Publication Date: Wednesday Oct 15, 1997

MIDDLE SCHOOLS: JLS, Jordan offer alternatives

The bell rings at 8:15 a.m., and the students in Mr. Carothers' class log off their "Where in the World?" computer sessions, draw their conversations to a close and take their seats in a classroom where "every day is different." In another classroom, Mr. Wong has math problems on the board, and students report the answers from yesterday's homework assignment roll-call style.

Across town, Mrs. McGrath's sixth-graders have completed a short grammar exercise and are working on a map of Africa for social studies.

School is in session, but a few of the sixth-grade classes are taught a little differently this year.

Based on the results of a survey of parents last spring, the Palo Alto Unified School District has implemented a pilot sixth-grade choice program at Jane Lathrop Stanford and Jordan middle schools.

Pattie Maples, a former PAUSD teacher and a representative of the Parent Committee for Sixth Grade Choice, one of the parent groups responsible for the survey, said she is pleased with the district's response.

"The district has acknowledged that, just as there are different learning abilities and needs, there are different learning styles and ways that students learn," she said. "All parents and teachers and children deserve and need choices and opportunities in education."

This year's sixth-graders had three choices.

One of JLS's 13 sixth-grade classrooms is "student-centered," offering an in-depth, hands-on approach to learning, as described in the district's survey.

There is also a "direct-instruction" or "traditional" classroom at JLS and one at Jordan. The direct-instruction pilot emphasizes a systematic, structured approach to education that is based on a textbook.

The rest of the classrooms use the current sixth-grade program, a mixture of both student-centered and direct-instruction methods.

In the regular sixth-grade classes, the core subjects--English, social studies, science and math--are taught by a team of teachers. The pilot classes, on the other hand, have only one teacher.

Steve Carothers teaches the student-centered class at JLS.

Carothers, who has taught at the Palo Alto middle school for seven years, said the district pilot has not dramatically altered his teaching style and philosophy.

"My experience is with kids learning things in other than traditional school settings," Carothers said.

The pilot has redirected the emphasis in his classroom by involving parents directly in class projects, Carothers said. There is an emphasis on community involvement and application of what is learned inside of the classroom with the outside world.

"I like the way Mr. Carothers teaches," said sixth-grader Michelle Sanders. "He doesn't just go on and on. When he teaches something, we go on a field trip and experience it hands on."

Classmate Elizabeth Wothtel agrees.

"We get to do a lot of interesting projects," she said. "We're going to the beach to study erosion. Mainly we choose the kind of projects we want to do."

Because Carothers has his students all day, with the exception of physical education class and music, his sixth-graders have started a class council, a microcosm of a city, complete with a mayor, officials and a newspaper editor.

"This class is more comfortable," said student David Wohl, a class official. "Learning is fun."

Although Carothers has received positive feedback from parents, he said his student-centered classroom is not for everyone.

Across the JLS campus in room 17, John Wong teaches the direct-instruction pilot class. The sign on the door reads, "The success of tomorrow is rooted in the plans and preparations made today."

Wong is preparing math exercises on the board as students turn in the homework assignments. The day's lesson begins. As the students figure the problems, Wong stresses procedure and process to arrive at the correct answer drawn from the text. He alludes to the type of questions that may appear on the SATs. Two students are called to the head of the classroom to work the problems on the board.

"Sixth-graders have had their nurturing from the elementary schools," Wong said. "JLS and other middle schools are so huge that they're going to get lost."

He said his classroom is a "cushion," providing a structure and a focus for sixth-graders as they integrate into the middle school system.

Pat McGrath, the direct-instruction teacher at Jordan shares a similar view.

"With the direct-instruction approach, fewer students are lost in the crowd," she said. "Every child is responsible for their own work."

McGrath, who has a background in parochial education, said the pilot emphasis is a good idea for the sixth grade. The students in her classroom agree.

Max Pinto said the direct-instruction class challenges him to do well. He said the class covers material at a fast pace, and there is not much time or room for "experiments that are not exactly right."

"I like working from books," he said.

While the pilot aims to provide for different learning environments and teaching styles, Superintendent Don Phillips said that these requests appear to be "a relatively modest effort to address longstanding issues in the community."

He said the district has a long tradition of choice in the classroom. He cited Ohlone and Hoover elementary schools as examples.

"I am philosophically supportive to the notion of choice," Phillips said. "Having choice in schools makes a lot of sense."

However, Phillips addressed the concern that choice may "fragment" efforts to integrate sixth-graders into the middle schools.

"Changes need to be made across the board, with all programs, if you expect to challenge students to do their very best," he said.1 n