Middle School Strands

Our Middle School Program provides a strong sense of community within the sixth-eighth grade classes.  We provide a learning model that supports various study group configurations, which can be either grade specific or blended, depending on the subject, individual needs, and interests.

We weave together different subjects and strands and provide community experiences over the course of the year that expand children’s opportunities as community members and storytellers.

Language Arts

We focus on engaged and active reading and shared inquiry discussions. Active reading means engaging in a dialogue with the text: asking interpretive questions about the story and understanding how different elements of a story fit together. To aid this inquiry, we work on the practice of annotation as we consider how the various elements of a story—setting, plot, character, point of view, tone/mood, theme, and conflict—fit together. Through this inquiry, students begin to verbally articulate theories about individual characters’ choices but also about authorial intent, using supporting evidence from the text. They also learn to identify and distinguish between different genres of writing.

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In Writer’s Workshop, students learn to confidently craft writing with diverse aims and audiences. Students develop and explore their Writing Territories, a personal collection of topics and interests about which they have or wish to build knowledge. Through field trips and the collaborative, interdisciplinary nature of a Q education, students learn to exercise their writing abilities across genres and across disciplines. As they practice writing in different forms, students learn to employ detailed language—through vocabulary choice and the use of adjective, metaphor, simile, and other literary devices—in increasingly sophisticated ways.

Social Studies

Sixth Grade students have the opportunity to continue their study of World Religions. This continuation of their studies from fifth grade allows for a sense of continuity as they begin middle school and also deepens their understanding of ideas they began to study in fifth grade.  During this year students continue learning through cultural stories, field trips and traditions from World Religions.

Seventh and Eighth Grade students begin a study of American Issues that lasts for both seventh and eighth grade.  In American Issues, students first explore the relationship between their own identity and society as a whole. They begin thinking about what it means to be an American, and how identity and history of the United States is the product of a multitude of individual perspectives, voices, and choices. Students read and discuss letters, poems, and stories representing different experiences of different individuals in the United States. They considered how each person’s story contributes to the larger narrative of United States history. Then from this point students began to think critically about what democracy and freedom mean in US history and in their own lives.  We are dedicated to using primary sources (including speeches, texts, transcripts, maps, and other government documents) to learn about groups and moments in history.  In doing so, students also develop a fundamental tool of historical analysis: sourcing the document. Sourcing is the process of evaluating the reliability of historical evidence based on who created it, when they created it, and why they created it. Thus, before engaging with the content of a document, historians consider its origins and then use that information to better understand what its content can tell us about the past. This is a key skill to introduce because students (of all ages) tend to accept historical documents at face value or to judge documents based on whether they agree with the content.

Music History 
 

Students explore the impact of different musical influences throughout American History. We watch performances, research iconic singles and albums, and investigate the stories behind these works - paying attention to why many of these musicians and their contributions remain under recognized. This exploration deepens students’ understanding of music as both an art form and a historical narrative. 
 

Mathematics

The purpose of middle school math is to build a bridge between fundamental arithmetic skills and more abstract algebra, geometry and multi-step story problem skills.  As such, it is important to increase students’ overall mathematical maturity more than mastering just a series of specific sequences of techniques.  Mathematical maturity consists of:
 

• comfort and patience with difficult/abstract new topics

• longer attention span for multi-step problems

• familiarity with new symbols, a habit of showing work 

• building new ideas on top of old ones, forging interconnections and patterns

With this in mind, it is important to expose students to a broad curriculum and give students practice with a variety of mathematical experiences including real-world problems, number puzzles, code breaking, tests, discussions about ideas, history and applications of mathematical ideas for invention and architecture, and on-going math challenges and games that encourage practice and flexibility in thinking and application. 

Science

During their middle school years, students develop their understanding of how ecosystems are formed and how they are affected by changes to their environment.  These three years of study include investigations of how the systems and organs of the human body function and work together, and the basics of virology and microbiology. Students also get to investigate the ecosystems of forests and how the different visible and invisible worlds interact.  Finally students study the chemistry of matter and how this chemistry is affected over time in a more robust relationship as students bring together all of these ideas and relationships through field trips, research papers, presentations and interviews with scientists.  

Languages

Students continue their work in Mandarin or in Spanish.  Students are challenged to participate more fully in conversation in Mandarin and Spanish as their understanding of the structure of the language and  their vocabulary steadily grows.  Students also study the cultures and traditions that are celebrated and affect the language.

The Arts

Visual Art: Students engage with many different mediums and techniques throughout their middle school journey fostering creativity and skill development. For example, students explore color, light, and value through watercolor, and practicing drawing and painting from life, learning to observe and draw with pencil and colored pencils. Students study the works of great artists and discover mediums and subjects they investigated.  For instance, we discuss Rembrandt Van Rijn who created a multitude of self portraits over his lifetime. Students observe his portraits at the MET and discuss how he used lighting, expression, and texture to convey emotion and detail. Inspired by these studies, students create self-portrait projects using mirrors, employing a slow and deliberate process that emphasizes observation and introspection. In our art journey, we teach students to slow down and look, rather than assuming they already know their subject.  Students find joy in learning how to work over time on projects and become invested in both the exploration and the project they are working on.  In the middle school years, we also assist students in developing their art portfolio in order to support more advanced work and admissions into art programs.

Theater: Students participate in three full play productions in middle school developing both on-stage and off-stage skills.  Students are given tools to develop their acting skills and confidence as well as experience and background in costume design, playbill creation, set-design and creation, and stage management skills. 

Music: Students have the opportunity to be part of a middle school chorus directed by a world-class conductor and teacher.  Students learn through vocal warm-up techniques, accessing their upper, middle and lower registers. In class, they learn proper breath support and resonance and strive for optimal singing posture to produce a healthy and grounded sound. Students work on music pieces from varied genres such as “Lascia ch’io pianga” from the opera Rinaldo by G.F. Handel, “Blue Skies” arranged by Roger Emmerson, and “This Is Me” from The Greatest Showman by Pasek and Paul. All of the pieces they work on are performed in both a Winter and Spring Pageant to give students the ongoing experience of presentation and performance.
 

Movement/Dance: Students take weekly movement and dance classes with skilled dance instructors at a professional dance studio, Dance Matters.  The goal of these classes is to expand students’ understanding and mastery of using their bodies expressively through dance and movement. The experience fosters physical confidence, coordination, and creative expression.