The transition to middle school can be challenging so today we have a guest who has experience teaching both elementary and middle school. Let's talk transitions with Martina from The Hungry Teacher.

Connect with today's guest

Hub ELA teacher membership waitlist: Free Middle School ELA Teacher Toolkit 

https://thehungryteachercollective.mykajabi.com/hungryteacherhubwaitlist 

Free Middle School ELA Teacher Writing Toolkit: https://thehungryteachercollective.mykajabi.com/middle-school-writing-toolkit 

Free Middle School ELA Grammar Toolkit: https://thehungryteachercollective.mykajabi.com/grammartoolkit 

Free Middle School ELA Independent Reading Playbook: https://thehungryteachercollective.mykajabi.com/independent-reading-playbook-for-middle-school-ela 

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[00:00:26] Brittany: Hello.

[00:00:40] Martina, would you tell us a little bit about yourself, your teaching career, your store, your membership, anything you'd like to share?

[00:01:06] also started making resources for upper elementary at the time. And then, we moved quickly across the state in Colorado. And I just took the first position that came my way, which actually was, I always call it hybrid, I taught basically middle school, sixth grade English, but at an elementary school, um, I was the only one departmentalized, so I kind of dipped my toes in there, but was still like, okay, I still want to teach elementary.

[00:01:46] And in the process. they're like, you know what? We actually have a seventh and eighth grade ELA position in opening. Would you rather do that? And I said, yes, and even then though, I was like, I'll just do that for a year and hopefully an upper elementary position will still open, but

[00:02:36] And then, um, in 2020 I was pregnant with my second and decided to take a little break, thinking I would just take a little bit of time off, and then go back because I loved my job. I didn't really wanna leave. It was just kinda logistics.

[00:03:09] Brittany: Well, today we wanna focus on the transition from elementary to middle school. So it's great that you've done both, especially from both the elementary perspective and the middle school perspective. So can you go into more of the experience that you've had in both of those regards?

[00:03:45] And so when I went to that seventh and eighth grade position, like I actually wasn't really scared anymore because like, it's fine, they're just gonna be a little bit bigger. Um, but I think the biggest transitions for me personally, and I think this is true, most people, is the time, like going from self-contained, having students seven hours a day, and even though you're only teaching one subject.

[00:04:45] I don't even know that they realize they need that, but I think that's a big transition for them going from kind of just like, I don't wanna say basic, but it's definitely more like, I don't know, concrete and step by step, like reading and writing and you get to middle school and we're asking a lot more of them from an analytical perspective

[00:05:11] Ellie: Yeah. So what do you think were some of the biggest academic challenges that they were facing in language arts when they would come from elementary to middle school, like maybe a little more specific. What kind of things did they really

[00:05:26] Martina: I think they,, um, I don't wanna say they're used to people telling them what to do, 'cause I think all teachers, like we want to teach them. But I do think they were looking for me to give them the answers a lot more and it was a lot more of

[00:05:46] But, um, you know, like teaching them how to think and like how do we look at this from a different angle and how do we push our thinking beyond, you know, okay, you're just going to write a summary. Like, no, I really don't care about you writing summaries anymore. Like, you're going to write an analytical response kind of

[00:06:23] Like we're not incentivizing it. Like you're going to learn to love reading. And at my particular experience in my schools, like I had to teach them how to love reading again and teach them how to find books and like getting them to be real readers. I think that was a big 'cause they were used to being like, well, I'll just read and take my test and move on.

[00:06:41] Brittany: Um, so getting more into that reading and writing, what skills do you think students should have mastered by the end of elementary school? In order to be successful in middle school language arts.

[00:07:08] Like, well, yeah, I taught it to you. But I mean obviously we hope kids can read like in the sense of like they can read. On a comprehension level. And so if they don't have that, I mean, obviously that's really a big struggle because, um, I always say like, I've never really taught a kid to read in the sense of like, that's been my focus.

[00:07:50] We're asking them to read, to learn. And so, obviously it's crucial and I know there's like the big focus on science of reading, but like, they do know, need to know how to read. And then I will say on the writing front, I found that my students just like. There'd been a lot of like, right there, basic comprehension tasks because I do think once you get to having 150 and 200 students, it's hard not to fall into that trap of like, I just need to put a grade in the grade book. and in order to get kids to be critical thinkers at analytical writers, like it's harder for the teacher because you're having to teach them those skills.

[00:08:43] Like we're going to figure out how to do this. So it's kind of that stamina and that effort piece to having those skills.

[00:09:03] Martina: I mean, I think, like you kind of said the word right there, like my favorite word is scaffolding. I, when I got to middle school, I could tell especially my eighth graders, they had been told a lot of like, what to do, but no one was really showing them how, which like even I struggled with.

[00:09:42] find broken down like how to teach kids to do it. And so I was like, all right, let's look at this introduction and like, what is this writer doing?

[00:09:55] I always talk about mentor sentences to teach grammar because like you're constantly exposing them to good writing. Um, so like mentor text and mentor sentence is a big one, but like literally, you know, when I first teach essays, I would break down every component and then when I would start the actual writing process, I'm like, all right, I'm going to write an introduction and now you all are going to write an introduction.

[00:10:30] Ellie: You're modeling it. How, how better to learn than to have a good model, A good example.

[00:10:37] Brittany: in what ways do you think elementary teachers could prepare students for the expectations of middle school language arts? Are there specific skills or habits that you think make the transition smoother?

[00:11:09] But you know, there's students like I literally would teach, when I was at that middle school, I taught second and third grade art for one hour a day. And so I would then get those kids in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade sometimes, and I'd be like, oh, they're exactly the same as they were five years ago.

[00:11:43] I always joke with my husband, like, I have to write everything down. I'm not saying he can remember everything, but he literally puts it in his head and I'm like, you know, he never found a written down strategy that worked for him, and it's like it's a losing battle. So I do think that is the one thing that kids struggle with the most is like balancing multiple class periods, multiple teachers in the organization.

[00:12:21] Brittany: And I think some just aren't developmentally ready. Like my son never got any of those organizational things until his junior year, and then all of a sudden everything just clicked. And his junior year, he just rocketed, he excelled, but he just wasn't developmentally ready until that year.

[00:12:59] It's just like developmental, you know, like, and some of those sixth graders would truly mature and grow so much by eighth grade. So yeah, it, it is just developmental sometimes too. For

[00:13:09] Ellie: Well, in some districts, elementary and middle school teachers don't really talk much. They might not get a lot of chance to communicate, but if they can, what kind of things could elementary teachers do that would help make the transition smoother into middle school? Like Brittany, you had a program, didn't you?

[00:13:49] do you think there's any successful collaboration models that you've seen?

[00:14:18] I will say my experiences in elementary and middle school as I was at K 12 schools, um, they were separated, but, um. We did similar things, but they didn't follow kids around, which I do think is probably one of the most helpful things for kids is to be with a peer as opposed like anytime we can be, the ones not doing it and having peers do it, I think is like really big for them to do.

[00:14:54] Martina: So that's like a really interesting question because I think we focus on writing being the bigger gap, but I think writing is a lot more concrete to teach. If I were to ever be like, Hey, we need to really fix in this proficiency I would start with writing because I can scaffold this and break it down.

[00:15:23] But I do think it's important for that elementary to middle school communication because having 150 students, like, I'm sorry, it's really easy to let a kid slip through their cracks until you get to conferences and you're like, oh my gosh, I'm not sure they can actually read, like they have really used some good coping mechanisms, or, I'm not sure they're comprehending kind of thing.

[00:16:01] But if kids can't read, they can't really go Google, how do I read? You know what I mean? How can I get better at comprehension? Like those are skills. So, I think one is what we focus on, but it's actually reading where. I would tend to see the most like problems,

[00:16:27] Martina: I personally would say that's why I'm always pushing, like reading and writing conferences.

[00:16:43] There's kids you could go the whole year without talking to really, tha t's why I really try to start reading conferences, especially in the beginning, just to get to know them so that when it's like, okay, now I gotta dig into this, they're a little bit more comfortable.

[00:17:07] Brittany: What kinda mind shifts in kids do you think are needed when going into middle school? Like how do they need to shift their focus as they're moving into middle school Language arts or in general?

[00:17:34] Maybe this isn't the right answer, but for me, I would hope that they learn to love reading again and like love those things. I want them to have the shift , and this is hard because of our society, but it's just like you get to middle school and high school and it's just like accomplishing another task.

[00:18:02] And so like using that to their advantage though as well as opposed to, you know, when you had one teacher, it's like now you have all these different perspectives and so going to different classes and like utilizing the strengths of the different teachers teaching the different subjects. You know, I think a lot of times kids have their mindset that they're good and bad at things by middle school, and I want them to come to middle school being like, okay, you're not bad. You just haven't found the right. Whatever it is yet.

[00:18:28] So there gotta be some good ways to encourage that. Um, so what advice would you give to middle school language arts teachers who are receiving their new group of students from elementary school? And maybe thinking about things like making those mind shifts and things like what should be they be thinking about in their first couple months of planning with these kids?

[00:19:05] School should be fun and we should want them to want to come. Like, that was my biggest thing is I wanted them to want to come to my class and I wanted them to know, like I genuinely was there for them. and I wanted the best for them. And I'm not saying teachers didn't, it just was like this constant like, oh, middle schoolers.

[00:19:30] percent true. And I won't say that. There weren't days where I'm like, okay, maybe they really are never gonna read. But like I just showed up every day with like the intent of like, I.

[00:19:57] And so I think going into the mindset of like. There's a bigger purpose here than just like getting them through eighth grade English . So I just think having a really positive, like middle schoolers are the best and

[00:20:09] So like that's what I would say is I think a lot of the other stuff can fall into place if you have the mindset of like, they're great and they're going to be great because you believe they're gonna be great.

[00:20:31] Martina: I think like the biggest thing I noticed, especially, you know, like I said, when I first got there, I kind of changed the culture around reading in particular and parents just being supportive of that. Um, I. Obviously I'll support parents with that, but like parents being excited about their kids, bringing books home and reading them and like letting kids pick what they wanted to read.

[00:21:00] seventh and eighth grade classes and I would have like. $300. Like, because I was like, this is exciting, this is so fun.

[00:21:26] I even noticed it now with three kids. I'm like, I can't keep track of it all as it is. And when you have 150 students, like I do my best, but like, I cannot help each individual child like keep track. So I think that especially if your student, your child needs that, like helping them be organized and keep track, but also just like if they're excited about reading and writing, like you, you know, have the excitement with them because by the time they're 13 and 14, if there's even a glimmer of it, like just run with it.

[00:22:08] Martina: Yeah, 100%.

[00:22:10] Well, thank you so much for joining us today.

[00:22:19] Martina: No, this has been really

[00:22:39] It

[00:22:52] We want good teachers.

[00:23:00] Ellie: Right, right.

[00:23:05] Martina: So couple places you can find me. Uh, the hungry teacher blog.com. I blog still consistently on there all the time. And then also, um, the Hungry Teacher's Hub. You can get on the wait list. We open for my membership every July and I do workshops and talk all the live long day there. Um, but monthly resources and just a great community there specifically for middle school, ELA teachers.

[00:23:46] tune into Martina's IG.. It's great.

[00:23:51] you so much.

[00:24:06] Brittany: Bye.