STARKVILLE — Parents of Armstrong Middle School students: Language arts bragging rights are on the line tonight.
The first-ever “Are You Smarter Than Your AMS Student?” will pit three parents, one representing each grade, against five students from each grade. Each grade must answer three questions, with the questions becoming more difficult in the next round, similar to the format of the game show “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?”
The competition will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the AMS cafeteria and is free to the public.
AMS English teacher Miranda Kincaid said parents can expect more difficult questions than they remember from middle school.
“When we were in school, English wasn’t as difficult,” Kincaid said. “We weren’t tested at the end of the year — the MCT-2 (Mississippi Curriculum Test). We don’t teach the test, but we teach the same skills: parts of speech; sentence structure; increasing the depth of knowledge. Can you identify it in the murky depths of a paragraph and then tell me why the writer wrote it that way?
“I think parents think it’s just identifying a verb and a subject.”
Regardless of who wins, the competition will increase communication about school work between students and parents, Kincaid said. Parents, even those in the audience, will leave with a better understanding of their child’s curriculum and the expectations teachers have for them.
“What makes this great is you have the parent, student and teacher together,” said Kincaid, who along with English teacher Linsey Oakley developed the competition two weeks ago. “Normally, when you email or talk to a parent it’s between them. This way, the teacher is just a facilitator between parent and child.
“Middle school kids don’t bond with parents at this age,” Kincaid added. “This will help them understand they have something in common.”
AMS Principal Libby Mosley lauded the efforts of Kincaid and Oakley to engage parents. She said similar efforts are underway by AMS math and science teachers.
“Students are excited and I think parents will be surprised by some of the questions they’ll hear,” Mosley said. “It’s a very creative way to get kids involved, and Oakley and Kincaid have done a phenomenal job spearheading it. We’re fortunate to work with great teacher who want parents to be more involved.”
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