Seventh-graders learn to cope with changing interests

Swinging locker doors wide open to retrieve books, mechanical pencils and ink pens for their first class of the day, seventh-grade students at Nell Holcomb Middle School scurry about the hallway amid laughter and shouts.

Seventh grade is about socializing -- and fitting in with the crowd. Being noticeably different isn't always a good thing. It's an age when students' minds are filled more with distractions than with thoughts about their education.

Classmates pass notes to one another during lessons in science or language, giggle in the hallways between class and at lunch breaks and spend time in detentions for missing assignments or poor behavior.

Yet the students at Nell Holcomb Middle School don't seem terribly distracted by their hormones and changing voices.

Unit movements

The 17 students in Jane Stovall's home room change classes for each period but remain together as a unit throughout the day.

By seventh period, they get a little rowdy but that's to be expected since they're being weaned off recess.

The students begin their day with 10 minutes in homeroom and then stay for a 50-minute math class with Stovall. Last week they spent Monday reviewing for a test, working with calculators in dim light because of a power outage.

Stovall lets the students work in groups on some assignments but sets rules: speak softly, help others, include all members, never put down another and exert effort.

Second period is P.E., where bursts of energy are permitted. The class played a variation on standard volleyball, using a beach ball instead and allowing for one bounce before the ball went dead.

By now these students have spent so much time in front of a computer they can already type as fast as 70 words per minute. In computer class third period, they learned to format unbound reports.

Getting wired

Teacher Jill Lynn spent a week talking with the students about the Internet. "So many kids get on and surf and never know where it comes from," she said.

The unit's lessons included a history of the Internet, how it was created and tips on netiquette, or how to behave on the Internet. Each computer class begins with a journal entry so that the students can practice typing.

Reading is an essential skill for students and even the seventh graders need practice. The students keep a reading log and have to spend 50 minutes each day reading books of their choosing. The books are ranked by reading level through the Accelerated Reader curriculum.

Carla Pope was surprised to find that Austin Marvel read at home over the weekend. "To what do I owe that?" she asked as she checked his log.

It turned out that Austin only had five pages left in his book "I Know What You Did Last Summer" when he arrived in class Monday. Accelerated Reader books are checked out at the school library.

Lunch offers a 30 minute break in the day and students usually spend the last 10 or 15 minutes in the gym playing basketball. Their afternoon is filled with the more difficult subjects: language, American history and science.

The work isn't that much harder, said Megan Alberternest as she packed up her science notebook before school dismissed.

Remembering the past

But language class builds on skills learned in earlier grades. Teacher Andlle Naeter takes the students through basic grammar so they can learn to be better readers and writers.

"Tell me if you don't understand now because it just goes layer upon layer," she said as the class studied transitive verbs and skimmed over prepositional phrases.

History with Lee Pasborg is a class all the students seem to like, though taking notes wasn't a favorite activity.

Pasborg introduced the students to some key players in the American Revolution: Samuel Adams and Paul Revere.

Pasborg read Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, "Paul Revere's Ride" and asked the students to check the route taken on a map he handed out.

From history the students head to science for the last class period of the day. On Monday it included a test on levers, machines and pulleys. But before any test papers were handed out, teacher Lee Miller gave the students an exercise on focusing.

A photocopied sheet filled with a grid of numbers from 00 to 99 lay atop each desk. Miller called out a number and asked the students to spend one minute finding the consecutive digits. Another minute-long exercise was spent counting backward.

"The idea is to stop, slow down and read the numbers on the page," Miller told the students. "Pay more attention to what you're looking at and you'll find it."

The exercise was meant to clear minds so the students could focus on their test, which took most only 15 or 20 minutes to complete.

ljohnston@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126