Middle School Middle School TransitionsTransitions

This is Middle School

Photo by Ruby Washington, New York Times

Copyright 2007 New York Times Company

Middle school teachers talk about the difficulty of guiding students through the gulf between sixth grade "babies" and eighth graders who are on the verge of adulthood.

THE CRITICAL YEARS

Trying to Find Solutions in Chaotic Middle Schools, Elissa Gootman

What Do You Remember?

Goofy

Awkward InsecureNeed to Belong

A Difficult Time for Kids

From left, Annie Yu, Bizhu Feng and Raechelle Ellison, sixth graders at Seth Low Middle School in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn. "Being in middle school is like being a bird being kicked out of its nest by its mother," Raechelle said.

THE CRITICAL YEARSTrying to Find Solutions in Chaotic Middle Schools, Elissa Gootman

Photo by Ruby Washington, New York TimesCopyright 2007 New York Times Company

A Critical Time for Parents and Teachers

"If you don't get them hooked into school here," . . . by the time they leave they're gone."

THE CRITICAL YEARSTrying to Find Solutions in Chaotic Middle Schools, Elissa Gootman

Photo by Ruby Washington, New York TimesCopyright 2007 New York Times Company

Middle School Transitions Complete DVD Option

Three Critical Areas of Transition

• Academic Challenges

• Brain Development

• Social Adjustments

Academic Challenges

Transitions: Academic ChallengesSegmented DVD Option

Key Issues

• More emphasis on content

• More responsibility

• Race against time

Reading

Statistics

• Over 6 million middle school and high school students classified as struggling readers.• Two-thirds of eighth-graders read below grade level.

National Assessment of Educational Progress

(NAEP)

Fundamentals

1. Students move from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.”2. Students need more sophisticated skills that include analysis and interpretation.3. Reading is important in every subject.

Parent Involvement

1. Understand learning style and provide appropriate environment.2. Review vocabulary in the context of reading material.3. Teach children to summarize chapters in their own words.4. Encourage use of a dictionary or encyclopedia.5. Practice reading. Encourage your child to read every day.

Math

Middle School Focus

1. Multiplication, division, fractions, and decimals2. Ratio and rate3. Algebraic expressions 4. Geometric measurement5. One concept builds on the next

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

(NCTM)

Parent Involvement

1. Show an interest in math homework.2. Identify challenges.3. Ask for help early.4. Ask how calculators are used.5. Focus on whether your child is mastering fundamentals.

Organization

1. Teach time management

2. Teach note-taking skills

3. Teach your child to use highlighters, post-its, and study cards

4. Help your child use a planner

5. Tour the campus before school begins

6. Make a map of the school and mark your child’s schedule on the map

7. Take your child to the school website

“Students' greatest concerns revolve around the amount of homework, class difficulty, and organizational issues (e.g., getting lost).”

Akos, Patrick. "Student perceptions of the transition from elementary to middle school." Professional School Counseling, June 2002; 5(5):339-45

Brain Development“By age six, the brain is already 95 percent of its adult size. But the gray matter, or thinking part of the brain, continues to thicken throughout childhood as the brain cells get extra connections, much like a tree growing extra branches, twigs and roots. . . this process of thickening of the gray matter peaks at about age 11 in girls and age 12 in boys, roughly about the same time as puberty.”

Jay GieddNeuroscientistNational Institute of Mental

HealthFrontline Interview

Transitions: Brain DevelopmentSegmented DVD Option

Use It or Lose It• Enormous brain growth potential in pre-pubescent years

• Increased synapses make learning easier

• Hypothesis: Cells used will flourish and cells not used will die

• Television vs. Reading – which connections are flourishing?

• Frontal lobe is the CEO – the planner and organizer

• Frontal lobe still being developed throughout adolescence

What Parents Can Do• Accept rough spots throughout a period of change

• Have empathy

• Relax … give the adjustment time

• Decrease stress by setting realistic expectations

• Encourage children to ask for help

• Get help early if needed

Social Adjustment

Jaquasia Dawson, left, and Fabiola Noel during lunch at Seth Low Middle School. Middle schoolers "go through more change in their lives than at any other time except the first three years," said Sue Swaim, executive director of the National Middle School Association.

THE CRITICAL YEARSTrying to Find Solutions in Chaotic Middle Schools,

Elissa Gootman

Photo by Ruby Washington, New York TimesCopyright 2007 New York Times Company

Transitions: Social AdjustmentsSegmented DVD Option

Social Adjustments

Identity and Self-Definition

Adolescence is a time to develop and accept your own uniqueness and value. The search for stability in the unsteady period of adolescence leads to close identification with friends, development of cliques, and a time of self-definition.

Independence

It is the work of adolescence to strike a critical balance between autonomy and closeness to parents.

Intimacy

Adolescence is the key time to develop intense new friendships, explore sexuality, find a balance between separateness and closeness. Relationships will change rapidly and vary in quality and intensity and kids determine what works for them.

Student Concerns• Bullying

• Social Exclusion

• Exposure to Drugs and Alcohol

• Violence and Safety

• What will I do?

What Parents Can Do

• Everybody is not doing it – social norming

• Encourage independent decision making

• Encourage positive risk taking

• Foster positive peer relationships to ensure positive peer pressure

• Violence and Safety

• What will I do?

Four Key Ingredients for Success

• Communicate with Your Child

• Know Your Child’s Teachers

• Get Help as you Spot Trouble

• Be a Parent and Go with your Gut

Communicate with Your Child“Brain maturation is still going on well into adulthood. A parent’s job will be to help transition to get to that point in adulthood. And that means giving kids your views and judgment to fall back on until they’re ready to rely on their own.”

Dr. Tom Burns, Director of Neuropsychology, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta

Establish an intimate connection

Listen more – talk less

Be involved but not hyper-involved

Know Your Child’s Teachers

“Students look for help from parents during the fifth-grade year, while teachers replace parents to become more important during the sixth-grade year. This shift in adult influence fits developmentally as pre-adolescents struggle to form an identity independent of family. Interestingly, students still continue to desire adult assistance throughout the transition.”

Arowosafe and Irvin (1992)

Academic Help: It’s Never Too Late

“Data shows slow but steady increases in achievement scores since the 1970s. However, about 70 percent of American eighth-grade public school students fail to reach proficient levels of performance in reading, mathematics, and science on national achievement tests . . . supplemental services have been proven effective . . . including summer school programs before sixth grade and additional reading and math courses after sixth grade.”

Focus on the Wonder Years: Challenges Facing the American Middle School. The RAND Corporation

Go with Your Gut: Be a Parent

“ ’Hands-on’ parents — parents who establish a household culture where they consistently set down rules and expectations for their teen's behavior and monitor what their teen does, have teens who are at substantially lower risk of smoking, drinking, and using illegal drugs than the average teen.”

National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, Columbia University