[00:00:20] Brittany: Welcome to the teaching toolbox as we spend another week looking at transitions from middle schoolers. I'm Brittany and I'm here with Ellie, and we have our great friend Leah here to talk with us about transitions to high school. Hi, Leah.

[00:00:37] Leah: Hi there. I'm eager.

[00:00:39] Brittany: Leah joined us way back in our second episode of the podcast where she shared so much wisdom about scaffolding. We'll share a link to that episode in the show notes so you can check it out. Leah, do you wanna tell our listeners about yourself and what you teach, a little about your background as well?

[00:01:00] Leah: I'm Leah Cleary, and I'm going into my 25th year. It doesn't seem real.

[00:01:05] I did start out in middle school as an ELA teacher, so I taught English, I taught reading and then I moved over to high school and taught English there for a few years and slid into a social studies position.

[00:01:20] Ellie: Mm-hmm.

[00:01:21] Leah: I've taught world history and sociology and psychology.

[00:01:26] Right now I am department chair at a high school and I teach AP world history, general World history, and International Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge. So those are my big three right now. I'm missing sociology and psychology. It's so sad. I blog at leahcleary.com. Have lots of tips for teachers there, lots of great ideas about AI integration and literacy integration.

[00:01:55] So check it out.

[00:01:57] Ellie: Your background is so amazing, like wow, you have so much going on there and so much experience. But that just makes me think we should have you come on another episode to talk about technology 'cause you've got so many great ideas there too.

[00:02:08] Leah: Uh, that's my love language.

[00:02:11] Ellie: I'm well. I'm so glad. Yeah,

[00:02:14] Leah: You're very kind. I know a little bit and I'm glad to share what I know.

[00:02:19] Ellie: for sure. Well, I'm so glad you could join us today.

[00:02:23] Let's jump in. Yeah?

[00:02:24] Leah: Let's do it.

[00:02:26] Ellie: first off, what do you think are the biggest academic and social challenges middle school students face when they transition to high school?

[00:02:35] Leah: It's two different worlds and part of it is the stage in life that they're in. They're two different stages and that's a big reason I think for the different approach in middle and high school. But I think academically, students are pretty shocked when they get to high school by the pace.

[00:02:52] Everything moves a lot quicker. There's not as much time for review and going back over things that they have in middle school. You know, that's one thing that I really like about middle school. The content in middle school, there's a lot of it, but it's not as dense as high school, especially when you start talking about AP and IB classes.

[00:03:15] That's a huge shock for the kids. I think another shock for the kids is credits.

[00:03:20] Ellie: Oh yeah.

[00:03:22] Leah: The whole concept of having to earn credits to graduate, it's brand new. I, I know when I was teaching middle school, and this has been a long time now, but students could maybe if they failed two classes, they had to make up one in summer school, and it could be any course, it didn't have to be one of the courses they failed, just something that was available in summer school. And in high school you have to have the credits for very specific classes. So students have a hard time with that at first. I think also the level because a lot of times they're going from the what in middle school to the why and the how in high school. So we're kind of trying to up their critical thinking, which is a natural progression, but I think it's a little bit of a shock to them at first. And socially, well, I mean, middle school's a social nightmare. I kind of feel like high school's probably easier socially than middle school. Just it's a bigger environment usually and there are more niches for them, you know,? They can find typically, not always sadly, but they can typically find their group in high school where that might be a difficult thing in middle school.

[00:04:37] Brittany: Yeah. I know you have graded lots and lots of essays over time because we've talked about it but what reading and writing skills do you think students should have mastered by the end of middle school to succeed in high school?

[00:04:52] Leah: My hope is that they're working on these things in middle school, but I know that a lot of times they are, and they come to us in high school and they don't remember, or they act like they have no idea, you know, how kids are.

[00:05:04] Ellie: Mm. Mm-hmm.

[00:05:05] Leah: My biggest wishes as far as literacy goes, that they would come to us

[00:05:11] being proficient readers and critical readers, especially in social studies, that's important. Don't assume just because, they read something that it's accurate, you know, considering the perspective of a source, right? Considering the situation in which it was written, things like that. So a little above basic comprehension. Most of them are pretty good at basic comprehension,

[00:05:38] but you know, it's that critical element that I'd like to see in their reading. As far as their writing goes I really would love, and we're kind of working with the feeder middle school on this, in my district, but I think that it's great when they come to us knowing how to write a CER paragraph, claim, evidence, reasoning. Because if they can do that and they have their claim, they have their argument, they have their evidence to support it, and then they explain how that evidence or why that evidence supports the claim, if they come to us able to do that, we can build on that. Oh my goodness. We can turn that into research writing.

[00:06:19] We can turn that into debate. We can turn that into so many different things.

[00:06:25] Brittany: That's interesting. Yeah. We used RAP: restate, answer, prove. So kind of along the same.

[00:06:32] Leah: What I like about CER is that it works nicely with AP and IB, your advanced placement classes, especially for the humanities, you know, English and history, and then your international Baccalaureate. Because in order to make a claim, to make an argument, you're gonna naturally

[00:06:54] restate. Because you kind of have to restate the prompt in order to make a claim about it, if that makes sense. So that's a natural element. So you know, we get the claim in there, they're making their argument, and that's key. And then they have to have specific evidence. Text, if they're doing it based on reading, or whether it's just based on their own historical knowledge.

[00:07:17] Right? And then reasoning, they're just explaining how or why that evidence supports the claim. And you know, I think that pretty much anything that you're doing as far as framing a paragraph is gonna be good. I just, I like consistency across the district. So my hope is that our feeder middle schools are using that 'cause that's what we're using.

[00:07:42] And then my hope is that, you know, the kids will come to us and when I'm teaching them how to write, say a long essay question or an extended essay. I'll say, Hey, your introduction is gonna be, you know, you come up with some contextualization. Let's work on that skill. That's something that we teach them in high school.

[00:08:02] And then you'll have your thesis statement. And your thesis statement you're just putting basically two claims together, right? And then your body is just gonna be two CER paragraphs. Hey, remember CER paragraphs? Yeah. Okay. We're on the right track. And that's how you structure that. And it's a time saver and it's less cognitive overload on the kids if everybody's using that.

[00:08:28] Ellie: That makes sense.

[00:08:29] Brittany: Yeah.

[00:08:29] Leah: But I mean, if rap is what your district uses, use it.

[00:08:35] Ellie: So we think about these kids say they don't come, like you said, you're thinking about your feeder schools and hoping they're using this, but say they don't come with that, or all of them don't come with that background. And maybe they're all not proficient or critical readers and they have really not explored why and how very much.

[00:08:53] And so we end up with all those different levels. What strategies can high school teachers use to support students who are maybe not fully prepared for the rigor that they're gonna face?

[00:09:04] Leah: And that's gonna happen no matter what. You can't prevent that.

[00:09:08] The onus is on the teacher in that case , to scaffold. And I think a lot of times, uh, grouping, you know, flex grouping is good for situations like that. So you might have one group working on a full essay while one group is just working on a CER paragraph. And you're using, you know, frames like the CER or rap, , you know, for some students they might even need sentence frames, things like that. You know, think about writing revolution. I talk about writing revolution a lot 'cause I use it a lot. It's a good program and it starts at the sentence level. And a lot of times I will pull the sentence exercises into a bell ringer so that everybody's working with those sentence frames for a bell ringer. And they might watch a short video or read a short reading, and then they're just really focused on what they're writing about. And it's one sentence. And then cold call, you know, I draw names from index cards

[00:10:12] and students know that that's gonna happen, and they have to be ready to share their sentences, because I'll always have students who don't do it right. You know, we will talk about what they did right and then how they need to improve it.

[00:10:26] Ellie: Mm. Mm-hmm.

[00:10:27] This

[00:10:27] Leah: is supposed to be in a positive sentence. You need the noun, comma, definition, comma significance. So where you have the noun is take out that is and just add commas, right?

[00:10:41] Things like that. And then they're getting that structure down and those types of sentences are really helpful with evidence and paragraphs.

[00:10:49] Ellie: Okay.

[00:10:51] Brittany: So besides using the CER technique, in what other ways do you think middle school teachers could prepare students for high school? Are there any specific skills or habits that would make that transition to the upper school easier?

[00:11:07] Leah: Yes, I would say that there are three things that that middle school teachers can do. One is organization. Organization is huge because, you know, it's hard for middle schoolers to be organized. It's hard for me to be organized. And so I've really hit that hard with my students. Probably about five years in, I started setting up my notebooks the same way. At first it was the interactive notebook format, and I love those and I'm still a big advocate of those because I think that those encourage organization, but nobody in my department uses those. So I've turned my interactive notebooks into binders,

[00:11:52] So that we can be consistent.

[00:11:54] So students have year long binders and each unit is separated with a divider and each unit has a table of contents and every unit has the standards that go along with it on a page. Every unit has an organizer that talks about the topics and the vocab that they're gonna need to know and a study guide, uh, well bell ringer sheet and study guide.

[00:12:20] And these are the basics for every unit. And then students as we go add other things to it. And I use the extension annotate, and we update the table of contents together in class. So a good organizational structure. I have my agenda for the week up on the screen. You know we have Promethean boards

[00:12:39] now. I'll have it up on the screen and I start class with that up, not the bell ringer. And so we look at the day and, okay, this is what we need. You don't need your Chromebook, so put that up. You need your binder. Take out your binder. Uh, we're gonna start with a bell ringer. So what page should you be on? Page four.

[00:12:59] And they'll turn to that for the unit and they'll do the bell ringer. And then afterwards we'll go over it and then I'll project the table of contents on annotate, and we will add anything that's gonna be added into it that day, whether the students are taking notes or they have a handout or whatever.

[00:13:17] And so we'll also put the due date on there next to it if there's a due date and that's really helpful for organizing.

[00:13:28] Ellie: Yeah, that sounds wonderful.

[00:13:29] Leah: yeah, it really helps with the cognitive load.

[00:13:33] And so I've met with the middle school teachers at the main feeder for my school and they're using that now.

[00:13:41] Ellie: Oh, awesome.

[00:13:41] Leah: yeah, that was just this year.

[00:13:43] So hopefully we see, some consistency. 'cause I think consistency is key. The next thing that I think I said, I don't remember, and I didn't write it down, focus note taking standards, you know, basically no matter what assignment that I'm giving my students, whether it's a reading or whether it's a presentation, I want for them to be able to structure their own notes. There are always gonna be days that I hand them note templates.

[00:14:09] Maybe we're in a hurry. So here's some close notes. Here's some doodle notes because I really want you to just sit back and color with us, but I want for them to know how to take notes. And so generally when we take notes at least once or twice a week, whether it's with a reading or whether it's with a presentation, we'll start with the same annotate extension pulled up in the standard. And we'll just

[00:14:33] underlining key things in the standard and use that to format their notes. And so we'll do it together. I have a little whiteboard easel, and I think I gave you a link to, um, a blog post about how to do this.

[00:14:46] Ellie: Oh, great.

[00:14:46] Leah: And so then, you know, you can put up anything. You can put up a video, you can put up a presentation, and students know what their focus is gonna be.

[00:14:56] And so the idea is that they're learning how to tune out everything that they don't need to write down.

[00:15:01] And then they're learning how to abbreviate what they do write down. And it's a skill that they can carry with them to college and beyond.

[00:15:08] I think if middle school teachers could try to do something like that maybe once a week, it would benefit. I mean, still use your fun handouts, use all of that stuff. But once a week, just take notes on notebook paper and model it and practice it together, all of that.

[00:15:24] And read as much as you can and discuss it. Discuss it. Discuss it, and discuss like model critical thinking in reading for them. So you know, they're explaining to you on a surface level what a reading is about. Yeah, that's what it's about. But let me tell you something about this author. They were, you know, a dictator of this country and their big goal was to do this.

[00:15:47] So now what do you think about what they're saying? You know, things like that.

[00:15:50] Ellie: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

[00:15:51] Leah: Just to practice.

[00:15:53] Ellie: That's awesome. . Good ideas. So it sounds like you do communicate with your middle school teachers some.

[00:16:01] Leah: We're trying.

[00:16:02] Ellie: you're trying. ,

[00:16:03] Leah: Hopefully we're getting better at it. I think that that can only make us better,

[00:16:08] Ellie: yeah. Do you have any tips for how other middle school teachers and high school teachers might be able to collaborate to make that transition smoother? If they're not already talking in a district, do you have any ideas for how they might be able to get that started to make it smoother for kids?

[00:16:23] Leah: Say if I'm the world history PLC lead at my school, I might reach out to the eighth grade social studies teachers. You can email them, right? And just say, Hey, can we set up a time to talk? Maybe we can do a Zoom, or maybe we can meet for coffee or text something and just get on the same page about a few things.

[00:16:45] Ellie: Yeah. And I guess even if middle school teachers are feeling like they want to help their kids transition as successfully as possible, they could reach out to somebody at the high school and just ask for, you know, three tips, kind of like you've just given us. Can you gimme three tips that will really help my kids with transitioning and being ready for high school?

[00:17:04] Leah: Yeah, and you can always go to the high school website and find out who the department chair is and reach out to them

[00:17:11] Ellie: Mm-hmm.

[00:17:12] Leah: and see if you can set something up.

[00:17:14] Brittany: Um, since you teach a lot of social studies, based on your experience, what areas of social studies do students typically struggle with the most when they move to high school? Are there any common gaps in proficiency there?

[00:17:30] Leah: So content is not the biggest concern. Content can be taught. The biggest gaps come in the skill arena. It does have to do with that critical thinking. The three big Cs, comparison, causation, continuity, and change over time. Teaching students that, hey, that's how you need to approach history.

[00:17:53] You need to look at the three Cs, right? Understanding contextualization, which that might be a skill that they're just not ready for in middle school, but you know, you could play around with it. Give them a scenario. Uh, this is, this is, this is a bad one. This is gonna sound bad, but I'm gonna do it anyway 'cause I haven't had enough coffee and this is all that's popping into my head going, Hey guys, I killed my husband this weekend.

[00:18:20] And they're like, what?

[00:18:22] Ellie: Don't anybody take that outta context.

[00:18:25] Leah: right, right, right. No. And so then, uh, they're shocked, they're surprised. And then you say, oh, no, no, nothing. Why is that bad? I don't understand. You know, and then you get to the point, oh, you need some context behind that. Okay. Well, we were playing a game on, uh Playstation, and my character killed his character.

[00:18:46] See? That was a really bad example. You can think of something better, but you know, just little things like that so that they start to understand the importance of context. Yeah.

[00:18:56] Ellie: Very good.

[00:18:58] Brittany: I would always ask my kids like, uh, I need a volunteer. And then 20 of them would raise their hand

[00:19:06] and I'm like, you don't even know what you're

[00:19:08] Leah: Um, oh, that's a good one. Yeah.

[00:19:11] Brittany: Like, wait, maybe you're volunteering to go pick up dog poop for an hour, like.

[00:19:18] Leah: Hey man. It's better than class. I hope not. I really hope not. I'm just thinking about my students.

[00:19:25] Brittany: yeah, I know, but I'm like, stop and think before you just raise your hand.

[00:19:32] Leah: Yeah. Context. So yeah, we'll start the year my Getting to Know You activity that I do in AP World History. I model one, and then students, do one and they share it with the class and it's on a presentation. And so it's circles. So like there's a circle in the middle, and then it's, you know, like a bullseye, right?

[00:19:54] And then there's a circle outside of that and a circle outside of that. And on the inside I have a picture that's zoomed up to my eye. And my eye is, it's a black eye.

[00:20:04] Right. And so I show that and students are like, what? What's that? Oh, that's me. You what? You had a black eye and Yeah, I started the 2021 school year with a black eye. And students are like, well, how did that happen? And so I'll click again and it zooms out on a picture of my glasses on the concrete, and they're shattered. I go, okay, so this is, you know, this is another piece of the puzzle. Uh, and then they try to guess what was going on. Did somebody punch you? Were you brawling, Ms.

[00:20:42] Cleary, what's going on? And so then it zooms out one more time when I click it and it shows my car and it's wrecked. So somebody rear-ended me. Oh, you were in a car accident? Yeah, I was in a car accident about a week before school started.

[00:20:59] Ellie: Oh man.

[00:20:59] Leah: I got a black eye, busted my glasses, and so then the students will do that and that's kind of an interesting getting to know you activity.

[00:21:09] Ellie: Mm-hmm. Yeah, definitely. It's engaging for sure.

[00:21:12] Leah: Yeah, and I have a blog post about that activity and I have that resource in my free resource library. If you sign up for my free resource library, go to my website and get the password and you can get in and grab that template.

[00:21:27] Ellie: Nice.

[00:21:28] So thinking beyond academics, what other mindset shifts do students need to make to be successful in high school, and is there a way that teachers can help foster those shifts?

[00:21:40] Leah: Mindset shifts outside of academics. This really is tied into academics too, but it's also is tied into the social aspect of things. Students need to learn how to build resilience.

[00:21:53] Ellie: Hmm.

[00:21:55] Leah: It's not the end of the world if they don't get invited to a party or if their best friend breaks up with them or their, boyfriend or girlfriend breaks up with them.

[00:22:07] They need to develop resilience. They'll, they'll bounce back. It's okay to be sad. It's okay to be disappointed, you know, sit in those feelings for a minute, but then move on. They, they need to learn that resilience. I'm not sure what the answer is for how to teach that.

[00:22:24] I do know that academically, a lot of that comes in, I think through giving them space to make mistakes.

[00:22:32] Ellie: Okay.

[00:22:32] Brittany: Mm-hmm.

[00:22:33] Leah: that we, when we first start out on things, a lot of times I'll just give them a skill building grade, which is basically completed, completed, completed, completed, right? But I'll give them feedback and the feedback might not be what they want.

[00:22:49] You know, I can tell you on the first long essay question we wrote one year, one girl, and she thought, well, I did it, I should, you know, get a hundred. And yeah, it's not affecting your grade in the grade book. But she didn't like the feedback I left on it. I thought it was nice, it was very specific, but she didn't like it 'cause she felt like, because she had put so much time and effort into it that she should get a gold star. And so she was so mad.

[00:23:15] She ripped up the paper and threw it in the trash can, and she walked out. This wasn't during class. She came, you know, I think it was after school or before school, uh, to get her feedback from me. And so fortunately there was nothing else in the trash can. So I got it out, I got the pieces out, and I had her come back and, tape the pieces together. And said, okay, this is feedback. You know, this is gonna help you grow and let's talk now about how you can make this better. And I think just getting them into a mindset of growth

[00:23:57] Ellie: Mm-hmm.

[00:23:59] Leah: it's cliche now, growth mindset, but it's very valuable. And I think that that applies to everything. That applies to academics, that applies to their social lives, uh, sports, whatever, everything.

[00:24:11] Ellie: Mm-hmm. Awesome.

[00:24:14] Brittany: So let's wrap up with some parental support. How can parents support their child's transition into high school? Are there particular strategies that help students develop independence?

[00:24:27] Leah: That's a hard one because kids are coming into high school in all different places and every kid is so different.

[00:24:35] Ellie: Hmm.

[00:24:36] Leah: but. I would advise parents, and I'm a parent myself, so I know that this can be very difficult. Gradually, you know, not at first, not when they're in ninth grade, but gradually make the shift from manager to mentor.

[00:24:52] So instead of being so closely involved, you know, we always talk about being involved as being a good thing, and it is, but you know, that close involvement that parents in a lot of cases need to have in middle school, daily checking grades, managing deadlines, helping with homework, try to back away from that.

[00:25:14] Ellie: Hmm.

[00:25:14] Leah: I think that in high school, students really benefit from learning how to take the lead, but they need to take the lead with support, not without it. I'm not saying don't give them support. So that could mean as a parent setting up weekly check-ins instead of daily ones. Or you could ask questions like, what's your plan for studying this week?

[00:25:35] Instead of, did you study?

[00:25:37] Ellie: Mm-hmm.

[00:25:37] Leah: Um. This, I think encourages ownership while still keeping the lines of communication open, if that makes sense.

[00:25:46] And also I think helping the child build independence, you know, getting them to use something like a planner or setting calendar reminders. And you can oversee all of this, but then step back. Maybe help create a study space at home that's free of technology. Things like that. As far as parents, and this is what I'm really bad about, um, but modeling balance yourself.

[00:26:16] Ellie: Okay.

[00:26:17] Leah: Yeah. I'm terrible at this. If you can talk maybe about managing stress, asking for help when you need it. Uh, not relying on help, you try to do it first and then if you're struggling, then ask for help, not the other way around.

[00:26:32] Ellie: Mm-hmm.

[00:26:32] Leah: Staying organized. Um, you know, letting your students know, give your students space to fail. Yeah, now's the time, I suppose,

[00:26:41] Now's the time. The stakes are small and I know that this is hard for parents, but, Hey, mom, I got it. I got it, I got it. Okay. And then they got it. But what they got was an F right?

[00:26:58] Ellie: Right.

[00:26:59] Leah: Have consequences for that

[00:27:02] Ellie: Right, right. So that it doesn't

[00:27:04] Leah: So that it doesn't continue, uh, talk through strategies for maybe improving it, but don't try to change that f.

[00:27:16] That stays., That shows them that there are consequences and that, you know, maybe what they were doing didn't work and they need to find another way.

[00:27:25] Ellie: Right. That makes sense. So before we wrap up, do you have any final words of wisdom that you would like to share or do you just wanna let our listeners know where they can find you?

[00:27:37] Leah: You can find me at leahcleary.com, and that is my website, that is my blog. I've got a free resource library, lots of resources for teachers on that website. And then on Teachers Pay Teachers, my store is Leah Cleary, and I have complete some complete curricula for some social studies classes, world history, sociology, and economics. Uh, I'm building one very slowly for psychology, the first two units done. And then I have some miscellaneous resources, some ELA resources from my days as an ELA teacher.

[00:28:15] I guess my store is mostly for ELA and social studies, but my website's for all secondary teachers.

[00:28:22] Ellie: Okay.

[00:28:23] With all those technology things on there too,

[00:28:24] so.

[00:28:25] Leah: of that. Lots of good tips for, uh, grading essays faster with ai.

[00:28:31] Ellie: Oh, we need to talk about that

[00:28:32] more. So

[00:28:33] Leah: hey, listen, it is given me my life back.

[00:28:36] It's

[00:28:36] Ellie: stay tuned for more, Leah.

[00:28:39] Leah: It's amazing.

[00:28:40] Brittany: Well, if you enjoyed this episode, we ask for you to shout it out with a team buddy and let them know about it. And whether you're supporting students entering or leaving middle school, we hope today's conversation added a fresh perspective and maybe a new tool to your teaching toolbox.

[00:28:57] If this episode resonated with you, we'd love it if you shared it on your favorite social platform, or give us a rating or some feedback. Thanks so much for listening.