Want information on why adolescents behave the way they do, as well as tips on how to best teach this group of students? The Web offers the following resources and many more.
Understanding Their Minds
Anyone interested in understanding adolescent behavior will find some answers at the Public Broadcasting System's Web site, which features information about the television show Frontline: Inside the Teenage Brain (www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/teenbrain). This site includes sections on adolescent brain circuitry, the myth of “windows of development,” adolescent sleep needs, and the challenge of applying brain research to parenting and public policy.
From Bard College comes Adolescence: Change and Continuity (http://inside.bard.edu/academic/specialproj/darling/adolesce.htm). This site includes links to articles on specific aspects of adolescent development. Two intriguing features are “Portraits of Three Adolescents and Case Studies,” in which adolescents describe their own experiences, and “Questions from Teachers . . . Answers from Students,” in which Bard students enrolled in adolescent development courses answer questions posed by middle school teachers.
Reforming Their Schooling
In 1989, the Carnegie Corporation of New York published Turning Points: Preparing American Youth for the 21st Century, which emphasized the need to strengthen the academic core of middle schools while also establishing caring, supportive environments. The Turning Points Web site (www.turningpts.org) presents information about a comprehensive middle school reform model and about effective instructional methods geared specifically to the young adolescent learner.
Works in Progress: A Report on Middle and High School Improvement Programs, prepared by the Comprehensive School Reform Quality Center, provides a research-based snapshot of a variety of programs that schools have implemented during the last few years to help meet the challenges of educating secondary-level students. You can download the full report from www.csrq.org/worksinprogress.asp.
Giving Them Opportunities to Serve
Adolescents prefer content to be presented in a context that is meaningful to them. Service learning projects offer that relevance. Learn more about service learning through the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse (NSLC) (www.servicelearning.org). Hot topics at this site include after-school programs, international service learning opportunities, at-risk youth, civic engagement, and risk management.
Once you've finished exploring the NSLC, you can peruse Teens: The Community Service Solution (www.colapublib.org/teen), an online handbook that showcases the real-life experiences of five model teen community service programs. The handbook provides guidelines for starting, implementing, and evaluating a teen volunteer program.
Helping Parents Cope
Send parents who want advice on how to deal with their changing children to A Parent's Guide to Surviving Adolescence (http://kidshealth.org/parent/growth/growing/adolescence.html). This site offers some practical advice for helping parents view adolescence as a “beautiful, creative, wonderful time for kids and parents.”
You can also send parents to the online publication Helping Your Child Through Early Adolescence (www.ed.gov/parents/academic/help/adolescence). Published by the U.S. Department of Education, the guide provides the latest research and practical information that can help parents support their children both at home and in school.
For Teens
It's important to give adolescents information that will help them take responsibility for their learning. At www.afterschool.gov/kidsnteens2.html, teens will find a portal through which they can reach federal and other publicly supported Web sites designed to help them with their homework, give them information on hobbies and careers, or just provide them with some fun.
At http://education.indiana.edu/cas/adol/adol.html, you'll find the Adolescence Directory On-Line (ADOL), produced by the Center for Adolescent Studies at Indiana University. This electronic guide houses links to many Web documents that focus on the social and emotional growth and development needs of adolescents. The guide includes a “Teens Only!” section that showcases, among other things, fiction and nonfiction written by and for teens.
