Middle School Curriculum

Our aim in the Middle School at Krieger Schechter Day School (KSDS) is to foster each student’s love of learning as they move through pre-adolescence. We encourage our students to seek the goals of academic excellence and responsible independence.

A crucial portion of our program includes a forum for each student to develop critical and analytical thinking skills and individual expression in each discipline. Middle School academics are a critical developmental step for students, helping them form the study habits, intellectual curiosity, and love of learning that will guide them through high school, college, and beyond.

English

The Middle School English curriculum at KSDS focuses on the growth and improvement of skills and strategies in reading comprehension, vocabulary, grammar and writing. The literature curriculum encourages reading in a wide range of genres, including fiction, poetry, and nonfiction texts. Students learn to read for fluency; to understand the elements of literature; to comprehend important ideas and details; to analyze, interpret, synthesize, and expand ideas; to think critically about an author’s use of language, style, purpose, and perspective; and to gain an appreciation of literature and the shared reading experience. Grammar and vocabulary skills are developed both through targeted practice and in the context of writing assignments. The novels that are taught at each grade level focus around a broad theme and are chosen to help students examine ideas from a variety of authors’ voices and characters’ experiences. Students in 8th grade are able to take two semester-long courses that in recent years have focused on topics such as Shakespeare, coming-of-age, censorship, and gender stereotypes. When our students are guided through class novels, they are not only identifying story elements such as characterization and plot, but they are also learning about life, relationships, human conflict, and empathy as they sink their teeth into creative word choice and story-telling techniques. In our English classes a book is never just a book.

Writing skills are developed through a dedicated Writing Workshop course in 5th and 6th grades which teaches students how to structure their writing for different audiences and purposes and gives students an opportunity to move through the writing process at their own pace. In 7th grade students apply their writing skills to complete a major research paper focused on the grade-level theme of upstanders as well as to complete a cross-curricular writing project in Judaics. In 8th grade they take their writing skills even further as they complete an in-depth literary critique/analysis.