Academic counseling to prepare for transitions
Middle school counselors play a critical role in preparing students for their new environment. Often, one of their jobs is to make a tour of area elementary schools. Through classroom discussions or after-school forums that include parents, the counselors help elementary students discuss their fears about middle school. They also explain what to expect and how to prepare for the transition.
In the Spotlight
John Glenn Middle School of International Studie , Desert Sands Unified School District, a 2004 Schools to Watch™-Taking Center Stage Model School
Each spring, John Glenn counselors visit the fifth-grade classrooms at feeder elementary schools to talk with students about middle school. They help dispel myths and misconceptions about the middle grades and answer questions to allay fears.
Incoming middle grades students frequently voice the following types of fears about the transition to the middle grades:
- Getting to class on time
- Bringing the right materials to class
- Finding and using lockers
- Finding lunchrooms and bathrooms
- Getting through crowded halls
- Remembering which class to go to next
- Dealing with older students
- Having tougher teachers
- Having harder schoolwork
- Making new friends
- Attending a school located far from home1
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Course articulation
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Elementary school visits
Footnote
1Transition from Elementary to Middle School, in Works in Progress: A Report on Middle and High School Improvement Programs (PDF; Outside Source), Washington, D.C.: The Comprehensive School Reform Quality Center, American Institutes of Research, January 2005, 9.