Educating children to graduate as informed, engaged, ethically minded citizens of the world that they inherit.

At MMS, students are avid readers. They begin reading simple Mac and Tab books, then carry a homework folder back and forth for five years and read to their parents to improve oral reading and reading mechanics. Once in upper elementary, our students read one novel, historical fiction, non-fiction, or fiction every other week, and many read more. But why is reading so important for students, and why is reading a full novel (and not the abridged textbook version) so important? Books, more than anything else, teach students about empathy. Maybe not always explicitly, but even the most horrible and villainous characters ever created have some trace of humanity within them. We learn through the mistakes our protagonists make and experience the triumph of their successes when they finally (usually) defeat the evils that plague them. This ability to experience stories through the safety of the page means that we as readers can live through all the horrors of war, the ecstasy of solving a crime, or beating a rival in a championship clinch moment without having to change our lives to do so. We take a pointed approach to this philosophy in our upper elementary classes. Each grade reads around twelve novels a year, along with many short stories, interactive fiction games, and a significant amount of Reading Plus stories of various lexile levels and genres. This considerable amount of literature guarantees that something will resonate with each student and, in turn, spur them on to find something similar to enjoy outside of the confines of the classroom. Keeping our numerous readings varied and consistent has paid dividends in tangible metrics such as higher scores on tests and creating lifelong readers and learners.