Experiential Learning: a Pillar of Middle School

During Middle School’s Pillar Week, students engage in off-timetable learning as part of the school’s innovative Global Leadership Program.

“Ultimately, the goal is to engage in project-based learning, to not be following a usual schedule with classes but to connect with organizations from outside of the school, connect with teachers doing practical hands-on lessons centred around a theme or a topic, and then from there better understanding who they are and what they can do,” says Julie Clement, Director, Middle School.

Grade 6 focused on leveraging social media for wellness. Students developed and presented innovative product pitches to a panel of judges.

Grade 7 delved into Indigenous skills, including leather and wool mitten making, lacrosse, fire safety, outdoor cooking, and solar oven creation at Blue & Silver Farm.

In Grade 8, it was all about food where students explored everything from insecurity to nutrition. The week culminated with students creating culturally-fused budget-conscious smoothie bowls for a food truck fair where they showcased both their culinary and entrepreneurial skills.

Madeleine Houle is a Grade 8 student in her first year at Pickering College. The fall Pillar Week was her first.

“It’s fun. It’s intense. You’re working every day, all day on a topic for a week, but it’s fun to get a break from just the same schedule every day,” she says. “It’s fun to find a broad topic and then attack it from different angles and learn from all points of view.”

As part of the food exploration, Madeleine and her classmates took part in nutrition workshops, visited the Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto to learn about food insecurity, planned and grocery shopped for smoothie bowls, and designed and created food trucks for the fair.

“My favourite part of the week was making our food trucks. Our topic was Indigenous culture, so our food truck was very nature-based and we had these little lights. It was really fun painting it and seeing our idea come to life,” Madeleine says.

Outside of the main topic, the students learned other skills throughout the week.

“I learned how to budget my money because we had to buy our own ingredients, and ingredients are expensive. That also added to our Daily Bread Food Bank experience,” Madeleine says. “Also, I was on a team with two other students, so we worked together on our project and we learned a lot of collaborative skills.”

Collaboration is an important piece of Pillar Week and experiential learning in general.

“Our students are learning to work in teams with other students who offer different skill sets, figuring out who can do what and how, so that together they can come to the best solution for a problem that’s being proposed,” says Clement. “That is a critical skill in their success as they move into Senior School, but also out into the world.”

Middle School represents the Pillar Years section of the Global Leadership Program and Pillar Week is one part of that, helping students become leaders.

“It doesn’t mean that you necessarily have to be the loudest voice, but it means that you have the desire and the skills and the responsibility to take action,” Clement says.

Experiential learning in Middle school boosts students’ confidence to take action by helping them recognize an issue and use the skills they have to speak to it, come up with a prototype, or persuade others toward a solution.

As learners, Clement says the Middle School students are youthful, curious, and starting to think at a high level, which is why experiential programs like Pillar Week are so important.

“The experiential approach to learning is so critical in continuing to develop them as a learner,” she says. “We want them to be able to develop the skills that we know they’re going to need, solving these real-world problems and teaching them that, so as they move through high school, they know what they’re learning is relevant to everyday life.”