to get rid of all of his or her cards wins the game.

Here are just some of the cards included in the 96-card set.

Now, in my new position as an ELA strategist, I am not in the classroom to test this game out on kids. But today, I presented the card game to a group of middle- and high-school ELA teachers, and I was blown away by how well it was received. Here are some pictures of my district's teachers playing the game:

As I watched teachers play this game, I saw such engagement, heard much laughter, and saw spirited competition. The group in the last photo improvised a new way to play, making it more like dominoes than UNO. I could see that everyone in the room was having a blast with this game, but I wanted to know two important things: Would students enjoy the game, and would they learn from it? The answer to both questions was a resounding yes from the 30 or so teachers who participated in this workshop, and they all wanted to take this resource to use in their classrooms.

So, have I found a fun way to practice and review roots and affixes? I think so. You can purchase this game from my TPT store by clicking on the product cover below.

The game is called Word War I, and I intend to make a second version called -- you guessed it -- Word War II.