The International Baccalaureate Program for Middle School is designed for students aged 11 to 16. This period, encompassing early-to mid-adolescence, is a particularly critical phase of personal and intellectual development and requires a program that helps students participate actively and responsibly in a changing and increasingly interrelated world. Riverstone believes that learning how to learn and evaluate information critically is as important as learning facts.

At Riverstone International School, the Middle School Program provides a curriculum which allows students to develop the knowledge, attitudes, and skills they need to participate effectively in life in the twenty-first century. Students learn in a broad base of disciplines to ensure that they acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to prepare for the future, including ten key attributes and dispositions in our students:

Inquirers	Thinkers
Communicators	Knowledgeable
Risk-Takers	Caring
Principled	Well-balanced
Open-Minded	Reflective

THE CURRICULUM MODEL
The Middle School program offers a comprehensive approach to learning where the student is at the center of the curriculum model. The curriculum consists of eight subject groups that students study through the five areas of interaction; approaches to learning, community and service, environments, human ingenuity, and health and social education. Knowledge is presented as an integrated whole, and emphasizes the acquisition of skills, self-awareness, and the development of personal values.

ASSESSMENT
Varied and valid assessment tasks allow students to demonstrate achievement according to the objectives for each subject group. Students engage in peer and self-assessment, and they are provided with detailed feedback on their progress as it relates to the assessment criteria for each subject group.

Assessment activities draw upon:

• Open-ended, problem-solving activities
• Analysis and reflection
• Investigations
• Hands-on experimentation

ADVISORY PROGRAM
Through the Advisory Program, the school seeks to provide a setting in which students will develop positive relationships with other students of all ages and with faculty members who serve as advocates for the students. Consisting of groups of 10-15, each student is assigned to a full-time faculty member in the Middle School. An advisor's role is to guide and support and to get to know his or her advisees well. As advisors and advisees work together, they get to know the student's family well and often develop close and lasting relationships. Advisories meet every week on Mondays from 2:35 p.m. - 3:20 p.m. to discuss academic, social, and emotional issues and to participate in assigned group activities.

ASSEMBLY PROGRAM
Assemblies provide students with the opportunity to share and reflect upon learning experiences that have taken place during the school year with the school community. Students perform skits, present speeches, share artwork, and participate together in an effort to present learning that has taken place in Riverstone's various programs, and serve as a platform in which news and announcements are shared. Providing students with extra curricular learning experiences, the staff invites speakers from the greater Boise community to share their knowledge and perspective with the students. Discussion topics relate to: local environmental and political issues, various themes in character education, outdoor education, and much more.

HOMEWORK PHILOSOPHY
Homework at Riverstone International School's Middle School is considered to be an individual and personal matter. The needs of each student are stressed and the quality of work is emphasized. Homework is not given as "busy work," but rather requires students to do what is useful at various stages of learning. Overall, homework at Riverstone International School' Middle School is seen as a way to reinforce concepts and to reflect upon learning experiences that have taken place during the school day.

The nature and duration of any particular homework assignment a will vary from student to student. In general, research supports that up to ten minutes of homework per grade level is a developmentally appropriate amount of work for students once they reach first grade. Thus, students in Grade Six can expect up to an average of approximately one hour of homework per night, whereas students in Grade Nine can expect anywhere from one and a half to two hours of homework a night.

Additional information about the IB can be found on their website at www.ibo.org.

If you would like to know more about the Middle School at Riverstone please contact: Alex Ide, Middle School Director at aide@riverstoneschool.org or (208) 424-5000 (ext 2107).

ABSENTEE HOMEWORK POLICY
In the case of a child's absence due to illness, classroom teachers should be contacted for specifics regarding missed assignments. Homework should not be requested until the second day of a child's absence. In the case of foreseen extended absences, it is important that arrangements are made with the classroom teacher prior to the child's departure. Classroom teachers should not be asked to plan work for time away when it goes beyond school vacation dates. When family vacations extend beyond those designated by the school, parents are responsible for helping a child make up the work upon his or her return.

HOMEROOM PROGRAM
Homeroom is a compulsory course required of all Middle School students in Grades Six through Nine. Homeroom classes take place on Tuesday and Thursday Afternoons from 2:40-3:20 pm. Learn more about Riverstone's Middle School Homeroom Philosophy and Scope.