CORE Academic Classes

6^th Grade ELA is designed to provide a comprehensive curriculum in English language arts with integration of the California English language development standards. This grade level course calls for students to engage in a range of tasks (analyze, interpret, assess, integrate, evaluate, collaborate, adapt and apply) that require critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration and communication through real-world tasks for students to demonstrate proficiency. Additionally, students use the writing process to create narrative, informative/explanatory, and argumentative pieces to enhance their writing fluency and effectiveness.  With an emphasis on authentic literacy, the focus is on effective expression and language development using literature and informational texts to make meaning of content.

6^th Grade Advanced/Honors ELA students consistently engage in a variety of research-based instructional strategies to meet the rigorous demands of the state standards.  Students engage in advanced critical analysis in order to generate sophisticated interpretation of text.  Teachers’ strategically differentiate instruction to meet the advance needs of all students. 

6^th Grade Math is designed to provide a comprehensive curriculum in Mathematics that focuses on four critical areas: connecting ratio, rate, and percentage to whole number multiplication and division and using concepts of ratio and rate to solve problems; completing understanding of division of fractions and extending the notion of number to the system of rational numbers, which includes negative numbers; writing, interpreting, and using expressions and equations; and developing understanding of statistical thinking.  Students demonstrate proficiency by applying their knowledge of these skills to real-world tasks using the standards for mathematical practices. These practices require students to persevere, reason, construct, critique and model, in order to solve-problems with precision. 6th grade is a critical year intended to bridge the concrete concepts of arithmetic and the abstract thinking of algebra.

6^th Grade Honors Math students engage in a variety of research-based instructional strategies to dive deeper into the rigorous demands of 6th grade California Common Core Standards.  Progressing at an accelerate rate, this allows time to practice 7th grade standards that build beyond the 6th grade standards.  

6^th Grade History/Social Science emphasizes both content and literacy practices. The literacy practices include investigation, close and critical reading, analysis of evidence, and expository writing. This course is about the earliest humans, the development of tools, the foraging way of life, agriculture, and the emergence of civilizations in Mesopotamia, Egypt, ancient Israel, the Indus River Valley, China, Mesoamerica, and the Mediterranean basin. Linking past to present, students have the opportunity to grapple with geography, environmental issues, political systems and power structures, and civic engagement with fundamental ideas about citizenship, freedom, morality, and law. The course provides an intellectually rigorous environment for students to inquire, express and challenge their thinking. Students demonstrate proficiency by applying their knowledge of historical events to inquire, explain, and solve real-world tasks. 

6^th Grade Science is designed as an integrated course which connects related content together about a phenomena within science. The overarching theme for 6^th grade science is that climate arises from system interactions and strongly influences organism structure and behaviors.  The instructional segments covered are: systems and subsystems in earth and life sciences; earth system interactions cause weather; causes and effects of regional climates; and effects of global warming on living systems. The course requires students to apply their understanding of the physical world as scientists and engineers would when grappling with new situations.  Students must perform proficiency tasks of applying their knowledge, including scientific academic vocabulary, and supporting claims with evidence.  The goal of science teaching and learning is that students can apply science understanding to problems that they encounter as future citizens.

6^th Grade PE students develop the fundamental skills necessary for participation in a variety of physical activities. These activities include competitive and noncompetitive sports and games, both individual and team oriented. Students are also introduced to new and nontraditional games which challenge them physically, mentally, and socially. Students grow socially and learn to accept individual differences as they encourage and support one another.

7^th Grade ELA is designed to provide a comprehensive curriculum in English language arts with integration of the California English language development standards. This grade level course calls for students to engage in a range of tasks (analyze, interpret, assess, integrate, evaluate, collaborate, adapt and apply) that require critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration and communication through real-world tasks for students to demonstrate proficiency. Additionally, students use the writing process to create narrative, informative/explanatory, and argumentative pieces to enhance their writing fluency and effectiveness.  With an emphasis on authentic literacy, the focus is on effective expression and language development using literature and informational texts to make meaning of content.

7^th Grade Honors ELA 7^th Grade Advanced/Honors ELA students consistently engage in a variety of research-based instructional strategies to meet the rigorous demands of the state standards.  Students engage in advanced critical analysis in order to generate sophisticated interpretation of text.  Teachers’ strategically differentiate instruction to meet the advance needs of all students. 

7^th Grade Math is designed to provide a comprehensive curriculum in Mathematics that focuses on four critical areas: understanding of and applying proportional relationships; operations with rational numbers and working with expressions and linear equations; solving problems involving scale drawings and informal geometric constructions and working with two and three dimensional shapes and; drawing inferences about populations based on samples. Students demonstrate proficiency by applying their knowledge of these skills to real-world tasks using the standards for mathematical practices. These practices require students to persevere, reason, construct, critique and model, in order to solve-problems with precision.

7^th Grade Accelerated Math students engage in a variety of research-based instructional strategies to dive deeper into the rigorous demands of 7th grade California Common Core Standards (Number System, Expressions and Equations, Ratios and Proportions, Geometry, and Statistics and Probability).  Progressing at an accelerate rate, student extend their learning into key standards covered in 8th grade.  Students in the GATE track are placed in a high school equivalent Algebra 1 course.

7^th Grade History/Social Science emphasizes both content and literacy practices. The literacy practices include investigation, close and critical reading, analysis of evidence, and expository writing. The content extends the student's understanding of history and geography with a major focus on social, cultural, and technological change during the period A.D. 500 to 1789. Topics will include the fall of Rome, growth of Islam, Middle-Ages in Africa, China, Japan, and Europe, early civilizations of the Americas, European Renaissance, Reformation, Exploration, and Enlightenment.  The course provides an intellectually rigorous environment for students to inquire, express and challenge their thinking. Students demonstrate proficiency by applying their knowledge of historical events to inquire, explain, and solve real-world tasks.

7^th Grade Science is designed to be an integrated course which connects related content together about a phenomena within science. The overarching theme for 7^th grade science is that Natural processes and human activities have shaped Earth's web of life. The instructional segments covered are: organisms and nonliving things are made of matter; matter cycles and energy flows through organisms and rocks; natural processes and human activities shape earth’s resources and ecosystems; sustaining biodiversity and ecosystem services in a changing world. The course requires students to apply their understanding of the physical world as scientists and engineers would when grappling with new situations.  Students must perform proficiency tasks of applying their knowledge, including scientific academic vocabulary, and supporting claims with evidence.  The goal of science teaching and learning is that students can apply science understanding to problems that they encounter as future citizens.

7^th and 8^th Grade PE students apply specific skills, strategies, and tactics in numerous physical activities, especially in competition. Many of these competitive games involve collaboration and teamwork. Students synthesize previously developed skills in order to work toward common goals. Students are encouraged to celebrate individual differences and talents. 7th grade students participate in the California Physical Fitness Test, or Fitnessgram, and analyze their own flexibility, strength, and aerobic capacity. 8th grade students work specifically to apply and evaluate the FITT principles within their own daily life as they set goals of lifelong physical activity for enjoyment and self-expression.

8^th Grade ELA is designed to provide a comprehensive curriculum in English language arts with integration of the California English language development standards. This grade level course calls for students to engage in a range of tasks (analyze, interpret, assess, integrate, evaluate, collaborate, adapt and apply) that require critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration and communication through real-world tasks for students to demonstrate proficiency. Additionally, students use the writing process to create narrative, informative/explanatory, and argumentative pieces to enhance their writing fluency and effectiveness.  With an emphasis on authentic literacy, the focus is on effective expression and language development using literature and informational texts to make meaning of content.

8^th Grade Honors ELA 8^th Grade Advanced/Honors ELA students consistently engage in a variety of research-based instructional strategies to meet the rigorous demands of the state standards.  Students engage in advanced critical analysis in order to generate sophisticated interpretation of text.  Teachers strategically differentiate instruction to meet the advance needs of all students. 

8^th Grade Math is designed to provide a comprehensive curriculum in Mathematics that focuses on three critical areas: Formulating and reasoning about expressions and equations and solving linear equations; grasping the concept of a function and using functions to describe quantitative relationships; analyzing figures using distance, angle, similarity and congruence and understanding and applying the Pythagorean Theorem. Students demonstrate proficiency by applying their knowledge of these skills to real-world tasks using the standards for mathematical practices. These practices require students to persevere, reason, construct, critique and model, in order to solve-problems with precision.

8^th Grade Honors Math students complete a high school equivalent Algebra 1 course.  At the end of the course, students take a math placement test to be used as one of several criteria to evaluate if students enter high school at the Algebra or Geometry level.

8^th Grade History/Social Science emphasizes both content and literacy practices. The literacy practices include investigation, close and critical reading, analysis of evidence, and expository writing. The content extends the student's knowledge of American heritage, institutions, geography, and culture, beginning with a review of exploration and colonization, American independence, the development of the Constitution, and the structure of the federal government. The primary focus of study is the nineteenth century. Major topics include nationalism, manifest destiny, westward movement, Native American cultures, sectionalism, Civil War and Reconstruction, and industrialization. Linking past to present, the student sees that American democracy expands through increased civil rights and greater citizen participation. The course provides an intellectually rigorous environment for students to inquire, express and challenge their thinking. Students demonstrate proficiency by applying their knowledge of historical events to inquire, explain, and solve real-world tasks.

8^th Grade Science is designed to be an integrated course which connects related content together about a phenomena within science. The overarching theme for 8^th grade science is that the universe and Earth’s systems are impacted by forces and human activities.  The instructional segments covered are: objects move and collide; noncontact forces influence phenomena; evolution explains life’s unity and diversity; and sustaining local and global biodiversity.  The course requires students to apply their understanding of the physical world as scientists and engineers would when grappling with new situations.  Students must perform proficiency tasks of applying their knowledge, including scientific academic vocabulary, and supporting claims with evidence.  The goal of science teaching and learning is that students can apply science understanding to problems that they encounter as future citizens.