The Field Middle School Curriculum
All middle school students take core classes, including English, math, science, history, language, studio (visual and performing arts), PE, and meet in their advisory on a daily basis. Students are also asked to participate in at least one sports season per academic year.
Critical Thinkers
Our curriculum prioritizes deep thinking and gives students many opportunities to practice essential, interdisciplinary skills. Our English and History programs teach students to become active, critical readers of literature, utilizing primary and secondary sources and a variety of media. Over time and with intentional practice, they become fluid and precise writers and create written pieces for many different audiences and purposes. Our students learn to develop arguments based on researched facts. We know that reading helps students develop empathy, and we ask students to read a wide variety of texts and sources to understand themselves and others.
Nurturing Scientific Inquiry and Mathematical Thinking
Our science courses teach students to think like scientists and to cultivate an essential understanding of physics, biology, earth systems, ecology, and engineering. Our state-of-the-art labs are sites of scientific play and experimentation, where students test out theories, define problems, and make their solutions real. Our Mathematics program is centered on the belief that all students can think like mathematicians. While building a foundation in algebraic thinking, they learn to use math to make sense of and solve real-world problems. Incoming students can take a placement test to determine their readiness to take more advanced courses like Geometry in 8th grade.
Fostering Language Proficiency and Cultural Appreciation
Our World Language program values communication and cultural understanding. Students learn that language is both an artifact of and a creator of culture. Starting in sixth grade, they develop an understanding of the history and common structures of our two language offerings (French and Spanish) and then select a language to pursue more deeply in 7th and 8th grades. Our language classes connect students to the Hispanic and Francophone resources in our local area while researching and exploring these cultures worldwide.
Growth and Creativity in Middle School
Middle school is a time of immense growth and creativity, and our Studio Arts program harnesses that and gives students the opportunity to try new forms of visual and performing arts. All students entering our program develop foundational skills in design-thinking and experiment in many media and modes of expression, including 2D, 3D, movement, and music. Students then have the opportunity to go deep into our Studio offerings during their 7th and 8th grade years and into the upper school.
Field students have multiple avenues to discover new passions, engage in meaningful conversations, try new things, and connect with diverse groups of individuals. Middle school students can pursue their interests in our after-school programs in Music and Theater and during our co-curricular time. Students have the opportunity to join book groups, work on creative writing projects, play pick-up basketball and soccer in the gym and on the turf, join language conservation clubs, and work on passion projects in our maker space.
Through sustained inquiry, our students come to see themselves as innovators and change-makers and build the skills and mindsets to tackle real-world challenges and develop a sense of individual and community identity.
Planning and Reflection
Field students thrive when they pose and pursue meaningful questions and use their tools and habits to develop their own well-reasoned answers, which often lead to the next question. They also thrive through the structured teaching of and practice of executive functioning skills, so planning, goal-setting, reflection, and self-assessment are core to our practices in their daily advisory meetings, academic classes, and co-curricular programs.
Social-Emotional Learning
Social-emotional learning is also foundational to our program. Our physical education and health program provides regular exercise and teaches students to make informed physical and mental health decisions. Advisors and teachers encourage students to speak up, to listen well, and to be kind to themselves and to others. Our faculty coaches them to navigate the natural turbulence and inherent joy of this time in their lives. Middle school students are expected to collaborate and, in the process, learn to leverage the diverse strengths of teams and develop a deep sense of belonging.
Intersession
At The Field School, Intersession refers to a brief break or mini-term strategically placed between the standard academic terms. During Intersession, students have the opportunity to engage in short, accelerated classes or complete additional academic work beyond the regular curriculum.