Middle School

By the time Ascend students reach the fifth grade and enter middle school, they have acquired the requisite academic skills, mental stamina, and engagement in schooling to participate in an uncommonly ambitious course of study.

The SABIS program remains at the core, with two full periods each day of studies in English language arts and mathematics. Students study science and social studies every day; continue their daily instruction in Spanish; and study art, music, physical education, and dance each week.

In addition, beginning in grade 5, students will participate in Ascend’s humanities, writing, and arts program for two periods a day. Excellent critical reading, writing, arts appreciation, and public speaking skills are the primary goals of the program. Modeled on the practices of the city’s finest private schools, the program will develop the individual voice and reading sensibility of each Ascend student by supplementing the SABIS reading materials with a customized syllabus that includes a cross-cultural selection of classic literature. Many selected works will connect thematically to museum-quality reproductions of great works of art that will hang in hallways and specially designed “gallery” spaces throughout the middle school facility. These gallery spaces will be designed for Ascend students to gather outside the classroom to discuss a work of art relevant to a literary work they are studying or a writing assignment they are developing. For example, Jacob Lawrence’s “Brownstones, 1958” painting of street life in Harlem would supplement a unit on the poetry of Langston Hughes. Local visiting writers, whose work will be anticipated throughout the year, will both guest-teach classes and give a public reading open to the school community in the spring.

Open-form discussion of literature and the emphasis on developing individual written voices and interpretive skills will be a new experience for Ascend students entering the middle school. The emphasis on developing as attentive readers, listeners, and scholars with distinct written styles and unique perspectives will deepen their abilities to empathize and communicate with others. The program will encourage students to take risks, and inspire creative leaps in interpretation and self-expression.