Instructional

Practices

How do we teach at Deep River Middle School?

To be a developmentally-responsive middle school, instructional strategies must be flexible and fit seamlessly with the curriculum and organization of our school. Team teaching and intergrated curriculum are central to our middle school and so instructional strategies will be developed by teams of teachers to accomodate learning in an interdisciplinary setting. Strategies will also involve students as much as possible, incorporating democratic education principles.

Grouping

Rather than the traditional "tracking" method of grouping students simply by ability level, the students at Deep River Middle School will experience a variety of grouping during their time at Deep River Middle School

Advisory

In advisory groups and during the advisory period, students will be grouped with students of different grades, different backgrounds, diffirent cultures. Advisory teachers will use the group's diversity to encourage understand, compassion, and tolerance as well as using it as a teaching tool for learning about different viewpoints and opinions.

Classrooms

Classrooms will be organized by grade level, but with heterogenous ability levels. This means that a particular classroom will include students that are all the same grade and that represent a variety of developmental stages. Teachers will work to utilize cooperative learning situations in the classroom.

Skills

Teachers may choose to group students of similar ability levels together while they learn a specific skill. Students who master the skill will then move to a different group. Homogenous grouping of ability levels will only be used in the context of progressing through mastery of skills

Flexible Student-Centered Instruction

Each student that attends Deep River Middle School is unique. Our teachers work together in teams to plan instruction that fits individuals and groups.

Instructional strategies should have the primary goal of actively engaging students in their learning and can include:

Cooperative activities
Student choice
Technology-based projects
Independent exploration of interests
Physical activity and movement
Novelty - What is new and exciting?
Motivation - What are they interested in?
Music
Debate and story telling
Role playing and drama (simulations)
Connect the learning to real life

Foundation of Instructional Philosopy

Much of our beliefs and inspiration for instruction at our school is based on the outline given by Wiles and Bondi in the first chapter of The Essential Middle School.

Deep River

Middle School