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"We are constantly watching after and interacting with our students. Among our students there is sometimes the sense that perhaps the adults care too much. But to us, it is a matter of not allowing a single student to slip through the cracks."
— Deb Sampey, Middle School director
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Sixth Grade
Mystery Unit |
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Much of the curriculum involves active, experiential learning. When eighth graders read Romeo and Juliet, they are likely to attend a professional performance of the play; when seventh grade math and science students study the speed of sound, they actually go out to the park and time how long it takes to hear the noise a garbage can makes after being hit by a hammer; and in the sixth grade's Native American storytelling unit, students hear authentic tales from a Native America storyteller, then each tells a story following this tradition.
In all disciplines, close attention is given to reading, writing, and study skills, with an eye to preparing students to deal with the additional work and demands of the Upper School. Wherever appropriate, an interdisciplinary approach is taken. When the sixth graders learn scientific observation they are also reading mystery novels in English and digging for artifacts in social studies class. In seventh grade students read the novel Things Fall Apart while studying cultures in West Africa. The eighth graders investigate the Civil War in history and take what they have learned to write a biography about an imaginary civil war era character in English.
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