ACMS Cohort 1

Ashley, Olivia, Walt, & Zac

Dr. Heath & Dr. Ramirez
CI 3900
23 April 2015
Rational Reflection: Young Adolescent Culture and Inquiry Project
Artifact: Young Adolescent Culture and Inquiry Project
Topic/Title: Young Adolescent CulAshe County Middle School
Medium: PowerPoint Presentation
Technology used: Google Slides, Microsoft Excel
Link to Presentation:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/19Ssy6jotoQBeiSErLhyJnC9hjC2GWXcohBoRp3PWbE
U/edit?usp=sharing
For this project, we were asked to survey a wide variety of students at our internship
placement. We asked questions concerning their interests, such as What are your favorite
movies?, What do you do for fun?, and What kind of music do you listen to? Our survey
also asked questions that hinted at their socioeconomic status and home life without being
explicit. The purpose of this project is to cultivate a deeper understanding of the students whom
we have worked with all semester. Successful teachers know their students, form strong
relationships, and create lesson that enhance learning through relevant material.
According to the Appalachian State University Middle Grades Teacher Preparation
Standards (2009), standard one states, middle level teacher candidates understand and apply the
major concepts, principles, theories, and research related to young adolescent development that
support student development and learning. This means that through research and the
development of our practice, we become better equipped educators in dealing with the
developmental needs of adolescents. As a group, we believe that we are developing in this realm
and have room for further improvement. For example, during our Young Adolescent Culture and

ACMS Cohort 2
Inquiry Project (YACIP), our group members not only recognize personal difference between
adolescents cognitively, emotionally, physically, and morally, but we respect, support, and
celebrate differences in our students in an attempt to create a comfortable, positive, and
productive learning environment. Throughout our internship, all group members laid the
foundations of respectful and professional relationships with both students and colleagues, and
we developed these relationships into collaborative and productive bonds that fortified the
learning experience in our cooperating classrooms. Even in the regards of our project, these
newly created partnerships were extremely useful to form our survey and collect useful data that
gave amazing insight on the culture of both Ashe County and our cooperating middle school. The
data collected gives us a peek on the societal factors that contribute to the development of our
students. With a glance into the societal environment of Ashe County, we can better understand
the interest and needs of our students and cater to them in a more proficient manner. We can now
use the information collected to develop lessons and activities that are more relevant to the lives
and environment of Ashe County Middle School students.
Secondly, standard two deals with philosophical foundations of
developmentally responsive middle level programs and schools and the
organizational structures that support young adolescent development. Part
of developing in this area means that we must learn to work successfully as
a team. We feel that we are developing in this area because we met several
times to plan the survey questions and construct the project after giving
them out. In addition, it is critical that we understand responsive
organizational structures that foster socially equitable educational practices
and the responsibility of middle level programs and schools to be responsive

ACMS Cohort 3
to cultural and environmental factors of school communities in order to
further grow in this area. Conducting the YACIP survey and researching the
demographics of our schools community provided each and every one of us
with insight into our students cultures. With the vast majority of students
being caucasian, we learned that it may be easy to forget about or downplay
other cultures in the classroom. Therefore, teachers should actively work to
introduce minority cultures and make students aware of differing viewpoints.
Finally, standard two demands that middle level teacher candidates must
understand the need for school organizational features that promote young
adolescent health and wellness in order to become proficient educators. We
may not be proficient in this area, but we surely are developing. In our
survey, we asked students how much time they spent online as well as how
many of hours of sleep they got on average each night. These questions
aimed to help us create a deeper understanding of our students health. For
the most part, they got a decent amount of sleep each night and did not
spend much time surfing the web. However, if these answers provided us
with an overwhelmingly unhealthy response, as teachers, we would know
what to expect from them while teaching and seek to promote health inside
the classroom. For these three reasons, we feel that we are at the developing
stage when it comes to fulfilling standard two of the Middle Grades Teacher
Preparation Standards.
As we continue to look at the teacher preparation standards, we see
that standard five discusses appropriate roles of middle grade educators.

ACMS Cohort 4
This standard goes beyond just the educators role in the classroom, but also
the importance of communicating with parents, team members and the
community. While participating in the YACIP, our group feels that we are still
developing in this standard. The YACIP gives us the opportunity to find out a
little more about the students we are teaching. After asking survey questions
and talking with the data specialist at the school, we found that student lives
outside of school can be very diverse. These diverse backgrounds require us,
as educators, to have more than one role. We must be positive role models
for our young adolescents. As a group, we have began to understand that
educators have more than just one professional role. Although out of school
lives may be diverse, we have seen a lack of racial and ethnic diversity in the
classrooms during our internship. While researching for the YACIP, we still
saw a lack of diversity. Although we may not always see the diversity, we all
understand that it is there. We have become aware of ways we can make our
students conscious of others differences. We are still developing in this
manner though. We do understand the importance, as future educators, to
show respect to differences and diversity. We are to be professional
advocates for the diverse and technological age in which we will become
educators. In all of this being said, we are constantly developing our skills as
educators. With more practice and persistence, we will become teachers that
know their professional roles, in and out of the classroom.
In conclusion, we all agree that we are still developing in relation to standards one, two,
and five of the Appalachian State University Middle Grades Teacher Preparation Standards based

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on the work that we have shown through the YACIP. By doing this project, we have
demonstrated that we have an understanding of what it means to be a developmentally
responsive educator, the appropriate structures of a middle school, and the roles that middle level
educators should play. By continuing to develop in these areas, we are on the road to becoming
proficient middle grades teachers.