6-8 Curriculum

6th Grade Art
This course is an introductory level foundation course. The course provides experiences in and information about design techniques, with a concentration on a variety of design elements and principles. Students will gain creative experience using various techniques in 2-dimensional and/or 3-dimensional forms. Media may include pencil, marker, colored pencil, chalk pastel, charcoal, watercolor, caran dache crayon, metal repousse foil, tempera, collage, printmaking, paper, wire, and found objects.

7th Grade Art
This course is an intermediate level course. The course provides a continuation of study about design techniques and refinement of skills using a variety of design elements and principles. Students will gain creative experience using various techniques in 2-dimensional and/or 3-dimensional forms. Media may include pencil, marker, colored pencil, chalk pastel, charcoal, watercolor, caran dache crayon, metal repousse foil, tempera, collage, printmaking, paper, wire, and found objects.

8th Grade Art
This is an advanced middle level course. The course concentrates on developing higher level art skills by integrating more complex techniques. Students will gain creative experience using various techniques in 2-dimensional and/or 3-dimensional forms. Media may include pencil, marker, colored pencil, chalk pastel, charcoal, watercolor, caran dache crayon, metal repousse foil, tempera, collage, printmaking, paper, wire, and found objects.

The Souderton Area School District offers an English as a Second Language (ESL) program for those students who have a first language that is not English. Program goals include helping students acculturate to their new school and culture and developing students' skills so they can be successful in their content area classes. English Language Learners (ELLs) receive English instruction in Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking as well as academic support for the content areas. A newcomer class is available for students who speak little or no English. ESL instruction takes place either in an ESL classroom or in grade level classes where ESL teachers push-in to provide services for English Language Learners.

Grade 6
Students will learn to live a healthy lifestyle, prepare healthy and safe foods and build positive relationships. The second unit of this course encourages accountable management of resources while addressing diverse personal needs and goals. Emphasis is placed on etiquette and care of textiles.

Grade 7
Students will learn to live a healthy lifestyle, prepare healthy and safe foods focusing on the Grains and Dairy Food Groups, and build positive relationships. The second unit of this course is designed to help young people acquire knowledge and skills essential to the care and guidance of children as a caregiver.

Grade 8
This course is designed to be exploratory exposing students to FCS topics offered at Souderton Area High School. Students will learn basic information and practical skills related to topics such as:  foods and nutrition, healthy living, culture and food choices, fashion design, housing and home furnishing, and childcare.  Emphasis is placed on helping students meet the challenges of their daily lives with confidence.

Grade 6 ELA (English/Language Arts):
Reading Highlights | Writing Highlights

Grade 7 ELA (English/Language Arts):
Reading Highlights | Writing Highlights

Grade 8 ELA (English/Language Arts):
Highlights

Library - Innovate, Design, and Create Course/Unit Summary: 
Students will discover what it means to become a maker through the use of a proven design thinking process and framework.  The challenges posed to students in this course will empower students to innovate, collaborate, create and reflect on their learning.

Students will be able to become Empowered Learners, Digital Citizens, Knowledge Constructors, Innovative Designers, Computational Thinkers, Creative Communicators, and Global Collaborators.

Grade 6 Math: Highlights

Grade 7 Math: Highlights

Grade 8 Math: Highlights

Algebra I: Highlights

Geometry: Highlights

Grade 6

OVERVIEW OF PERFORMING ARTS PROGRAM (BAND, CHOIR, ORCHESTRA)
Students choosing to participate in multiple performing groups are limited to choosing two of the three main groups (i.e. choir/band, band/orchestra, orchestra/choir).

(For the more advanced musicians) Jazz Band and Chamber Ensemble are designed for the more dedicated musician to expose them to more challenging music. Both groups perform winter & spring concerts and also have a number of performances in the community. These advanced groups meet in the morning at each middle school and are open to audition. Students that wish to participate in these groups must also be involved in the correlating larger ensemble (i.e. Orchestra, Band).

Grade 7

OVERVIEW OF PERFORMING ARTS PROGRAM (BAND, CHOIR, ORCHESTRA)
Students choosing to participate in multiple performing groups are limited to choosing two of the three main groups (i.e. choir/band, band/orchestra, orchestra/choir).

(For the more advanced musicians) Jazz Band and Chamber Ensemble are designed for the more dedicated musician to expose them to more challenging music. Both groups perform winter & spring concerts and also have a number of performances in the community. These advanced groups meet in the morning at each middle school and are open to audition. Students that wish to participate in these groups must also be involved in the correlating larger ensemble (i.e. Orchestra, Band).

Grade 8

OVERVIEW OF PERFORMING ARTS PROGRAM (BAND, CHOIR, ORCHESTRA)
Students choosing to participate in multiple performing groups are limited to choosing two of the three main groups (i.e. choir/band, band/orchestra, orchestra/choir).

(For the more advanced musicians) Jazz Band and Chamber Ensemble are designed for the more dedicated musician to expose them to more challenging music. Both groups perform winter & spring concerts and also have a number of performances in the community. These advanced groups meet in the morning at Indian Crest and are open to audition. Students that wish to participate in these groups must also be involved in the correlating larger ensemble (i.e. Orchestra, Band).

Grade 6
Students enter the world of integrated science using the Constructivist Model of Learning with many “hands-on/minds-on” opportunities. Science is taught the way middle school students learn best through thinking, talking, writing, discovering for themselves, and cooperating on learning teams. Beginning in sixth grade, the students learn to think and write as a scientist. They also learn about the changing Earth, the atmosphere, and water ecosystems.

Grade 7
The seventh grade science course helps students establish the connection between earth and space. It provides students with opportunities to work in a collaborative environment utilizing hands on techniques. From kingdoms of life to cycles of nature, students will gain insight into the interactions and relationships that make life possible. Students will focus on astronomy, patterns of living things, and interactions and persity of living things.

Grade 8

ACADEMIC
This is an activity-based, hands-on, integrated science course. It includes guided and open-ended investigations, small group discussions, exploratory writings, and reflective reading tasks that help students develop process skills, while learning scientific concepts. One goal is to enable students to understand the interrelationships among science, technology, and society, while developing and understanding important science concepts, processes, and ideas. A second goal is to provide students with the intellectual skills they need to truly understand and apply science.

The course provides a framework that will help students understand the underlying principles that unite the various science disciplines. Major areas of study include matter and atomic structure, motion, forces and energy, and heredity.

HONORS SCIENCE
Students considering honors science should be serious readers and writers with strong literacy skills and math skills. Honors science students are expected to be capable of independent work and to demonstrate higher level critical thinking skills. A component of the honors science course is an independent research project. This opportunity allows the students to develop their scientific thought, investigate a topic of interest, further develop independent work habits, as well as opens the door to future opportunities. The honors units include motion, forces, and energy, with many mathematical computations, heredity, and matter and atomic structure, again with many mathematical computations. To be eligible, students must be currently earning a minimum cumulative grade of an A-. Please note that students must take 8th grade honors science to be eligible to take 9th grade honors science.

Discovery Education: Social Studies Techbook

Grade 6 Social Studies - Ancient World: Highlights

Grade 7 Social Studies - World History: Highlights

Grade 8 Social Studies - American History: Highlights

6th Grade Technology Systems
Class Objective - Technology Systems focuses on technology and the problem solving method. Students will be given an introduction of technology and its four systems; construction, manufacturing, communication, and transportation. Students will assess how science and technology has impacted society and the environment. Students will complete a design challenge that particularly focuses on the problem solving method used in science and technology. The Construction Unit focuses on types of bridges and their construction. Particular attention will be concentrated on types of bridges and bridge vocabulary. Students will be designing their own truss bridge to reinforce the vocabulary. In the Transportation Unit, students will be given an introduction of transportation and its systems; air, land, space, and water. Particular attention will be centered on air transportation, the principles of hot air balloons or fixed wing airplanes.

7th Grade Multi Media Technology
Class Objective - Multi-Media Technology is offered for 30 days in an A/B schedule. This class will be taken by every seventh grader as a technology education requirement. The Multi-Media Technology curriculum concentrates on developing problem solving skills while giving the students a working knowledge of various communication technology software and hardware. Students will be instructed on various technologies: Photoshop basics, digital still photography, video photography, digital video editing, scanning images into Photoshop, scaled drawings, and logo design, and label design .They will also be introduced to topographic programs such as Google Earth. Students will utilize all technologies to design their own digital portfolio. They will be asked to collect, scan, and digitally organize pictures and videos; eventually turning the gathered information into a video presentation. During the course, students will keep a digital daily log.

8th Grade Introduction to Engineering
Course Objective – Introduction to Engineering will focus on an exploration in Engineering using Lego® Mindstorms® Edu NXT and an introduction to CAD. (Computer Aided Drafting) The Lego unit is designed to introduce the basics of the NXT as it integrates science, math, technology, and engineering. Students will complete numerous investigations using inquiry, guided research, problem solving, and cooperative learning to navigate their robot to solve the problem. In the CAD unit students will learn the process from a sketch to the computer.

The 21st Century Skills course will empower students and their school communities to be safe, responsible, and savvy as they navigate this fast-paced digital world. The curriculum introduces reliable, research-based information to students about digital media and their impact based on the work of Dr. Howard Gardner and the GoodPlay Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. It will enable students to explore the complex issues of our connected culture and think critically about the ways they use digital technologies as they build digital literacy skills for life. 

 21st Century Skills consists of three units of study: Online Safety & Security, Digital Citizenship, and Connected Culture through Media Literacy. The activities in this curriculum, which include role-playing, reading comprehension and writing, videos, and interactive online tutorials, allows for skill building, critical thinking, ethical discussion, and decision making using case studies and real-life, age-appropriate scenarios.

Online Safety & Security Unit

6th Grade:

• Understand the rules for safe online communication and online privacy.
• Understand and abide by the Souderton Area School District’s Acceptable Use Policy.

7th Grade:

• Identify Internet Safety Rules and learn the benefits and risks of sharing information online.
• Understand and abide by the Souderton Area School District’s Acceptable Use Policy.

8th Grade:  

• Analyze case studies about interaction with strangers and learn how to safely enjoy social networking and avoid risky behaviors for using social media.
• Understand and abide by the Souderton Area School District’s Acceptable Use Policy.

Digital Citizenship Unit

6th Grade:

• Analyze and compare the role of digital media in their lives.
• Learn that they have digital footprints and that information can be searched.

7th Grade:

• Analyze how putting information about others online could compromise their own safety, reputation or relationships.
• Create their “web of contacts” and then identify what information is appropriate to share online with each of the different people or groups they have identified.

8th Grade:

• Devise privacy management skills and personal and community privacy codes of conduct.
• Evaluate the perils and possibilities of digital life for themselves.

Connected Culture through Media Literacy Unit

6th Grade:

• Analyze how media texts function, understand and decode media messages.
• Evaluate how readers respond to various media messages.
• Integrate elements of media literacy.

7th Grade:

• Establish guidelines and norms for building ethical online communities.
• Integrate elements of media literacy.

8th Grade:

• Create positive online communities rooted in trust and respect for appropriate Connected Culture.
• Employ marketing techniques which incorporates all elements of media literacy.

*Content was created by Common Sense Media

https://www.commonsense.org/*

The Middle Level Wellness program is designed to expose students to a wide variety of fitness activities, cooperative games and team sports. In addition to the physical aspect students will also learn various health topics. Our goal is that students will develop behaviors to live a healthy lifestyle and commit to lifelong fitness. This Wellness program also emphasizes skills such as cooperation, team work, sportsmanship and leadership.

Grade 6
The 6th grade health curriculum focuses on relationships, body systems, human growth and development and drug, alcohol and tobacco prevention. The physical education focuses on the basic skills to play team sports along with team work and cooperation. Some activities students will participate in are football, soccer, basketball, volleyball, floor hockey, handball, fitness and cooperative games.

Grade 7
The 7th grade health curriculum focuses on fitness and nutrition, personal choices, safety, and the environmental effects on health. The physical education focus moves more to lifetime fitness and team sports. Some activities students will participate in are football, soccer, fitness, basketball, volleyball cooperative games, handball, and floor hockey.

Grade 8
The 8th grade health curriculum focuses on relationships, drugs, alcohol and tobacco prevention, human growth and development, communicable and non communicable diseases, and safety and emergencies. In physical education students will focus more on fitness skills for a lifetime and team sports.

Grade 6
World Language is not offered in Grade 6.

Grade 7
World Language is not offered in Grade 7.

Grade 8
Students may choose to study French 1 or Spanish 1. These courses use the same curriculum and assessments as the courses offered at the high school. Eighth grade students, who successfully complete level 1, will receive high school credit for this course.

First year world language courses emphasize communication in everyday life. The goal of the courses is for students to use fundamental vocabulary and expressions in oral and written context while integrating cultural elements. Learning experiences will help develop the student’s ability to use language and build proficiency in listening, speaking, reading and writing.

For an overview of the middle school gifted program, please see the link below.

• Middle School Gifted Program Overview