1314 Curriculum Guide by Lake Washington Girls Middle School

Curriculum Guide 2013/2014

Overview The LWGMS curriculum is designed to cultivate intellectual curiosity and a drive to social action in each LWGMS girl. In a safe and supportive environment that challenges each girl to reach her potential, experienced teachers guide our students to develop the self-confidence to meet the many social, emotional, physical, and academic changes of early adolescence. The program is designed to be hands-on and experiential, with collaborative learning, projects, oral presentations, and class discussions used to ensure that every girl strengthens her voice as she learns. At the heart of the curriculum is a commitment to social justice. Through social justice learning goals that thread through each subject and a focused, engaging service learning program, girls at LWGMS learn that each of them has the power to effect change in the world. The curriculum at LWGMS is interdisciplinary where appropriate, and it focuses on each subject individually with teachers who are experts in their subject areas. The core academic curriculum includes humanities, math, science, and Spanish. The fine arts are considered a valuable essential; every LWGMS student takes at least 90 minutes of visual art per week all year and every LWGMS student performs in at least one full-scale drama production every year. Additionally, students cycle through three enrichment classes, which are creative writing, drama, and STEAM. Beginning in sixth grade, students develop skills to identify and interpret information, organize data, produce research projects, and evaluate their own final product. Using a wide variety of print and electronic sources, students conduct research in all disciplines. Computers become tools that all students know how to use with ease and confidence. Students reinforce basic computer skills as they apply them to authentic core curriculum activities. Skills reinforced include keyboarding and word processing; creating spreadsheets, charts, and graphic organizers; using the Internet; creating digital media such as animation and film; graphic design, and working with robotics platforms. Every student is a member of a small, multi-grade Respect and Responsibility Advisory Group. Lead by faculty and staff advisors, R&R groups comprise “big sisters” and “little sisters” who meet on a weekly basis. All students are required to take physical education, in classes designed to teach girls about health, self-confidence, and positive body image. Additionally, a full range of athletic opportunities is offered after school (soccer, volleyball, basketball, track and field, and ultimate frisbee) and most LWGMS girls participate in at least one sport at school per year. Many opportunities are also available to explore individual interests through extracurricular activities such as robotics, musical groups, drama, dance, and numerous other clubs.

The academic program comprises: Science

Math

Spanish

6 Life Science Caitlin Ronning

6 Math Nisha Nathani P’16

6 Spanish Jacquie Tilden

7 Systems and Global Perspectives Kirsten Rooks

7 Geometry and Measurement Nisha Nathani P’16

7 Spanish Jacquie Tilden

8 Earth Science Kirsten Rooks

8 Algebra Caitlin Ronning

8 Spanish Charito Sotero P’08

Humanities

Visual Art

Performing Art

6 Humanities Lindsey Mutschler Chelsea McCollum

6 Visual Art Lindsey Mutschler Chelsea McCollum

Fall Term Play Jenny Zavatsky, Jacquie Tilden

6 Writing Workshop Eva McGough P’16

7 Visual Art Lindsey Mutschler Chelsea McCollum

7 Humanities Lindsey Mutschler Chelsea McCollum

8 Visual Art Lindsey Mutschler

8 Social Studies Jenny Zavatsky

Winter Term Play Jenny Zavatsky, Jacquie Tilden 8th Grade Play Patricia Hearn Stage Crew Jan Frederick P’09, ’14

8 Language Arts Eva McGough P’16 Enrichment

Physical Education

After School Programs

Creative Writing Eva McGough P’16, Jacquie Tilden

Fitness Meredith Mathews YMCA

Academic Resource Center Cristina Parades

STEAM Caitlin Ronning. Chelsea McCollum

Dance Heather Harris P’12, ’15

FuerzaBOTS Kirsten Rooks, Cristina Parades

Drama Jenny Zavatsky

Martial Arts Quantum Martial Arts

Dance Heather Harris P’12, ’15

Yoga and Body Image Mary McGough

Print Yearbook/Video Yearbook Caitlin Ronning Glee Club Joe Orlando P’14, Anne Gienapp P’14

Science Science Sixth Grade

Students will understand the fundamentals of science by observing, questioning, hypothesizing, and testing. Students will learn how each form and process of life is connected to and dependent on others around it. We will study how plants and animals play a part in the complex web in nature. They will learn about food webs and the water, carbon, and nitrogen cycles–all examples of nature recycling the finite amount of matter in our world. This will lead into a discussion and service learning project focusing around natural resources and local pollution issues. In the spring, students will study the Earth’s structure and how it was formed.

Fall Essential Questions

• Why do biologists classify organisms? • What are the differences among bacteria, viruses and protists? • What is a plant and how does it reproduce? • What are the different types of animals and how do they differ? • What is the role of muscles? • How do animals reproduce? • What are the types of animal behavior?

Content

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Skills

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Assessment

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Winter

• How do living things affect one another? • How do adaptations help an organism survive? • How does energy move through an ecosystem? • How do people use our natural resources? • What causes outdoor and indoor pollution? • How has energy use changed over time? Classification • Biomes Plant structures • Ecosystems Animal body plans • Biotic and abiotic factors Vertebrate diversity • Biogeography Animal movement • Energy flow and food chains Animals food cycles • Natural resources Patterns of behavior • Population growth • Waste disposal and recycling • Renewable sources of energy • Conservation Identifies and describes plant parts and • Understands the biotic and abiotic their functions. parts of the ecological system and Describes the major groups of how they influence each other and vertebrates and invertebrates. the whole system. Constructs and understands models, • Identifies and understands a food maps and diagrams, including a chain and food web. branching tree diagram and a • Describes the affects of humans taxonomic key. and over population on natural resources. Basic microscope quiz • Design thinking: solution to Vertebrate mobiles pollution Taxonomic key model • Presentations of dioramas, skits, Daily homework and design thinking prototypes PowerPoint presentation • Daily homework Quizzes and tests • Quizzes and tests Lab reflections • Lab reflections

Spring

• What is the structure of the Earth? • How do rocks form? • How do moving plates change the Earth’s crust? • Why do earthquakes occur more often in some places than in others? • How does a volcano erupt?

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Earth’s system Convection Mantel Sedimentary rocks Rock cycles Forces in the Earth’s crust Plate tectonics

• Understands the main parts of the Earth’s system. • Identifies and labels types of rocks. • Describes the Theory of Plate Tectonics. • Describes the stages of volcanic activity. • STEAM: Presentations of models and demonstrations • PowerPoint presentations • Daily homework • Quizzes and tests • Lab reflections

Activities

Microscope viewings STEAM: Building vertebrate mobiles STEAM: Student teaching PowerPoints Alien taxonomic keys Keep an interactive notebook

• Keep an interactive notebook • STEAM: Student teaching PowerPoints • STEAM: Design and build a diorama of a biome • Design Thinking: solution to pollution • Create a skit to represent animal interactions

• Keep an interactive notebook • STEAM: Student teaching PowerPoints • Turn in and correct homework daily • STEAM: Design and build a model that can represent a natural disaster • Create and present a peerteaching PowerPoint

Social Justice • Attribute Awareness: Interprets data Learning about groups of things, of people, etc., Strands using graphic mathematical representation. • Sustainability and Stewardship: Develops deeper understanding of participation in systems (family, classroom, community, ecological); demonstrates strategies for re-using resources; suggests or “invents” devices/strategies that would make the world better and solve problems; largely responsible for classroom stewardship; participates in class recycling. • Self and Community Membership: Identifies community needs; volunteers with increasing frequency, has opportunities to volunteer as a member of a group (class projects). • Fairness and Justice: Contributes to identification and support of classroom rules and procedures.

• Attribute Awareness: Interprets data about groups of things, of people, etc., using graphic mathematical representation. • Sustainability and Stewardship: Develops deeper understanding of participation in systems (family, classroom, community, ecological); largely responsible for classroom stewardship; participates in class recycling. • Self and Community Membership: Volunteers with increasing frequency, has opportunities to volunteer as a member of a group (class projects); growing understanding of nature and of self as part of nature. • Fairness and Justice: Contributes to identification and support of classroom rules and procedures.

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Science Seventh Grade

This course provides a strong foundation in science content and skills for the girls’ future science classes in high school and beyond. However, another equally important purpose of science at this level is to instill in the students an interest, and hopefully even a passion, for the subject. Students at LWGMS learn that they are scientists right now as long as they question the world around them and work to discover the answers to those questions. The whole year of seventh grade science is connected to the study of the human body. The first unit is the chemistry of what makes up the human body as well as all matter. Students learn that the differences between materials are due to the make-up and arrangement of the molecules in those materials. They become familiar with the structure of the atom and the arrangement of the periodic table. The unit closes with lessons on the “chemicals of life” – proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and amino acids – to understand that the same chemicals that make up water, the chairs they are sitting on, and the sandwiches they eat for lunch also make up their own bodies. In the second unit, students study the structure and function of our cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems as parts of a larger, more complex bodily system. Through experimentation and research, they study the structures and functions of the digestive, excretory, circulatory, and respiratory systems in order to understand how our cells receive nutrients and oxygen and get rid of waste and carbon dioxide. They study the nervous system and the sense organs to learn how our bodies receive and react to stimuli. The study of the endocrine system informs them of our bodies’ system to regulate long-term changes in our bodies including puberty and pregnancy.

The third unit focuses on the study and function of our genes. Students use some of their own physical characteristics to understand the laws that govern inheritance. They will also come to know what is called the “Central Dogma of Biology” which states that our unique strands of DNA are responsible for manufacturing specific proteins which, in turn, create our individual characteristics. In genetics, students have learned the fundamentals of how our genes are responsible for creating the specific characteristics that make us who we are; in the fourth unit, evolution, students focus on how the forces of nature help select the specific genetic variations that most benefit each species. In this way, they see the how the interactions between the environment and the different species drove the 3.5 billion-year-old history of life - including human evolution. Fall Essential Questions

• What are we made of? • What determines if something sinks or floats? • Why do substances change when heat is added or taken away? • What is an atom? • Why are the elements arranged the way they are on the periodic table? • How is a chemical reaction different from a physical reaction? • How do atoms combine to make new substances? • Why do we use water to dissolve so many things? • What kinds of molecules make living things? • How are plants like chemical factories? • What is happening in the world of science today? • What careers are based on science?

Winter • Where does a developing chick get the materials that become its tissues? • What is the foundation of human biology? • Which chemicals make up our cells? • How do the different organ systems work to maintain human life? • How do our cells get the necessary chemicals - nutrients, water and oxygen - they need to survive? • How do we receive and react to information from the world around us? • How does our body control its own development and reproduction?

Spring

• Why do we resemble our parents, and yet we are different from them and our siblings? • What is DNA, and how is it able to control how we are? • How do science labs use biotechnology to conduct experiments? • How can we E coli bacteria glow in colors through genetic transformation? • Who was Charles Darwin, and what events led to his ideas on evolution? • What are the driving forces behind evolution? • How has life evolved over the course of the earth’s history? • How have humans evolved and migrated?

Content

• Molecules in matter • Movement of molecules and states of matter • Mass, volume, and density of materials • Sub-atomic particles in atoms • Characteristics of elements and the periodic table • Chemical and physical reactions • Covalent and ionic bonding • The water molecule • Molecules of life • The chemistry of photosynthesis • Current events

Skills

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• The formation of an egg and the development of a chick • Types of cells in the human body • Four basic types of tissue connective, epithelial, nervous, and muscle - and how they work together to make organs • The structure and function of the organs in the digestive, excretory, circulatory, and respiratory systems • How organ systems contribute to and rely on a greater system • The structure and function of the nervous and endocrine systems and how they regulate the body • The role of the endocrine system on puberty and reproduction.

• The relationship between chromosomes, DNA, genes and physical characteristics • Heredity • Dominant and recessive genes • Structure of DNA and RNA • Transcription and Translation (protein synthesis) • Biotechnology: Learning how to use micropipettes, gel electrophoresis, and bacterial transformation • Darwin and the development of his theory of evolution, survival of the fittest, and natural selection • Time line of the history of the earth and of life • The significance of species “fitting” their environment or face extinction • Evolution of hominids • Environmental factors that drove the evolution of particular hominid characteristics Calculating the volume, mass • Researching the formation the egg • Analyzing and creating Punnett and density of solids, liquids, and and development of the chick Squares to predict heredity gasses. Using evidence to predict • Using a microscope to see different • Creating imaginary beasts whose which substances float and sink tissue samples characteristics are based on their Using evidence from labs to inheritance of dominant and • Making drawings of samples in a create a model that outlines microscope recessive genes what happens to solids, liquids, • Creating an explanation for how the • Recreating transcription and and gasses when heat is added structure of an organ supports its translation (protein synthesis) with or taken away function models Identifying and communicating • Developing a model that explains • Biotechnology: Using a the structure of an atom of how food is rearranged into micropipette to measure minute different elements nutrients that can be used by the amounts of liquids Studying the patterns of body • Using gel electrophoresis to different families of elements separate dyes and DNA • Developing and carrying out an and predicting how these experiment that shows the • Conducting bacterial elements will react with others. connection between the respiratory transformation Constructing an explanation of and circulatory systems • Identifying environmental simple chemical reactions based • Researching a sense organ and pressures, both beneficial and on the electron configuration of communicating to the class how we deleterious, and relating their cause various elements receive information about our world and effect on the evolution of a Identifying the basic chemicals of through that sense species life - proteins, carbohydrates, • Identifying the cause and effect • Analyzing certain physical fats, and amino acids - and some nature of the endocrine system on characteristics of different hominids of their roles in living creatures puberty and reproduction – brain cavity, hip, foot, hand, and Conducting a lab to jaw structure and explaining how demonstrate the chemical these evolved to result in modern changes that occur during humans photosynthesis Developing scientific literacy by reading and writing about current scientific events

Assessment

Activities

• Lab report to find the mass, volume and density of various substances • A model that explains what is happening at a molecular level to substances when heated and cooled • Weekly review quizzes • Larger unit tests • Models of different atoms based on the information provided in the periodic table • The design and execution of an experiment to test whether chemical reactions release or absorb energy • Evidence-supported prediction of how various elements will react based on their electron configurations • Lab report: photosynthesis lab • Guided reflections on current events • Participation in class discussions on current events • Group-based work • Density of liquids and solids lab Demonstration • Create model with group showing how heating and cooling substances affects them at a molecular level • Create models of atoms with m&ms • Activity to identify the atomic structures of the first 20 elements • Design and carry out lab to determine endothermic and exothermic chemical reactions • Demonstration to understand electron configuration of different families of elements • “Bond with a classmate” activity to learn about covalent bonding • Design and carry out labs on photosynthesis to determine what chemical reactions occur

• Explanation of the formation of the egg and development of the chick • Microscope practical - identify different types of tissues in prepared microscope slide • Weekly review quizzes • Test on structures and functions of organs of the digestive, excretory, respiratory, and circulatory systems • Model that explains how essential nutrients, water, and oxygen get to the cells that need them to survive • Lab report on circulatory and respiratory system lab • Test on parts of the nervous system • Presentation: sense organ • Written explanation of the effects of the endocrine system on puberty and reproduction

• Test on inheritance with Punnett Squares and dominant and recessive genes • Model of DNA • Weekly review quizzes • Carry out transcription and translation using a paper model • Test on DNA and protein synthesis • Lab reports on gel electrophoresis and bacterial transformation • Written explanation of Darwin’s theory of natural selection • Evodots lab report • Quiz on evolutionary advantages of different types of animals • Final evolution test • Model that shows the comparison of different hominids and explanation of the environmental pressures that led to their changes

• Group-based work • Research the formation of the egg and the development of the chick • View different cells and tissue samples through the microscope and draw and label these samples. • Various labs – heart rate and blood pressure, reaction time, and lung capacity • Conduct nutrient labs on various foods • Dissect a beef heart • Watch Discovery Channel and PBS videos on heart attacks • Dissect a sheep brain • Research and present information on a sense organ • Watch Discovery Channel videos on puberty and pregnancy

• Watch PBS/NOVA’s Secret of Photo 51 about Rosalind Franklin and the discovery of the DNA molecule • Extract DNA from a banana • Create Punnett Squares to determine the likelihood of inheriting certain characteristics • Watch PBS/NOVA’s Cracking the Code of Life about the Human Genome Project • Use biotechnology equipment from Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center to carry out gel electrophoresis and bacterial transformation • Watch PBS Evolution series on the life and theories of Darwin • Read portions of The Voyage of the Beagle by Darwin • Utilize evodots computer simulation of natural selection and changing populations • Create 46.5 meter-long timeline of the earth’s history with key evolutionary benchmarks; • Make map of the evolution and migration of hominid species • Measure life-size photos of hominid skulls to analyze how they changed over time

Social Justice ● Attribute Awareness: Develops ● Attribute Awareness: Shows growing Learning ability to take greater understanding of own body, Strands responsibility for own learning. anatomically, biologically, and spatially; Understands that mastery of Learns the processes in which our content is the greater goal. bodies receive and act on outside Retakes assessments or rewrites information. work until mastery is ● Emotional Intelligence: Demonstrates demonstrated. consistent “manners” in discourse and behavior, meeting school ● Emotional Intelligence: Demonstrates comfortable, expectations. empathetic interaction with ● Sustainability and Stewardship: people of diverse learning Largely responsible for classroom styles, abilities and intelligence, stewardship; participates in class recycling. ● Self and Community: Develops responsibility to group and practices methods to work efficiently and collegially. ● Stewardship: Develops deeper understanding of participation in systems (family, classroom, community ecological); largely responsible for classroom stewardship; participates in class recycling.

● Point of View: Developing ability to describe and attribute different opinions/perspectives; identifies perspectives that have changed/ held constant during history. ● Attribute Awareness: Can define self using some standard language; demonstrates ability to list ways she is “different from” as well as “the same as” peer group, society at large, parent(s)/guardian(s), etc.; understanding of variation within a group and among groups grows; can describe attributes of own learning style. ● Emotional Intelligence: Demonstrates consistent “manners” in discourse and behavior, meeting school expectations. ● Fairness and Justice: Begins to demonstrate philosophic thought, may talk/learn about creation, religion, death.

Science Eighth Grade

Middle school science at LWGMS provides a strong foundation in science content and skills for the girls’ future science classes in high school and beyond. However, another equally important purpose of science at this level is to instill in the students an interest, and hopefully even a passion, for the subject. LWGMS students learn that they are scientists right now as long as they question the world around them and work to discover the answers to those questions. The study of Earth and Space Science in eighth grade uses local geologic, weather, and environmental issues to illustrate the effects of those topics on a global, or even universal, level. The students begin the year by analyzing the rocks and minerals that make up local geologic features to deduce how and when these features were made. They learn that Washington State’s physical geography, including its tendency toward earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, has been created by the greater structures and forces that dictate the Earth’s geology. They witness some of these geologic formations first hand through field trips and documentary films. To study oceans, students focus on the issue of ocean acidification, a phenomenon born of the release of excessive carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. Using inquiry methods and working in small groups, the students discover many elements of oceanography including the structure, chemistry, and ecology of the oceans and the effects these have on the rest of the planet. In term two, students see that local weather patterns and global climate patterns clearly illustrate the interaction among many elements of a much larger system. Students not only learn about the factors that affect local Washington climate and weather, they learn about the factors that contribute to global warming and the projected effects of rising worldwide temperatures.

In the spring, eighth graders show the school community and guest mentors in the STEM fields that that they are scientists themselves-by researching, creating, conducting, analyzing, and presenting a long-term science fair project at the STEAM Fair. Concurrently, they also study sexual health. While discussing sexuality, pregnancy, STDs, and peer influences, students examine their own and their families’ views on such matters.

For the final unit, students learn that the Earth is part of the larger systems of the Earth, Sun and Moon; our Solar System; our Galaxy, and our Universe. As the focus of the material gets broader, the students examine their own conceptions of time and space in order to discuss and debate the origin and future of the Universe. Fall Essential Questions

Winter

• How do geologists know the age and origin of landforms in Washington State? • How are different types of rocks created and what do they tell you about how the land was formed? • Why are there so many volcanoes and earthquakes in WA State? • What forces within and outside the earth create the geologic features that we see? • How are greenhouse gasses affecting the oceans? • How do our oceans affect our climate? • What is happening in the world of science today? • What careers are based on science?

Spring

• Why is warm in Seattle in July and cold in January, yet in Chile, it is cold in July and warm in January? • What causes our seasons and climate? • What is causing global warming and how will it affect the earth? • What scientific issue would I like to learn more about through research and experimentation? • How can I create and implement an experiment to test my question? • Sexual Health: What is happening to me physically, socially, and emotionally as I grow up?

• How can I analyze my science experiment results and present my findings to others? • Sexual Health: How do I navigate the difficult world of adolescence and adulthood? • How was our solar system made, and what is it like? • Why don’t planets just fly away from or crash into the sun? • How do humans explore the heavens? • How did the ancient astronomers use simple observations to make conclusions or predictions about the earth and sky? • What are stars and how are they created? • What is the universe? How was it created and how will it end?

Fair April 10, 6pm

Content

Skills

Assessment

• Types of rocks and minerals and how and where they were formed • Geologic landforms of Washington State especially the formation of the Columbia Plateau and the massive flooding during the Ice Age • Field trip to see the geology of Eastern Washington • The structure of the earth, plate tectonics, earthquakes and volcanoes • The ocean environment, chemistry, and currents • Current events that relate to any science subject • Identifying rock based on physical characteristics • Creating explanations of the origins of landforms based on their rocks • Applying information about geologic processes from class and books to the real-life setting of the Columbia Plateau • Creating a model that explains the how structure of the earth leads to plate tectonics, to subduction zones, volcanoes and earthquakes • Mineral tests and specific gravity tests on rocks • Developing scientific literacy by reading and writing about current scientific events • Creating and carrying out an experiment to test the results of excess CO2 in the oceans

• Analyzing and presenting data from science fair project • Creating a visual and oral presentation on their findings • Sexual Health: the social and emotional elements of adolescence and adulthood • The structure of the sun • The planets of the solar system • Kepler’s and Newton’s laws of motion and how they apply to planetary motion • The life cycle of stars • The Big Bang Theory • Theories of the structure and evolution of the universe

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• Final draft of science fair paper and STEAM Fair board • Presentation to judges on STEAM Fair Night • Lab report on physics experiments; • Astronomy test on the life cycle of stars • Presentation on the origin and destruction of the universe. • Weekly quizzes • Lab reports

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• The effect of the sun and moon on the earth • The causes of climate – latitude, altitude, proximity to water, air currents • The causes of global warming • The scientific process and covariant experiments • The parts and processes of creating and carrying out a science fair experiment • Writing a research paper/lab report for the experiment • Analyzing the data from the experiment • Sexual Health: physical elements of puberty and pregnancy • Using maps and models, predicting where certain climate regions would exist • Tracking sunrise, sunset, and height of sun data to correlate it to the seasonal weather • Creating a model of the causes of climate based on experiments and research • Researching and preparing for part in a mock town-hall style debate on the best response to global warming • For STEAM Fair, carrying out research that incorporates primary, secondary and tertiary resources • Creating a co-variant experiment with veracity by incorporating controlled variables, constants, and numerous trials • Implementing the experiment with the required skills (ex. measuring, growing bacteria, creating a survey, dilutions, etc.) • Sexual Health: understanding the physical changes of puberty and pregnancy Group project to research and • Model and written explanation of create a video about a how latitude and proximity to a particular aspect of the large body of water affects climate creation of the Columbia • Weekly quizzes Plateau • Lab reports Rock ID test • Each step in the science fair process Lab reports on mineral tests – rationale for topic chosen, and the specific gravity of rocks preliminary bibliography, drafts of Lab report on ocean background research, experimental acidification plan including variables, materials Weekly quizzes and procedures, carrying out Chapter tests experiment, data chart and Reading and writing about conclusion current scientific events • Sexual Health: completion of reflections and family homework • Reflections on the novel Story of a Girl

• Gathering, analyzing, and presenting data • Critiquing an experiment to make necessary changes or repeat trials • Writing a research paper and lab report • Presenting an experiment, data and results both visually and orally • Sexual Health: discussing and reflecting on social and emotional issues related to adolescence • Conducting physics experiments about gravity and motion • Presenting the steps in the evolution of stars • Using evidence about red and blue shift of light to explain the explain the expansion of the universe • Creating a model of the life cycle of stars based • Researching theories of the creation and eventual destruction of the Universe

Activities

Social Justice Learning Strands

• Based on the rock evidence, suggest the origin of landforms in Washington • Field trip to Eastern Washington to see Columbia Plateau and evidence of Great Missoula Flood • Map local earthquakes and volcanoes • Field trip to UW Seismology Lab • Labs that demonstrate the movement of the earth’s tectonic plates and the resulting geologic formations • Make candy sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks; conduct mineral tests • Conduct specific gravity tests on rocks • Reflections and discussions on current events

• Lab on the angle of the sun and its effect on temperature • Lab on the temperature difference of earth and water under light • Observing and recording the time and location of sunrise, noon, and sunset. • Greenhouse gas effect lab • Town-hall type debate on the causes and effects of global warming • Carry out all aspects of a science fair project: choose a topic, research the topic, contact a primary resource, create initial experimental design, carry out a beta test on your experiment. • Continue researching; write drafts of background research paper; meet with science fair mentor; complete experimental design; carry out experiment; compile and analyze data; • Sexual Health: Discovery Channel videos on puberty and pregnancy • Read and write reflections on the novel Story of a Girl • Attribute Awareness: Develops • Attribute Awareness: Interprets data ability to take greater about groups of things, of people, responsibility for own learning. etc., using graphic mathematical Understands that mastery of representation; makes elementary content is the greater goal. statistical analyses. Retakes assessments or • Emotional Intelligence: Shows rewrites work until mastery is growing understanding of own demonstrated. body, physically, emotionally, and socially. Sees self as able to plan and • Sustainability and Stewardship: Develops deeper complete long-term and complex understanding of participation projects. in systems (family, classroom, • Sustainability and Stewardship: community, ecological); Explores the causes and Explores the causes and ramifications of Global warming and ramifications of Global sees self as an agent of positive warming and sees self as an change. agent of positive change. • Self and Community Membership: Develops responsibility to group • Self and Community Membership: Learns to and practices methods to work interview on field trips and efficiently and collegially. with classroom visitors; Develops responsibility to group and practices methods to work efficiently and collegially. • Emotional Intelligence: Demonstrates comfortable, empathetic interaction with people of diverse learning styles, abilities and intelligence.

• Create STEAM fair board and paper • Present project during STEAM fair • Throughout spring term, record sunrise and sunset times and locations • Using a star chart, identify some of the key constellations • Make daily and nightly observations of the sky to determine patterns of the sun and moon relative to the Earth • Mile-long solar system walk to learn planets’ relative sizes and distances • Experiments about gravity and motion • Visit a planetarium or a large local telescope at night • Use Google Space to view stars, galaxies, and nebulae • Debate the origin and future of the universe

• Point of View: Identifies perspectives that have changed/held constant during history • Emotional Intelligence: Uses class discussion, reflection, and parental advice to explore and gain control of potentially challenging social scenarios. • Self and Community Membership: Develops responsibility to group and practices methods to work efficiently and collegially. Learns to interview on field trips and with classroom visitors • Sustainability and Stewardship: Largely responsible for classroom stewardship; participates in class recycling.

Math Math Sixth Grade

The focus for the sixth grade is on developing their understanding of number patterns and ensuring that they all have strong calculation skills. Throughout the year, we’ll use patterns and sequences to help practice calculation and problem solving. To accomplish our goal, the girls will: • be introduced to new concepts through lectures and demonstrations, • work in small groups to investigate solutions, • play games and solve puzzles to explore and reinforce mathematical concepts, • write notes, descriptions, definitions, and sample solutions and keep these together in their math binder, • describe their problem-solving techniques in written Problem of the Week solutions, • investigate a mathematician or mathematical idea, write about their research, and present their research to the class, • create artwork that implements mathematical concepts, and • present their work and explain procedures to the entire class and, on occasion, to the entire school. The sixth grade class uses the Prentice-Hall Middle School Mathematics, Course 1, textbook. Portions of other texts and handouts will be used to supplement this traditional text. We also use the Problem of the Week library provided through the Math Forum project of Drexel University.

Throughout the school year, we will review calculating with integers, fractions, decimal fractions, ratios and proportions, and percentages. We’ll focus on problem-solving strategies, and connect their skills in math with humanities, Spanish, art, and science often (in units on the Fibonacci sequence in nature, for example).

Essential Questions

Content

Skills

Assessment

Fall

Winter

• Where do we see examples of the Fibonacci sequence in nature? • Where do I see calculations and numbers in the world? • Number theory: understanding sequences, and odd, even, and prime numbers • Use ratio and rate to solve problems • Problem-solving plans and techniques • Adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing whole numbers and decimals • Using order of operations rules to evaluate expressions • Describing and evaluating number patterns • Connecting multiplication and division to ratio and rate • Solving single-step equations in one variable • Daily homework assignments • In-class participation • Written POW solutions • Quiz and test scores

• How do pie charts and bar graphs • How long does it take to count to help us understand data? one million? • What are some ways to categorize • How do numbers help us numbers? understand shapes in the world? • Number theory: understanding factors and multiples • Comparing quantities • Estimating quantities • Develop understanding of statistics • Investigating data and using graphs • • •

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Spring

• Geometry vocabulary • Measuring quantities and shapes to investigate geometric figures • Positive and negative integers— extending the number system • Writing and interpreting expressions and equations Adding, subtracting, multiplying and • Adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing whole numbers, decimals, dividing whole numbers, decimals, and fractions fractions, and positive and negative Using ratios and percents integers accurately • Naming and classifying geometric Writing equations and solving figures single-step equations • Converting metric units of length, mass, and capacity within the metric system • Calculating area, perimeter, and volume Daily homework assignments • Daily homework assignments In-class participation • In-class participation Written POW solutions • Written POW solutions Quiz and test scores • Quiz and test scores

Activities

• Keep track of daily assignments • Hand in homework daily • Complete written quizzes and tests in class • Solve and present solutions to problems to whole class with a group • Write narrative solutions to Problems of the Week • Individually answer questions posed orally • Attribute Awareness: Interprets data about groups of things, of people, etc., using graphic mathematical representation; reads charts and graphs with growing fluency, discerning information about opinion, income, and more abstract social attributes. • Sustainability and Stewardship: Largely responsible for classroom stewardship; participates in class recycling. • Self and Community Membership: Volunteers with increasing frequency, has opportunities to volunteer as a member of a group (class projects). • Fairness and Justice: Contributes to identification and support of classroom rules and procedures.

Math Seventh Grade

The focus for the seventh grade is on developing their understanding of shapes, both two- and three-dimensional, and on using variables and formulas. Throughout the year, we’ll use geometry and measurement to help practice calculation and problem-solving skills and to develop algebra techniques. To accomplish our goals, the girls will: • be introduced to new concepts through lectures and demonstrations, • work in small groups to investigate solutions, • play games and solve puzzles to explore and reinforce mathematical concepts, • write notes, descriptions, definitions, and sample solutions and keep these together in their math binder, • describe their problem-solving techniques in written Problem of the Week solutions, • investigate a mathematician or mathematical idea, write about their research, and present their research to the class, • create artwork that implements mathematical concepts, and • present their work and explain procedures to the entire class and, on occasion, to the entire school.

The seventh grade class uses the McDougal Littell, Math Course 3, textbook. Portions of other texts and handouts will be used to supplement this traditional text. We also use the Problem of the Week library provided through the Math Forum project of Drexel University and the IXL website to support skill building. Throughout the school year, we will review calculating with positive and negative integers, fractions, decimals, ratios and proportions, and percentages. We’ll focus on problem-solving strategies, and connect their skills in math with humanities, Spanish, art, and science often (in units on scale drawings, tessellations, three-dimensional shapes, and election math, for example). Fall

Winter

Spring

Essential Questions

• How can I use numbers to describe the world around me? • How do I compare and communicate number relationships?

• How are formulas helpful in describing shapes? • What is the Pythagorean Theorem? • What can we learn about distance and area using right triangles?

Content

• Expressions, equations, and inequalities • Comparing quantities • Estimating quantities • Understanding proportions • Graphing inequalities on a number line • Problem-solving plans and techniques • Adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing whole numbers, decimals, integers, and fractions • Using order of operations rules and the distributive property to evaluate expressions • Calculating using exponents and factors • Solving single-step equations in one variable • Solving two-step equations in one variable • Solving and graphing inequalities in one variable • Daily homework assignments • In-class participation • Written POW solutions • Quiz and test scores

• How are the rules for fractions and decimals different from those for whole numbers? • How are the rules the same? • How are an equation and its graph related? • Fractions, ratios, proportions, and percents • Scale drawings and maps • Expressions and linear equations • Geometry—measurement, area, and volume • Investigating data and using graphs

Skills

Assessment

• Geometry vocabulary • Measuring quantities and shapes to investigate geometric figures • Pythagorean Theorem • Positive and negative integers • Right triangle trigonometric ratios

• Adding, subtracting, multiplying and • Adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing whole numbers, decimals, dividing whole numbers, decimals, integers, and fractions fractions, and positive and negative integers • Using ratios and percents accurately • Naming and classifying geometric figures • Writing equations and solving single-step equations • Converting metric units of length, mass, and capacity within the • Graphing linear equations metric system • Calculating area, perimeter, and volume

• • • •

Daily homework assignments In-class participation Written POW solutions Quiz and test scores

• • • •

Daily homework assignments In-class participation Written POW solutions Quiz and test scores

Activities

Social Justice • Learning Strands

•

• Keep track of daily assignments • Hand in homework daily • Complete written quizzes and tests in class • Solve and present solutions to problems to whole class with a group • Write narrative solutions to Problems of the Week • Individually answer questions posed orally • Attribute Awareness: Interprets • Attribute Awareness: Can describe data about groups of things, of attributes of own learning style. people, etc., using graphic • Emotional Intelligence: mathematical representation; can Demonstrates consistent describe attributes of own “manners” in discourse and learning style. behavior, meeting school Emotional Intelligence: expectations. Demonstrates consistent • Sustainability and Stewardship: “manners” in discourse and Largely responsible for classroom behavior, meeting school stewardship; participates in class expectations. recycling. Sustainability and Stewardship: • Self and Community Membership: Largely responsible for classroom Sees oneself as able to help others stewardship; participates in class problem-solve. recycling. Self and Community Membership: Sees oneself as able to help others problem-solve.

Pi Day March 14

Math Eighth Grade

By the end of her eighth grade year, an LWGMS graduate will be able to use her excellent math skills and her confidence in her problem-solving strategies to analyze the world around her. In addition she will be well prepared for high-school level math. The focus for an eighth grader is on developing her skill using algebra to solve problems. To accomplish this, the girls will: • be introduced to new concepts through lectures and demonstrations, • work in small groups to investigate solutions, • play games and solve puzzles to explore and reinforce mathematical concepts, • write notes, descriptions, definitions, and sample solutions and keep these together in their math binder, • describe their problem-solving techniques in written Problem of the Week solutions, • investigate a mathematician or mathematical idea, write about their research, and present their research to the class, • create artwork that implements mathematical concepts, and • present their work and explain procedures to the entire class and, on occasion, to the entire school.

The eighth grade class uses the CME Project Algebra I textbook. Portions of other texts and handouts will be used to supplement these traditional textbooks. We also use the Problem of the Week library provided through the Math Forum project of Drexel University, and the IXL website to support skill building. Throughout the school year, we will review calculating with positive and negative integers, fractions, decimals, ratios and proportions, and percentages. We’ll focus on problem-solving strategies, and connect their skills in math with humanities, Spanish, art, and science often (units on mapping, using scientific notation, trigonometry in astronomy, and election math, for example).

Essential Questions

Content

Skills

Assessment

Fall

Winter

• What patterns can I find in arithmetic and how can I extend those patterns? • How are algebraic expressions and equations related to expressions using integers and rational numbers? • How do graphs of equations help me understand the equation? • Integral and fractional exponents • Graphing linear equations and related inequalities in two variables • Factoring monomials and polynomials

• How can I use what I know about • What real-world applications can I fractions to help me work with model using a quadratic equation? rational expressions? • What kinds of problems can I solve using simple trigonometric ratios? • How can I use what I know about factoring integers to help me simplify rational expressions? • What real-world applications can I solve using rational expressions? • Solving systems of linear equations • Understanding functions • Factoring polynomial expressions and equations • Simplifying polynomial expressions and equations

Spring

• Applying the Pythagorean Theorem, analyzing figures in two and three dimensions • Quadratic equations • Quadratic formula • Trig functions: sine, cosine, and tangent • Adding, subtracting, multiplying • Adding, subtracting, multiplying and • Adding, subtracting, multiplying and and dividing positive and negative dividing whole numbers, decimals, dividing whole numbers, decimals, whole numbers, decimals, integers, and fractions fractions, and positive and negative integers, and fractions integers • Adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing monomials and • Using the rules of exponents to • Finding roots of quadratic calculate polynomials equations using the quadratic formula • Finding opposites, roots, and • Applying factoring to second- and reciprocals third-degree polynomials. • Graphing quadratic functions • Solving equations and inequalities • Simplifying fractions with • Finding roots of quadratic in a single variable polynomials in the numerator and equations by factoring denominator • Solving equations and inequalities • Applying quadratic equations to with absolute values physical problems • Adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing rational expressions and • Simplifying expressions • Using simple trigonometric ratios functions. to solve physical problems • Graphing linear equations and related inequalities • Solving systems of linear equations in two variables • Daily homework assignments • Daily homework assignments • Daily homework assignments • In-class participation • In-class participation • In-class participation • Written POW solutions • Written POW solutions • Written POW solutions • Quiz and test scores • Quiz and test scores • Quiz and test scores

Activities

• Keep track of daily assignments • Hand in homework daily • Complete written quizzes and tests in class • Solve and present solutions to problems to whole class with a group • Write narrative solutions to Problems of the Week • Individually answer questions posed orally • Attribute Awareness: Interprets data about groups of things, of people, etc., using graphic mathematical representation. • Emotional Intelligence: Demonstrates comfortable, empathetic interaction with people of diverse learning styles, abilities and intelligence, cultures and appearances. • Sustainability and Stewardship: Suggests or “invents” devices/ strategies that would make the world better and solve problems; largely responsible for classroom stewardship; participates in class recycling. • Self and Community Membership: Values self in role of mentor to younger children.

Spanish Spanish Sixth Grade The focus for sixth grade Spanish is to foster an appreciation for the relevance of the Spanish language in students’ lives and to develop an understanding of the diversity within the Spanish-speaking world. Throughout the year students will... - master vocabulary and grammatical concepts that will enable them to conduct a basic conversation, describe themselves and others, and share their schedules and activities - know the countries and capitals of South and Central America as well as geography-related vocabulary in Spanish - prepare and present a comprehensive project on a Latin American Spanish-speaking country - learn about various cultures of Spanish-speaking communities - maintain discussion surrounding Spanish and bilingualism in today’s world.

Students use the textbook Avancemos 1 by Holt McDougal. The textbook is in hardcover as well as online. Students will be able to access their online book by signing into classzone.com. Instruction will include discussion, guided practice, partner and group activity, songs, games, skits and projects to vary practice and learning experiences and provide students with the opportunity to use creativity and problem solving skills in a different language. In order to check for and assess content mastery, the sixth grade will be asked to complete regular homework assignments and take weekly quizzes and chapter tests. Fall Essential Questions

Content

● Why learn a foreign language? ● What role does speaking a foreign language/bilingualism play in global citizenship? ● How does geography mold the ethnic make up of our immigrant population? ● Why do Latinos immigrate to the U.S? What are their contributions and experience? ● How do I share information about myself with others in Spanish? ● Geography of Spanish-speaking countries ● Basic conversational questions and answers ● Traditional songs

Winter

Spring

● How does appreciating other ● How are the different cultures cultures impact my worldview? of Latin America reflected in the art, music and literature of ● How are Latin American countries geographically and each country? culturally similar and different ● How are verbs, time, and to my country? numbers different and similar in Spanish and English? ● How does sharing about myself help me create connections with others? ● Likes and dislikes ● The verb ser ● Characteristics and physical descriptions ● Comparison and contrast of different cultures, foods, and traditions of Latin American countries

● The arts of the Spanishspeaking countries in Latin America. ● Daily schedules, time, and numbers from 11 to 100 ● Verb tener and use of tener que ● Expressing frequency ● Present tense -ar verb conjugation

Skills

● Locate and name Spanish-speaking countries and capitals on a world map ● Prepare a comprehensive country presentation ● Use and understand basic conversational Spanish and classroom related phrases ● Spell and count to 10 in Spanish ● Recite days of the week in Spanish ● Describe the weather in Spanish ● Memorize and perform several traditional songs in Spanish

● Understand personal pronouns and how to conjugate the verb ser ● Use gustar + infinitive to express likes and dislikes ● Describe self and others ● Identify objects and use definite and indefinite articles ● Apply noun-adjective agreement when writing and speaking in Spanish

Assessment

● Daily Entrada (entrance) activity Nightly homework ● Quizzes and tests ● Classroom participation ● Oral and written country presentation

● Daily Entrada (entrance) activity ● Nightly homework ● Quizzes and tests ● Classroom participation ● Various small projects

Activities

● Textbook activities reinforcing target grammar skill ● Group skit writing and performance ● Vocabulary games ● Partner dialogue activities ● Amigas Project ● World map labeling games ● Map and flag drawings of Spanishspeaking world ● Song performance Social Justice ● Point of View: Developing ability to Learning describe and attribute different opinions/ Strands perspectives. Sustainability and Stewardship: Largely responsible for classroom stewardship; participates in class recycling. ● Self and Community Membership: Volunteers with increasing frequency, has opportunities to volunteer as a member of a group (class projects); learns to interview on field trips and with classroom visitors; explores ritual and cultural identity. ● Fairness and Justice: Contributes to identification and support of classroom norms and procedures.

● Textbook activities reinforcing target grammar skill ● Online listening and comprehension activities ● Group skit writing and performance ● Vocabulary games ● Partner dialogue activities ● Song performance ● Description Activity ● Attribute Awareness: Understanding of variation within a group and among groups grows. ● Sustainability and Stewardship: Largely responsible for classroom stewardship; participates in class recycling. ● Self and Community Membership: Volunteers with increasing frequency, has opportunities to volunteer as a member of a group (class projects); explores ritual and cultural identity. ● Fairness and Justice: Contributes to identification and support of classroom norms and procedures.

● Research and prepare an instructional demonstration of an art form reflecting the culture of the previously assigned country. ● Read and follow a schedule in Spanish. ● Read a clock in and tell time in Spanish ● Share tasks and obligations using the verb tener ● Recite numbers from 0 – 100 in Spanish ● Conjugate -ar verbs in the present tense ● Daily Entrada (entrance) activity ● Nightly homework ● Quizzes and tests ● Classroom participation ● Presentation of cultural research project ● Textbook activities reinforcing target grammar skill ● Online listening and comprehension activities ● Group skit writing and performance ● Vocabulary games ● Partner dialogue activities ● Song performance ● Point of View: Demonstrates resistance to stereotyping through multiple classification and conservation of traits. ● Sustainability and Stewardship: Largely responsible for classroom stewardship; participates in class recycling. ● Self and Community Membership: Volunteers with increasing frequency, has opportunities to volunteer as a member of a group (class projects); explores ritual and cultural identity. ● Fairness and Justice: Contributes to identification and support of classroom norms and procedures.

Spanish Seventh Grade The focus for seventh grade is to deepen the understanding of the Spanish-speaking community at local and international levels, gain an appreciation for the traditions of students’ own families and culture as well as those of Latino families, and strengthen conversation by increasing vocabulary and grammatical skills. Throughout the year students will... - master more sophisticated grammatical concepts such as the -er, -ir, stem-changing, and irregular verbs, direct object pronouns and possessive adjectives - expand their vocabulary to help them share and discuss family, traditions and culture - complete a variety of writing projects related to food, family, and traditions - learn songs, work on group presentations and performances, play games, and read a novel - maintain discussion surrounding bilingualism, Latino culture and global citizenship in today’s world.

In order to check for and assess content mastery, the seventh grade will continue to be asked to complete regular homework assignments and take weekly quizzes and chapter tests. Students continue to use the textbook Avancemos 1 by Holt McDougal, in hardcover and online.

Essential Questions

Content

Fall

Winter

Spring

• How can learning a foreign language benefit individuals? • What is the significance of bilingualism? What role does bilingualism play in global citizenship? • What role does food play in the Latino culture? How is the food different or similar to mine? • How can I express my feelings in Spanish? • Spanish as an advantage and benefit in daily life, careers and education • Agriculture and food of Spanish-speaking countries • Review of the verbs ser, tener and regular -ar verbs • Introduce estar and ir • Asking questions • Food vocabulary • Verb gustar + nouns and verb hacer • Present tense -er and -ir verb conjugation • Spanish songs • Expressing feelings in Spanish

• How can I share about my family with others in Spanish? • How do the traditions and roles differ in traditionally Latino families compared to mine? Do they?

• How do people in modern day Spanish-speaking countries spend their leisure time? Does it differ from the way I do? • How can I describe my attire as well as someone else’s?

• • • • • •

Family vocabulary Birthdays and ages Making comparisons Possessive adjectives Giving dates Numbers over 200

• Daily activities of people living in Spanish-speaking countries • Articles of clothing • Colors • Seasons • Stem changing verbs e-ie, o-ue, and e-i • Direct object pronouns • Describing places • Modes of transportation • Ordering from a menu • Verb ver • Giving directions to a location

Festival de Otoño October 22, 6pm

Skills

• Identify and understand benefits of speaking Spanish in the future • Conjugate and use the verbs ser, tener, estar and ir as well as, ar verbs • Use interrogative words to formulate questions • Name different meals in Spanish and acquire additional food vocabulary • Express preferences using the verb gustar + nouns • Conjugate -er and -ir verbs • Learn songs in Spanish • Daily Entrada (entrance) activity • Nightly homework • Quizzes and tests • Class participation • Projects

• Describe family members and their ages and relationship to one another using family vocabulary in Spanish • Recite months of the year and dates in Spanish • Use possessive adjectives as well as de to show possession in Spanish • Recite numbers from 200 – 1,000,000 and months of the year • Understand and appropriately use comparatives and discuss how they differ from one another

• Textbook activities reinforcing target grammar skill • Group skit writing and performance • Vocabulary games • Partner dialogue activities • Diet project • Song performance • Postcard project • Verb pictures

•

Social Justice • Attribute Awareness: Can Learning describe attributes of own Strands learning style. • Emotional Intelligence: Describes own emotional and physical states with accuracy; demonstrates consistent “manners” in discourse and behavior, meeting school expectations. • Sustainability and Stewardship: Largely responsible for classroom stewardship; participates in class recycling. • Self and Community Membership: Explores ritual and cultural identity.

•

Assessment

Activities

• • • • •

• • • • • • • •

•

• Discuss leisure activities and hobbies in Spanish-speaking countries • Describe and individuals attire, physical appearance and compare him/her to another individual in Spanish • Understand stem-changing verbs eie, o-ue and e-i and apply them appropriately in dialogue • Order from a menu and understand its content • Understand and appropriately use direct object pronouns • Give directions to a location Daily Entrada (entrance) activity • Daily Entrada (entrance) activity Nightly homework • Nightly homework Quizzes and tests • Quizzes and tests Classroom participation • Classroom participation Oral and written project • Presentation of cultural research presentations project • Scavenger Hunt Textbook activities reinforcing target • Textbook activities reinforcing grammar skill target grammar skill Online listening and comprehension • Online listening and activities comprehension activities Group skit writing and performance • Writing and performing skits with a Vocabulary games group Partner dialogue activities • Vocabulary games Song performance • Partner dialogue activities Family Tree project • Memorizing and performing songs Calendar project • Scavenger hunt activity Canción de Si Misma poem and project Attribute Awareness: Reinforces • Attribute Awareness: Uses comfort with differences; can increasingly precise language to describe attributes of own learning describe self and others; can style. describe attributes of own learning Emotional Intelligence: Demonstrates style. consistent “manners” in discourse • Emotional Intelligence: and behavior, meeting school Demonstrates consistent expectations. “manners” in discourse and Sustainability and Stewardship: behavior, meeting school Develops deeper understanding of expectations; sees self as able to participation in systems (family, complete projects and can classroom, community, ecological); describe the stage of project. largely responsible for classroom • Sustainability and Stewardship: stewardship; participates in class Largely responsible for classroom recycling. stewardship; participates in class Self and Community Membership: recycling. Explores ritual and cultural identity. • Self and Community Membership: Explores ritual and cultural identity.

Spanish Eighth Grade In eighth grade Spanish class focuses on developing the Spanish-speaking proficiency of students. This is accomplished by moving towards an immersion-style of classroom. The majority of class is taught in Spanish and students are expected to use Spanish when communicating with the teacher and each other.

Throughout the year students -work independently, as well as, in groups - master more challenging grammatical concepts such as: additional irregular and stem-changing verbs, saber vs. conocer, affirmative commands, -ar, -er, -ir verbs in the preterite tense, irregular verbs in the preterite tense, reflexive verbs -expand their vocabulary to include, the home, sports, technology, health, and the human body (external parts and internal organs) -write and perform an original "soap opera" in Spanish -write poetry and design and describe a fantasy room -write, illustrate, and construct a children's book in Spanish -comprehend instructions given in Spanish, ask questions in Spanish, and contribute to class activities and discussions in Spanish

Students use the textbook Avancemos 1b by Holt McDougal, in hardcover as well as, online. Students will once again be able to access their online book by going to classzone.com and inputting a username and password given to them. Accessing @HOMETUTOR, through classzone.com continues to be an excellent way to practice and reinforce what has been covered in class. Fall Essential Questions

• What Spanish skills can I employ where I to find myself in a Spanish-speaking country right now?

Content

• • • • •

Skills

• • • • • • • • • • • • •

Winter

• How do parties and celebrations differ in Spanishspeaking countries? • How can I express what I need done and what I have accomplished in Spanish? • What are the different sports played in the Spanish-speaking world? How are they similar or different from those in the US? Review • Planning a party Talking about activities • Vocabulary related to chores Describing yourself and others and responsibilities School related vocabulary and information • Telling someone to do Food and drink related dialogues and something and relating what vocabulary you have just done Family related information • Talking about sports Making comparisons • Talking about whom you know Expressing possession and what you know Describing a house and household items Indicating the order of things Locating items or people Conjugate and use the verbs ser, tener, • Master irregular verbs: dar, estar, and ir, as well as ar, er, and ir verbs decir, poner, salir, traer, and venir Use interrogative words to formulate • Use affirmative tú commands. questions • Memorize and use sports Name the different meals in Spanish and related vocabulary acquisition of additional food vocabulary • Conjugate and use the verb Tell time and date jugar Describe and compare family member’s, • Understand of saber and physical attributes, attire, relationships to conocer, how to use them, and one another. how they differ from one Understand direct object pronouns, and another how and when to use them • Memorize and apply household Master stem changing verbs e-ie, o-ue and vocabulary e-i and apply them appropriately in • Know ordinal numbers dialogue

Spring

• How do people in modern day, Spanish-speaking countries take care of their health? Does it differ from the way I do? • Technology is international. How can I share information about it in Spanish?

• The human body in Spanish • Sharing information about things you have done in the past • Talking about technology • Talking about a sequence of events over time • Expressing negative or indefinite situations

• Memorize the parts of the human body in Spanish • Talk about healthy habit in Spanish • Conjugate regular ar, er, and ir verbs in the preterite tense • Conjugate –car, -gar and –zar verbs in the preterite tense • Memorize and apply vocabulary pertaining to technology • Use affirmative words and negative words in a dialogue • Conjugate ir, ser + hacer in the present tense • Understand reflective verbs and how to use them

Assessment • • • • • Activities

• • • • • • •

Social Justice Learning Strands

•

• •

Daily QSR (Quick Start Review) activity Nightly homework Quizzes and tests Classroom participation Project

• Daily QSR (Quick Start Review) activity • Nightly homework • Quizzes and tests • Classroom participation • Oral and written project presentations Textbook activities reinforcing target • Textbook activities reinforcing grammar skill target grammar skill Writing and performing skits with a group • Online listening and Vocabulary games comprehension activities Partner dialogue activities • Writing and performing skits Spanish soap opera project with a group Scrapbook project • Vocabulary and grammar Memorizing and performing songs Games • Cuarto • Memorizing and performing songs • Saber, conocer poem Emotional Intelligence: Demonstrates • Attribute Awareness: comfortable, empathetic interaction with Reinforces comfort with people of diverse learning styles, abilities differences. and intelligence, cultures and appearances; • Emotional Intelligence: writes dialog expressing empathy and/or Demonstrates comfortable, writes from a perspective not her own. empathetic interaction with Sustainability and Stewardship: Largely people of diverse learning responsible for classroom stewardship; styles, abilities and intelligence, participates in class recycling. cultures and appearances. Self and Community Membership: Values • Sustainability and Stewardship: self in role of mentor to younger children; Largely responsible for explores ritual and cultural identity. classroom stewardship; participates in class recycling. • Self and Community Membership: Values self in role of mentor to younger children; explores ritual and cultural identity.

• Daily QSR (Quick Start Review) activity • Nightly homework • Quizzes and tests • Classroom participation • Presentation of cultural research project • Textbook activities reinforcing target grammar skill • Online listening and comprehension activities • Writing and performing skits with a group • Vocabulary games • Partner dialogue activities • Memorizing and performing songs • Children’s book project • Attribute Awareness: Reinforces comfort with differences. • Emotional Intelligence: Demonstrates comfortable, empathetic interaction with people of diverse learning styles, abilities and intelligence, cultures and appearances. • Sustainability and Stewardship: Largely responsible for classroom stewardship; participates in class recycling. • Self and Community Membership: Values self in role of mentor to younger children; explores ritual and cultural identity.

Humanities Humanities Sixth Grade

Language Arts Objectives: Expand comprehension by analyzing, interpreting, and synthesizing information and ideas; think critically and analyze author’s use of language, style, purpose, and perspective; understand the writing process and conventions; master basic research skills; and communicate effectively in written and oral work.

A primary focus of instruction will be on the development of writing skills in various forms: research papers, short essays (expository, persuasive, research-based), personal narratives, poetry, and journal writing.Writer’s conferences, both teacher-to-student and student-tostudent, will be used to emphasize writing as a process. Because research skills will be emphasized in all subjects, students will master navigating the Internet for research purposes. Spelling and grammar will be addressed in instruction as well as in the editing and conference process of student writing.Vocabulary instruction will focus on Latin and Greek roots and parsing words for comprehension. Students will read a wide selection of novels, short stories, and poetry in a program designed to enhance critical thinking and prepare them for the interpretation of more complex literature. Literature will, whenever possible, connect to concepts that students are concurrently exploring in social studies, Spanish, and science. Social Studies Objectives: Understand cause and effect; analyze the historical development of events, people, places, and patterns of life in local, national, and world history; examine the influence of culture; use research skills, synthesize information and reflect on findings; and demonstrate understanding of geography and map skills.

Through a variety of discussions, reading, and projects, social studies will principally focus on how individuals and groups affect the greater community and the world.Topics covered include families, communities, Latin America, the Holocaust and utopia, The Civil Rights Movement, and American cultural diversity. Fall Essential Questions

Content

Winter

Spring

• What comprises our community? • How do Utopian ideals create environments where genocide can • What’s in a name? be carried out? • What is our relationship with Latin American countries? • How can we prevent another genocide? • How does the US citizenship process affect immigrants? • What contemporary human rights issues are informed by our understanding of historical violations such as the Holocaust? • Latin and Greek Vocabulary • Latin and Greek Vocabulary • Multicultural poetry • Utopia and Genocide • Amigas Project • Political factors in Europe preceding the Holocaust • U.N. “Rights of a Child” • Viva La Causa film • Role of resistors and rescue during the Holocaust • Democratic process • Narrative arc (setting, plot, • WA Holocaust Education conflict, rising and falling action, Resource Center “teaching trunk” resolution) • Novels: The Lottery and Animal Farm • Novels: The Circuit, Voices From the Fields • Book Groups: Night, The Devil's Arithmetic, Diary of Anne Frank, All But My Life

• Why were “unsung” US heroes prevented from obtaining social status? • How does the historic struggle for equality in the U.S. inform our modern world? • What is Shakespeare's influence on modern English and the literary canon? • Latin and Greek Vocabulary • U.S. Civil Rights movement – introduction • U.S. unsung heroes • U.S. states and capitals • Novels: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Grammar Day January 22

Skills

• • • • • • • • • • •

Assessment

• • • • • • •

Activities

• • • • • •

• • Social Justice • Learning Strands •

•

Map reading Organization Memorization – vocabulary Reading comprehension Literary analysis Note taking Writing a five paragraph essay Revising and editing Persuasive writing Group negotiation Idea-generating strategies and free-writing Weekly vocabulary quizzes Unit exams Class participation Persuasive essay Oral presentation Group presentation Debates

• • • • • • • • • • •

Map reading Making inferences Organization Memorization – vocabulary Reading comprehension Literary analysis Note taking Writing a five paragraph essay Revising and editing Group negotiation Creative writing

• • • • • • • • • •

Map reading Organization Reading comprehension Literary analysis Memorization – vocabulary Note taking Writing a five paragraph essay Revising and editing Research paper Writing a bibliography

• • • •

Weekly vocabulary quizzes Unit exams Class participation Five paragraph literary analysis essay Oral presentation Group presentation Power point presentation Debates

• • • • • •

Poetry writing My Name vignette I am From I Was Raised By poem The Circuit narrative arc map United Farmworkers Movement project Human Rights posters Amigas group projects Point of View: Developing ability to describe and attribute different opinions/perspectives. Attribute Awareness: Reads charts and graphs with growing fluency, discerning information about opinion, income, and more abstract social attributes. Sustainability and Stewardship: Largely responsible for classroom stewardship; participates in class recycling. Self and Community Membership: Volunteers with increasing frequency, has opportunities to volunteer as a member of a group (class projects); explores ritual and cultural identity. Fairness and Justice: Contributes to identification and support of classroom rules and procedures; shows growing vocabulary of justice.

• The Lottery literary analysis expository essay • Animal Farm project • • Holocaust essay / art contest • • Holocaust rescuer presentation • Contemporary human rights issue project and presentation

Weekly vocabulary quizzes Unit exams Speech Class participation Research term paper Five paragraph literary analysis essay Oral presentation Group presentation Debates Power point presentation Civil Rights "unsung hero" biography and art component Roll of Thunder expository essay Shakespeare research term paper and presentation

• • • •

• • • • •

• Sustainability and Stewardship: • Sustainability and Stewardship: Suggests or “invents” devices/ Largely responsible for classroom strategies that would make the stewardship; participates in class world better and solve problems; recycling. largely responsible for classroom • Self and Community Membership: stewardship; participates in class Volunteers with increasing recycling. frequency, has opportunities to volunteer as a member of a group • Self and Community Membership: Volunteers with increasing (class projects); understanding of frequency, has opportunities to status as a societal element; volunteer as a member of a group analyzes relationships among (class projects); extends study of groups of people recognizing history, looking at effect of pivotal power dynamics, goals and event on different groups. outcomes pertaining to economic, racial and gender issues among • Fairness and Justice: Contributes to identification and support of others. classroom rules and procedures; • Fairness and Justice: Contributes to introduced to the concept of identification and support of oppression (as distinct from classroom rules and procedures; exclusion); demonstrates “moral reads a variety of genres compass” and sense of right and concerning discrimination, civics, wrong. history, and legislation; makes informed, considerate evaluations about race, class, religion, gender, sexuality, ability, and culture.

Writing Workshop Sixth Grade

This class teaches the conventions of written language within a meaningful context: students’ own writing. Through a combination of inquiry and direct instruction, students learn grammatical and mechanical rules and apply them to the writing they do in a writer’s notebook. Students generate meaningful topics to write about; then they take them through the writing process and publish for an audience. Fall Winter • Where do writers get ideas? • How do writers create and convey meaning? • What are writing conventions and why do they matter? • What are writing conventions and why do they matter? Content • Using a Writer's Notebook • Using a Writer's Notebook • Conventions of writing: grammar • Conventions of writing: grammar and mechanics and mechanics • Writing process • Writing process • Grammar text: Woe is I Jr. Skills • Idea-generating strategies and • Writer's craft: elaboration free-writing strategies, show-not-tell, “so what” factor • Applying lessons of grammar and mechanics (including but not • Applying lessons of grammar and limited to sentence fragments, mechanics (including but not serial comma, rules of limited to sentence fragments, capitalization, subject/verb serial comma, rules of agreement, and key homophones) capitalization, subject/verb agreement, and key homophones) • Writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, publishing • Writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, publishing • Collaboration: writing partnerships • Collaboration: writing partnerships Assessment • Writer's notebook • Writer's notebook • GEMs (short published pieces) • GEMs (short published pieces) • Weekly quizzes • Weekly quizzes Activities • Portrait of a writer: embellishing • Publishing GEMs the writer's notebook • Publishing GEMs Social Justice • Point of View: Developing ability • Sustainability and Stewardship: Learning to describe and attribute different Suggests or “invents” devices/ Strands opinions/perspectives. strategies that would make the world better and solve problems; • Attribute Awareness: Reads charts and graphs with growing largely responsible for classroom fluency, discerning information stewardship; participates in class about opinion, income, and more recycling. abstract social attributes. • Self and Community Membership: Volunteers with increasing • Sustainability and Stewardship: Largely responsible for classroom frequency, has opportunities to stewardship; participates in class volunteer as a member of a group recycling. (class projects); extends study of history, looking at effect of pivotal • Self and Community Membership: Volunteers with event on different groups. increasing frequency, has • Fairness and Justice: Contributes to opportunities to volunteer as a identification and support of member of a group (class classroom rules and procedures; projects); explores ritual and introduced to the concept of cultural identity. oppression (as distinct from exclusion); demonstrates “moral • Fairness and Justice: Contributes to identification and support of compass” and sense of right and classroom rules and procedures; wrong. shows growing vocabulary of justice. Essential Questions

Spring • How does one read as a writer? • What are writing conventions and why do they matter?

• Using a Writer's Notebook • Conventions of writing: grammar and mechanics • Writing process • Grammar text: Woe is I Jr. • Applying lessons of grammar and mechanics (including but not limited to sentence fragments, serial comma, rules of capitalization, subject/verb agreement, and key homophones) • Writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, publishing • Collaboration: writing partnerships

• • • •

Writer's notebook GEMs (short published pieces) Weekly quizzes Publishing GEMs

• Sustainability and Stewardship: Largely responsible for classroom stewardship; participates in class recycling. • Self and Community Membership: Volunteers with increasing frequency, has opportunities to volunteer as a member of a group (class projects); understanding of status as a societal element; analyzes relationships among groups of people recognizing power dynamics, goals and outcomes pertaining to economic, racial and gender issues among others. • Fairness and Justice: Contributes to identification and support of classroom rules and procedures; reads a variety of genres concerning discrimination, civics, history, and legislation; makes informed, considerate evaluations about race, class, religion, gender, sexuality, ability, and culture.

Humanities Seventh Grade

This course integrates Language Arts with Social Studies and offers students a chance to see the connections among history, literature, art, and culture. Additionally, the course covers skills in writing, oral presentations, study techniques, and research assignments. The subject matter of this course is World History and Literature. Additionally, this course looks closely at different cultures’ rites of passage as the LWGMS seventh graders develop, design, and implement their own ritual, a culminating event in the Spring term. Throughout the year, students will have weekly vocabulary based on the literature assignments, Latin and Greek roots, and high school preparation lists. Additionally, grammar and writing are emphasized in all units with specific skills covered with each written assignment. Oral presentations skills are highlighted on a daily basis in informal class participation as well as in formal presentations throughout the year. Finally, geography skills such as map reading are covered with each unit and include historical and current maps.

Essential Questions

Content

Skills

Fall

Winter

• How do religious beliefs influence cultures and civilizations? • How does a rite of passage reflect cultural values? • How do modern nations deal with cultural differences? • World religions • Rites of Passage • Persepolis • Things Fall Apart • Personal Essays (Writing Workshop) • Short Stories/Mythology from Asia, Latin America, and India

• How does a writer use language to convey meaning? • How does democracy influence culture and civilization? • Why does the study of history inform our modern world? • Waiting for Odysseus • Homer’s Odyssey & Greek Mythology • Ancient Greek Democracy • Ancient Roman Republic • Democracies around the world

• • • • • • • • • • • •

Assessment

• • • • • • •

Spring

• How do the world’s cultures differ in beliefs and values? • How do politics and power affect the environment? • How can individuals affect change in the world? • Asia: China • Global resources • Global Economies • Book Groups: Little Chinese Seamstress, Red Scarf Girl, Snow Falling in Spring • Term Paper: World Cultures • Vocabulary: High School Freshmen List Map reading • Map reading • Map reading Analyzing drama, poetry, • Analyzing drama, poetry, literature, • Analyzing drama, poetry, literature, literature, and non-fiction and non-fiction and non-fiction Writing persuasive essay • Writing persuasive essay • Writing persuasive essay Writing Personal Essay • Outlining • Research for term paper Outlining • Memorization – vocabulary • Memorization – vocabulary Memorization – vocabulary • Revising and editing • Revising and editing Revising and editing • Presentation: oral skills • Presentation: oral skills Presentation: oral skills • Applying lessons of grammar & • Research Research mechanics (including but not • Bibliography Bibliography limited to key homophones, • Group work Web-page assessment apostrophe use, pronoun • Self-assessment Applying lessons of grammar & agreement, subordinating and • Applying lessons of grammar & mechanics (including but not coordinating conjunctions, comma mechanics (including but not limited limited to key homophones, splice, run-on sentences, and to key homophones, apostrophe apostrophe use, pronoun sentence fragment) use, pronoun agreement, agreement, subordinating and subordinating and coordinating • 3-D design coordinating conjunctions, comma conjunctions, comma splice, run-on splice, run-on sentences, and sentences, and sentence fragment) sentence fragment) Group project • PowerPoint presentation • Visual presentation Group presentation • Oral presentation • Oral presentation Research paper • Persuasive essays • Group presentation Weekly vocabulary quiz • Weekly Vocabulary quiz • Persuasive essays Mythology quiz • Mythology quiz • Weekly vocabulary quiz Reading quiz • Reading quiz • Mythology quiz Unit exam • Unit exam • Reading quiz • Artist statement • Unit exam • Artist statement

Activities

• Art project: book cover • Presentations • Writing: research paper, poetry, essay, creative writing • Debate • Create personal rite of passage • Begin planning group rites of passage Social Justice • Point of View: Developing ability Learning to describe and attribute different Strands opinions/perspectives. • Attribute Awareness: Reads charts and graphs with growing fluency, discerning information about opinion, income, and more abstract social attributes. • Sustainability and Stewardship: Largely responsible for classroom stewardship; participates in class recycling. • Self and Community Membership: Volunteers with increasing frequency, has opportunities to volunteer as a member of a group (class projects); explores ritual and cultural identity. • Fairness and Justice: Contributes to identification and support of classroom rules and procedures; shows growing vocabulary of justice.

• • • • • •

Scene performance Art project: Odyssey/mythology Presentations Writing: essay, poetry Debate 3-D design and printing of Greek and Roman architecture

• • • • • •

Art project: propaganda poster Rites of passage Writing Debate Research world culture topic PowerPoint presentation on term paper

• Sustainability and Stewardship: • Sustainability and Stewardship: Suggests or “invents” devices/ Largely responsible for classroom strategies that would make the stewardship; participates in class world better and solve problems; recycling. largely responsible for classroom • Self and Community Membership: stewardship; participates in class Volunteers with increasing recycling. frequency, has opportunities to volunteer as a member of a group • Self and Community Membership: Volunteers with increasing (class projects); understanding of frequency, has opportunities to status as a societal element; volunteer as a member of a group analyzes relationships among (class projects); extends study of groups of people recognizing history, looking at effect of pivotal power dynamics, goals and event on different groups. outcomes pertaining to economic, racial and gender issues among • Fairness and Justice: Contributes to identification and support of others. classroom rules and procedures; • Fairness and Justice: Contributes to identification and support of introduced to the concept of oppression (as distinct from classroom rules and procedures; exclusion); demonstrates “moral reads a variety of genres compass” and sense of right and concerning discrimination, civics, history, and legislation; makes wrong. informed, considerate evaluations about race, class, religion, gender, sexuality, ability, and culture.

Festival of Lights November 26

Social Studies Eighth Grade

The eighth grade Social Studies class is a combination of Washington State History and American Studies. Throughout the year, students write persuasive essays, make presentations, read primary and secondary sources, and take a variety of tests and quizzes. The first half of the year is spent on Washington State History and History Day Projects: students will study the geography of Washington, the history of Native Americans, explores, traders, settlers, and the formation of the state government. Further, the course covers the diverse people of Washington by looking at the various immigration movements. Finally, students conduct an in-depth look at Washington's Civil Rights Movement. As part of the Washington State History curriculum, all eighth graders prepare a History Day project based on the National History Day annual theme and will participate in History Film Festival at LWGMS in February and the Regional History Day competition in March 2013. Mid-year, eighth graders turn their attention to the United States, with a strong focus on the US Constitution and Civics. Additionally, the course focuses on American culture by exploring some of the elements of United States history that traditionally receive less attention; specifically, we look at the role of women, African-Americans, and labor unions in the formation of American society. Finally, all eighth graders will participate in a Constitutional Mock Trial project scheduled for Spring 2014. Fall

Winter

Spring

Essential Questions

• How does Washington State fit into American history? • What perspectives are included in American history? • How does American Government function? • How does change occur in America?

• How does a culture or civilization change? • What is the relationship between Native American history and European American history? • How did the end of slavery affect change in America?

Content

• U.S. History overview • Washington State History Day projects • Washington State’s Civil Rights Movement • MLK Essay Contest • Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience • Wash State: Counties • Map reading • Analyze drama, poetry, literature, and non-fiction • Write persuasive essay • Outlining/note taking • Memorization – vocabulary • Revising and editing • Presentation: oral skills • Using digital media technology

• • • • • • •

• What is the “American Canon” in literature? • How does literature reflect American culture? • What are major themes in American literature and history? • How does Washington State play a role in American history and politics? • The Great Gatsby • Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass • American Short Stories • Final term paper on American history • High school vocabulary

Skills

Assessment

• • • • • • • • •

Activities

• • • • •

PowerPoint presentation Oral presentation Persuasive essays Weekly vocabulary quiz Philosophy quiz Reading quiz Unit exam Artist statement Washington State documentary film History Film Festival documentary projects Presentations Writing: essay, poetry, short story Debate Research paper on Washington State counties

• • • • • • • •

The Crucible Native American history Wash State: Native tribes Civil rights and music Jazz and blues in America Seattle’s Black writers and artists Wash State History – political process Analyze drama, poetry, literature, and non-fiction Write persuasive essay Outlining Memorization – vocabulary Revising and editing Presentation: oral skills Research Write a bibliography Web-page assessment

• • • • • • •

Group project Group presentation Research paper Weekly vocabulary quiz In-class essay/timed writing Reading quiz Unit exam

•

• Art project: book cover • Presentations • Writing: research paper, poetry, essay, creative writing • Debate • Research paper on Washington State Native tribes

• Map reading • Analyzing drama, poetry, literature, and non-fiction • Writing persuasive essay • Outlining • Memorization – vocabulary • Revising and editing • Presentation: oral skills • Research • Write a bibliography • Group work • Self-assessment • Visual presentation • Oral presentation • Group presentation • Persuasive essays • Weekly vocabulary quiz • Reading quiz • Unit exam • Artist statement • Art project: colors • Presentation on term paper and color project • Writing: essays, artist statement, poetry • Debate and persuasive speaking • Research American History topic • Graduation speech

Social Justice • Point of View: Developing ability • Sustainability and Stewardship: • Sustainability and Stewardship: Learning to describe and attribute different Suggests or “invents” devices/ Largely responsible for classroom Strands opinions/perspectives. strategies that would make the stewardship; participates in class world better and solve problems; recycling. • Attribute Awareness: Reads charts and graphs with growing largely responsible for classroom • Self and Community Membership: fluency, discerning information stewardship; participates in class Volunteers with increasing about opinion, income, and more recycling. frequency, has opportunities to abstract social attributes. volunteer as a member of a group • Self and Community Membership: Volunteers with increasing (class projects); understanding of • Sustainability and Stewardship: Largely responsible for classroom frequency, has opportunities to status as a societal element; stewardship; participates in class volunteer as a member of a group analyzes relationships among recycling. (class projects); extends study of groups of people recognizing history, looking at effect of pivotal power dynamics, goals and • Self and Community Membership: Volunteers with event on different groups. outcomes pertaining to economic, increasing frequency, has racial and gender issues among • Fairness and Justice: Contributes to opportunities to volunteer as a identification and support of others. member of a group (class classroom rules and procedures; • Fairness and Justice: Contributes to projects); explores ritual and introduced to the concept of identification and support of cultural identity. oppression (as distinct from classroom rules and procedures; exclusion); demonstrates “moral reads a variety of genres • Fairness and Justice: Contributes to identification and support of compass” and sense of right and concerning discrimination, civics, classroom rules and procedures; wrong. history, and legislation; makes shows growing vocabulary of informed, considerate evaluations justice. about race, class, religion, gender, sexuality, ability, and culture.

History Day Film Festival February 12, 6pm

Language Arts Eighth Grade

A primary focus of instruction in this course is the development of students’ writing voices and skills. Students make extensive use of the writing process and learn to become their own editors. Grammar and mechanics instruction is contextualized in a way that allows students to apply it to their own writing. While students engage in some traditional novel study and literary analysis, most of the reading in the class is genre-aligned with the writing: when they are reading short fiction, they are writing it; when they are reading poetry, they are writing it, etc. When students are reading novels, they are engaging in regular Socratic seminars to explore the themes and issues raised in the text through thoughtful discourse.

Essential Questions

Content

Skills

Assessment

Fall

Winter

Spring

• What does it mean to live a “writer’s life” and how does one live it? • How do writers engage in the writing process? • How does narrative perspective shape the way we read and understand a text? • What are conventions and why do they matter? • How does poetry engage a reader? • Using a Writer’s Notebook • Writing process • Reading of Julie Otsuka’s When the Emperor Was Divine • Literary devices • Conventions of writing: grammar and mechanics • Reading and writing poetry: free verse and forms • Strategies for generating and developing ideas • Writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, publishing • Literary analysis and personal response • Applying lessons of grammar and mechanics (including but not limited to punctuation and formatting of dialogue, colon and semicolon use, pronoun case and order, and key homophones) • Memorization – vocabulary • Poetry criticism and poetry writing • Active reading strategies • Presentation: oral communication • Writer’s notebook • Weekly vocabulary quiz • Writer’s handbook PowerPoint presentation • Emperor projects and presentations • GEMs (short published pieces) • Socratic seminars • Reading responses

• How can we use our personal and collective experience to enhance our understanding of texts we read and write? • What techniques and devices do writers use to create stories and convey themes? • How is the concept of “passing” relevant in contemporary society? Who passes? How and why?

• How is the reading and writing of memoir a transformative, even political act? • How do writers use authors as mentors? • What is “voice” in writing and how do writers develop it? • How does audience and purpose inform different kinds of writing? • How does one read as a writer?

• Reading of Nella Larsen’s Passing • Reading and writing short realistic fiction (Authors include Toni Cade Bambara, Gary Soto, Alice Walker, Gish Jen, Richard Peck, and others) • Conventions of writing: grammar and mechanics • High school vocabulary Writing literary essays Analyzing short stories Writing short stories Applying lessons of grammar and mechanics (including but not limited to punctuation and formatting of dialogue, colon and semicolon use, pronoun case and order, and key homophones) Memorization – vocabulary Writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, publishing Presentation: oral communication Collaboration: reading and writing partnerships

• Reading and writing memoir (Authors include Sheman Alexie, Sandra Cisneros, Jamaica Kincaid, Kyoko Mori, and others) • Graduation speeches • Poetry: Odes • Conventions of writing: grammar and mechanics • High school vocabulary • Analyzing memoir • Writing memoir • Applying lessons of grammar and mechanics (including but not limited to punctuation and formatting of dialogue, colon and semicolon use, pronoun case and order, and key homophones) • Memorization – vocabulary • Writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, publishing • Presentation: oral skills • Collaboration: reading and writing partnerships • Goal-setting

Writer’s notebook Literary essay Socratic seminar Weekly vocabulary quiz Reading responses Published short story GEMs (short published pieces)

• • • • • • •

• • • •

• • • • • • •

Writer’s notebook Weekly vocabulary quiz Published memoir Reading responses Independent writing piece GEMs (short published pieces) Graduation speech

Activities

• Portrait of a Writer: embellishing the writer’s notebook • Field trip to International District (novel and social studies connections to Japanese internment) • Presentations • Socratic Seminars • Publishing Social Justice • Point of View: Developing ability Learning to describe and attribute different Strands opinions/perspectives. • Attribute Awareness: Reads charts and graphs with growing fluency, discerning information about opinion, income, and more abstract social attributes. • Sustainability and Stewardship: Largely responsible for classroom stewardship; participates in class recycling. • Self and Community Membership: Volunteers with increasing frequency, has opportunities to volunteer as a member of a group (class projects); explores ritual and cultural identity. • Fairness and Justice: Contributes to identification and support of classroom rules and procedures; shows growing vocabulary of justice.

• Presentations • Creation of a Writer’s Handbook • Writing: essays, short stories (realistic fiction) • Socratic Seminar • Scene dramatizations • Poetry Night • Hugo House visit

• Writing: memoirs, genre of choice, graduation speech • Author visits and readings • Scene dramatizations • Writing celebration • GRADUATION

• Sustainability and Stewardship: • Sustainability and Stewardship: Suggests or “invents” devices/ Largely responsible for classroom strategies that would make the stewardship; participates in class world better and solve problems; recycling. largely responsible for classroom • Self and Community Membership: stewardship; participates in class Volunteers with increasing recycling. frequency, has opportunities to volunteer as a member of a group • Self and Community Membership: Volunteers with increasing (class projects); understanding of frequency, has opportunities to status as a societal element; volunteer as a member of a group analyzes relationships among (class projects); extends study of groups of people recognizing history, looking at effect of pivotal power dynamics, goals and event on different groups. outcomes pertaining to economic, racial and gender issues among • Fairness and Justice: Contributes to identification and support of others. classroom rules and procedures; • Fairness and Justice: Contributes to identification and support of introduced to the concept of oppression (as distinct from classroom rules and procedures; exclusion); demonstrates “moral reads a variety of genres compass” and sense of right and concerning discrimination, civics, history, and legislation; makes wrong. informed, considerate evaluations about race, class, religion, gender, sexuality, ability, and culture.

Visual Art Recognizing that art cannot be separated from the study of history, language, culture, and other academic disciplines, a DBAE (DisciplineBased Art Education) approach will be used throughout all of art classes. This is a conceptual framework that encompasses the following: Production: creating or performing History: encountering the historical and cultural background of works of art Aesthetics: discovering the nature and philosophy of the arts Criticism: making informed judgments about the arts Students will be exposed to a diverse selection of artists and develop a vocabulary to discuss and critically examine works of art. Furthermore, students will use the Elements of Art (line, shape, color, texture, form, space) and Principles of Design (repetition, variety, harmony, contrast, unity, balance, emphasis) to create works of art that emphasize process and not product.

Art Sixth Grade Fall Essential Questions

Content

Skills

Assessment

Activities

• What makes a work of art visually appealing? • How does simplifying an image into its basic form create a sense of balance? • How does art communicate ideas? • Watercolor • Scratchboard • Dia de los Muertos • Contour drawing • Abstract self-portraiture • Latin American art • Elements of art • Principles of design • Production • Aesthetics • Criticism • Class participation • Motivation • Effort • Final product • Artistic curiosity • Shoe contour drawings • Scratchboard animals • Dia de los Muertos papel picado • Silhouette self-portrait collage • Diego Rivera fresco tiles

Winter

Spring

• How can you communicate a • How do artists use color to message, or feeling, through art? convey mood? • How do we use measuring and • How do artists use symbols to proportion to create communicate larger themes? representations of human face/ • How do artists use different form? media to support their content? Proportion Portraiture Figure drawing Stamping 3-D Mixed media sculpture

• • • •

Kara Walker Printmaking Oil pastels Acrylic paint

Elements of art Principles of design Production Aesthetics Criticism Class participation Motivation Effort Final product Artistic curiosity Locker lady portrait Jacob Friedman Holocaust Art Contest • Figure drawing and stamping • Louise Nevelson Installations

• • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Elements of art Principles of design Production Aesthetics Criticism Class participation Motivation Effort Final product Artistic curiosity Kara Walker silhouette installation Personal/family mandalas Master grid replicas Introductory printmaking

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Social Justice Learning Strands

• Point of View: Developing ability to describe and attribute different opinions/perspectives. • Attribute Awareness: Expanding emotional and social vocabulary. • Sustainability and Stewardship: Largely responsible for classroom stewardship; participates in class recycling. • Self and Community Membership: Volunteers with increasing frequency, has opportunities to volunteer as a member of a group (class projects); explores ritual and cultural identity. • Fairness and Justice: Contributes to identification and support or classroom rules and procedures.

• Emotional Intelligence: Uses increasingly precise language to describe feelings and moods; further develops ability to harness constructive criticism. • Sustainability and Stewardship: Largely responsible for classroom stewardship; participates in class recycling. • Self and Community Membership: Volunteers with increasing frequency, has opportunities to volunteer as a member of a group (class projects). • Fairness and Justice: Contributes to identification and support or classroom rules and procedures; begins to demonstrate philosophic thought, may talk/ learn about creation, religion, death.

• Emotional Intelligence: Begins to offer constructive criticism in classroom situations when appropriate. • Sustainability and Stewardship: Largely responsible for classroom stewardship; participates in class recycling. • Self and Community Membership: Volunteers with increasing frequency, has opportunities to volunteer as a member of a group (class projects). • Fairness and Justice: Contributes to identification and support or classroom rules and procedures; makes informed, considerate evaluations about race, class, religion, gender, sexuality, ability and culture.

2013/2014 Art Show June 5, 6pm

Art Seventh Grade Fall Essential Questions

Content

Skills

Assessment

Activities

Winter

• How do artists use line and • What is your personal “chi”? movement to create energy? • What visual elements comprise your “chi”? • How do artists use color to convey mood? • How is an object simplified into an abstract form? • How is art used to tell a story? What stories are told? • Elements of Art: line, shape, form, • Elements of Art: shape, form, color, space, color, value, texture texture • Principles of Design: pattern, • Principles of design: emphasis, proportion variety, unity, balance, rhythm Art history: Art history: • Van Gogh and Impressionism • Georgia O'Keeffe • Dia de los Muertos calaveras • Betye Saar • Andy Warhol and Pop Art • Joseph Cornell Art production: Art production: • color theory: primary, secondary, • abstraction of an object and tertiary colors; shade, tint, • found objects sculptures hue; complementary and • drawing and mixed media monochromatic color schemes portraiture • acrylic painting landscape • acrylic painting • scratchboard: creating value • Describes and evaluates the • Describes and evaluates the media, processes, and meaning of a media, processes, and meaning of work of art, making comparative a work of art, making comparative judgments judgments • Employs elements of a landscape • Mixes and blending colors (foreground, middle-ground, • Selects and arranges found objects into a balanced, meaningful work of background, linear perspective art horizon line, vanishing point) • Abstraction of an object into its • Mixes and blends colors basic form using simplification • Adds black and white to create tints and shades • Uses hatching, cross-hatching and stippling to create value • Primary, secondary, tertiary colors; warm, and cool colors • Class participation • Class participation • Motivation • Motivation • Effort • Effort • Final product • Final product • Artist statements • Artist statements • Van Gogh-style landscapes • Expressionist self-portraits • Andy Warhol "Pop Art" paintings • Chi Box (with Rites of Passage curriculum) • Dia de los Muertos calaveras • Color wheels • Georgie O'Keeffe pastel flowers/ fruit • Art History research presentations and emulations

Spring • What are advanced ways of using materials? • How can we experiment in new ways with familiar art tools? • What is a Cubist form?

• Elements of Art: shape, color, form, value, texture • Principles of Design: emphasis, unity, balance, rhythm Art history: • Franz Marc and Cubism • Andy Goldsworthy • Kathe Kollwitz Art production: • printmaking • oil / chalk pastel • acrylic paint

• Describes and evaluates the media, processes, and meaning of a work of art, making comparative judgments • Mixes and blends colors • Adds white to colors to create tints; adding black to create shades • Uses relief printmaking techniques • Uses a variety of line types and thicknesses to create rhythm and movement in a blockprint

• • • • • • • •

Class participation Motivation Effort Final product Artist statements Reductive linoleum block printing Cubist animal paintings Natural object sculptures

Social Justice • Attribute Awareness: Can Learning describe attributes of own Strands learning style; reinforces comfort with differences. • Emotional Intelligence: Demonstrates consistent manners in discourse and behavior, meeting school expectations. • Sustainability and Stewardship: Largely responsible for classroom stewardship; participates in class recycling. • Self and Community Membership: Explores ritual and cultural identity.

• Point of View: Identifies personal • Attribute Awareness: Can describe perspectives that have changed attributes of own learning style; since elementary school. expanding emotional and social vocabulary. • Attribute Awareness: Can describe attributes of own learning style; can • Emotional Intelligence: define self using some standard Demonstrates consistent manners language; demonstrates ability to in discourse and behavior, meeting list ways in which she is “different school expectations; sees self as from” as well as “the same as” peer able to complete projects and can group, society at large, parent(s)/ describe the stage of a project. guardian(s), etc. • Sustainability and Stewardship: Largely responsible for classroom • Emotional Intelligence: Demonstrates consistent manners stewardship; participates in class in discourse and behavior, meeting recycling. school expectations. • Sustainability and Stewardship: Largely responsible for classroom stewardship; participates in class recycling. • Fairness and Justice: Can make statements about spiritual beliefs and learns about beliefs of others in class.

Art Eighth Grade Fall Essential Questions

Content

Skills

Assessment

Activities

Winter

Spring

How do modern and historical • How do we communicate ideas • How do the arts connect to the artists shape our visual world? through art? humanities? • How are classifications of art • What are the cultural implications • How can we express a sense of used to understand the time and of colors, and how do they differ self through self-portraiture? place in which it was made? across the world? • How can we be environmentally conscious artists? • How can we use the ideas of • How do various cultures use art other artists to inform our own to communicate ideas? art? • Elements of art: line, shape, color, • Elements of art: line, shape, color, • Elements of Art: line, shape, color, form, space, texture, value form, space, texture, value form, space, texture, value • Principles of design: pattern, • Principles of design: pattern, • Principles of design: pattern, emphasis, variety, unity, balance, emphasis, variety, unity, balance, emphasis, variety, unity, balance, rhythm, proportion rhythm, proportion rhythm, proportion Art history: Art history: Art history: • Louise Nevelson • Harlem Renaissance art • Jan Von Holleban "Dreams of Flying" photographs • Various art history movements • Portraits of American poets • Classifications of art • Coastal Salish art • Nicki McClure Art production: • Dia de los Muertos • Various self-portrait artists Art production: Art production: • advanced still life drawings • sand paintings • advanced printmaking • self-portrait painting • watercolor landscapes • portraiture • showing negative and positive space with black and white paper • cardboard sculptures • ceramic mask-making • six-word memoir illustrations • surrealist photography • Describes and evaluates the • Describes and evaluates the • Describes and evaluates the media, media, processes, and meaning of media, processes, and meaning of a processes, and meaning of a work a work of art, making comparative work of art, making comparative of art, making comparative judgments judgments judgments • Employs elements of a landscape • Face proportions • Face proportions (foreground, middle-ground, • Mixing and blending colors • Mixing and blending colors background, horizon line, • Relief printmaking techniques • Uses different line types and colors vanishing point) to convey mood or energy in a • Basic ceramic hand building skills (slab, coil, hatching, joining slabs) portrait • Mixes watercolors to create light and dark values • Advanced linoleum printmaking • Stages a photograph that inverts skills: uses a variety of line types perspective in order to create a • Creates a repeating pattern by using cardboard in a variety of and thicknesses surrealist scene geometric shapes and sizes • Adding value to a drawing • Blending pencil with a blending stump to create value • Class participation • Class participation • Class participation • Motivation • Motivation • Motivation • Effort • Effort • Effort • Final product • Final product • Final product • Artist statements • Artist statements • Artist statements • Art History research project • Still life drawing • Self-portrait • Watercolor landscapes (with • Langston Hughes poem illustration • Nicki McClure-style postcards Geology field trip) – printmaking • Six-Word Memoir illustrations • Sandpaintings – Dia de los • Native American clay masks • "Dreams of Flying" photographs Muertos • Paintings of American poets • Louise Nevelson cardboard sculptures •

Social Justice • Attribute Awareness: Reinforces Learning comfort with differences. Strands • Emotional Intelligence: Demonstrates comfortable, empathetic interaction with people of diverse learning styles, abilities and intelligence, cultures and appearances. • Sustainability and Stewardship: Largely responsible for classroom stewardship; participates in class recycling. • Self and Community Membership: Values self in role of mentor to younger children; explores ritual and cultural identity.

• Point of View: Expression of point of view is supported by information and consideration of listener or audience. • Attribute Awareness: Reinforces comfort with differences. • Emotional Intelligence: Demonstrates comfortable, empathetic interaction with people of diverse learning styles, abilities and intelligence, cultures and appearances. • Sustainability and Stewardship: Largely responsible for classroom stewardship; participates in class recycling. • Self and Community Membership: Values self in role of mentor to younger children.

• Point of View: Discerns humans as a group and self as responsible for the destiny and future health of the earth. • Attribute Awareness: Demonstrates ability to list ways in which she is “different from” and “the same as” peer group, society at large, parent(s)/guardian(s), etc. • Emotional Intelligence: Demonstrates comfortable, empathetic interaction with people of diverse learning styles, abilities and intelligence, cultures and appearances. • Sustainability and Stewardship: Identifies conservation measures in school and at home; largely responsible for classroom stewardship; participates in class recycling. • Self and Community Membership: Values self in role of mentor to younger children.

Performing Arts Performing Arts

Through the Performing Arts program at LWGMS, students build strong voices, strong minds, and strong bodies. Through literary and historical analysis and interpretation and memorization of the script and songs, students develop strong minds; by learning to perform with strong voices, students develop confidence; and finally, through learning to use physical movements and dance to express emotion and meaning, students develop strong bodies. The Performing Arts program also provides opportunities for students to practice teamwork and leadership skills. As members of a cast and crew, the students must learn to work together and be responsible on both an individual level as well as for the entire group. In addition to performing as actors and musicians, students take on leadership roles in stage management, lighting, sound, and set design, assisting the director, and choreographing musical numbers. Each yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s production is an event that relies on teamwork and peer support for success; consequently, with every show the girls learn to work cohesively and collaboratively. The process of creating a show is filled with opportunities for social and emotional learning and the personal growth that results from meeting challenges and taking appropriate risks. It is an all-school, cross-curricular lesson that involves every member of the student body. The progression of the program from sixth grade to eighth grade reflects the idea that as girls become more confident in their performance skills, the role size and responsibility increases. In the Fall and Winter all school musical productions, sixth graders generally have smaller roles and seventh graders have larger roles and leads; every sixth and seventh grader has a speaking role. Eighth graders work as the crew, and perform as musicians and as members of the ensemble. During the Spring term, seventh graders may apply to work as the stage crew for the eighth grade play. The eighth grade play reflects a culminating event for the drama program in that every girl has a larger role, takes more creative control, and has more responsibility in this production.

Lake Washington Girls Middle School presents...

MULAN

Lake Washington Girls Middle School presents...

PETER PAN

music, book, and lyrics by Piers Chater Robinson directed by Jenny Zavatsky

MULAN

music and lyrics by Matthew Wilder and David Zippel, Stephen Schwartz, Jeanine Tesori, and Alexa Junge book adapted and additional lyrics by Patricia Cotter based on the 1998 Disney film Mulan and the story Fa Mulan by Robert D. San Souci directed by Jenny Zavatsky

location & time

Broadway Performance Hall 1625 Broadway, Seattle, WA December 13 at 7p & 14 at 2p $10 - Suggested Donation

location & time

Broadway Performance Hall 1625 Broadway, Seattle, WA March 7 at 7p & 8 at 2p $10 - Suggested Donation

Enrichment Enrichment

The Enrichment program’s goal and objectives are to provide students with skills and opportunities beyond the regular academic program, in keeping with the school’s philosophy of teaching the “whole girl.” The design of the Enrichment program reflects the belief that students should be well-rounded and have opportunities to engage in activities that address multiple learning styles. Additionally, the Enrichment program is designed to give students opportunities to explore their individual interests. The Enrichment classes are generally project-based, and they therefore allow students to create a product to publish, perform, or display at the end of the term. LWGMS values the arts, and many of the Enrichment classes incorporate the arts, both visual and performing. The Enrichment program gives students opportunities to work in groups, to work on project or performance based assignments, and to work on subject matter that relates to real-world experiences. As with any class at LWGMS, diversity of perspectives and materials is incorporated into the design of the class. The content design of each course takes into consideration multiple and diverse perspectives on its subject.

Creative Writing Instructors: Ms. McGough P’16, Jacquie Tilden Creative writing provides opportunities for students to express themselves through written means as they play with the art and craft of writing. They explore their lives and their imaginations through different genres: Students may write poetry, short stories, editorials; they may publish personal zines or student magazines or enter their work in literary contests. They read and become familiar with a diverse selection of writers, using those authors as mentors to their own writing process. Students develop writing communities among their peers and practice giving and receiving feedback, effectively strengthening their writing and also enriching their relationships. The publication of their work is always an integral part of the work they do, whether it takes the form of a stage performance in front of a large audience at Festival of Lights or an intimate reading to peers.

STEAM Instructor: Caitlin Ronning, Chelsea McCollum STEAM Studio is an opportunity for students to work on projects specifically designed to target science, technology, engineering, art and math all at once. By combining these subjects into one class, the students are intentionally exposed to challenging curriculum in a fun and meaningful way. By incorporating the design thinking process, students will learn how to be resilient in the face of failure and to think outside the box. Some of the projects the students will be working on include writing and developing claymation stop-motion films, fabricating mouse traps, inventing egg drop devices and building 3D models through Autodesk 123 Design and Cube 3D printers.

Drama In Drama classes at LWGMS, students collaborate with others while they learn the vocabulary of theater and the process involved in what it takes to put on a complete show in a working theater. The Drama Program at LWGMS is a three year curriculum that focuses on theatrical skills, ensemble building, script analysis, and artistic discipline. In the Fall and Winter Terms, sixth and seventh graders perform in a large musical, while eighth graders serve as crew members and production team, who are responsible for set design and building, costume design and construction, stage management, lighting and sound design and tech. Sixth graders participate as part of a large ensemble, singing and dancing in groups and performing a few lines, and seventh graders participate in larger roles and take on leadership in the production process. In the Spring Term, eighth graders perform in their own theatrical production, with a few seventh graders serving as the crew and production team. The eighth grade class chooses the play, collaborates to design the concept, and performs in the show, which serves as a culmination of their three year drama curriculum.

Service Learning Service Learning

Service Learning is an integral and rewarding part of the LWGMS experience. The goal of the Service Learning program is for students to recognize their own abilities to improve their communities and nurture a sense of responsibility and pride as students take action to improve their local and global communities. In the 2013/2014 school year, each student will take part in a grade-level service project. The sixth grade service project connects to their study of pollution and the environment. As part of the Rites of Passage curriculum, seventh graders create service learning capstone projects, and the eighth grade project is connected to our Central District community. Additionally, each student participates in an off campus experience during their "FLEx Week," as a means of extending the academic curriculum and as a way to facilitate connections for the students. In addition to these grade level service projects, we encourage our students to participate in two all school service projects. For the 2013/2014 school year, LWGMS is fostering relationships with the St. Cloud’s Cooking for the Homeless program, Centerstone (formerly the Central Area Motivation Project), and Common River. Past service learning projects include: reading with students from Bailey Gatzert Elementary, Water 1st International’s Carry 5 Walk for Water, Washington Low Income Housing Alliance’s Housing and Homelessness Advocacy Day, YWCA’s Thanksgiving Basket Drive, United Nations Foundation’s GirlUp Rally, Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Beat the Bridge, American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, Country Doctor Community Health Center’s Spa Day Drive for domestic violence shelters, and fundraising for the Maasai Girls Education Fund.

Physical Education The goals and objectives of the LWGMS Physical Education program are to help develop strong, self-confident, well-balanced young women. Students participate in a variety of physical education activities in order to provide them with a well-rounded experience. Each student takes three terms of Physical Education each year: one term of martial arts, one term of health and fitness, and one term of boxing and dance movement. EALR 1:The student acquires the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain an active life: movement, physical fitness, and nutrition Component 1.1: Develops motor skills and movement concepts as developmentally appropriate.

Martial Arts The Martial Arts program is taught by experienced instructors from Quantum Martial Arts.Throughout their martial arts training, girls are required to express their strength through a “kihap” or “spirit yell” when they perform their forms and techniques – a literal exercise in strengthening their voices. Students perform techniques alone, in partner drills, and with targets. Students are encouraged to explore and discuss body mechanics as they learn.The girls regularly engage in discussions regarding the tenets of courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control and indomitable spirit. Each term culminates in a “test” where students perform what they have learned and advance to the next rank.These tests are not linked to technical proficiency, but rather are a celebration of the strengths gained by each individual.

Health and Fitness The LWGMS Health and Fitness class, taught by instructors from the Meredith Matthews East Madison YMCA, focuses on the four components of fitness: Cardiovascular endurance, Muscular strength, Muscular endurance and Flexibility. Discussion around each component of fitness, the FITT principle, as well as instruction on specific exercises are incorporated throughout each class. Fitness assessments are conducted for each student at the beginning of the term and individual fitness goals are established. The students are introduced to cardio equipment (treadmill, elliptical, stationary bike, cross trainer and AMT), Life Fitness resistance equipment as well as plate loaded machines. YMCA instructor(s) lead the students through safe practices in the fitness center. Group Exercise classes focusing on strength training with free weights and flexibility with yoga are included, as well as an introduction to team sports, such as volleyball and indoor soccer.

Dance Movement Dance Movement, taught by Heather Harris P’12, ’15, will give the girls an opportunity to explore various dance styles, learn and participate in choreography, learn holistic stretches and warm-ups, all the while enjoying movement and music. Dance class will consist of Holistic Stretches, improv, and group choreography. We will use a variety of world music as well as explore many different styles of dance. During each session the girls will have two guest artists teach class. Brazilian Samba, Break dance, Afro Cuban, and Contemporary Jazz will be some of the guest classes offered. Each term the girls will write a short summary of their experience with our guest artist as well as having performed choreography at a school event.

Yoga and Body Image Yoga and Body Image, taught by Mary McGough, is a gentle class to develop a connection to the physical and energetic body while cultivating strength, balance, and relaxation. By focusing on yoga fundamentals the girls will work to develop body awareness, learn basic postures, focus on proper alignment, and practice coordinating the breath and movements gracefully together.