In the Loop: Teachers and Students Sticking Together for a Second Year, or More!
Seeking to make more of an impact on students, some educators are choosing to remain with their classes a second year -- or longer -- and are finding that knowing students well leads to more productive learning. Is looping right for your school? your teachers? Included: Tips from teachers who have the scoop on the loop!
"There is something about knowing these students will be yours for their middle school career that creates a sense of commitment that is somehow stronger than if we can survive x months, they'll become someone else's problem," drama teacher Linda Emm told Education World. "They are yours, and the tendency then is to face potential problems early and swiftly, and know you're in the race together, for the long run."
Emm and all of the other teachers and students at Cutler Ridge Middle School in Miami, Florida, are "looping." This means that the same group of teachers and students stick together through the entire middle school experience -- three years. Although it is now considered a cornerstone of the school's success, looping at Cutler Ridge did not come about overnight.
In 1988, Emm, art teacher Marilyn Polin, and chorus teacher Steve Mitchell created an integrated arts program called Ridge Arts. Using an in-school audition process, they each selected 30 students to work with for two years. The program was originally supported by a team of core teachers who also looped, but it became difficult to schedule and the school population grew to a point that made looping unfeasible. Ridge Arts, however, survived.
Then, ten years later, a sixth grade team led by team leader Kim Brown was having spectacular success with its students, and the teachers wondered if they might have even greater impact if they followed their current group through the next two years.
"Principal John Moore was aware of the emerging research suggesting the viability of such of a plan, so the sixth grade team tried it," recalled Emm. "When that group became eighth graders and took the Florida high-stakes FCAT exam, their scores were clearly above the eighth-grade teams that had not looped. Most impressive was the fact the minority students' scores were on a par with non-minority students for the first time in school history. The other teams looked at this data and decided to loop as well, and now we are in our second loop as a whole school."
"GETTING TO KNOW YOU" - BETTER
For Emm, the most obvious benefit of looping is that students succeed. Students are known well by their teachers, and they have a chance to learn about their teachers as well. Time may be spent up front working on team processes -- such as how everyone will work together for the next two or more years. Students are able to bond with each other, and the teachers become united in their purpose.
Students and parents voted to maintain looping after the first year of its implementation in the whole school at Cutler Ridge. "Less data driven, but no less significant, are the number of students who return and continue to stay in touch with their teachers and each other, due to the intense bond forged during their three years," Emm reported. "Their end-of-the-year eighth grade celebrations are made more poignant because it has been a genuine journey to get there."
Looping does present challenges for Emm's school. Electives can be tough to schedule, and teacher turnover can defeat its purpose. In addition, new students who enter teams that have been together for years can find it difficult to fit in with groups that have bonded so strongly. Still, she highly recommends this method.
"When you know kids well, and they know you, the chance that you will be able to favorably impact them as learners and human beings is greatly enhanced," she explained. "I also think it gives a more long range view to our work as classroom teachers that adds value to what we plan for, what we value, and what we are able to celebrate with other teachers and our students."
WHEN FRIENDS BECOME FAMILY
Tina Jenkins has watched looping work with elementary and middle schoolers. Prior to joining Peirce Middle School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as a seventh and eighth grade science teacher, she taught kindergartners and looped with them through first grade. Now she has seventh graders for math and science.
Into the Loop
Middle school teacher Linda Emm offers this advice for those who are just starting out with looping:
View the process as a marathon, not a sprint.
Plan backwards. Vision together, as a team, where you would like yourselves and your students to be at the end of the loop. What will the students be able to do? How will you know they can do it? What do you want to have accomplished? Experienced? Then figure out the sequence that is most likely to get you there.
Put a plan in place, but acknowledge that it will change. Flexibility and adaptation are all part of reaching the goals you set for yourself and will enable you to embrace the surprise opportunities you will encounter along the way.
"With looping, kids know you and your style, and you don't have to spend so much time at the beginning of the second year teaching rules and procedure," Jenkins observed. "You also don't have to waste countless hours at the beginning of the second year on assessments because you have a pretty good idea of where the class left off in June. As for curriculum, you know what you taught the previous year and what you might not have gotten to, so you adjust your instruction to take that into account."
Jenkins built her looping classroom around the idea that it was a "family away from home." Because they would spend countless hours together, everyone in the class needed to learn to get along. The students were encouraged to support and look out for one another, and they had responsibilities in the classroom as at home. But when a personality conflict impeded learning, Jenkins willingly moved one student to another classroom.
"If there are kids you just don't gel with and can't seem to reach, you may be stuck with them and they with you," said Jenkins. "That isn't a good thing because sometimes people's personalities are suited for one another, and these students might do better with someone else. That is the real world."
LOOPING MEETS SPECIAL NEEDS
"When we were looping, the teachers loved the variety in their day," recalled Sally Greenwood. "It really helped to bring curriculum areas together, and special education students flourished. I also felt less isolated in my classroom."
Currently a seventh-grade language arts teacher at Central School in Glencoe, Illinois, Greenwood "looped" with her classes for three years. She was surprised at the amount of material the students forgot over the summer months, and continuing into the next year helped counter that, especially for students with special needs.
"Looping really helped special education students," she explained. "Once they became comfortable with one team in seventh grade, we made sure they had the same team in eighth grade. In doing that, less background information had to be reviewed at the beginning of the year, IEP goals were known, and communication with parents was already in place. It really helped each department gain a better understanding of what was covered the previous year. It also enabled more consistency between teachers and coverage of material."
Although looping was well received, the school reluctantly dropped it when the number of preps required some teachers to give up teaching electives. Greenwood regrets that they have lost this departmental strength. Her best suggestion for looping is to stock up on new stories and jokes over the summer. She added, "You'll need to be fresh for those students you're teaching the second year!"
Seeking to make more of an impact on students, some educators are choosing to remain with their classes a second year -- or longer -- and are finding that knowing students well leads to more productive learning. Is looping right for your school? your teachers? Included: Tips from teachers who have the scoop on the loop!