Middle School (Grades 6-8)

The experiential education program at La Scuola is founded on the idea that early adolescence presents great opportunities for the significant personal and social development of all students. In each year of Middle School, the class engages in an extended travel-learning experience that presents each student with developmentally appropriate physical, social, and cultural challenges. Our trips are closely connected to our program of inquiry and to environmental science and social studies. They also foster a sense of community, love of nature, independence and international mindedness.

Grade 6 and 7 - Backpacking Trip to the California Sierras

Our Grade 6 and 7 students have the opportunity to enjoy a 5-day backpacking trip in the California Sierras. These trips are a wonderful time to bring their learning outdoors and experiment with different ways of viewing the natural environment and how their studies in science, art, humanities, and beyond all play an important part in the environment in which we live. Appreciating beauty is a primary part of the La Scuola curriculum, and there is no better way to do that than sleeping under the stars and spending the week exploring the backcountry just outside of San Francisco. Yosemite serves as a stunning landscape; it's a place where what students have learned across subjects can come to life. An example of this is the study of fire ecology in their Humanities courses. In Yosemite, they can study the causes and effects of fire on the environment by seeing first-hand and speaking with experts in the field. It goes without saying, but the joy and focus on beauty at La Scuola is certainly a perfect fit for a gorgeous location like Yosemite.

Grade 8 - Italy Trip

Grade 8 engages in a two-week travel-study to Italy where students engage in intercultural and language immersion, alpine adventure, and service within a global context.The Italy trip represents a coming together of the three pillars of a La Scuola education: Learning as Action with the International Baccalaureate, the diversity of expression embedded in the Reggio Emilia Approach®, and a fully immersive linguistic experience. Travel and activities are centered around integrating theoretical knowledge and skills into real-world contexts and applications. In this culminating trip abroad, our soon-to-be graduates bring the academic learning that they have experienced throughout the Middle Years Program into broader historical, cultural, and political contexts.

Grade 7 - Residential Service Learning Project

Grade 7 engages in a residential community engagement and service learning project (which is preparatory for the IB-MYP Community Project) that meets the needs of underserved populations in San Francisco. This past year students worked in the food pantry at The Women's Building in the heart of the Mission District. 

The Women's Building is a local nonprofit organization focused on serving and empowering members of the Mission community. Their food pantry provides food for hundreds of families every week; it is an important source of healthy fruits and vegetables in the middle of a food desert. The work is impactful to both our students and local community members, as it gives them an opportunity to interact face to face with local residents, organizations, and community.

This regular service work inspired a math project in which students applied their mathematical learning of statistics and data analysis with their community engagement work in the pantry, analyzing data on food distribution, along with the demographics of the pantry's participants.  The students then presented their findings, offering insights and suggestions to improve the pantry's effectiveness. The feedback from the Women's Building staff was incredibly positive. By combining academic pursuits with community engagement, we are preparing our students for thoughtful and impactful citizenship in their lives beyond La Scuola.

Grade 8 – MYP Community Projects

The culmination of the IB Middle Years program lies in the MYP Community Projects. This capstone assignment asks Grade 8 students, both individually and in groups, to research, engage with, and address a community issue, and subsequently present their findings to teachers, classmates, and parents. In recent years, students have spoken about topics including food insecurity, hate speech, physical education, and mental health resources, to name just a few. Through this extensive project, and with the city as their classroom, students not only sharpen and expand their research and critical thinking skills but proactively engage in community service in a meaningful way. The below graphic highlights the brainstorming process from start to finish.

This project also empowers students to explore their passions, interests, and concerns within the context of their local and global communities. It challenges them to identify real-world issues, devise creative solutions, and take meaningful action, all while developing essential ATL (Approaches to Learning) skills such as critical thinking, self-management, and communication. 
 

La Scuola empowers students to not only learn about technology, but also through technology, developing conceptual understandings and contributing to a prolific learning community within and outside the school, to eventually become conscious digital citizens.

The beauty of the Reggio Emilia Approach® is that teachers and students are free to learn and explore new methods of communication, every day. From PreK onwards, the students learn and love coding and when they come to the Mission Campus, they start using robots in class. They are immediately interested in the program because they can control the action of a small device. As the students become older, the challenges are more complex. What happens when we start applying the coding concepts that we first used with the robots on the computer? How can we build a video game? How can we create a website? Those are constant questions that our students ask and discover, enabling them to learn responsibility and respect in the digital world.

One-to-One Chromebook Program
In our One-to-One Chromebook program, students in Grades 3-8 are provided with their own personal Chromebook for educational use. This program aims to enhance learning by integrating technology into the classroom, allowing students to access digital resources, complete assignments, collaborate with peers and develop essential digital literacy skills. By giving each student their device, the program ensures equitable access to technology, promotes personalized learning and supports a seamless blend of in-class and at-home learning. It also encourages students to take responsibility for their own devices, fostering a sense of ownership and accountability.

Beyond the Classroom
Students can also expand their understanding of technology through our numerous enrichment opportunities. Specifically, students can elect to take a weekly Digital Music and Media enrichment class facilitated by our Director of Music and Performing Arts, Carlo Dean. In this course, students learn to use recording equipment and work on digital media passion projects with the support of our Atelieristas. This fusion of technology and music speaks to the interdisciplinary nature of the academic offerings at La Scuola. 

Device and Social Media Policy
As of this year, La Scuola is a device-free school environment for students. As part of our commitment to this policy, we strongly encourage parents to opt into the Wait Until 8th program, which advocates against cell phone ownership until Grade 8. 

We also encourage all parents to review the U.S. Surgeon General's advisory regarding the mental health effects of social media on children and adolescents. Ongoing discussions about responsible digital citizenship are important to foster both in and outside the classroom.

In their Design class, Middle School students learn the concept of Design Thinking. Every project we do follows the Design Cycle, which is divided into 4 phases.

Phase “Inquiring and Analyzing”

This is the moment in which we delve into the challenge. What is it? Why do we have it? Who is involved? Where is it? Is this part of just a group of people or is it a general problem that everyone can encounter in their lives? Inquiry and Analyzing is a phase full of questions and wonder.

Phase “Developing Ideas”

During this phase we start to think through various solutions to the challenge. Usually each student arrives at one or two personal solutions.  And, once the solutions are discussed in a classroom setting, it is incredibly rewarding how they interconnect with those of our peers, and may even change. During this phase, there is a great deal of collaboration and active listening.

Phase “Creating the Solution”

Once we finish brainstorming our solutions, a final decision needs to be made. This is the moment when one solution is selected, taking into account many interrelated factors.

Phase “Evaluating”

This is the moment in which the final solution is applied, and the consequences are evaluated.

A unique feature of this Design Cycle is that there is no starting or finishing point. These phases can be mixed in the process and the fact that it is not a straight line, but a circle, makes everything more interesting and creative for the students and the teachers.

This year the Middle School students are using the Design Cycle in various projects:

• Producing, scripting, filming, editing, and finalizing four videos that promote the school on various topics.
• Organizing the winter concert, put on by the school.
• Creating displays around a theme for the La Scuola Exhibition.

Thanks to the Design Cycle, students are the protagonists of their learning process and they learn how failure can be a learning moment. Students learn how to overcome emotions and find different solutions. Students become independent in finding new and creative ways to solve problems.

Recently, La Scuola has renovated San Carlos Hall, which is part of our Elementary and Middle School campus in the Mission District. With their stunning city views and Reggio Emilia-inspired interiors, the Art, Science, and Digital Media ateliers are an ideal place for K-8 students to learn about and express themselves with different media. 

The Ateliers are laboratories of a sort: places full of a variety of materials, tools, and media that allow students to further their inquiries and explore new ideas. Loris Malaguzzi, the founder of Reggio Emilia pedagogy, believed that children have ‘100 Languages’ or more with which to express themselves. In an atelier, students might use art, music, graphic design, coding, or tinkering, among other things, to illustrate their learning.

The atelierista plays a key role in the overall curriculum. The atelierista is a professional with unique expertise who supports their atelier and collaborates with other teachers to provide a space and materials for students to continue their inquiry into certain topics in the atelier. For example, a musician in the Music atelier; an industrial designer in the Design Tech atelier; an artist in the Art atelier and environmentalist in the Garden atelier. Atelieristas work with homeroom and subject teachers to assist them in designing projects that will facilitate connections between the concepts being covered in the classrooms.

Learn more about our Ateliers here. 

Fresh fruit and vegetables served each day!

We partner with 54 Mint restaurant and catering to provide organic, whenever possible, locally-sourced daily lunches to our students, faculty and staff. Vegetarian, dairy-free and gluten-free options are available.