Fifth Grade - Sixth Grade

Fifth and Sixth Grades at Norwood are years of transition and transformation. Though now members of the Middle School, for these two years students remain in the homeroom structure to which they are accustomed. This gives them a point of familiarity and grounding as they begin to handle the increasing independence afforded our older students. Beginning in Fifth Grade, our students receive lockers, tablet computers, cafeteria lunch, and the opportunity to participate on the School’s interscholastic sports teams. Learning to balance these broadening opportunities and responsibilities with increasing academic demands is at the heart of their education during these transitional years. Students learn to plan for and execute long term projects, and they start to employ higher-order thinking skills with as they are asked to make connections from one class to the next or from their lives to the work in front of them. Our faculty is there to support them through each step, or occasionally shepherd them when needed, as they prepare for the further challenges awaiting them in Seventh and Eighth Grades.

Seventh Grade - Eighth Grade

Norwood teachers love seventh and eighth grade students. Our teachers tap into the students’ desire for independence and guide them on paths to self-advocacy and original thought. They tailor the curriculum to parallel the students’ quests to establish an identity of their own. They help the students realize that they are not alone in the world and that there is as much value in being an individual as in not being too different from their friends. It is during these years that Norwood gradually prepares the students for the type of learning they will find in high school while still providing the care and attention appropriate to their age. More seminar-style discussions are held, more complex projects and essays are required, and mid- and end-of- year exams are administered. Through all of this change, however, our teachers never lose sight of engaging the students through the relevance of the work and the connections they can make to it. During these years of rapid change, Norwood continues to understand our students’ changing motivations and continues to motivate them to learn at their highest level. It is with great anticipation of more frontiers falling before them that Norwood graduates leave us and enthusiastically look forward to taking their love of learning to their next schools.