Tessellations – The Beneventi School

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Journeys - Middle School

Journeys - Middle School

Journeys are the heart of the Tessellations curriculum. Journeys are a project-based, approach to instruction that weave English Language Arts, social studies, science, history, and art into a meaningful and integrated storyline, instead of treating the subjects as discrete classes. During each semester-long Journey, students develop conceptual understanding through critical examination, deep reflection, and making meaningful connections to the real world, all in a collaborative learning environment.

Journeys begin with a launch, an immersive experience that hooks students into the project. From there, students travel to several destinations, where they focus on different units of study. Destinations incorporate enriching, hands-on activities as well as guest experts and fieldwork experiences. Each Journey also incorporates a service learning project or an opportunity to give back to others. The Journey culminates in a celebration to showcase all that the students have learned and accomplished. Journeys are informed by state and national standards, and teachers assess students constantly and adjust curriculum to meet students’ needs.

Journeys create rich, memorable, and meaningful learning experiences in which students gain a deep understanding of the importance of and relationship between the disciplines. The result is a high level of student engagement, increased knowledge retention, affinity for school and learning, and a well developed set of academic and critical thinking skills that students are able to apply to all future intellectual endeavors.

Here is an example summary of a recent Tessellations Journey, completed over the course of a year by our 6th and 7th grade students.

Example Journey: In Search of New Life

The 6th/7th grade Journey, In Search of New Life, provided an interdisciplinary invitation to students to contemplate the origin of life, the possibility of extraterrestrial life, and the complexity of human lives in motion. The science curriculum began with lessons and investigations into astronomy, exobiology, the Drake Equation, and communication with advanced civilizations elsewhere in the galaxy.
The array of learning activities, from creating constellation models to inventing theoretical organisms to inhabit a variety of exoplanets, allowed students to research, understand, and form their own opinions on the existence of other life forms in the universe. Teachers then guided the focus from outer space to the connections that create life on Earth, focusing on chemical reactions, acids and bases, the periodic table of elements, biochemistry, cells, and evolution.
Students participated in a number of hands-on science experiments like measuring molecules, testing polymers, and a food chemistry lab to gain an atomic understanding of their surroundings. Students then investigated current events shaping the human experience on earth, incorporating studies of global environmental issues and the events and politics surrounding climate change. Students created and shared informative podcasts with the Tessellations community and completed a unit at our Nature Campus studying the causes of natural phenomena like the recent atmospheric river storms in California. A class study of the fiction book Project Hail Mary brought rich discussion connecting science and humanities lessons.
The Humanities curriculum began with a focus on the complexities involved in human migration. Students considered what it means to be in search of a new life. Students researched and presented on a number of complicated historical and current events that caused people to move and the subsequent impact on individuals and communities. Studies of literature like Malala Yousafazi’s We Are Displaced and Laurence Yep’s Dragonwings, as well as the art and music of social justice movements, enabled students to increase their understanding of one of the most pressing global issues today: human displacement.
Students then got involved with those impacted by displacement in their local community and volunteered with the organization Dignity Moves to assemble furniture and shelter for those who are experiencing homelessness in the Bay Area. Students made connections to their own lives by completing a detailed genealogy study, sharing their family histories with one another, and encountered many rich stories that widened their understanding of and relationship to the interrelated nature of our global population. Finally, students completed their Journey by considering the ideas of belonging, comparing and contrasting scenarios in which people moved by choice versus being forced to leave, and the impact of belonging on one’s identity and lived experiences.

Middle School Life