Academics
The Winston Way
Middle School
Middle School Program
The Winston Middle School Program (serving Grades 6-8) provides a safe, supportive, and structured environment in which students are encouraged to expand their academic knowledge while developing their study and organizational skills in preparation for high school. Students in the Middle School develop the confidence and ability to explore and understand their personal learning styles in depth while becoming strong self-advocates and more independent, confident, and self-motivated individuals. Maintaining a small group learning environment, subject departmentalization begins in grade six, and students focus on core academic subjects while fortifying and expanding essential foundational learning skills.
The Judith Hochman Method, a process-based approach to writing, continues in the Middle School as students expand their writing skills across a variety of genres and for a wide array of audiences.
Literature and novel-based studies are used to encourage students to think critically and analytically about text and story content. Additionally, students participate in supplemental programs and auxiliary services such as: Winston's Love of Language (LOL) program, Lexia, Wordly Wise, Linguistics, speech and language therapy, and occupational therapy. Mathematics continues to emphasize a blended learning culture of direct instruction, digital engagement, student collaboration and hands-on experiences. All students in the Middle School program are provided with a Learning Ally account. This resource provides each student with a library of audiobooks to support their studies and foster independence in reading. Science and social studies focus on project-based instruction with curricular connections to language arts and mathematics. Art, music, technology, and public speaking courses continue to emphasize cross-curricular connections, maintaining relevancy of subject content and student learning.
Students in the Middle School Program are divided into grade-level homerooms with subject-specific teachers in reading, language arts and writing, mathematics, science, and social studies. The curriculum strives to parallel grade-level academic standards and addresses the individual learning profile of each student with flexible grouping and appropriate pacing. Collaboration between teachers, specialists, counselors, and therapists allows for continuous monitoring of academic progress. Routine communication with parents is provided through weekly Progress Reports, Report Cards, and fall and spring Parent-Teacher conferences. This ongoing communication facilitates a dynamic school-home-student partnership and further encourages student growth and independence in a supportive and collaborative space.
WINTERM
In additional to the instruction of core academic subjects, a variety of special activities and events are held during the school year, with many exciting project-based experiences and field trips to support real-world connections. Winston's WINTERM is a project-based academic term where cross-curricular collaboration is emphasized across subject disciplines. During this term, students participate in project-based learning activities united by a common theme. These experiences foster teamwork and collaboration and allow students to develop personal interests and try new activities.
