The Extraordinary Educators Podcast

Five Key Strategies To Engage Middle School Students with Naneka Brathwaite

• Hayley Browning • Season 7 • Episode 14

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Middle schoolers are a different set of students, and it is important to consider how best to engage them in their learning. National Director, Naneka Brathwaite, joins this episode to unpack five key strategies to engage middle school students: make progress visible, fuel autonomy with real choice, keep content relevant to age, build discourse for critical thinking, and pace efficiently so every minute counts.

Naneka explains how simple data talks, student-friendly progress trackers, and clear goals help learners name where they are and choose what to try next. From there, we dig into incorporating student choice by providing parallel paths to the same standard to support students deciding how they learn best. 

Relevance and discourse go hand in hand. Hear practical ways to pair developmentally appropriate texts with age-appropriate topics, reducing shame while raising curiosity. Naneka shares routines that move teachers from a "sage on the stage" to a facilitator of thinking: structured turn and talk, error analysis, and respectful disagreement that push ideas forward. In math and literacy alike, students learn to explain, question, and refine.

Finally, we talk about pacing. Older learners can revisit foundations quickly, but not at the expense of understanding. Learn how to plan concrete-to-abstract progressions, use quick checks to steer instruction, and avoid whole-class reteaching by leveraging small groups and just-in-time supports. The payoff is fewer disruptions, more buy-in, and a room that feels both calm and energized.

SPEAKER_01:

Curriculum Associates, an education technology company and the makers of iReady, presents the Extraordinary Educators Podcast. Join host Haley Browning to hear tips, best practices, and successes to improve your teaching and leadership and drive student growth and learning. We believe all educators are extraordinary, and we are here to support you. Hi everyone, and welcome to today's episode of the Extraordinary Educators Podcast. Today I am joined by the incredible Nanika Brathwaite. And Nanika is a national director here at Curriculum Associates who brings a ton of knowledge regarding middle school classrooms. So we're gonna dive in today looking at five key strategies to help with engagement with middle schoolers. We all know that they are a different set of students, and so it's important to consider what they're bringing to the table and what you as a teacher is bringing to the table. We'll take a look at things like boosting agency, giving them the opportunity to include student choice, as well as looking at efficient pacing, bringing in some great dialogue within the classroom and discourse and things like that. So with that, we hope you enjoyed today's episode with Nanika. Hi, Nanika. Welcome to today's episode of the Extraordinary Educators Podcast.

SPEAKER_00:

Hey, Haley, thank you so much for having me back.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, we're so excited to have you back. And today, Nanika, you have some really exciting things to talk about. We're going to be diving into these five keys to engaging middle schoolers. And you were telling me you have experience with middle schoolers specifically.

SPEAKER_00:

I do. I am a former middle school science and math teacher. I've been out of the classroom for quite some time now. I did also um coach middle school math teachers. So I have a lot of um experience in that area.

SPEAKER_01:

That's that's perfect and very helpful for what we're gonna dive into today. So just to kind of kick us off, um, I would like to go over again these five keys. And one of these first keys is this idea of making progress visible. And by that we mean showing data, getting students involved. And so, Nanika, I'm wondering if you could talk about how teachers, our listeners can make this student progress visible in their classroom? What might that look like in their day-to-day?

SPEAKER_00:

So I'm thinking about um how just about everything that we are working with in education always ties back to data. So that data exists. And what better way for students to take ownership of their learning than for them to know their data, for them to see their progress? So oftentimes teachers may think that it's not necessarily something that would be a topic that they can discuss with their students, but I found that teachers have had a lot more success in their classrooms with students meeting their goals when they have been able to have one-on-one discussions with their students about their data, whether it's from a diagnostic, uh a benchmark assessment, or even just something that's happening in the classroom on a day-to-day basis, just knowing where they are. Them being able to see their progress is usually what motivates them. Our students know where they stand in a way, they have an idea, they know when they do understand topics, they know when they may need a little support, they may not want to admit it, but when they're having the conversation with the teacher, oftentimes it just shows that, hey, I know where you are, I know where you stand. What is it that you think you would like to do next? And how would you like to see that actually um, you know, bear fruit in a way? So if I know that I'm incrementally um getting better at something, just really seeing that progress, it motivates me. Think about folks who are trying to lose weight. When they see that, you know, um clothes are fitting a little looser, they become a lot more motivated to keep going and take ownership of their lives.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's really powerful. And and I like how you said the students know when they get it and they know when they don't. And yes, they may be hesitant to kind of admit that, but it really shows that you are able to connect with your students and really prioritize them and give them their ownership over their own learning. And with that, I kind of want to jump off of that. Another key piece of these strategies for middle schoolers is this idea of fueling autonomy and giving them a lot of choice. Why is student choice so important for middle schoolers?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, let's think about it. When children are smaller, they are often told what to do, what time to go to bed, um, when to get up and brush their teeth, when to clean their room, it's very rare that they get to do what they want, right? But when they are in the classroom, if they have the opportunity to say, okay, if I'm given a choice of being on my device doing a tutorial of some sort or some type of learning game, or even knowing that some students really like doing partner work or working with an activity that really engages them, that may feel a little bit more like a game. Why not give them a choice of those things? Because not every kid wants to do a game. Some kids may actually want to do that worksheet that has really rich questions on it. They like that kind of challenge. And others, maybe they're just not in a mood to interact with their classmates on that level that day. So if they can do similar work on a device, why not give them a chance to do it? Because I think what that does is not only will it give students an opportunity to practice choosing things on their own, because maybe they don't get to do that a lot, you know, outside of school. I think it's important for students to be able to tap into the best way that they think they work. And that can change from day to day. Maybe one day I just want to be in front of the computer, right? Maybe I just want the computer to be able to help me or whatever's on that computer, obviously, to help me in a way that if I make some mistakes, I won't feel embarrassed in front of my classmates. Maybe I'm just having that kind of day. Middle schoolers can be very moody. There's a lot happening to their bodies, to their minds. So being able to have that choice as they get older and start having to, you know, make more independent decisions, I think it will be helpful not just for the student, but for the teacher. They'll have a lot less um distractions, a lot less disruptions from students because now they are able to choose a thing that will engage them.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I like that. And this idea of kind of like reading it day by day, you know, not everybody is gonna want to do the same thing that they did yesterday. And that I think really takes into account the br the minds of our middle schoolers that are always changing, always shifting. And and with that, Nanika, one thing that's also very important to our middle schoolers is this idea of keeping things relevant. We want to keep them engaged, we want to meet them where they are. Working in these relevant resources and bringing that into the classroom in the day-to-day is really powerful. And so I'm wondering if you could talk about that a little bit. What strategies can our listeners and our teachers use to bring in these relevant resources? Or maybe what did you do when you were in the classroom to bring these relevant pieces into your day-to-day?

SPEAKER_00:

So here's the thing: we want to always make sure that we're honoring the age that these students are, whether they are performing on level or maybe even one to three levels below grade level, they are still, say, 12, 13, even 14 years old, depending on the situation, right? We need to make sure that they are going to be engaged with content in order for them to learn. So giving them that age-appropriate content, maybe packaging it in a way that, hey, while my student may be reading on a fourth grade level, they can still be reading about something that they're interested in at the age of 12, right? They're not going to want to read the same thing that their eight-year-old sibling is reading, right? But obviously, as teachers, we want them to be able to access the text. So that means making sure that you're giving them those developmentally appropriate texts. So even if it is a decodable text, make it about something that will be interesting to them, something that they don't feel like is maybe geared toward a third grader. They may already know they're below level, but they don't have to be made to feel that way every time that they're engaging with text. Um, I think it's also important for them to be able to have a lot more peer-to-peer discussion, partner discussion, so that they are able to express themselves in a way that will engage another child that's their age, right? So maybe they won't be able to speak in the same way that they think they have to speak when they're speaking as a whole class or to the teacher themselves, but they can just come with their authentic selves and have those conversations without being judged.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and I like this idea of keeping it authentic. And also I think it's important to kind of dive into this idea of respecting them and giving them this idea of we we understand that yes, you are 12 years old, and yes, you may be reading text that may be for younger students, but we respect you and we understand that you should be getting and relating to your peers as much as possible. Um, and with that, Nanika, another another key strategy that I want to dive into a little bit kind of jumps off of that. Um, you were talking about some really great ideas with peer-to-peer discussion and this idea of building up dialogue, driving this thinking between our students, it's really, really important when it comes to middle schoolers. So, thinking about that, how can teachers foster this idea of critical thinking and incorporating dialogue and discourse into their day-to-days with their middle school students?

SPEAKER_00:

So I think that it's important for teachers to recognize themselves as facilitators, right? Meaning that they're not just there to be the givers of knowledge. Our students are coming to us with experiences. They do have a lot of background knowledge that they can um, you know, speak to. And I think being able to relate to them in that way and making those challenging questions something that is a lot more meaningful for them, that they can engage with um and just analyze and be able to speak to it. That to me, as a teacher, gives them an opportunity to also feel like we are respecting them, that they also have the ability to teach, to teach others, right? So as a facilitator, what we're doing is we're giving students some of that time, right? To think about what's being said, have those conversations with each other, learn how to agree and disagree respectfully, which many of them start learning in kindergarten, first grade. They already know how to do this. So it's not something new, even though we know that pubescent and pre-pubescent teens can be a little moody. There can be uh good days and bad days with them, they still, at the root of it all, know how to engage with each other when they are in environments that are set up for that type of success. So it's important for us to ask the right kinds of questions. Also, think about how when we ask those questions, sometimes we may need to model for them how to approach answering those questions, but giving them a chance to do it. That's number one. So no longer should we be that sage on the stage, but really giving the floor to students. Does that mean just letting them speak just however? No. We're gonna have structured turn and talk. We're going to make sure that when they have conversations or when they've done some work, maybe they're not 100% sure or confident of their answer. We're going to make sure that we give them an environment where they feel safe to speak to that and say, hey, I think I'm getting there, but I'm having a little trouble. And being able to get that help from their classmates and not just us as the teacher. Um, I think that's really important as far as it tying right back to what we talked about, giving them more choice, giving them some more, you know, autonomy. And I think by doing that, giving them those opportunities to have that discourse and to talk about some of the things that they're doing. I'm thinking maybe along the lines of even in a math classroom, they started solving something and it got stuck. How great is it to give students an opportunity to bounce ideas off of each other than for them to always just look to the adult in the room to help them?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I really like that. And it this idea that they're all intertwined, all of these key strategies are intertwined, I think is it's becoming very clear as we're talking through this how each strategy supports each other. And we have one more strategy to kind of dive into before we wrap up for today, and that's this idea of efficient pacing. And so thinking about how we can incorporate great pacing and purposeful pacing into our middle school classrooms, what might that look like? What might our teachers be doing to make this happen successfully? What recommendations would you have for our listeners?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, when we talk about just the scope and sequence in general of any kind of program, no matter what the subject is. If we're talking reading, if we're talking math, we have to also recognize that it would normally take our students, because they're a little bit older, it takes them a little less time to grasp on things that maybe would have been taught at a younger age. In a way, it's kind of being a refresher for them, right? They may need to be reminded of certain things. And in that, because it's not the first time they've seen it or been exposed to it, they're able to catch on to it a little bit faster. That's another way for us to show them that we are respecting that they are the age that they are, right? We're not going to take as much time that we would probably take in a kindergarten or third grade class to do something that we're introducing to them for the first time. They're coming to us with a lot of experience, you know, whether they are performing on level or not. They have a lot of experience. They've been around for what, 10, 11, 12 years. So that's a lot of things that they can bring to the table there. So I think it's also important, just thinking even in the math classroom specifically. And I know I keep jumping back to math because that's my baby, but I think the same things work for reading as well. But when I think about math and I think about how we sometimes don't give students enough time to maybe work with the manipulatives, sometimes they need a tangible, you know, way, a tangible example to really make sense of a problem. So we can move from them doing needing to depend on them at all times for them to be able to have some time with it and be able to apply it to doing and solving problems without them, eventually getting them to more efficient strategies. But we have to give them exposure to it, give them a little bit of time. So that helps maximize that learning time as well, because now the teacher's not constantly reteaching and saying the same things over and over again, showing them how to do it the same way for the fourth time when it didn't work the first three times. So I think that giving them a chance to work with the more concrete, you know, going with that hands-on and then moving into more efficient strategies is something that we need to be able to allow to happen in classrooms. And the same goes for reading, you know. Um, some students may still have some trouble with decoding, but it shows the, you know, research does show that it usually takes them a little less time to get that decoding down because they are older students and have been exposed to some of these things before.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, it's very clear, Nanika, that you have great experience with these middle schoolers. And we really appreciate your time today joining us to talk all about these key engagement strategies. And for all of our listeners, we'll make sure to link some blogs in the show notes that dive into these a little bit more if you'd like to take a deeper dive. Um, but with that, Nanika, thank you so much for your time, and we were really happy to have you on today. Thank you, Haley. Get inspired by following us on social, and please tag us in your posts on X at Curriculum Association and on Instagram at my iReady. If you have feedback about the podcast, a topic of interest, or want to be a guest, email extraordinaryeducators at caink.com. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and if you'd like to help more educators like you join the conversation, please leave us a review. Remember, be you, be true, be extraordinary. The Extraordinary Educators Podcast is produced by Curriculum Associates. Curriculum Associates believes that with the right support, all children can reach grade level. We provide evidence-based, high-quality instructional materials and world-class implementation services to classrooms across the United States. Editing completed by Shane Lowe, social media by Attsity Hannon, guestbooking and production by Hailey Browning. This podcast is Copyrighted Materials and Intellectual Property of Curriculum Associates.