Transition

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Supporting Students in Transition at All Grades

Transitioning from grade to grade or school to school can be and often is a concern for both students and parents.  These concerns are founded, as transition can be difficult and challenging.

Research suggests that programs to enhance and ease the transition between grade levels and schools should:

• Include both skills training and social-emotional learning
• Include parents in meaningful and important ways
• Include early “buddy,” “pen-pal,” or “big-brother” programs
• Have multiple (3-6) planned activities and elements
• Recognize that a wide range of anxieties exist and plan activities to help alleviate them

Innovative Approaches:

• Monthly workshops for 5th and 6th grade teachers on:
  • Indicators for at-risk
  • Reading
  • Pre-adolescents:  developmental characteristics
  • Outdoor education, team-building for 5th graders led by 6th grade students and teachers
  • Pen-pals, e-pals
  • Buddy programs
  • Thematic, service-learning projects combining 5th graders and 6th graders (community service)
• Parent leadership
  • Parents of 9th grade students give presentation to parents of 8th grade students
• Parent-led workshops on a variety of relevant topics including homework help, conflict resolution, adolescence
• “Shadow a 9th Grader” program
• Middle School newsletters to 5th grade households (from January on)…High School newsletters to 8th grade students (from January on)….

Teacher-to-Teacher, School-to-School Communication:

• “Reference” forms from 5th grade teachers with academic and non-academic elements
• Transition “teams” of cross-school teachers
• Counselor-to-counselor meetings and communication
• Pre-transition parent conferences with teachers from both schools

Common Characteristics that Work:

• Long-term commitment from both/all schools
• Planning is extensive and on-going
• Programs allow students to “test the waters”
  • Lunchrooms (6th and 9th)
• Lockers and gymnasiums
• Hallways and traveling from place to place
• Sample assignments and academic expectations
• Frequent communication between schools on plans, programs and curriculum
• Programs are assessed

Checklist for Planning:

Does your program:

• Include parents, teachers and administrators from both the feeder school and the receiving school
• Allow students and parents to learn about academic expectations
• Provide both academic and social support for new students
• Include PE and related arts teachers
• Allow students to learn appropriate behavioral and social skills
• Allow students multiple experiences and opportunities to
  • Eat in the new lunchroom
  • Try out lockers
  • Meet with academic teachers
  • Travel hallways and move around the building
  • Meet and interact with other students
  • Talk regularly (face-to-face, pen-pals, e-pals) with other students

Students with Special Needs:

• For students with organizational and Meta-cognitive weaknesses
  • Help with understanding and keeping up with block scheduling
  • Remembering locker numbers, passwords, combinations, etc.
  • Keeping up with materials and assignments from multiple teachers
  • Self-monitoring progress and success
  • Dealing with unstructured times
• Social Skills Weaknesses
• Reading social cues
• Managing interactions with multiple teachers
• Developing out-of-class friendships
• Handling more complex peer relationships
• Participating in whole class and small group instruction
• Academic Achievement Difficulties
• Embarrassment and stigma
• Learned helplessness
• Giving up
• Stress and anxiety
• Difficulty with more complex reading assignments
• Difficulty with departmental teaching
• Cognitive shifts from class to clas
• Dealing with amount of homework

IEP Strategies:

• IEP teams (both sending and receiving teachers) plan for transitions
• 8th graders may need unit on self-advocacy
• Communication between teachers is the key to success
  • Rules, expectations, homework, consequences, and hallway behaviors…the current teacher needs to know all this!

Starting Points:

• Planning should begin early (in the fall for the next fall)
• Support and resources should be available…work with PTAs from both the feeding and receiving schools to develop programs
• Administrative support and motivation is necessary for success

 

Transition is not a one-time event.  It is ON-GOING AND CONTINUAL!

 

Information provided by Chuck Watson

University of Evansville
School of Education
Graves 305
Evansville, IN 47722
cw73@evansville.edu
812-479-2004

 

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