6-8 grade programs share one N-8 identity. This identity is based on:
- the potential of learning without limits;
- the blurring of the lines between tradition and innovation in our practice;
- the emphasis on challenging and meaningful work; and,
- the critical importance of teacher/student relationships, relationships of shared curiosity, respect, and joy.
Manifesting the N-8 Identity
How does this N-8 idea manifest itself? How are these things palpable? And, why are they important in your child’s education and preparation for our Upper School?
Learning without Limits on a Permeable Campus: At Wheeler, N-8 students enjoy a permeable campus. Students learn on the 216 Hope St. block, at the 120 acres at the Wheeler Farm (home to Forest Fridays and the Farm Program,) and in the Waterfire Arts Center home of the Cityside Program. Learning environments vary from conventional classrooms to stands of conifers, to public parks and community agencies, and finally to studios and athletic space. In this way, Wheeler’s N-8 is more of an educational set of principles and approaches than an isolated, physical place surrounded by literal and figurative walls. Whether nursery students dig in the dirt for earthworms learning the fundamentals of soil biology (without knowing it) or are 8th graders participating in a longitudinal study of water quality in the Woonasquatucket River, the students’ educational experience is hands-on, experiential, and vivid. Truly exciting to me is the opportunity a permeable campus affords: learning limited only by the curiosity of the student rather than by walls and limited resources. Many schools, including Wheeler, tout learning without bounds via internet-connected technology. But Wheeler’s N-8 Divisions offers the Wheeler Farm, Providence, and beyond as learning environments.
Expert, Flexible and Individualized Teaching: Wheeler N-8 students are surrounded by expert teachers who can move flexibly between more “traditional” educational practices and programs in all disciplines and those required for a 21st-century education that befits the Wheeler name. Often, the new and old are expertly mixed. In a lesson ostensibly designed to promote social-emotional learning through practicing empathy, nursery students expand and develop their vocabulary and reading skills. And wherever they teach, Wheeler N-8 teachers are predisposed to reach all students. They reach the more socially activated students through collaborative projects and draw out the talents of a quieter student by finding what lights them up in the curriculum. They use their colleagues to work out new ideas and consider new approaches to reach each child. Teachers are able to reach a broad range of students because they work on a permeable campus and in collaboration with talented professionals. For example, teachers bring out the best in a student named Sarah who struggles to sit still during morning meeting and focus on anything but her friends. They use the Farm as a classroom creating learning opportunities so she can collaborate with others to figure out how fulcrum points work on a plank balanced on a rock. This elementary lesson on basic physics would not be as vivid and memorable were it not for regular use of the Farm. And for Sarah, were we one campus with conventional classrooms, learning would be a struggle.
Meaningful, challenging work: Wheeler N-8 teachers have a love/hate with the concept of rigor. They tend to be disinclined toward the 20th-century version of rigor where students, particularly older N-8 students, endure a cycle of read, memorize, test, read, memorize, test only to forget what they were tested on and to be understood as a set of numbers. The 21st- century version emphasizes a multi-layered approach where students solve open-ended problems, use multiple resources (internet-based and not) for research, work collaboratively, and produce work that demands effective communication, logical and creative thinking, careful consideration of audience, and high-level executive functioning. As a 7th grader, Sarah no longer ha