Roots Middle School
Project-Based - Multi-Age - Character Driven - Real World Relevance - High Standards
Project-Based Learning
At Roots, our middle school program centers around large-scale, multi-discipline projects. Project Based Learning (PBL) is an educational approach that brings an array of academic subjects together into a single project that is grounded in relevant, hands-on, practical applications.
For example, The Lake Chelan Cookbook was a project our middle school undertook. It brought together writing, cooking, photography, website design, marketing, social media, publication (you can buy the book at any bookstore in the country), and more.
Our students interviewed restaurant owners, took and edited photos, gathered recipes from the community, studied the history of food in America, designed marketing materials and connected with media groups (did you see the piece in Foothills magazine covering the project?), and much more.
We believe PBL is the single most effective way to make classroom learning connect with the real world, while also encouraging students to realize that academic disciplines don’t exist in a vacuum.
Multi-Age Classroom
As with our elementary program, Roots Middle School is a multi-age experience. Our MS brings together sixth through eighth graders in a single room. Total number of students typically ranges from 12 to 18.
Why multi-age?
At Roots, we recognize that grade levels are an arbitrary division. Students advance both academically and socially in ways that do not align with traditional grade-level progression. For this reason, our philosophy is to focus on where each child is at in their development, placing them appropriately in classrooms that reflect their learning and maturity.
Multi-age classrooms are also a great benefit for students of all ages. Older students develop critical leadership and mentoring skills. Younger students engage directly with student role models. And all students grow in an environment that closely resembles the real world, where you are appreciated for your attitude, character and skills rather than your age.
Character Matters
At Roots, we believe character cannot be separated from education. Who you are as an individual, as a member of our community, as a citizen, as a human being, is of greater importance than mere academics.
Our program focuses not just on interdisciplinary learning, but also upon developing students as young people embarking on the first stages of adulthood.
Our middle schoolers thrive in a setting that demands and teaches responsibility, self-awareness, no excuses, teamwork and accountability.
Our students regularly engage with the broader community (you’ll find us every Wednesday at The Vogue Coffee Bar downtown), learn directly from adult experts drawn from the Chelan Valley (such as photographers, computer programmers, and local business leaders), and interact with community projects (such as writing and submitting detailed recommendations for the Lake Chelan Library renovation).
Time and again when our students have graduated and moved on to public high school, we hear from teachers, principals and civic leaders that our students are model citizens and at the very top of the institutions they advance into.
Mr. Tyler, Roots Middle School Teacher
Looking back over this school year, it is not the larger picture that stands out in my mind. Like a journey, what I recall are individual moments, small ones that might pass unnoticed by others, that perhaps have already been forgotten by the students who lived them.
They are, for lack of a better word, moments of grace. And while they are specific to a particular child, they speak to the tenor and the humanity of this class as a whole.
Early in the year I had a student who missed the first chunk of class. By the time he came in, we’d finished the reading that morning. Now this student’s reading abilities are low, and it would have taken him considerable time and effort to do the reading on his own. But without any prompting at all, Wyatt Sather stood up, snagged a copy of the reading, and guided his classmate into the hallway. They sat together while Wyatt patiently read the work aloud, answered his classmates questions, and made sure his friend understood the text so that he could complete the lesson with us.
Later in the year, JJ Stockdale underwent emergency surgery. He was rushed down to Wenatchee in the back of an ambulance. In spite of the considerable pain he was in, he would later describe the drive to me as, and I quote: a fantastic ride. He returned home the following day, and I told our class that he was recovering well. A few students texted JJ that afternoon, but Ethan Wright, entirely of his own accord, ventured the half dozen blocks to Safeway in search of a bouquet of flowers. Ethan is tall, blond, gangly, baby-faced. He must have looked like a slightly nervous and uncertain boyfriend a bit overwhelmed by his new responsibilities, but those flowers weren’t for a girl. They were for JJ, and Ethan walked them another six blocks to JJ’s house and delivered them in person.
At Halloween the school hosted a Harry Party party. An entire room was given over to a modified version of Quidditch, the favorite wizarding sport of the novels. Fletcher Brandt was Seeker on one team, and my five-year-old daughter, Beckitt – who had never heard of Harry Potter before – was Seeker on the opposing side. For ten minutes Fletcher hunted furiously for the snitch, desperate to find it and notch a win for his team, and he spotted it about five seconds before Kitt did. And in a moment of pure graciousness entirely uncommon in middle school boys, he waited for her to see it, let her snatch it up, and enthusiastically congratulated her on the victory.
My students are remarkable young people, and I am honored to be their teacher. And while I genuinely believe most of who they are comes from the guidance, the love, the blood and sweat and tears put in by their parents, I have also worked in education long enough to know that where you go to school matters.
Roots is not just a school. Roots is a series of choices. It is the end result of decisions made in contemplation of culture, values, and beliefs. Any school can make these choices. Any school can choose humility instead of arrogance, integrity instead of lip service, character instead of the whims of whatever fad is popular at the moment. Any school can. Few do.
So when I am asked: why Roots? I think without hesitation about the moments of grace I witness every day in our hallways and classrooms. Moments that can only flourish in an environment where the content of your character and the character of your culture are not an afterthought or a slogan or a bumper sticker but rather are the foundation upon which you build your community and your future.
Excerpt From Speech Given at Roots Annual Fundraiser
Enrolling in Roots Middle School in Chelan
Students from the Roots elementary school program have first priority for middle school. Enrollment for students from other districts is done on a case-by-case basis.
The admission process for middle school follows the same process as the elementary school. Click below to learn more about admissions.