“There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.”
-Alfred Hitchcock
Introduction
I have taught an integrated American Studies course for eighth graders at Thoreau Demonstration Academy for sixteen years. While part of Tulsa Public Schools, we operate quite differently from the other middle schools. Opened in 1998 with the goal of building a school program around research based, best teaching practices, we were the first middle school in the district to require our students to wear uniforms, require teachers to create soothing and secure environments within their classrooms and to continuously design thematic and integrated curriculum among both vertical and horizontal teams of teachers. Each core teacher at Thoreau teaches two subjects in an integrated ninety minute block of time to rather large numbers of students, either Language Arts/Social Studies or Math/Science, and meets weekly to collaborate and plan with both same subject teachers and grade level teams. As my students’ Language Arts teacher and Social Studies teacher all rolled into one, I have the unique opportunity to provide integrated, literacy- based instructional lessons for my students.
Our school serves as a “lottery” magnet for the large urban district of Tulsa Public Schools, pulling our students randomly in equal numbers from the four quadrants of the city. There are two other magnet middle schools in the district; however, they employ rigorous academic eligibility requirements that we do not, as our students are randomly drawn from the entire student pool in the district. Because of this, our school is a diverse mix of socio-economic groups, ethnic groups, and academic abilities. Functioning as an authentic reflection of our city, our school’s population is made up of Caucasian white, African American, Native American and Hispanic students. Thoreau has been quite successful and remains unique in our district due to our continued efforts to offer a consistent academic program that is celebratory and inclusive of the diversity within. My students certainly reflect the heterogeneity of our urban landscape in every area, including the learning spectrum, which includes numerous students on an IEP, English language learners, gifted and talented, and every type of student in between. As such, I work hard to design lessons that will be highly engaging, rigorous and empowering for every student. Our school classrooms have no desks, only round tables for four. I find this to be instrumental in reaching the spectrum of students I have, as collaborative learning is a major part of most activities and lessons. My students are adolescents who absolutely require physical movement and numerous social opportunities to share and talk; the collaborative grouping meets their needs as well as mine as the one responsible for providing the best learning environment for each and every student.
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