About Middle School at Friends
Friends Middle School offers a balanced curriculum for students in Grades 5 to 8, featuring vigorous instruction in core academic subjects, complemented by in-depth thematic studies. Students have many opportunities to explore and express their interests and ideas in the context of close relationships with teachers and a supportive school staff.
Our approach to education addresses the academic, social, emotional and spiritual aspects of the growing adolescent. During this time of rapid growth and increasing independence, our highly-experienced teachers facilitate and provide developmentally appropriate activities and projects that lead to self-discovery, skill building, and abstract thinking.
Our overall goal is to create a learning community that emphasizes Quaker testimonies, self-expression and connection to real life concerns. As older middle school students prepare for high-school, they leave Friends School confident in their capabilities and goodness.
Our approach to education addresses the academic, social, emotional and spiritual aspects of the growing adolescent. During this time of rapid growth and increasing independence, our highly-experienced teachers facilitate and provide developmentally appropriate activities and projects that lead to self-discovery, skill building, and abstract thinking.
Our overall goal is to create a learning community that emphasizes Quaker testimonies, self-expression and connection to real life concerns. As older middle school students prepare for high-school, they leave Friends School confident in their capabilities and goodness.
Mural Created by Friends Middle School Students Gains Local Attention
Full story at Centre Daily Times
Bulletin board paper may be useful for school projects, but it doesn’t hold up as well on its own as a permanent fixture.
As 11 middle school students at State College Friends School learned about the push for civil rights, they began working in early January on a “Until All of Us Are Free” paper mural — made entirely of thumbprints — dedicated to people who died advocating for those rights.
Students completed the mural in about a week and displayed it until Friday, when it was disassembled by local photographer Michael Black and local artist William Snyder III, who plan to turn it into a permanent display piece and make a digital copy. Its focal point is a portrait of Martin Luther King Jr.’s mugshot from a Birmingham, Alabama, jail. The work includes statements from King, names of African-Americans shot and killed by police and more than 3,600 thumbprints. Full story available at Centre Daily Times.
Full story at Centre Daily Times
Bulletin board paper may be useful for school projects, but it doesn’t hold up as well on its own as a permanent fixture.
As 11 middle school students at State College Friends School learned about the push for civil rights, they began working in early January on a “Until All of Us Are Free” paper mural — made entirely of thumbprints — dedicated to people who died advocating for those rights.
Students completed the mural in about a week and displayed it until Friday, when it was disassembled by local photographer Michael Black and local artist William Snyder III, who plan to turn it into a permanent display piece and make a digital copy. Its focal point is a portrait of Martin Luther King Jr.’s mugshot from a Birmingham, Alabama, jail. The work includes statements from King, names of African-Americans shot and killed by police and more than 3,600 thumbprints. Full story available at Centre Daily Times.
(Pride) In the Name of Love, by Teacher Bailey Kellermann on Vimeo
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Middle school students feeling free . . . to be a little silly. Play may look a little different for adolescents, but there is no absence of creativity, fun, and joy in middle school at Friends.
As a community, we celebrate the Quaker testimonies of Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality and Stewardship. For more than 30 years, these values have been the foundation of or work, helping children to become successful learners who are confident, creative, and compassionate. Our teachers and staff model these testimonies and encourage students to embrace these fundamentals beyond the walls of school and throughout their lives.
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Every April I am so grateful for Friends School. While other children are taking practice PSSA’s and nervously working through those tests, our children are actively and passionately engaged in preparing their class plays. And what plays these are! |
Middle School Exploration
“I've never run into a person who yearns for their middle school days.”
Jeff Kinney, author, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”
“Nothing could be as hard as middle school.”
Zooey Deschanel, actor
When asked by their teachers if these quotes mirrored their experiences in Friends Middle School: “Well,” said one, “the work is harder than in elementary school, but I would expect that.” Another student offered, “I think they’re talking about public school. I’ve been there.” Several nodded. At Friends, they agreed, you are known as an individual, and you don’t feel pressured to be part of a social clique. As one student said, in Friends Middle School “you just get to be who you are.” Teachers in the Friends Middle School work every day to make it a safe, welcoming, and inclusive space while maintaining strong, preparatory academics, and the students benefit.
Jeff Kinney, author, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”
“Nothing could be as hard as middle school.”
Zooey Deschanel, actor
When asked by their teachers if these quotes mirrored their experiences in Friends Middle School: “Well,” said one, “the work is harder than in elementary school, but I would expect that.” Another student offered, “I think they’re talking about public school. I’ve been there.” Several nodded. At Friends, they agreed, you are known as an individual, and you don’t feel pressured to be part of a social clique. As one student said, in Friends Middle School “you just get to be who you are.” Teachers in the Friends Middle School work every day to make it a safe, welcoming, and inclusive space while maintaining strong, preparatory academics, and the students benefit.
Middle School Curriculum Snapshots
History
Much of our Middle School curriculum comes from the Zinn Education Project and Zinn's award-winning text, A Young People's History of the United States. The Zinn Education Project describes its goal as introducing, “students to a more accurate, complex and engaging understanding of United States history than is found in traditional textbooks and curricula. The empowering potential of studying U.S. history is often lost in a textbook-driven trivial pursuit of names and dates. People’s history materials and pedagogy emphasize the role of working people, women, people of color and organized social movements in shaping history. Students learn that history is made not by a few heroic individuals, but instead by people’s choices and actions, thereby also learning that their own choices and actions matter. We believe that through taking a more engaging and more honest look at the past, we can help equip students with the analytical tools to make sense of -- and improve-- the world today."
Watercolor painting by student Mattie Carey depicts a runaway slave's dream of freedom.
Much of our Middle School curriculum comes from the Zinn Education Project and Zinn's award-winning text, A Young People's History of the United States. The Zinn Education Project describes its goal as introducing, “students to a more accurate, complex and engaging understanding of United States history than is found in traditional textbooks and curricula. The empowering potential of studying U.S. history is often lost in a textbook-driven trivial pursuit of names and dates. People’s history materials and pedagogy emphasize the role of working people, women, people of color and organized social movements in shaping history. Students learn that history is made not by a few heroic individuals, but instead by people’s choices and actions, thereby also learning that their own choices and actions matter. We believe that through taking a more engaging and more honest look at the past, we can help equip students with the analytical tools to make sense of -- and improve-- the world today."
Watercolor painting by student Mattie Carey depicts a runaway slave's dream of freedom.
Science
Throughout their middle school years students at the Friends School continue to explore science through hands-on, inquiry-based instruction. Whether it’s exploring Einstein’s gedanken, learning about protists by making microscope art, or producing a rainbow-hued range of pH values from homemade indicators science is both engaging and preparatory. During their four years in middle school students will complete challenging, thought provoking courses in biology, physics, chemistry, and environmental stewardship. These courses are designed to both prepare students for high school success, and to provide them with the foundation they need to be active stewards of their world.
Throughout their middle school years students at the Friends School continue to explore science through hands-on, inquiry-based instruction. Whether it’s exploring Einstein’s gedanken, learning about protists by making microscope art, or producing a rainbow-hued range of pH values from homemade indicators science is both engaging and preparatory. During their four years in middle school students will complete challenging, thought provoking courses in biology, physics, chemistry, and environmental stewardship. These courses are designed to both prepare students for high school success, and to provide them with the foundation they need to be active stewards of their world.
Geography
In middle school geography, students undertake the ambitious task of learning to draw an accurate World map by heart. Students accomplish this task not through rote memorization, but rather by learning about the World’s countries and peoples through history and cultural study. Being able to draw a map of the World and its countries by heart is an important rite of passage to the middle schoolers and it prepares them to be thoughtful, peaceful, and open-minded World citizens. It’s hard to care about people in a news story, whose lives seem worlds away, when you’ve never even heard of the place they call home. This course is also a fundamental chance for students to practice growth mindset. At the beginning of each year, most of the students doubt that they will be able to accomplish the task, but they quickly learn that with hard work and perseverance, even the most challenging goals are within their reach.
In middle school geography, students undertake the ambitious task of learning to draw an accurate World map by heart. Students accomplish this task not through rote memorization, but rather by learning about the World’s countries and peoples through history and cultural study. Being able to draw a map of the World and its countries by heart is an important rite of passage to the middle schoolers and it prepares them to be thoughtful, peaceful, and open-minded World citizens. It’s hard to care about people in a news story, whose lives seem worlds away, when you’ve never even heard of the place they call home. This course is also a fundamental chance for students to practice growth mindset. At the beginning of each year, most of the students doubt that they will be able to accomplish the task, but they quickly learn that with hard work and perseverance, even the most challenging goals are within their reach.
English
Study after study has shown that readers become better readers by reading, and writers become better writers by writing. That belief underscores everything we do in middle school English. Typically, four classes per week are dedicated to writing workshop, and one class to reading workshop. During writing workshop days, we have mini-lessons which are often focused on a specific skill (grammar, editing, genre, conventions, etc.). The rest of the class period students engage in regular, sustained writing. Much of our writing work this year has focused on short story composition.
On reading workshop days, students read self-selected novels. They lounge around the room like cats, as Teacher Laura wanders between them having whispered conversations about what they are reading. Students are encouraged to read for at least 30 minutes every night.
Much of what we do in middle school English is inspired by the work of Nancie Atwell, who writes:
There is no more important homework than reading. Research shows that the highest achieving students are those who devote leisure time to reading, even when the school day and year are only mid-length and homework isn’t excessive. Recently, the largest-ever international study of reading found that the single most important predictor of academic success is the amount of time children spend reading books, more important even than economic or social status. And one of the few predictors of high achievement in math and science is the amount of time children devote to pleasure reading . . .
Study after study has shown that readers become better readers by reading, and writers become better writers by writing. That belief underscores everything we do in middle school English. Typically, four classes per week are dedicated to writing workshop, and one class to reading workshop. During writing workshop days, we have mini-lessons which are often focused on a specific skill (grammar, editing, genre, conventions, etc.). The rest of the class period students engage in regular, sustained writing. Much of our writing work this year has focused on short story composition.
On reading workshop days, students read self-selected novels. They lounge around the room like cats, as Teacher Laura wanders between them having whispered conversations about what they are reading. Students are encouraged to read for at least 30 minutes every night.
Much of what we do in middle school English is inspired by the work of Nancie Atwell, who writes:
There is no more important homework than reading. Research shows that the highest achieving students are those who devote leisure time to reading, even when the school day and year are only mid-length and homework isn’t excessive. Recently, the largest-ever international study of reading found that the single most important predictor of academic success is the amount of time children spend reading books, more important even than economic or social status. And one of the few predictors of high achievement in math and science is the amount of time children devote to pleasure reading . . .
Mindfulness
Throughout the year students complete Mindful Schools’ adolescent curriculum in mindfulness. This curriculum gives students lifelong tools for building emotional resilience and productively handling stress.
Throughout the year students complete Mindful Schools’ adolescent curriculum in mindfulness. This curriculum gives students lifelong tools for building emotional resilience and productively handling stress.
There's much more to share, and the best way to do that is to have your family visit with us to learn more about our curriculum and the culture of community here. Call Lisa Gamble, Associate Head of School at 814-237-8386, or email Lisa at lgamble@scfriends.org
Hands-on learning at the Wetlands Institute in Cape May, NJ brings greater understanding of concepts taught in the classroom at school.
Visitors are welcome to explore our small, independent middle school. Please contact Lisa Gamble to arrange a day for a visit.
