Various middle school teachers came to observe freshman English classes as part of the biannual articulation Oct. 11 to help ease eight graders’ transitions to high school.

According to Susan Levine-Kelley, instructional supervisor of the English Department, 21 teachers from sender schools were present during periods one through four, where they observed freshman English classes. This articulation, the day when middle school teachers meet with freshman high school teachers, are done twice a year; once in the fall and once in the spring.

“We’re trying to make the transition smooth for the eighth graders who come from all of our sender schools,” Levine-Kelley said. “Because we get [our students] from so many diverse districts, we’re trying to find some commonality so that teachers know what the expectations are and so that we know what to expect when the kids come in.”

According to Levine-Kelley, the articulation was very successful. Teachers were able to agree on some writing standards for eighth grade students based on the discussions that followed the articulation.

“We were supposed to be doing some lesson that incorporated some writing instruction of any type,” English teacher Deborah Cohen said. “For me, when they were visiting I talked about quotation integration. It was a very specific lesson on how to effectively incorporate quotations into student work and writing.”

Every department does some sort of articulation every year in order to better prepare their students for the transition from middle school to high school, but this is the first year that middle school teachers have come visited in such a planned manner, Levine-Kelly explained.

“We need to continue to learn from each other,” Wegley said. “We need to listen to our sender schools and ask what they are doing, what texts, what skills, what are they doing to develop students, and then they in turn will be partnering with us, and listening to us to help create a strong […] bridge that we can create from our sender schools to us.”

South students, including freshman Emily Melente, expressed that it would have been beneficial for their middle school teachers to observe classes at South.

“I feel that I would have been more prepared, because I would have know more about what I was learning in class, and be more prepared for it,” Melente said.

There are already plans in progress to send high school teachers to the middle schools to observe for a day in the next fall articulation.

“As a former freshmen English teacher, I know the struggles both students and teachers face,” Cindy Planert, Springman middle school teacher, said, “I also have witnessed the difference between districts that practice articulation and those that don’t, and the difference that that level of professional communication makes in transitional experiences for both students and teachers.”