Middle School - Fifth Grade To Eighth Grade

Our Middle School (fifth grade through eighth grade) is a developmentally responsive learning environment that promotes the healthy academic, social and emotional growth of young adolescents. Our teachers value working with adolescents and have the training to do so effectively. This results in students pursuing their academic passions, feeling empowered to take intellectual risks and developing leadership skills.

Teachers work with students to translate high expectations into concrete, supported standards and clear models of intellectual rigor. The middle school curriculum is relevant, challenging, integrative and exploratory, with a focus on developing habits of mind and heart so that each student can reach his or her intellectual, personal and spiritual potential. Teachers attend to the diverse learning styles and varied interests of each student.

With three full classes at each middle school grade, we are able to provide a healthy social environment for young adolescents, and the opportunity for them to form and strengthen relationships with each other.

Thinking outside the grade; learning outside the walls

Middle school students at each grade level develop critical thinking skills by participating in humanities enrichment classes entitled, “PhD,” “Explorations,” “Big Ideas” and “Worlds Within Worlds.” The courses are designed so that students can delve into ideas and themes from a variety of perspectives. While feedback is given throughout these courses, there are no grades. Students explore and learn as they become interested in each course’s rich curriculum.

Middle school students at each grade level also have opportunities to learn outside of school, both in the Chicago area and the region beyond. Trips to Chicago’s museums and institutes, to state forest preserves or Camp Timber-lee in Wisconsin, and to Springfield—Illinois’ capitol—expand horizons and help students understand that learning can be done inside or out.

And then there's service learning—it isn't just a buzzword at BZAEDS, it's a robust program. Middle school students at each grade level are assigned a theme—aging and memory, hunger, the environment and immigration—with learning about core issues within that theme connected to projects both in school and in the community. Our students spend time visiting the elderly and sick, feeding the hungry, taking care of the earth and welcoming newcomers to their communities.

Advisory: Building relationships & taking care of others

Our middle school advisory program supports meaningful relationships and promotes enhanced learning. Every student is matched with an advisor who oversees the student's social, emotional and academic growth. We emphasize trust, respect and individual and community responsibility in addition to core Jewish values of tikkun olam (healing of the world), gemilut chasadim (acts of loving kindness), tzedakah (charity and justice) and tzelem elohim (treating ourselves and others with dignity and respect). We believe kol Yisrael arevim zeh ba zeh (we are all responsible for one another).

Our students graduate from middle school with the essential knowledge, skills and habits to succeed in Chicago's highly competitive college preparatory high schools, along with a strong Jewish identity. Graduates are recognized as student leaders with powerful academic foundations and good characters. The area's most highly selective high schools prize our students.