The Joy-filled Homeschool - What to Expect of Your Middle School Student

What to Expect of Your Middle School Student

By: Stacey Wolking

It’s exciting to see our children’s individuality really start to emerge around the middle school years. This is the time they tend to start pursuing special interests and building productive life-long habits. In “Making the Most of Middle School" we discussed ways to motivate and encourage those interests.

Additionally, the middle school years are a great time to evaluate where they are emotionally and mentally, and focus on specific character and developmental issues.

By middle school, your student should be exhibiting these traits/skills:

Ability to peaceably resolve conflicts.
Confidence to handle challenges and “curve-balls.”
Independent thinking - is willing to speak up when he doesn’t agree and is able to rationally discuss opposing viewpoints.
Pursues his own interests, so-much-so, that he is motivated to get his school work done so he can get back to his own projects.
Has a desire to learn for interest, not just if required.
He isn’t helpless. He is willing to find the answers and solutions to his own questions and problems.
Sets own goals and works diligently to complete them.
Utilizes decision making skills like gathering information, weighing risks and considering the advantages and disadvantages.
Enjoys being challenged and keeps at it, even when it gets tough.
A desire to figure out what his personal beliefs are.

Keeping It Honest

Sadly, another big concern at this age is cheating. You may be thinking, “My child wouldn’t cheat.” But did you know that a national survey showed that the majority of 6th and 7th graders plagiarize regularly?

“The International Center for Academic Integrity (McCabe and Pavela 2004) surveyed middle schools throughout the nation and found that 73 percent of seventh graders and 66 percent of sixth graders admitted to regularly borrowing materials without giving credit to their sources. The practice of cut-and-paste plagiarism is widespread, with students acting as though whatever they find on the Internet can be submitted as their own work.”

With so much information, literally at their fingertips, academic integrity is a greater issue than ever before. Shockingly, many kids say they don’t even know it’s plagiarism to copy something off the internet. Most kids do know the obvious, that it’s wrong to copy entire papers or paragraphs, yet don’t think twice about lifting a sentence or just changing a few words. Paraphrasing is a particular area that often trips kids up as well.

Whether kids are lazy, unmotivated, disorganized, or just don't have a clear understanding of plagiarism, it’s critical that we make a point of teaching them what is legal, what is not, and make sure they understand the nuances of it all. This is not something to teach on the fly. In order for them to avoid illegal actions, they need to have a thorough understanding of plagiarism, as well as, the importance and gravity of honest writing.

(My brother, an Intellectual Property Attorney, has dedicated his career to prosecuting all types of intellectual creation theft, including patents, copyrights, trademarks, and yes, plagiarism. Our students need to know this is a serious issue with serious consequences.)

As their teacher, it is critical that we stay tuned into the possibility of cheating by routinely checking our kids’ work for plagiarism, and establishing clear consequences for deliberate or unintentional plagiarism.

Plagiarism is a very involved topic, too detailed to include here, but hopefully you will find these resources helpful:

A simple, short video explanation of plagiarism
Indiana University has a Plagiarism Tutorial and Writing Guide
Read how one school teacher handled plagiarism. At the end of the article, she offers some specific websites to help identify plagiarism.
Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be plagiarism.

Sadly, there are many other ways for our students to be dishonest in their school work. Kids cheat for all kinds of reasons. Some are more afraid of bad grades than they are interested in learning, others are just lazy and don’t want to do the work, while others might not want to admit that they aren’t understanding the material and need help. And if we really want to be truthful, some are just ornery and immature and want to see how much they can get away with.

It is important that we recognize the temptation to cheat, so that we can take steps to hold them accountable to do their best and honest work. Cheating is not just a public school problem; all are susceptible. When an easier way is presented, choosing the hard or long way, is probably not our most natural choice. We are kidding ourselves if we don’t recognize that even the best of us, will occasionally cave and take the quick and easy way out. So it isn’t a matter of IF they will be tempted, the question is, will they be prepared WHEN they are tempted to produce less than honest academics.

As a matter of fact, homeschooling offers unique opportunities to cheat. Our students often have the answers in the back of the book, are given the answer key to check their own work, or take tests in their rooms, unmonitored. At the very least, they know where the answer keys are kept and they usually aren’t under lock and key.

I know it is a tricky fine line. When I was too busy, I didn’t hesitate to hand my child the answer key and a red pen and ask them to check their own work. But, I would hear an occasional protest when I would take away their pencil and stay nearby while they did it. Their indignant response, “don’t you trust me?!” I hope it didn’t sound too trite or cliché, but I might respond with, “Yes, I trust your good intentions, but not your flesh.”

We can get distracted or busy, but assuming they wont cheat is not the answer - that’s like sticking our head in the sand. By leaving the answers in the back of the book or even just accessible in the drawer, we unwittingly provide every opportunity for them to succumb to their sin nature.

Yes, cheating is a character issue, but it also has a lot to do with ease of access. First off, eliminate their temptation and secondly, if you do find someone cheating, offer them grace and some solutions. Do they need more hands-on help? Maybe a tutor? Obviously, they need to redo the work, even if it involves missing a summer break or other fun activities.

When caught, typically kids will feel horrible for disappointing us, and this is where the grace comes in - lovingly, use their failure as a teachable moment. Of course, there will be punishment, at the very least they might lose the privilege of doing work in their room, but hopefully, the natural consequence of your disappointment and the loss of your trust will have the most significant impact on them. Assure them that all is not lost, and with great effort to be strong in mind and character to choose the right and even harder thing, they will earn your trust again.

We want our students to invent, design, experiment, explore, dream, and chase down new ideas. Let’s equip and encourage our middle schoolers to ask questions, express new ideas, and pursue all kinds of amazing adventures . . . honestly and legally.

So enjoy your middle schoolers and make good use of these in-between years!

Permission granted to reprint article in its entirety with credit given to Stacey Wolking and TranscriptReviews.com.