Meadow Glen Middle School (MGM) helps all students develop the world-class skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by providing an active, challenging, meaningful, public and collaborative learning environment. As an EL Education school, we focus on educating the whole child. This means that we highlight the importance of students excelling academically and behaviorally. We assess our effectiveness through the three dimensions of student achievement: Mastery of Knowledge and Skills; High-Quality Work; and Character. Our success in the areas of the three dimensions is measured by students’ abilities to demonstrate proficiency according to state standards. In addition to academics, we measure success through a review of the complex, beautiful work they create throughout the year, and we assess their development as ethical people and learners through our Habits of Scholarship. We help children gain world-class knowledge and skills by engaging students in active learning, fostering student leadership opportunities and leveraging community partnerships. Structures such as CREW, Habits of Scholarship, student-engaged assessment practices, student-led Town Hall celebrations, student-led conferences, student passages, expeditions and case studies give our children a plethora of opportunities to utilize the world-class knowledge, skills, and life and career characteristics they need to be successful, productive graduates and citizens of South Carolina.
This past year, to support our students’ mastery of world-class knowledge, we continued to refine our expeditions and case studies at each grade level. In the sixth-grade expedition, “Rules to Live By,” students explored rules that cross historical, social, cultural and governmental forums. In addition, students developed their own rule to live by and presented this to the public and their parents through our “Rules to Live By” grocery bag tags. Our seventh-grade students continued to explore working conditions in the garment and farming industries around the world in the “What’s the Cost?” expedition. In response to their research and data collection, students produced a consumer guide which was shared with our school family to make the community aware of the “true cost” of our food and clothing. Finally, in the “Take a Stand” expedition, eighth-grade students identified a community issue on which they would like to take a stand. Students then engaged in rigorous thinking, reading, writing and speaking as they researched the problem and then prepared a plan. Students then implemented action steps to address their selected community issue. For example, students hosted booths at the “Kid’s Day of Lexington” during the spring of 2018. In addition to the Kid’s Day presentations, some expedition teams participated in a variety of other action steps, including sponsoring a Buddy Walk for students with disabilities and creating emergency kits for pets that need to be fostered during catastrophic events.
In order to support students’ efforts to gain world-class skills, we strengthened a variety of structures. We engaged students in meaningful work that required them to make connections, synthesize their learning and acknowledge multiple perspectives through critical thinking. Students were challenged to make interdisciplinary connections between English language arts and other content areas. As an example, seventh-grade students created vignettes of Frederick Douglass’s life story. As part of this process, students exhibited the ability to think critically about the time period, consider the emotions and thoughts of someone else, and put themselves in Douglass’s shoes in order to create a story that would show (and not just tell) moments in Frederick Douglass’s life. Using an interdisciplinary approach, students used their knowledge of social studies content and historical thinking skills to make connections between their understanding of slavery and other non-fiction texts. Students also leveraged the skills of communication and collaboration in their preparation for Socratic seminars across contents in our school. In eighth-grade science, students researched and worked together to create arguments for and against the funding of NASA, and, in sixth-grade social studies, students developed arguments together to debate the success or failure of Alexander the Great as a leader.
To help children develop strong life and career characteristics, our school continues to develop and strengthen our structures of CREW, student-led conferences and Passages. To celebrate our students’ development in integrity, self-direction, work ethic and perseverance, our sixth- and seventh-graders presented SLCs in the fall and spring semesters. During these student-to-parent conferences, our children presented portfolios of their work and reflections on their Habits of Scholarship. In Passages, eighth-graders presented a more expansive portfolio of work across their time in middle school to a panel consisting of school and community members. Building on the previous year, more than 300 community members served as panelists for Passages, giving each student specific feedback on their portfolio. Students were able to reflect, create and practice these presentations in our advisory structure called CREW. In addition, students strengthened their interpersonal and communication skills as they completed initiatives and engaged in protocols during their CREW classes each week.
Our students’ world-class knowledge and skills as well as their life and career characteristics were further enhanced through our fine arts and related arts classes. Sixth- and eighth-grade students collaborated with the Cross Category special education students to form the Unified Physical Education and Unified dance classes at MGM. The students in these courses worked to support one another in differentiated tasks so that all could participate, celebrate one another's successes and build empathy toward fellow human beings. In STEM, children had ongoing opportunities to practice perseverance during the design and creation of roller coasters in the engineering process unit. All students in the STEM class reflected on their successes and failures, and highlighted their growth in a video of the process.
In addition to the rigorous standards students experience in our core classes, they also cultivated their own world-class knowledge through our Encore classes. Students built robots and coded games in STEM, and created complex products in art based on their learning about artists from around the world. In our outdoor education class, students learned the skills, knowledge and attitudes necessary to become competent at outdoor activities and pursuits so individuals can enjoy physically active outdoor lifestyles. Lastly, students demonstrated the ability to think globally and act locally through a variety of service project opportunities. This year our children led the charge for our “Pack the Pallet” initiative to provide supplies for victims affected by Hurricane Harvey. Due to their work ethic and communication skills, our children collected 14 pallets of goods to send to Houston, Texas. This is just one example of the collective servant’s heart our children have here at MGM.
Whether through service, expeditions, CREW or Passages, our students demonstrated across the board that they are thriving and preparing to create a better world.
Bill Coon, Ed.D., Principal
Barry Raines, SIC Chair