The Ocean: middle Level 6-8
As adolescents work to understand their place in a complex world, they benefit most from problem-based curriculum: identifying questions and seeking solutions.
Welcome to our Ocean classrooms. In middle level, we extend the project- and play-based approach of the younger elementary grades into a problem-based approach for middle-level curriculum. This suits adolescents who are now concerned about questions such as "Who am I?" and "How do I relate to this world?"
The middle-level grades are organized around the distinct developmental needs of early adolescence. Our middle schoolers define questions or problems that they deem important, and teachers help them craft a skill-based, content-rich response. The response may include gathering and analyzing information (everything from a quick Internet search to interviewing an expert to doing original fieldwork) and taking action (everything from sharing results informally with classmates to writing a poem to spearheading a community-wide public awareness campaign). In this way children's learning unfolds as they engage in purposeful activity around topics and issues that have meaning for them.
Consistent with our K-5 grade approach, our 6-8 grade curriculum integrates subject matter and weaves in grade level skills and concepts, rather than separating out disciplines of knowledge and teaching skills in isolation. We use a variety of teaching methods -- direct instruction, skills practice, demonstration, discussion, collaborative learning, role-playing and games, multimedia, and others -- to meet the unique needs of each learner.
As a school community that defines itself as grounded in the progressive tradition of education, we make high school readiness an overt goal of the program. We believe that our middle-level students are naturally already thinking ahead, imagining themselves in high school and preparing for that transition. Instead of passively hoping for the best transition from our school to high school possible, we take a proactive approach and openly discuss, plan with, and instruct students on how each can maximally enjoy and benefit from his or her high school experience.
Click the link below to read or download pdfs of our curricular goals in middle school:
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Each day, our teachers write the class schedule on the board, making time for both project-work and instruction in academic subjects. Our teachers are also mindful of each individual student's personal and academic goals in addition to the group's goals. These are layered into a framework that meets all state academic standards, incorporates our social justice curricular goals, while allowing for recreation and free time, as well as weekly courses in art, music, library, and physical wellness.
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Here's what your child might experience in a typical middle school day:
8:45 Morning Work
Students complete an independent task, which might be a grammar exercise, math problem or puzzle, or another challenge, depending on the class and the day. After some individual work time, students participate in a whole-class conversation about the concept or topic featured in the morning work.
9:30 Group Gathering
Students join the entire school for morning announcements led by a student.
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9:45 Mathematics
Students work on challenging, grade-level math tasks that promote reasoning and problem-solving, with support for those who need it and enrichment for those who want it. With the support of their teachers, students engage in meaningful mathematical discourse to build shared understandings of mathematical ideas.
10:30 Morning Meeting
This is a time to go over the day's agenda and decide together what needs to happen to keep project work moving forward. The morning meeting also serves social and emotional learning purposes as students share their ideas, experiences, and concerns informally with one another and their teacher.
10:45 Daily Mile
Students go for an energizing walk outside, to get their bodies and brains moving. As with morning meeting, this part of the day has social and emotional benefits, and it is also supported by research showing that people learn better after a period of physical activity.
11:00 Project Work
Students carry forward their own purposes in interdisciplinary, long-term projects. (For 8th graders, the second half of the year is spent on individual, self-chosen Capstone Projects that serve as a culminating learning experience for their time at The Children's School.)
12:00 Lunch
Students may choose to stay in their own classroom to eat lunch or to visit with friends in another classroom.
12:30 Recess
Students choose from different indoor and outdoor play or quiet spaces, or may elect to organize a club during recess with friends from 6th, 7th, and 8th grades.
1:00 Independent Reading
Students have free-choice reading. They may bring a book from home or may choose from the thoughtfully developed collections in the classroom and the school library.
1:30 Writing
Students work on a writing assignment. Students share their works in progress with one another and learn to give and receive useful feedback to improve successive drafts of a piece.
1:15 Humanities
This multidisciplinary course combines reading and writing with the study of history, culture, and literature. Students explore important topics together through reading, writing, and conversation. For example, 8th graders might read the memoir of a South African writer, learning about South African history at the same time that they study memoir as a genre and write their own collections of personal narratives.
2:00 Library (or other All-School classes or electives in Music, Art, or Physical Wellness. Electives are offered on a trimester basis, with new selections each trimester.)
Students work with the school librarian to develop the research skills they need in order to carry out their projects. They learn to use search engines effectively, evaluate and keep track of research sources, and create bibliographies.
2:55 Jobs and Checkout
Students help keep the classroom and school running smoothly by performing end-of-day jobs such as caring for plants and pets, tidying materials, and cleaning up. Next, they gather any school materials they will need to take home for homework, and check their planners to see what tasks need to be added or can be crossed off.
3:05 Journals
Students end their day with a quiet time for thinking and reflective journaling.
3:15 Dismissal
(Optional: TCS offers before and after-school programs. Learn more.)
A TYpical Day in an Ocean Classroom
"Pencil Museum" - An Example of
Project Work in an Ocean Classroom
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Often, fascinating project work revolves around exploring the origins of everyday objects. Our 6th-grade class decided to do a project on the common pencil, culminating in the creation of a multi-faceted, walk-through Pencil Museum they erected on our stage. The project is a great example for highlighting how our teachers can weave multiple academic subjects into one project.
In their research, the students delved into geography, geology, environmental science, and economics while investigating where and how the materials for pencil wood, lead, and erasers are sourced. They learned where and how the materials are shipped for manufacture, and how the finished product is distributed for sale. They researched the chemistry behind the different colors and types of pencil lead. They uncovered the history of writing implements and the evolution of the pencil industry.
Math and construction principles came into play with their erection of an enormous pencil large enough for people to walk through and visit multiple displays inside. To create a pencil museum, the students also had to understand the goals and purposes of a museum, and the types of educational displays that normally comprise a museum's exhibits. Each student also authored their own presentation on a specific part of the museum and served as a docent for their display during the final presentation and opening of the museum for parents/guardians, other classes, and the entire school community.
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Middle School Writing at TCS -
A View from One of Our Students
By TCS Student, Aydin
"I am here to either convince or reaffirm your opinion about story writing in our classroom. On an average day, we might do anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour of Writing. On such a day, students are allowed to choose what to work on. They have many options, including working on their publishing party story, the many newsletters and papers, and other personal projects. Personally, I have written 30 pages of my story and multiple articles this year.
So why does it help to be given time to write what we want?
TCS students learn how to write creatively and don’t view writing as a chore that their English teacher forces them to do. Writing isn't just about writing a sentence that uses antidisestablishmentarianism correctly. We learn that it is a tool we can use to express what we want. It’s clear that this works because TCS graduates go on to do very well in writing after they leave TCS. Many are recipients of the Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Award, as well as other writing awards. They also do well in academic writing because they are not afraid to write their thoughts.
In conclusion, your TCS student is learning writing through practice and making excellent works in the art of literature. - Yours, Aydin"
