Teaching Tweens

L. Fagel said, "It's not easy to be a tween or to teach one, but it's much easier to connect with 10-to 14-year-olds when you appreciate their strengths and understand their distinct characteristics."

Tweens are a unique age group to teach. Here are five ways you can bring out the best in this age group:

• Shadow a student for the day
• Communicate that you are ready to be an emotional support
• Make reflection a part of the learning process
• Be intentional about embracing differences
• Give students voice

First of all, schools need to adopt the concept called Shadow a Student. Teachers need to choose a student and they need to start questioning their assumptions about school. Then, teachers need to spend the entire day shadowing their students by capturing their observations along the way. In addition, reflect on your observations, question them, and draw connections to opportunities for action. Finally, based on the Shadow day findings, create a small experiment for making changes in school. 

Principal Mills said, "Seeing where students are coming from is critical and without that understanding  you might be coming down on a student that has a life that you don't understand. 

Secondly, teachers need to communicate that they are ready to be an emotional support. Teachers who are more emotionally-supportive can help adolescents increase in their behavioral engagement and mastery motivation. Many empirical studies have shown that teacher support was significantly positively correlated with positive academic emotions. Specifically, teachers who support students show their care and concern for their students, so these students often reciprocate this concern and respect for the teacher by adhering to classroom norms. 

Thirdly, teachers need to make reflection a part of the learning process. When students become reflective about the teaching and learning process, they are strengthening their own capacity to learn. Reflection is about students becoming aware of their own thinking processes, and being able to make those transparent to others. The students will be able to easily describe:

• what is intended to be learnt
• where they have got to
• the learning process
• where they will go next
• the learning culture in the classroom

Reflect:

• What did you do well in your learning? (I believe that this went well because...)
• What do you think you need to work on? (I think that I need to work on...)
• What do I need to do NOW to improve my learning?

In addition, we need to be intentional about embracing differences. The concept of diversity encompasses acceptance and respect. Each student is unique. It is about understanding each other and moving beyond simple tolerance to embracing and celebrating the rich dimensions contained within each individual. Teachers need to respect individual rights to self-identification, and to recognize that no one culture is intrinsically superior to another.

Finally, teachers need to encourage student voice. Students who believe that they have a voice in school are seven times more likely to be academically motivated than students who do not believe they have a voice. The ultimate goal of encouraging student voice is to engage and empower students, both individually and collectively, and to act on their empowerment in the quest for meaningful instructional experiences that will support lifelong learning. 

Students can

• participate in student councils, write a letter to your legislator, or join an advocacy group
• participate in school surveys, share opinions about current events
• choose the format to complete an assignment (video or essay)
• seek out work (presentations, blogs, text, poetry, music, etc) 
• complete perception surveys about the instructional setting and teacher effectiveness to impact school decisions

How to increase student voice:

1. Encourage student feedback and ideas
2. Teach students to exercise voice through activity based learning
3. Teach skills of self-expression
4. Involve students in the development of the instructional strategies and goal setting