Middle School Program

Grades 5th – 8th

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A Focused Middle School Experience

Concordia’s middle school experience is unique and inquiry based. An extension of the elementary classroom setting, you can expect small class sizes, multiage learning, rigorous curriculum adapted for personalized challenges and needs, and opportunities to develop leadership and social emotional habits.

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How do we approach learning?

Personalized learning at Concordia means students being appropriately challenged at their personal level whether that is at, below, or above the traditional level expected for a student at a particular age.

At the middle school level, this also means that students take more ownership of their learning through goal setting and making decisions on how they learn best.

Students may need additional help in one subject while needing to be challenged academically in a different subject.

Concordia assesses the individual needs of a student and works with them to strive.

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Curriculum

Concordia uses Common Core Standards, Next Generation Science Standards, and Washington State Social Studies Standards to guide each child’s personalized learning experience.

In conjunction with Gradient Learning, we use Illustrative Math as our middle school math curriculum. Gradient provides project based units and content that we adapt for our own setting and students.

Gradient Learning

Gradient Learning is a program that combines rigorous curriculum that requires critical thinking, collaboration, and resilience with teaching practices and classroom culture that promote building life-long habits of success.

Instead of simply memorizing information, students are given the time, support, and resources they need to wrestle with new material and experiences to build a concrete understanding of concepts.

Teachers see the day-to-day progress of each student, enabling them to meet students where they need support and help students advance quickly where they are most engaged.

This approach ensures students don’t fall through the cracks.

Special Classes

In addition to the core subjects, students participate in classes taught by specialist teachers:

Fine Arts (Art and/or Music) – 2x/week

Physical Education – 2x/week

Bible Study: 4 times/week + Chapel 1x/week

Spanish: 2 times/week

Character: 2 times/month

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Class Sizes & Multi-Age Learning

Rather than traditional grade levels, Concordia students learn in multi-age teams (20:1 Student: Teacher maximum, average 12:1).

This ensures that students develop relationships and community with peers at their social-emotional level, are challenged academically whether they are at, below, or above “grade level” expectations, and build self-confidence in a Christ-centered community.

Team Woodlands

Team Woodlands (5th-6th grade) – Ages 10-12

Woodland students solidify who they are amongst many “individual trees” in the woodlands, build community with others, and experience the benefits of various relationships. Academically, this age group is also able to build better connections between academic content and the world around them.

Team Cardinals

Team Cardinals (7th-8th grade)– Ages 12-14:

Cardinal students will continue to solidify their foundation, use more critical thinking skills, and graduate their final year equipped to be independent and confident in the world outside of Concordia.

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Additional Student
Experiences

Leadership Opportunities

As the oldest students on campus, students have opportunities to interact with and lead the younger students during school community building events, service projects, and as serving as officers in our houses.

Sports

Basketball

Outdoor Education & East
Coast World Strides
Experience

Team Woodlands experiences a 2-3 night outdoor education experience with other Lutheran middle school students from around the Northwest. Team Cardinals go on a trip every other year to Washington DC, New York City, and Philadelphia to expand their learning experience.

Field Trips

Our middle school teams go on monthly field trips to expand learning. Field trips have included trips to Seattle Children’s Theater, Pike Place Market, Nordic Museum, bowling, bouldering, Burke Museum, Woodland Park Zoo, tide pooling, and more.

LEST (Lutheran Elementary
School Tournament)

Our middle school teams compete every winter at a tournament with other Lutheran schools in our region (WA, OR, ID, AK). Students compete in subjects such as: mathematics, robotics, writing, art, science exposition, spelling, music, and more!