WFS Specific

WFS-specific components of middle school, division-wide, include Human Dynamics and Development courses in each grade; advisory (see department listing); collection and activities; committees and clubs; Meeting for Worship and Meeting for Business, modeled on Quaker practice; service learning (see department listing); and the WFS technology program (in addition to computer science - see CS department listing for computer courses).

Human Dynamics and Development is a cross-divisional (lower, middle, and upper school) program at Wilmington Friends, encompassing social and emotional awareness, interpersonal relationships, and healthy living habits, including strategies and processes for making informed decisions.

Collection & Activities

Collection: Collection, a regularly scheduled (every-other week) assembly of the entire middle school student-body and faculty, is an opportunity for shared community experiences. Typically, these include presentations and performances by students, faculty, and visiting artists and speakers.

Activities: Sponsored by middle school faculty, the Middle School Activities Program is an opportunity for students to participate in fun and differently paced experiences during the academic cycle. Students sign up for an activity twice in the school year. Activities meet every-other week for 45 minutes. Some activities include dice baseball, cricket, Origami, dramatic improvisation, low impact camping, surfing the Internet, Latin American dancing, mind teasers, indoor soccer, chess, kickball, S.P.O.R.T.S. talk, cake and cookie decorating, "philm and philosophy," silly videos, and international cooking.
Committees & Clubs

Committees: In our middle school, students are directly involved in community decision making. Students organize and run committees that seek to improve the quality of middle school life. Faculty members sponsor each committee, but they are not decision makers; they are simply guiding members. Individual students are selected by the Quaker process of consensus for leadership roles and then attend leadership workshops to develop facilitation and group-management skills. All committee plans and decisions are arrived at through consensus as well. While this process is often not a quick means to decisions, it values and, indeed, requires all voices.

The Middle School Oversight Committee (MSOC), based upon the Upper School Student Discipline Committee (SDC), nurtures and oversees the development of a safe, respectful, and inclusive middle school community by reviewing and recommending disciplinary action in instances of student behavior issues. It is supervised by the Dean for Students and comprised of a permanent group of four members, one from each grade and a clerk. These members sit on each case that is brought before the committee. The remainder of the students who have applied to serve on the committee, and have completed the necessary training for participation, are selected on a rotating basis to sit in on cases.

Clubs: Middle school students are invited to propose and organize clubs based upon shared interests. Clubs require a faculty sponsor and typically meet during middle school lunch. Examples of include Drama Club and One Direction Club, among many others.
Conflict Resolution 7

This course invites students to investigate, analyze, understand, and practice strategies to manage inter and intrapersonal conflicts. Students learn effective negotiating skills in the pursuit of non-violent resolution of conflict. Some of the topics discussed include trust, friendship, conflict starters at home and school, conflict makers vs conflict solvers, choosing vs reacting to conflict, the power of calming statements and deep breathing, I-messages, taking responsibility, courage, listening to understand others’ perspectives, brainstorming solutions and choosing what is fair, apologizing, thanking, forgiving, empathy, compassion, and how to manage anger and avoid violence. The goal of the course is to equip students with skills to navigate and negotiate conflict in their lives, and to view conflict as an opportunity for growth.
Decision Making 8

Human Dynamics and Development is a cross-divisional (lower, middle, and upper school) program at Wilmington Friends, encompassing social and emotional awareness, interpersonal relationships, academic skill development, and healthy living habits, including strategies and processes for making informed decisions.

"Decision Making" and "Capstone Investigation"

In this alternating seminar course, students enrich their decision making skills and utilize scheduled time to pursue their Capstone Investigation. In Decision Making students enhance their self-awareness, develop perspective on the internal and external forces acting upon them, and broaden their knowledge about healthy/unhealthy behaviors. The course does not seek to instill values, but is designed to provide students with an opportunity for clarification of their own. Students identify their personal decision-making styles, learn a decision-making rubric and practice using it in practical, authentic applications. They explore the external factors that influence decisions and learn factual information needed to make informed decisions about matters affecting their emotional and physical health.

Students periodically use the class period to attend to their Capstone Investigations. A student’s Capstone Investigation asks them to explore something (a topic, a question, a goal, a hobby, a solution to a problem, etc.) that they find meaningful to themselves and others through disciplined investment of their time, energy, and creativity. The culminating product of the investigation involves the presentation of evidence showing the process of learning, growth, planning, adaptation, discovery, communication, time management, resilience, mindfulness, collaboration, creativity, inquiry and engagement applied to the fulfillment of the investigation.

The focus of class meetings will alternate between the two content areas every three-to-four seven-day cycles.
Extra Help

Extra help is designed to provide immediate or short-term assistance to students experiencing difficulty in or having questions about the work in an academic subject. A student may seek extra help from a teacher by appointment, or a teacher may require a student to attend an extra-help session. Extra help is most often scheduled during the daily 2:10 Excel Study Hall period. Depending on the availability of the teacher, extra help may also be scheduled (by appointment) before or after school or during study hall periods. Extra-help sessions with a teacher may involve one or two meetings over a short term. When extra help is not sufficient to maintain satisfactory progress in a course, additional or alternative out-of-school measures, such as tutoring or educational testing, may be recommended.
FIRST Lego League

Complementing Wilmington Friends School’s curriculum and educational philosophy, the mission of FIRST LEGO League (FLL) is to inspire and celebrate science and technology (FIRST: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). FLL challenges kids to think like scientists and engineers. Teams build, test, and program an autonomous robot using LEGO MINDSTORMS® to solve a set of missions in the Robot Game. They also choose and solve a real-world problem in the Project. The FLL Tournament is a competition that allows students to demonstrate their team’s accomplishments and earn recognition for excellence in various aspects of the process. Robot design and performance, teamwork, sportsmanship, and documented research are some criteria the judges use to determine award winners, and present the trophies that signify team excellence. Teams are expected to follow the FIRST credo of "gracious professionalism," which includes generous cooperation and sharing of knowledge at all times.
Mastery Program

The mastery program in middle school is a semester or year-long, student initiated and student produced project designed to develop that student's talents, interests, and skills. The emphasis is on achievement and completing a finished product that is either presented or displayed publicly in a polished, masterful way. Mastery projects may include academic research papers, visual and performing arts projects or performances, special teaching units, and physical projects.
Meeting for Worship and Meeting for Business

MEETING FOR WORSHIP

At the heart of Friends School is the Meeting for Worship. Friends (Quakers) worship as a group. In the middle school this may take the form of an entire division (6th-8th grades); mixed-small groups of 10-15 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students; advisory group; or a whole grade level. Students and faculty gather in “attentive” or “expectant” silence. Anyone who feels moved to do so may stand and speak briefly. The school tries to help students find ways of using silent meditation effectively for worship. Reflection on inward leadings and shared messages gives students and adults, informed by their own religious identity and values, a meaningful opportunity for moral-intellectual growth.

MEETING FOR BUSINESS
The business meeting clerk, agenda clerk, and recording clerk (all students selected by their peers) set an agenda for the monthly business meeting. The business meeting follows the Quaker method of decision making through consensus. Significant, student-initiated changes have been made to middle school life and operations through student-led initiatives in committees (see below) and business meeting.
Study Skills and Connections 6

The Connections element of this course seeks to develop students’ interpersonal and risk-assessment skills, with lessons on values clarification, self-esteem, friendship, puberty, and the effects of alcohol and tobacco consumption. Students will develop a more explicit understanding of how and why they make choices. The course, first, provides information, so that students have and appreciate the importance of having sound factual data on which to base choices; and second, builds social and emotional awareness, so that students recognize factors other than factual data that influence their choices.

The Study Skills portion of the course introduces necessary strategies for learning in middle school. It focuses on executive function skills - academic behaviors that influence learning outcomes across the content areas. The WFS middle school planner is utilized as a central tool to enhance organization, metacognition, time management, task prioritization, and goal setting.

The focus of the once-per-seven-day-cycle class meetings will be “Study Skills” during the first semester and “Connections” during the second semester.
Technology Program
Wilmington Friends has a one-to-one laptop program for students in grades 5-12. Students use their school-issued laptops both at school and at home, for computer-based work in all disciplines. The goal of the program is not simply to expand the use of digital-age tools, but to make the most of the opportunities presented by technology in service of our educational and philosophical mission. The potential of technology for collaboration across all kinds of boundaries aligns with the Quaker belief in collective wisdom and the commitment of Quaker schools to prepare and inspire students “to make a better world.” It also aligns with research demonstrating that technology as a thoughtfully applied tool within a quality curriculum deepens student engagement, supporting both independent learning (including differentiated instruction) and collaborative problem solving.

The laptop program is a tool to help us reach the following objectives:
1. To advance the development of 21st century skills such as collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, and adaptability—skills recognized as increasingly essential to advanced studies, public service and citizenship, and leadership in industry.
2. To enable faculty to incorporate technology more easily into their lessons, and to support their unyielding efforts to maintain an innovative learning environment for students.
3. To deepen the student-centered approach to teaching and learning.
4. To provide all of our students with equal access to and compatible forms of technology at school and at home.
5. To improve the performance and efficiency of our school’s computer network, further increasing student access to technology.
WEB MS Orientation Program

WEB stands for “Where Everybody Belongs” and is a nationwide program whose purpose is to help sixth graders feel more comfortable as well as help them achieve success in their first year of middle school. The WEB sixth grade orientation and transition program is designed to both welcome and support sixth graders by assigning them an 8th grade WEB Leader as a mentor during this first year. This WEB Leader is a responsible older student who was selected from a large pool of applicants and has met the qualifications of being a good role model and a positive leader on our campus.

MS Curriculum Detail

WFS Specific