Middle School

The Middle School years are a time of rapid change as students enter adolescence. Making meaning of relationships with peers and adults and looking for more challenges in academic pursuits are only some of the developmental changes that become increasingly important for our students. The Middle School program supports their desire for autonomy with opportunities for independent work across the curriculum. The social needs of young adolescents are responded to with flexible groupings that include both grade-level and mixed-grade meeting opportunities. With a low student-teacher ratio and the assignment of a teacher-advisor to each student, the Middle School provides personal attention and supportive relationships with caring adults.

Essential to our work with middle school students is the school’s mission to teach children to be active stewards of the urban and natural environments and to embed in that work attention to skills our children need to meet the challenges of 21st-Century learning. Students need to be flexible learners who are skilled in working collaboratively and cooperatively, who are facile in finding and vetting information, and using and creating information ethically and responsibly.

The thematic curriculum in the Middle School focuses on the complexities of citizenship in a global community by looking at intercultural awareness through a study of Africa in sixth grade, the interdependence of communities through a study of Europe and the Americas in seventh grade, and the challenges and responsibilities of American citizenship in a global context in eighth grade. There are many opportunities for extended project time, integrating science, theme, language arts, and mathematics in more depth.The integration of media literacy skills is an integral part of the curriculum. Extended morning meeting times and dialogue circles promote our affective curricular goals.

Beginning in sixth grade, Spanish study intensifies, preparing the middle schoolers for the eighth grade trip to Puerto Rico.  This much-anticipated trip includes a partnership with the lab school of the Universidad de Puerto Rico, where our students enjoy an authentic learning experience, stretching themselves as both Spanish speakers and global citizens.

For a period of three and a half weeks in late winter, Middle School students choose from a variety of mini-course offerings that reflect their interests, such as anthropology, current events, dissection, environmental action, and origami. Students also work on a project intensively, such as performing a Shakespeare play or producing a poetry anthology. Some mini-courses are required, such as "Decisions," in which students learn about nutrition, body image, puberty, sex, and relationships. All students also participate in a book group of their choosing. Classes are led by Middle School teachers, as well as other staff members, parents, alumni, and students. This is often a time when we can collaborate with a city institution, as we did with the National Constitution Center and Rosenbach Museum and Library to produce an online Benjamin Franklin exhibit.

Middle School students lead our Family Groups and Family Group Circles, our traditional grouping of children of different ages throughout the school year that ensures that each child has a core of schoolmates and teachers across the grades whom they know well.

Middle School 6th Grade
Sixth grade marks an important transition in a student’s academic and social growth. Students are now increasingly able to work with abstractions and to appreciate differing perspectives. Socially, this is a time when students reevaluate friendships and challenge assumptions about the world around them. Middle School B offers a safe place to explore the fundamental questions “Who am I?” and “What Makes Me Who I Am?” The sixth grade program puts strong emphasis on developing important 21st-Century skills, including problem solving, critical thinking, life and career skills, innovation, and creativity. Advisors work closely with students as facilitators of their learning.

Middle School 7th and 8th Grades
How can I make a positive difference? As the oldest students in our school, our middle schoolers live this question daily. They develop and exercise their strong academic skills as they wrestle with such concepts as cultural and global interdependence, civic ideals, and media literacy. Leadership opportunities abound for them. They are student government officers, athletic stars, chess champions, and a cappella soloists. They lead books groups, plan school-run events, run the classroom recycling program, trouble shoot computer problems, and mentor younger schoolmates.

HIgh school counselors and student advisors work individually with eighth graders to help them select a high school that fits their learning style, interests, and temperament. Admission directors consider our students well-prepared assets to their programs. Our graduating students choose a variety of secondary school experiences—including private, public, and parochial high schools—and are valued as flexible thinkers, skillful writers, independent learners, talented athletes and artists, and collaborative team members. The students in the Class of 2011 have enrolled in 12 different high schools, including 5 Philadelphia special admissions high schools and 9 independent schools.

     
   
   
   
   

back to top^