Grade 7
At Tesseract School, our student-centered program is designed to help each individual develop his or her unique talents in a safe and supportive environment. To individualize instruction, class size is kept small. Instruction is hands-on, cooperative and interdisciplinary. This multi-sensory, integrated approach to learning allows middle school students to make their own connections and process and remember information in a way uniquely meaningful to them.
In seventh-grade language arts, students hone their writing skills and learn to develop an appreciation of quality literature. Literary selections in this class reflect the themes for the science, social studies and Spanish curriculum. Building on what was learned in earlier language arts courses, students apply their writing practices and critically analyze poetry and literature through the Six Traits of Writing.
Concepts in seventh-grade math include algebra, geometry, probability and data analysis in addition to problem solving, reasoning and proof. The four unifying concepts of proportional reasoning are utilized throughout the curriculum to help students make connections and build mathematical skills. In science, the main topics of study are Arizona's local ecosystem, genetics and heredity, and the Earth's geological make-up, movement and place in our solar system.
In American history, students examine the development of the United States from European settlement through the reconstruction period. This course comes to life for students in the spring through their class-trip to key historical sites on the East Coast. Also a focus of this class is the business and economics unit. In this unit, seventh-graders create a product, analyze cost, profit and loss, and create a business plan. This product is then marketed and sold at el Mercado de Tesseract, an annual marketplace planned and run by the seventh-and eighth-graders as part of the middle school Spanish program.
Throughout middle school, technology is integrated to support each subject’s curriculum. The arts, library, athletics, service learning, peer mediation, advisory, field trips and the seventh-grade class trip further enrich students’ seventh-grade experience.
As important as our academic curriculum is our social curriculum, Developmental Designs for Middle School (DDMS). Knowing each student individually, recognizing and celebrating each other’s similarities and differences, and understanding and maintaining clear parameters for acceptable behavior, we create a culture of respect and reflective social interaction with students, educators and the rest of the community.
|
|
|
