Curriculum Overview

Across the various artistic mediums – music, drama, studio art, woodshop, digital media arts – Middle School students learn to express themselves creatively, both individually and collaboratively, and gain a deeper appreciation of the world around them. They gain confidence in presenting themselves and their work, and develop a framework for making informed creative choices. By the end of eighth grade, students have the concepts, tools, and vocabulary to conceive original works and execute them across all disciplines.

Students grow as readers, writers, speakers, and listeners, and develop their critical thinking and habits of mind in Middle School. The English curriculum is spiral in nature. Students learn and practice their skills each year, refining them to higher levels of sophistication. Multiple genres are read, including short stories, poetry, essays, and novels, with an eye on relevant issues. Students sharpen their writing skills, expand their vocabulary, and formulate individual and group presentations, becoming not only better speakers but also more attentive and engaged listeners. 

The Middle School life skills curriculum is designed to help students establish skills that support safe and healthy decision-making practices, and help them understand how their feelings and emotions impact their daily decisions. Units of study include healthy relationships, digital citizenship, mental health, and more. Our belief is that when students have accurate information and self-advocacy skills, they will make better choices and be more responsible members of the community. When they leave Middle School, they will be better able to assess varying situations, identify coping strategies, and employ these skills as needed. 

Beyond a foundational 6th grade math course, Middle School math is subject-based, not grade-level based. The other three courses taken are pre-algebra, algebra I, and geometry. Students learn to reflect on, self-assess, and revise homework. By the end of eighth grade, students can apply the concepts they’ve learned to problem solving and projects, use the language of mathematics in reading, writing, and discussion; and they can reach beyond memorized rules or strategies to fully comprehend mathematical reasoning.

At the beginning of the sixth-grade, every student chooses one of three languages to study for their Middle School years: French, Mandarin, or Spanish. Students develop their language proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing with ACTFL proficiency levels as a guide. All languages include cultural studies, geography, and the history of places where their target language is spoken. There often is the opportunity to travel to a country where the language is spoken. By the end of eighth grade, many students will be able to understand and answer simple questions related to every-day life, infer holistic meanings from readings, and explain primary cultural perspectives. 

The Middle School wellness program focuses on developing students' knowledge, skills, and confidence to enjoy a lifetime of healthful physical activity. Students participate in a wide array of sport-specific and general activities that help them work toward setting and creating goals to support lifelong fitness habits, strategies for positive teamwork, and reflecting the values of good sportsmanship. Units and activities follow a gradual progression that matches the developmental stages of adolescence.

Science is fundamental to making sense out of an increasingly complex world. To that end, the Middle School Science Department incorporates cross-cutting concepts, such as patterns, cause and effect, energy and matter; skills and practices; and disciplinary core ideas as a means for teaching the curriculum. Students ask questions and define problems, and they gain proficiency in the development and use of models. By the end of eighth grade, they can apply mathematics and computational thinking, analyze and interpret data, and use evidence and reasoning in their scientific arguments.

The aim of the Middle School humanities curriculum is for students to understand, with complexity, the origins of power in our contemporary world by researching critically and accessing accurate information through teacher-directed and self-selected topics. Students evaluate diverse sources of information and evaluate their own biases so that they can widen their circles of concern. They work toward developing proficiency in persuasive writing, analytic reasoning, and sustained discourse by the end of eight grade.