Team Eases Transition to Middle School

The transition from elementary school to middle school is for many students a pretty traumatic one. Sixth-graders often have to adjust to having more than one class per day and to meeting classmates who come from different neighborhoods and backgrounds.

But a team of Cal State Northridge graduate students and their professor try to ease that pain with “Friendship Days,” daylong workshops that share lessons with these students on conflict resolution and diversity.

Led by Charles Hanson, a CSUN associate professor of educational psychology and counseling, the team takes youngsters through several activities designed to allow them to get to know their new classmates.

“We’re trying to encourage them to build relationships among different racial groups,” Hanson said. “The transition from elementary to middle school is when they start separating themselves into racial groups. We want them to get to know each other early, so we can break that down.”

Friendship Days began last month with a visit to De Portola Middle School in Tarzana. On Thursday, the team held its last session with a group at Christopher Columbus Middle School.

Helping the CSUN team were members of Canoga Park High School and Columbus’ United Colors group, a peer mediation and conflict resolution organization, and the Columbus Crew, a group of seventh-grade class leaders.

In one game, students tried to navigate a minefield of obstacles while blindfolded, and their teammates had to help them by giving verbal cues. It was designed, organizers said, to instill trust.

Sixth-grader Henry Calderon said he was having fun.

“It’s good to meet these people you don’t know,” the 11-year-old said. “You can learn their character and learn what they like and be friends.”