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Core Curriculum - Grades 6-8 (Upper School)
Students in the Upper School (sixth through eighth grade) move from room to room for classes with separate teachers for each subject. Classes include English, history and social studies, mathematics, science, French, Latin, art studio, art history, music history, and physical education. Our double textbook policy allows students to have one set of books to keep at home and another remaining at school, relieving students from carrying heavy books back and forth and allowing them to always have the texts they need on hand. This also leaves students with ample space in their lockers and backpacks for binders and supplemental materials.
English
The goals of the English program at The Academy are many: to provide
students with mastery of the principles of English grammar; to foster in them
ease and fluency of writing; to instruct them in the history of English literary
forms; and to sharpen their skills in critical reading and thinking. Students
learn to analyze English sentence structure, and apply their knowledge directly
via a variety of daily and weekly writing exercises. They also develop critical
reading abilities through an eclectic and challenging set of texts, ranging
from modern and contemporary classics to perennial classics of authors including
Mark Twain, Charles Dickens and Jane Austen. Each year, students read (and
perform) a complete play of Shakespeare in its original language. By the time
they graduate, students have also received a thorough introduction to the history
of English poetry, from Beowulf to the present day.
Social Studies
In Social Studies, students not only look at the history of great civilizations, but they also connect
the past with the present so as to better understand the world that we live in today. Students learn to make
connections between different historical developments as they study the ancient world (sixth grade), the Middle
Ages (seventh grade) and American history (eighth grade). Using primary sources to view history from a variety of
perspectives, students learn that history is not simply the narrative created by the writers of history books.
Opportunities for role-playing, analysis and reflection help students put themselves in the shoes of their predecessors.
Mathematics
In the Upper School's mathematics program, fun and academic rigor go hand in hand. Students polish their basic
skills before they move on to pre-algebra, geometry and algebra. The curriculum in each
grade reviews and develops what was learned in previous years. Linear relations are studied extensively. Fundamental
geometric ideas including the Pythagorean theorem are established. Eighth grade mathematics focuses on developing
strong algebraic skills and using them to study polynomials. At every stage connections are made between algebraic
and geometric approaches to solving problems.
Science
The science program in the Upper School develops the use of the scientific method to answer questions about the world.
Each year students cover a different branch of science - earth science in the sixth grade, physics and chemistry in the
seventh, and biology and life sciences in the eighth. By the end of the program, students are familiar with the solar
system and the basic structure of the earth, the laws of motion and forms of energy, atomic structure and chemical bonds,
cells and genetics, evolution, and factors that affect the environment. Hands-on experiments help students to explore and
to come up with their own questions while confirming what they learn in their texts. Students also engage in several
research projects in which scientific journals and the Internet are used as primary sources of information. Each student
presents a project at the Science Fair.