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MIDDLE SCHOOL

Secondary: G6 – G8

Students advancing to our Secondary school into our middle school grades will continue on into 5-subject curricula with enrichment courses that supplement their core academic courses. The textbooks used in Grades 6-8 are as follows: Pre-AlgebraAlgebra and Geometry by Glencoe, Integrated iScience (Green Level and Blue Level) by McGraw-Hill, Literature by Glencoe, and Grammar by Heinle.

Areas of Focus

English Language Arts

  • Move from writing opinions to writing formal, objective arguments that rely on statistics and evidence.

  • When citing evidence from a text, decide whether to quote the text directly or to paraphrase it.

  • Work on longer research projects as well as shorter ones, adjusting the focus or research question as needed.

  • Decide on goals (what needs to be done) and roles (who will be responsible for what) when working in a group.


Mathematics

  • Solve word problems with ratios and rates (ex: comparing election votes).

  • Understand and use negative numbers (ex: which temperature is colder: -9 degrees or -20 degrees).

  • Use variables, and write expressions and equations to solve problems.

  • Understand and use language related to basic statistics.

  • Solve real-world problems related to area, surface area, and volume.

Science

  • Understand how fossils and rock layers tell us how the Earth has changed over long periods of time.

  • Understand that different systems in the human body work together to keep a person alive.

  • Understand the concept of density and explore materials’ differences in density.

  • Understand that a wave has energy and is a repeating pattern with a specific length, frequency, and amplitude.

  • Explain how different engineering solutions have different impacts on people and the environment.

Digital Literacy (ICT)

  • Cultivate and manage their digital identity and reputation.

  • Understand the permanence of their actions in the digital world.

  • Engage in positive, safe, legal and ethical behavior when using technology, including social interactions online or when using networked devices.

  • Demonstrate an understanding of and respect for the rights and obligations of using and sharing intellectual property.

English Language Arts

  • Compare different points of view in a text (ex: when two characters take turns telling a story).

  • Understand how a text’s structure affects its meaning (ex: explain why an author might put a flashback in the middle of a story).

  • Notice when someone’s argument is not logical. Decide whether the evidence they cite really supports their claim.

  • When making an argument, acknowledge different perspectives.


Mathematics

  • Solve real-world problems using ratios, rates, and proportions (ex: find how much tax will be charged on a new phone).

  • Understand and use rational numbers.

  • Solve problems involving a circle’s area, radius and circumference.

  • Compare two sets of data (ex: compare the heights of players on two basketball teams).


Science

  • Understand the roles of energy and gravity in the water cycle.

  • Understand relationships between organisms and their ecosystems.

  • Explain how we know that electrical, magnetic, and gravitational fields exist.

  • Use models to explain how heat transfers from hotter objects to colder objects.

  • Explore how transportation systems, communication systems, and structural systems work.

Digital Literacy (ICT)

  • Manage their personal data to maintain digital privacy and security.

  • Understand how data-collection technology is used to track their navigation online.

  • Use effective research strategies to locate information and other resources for their intellectual or creative pursuits.

  • Evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility and relevance of information, media, data or other resources.

English Language Arts

  • Compare different pieces of evidence for the same claim. Decide which piece of evidence is the strongest.

  • Analyze the effect of specific words, sentences, and paragraphs.

  • Explain how differences in point of view can make a text funny or suspenseful.

  • Analyze how someone’s motives affect the way they share information.


Mathematics

  • Understand and use linear equations to solve problems.

  • Understand and use functions: situations where one quantity depends on another, like when the distance a train travels depends on its speed.

  • Explore and use the Pythagorean Theorem for right triangles.

  • Create linear equations to model real-life data.

Science

  • Understand the sun-earth-moon system and the way it affects life on Earth.

  • Describe and detail the cycle of energy between all living things through respiration and photosynthesis.

  • Understand how environments affect the growth of living things (organisms).

  • Understand how atoms combine in many ways to make the substances that make up all living and nonliving things.

Digital Literacy (ICT)

  • Curate information from digital resources using a variety of tools and methods

  • Create collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions.

  • Build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues and problems, developing ideas and theories and pursuing answers and solutions.