Thinking about the 6th Grade

Today Mitch, Norman, Marcella and I met for 45 minutes to discuss the role of the 6th grade in the school. When our stand-alone 6th grade program was founded four years ago, it was conceived of as the linchpin between our Upper Elementary and Middle School programs.  For example, it was located on the first floor, literally between the two 4/5 classrooms, and students flowed between the rooms for ongoing projects through the early years. The 6th graders were acknowledged as having their own unique needs, and they were also asked to shift between being leaders for the Upper Elementary students, and "first years" in the realm of the Middle School.

When the Wildcat classroom was moved to the second floor three years ago, to make room for the kindergarten shifting from the ECC to the University Campus, the connections with the 4/5 became more tenuous as the students physically lost contact with each other, and the 6th grade became more integrated with the Middle School. Similarly, collaboration around classroom projects slackened, and times that were once shared, such as P.E. or recess, were now conducted separately.  Furthermore, while we gladly welcomed an influx of students in our 6th grade from other elementary programs, those students had little or no prior personal connections with the students and teachers of the 4/5 classrooms. And, as you can imagine, 6th graders look up to the middle schoolers and are vocal about their preferences to be with the older students, rather than the younger ones.

The goal of our meeting was not to "solve" any particular problem, but to lay out the landscape and history of the program, and to pose the key question that will help us create a strong and consistent program: What do we want the relationship of the 6th grade to be with our Upper Elementary, and with our Middle School? This is a conversation that we will broaden to include our faculty at the 4/5 and 7/8 level, and from there, we'll explore possible opportunities for structural elements (shared classes) and cross-grade interaction (curricular projects and learning).