Middle Schools

Kenmore and Shakespeare

Eighth grade Read 180 students are looking at how Shakespeare has been portrayed in film, dance, music, and theater. They will then perform a Reader’s Theater of “Midsummer Night’s Dream.”  Students are also researching a poet from their country of origin and create a powerpoint. Students must highlight the countries of their birth (Geography skills), write a short biography of a poet they select and choose a poem, analyze it for poetic techniques and present all to their class mates.

Jefferson Ethics in Science Socratic Seminar

Inquiry-based instruction continues at Jefferson, even while students are engaged with SOL testing. An example is the Ethics in Science Socratic Seminar held with eighth graders. Science Teacher Rachael Bernstein and Gifted Resource Teacher Hunter Benante collaborated to create a unit that involved students viewing a TED talk and reading actual case studies of ethical decision-making on Science issues. The seminar elicited insightful views from all students as they made connections between the texts and themselves, the school community and the world. The IB learner profile trait, “principled” is one of 10 important character traits the school seeks to develop in students. This unit empowered eighth graders to explore this quality and implications of ethical decisions through the lens of the subject area.

Kenmore Rain Garden

As part of her International Baccalaureate (IB) Creativity Action Service (CAS) Project and Girl Scout Gold Award project, Washington-Lee Senior, Cailin Dyer partnered with Kenmore sixth grade science teacher Liz Castillo to build a rain garden at Kenmore. The idea for the rain garden was based on research sixth grade students did on the water quality of Four Mile Run, the amount of impervious surfaces on the Kenmore property and storm water run-off observations. Though much of the work was done by the sixth graders, several Washington-Lee seniors provided the muscle needed to dig the initial trench for the garden.  Additional activites will be added daily.