Middle Grades Curriculum
Middle grades students are taught to view themselves as change agents so that they can enter the world ready to make a difference. Through the core content and specialized subject areas students approach their work through a social justice lens. Instruction in the middle grades is departmentalized.
Math: Our math program focuses on rich problem solving, making connections, and empowering students to discover new mathematical ideas. Our core resources—Illustrative Math in K-6 and Desmos in 7-8—utilize technology to provide dynamic and interactive lessons as well as opportunities for collaboration and creativity. Students engage in real-world math tasks and are pushed to communicate mathematical thinking as well as evaluate others’ ideas.
Science: Our science curriculum emphasizes a student-centered approach to learning. We use Amplify Science as well as materials and guidebooks from open source curriculums such as Open Sci. In addition, the sciences are the lens we use to examine local and global environmental and social justice issues. We use the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) to guide our work. Science, engineering and math principles are embedded in all of our learning. Students in all grade levels study science throughout the year. Students are offered an inquiry-based program that provides them with hands-on opportunities to engage in authentic scientific inquiry requiring increasingly complex cognitive skills. Students in 5th–8th grades tackle STEM challenges in addition to their inquiry-based science program.
Social Studies: In social studies classes, students examine local and global social justice issues. We employ a balanced literacy approach to teach the Common Core State Standards, the Washington, DC K-12 Social Studies Standards, and the C3 Framework for Social Studies. Our history/social studies teaches students how to conduct research and thoughtfully convey information. Throughout the school year students take on a problem/solution-based examination of social justice issues through the 8th grade Action Civics curriculum. In 7th grade, students will study U.S. history from Indigenous nations through Reconstruction and will analyze historical events by examining the experiences and perspectives of Indigenous nations, enslaved people, and marginalized communities, encouraging empathy and understanding of systemic inequalities. In 5th grade, students determine what it means to be an upstander/bystander through the lens of the foundations of the modern United States. In 6th grade, students delve into the maps of the world and how they have developed over time in world geography.
ELA: The middle-school ELA program includes genre-based writing assignments, whole-class novels, and time for independent reading focused on specific genres. Utilizing the book, “Whole Novels for the Whole Class,” as a framework, 7th and 8th grade students completed several novels throughout the year, focusing on note-taking, close reading, Socratic seminars, and written responses. Students learn not just how to comprehend a text, but also how to unpack the text, search for subtext, develop their ideas about a text in writing and in-class discussions and create text content. In writing, students work on in-depth writing projects in the main genres of Common Core writing: narrative, explanatory, and argumentative. Through these studies, teachers focus on both grammar skills and the structure of writing in the various genres. In 8th grade, our students spend time preparing for high school applications and graduation portfolios.
Social Emotional Development: Our social curriculum is based on nationally recognized programs: Responsive Classroom Advisory, Pathway 2 Success Executive Functioning, and Restorative Justice. Our social curriculum is designed to help students learn to respect themselves, others, their materials and surroundings; to solve conflicts peacefully; and to develop social skills that make it possible for them to work independently, in small groups, as a whole class and to lead in various settings. To help students with the increased academic demands of the middle grades, students’ social emotional development also includes executive functioning skill development in the areas of: academic goal-setting, time management, planning, and organization. Students in 7th and 8th grades are taught using the seventh graders studying U.S. history from Indigenous nations through Reconstruction will analyze historical events from a social justice lens by examining the experiences and perspectives of Indigenous nations, enslaved people, and marginalized communities, encouraging empathy and understanding of systemic inequalities.
World Language: Students are exposed to the culture, language, and traditions of Spanish-speaking countries. In addition, students are taught at a developmentally appropriate level to move toward mastery in speaking, reading, writing, and listening in Spanish. In grades 7 and 8, students have the opportunity to take Spanish courses for high school credit.
Arts, Language and Movement (ALM): Classes include physical education, Spanish, visual art, theatre, dance and music including theory, history, and chorus.