Educating Others about the Essential Elements: Ideas and Suggestions
These following are some ideas for education about and implementation of the Essential
Elements of Standards-Focused Middle-Level Schools and Programs, as generated in May of
2008 by the NYS Network of Middle Level Liaisons. There are some ideas for educating others
about the Essential Elements in their entirety. Following that are some element-specific
suggestions. When a specific school made the suggestion, the source is indicated in order to
allow follow-up if desired.
Ideas for the Essential Elements as a whole:
 Add EE to mentor/mentee relationship
 Using EE Rubrics to rate as a faculty (self eval)
 Use EE rubrics with community
 Every new staff received a copy of EE
 Put EE in your staff handbook
 Include EE in goal setting conversations (whole)
 Share with students – this is why we do what we do
 Use rubric – cite evidence
 Video clips from STW – identify what to see related to EE
 Visiting STW school
 Game – one element per table with card with question to discuss – go (can’t read) (sm. to
Jigsaw)
 Quick assessment with entire staff
 Weekly faculty news – highlight / refresher of an Essential Element
 When launching EE, had each team (6) and unified arts group pick an EE. Then, they
researched it and presented their element at a future faculty meeting. Lots of creative
approaches and humor. (Glens Falls MS)
1.0 Mission and Vision
 Posted throughout school
 Letterhead
 Handbook
 T-Shirt
 Webpage
 Breaking staff up – what do you see in our school that supports #1 (citing evidence)
 Painting quotes on walls
 Discuss with faculty at the beginning of the year, see that the lesson meets the intellectual
and developmental needs and reflect this in observation #1
 Safe school ambassadors
 If we think about the issue (whatever the issue is at the moment), how does this relate to
our school’s mission and vision #1
 Sustainability
 green schools, recycling, no buses - Robert E. Bell
 Peer Leader
 program 8th graders, train/led 6th graders, peer mediation, homework, MS -Richard Stank
 Safe Schools
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o Ambassadors, Anti-bully day, program - Brewsters
Respect & Responsibility
Value of the month, eg., courage, recognize students, tolerance day – RTS Middle School
(Richard D. Stank)
After school foundation for mentoring, sports and more – Hancock
Emotional Literacy Program
Social / emotion / vocabulary eg. bullying – Brewster
Adopt PBIS – Positive Behavioral ONC BOCES
2.0 Educational Program
 Effective staff development
 Data-driven instruction
 Power words across curriculum – (Pioneer)
 Parent room with computer access and resources to deal with young adolescents
 Critical thinking class to tie into literacy across the curriculum grades 6, 7, 8 – (Clarence)
 Department meetings – specific to standards and specific targets
 Review program (as faculty) looking through the eyes of a student over 3 years (6-8) –
Benefit
 Examples of work (notes, for example) to come to consensus what works for Middle
School child? (increases sensitivity of teachers to various req).
 On-going scheduled curriculum review
 Familiarity with NYSMSA website – tool kit
 K-12 program initiatives
 Look at common grade level planning (team) and attempt to put in department
 Shadow a Middle School student
 Start the planning process from the standards, unit planning.
 Include in faculty / administrator conversations
 “The Standards and Essential Elements” are contracts with the public SED
 Literacy across the curriculum
 Numeracy too programs developed by planning council – (Richard D. Stank)
 Strategic questions for learning to make curriculum more coherent (Robert E. Bell)
 Vertical and horizontal articulation for K-12 school (Roxbury)
3.0 Organization and Structure
 Teaming
 Common planning time
 Intramurals
 Clubs
o A – grade level houses
o B – Geographical
 Teacher Websites
 allowing grades to parents
 homework
 e-mail alerts
 Extensive after school program (Pioneer)
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developmentally responsive
Time management plan for standards – in conjunction with agendas
Laying out “big picture” of schedule, organization of building, etc, to help teachers move
beyond “my grade, my department”. What’s best for whole school especially if they
have to share staff.
21st Century Learning Program – after-school with lead teacher part of day programs
Have teams develop norms
Earning a 40 minute lunch
Core classes are scheduled at the same time – flexible time and/or grouping
Fun nights
Lock-in
Visitation to other schools – see structure
Teachers meet with classes 5 times over 4 day schedule (?) Also, flexible block schedule
(Brewster and Richard D. Stank)
Social skills groups to support inclusion (Brewster)
Successful inclusion program for autistic children (Robert E. Bell)
House plan for larger school (Hammonds Middle School)
4.0 Classroom Instruction
 Capturing kids hearts
 Common formative assessments
 Quarterly assessments pre and post tests
 Re-evaluation of curriculum – best practices – how does it connect, etc?
 Showcase/gallery work to share a particular strategy such as a D/ or UBD (?)
 There are learning curves in the span of a career. Help teachers recognize this (ONC
BOCES)
 Show “Shift Happens” (Robert E. Bell)
 Use of student data to inform / instruct
 Grammar (?) unit assessments
 Admin – clear on expectations for instruction
 Evaluating student work in relation to teacher’s instructional plan
 “Blogging” on a topic / poem / etc. – controlled by teacher EduBlogs (Oceanside Middle
School)
 Integrated learning facilitated by technology - “Time Traveler Project”, students place
their faces in famous historical photos. Write about their experience. (Oceanside MS)
 Faculty meetings – have teachers model / share best practice
 Educate staff on use of data and what it tells you
 Smartboard
 Airliners
 Graphing calculators
 Cooperative learning
 Differentiated instruction
 Brainbased Learning
 Measure student to student interactions (?)
 Forms and procedures demonstrate the expectations of the standards
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Tools to communicate with parents
5.0 Leadership
 Building experts
 Teacher Leadership teams or Curriculum Council to work on growing leadership capacity
from ground up outside of administration
 Educate the staff on the E.E. and use them to develop building improvement plan
 Development of in-house DI team to train current and new staff (Oliver Winch and Glens
Falls)
 Teacher practitioners presenting at state conferences
 Faculty Council is used to make all changes to building procedures. Members from each
team, each grade level and each special area. Decisions reach consensus. Members
unpaid. (BCSD)
 Empower staff groups to innovate, create, implement and then report back to staff
 Literacy Coach – Lynch Literacy Academy (Amsterdam)
 Are administrators taking workshops, conferences and graduate courses
 Teacher Leadership Council
 Professional Organization
 Compact teams
 Encourage experimentation and diffuse leadership. “I make no decisions without
consulting with my staff.” I just give them principles. (Roxbury)
 Administrators serving as substitutes on days when teacher is attending a
conference/training
6.0 Network of Support
 Develop a comprehensive guidance plan
 Get an advisory enrichment class modified sports build into your program, schedule
developing
 Curriculum as you go.
 Child study team, meet weekly with
 Counselors
 Administrators
 Outside Agencies:
 Mental Health
 Probation
 Case managers
 Explore creative funding sources for academic programs (tobacco grant…)
 Kitchen Table program (Sauquoit School)
 Strong community connections
 Have a system for documenting intervention for students at every grade level that is
consistent so
 students don’t fall through the cracks
 PBIS and RTI working together. Developed a Tier 2, targeted team to discuss student
issues
 Summer programs that accelerate for next grade
 After school programs
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“Freshman Seminar” for the middle level
“Lab” period every other day opposite P.E. where students can sigh out of one room and
get help in another. – Glens Falls Middle School
Intervention Review Board (IRB) meets weekly to discuss student concerns. Consists of
Principal, Assistant Principal, Nurse, Counselors, Social Worker, Psych. Generates
action plans & recommendations. Glens Falls MS
Measure impact of programs on at-risk behavior such as PRIDE survey. Measures:
compare year-to-year tobacco use, drug use, violence, etc. – Garden City Middle School
Integrate PPS staff into grade level teams
Looping counselors
Family Nights
Educational
Social
Emotional issues (Dolgeville Middle School)
Transitional programs
Transitional summer programs
Mentoring Programs Teacher: Student – based on Schools Altered (?) – Oceanside MS
Measure state of school’s affective health through validated and reliable instruments; for
example: SUNY Cortland’s Center for the 4Rs and the schools and caring community
profile survey. (Garden City Middle School)
Advisory
Instructional Support Team
Positive Behavior Interventions & Support (PBIS)
7.0 Professional Learning
 Additional release time following professional development for planning purposes
 Use faculty meeting time for professional development
 Encourage / develop turn key trainers and / or in-house experts
 Professional learning communities
 Using professional learning communities to look at an issue and develop a plan of action
 Staff designed professional development (Superintendent’s days, faculty meeting, release
time)
 Explore constructivist model for professional development
 Goal to implement essential elements
 Ongoing PD thread throughout year  D.I. – Lit in Content Areas
 Teacher report on their P.D. at the next faculty meeting with noting how they used it in
their classroom. You then give charge to group and colleagues report at next faculty
meeting how they used. School gives ½ day release to teachers who go to conference to
put plan in place / develop product
 Have everyone study what is a professional – Learning Community
 Staff studied what a Professional Learning Community is then all scheduled Faculty
Meetings are generated developed and collaboratively run by teacher “experts”
 Empowered teachers!!
 Use of existing meeting time for targeted staff development (faculty and team meetings).
 Technology is used to share information and items previously shared at these meetings to
free up time for staff development.
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5 minute walk-through looking for evidence of best practice
Classroom observation focused on best practice
Professional Development Topic noted on every faculty meeting agenda
Self directed plans as part or APPR
Research Study
Book Talk Circle