WHY THIS TOOL KIT NOW?

Even before COVID-19, studies indicated that rates of anxiety, stress, and self-harm were on the rise for 10-14 year olds. Two years of disruptions to learning and community, and other trauma related to the pandemic, has only intensified issues for this age group:

CHANGING THE NARRATIVE

The Changing By The Minute documentary tool kit materials are intended to encourage professionals, students, and families to think optimistically and creatively about this period, in order to relieve some of the stress and distress experienced by 10 -14 year olds. Early adolescence is a period of profound  growth (matched in magnitude of change only by infancy) but also a dynamic and bountiful time when children lay the groundwork for who they want to be and who they don’t want to be.

The tool kit is designed for use with a variety of audiences, in order to:

  • Engage 10-14 year olds in meaningful and inclusive conversations as they respond to the film, fostering a sense of social emotional well being and school belonging*
  • Educate teacher candidates, school counselor candidates, and new out-of-school time staff about the developmental needs of early adolescents so they can work more effectively with them
  • Catalyze dynamic professional development sessions with educators, administrators, out-of-school program staff, and ELT (expanded learning) providers about school practices that foster positive youth development and a sense of belonging
  • Educate families about what to expect during these years and reverse the narrative of this period as a negative time

The tool kit is currently being used by:

  • Success Bound in 200 Chicago Public Schools
  • Youth-Nex: Center for Positive Youth Development in their Remaking Middle School program out of the University of Virginia Curry School of Education.

It is also being used by national associations involved in improving middle school education (AMLE, Middle Grades Collaborative) and universities across the United States (including Mississippi State College of Education, Otterbein University Department of Education, Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts, University of Maine College of Education and Human Development, University of Vermont College of Education and Social Services.)

REVIEWS

“This deeply authentic observational film and detailed, easy-to-follow discussion guides will be of great use to after school programs as a resource to:

  •  foster a sense of connectedness and belonging for 10-14 year olds, by engaging them in meaningful and inclusive conversations as they respond to the film.
  •  help new and existing afterschool staff understand the social emotional characteristics and developmental needs of early adolescents, thereby empowering them to work most effectively with this age group.”
    — Afterschool Alliance

As a school counselor, I look forward to using the film with students as a way to open great conversations about integrity, friendship, and other issues. PTAs could use the film with parents and guardians, to give them a glimpse of the social and emotional dynamics of typical day in the life a middle schooler. The film will also be a terrific tool for training new educators and school counselors in educational degree programs because it showcases both the social emotional development of typical 10-14 year olds and also features a school where older students mentor younger students, which is an interesting model.
— Barbara Truluck, NCC, School Counselor, Palmer Middle School, Kennesaw, Georgia (Finalist ASCA School Counselor of the Year 2021, 2020 Georgia School Counselor of the Year 2020)

“Changing By The Minute” does a great job capturing all the challenging things that happen emotionally for kids during 5th – 8th grade — as they manage friendships, experiment with their personal style and identities, and wrestle with difficult choices, like how to be good kid. The tool kit will be of great use for educators, counselors, principals and professors of education — looking to spark relevant and lively conversations with 5th-8th graders, school staff (at a staff meeting or in professional development) and in classes with new teacher candidates or new staff of any kind.

Show it in a town hall and everyone will get something from it!
— Phyllis Fagell, LCPC, School Counselor and Therapist, Author “Middle School Matters”

The Benefits

Using the tool kit directly with 10-14 year olds to build A Sense of Belonging
Sixteen million early adolescents attend 5-8th grades in the US public schools each year. Both the short and long films can be used directly with 10-14 year olds to engage them in inclusive conversations that build meaningful connections between each other, and adults. Both films can also be used to launch discussions with educators and counselors about how to foster a sense of school belonging in youth.

Extensive educational and developmental research conducted in recent years has demonstrated that a student’s sense of school belonging (the extent to which students feel personally accepted, respected, included and supported in the school environment) is linked to increased motivation, higher academic achievement, enhanced self-concept, and behavioral and cognitive engagement (Slaten et al, 2020). A sense of belonging is particularly important during the middle grades because young adolescents have a greater tendency to compare themselves to peers and to judge themselves more critically than other age groups (Williams et al., 2019).
Using the tool kit to support Social Emotional Learning

The documentary tool kit has been designed for use with both new and more experienced teachers, counselors, and out-of-school-time staff. The films provide a jumping off place for educators to explore the social and emotional learning needs of young adolescents, while reflecting on their own knowledge, skills and attitudes in this critical area.

Research on social emotional learning has revealed the benefits of such programs and curricula across the schooling continuum and researchers have noted their particular salience in middle school (MacDonnell et al., 2021; Strahan & Poteat, 2020), due both to the plasticity of neural networks at this age (Fandakova & Hartley, 2020) and students’ increased interest in autonomy and belonging (Williams et al., 2019).

The Center School is a four-year, mixed age middle school where most students:
—  report little to no bullying
—  forge robust friendships across traditional societal boundaries of gender, race, age and socio-economic background
—  feel a strong sense of school belonging
—  perform well academically, including: studying 9th grade math in 8th grade, doing well on standardized tests

But research shows this is an exceptional situation. What is happening in this school? What is the special sauce?

Changing By The Minute shines a light on one school that has been turning out academically successful students — who are flexible, confident, good at advocating for themselves, and good at collaborating with people different from themselves for over 35 years.  This is a rare view into a world where adults:
  • embrace the awkwardness of early adolescence in all its messy pain and joyousness
  • use a battery of unconventional educational strategies to engage novelty seeking, early-adolescent brains
  • give tweens the space they need to figure out who they want to be, and who they don’t want to be
  • foster character development in 10 – 14 year olds by encouraging independence while upholding boundaries

THE SCIENCE

The challenges of early adolescence have existed throughout human history, but some experts believe that trends in middle grade education towards standardization and metrics, extended school days and shortened breaks, may be working directly against students’ developmental needs. As parents and educators struggle with how to best support the millions of students who attend 5-8th grade in the US public schools each year — scientists and social scientists are also on the case. Here are three examples of important work in the field.

Developmental Psychology

Developmental psychologists and researchers explore how dire our view of middle school is, how bad these years can really be, and how simple the antidote might be to rising anxiety and disconnection —  allow kids to follow their natural instincts for connection.

“High rates of suspensions, detentions, stereotyping, bullying, and discrimination from peers and adults are typical and have even become how American society characterizes the middle school years.”

“The Crisis of Connection: Roots, Consequences, and Solutions” Edited by Niobe Way, Alisha Ali, Carol Gilligan, Pedro Noguera, NYU Press, August 2018

Brain Science

The invention of non-invasive brain imaging means that neuroscientists are now able to study the brains of living adolescents, when in the past they could only study brains from cadavers. Until recently it was believed that brain development was concentrated in the first six years of life, but we now know that the brain undergoes profound and fundamental reorganization during adolescence. The current question is why? These scientists make the important point that the adolescent brain is not an inadequate adult brain, but the perfect brain for what the organism needs to accomplish during this period of life.

“… the cognitive style typical of adolescence… may be optimally suited to the social developmental tasks facing the adolescent… adolescence should not be considered a state of deficient brain performance.”

“Brain Development During Adolescence” By K. Konrad, C. Firk, P. Uhlhaas June, 2013

Data Collection and Analysis for School Management

Data scientists have identified a correlation between specific behaviors in Middle School that indicate a student is on a path to drop out of high school — which allowed one middle school to reorganize resources to actively get specific students back on track.

“Nationwide, 7,000 students drop out every school day. In Middle School Moment, FRONTLINE reports on new evidence that suggests the make-or-break moment for high school dropouts may actually occur in middle school.”

Frontline: Middle School Moment July, 2012