Enhancing First-Year MYP Student Success: Induction Program Benefits and Activities

Introduction

Imagine being a first-year MYP student transitioning from elementary school to middle school. It’s a time of significant physical and emotional changes. On one side, there’s the excitement of discovering new subjects, meeting different teachers, and forging new friendships. On the other, there’s a natural sense of nervousness about leaving a known environment and stepping into a new one. This transition involves not just adapting to a new curriculum, but also navigating a larger school, adjusting to different routines, and managing increased responsibilities.

Understanding these mixed emotions helps us to be more empathetic as teachers, which is why induction programs are so valuable. They provide a structured entry into the MYP framework, preparing students for new academic expectations that are rigorous yet appropriate for their age. A good induction program shouldn’t just inform students about syllabus details and assessment structures. Instead, it should focus on personal well-being, helping students find a sense of purpose and fostering a feeling of belonging as they embark on this new chapter in their lives.

Here are two blog posts where I shared insights into the MYP induction program:

• MYP Induction and Orientation
• MYP Jump Start 2019-2020
• 16 Ideas to Introduce the Hidden Curriculum in the First Weeks

Understanding the Induction Program

An induction program, specifically designed for first-year MYP students, is more than just a formal welcome. It’s a thoughtfully structured series of activities and resources aimed at helping students acclimate to their new school environment. The goal is to ensure that students feel comfortable, confident, and ready to embark on both their academic and personal journeys.

What is an MYP Induction Program?

An induction program welcomes new students into the MYP (middle school) with the primary objective of seamlessly integrating them into their new academic environment while fostering a sense of belonging and community. The induction program consists of several activities, including orientation sessions, team-building exercises, and academic workshops, all designed to prepare students for the unique demands of the MYP curriculum and to ensure they feel supported and connected as they begin this exciting journey.

Benefits of the Induction Program

A well-designed transition program offers several significant benefits:

1. Smooth Adjustment: It helps students adjust to the differences in curriculum and teaching styles, reducing anxiety and promoting a confident start in the MYP.
2. Academic Success: With an understanding of how the MYP works and its framework, students can build a strong foundation that can support their academic achievement throughout the program.
3. Emotional and Social Support: A well-designed induction program provides necessary support systems, which focus on ensuring students build friendships and their teachers. Through team-building activities, they develop the emotional and social support needed for a smooth transition.
4. Building Confidence: By familiarizing students with their new surroundings and providing them with essential skills, the program boosts their confidence.
5. Building Community: It creates opportunities for students to connect with peers and teachers, fostering a sense of belonging and unity. 

Key Components of the Induction Program

To achieve its objectives, the MYP induction program includes several essential components inspired by the Transitions Model by the Council of International Schools, as shared by Kim Green in “Navigating Life’s Transitions. I have selected four components that I think are relevant, including well-being, purpose and direction, learning, and connections and belonging.

Well-being: Sessions focused on coping with stress, dealing with failure, seeking help and self-advocacy. These also provide access to psychological support, promote health and physical well-being, and teach independent life skills.

Purpose & Direction: Students will explore their identity, purpose, and goals, whether individual or community-based. They will reflect on how they learn as learners and how they learn best.
– Emphasis on personal growth.
– Students explore their identity, purpose, and goals.
– Reflect on their learning styles and preferences.

Learning: Sessions will emphasize that learning should continue to be a fun and engaging experience.  Students will become familiar with the academic structure, learning and teaching styles, and will understand the new assessment grading and requirements.
– Emphasis on the learning process and experience.
– Ensuring learning remains fun and engaging.
– Familiarizing students with academic structures, teaching styles, and assessment requirements.

Connections and Belonging: Students will participate in team-building activities designed to promote collaboration and trust. Additionally, they will connect with their tutor (homeroom advisor) and their peers to build strong relationships and foster a sense of community and belonging.

Activities for Well-being

The emotional wellbeing of students is just as important as their academic and social adjustment. A student’s well-being relies heavily on coping with stress, overcoming failure, seeking help, and advocating for themselves. These abilities help students manage the pressures of academic and social challenges, fostering resilience and a positive mindset. Here are some activities to consider.

Hopes and fears activity

Hopes and fears are powerful emotions that can strengthen students’ resilience and motivation. Our hopes are aspirational, and our fears can be great motivators when we employ the right strategies. Teachers can use the “hopes and fears” activity to gauge student attitudes and understand their concerns for the new school year or the subject. In addition, it is an excellent opportunity for students to discover that they are not alone in their hopes and fears about the new school year or the subject. Students can begin this activity by writing down their hopes and fears on sticky notes. One idea per sticky note makes sorting and categorizing easy. Here are some examples of hopes and fears that students might have.

After every student has finished identifying their hopes and fears for the new school year, they post their thoughts on the chart paper in the hopes and fears columns prepared by the teacher. The students silently read all the responses, then group similar ideas and identify patterns. Finally, the teacher can guide a discussion by asking probing questions, such as “What are some ways you might achieve your hopes?” or “How can we help each other succeed and overcome our fears?” Teachers may focus on two or three specific concerns depending on time constraints. The detailed implementation steps of the hopes and fears activity can be found here.

Learning from failures

Dyson vacuum cleaners are very popular household appliances. Some people don’t know that James Dyson had developed 5,127 prototypes and failed 5,126 times before the final product was released. He took risks and learned from his failures. The story of his success was inspiring. We can guide our students to view failure as an opportunity to improve, develop perseverance, and make better decisions. Teaching students how to learn from mistakes can encourage a growth mindset, self-determination, and entrepreneurship. A sense of well-being can result from students having strategies for learning from mistakes. When students learn from their own mistakes, they are likely to feel more confident about themselves.

Here is the process to do this activity:

1. Students share three words to describe their feelings when they feel dejected or have experienced a failure. Apps like Mentimeter or Slido can create word clouds. With this task, I will also be able to know if students can identify and articulate their emotions.
2. Show a video to engage students in exploring success and failure. I selected two videos, Benefits of Failure by J. K. Rowling and Talking about Failing by James Dyson.
3. Use the ‘in the stars’ protocol to connect students in the conversation. This protocol can be found in the Five Fresh Protocols For 2022 created by Shifting School.
4. Discuss strategies they have used when they have failed or felt dejected, an excellent opportunity to introduce to the concept of growth mindset versus fixed mindset. A short video to support the strategy discussion, 3 tips to boost your confidence by TED-Ed.
5. Introduce strategies for practicing “failing well” and “positive thinking”. There are many strategies in the affective skills cluster under the self-managing category of the ATL skills.
6. To reflect, students use the following statement: I used to think failure was…Now I think failure is…My thinking has changed or hasn’t changed because…

Activities for Purpose & Direction

Understanding one’s identity, purpose, and goals is crucial for personal development and academic success. Students benefit greatly from activities that encourage them to reflect on their individual and community-based aims, as well as on their learning styles and preferences. Engaging in these activities promotes personal growth, helping students to recognize their strengths, interests, and areas for improvement. Here are some activities to consider:

Student learner profile

It is essential to know our students. What are their interests? What hinders their learning, and what helps them learn? What do they need to feel comfortable with to be successful? What makes them feel frustrated? Students’ learner profiles help teachers determine which activities work best for each student and identify their strengths. Moreover, it allows students to reflect on who they are as a learner, how they best learn, and what motivates them to learn. You can find many examples of student learner profiles on the internet if you Google them. Here is one example: Learning Profile Templates to Help on the Personalized Learning Journey. As an alternative, Matt Bergman also provides students with a SWOT Analysis Tool template for reflection. A document entitled Developing Learning Profiles provides a detailed look at the why, how, and what of learning profiles.

Helping students understand their unique strengths, needs and motivators, enabling them to set personalized goals and strategies for academic and personal growth. It empowers students to take control of their learning journey, fostering a sense of self-awareness and intentionality in their educational pursuits.

Comfort, stretch, and panic

The ‘comfort, stretch, panic learning zone’ activity was shared on Twitter by @teacher2teacher. By getting students to identify their comfort zone, stretch zone, and panic zone in learning, they will be more aware of their personal limits and how to approach new challenges.

Here is the process to do this activity:

1. Invite students to explain the differences between comfort, stretch, and panic zones.
2. Show a visual representation and enhance students’ understanding of the three zones. You can find a lot of visuals by doing a Google image search.
3. Students identify what they feel comfortable doing, challenging themselves, and feeling terrified to do in the comfort zone, stretch zone, and panic zone, respectively.
4. Discuss with students about factors that can help them challenge themselves to reach the goals in the stretch learning zone.
5. Students share their stretch learning goal for the semester with their classmates and develop an action plan to achieve their goal.
6. Guide students in deciding what form their support for each other will take.
7. Ensure that all students know where to find support and who can guide them on different matters.

Activities for Learning

It is essential to ensure that learning remains a fun, engaging, and structured experience for students. Familiarizing students with the academic structure, learning and teaching styles, and assessment requirements is crucial for their academic success. Incorporating activities that emphasize the learning process and engage students will help them become more comfortable and confident in their educational journey. It is not necessary for creativity and fun to diminish as students enter the MYP. It is important that students continue to engage in conceptual thinking through inquiry-based learning. Teachers are encouraged to explore and implement inquiry-based teaching strategies in their classrooms. This approach will not only maintain the engaging and dynamic nature of learning but also foster deeper conceptual understanding among students. Here are some activities to consider:

Collaborative Design Thinking Projects

Design thinking projects guide students to deeply engage with the learning process and thoughtfully approach authentic tasks. These projects not only focus on solving real-world problems but also emphasize the importance of how students work together and understand their roles within a group. This method nurtures critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration, enabling students to systematically approach problems and think outside the box.

• Group Brainstorming: Students are split into small groups to brainstorm ideas on a given topic. They are encouraged to generate as many solutions as possible, fostering creativity and collaborative thought processes.
• Prototyping: Students create prototypes of their ideas using simple materials. This hands-on activity allows them to visualize and refine their solutions while facilitating an understanding of iterative design.
• Presentation: Each group presents their prototypes and receives feedback from their peers. This stage enhances communication skills, self-confidence, and the ability to constructively critique and improve their work.

Through these steps, students learn not just to solve problems but to value the collaborative and reflective nature of the learning journey. Students should be given time to reflect on their learning and develop their understanding. Here are some questions to stimulate students’ thinking.

• During the project making process, what types of questions did you ask? How did these questions help you better understand the problem or task?
• What observations did you make during the project?
• How did you find information for your project? Which methods helped you the most?
• What sources (books, websites, people) were most useful for your project? Why?
• How did you generate, combine, and analyze ideas?
• What methods did you use to brainstorm and think creatively?
• What methods did you use? What challenges did you face, and how did you address them?
• Did you need to make any big changes while working on the project? What made you decide to change things?
• How did you make sure you were working efficiently? What strategies did you use to stay focused?
• Were there any tasks that took longer than you expected? Why do you think that happened?
• What feedback did you receive throughout the project, and how did you use it for improvements? What revisions did you make based on the feedback?
• Can you give an example of how feedback helped make your project better?
• When you presented the final project to the audience, how did you present your work? What techniques did you use to effectively communicate your ideas?
• Throughout the entire design thinking process, which phases did you find most challenging and most rewarding? 
• How did you work together as a team to achieve your project goals?
• What roles and responsibilities did each team member take on?
• How did you resolve conflicts or disagreements within the team?

Engaging students in these activities not only makes learning fun but also helps them develop essential skills for lifelong success. By fostering teamwork, curiosity, and critical thinking, these activities create a dynamic and supportive learning environment.

Having been a longtime fan of John Spencer, I recommend using his maker projects.

• Design a School on Mars
• Design the Ultimate Tiny House
• Invent a Sport Using These Random Items
• Design the Ultimate Tree House
• Invent a Creature that Lives Inside of an Active Volcano
• Design the Drone Delivery System
• Create an Eco-Friendly Kitchen
• What can you make with this?

Co-create expectations of collaboration with students

Ensuring students feel they have a say in how their classroom operates is essential. We often put students in groups and assume they know how to work together. This isn’t always the case. Effective collaboration requires some planning and a common understanding. Collaboratively creating norms with students will help ensure everyone is on the same page and feels comfortable with how things are run. A group discussion, outlining expectations, and sharing personal goals can lead to productive working relationships. Teachers can use ‘looks like, sounds like, feels like to stimulate discussion about collaboration. Here are the implementation steps:

1. Create three columns for “looks like,” “sounds like,” and “feels like” on a chart paper, whiteboard, or a digital platform (e.g.,Canva, Miro, Padlet)
2. Ask students, “What does successful team collaboration look like, sound like, and feel like?”
3. Give students three sticky notes to record one idea for each column.
4. Students write down what collaboration looks like, sounds like, and feels like individually. (For easy sorting and categorization after brainstorming, I suggest one idea per sticky note.)
5. After brainstorming, encourage students to group similar ideas and categorize them with a heading (e.g., support, respect, etc.).
6. Students create expectations of collaboration based on each category they come up with by writing 3-7 statements of positive behavior that contributes to team success. (e.g. Be an active listener.)
7. Following this activity, students individually reflect on how they can contribute to team success and what areas they would like to improve.

Large classes might break up into groups, and each compares their categories of ideas with the others. Students might then establish and agree on the expectations of collaboration. Teachers could use Thai soccer team rescue as a stimulus to have students consider what teamwork in success might look, sound, and feel like and discuss the benefits of collaboration.

The “How I Want to Be in a Group” activity is another great resource I recently discovered on Twitter shared by Lauren Porosoff (@LaurenPorosoff)

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Evaluation

In “The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Evaluation,” students will work in groups to determine the criteria for evaluating the best chocolate chip cookies. Each group will receive a variety of chocolate chip cookies differing in size, shape, and texture. Their task is to brainstorm and discuss what makes an ideal chocolate chip cookie, considering factors such as taste, texture, appearance, and smell. Once the essential components of the perfect cookie have been identified, students will design a rubric with descriptive categories and levels from poor to exemplary. They will then use their rubric to evaluate the cookies, discussing their findings and justifying their ratings. This hands-on activity not only teaches students how to develop and use evaluative criteria but also fosters collaboration and critical thinking as they engage in a deliciously fun exercise. Detailed information and process of this activity can be accessed here.

This activity can significantly help MYP first-year students understand how assessment works in the MYP. By participating in “The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Evaluation,” students will gain hands-on experience in creating and applying evaluative criteria, mirroring the process of formative and summative assessments used in the MYP. The activity emphasizes the importance of clear, descriptive rubrics, which are fundamental to the MYP’s criterion-referenced assessment model. Students will learn how to break down tasks into specific components, set performance standards, and objectively evaluate outcomes. Through this practical, engaging exercise, students will better comprehend the principles of MYP assessment, including the use of analytical rubrics to identify strengths and areas for improvement. This foundational understanding will not only demystify the assessment process but also instill confidence in their ability to meet academic expectations.

Activities for Connections and Belonging

Creating a sense of connection and belonging is key to a successful induction program.  It’s not just essential for a smooth start; it’s crucial for students’ learning and overall life experience.  Team-building activities can be designed to promote collaboration and trust, helping students build strong relationships with their peers. However, team-building is just one way; we can also implement activities that foster inclusion and respect for diversity. When students feel safe and respected, they are more likely to trust their teachers and peers, advocate for themselves, and collaborate effectively. Encouraging students to share their experiences, listen to others, and respect diverse backgrounds helps everyone feel valued and included. This inclusive and safe environment not only enhances student achievements but also builds a strong, supportive learning community. Here are some activities to consider:

All About Me Bag

This activity encourages students to choose three objects that describe themselves and fit into a brown paper bag. When selecting these objects, students should ensure they are school-appropriate, not very valuable, and reflect what is important to them. After selecting their objects, students can decorate their bags to add a personal touch. This activity provides a great opportunity for students to express their individuality, share their interests, culture, and build trust and understanding among classmates. A suggestion is to prepare the brown paper bags for students.

For students who did not prepare their bags, an alternative activity will be provided to ensure they still feel included and have the opportunity to participate. These students can draw or write about three significant items in their lives on a piece of paper. They can then share these drawings or writings with the class, explaining why they chose each item and what it represents about them. This alternative allows students to engage in the activity meaningfully and ensures that everyone has the chance to share and connect with their peers.

Dice Breakers

“Die Breakers” is an interactive game that helps students get to know each other. Divide the class into small groups of 4-6 students and give each group one die and a question sheet numbered 1-6 with corresponding questions. Each student takes turns rolling the die and answering the question that matches the number rolled. This get-to-know-you activity encourages students to share personal stories and interests, promoting deeper connections. Encourage group members to ask follow-up questions based on their peers’ answers to further the conversation. After everyone has had a few turns, bring the class back together and invite volunteers to share interesting things they learned about their classmates. This engaging activity will help students feel more comfortable and connected, creating a welcoming atmosphere for the new school year.

You can find a collection of dice breaker and debrief templates here.

Community Creators 

“Community Creators” is a hands-on activity designed to help students work in groups to explore and define the concept of community. Divide the class into small groups of 4-6 students and provide each group with materials such as tin foil, playdough, or LEGO bricks. Each group will use these materials to collaboratively create an artifact that represents their interpretation of a community. After constructing their artifacts, students will present them to the class, explaining what they made and how it reflects the idea of community. This activity not only encourages teamwork and creativity but also deepens students’ understanding of what makes a community. By sharing their creations and insights, students will build stronger connections and a shared sense of belonging. This engaging exercise will foster a collaborative and inclusive classroom environment.

The video below shows how tin foil can be represented. In case students are using tin foil papers for this activity, teachers may want to prepare scissors, glue guns, and cardboards.

Humans of Our School 

Inspired by the popular “Humans of New York” series, “Humans of Our School” is an activity designed to help students build connections by interviewing their peers and school staff. When students are unsure what questions to ask, they can use the prompt questions provided by teachers. They will work in pairs to interview each other, and are also encouraged to interview various school staff members, including office staff and helpers. Each student will then write up the stories they collect from their interviews. The stories will be compiled into a booklet, showcasing the diverse and unique individuals within the school community. This activity fosters a sense of belonging and appreciation for the contributions of everyone in the school, creating a more inclusive and connected school environment.

Here is a template that I had created previously during Covid time. This template includes prompt questions to guide the interviews and a structured format for writing up the stories. One benefit of using this template is that it ensures all stories are of the same size, making it easier to compile them into a cohesive booklet later. It might be helpful to show students examples before they begin the activity.

Conclusion

While the induction program marks the beginning of the MYP journey for students, its benefits ripple throughout their academic and personal lives. By creating a supportive and structured introduction to the school community, these programs lay the groundwork for a successful and enriching school experience. If you are looking for more ideas, check out “16 Ideas to Introduce the Hidden Curriculum in the First Weeks”.