Teaching in the Middle School
The Differences Between Teaching in a Middle School and a Junior High School
© Amy Horn
Many factors affect teachers in middle level education every day. Whether or not they teach in a middle school or junior high school might be the biggest factor of all.
Teaching in a middle school can be quite different from teaching in a junior high school. For educators, the organization, planning, and instruction that occur are three major differences that affect their teaching styles and methods in the two types of schools. Many teachers can find advantages and disadvantages to working in a middle school and in a junior high school. And in the real world, many schools and districts, for a variety of reasons, can only use parts of each model-hopefully, the best of both worlds-and incorporate them into the building where grades 6-8 are taught.
However, it's important for educators to know why their buildings espouse certain philosophies and prioritize some components over others. Knowing the fundamental differences between middle schools and junior high schools might answer those questions regarding why certain decisions are made in a school. Or, knowing the differences might prompt teachers to ask the questions in the first place. Imogene Forte and Sandra Schurr provide a clear and concise list of distinctions, for teachers, between middle schools and junior high schools in their book, The Definitive Middle School Guide: A Handbook for Success.
Middle School
- Fosters collaboration of teachers
- Adapts to flexible block scheduling
- Teachers organized by teams with common planning time
- Work spaces of teamed teachers adjacent to one another
- Encourages multi-materials approach to instruction
- Empowers teachers
- Varied delivery systems are used with high level of interaction among students and teachers
Junior High School
- Fosters competition of teachers
- Requires regular period day of 45-55 minutes
- Teachers organized by departments with no common planning time
- Work space organized by discipline taught
- Depends on textbook-oriented instruction
- Empowers administrators
- Lecture style teaching used a majority of the time with a high percentage of teacher talk time
Many teachers don't have a choice in how they organize their day or when they get to plan or what materials they can use in their classrooms. It's easy for them to feel like they are in a vacuum when they close their classroom door. But, it's important for them to know that other options do exist. The book The New American Middle School by Jon Wiles and Joseph C. Bondi is one place to look into the options. Although their choices are often limited, hopefully teachers do have a voice when it comes to doing what's best for the students in their school.
