Engaging Falk Middle Schoolers with New Electives Program | News

March 5th 2026

#FalkMiddleSchool #Progressive

At Falk, we strive to put students at the center of their learning journeys. Promoting agency and fostering deep connections with areas of interest are important aspects of a Falk education—which is why Falk Middle School introduced an electives program in 2025 that allows students to choose their own courses each trimester.

The Inspiration

Even though Falk has experimented with electives throughout its history, Director Jill Sarada says course selection has never been elective-based until now. Students have always had the opportunity to choose which clubs they participate in and whether they join the spring musical cast, but the closest the school came to flexible course selection was occasionally offering third-trimester electives for students not in cast. That all changed, however, when the Middle School team read 10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People.

"10 to 25" book cover

What they learned is that when people are given choices, their engagement increases. Since one of Falk’s core tenets is that students should be actively engaged in their learning, brainstorming more ways to incorporate choice into the Middle School experience was a natural next step.

For many years, Falk has also been guided by the 21 Wishes for Our Children, one of which states, “we wish for our children to have a growing and deepening intellectual interest in at least one curricular area.” Reflecting on this during the 2024–25 school year, Sarada says, “I was wondering if we were creating enough space to live out that wish [and] give the kids the choice [they need].”

The Process

From there, a team of Falk teachers and administrators began figuring out how to bring an electives program to life. “I think we all kind of agreed it made sense developmentally,” Director of Student Services Joanna Newlin shares. “Allowing [students] to focus more on one area of interest just seemed [to] align with our mission.”

That said, there were certain parameters and limitations they had to work within, making the whole project an interesting puzzle. The seventh-grade WonderLab curriculum, for example, includes a capstone project where students build playground equipment for their Primary peers, and each year, all Middle School students participate in the spring musical as cast or crew members. Because these community-based projects are essential to the Falk experience, they were built into everybody’s schedules rather than becoming opt-in electives.

Students performing "Frozen JR" at Falk

Faculty also decided to have more required courses in sixth grade than in seventh and eighth grade, ensuring that students are exposed to a wide variety of content areas before diving deeper into any one subject.

Finally, teachers were surveyed to determine which classes would be made mandatory across grade levels, resulting in a small number of requirements spanning one or more trimesters. All students must enroll in a movement class each trimester, for instance, and seventh and eighth graders all take one trimester of Digital Citizenship.

Aside from these guidelines, humanities blocks were now open for self-selection. Over the summer, students were sent an online form to make their choices for the year, and when school started in August 2025, their schedules were tailor-made to their unique intellectual interests.

The Impact

Approaching the end of our pilot year now, Middle School Division Director Adrienne Floro says, "I've heard from teachers that they feel the engagement is up, which makes sense because the kids actually are choosing to be there [and] want to be there.”

Middle schoolers doing yoga on the terrace

On top of that, faculty have been able to deepen and differentiate their course offerings across disciplines. Jacques Minniefield, for instance, is expanding the school’s yoga program to include one dynamic, strength-based class, one slower, relaxation-based class, and one breathwork class. In the physical education department, Rachel Campedel is introducing a variety of specialty classes, including yard games, net sports, and fitness training.

Some teachers have even taken the opportunity to create entirely new courses, like librarian Emma Kagan’s deep dive into Falk’s history and archives and Lane Ward’s collaborative Lego robotics class.

Students in Lego robotics class

“It's one of those really gratifying things in my career,” says Floro. “It's a leap of faith at first, but then when the momentum builds, it's like a snowball downhill. It just grows, and you start to build on that success—it's really exciting.”

Another exciting outcome of the electives program is its impact on Middle School advisories, which meet every day for 20 minutes and offer students a dedicated space to build community, set intentions for the week, share announcements, and attend in-school clubs. Historically, students were pulled out of their advisories for band and chorus rehearsals, regularly disrupting this community time.

Now, however, music ensembles can be offered as electives built into the school day, allowing all students to remain in advisory and participate more fully. “That is just an added benefit of doing this,” says Floro, “that now we can actually build our advisory program” and offer deeper character-building and social-emotional learning opportunities.

The Feedback

Throughout the implementation process, students and teachers were asked to share course suggestions based on their personal and academic interests. Some student ideas—like volleyball, film, and ceramics—are already set to be included in the lineup next year, and others—like cooking and survival skills—will be considered in the future.

Students were also asked to evaluate their registration experience. One thing Floro worried about was whether students at camp over the summer missed out on sign-ups and had their classes selected by a family member in their absence. However, when asked during the survey if a parent or guardian chose their classes for them, zero students said yes. Most respondents also indicated that the online registration platform and process were easy to navigate.

Still, in the interest of constant improvement, Middle School leadership decided to update the process for the 2026–27 school year by having students choose classes in the spring rather than over the summer. “We're keeping to a tight timeline,” Floro says. “We [asked] the teachers [to] have their courses written up when they came back in January, and the kids are going to schedule in the spring.”

The Future

“Doing this work really takes somebody who deeply believes in giving kids choice and letting them follow their passions,” Sarada reflects, praising faculty members like Tim Wagner who dedicated their time to bringing the idea to life.

Wagner says he’s grateful that, after hard work, trial, and error, “most people are happy with what we’re doing and where we’re heading.” As head of Falk Middle School, Floro feels the same way, saying, “I can see it continuing to grow and go to places that we can't even imagine right now.”