Suddenly in the last few weeks, I can’t keep enough band aids stocked in my classroom. It seems like every time I look over, I see one of my students putting a band aid on a hangnail, paper cut, or other miniscule hurt. "My eye hurts,”“my leg aches,” and”my arm is itchy” are common complaints these days. I’ve spent enough years teaching third graders to recognize that complaining about aches, pains, and injuries is a common characteristic of nine year olds. My students are getting older.
At SOAR, a network of public charter schools in Northeast Denver, Responsive Classroom practices are embedded in the daily life of schools, and the approach itself is integrated into the network's core elements and values.
Closer to teenagers than to middle childhood, twelves are tweens. They have enormous positive energy for independent and group endeavors, whether at school, in sports, or in after-school activities.
Powerful advocates and strong believers, elevens are passionate about their ideas and opinions, allegiances and sense of justice. They’re devoted to classmates and peer groups, and the social negotiations surrounding cliques (which often peak at eleven and twelve) can be positive practice for teenage and young adult affiliation and attachment. Elevens’ social practice includes all the usual heartache and cruelty associated with forming and losing friendships—adults must respond to bullying with clear guidance and redirection.
Double-digit kids, tens can take on almost anything and love almost every minute of it. It didn’t take me long as a teacher to latch onto the understanding that if you want to teach in “middle childhood,” there is no better age than ten, no better grade than fifth.
Nine is not always an easy age, but it is an age of growing social awareness, of intellectual stretching, wondering, and clamoring. These are the “ing” kids: the kids who are doing, questioning, doubting, arguing . . . sometimes seemingly just for the sake of it, with no clear goals for their actions always readily apparent. There is a deep inner stirring in nine-year-olds as they become profoundly aware of the intricacies and subtleties of the world around them.
When eight-year-olds wake up in the morning, new plans for adventure are often percolating before their feet hit the floor. These plans usually involve a friend, or better yet, a group of friends. They may be as simple as rounding up a game of kickball or as complicated as starting a club for future astronauts. Eight is an age of invention, creation, and cognitive curiosity.
