Working With Young Adolescents

Or
Making the Young Adolescent Your Favorite Age to Teach

Instructor: Sandy Loucks

Email: xxxxx@...com
Phone: 555-555-5555 CST (texts are okay)
Virtual Office Hours: Weekdays 1:00PM-3:00PM CST
Other days/times, leave a message or email and I will get back to you within 24 hours.

This online course provides beginning teachers with a focus specifically on

the middle school years, 11-14-year-olds. For some people this is the best age
of student to work with. However, because of hormones and other
developmental changes the young adolescent is dealing with, they often get
a bad reputation and many teachers shy away from this age group. The
goal of this course is to give teachers the tools to be successful with and enjoy
working with these students at this unique time in their lives.

Essential questions
1. Who is the young adolescent?
2. What does this mean for classroom management? OR
a. How do we teachers interact with them for optimum academic
engagement?
3. What does this mean for creating lessons?
4. How can I maintain my energy working with this distinct group of students?
Besides reviewing and going deeper into human development, we will look at personality
differences, gender differences and brain research.

There will be no textbook for this course. All required readings will be provided within the
course materials or found online. Some optional readings are found in the library or
bookstore.

Online courses require even more communication than face to face courses.
Checking your email daily is highly recommended.
Course news Updates, instructions, tips, and advice will be posted in the Course
News. Remember to check it each time you login to your course. Please log in at
least every other day.
Discussion Check the Discussion Board posts and responses regularly; at least
every other day.
Class Help Forum This is a forum for posting questions about course content or
assignment directions. Please post general course questions there before emailing
me unless it regards a private matter or grades. If you have a question, it is likely
others do as well, and everyone will see the answer if we use this forum. Even
better, your colleagues may have the answer to assist you. If you know the answer
to question before I log in, please jump in and help. I check this forum daily.
Instructor Involvement I will check the discussion boards and email at least daily. I
like to allow time for your classmates to respond to your posts before I chime in, so
you may not see me daily, but I will be there. I want you to succeed in this class;
please ask questions. Online learning is not as easy as some people think it will be.
If you need to speak to me, email or text me to arrange a real-time conversation.

New modules open every Sunday and close on Saturday. Remember that all
assignments are due at midnight Central Time of the day that they are due. Since
students in the class are usually in many different time zones, be sure to be clear
when discussing times when working with each other.
This course is highly interactive; we all will learn from each other. Its important to
hear everyones voice so that we can have many different points of view shared
which will lead to interesting, in-depth conversations. Please login to the discussion
boards at least four days each week and, after posting your initial response to the
question, respond to at least two other people for a total of at least four responses.
Dont forget to reply to the classmates who respond to your post as well. See the
Discussion Rubric to learn about the requirement of the quantity and quality of your
posts and responses. Please review the Discussion Board Etiquette.
Resources used to create any of your assignments need to be cited using APA.

 All assignments must be turned in on time (midnight on the due date unless
otherwise specified) using the Dropbox and/or our Discussion Board. This allows me
to give you feedback in a timely manner. Please see the assignment explanation as
well as the course calendar for all due dates.
Unless it is an emergency (see note below) or you have gotten prior approval from
me, anything late will begin to lose points.
Note: Emergencies are events that are not planned and cannot be written on the
calendar in advance. Examples of emergencies are: car accidents, serious health
crises of the student or in the students immediate family. Family weddings and
vacations are examples of non-emergencies. If your calendar looks busy at a
particular time, plan to work ahead on your coursework.
o Also computer glitches are not excuses for late work. Since this is an online
course, it is essential to have consistent access to a computer. Have a
backup plan for times when your computer crashes or for some reason you
arent able to access the course in your normal fashion. Public libraries almost
always provide computer access, though take note of their hours of operation.

Each of the assignments you turn into the dropbox as well as your participation in our
discussions will be evaluated on the basis of rubrics.
Self-care reflection paper (module 1)
Self-care journal (begin module 1, submit module 8)
Diagram/chart of adolescent development (module 2)
Letter to parents regarding adolescent development (module 2)
(2) Completion of form describing observation of inservice middle school
teacher(s) (modules 3 and 7).
(3) Visual and/or audio presentations of their learnings and describing what
they will do in the classroom based on those learnings for modules 3, 5, and 7.
Venn Diagram or chart showing similarities and differences in the genders.
(module 4)
Concept map connecting strategies to characteristics. (module 4)
Metaphors (module 5)
Outline of brain research (module 6)
Visual presentation on applying brain research findings to teacher behavior.
(module 6)
Complete of form describing observation of an inservice middle school teacher
(module 7)

Grading Scale
A

100-90

89-80

79-70

69-60

59 or below

Any time that you want to ask about your progress, please email me and well talk.

Module 1 Importance of taking care of yourself put on your own oxygen mask before
helping others
Reflect on your own stressors and self-care.
Establish a self-care plan in order to come into the classroom energized and stay
balanced at the same time.

Module 2 Who is the Young Adolescent? Their needs, desires, interests, intellect, and
feelings.
Describe these characteristics in a young adolescent two ways: in a visual object and in
a letter to parents.

Module 3 Address the needs, desires, interests, intellect and feelings of the young
adolescent.
Observe a practicing teacher and note how they address the needs, etc of the young
adolescent.
Create a way to remind yourself how you want to address the needs, etc. of the young
adolescent.

Module 4 Are boys and girls really different? How does gender affect the needs, etc. of the
young adolescent?
Create a chart or diagram comparing the needs, etc. of boys and those of girls.
Work in a small group to select strategies for meeting each genders needs, etc. and
connect them to the differences.

Module 5 Addressing different personalities within the classroom

Learn the difference in personalities using the DISC assessment
Find ways to meet the needs, etc. of the different personalities when working with young
adolescents.

Module 6 Brain research and how it relates to the young adolescent

In small groups, outline the major findings in brain research in relationship to the young
adolescent.

 Connect the findings to the needs, etc. of the middle school student.

Module 7 Incorporating brain research when working with young adolescents

Observe a practicing teacher to see aspects of brain research being used or not.
Create a way to remind yourself how you want to use brain research in your classroom to
meet the needs, etc. of the young adolescent.