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The Middle School curriculum, schedule and culture capitalizes on the evolving needs of the early adolescent through project-based learning that brings academic material to life and fosters cooperative team spirit. Students select their own arts electives including theater, ceramics and band. In addition to regular wellness classes, daily advisory groups bolster students’ emotional intelligence by encouraging them to take pride in their school work and to explore opportunities outside of the classroom such as clubs and team sports.
Many leadership opportunities are available in the Middle School, including organizing town halls and community service projects, which build student confidence and efficacy and leads to success in upper school.
Language Arts in the Middle School encourages students to appreciate and analyze the written word. Through close reading and focused class discussion, students move beyond the recognition of plot to evaluate character motive and author’s intention. The critical lens developed during reading discussions is integrated into writing lessons, helping students create original pieces of multiple genres, that include the structures, language, and craft of selected authors. In addition, the students are also taught to develop their public speaking skills, which complements their coursework across all content areas.
The pre-adolescent is preoccupied in understanding how they fit in with a diverse group. Therefore, they are developmentally primed to read books that focus on the various perspectives of growing up. The literature and writing assignments challenge the sixth grade student to take multiple perspectives and support their assertions about characters and themes. Students read books that focus on the annual theme of “Growing Up in a Diverse World”. Examples include: Inside Out and Back Again, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Schooled, and Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry.
The seventh grader yearns for independence, but also has a strong desire to connect with peers. It is a year of self discovery and social awareness. Students read books that focus on the annual theme of “Identity” and further develop the critical thinking skills needed for literary analysis and commentary. Examples include: Dicey’s Song, The Giver, Animal Farm, A Northern Light, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Writing assignments encourage the seventh grader to refine and expand upon their previously learned knowledge of the writing process while they publish essays, stories, and reports from multiple genres.
To prepare the eighth grade student for high school, classical literature is analyzed and discussed within the annual theme of “Leadership”. Titles include, Red Badge of Courage, To Kill a Mockingbird, A Separate Peace, and Lord of the Flies. Eighth grade students have increased writing demands and produce polished pieces with more sophisticated language and voice. In addition, they hone their public speaking skills in order to support their ideas and opinions with strong evidence and conviction. Eighth graders also have the opportunity to assume a leadership role in the school’s literary magazine.
In middle school math, students continue to reinforce the basic skills while developing problem-solving strategies and creative thinking. The basis of the math curriculum is the New York State Standards. Students are motivated for math by showing them the relevance of math to every day life. This is accomplished by participating in projects each year that involve real life scenarios for applying math.
Sample projects include: designing a family budget, conducting surveys, running sample businesses, painting and furnishing a house, drawing scaled models, picking the best long distance plan, writing a budget in excel and investing in the stock market. Each project is tied in with the lessons being taught and help students develop the critical thinking skills necessary to make good decisions. Individualized programs help students to work at their potential. Ninth grade math is available to students who advance a year during middle school.
Important concepts in middle school math include data collection and statistical analysis. In early middle school, students experiment with collecting various forms of data and analyzing measures of central tendency. Eventually, they learn how the various measures of central tendency can be used to represent data in various forms. For example, understanding the mean salary of US citizens versus the median salary of US citizens and how this can impact economic policy. Students also focus on learning how to graph data and read the various types of graphs. Calculation skills are focused on each year, with a focus on the basics in early middle school and more complex operations in the upper middle school. Students learn about percents and how this not only relates to discounts in a store, but to the fundamentals of running a business. By the end of middle school, students develop a solid understanding of variables, order of operations, linear equations, and various approaches to solving word problems.
There are different level math courses offered at each grade level. Students who have difficulties in math have the opportunity to be in smaller classes with more individualized attention. Students who are advanced in math also have the opportunity to be in a class where they are challenged and given the opportunity to take the 9th grade Regents exam by the end of 8th grade.
Bay Ridge Prep’s Middle School Science Curriculum is closely aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). NGSS is a set of content standards composed by top scientists and educators across the country. These standards flip the model of a traditional science classroom where a concept is taught via lecture and then students follow a set lab procedure to confirm the content from the lecture. Instead, following NGSS, we use experiments as an introduction to a new concept.
Within each unit, students observe scientific phenomena, ask questions about their observations, and use science and engineering practices to design investigations that will help them understand the mechanisms behind these phenomena themselves. Our role as science teachers is to facilitate these discussions and investigations, help students reach a consensus on their findings, and then introduce some content and vocabulary related to the unit that the students will have a better grasp of after they experience some of it.
Assessment in science will come in many different forms: discussion, group work, investigating, note-taking, forming arguments, presenting, and synthesizing information from lessons in the form of exams will all be utilized. The skills taught in this curriculum transcend science by building a framework of critical thinking and problem-solving skills that will be helpful in whatever students go on to do.
Each grade will cover content related to the life sciences (chemistry, biology, etc.), physical sciences (motion, forces, etc.), and earth sciences (ecology, planetary systems, etc.). For more information about the structure of NGSS, please visit their website: https://www.nextgenscience.org/
The Sixth grade unit in science starts off with Motion, Forces and Energy. These topics include Newton’s laws of motion, conservation of energy, Bernoulli’s principle, and simple machines. Students are introduced to variables and algebraic formulas at this time and shown the integration of math and science. Projects include building cargo boats (teaches about density and buoyancy), utilizing physics formulas to construct a safe gymnasium, building compound simple machines, and building a roller coaster to better understand the principles of friction, potential, and kinetic energy. In the second half of the year, the unit switches to human physiology, where students focus on the digestive system, nutrition, and the endocrine system and reproduction. Relevant topics during these units include nutrition and health, and sexual reproduction. Project for nutrition includes preparing a three day “healthy” menu for a sleep away camp and/or compute analysis of student’s diets.
The Seventh Grade unit starts off with an in-depth study and application of the scientific method. It then progresses with the study of the cell structure and the cell processes, including plant and animal cells, photosynthesis, and the chemistry of respiration. Through this, students will learn how organisms convert energy from food and the opposite yet vital relationship between photosynthesis in plants and respiration in animals is further explored. The first half of the year continues the study of genetics, heredity and evolution. Students will use Punnett squares, probability, and ratios in order to determine how genetic traits are passed through several generations. Students will engage in labs where they will determine if certain traits they posses are recessive or dominant. Next are Mendel’s theories, the types of inheritance that are genetically possible, and a look at the timeline that explains the theory of how and why organisms have evolved. The second half of the year begins with the study of weather. In this area of study students will investigate the various factors that contribute to our weather and its changes. Within this topic the concept of the Greenhouse Effect and Global Warming are discussed at length. Students will have the opportunity to participate in a debate about these topics. The last half of the year concludes with the study of astronomy and the most prominent theories in this field of study including the Big Bang Theory and The Collision Theory. Students will have the opportunity to visit a science center during the year in order to better research and understand, through hands on activities, the topics that are being covered.
The eighth grade science unit begins with the study of chemistry. Students learn about atomic structure, the periodic table of elements, and chemical bonds. Through hands-on activities, students experience the various types of chemical reactions that are possible. Students also learn about stochiometry and balancing chemical equations. The next unit covers topics within the field of earth science. Students will study the theory of continental drift, plate tectonics, volcanoes and the internal environment of the earth. The second half of the year continues with units in biology and physiology. Students learn about the cardiovascular system, respiration, excretion, the immune system, and the levels of organization in the human body. Relevant topics include the diseases and disorders as they pertain to the body systems that are being studied, nutrition, and diet. The relationship between how humans live and their diets contributing to certain diseases and disorders is discussed throughout the study of these body systems. Students are encouraged to research the latest studies of preventative measures that can be taken in order to maintain a healthy body. Another topic of study that students will engage involves environmental sciences. It is through this topic that students will have the opportunity to engage in varying projects to help them explore how they can become a part of the solution in our society’s ever growing concern with recycling, global warming and the over use of our non renewable resources such as our soil and water.
The sixth grade curriculum empowers students to explore our complex world with a particular focus on the concepts of geography and culture. By studying our global history and cultural diversity, students will be better equipped to make sense of our modern world and will have a greater understanding of what it means to be a global citizen. Throughout this global studies curriculum, students participate in a variety of interactive lessons and engaging activities that will allow them to develop critical skills, such as curiosity, teamwork, and resilience, that will benefit them throughout their lives.
Within each unit, essential social studies skills, vocabulary, and concepts (including history, geography, and culture) will broaden students’ understanding of the world around them. Students will reflect on their own developing identities alongside those of the cultures they study within Latin America, Africa, Oceania, Asia, and Europe. This allows students to develop a stronger understanding of their place in the world, giving them a firmer basis for comparison with the experiences of other humans, both in the past and present. Additionally, the students discuss the danger in making assumptions about others and stereotyping.
The curriculum culminates with an independent research project, in which students select a country to learn about and then present their findings to their peers. This multifaceted project allows students to demonstrate their mastery of the various skills learned throughout the year and further cultivate their research and presentation skills.
The seventh grade history curriculum focuses on US history between the years 1620 and 1850 with an emphasis on the movement of people to and within the nation as well as the nation’s founding principles and beliefs. Seventh grade social studies units include: the settling of colonial America, the Revolutionary War, the government, and expansion and western migration and their impact on native people.
Students are immersed in units through projects and group work. For example, seventh graders participate in a Colonial Fair. Each student researches a character or topic and creates a colonial craft or structure like a Dutch home or a Native American long house. The school community attends a fair where the students present their research and display their pieces. Collaborative projects stressing decision making and critical thinking are integrated into the curriculum. In an US expansion simulation, students make choices about expanding while considering the real problems and moral dilemmas the young nation faced with each potential land acquisition. Some groups end up with boundaries that mimic actual historical choices while other groups make decisions that result in completely new boundary lines. In their daily assignments, they read about the historical choices made by the nation and then compare and contrast these to their own decisions.
Individual work including persuasive essay writing is also used to deepen and assess learning. For example, during the colonial unit students compose an essay on the Puritans arguing for or against their position as heroes of American history. Another piece has students arguing whether or not enslaved Americans should have supported the Patriots in the Revolutionary War. Students also compose historical fiction, such as letters to England in the voice of a Jamestown settler or speeches as Cherokees protesting their forced removal from their land.
Field trips, films, music, art, resource books, maps and data, and web sites are all used to enhance the curriculum and support a discovery based approach to learning. During each unit, connections are made between historical issues and current events. For example, as seventh graders learn about the creation of a new nation and the US constitution, they examine current day political and constitutional issues as well.
The eighth grade course focuses on US history from the mid nineteenth through twentieth centuries. Special focus is given to social and political movements. Units cover time periods such as the Abolitionist Movement, the Civil War, Industrialization, Immigration, Reform Movements, the World Wars, and the Civil Rights Movement.
Through collaborative group work and projects, students are immersed in their learning. For example, during the industrialization unit, students put monopolists on trial with the prosecution arguing that they were robber barons while the defense argues that they were innovative captains of industry. Students are given historical roles to research, and they write their own opening and closing arguments. The two sides debate the key issues of the case before a “jury” of Bay Ridge Prep faculty and administration.
Individual work including presentations and persuasive essays are also used to deepen and assess learning. While studying World War II, students keep a reporter’s journal and make entries from various sites such as Germany, Pearl Harbor and the beaches of Normandy. They end the unit with a persuasive essay on the US decision to use the atomic bomb on Japan.
Primary and secondary source readings, film, music, art, maps, and field trips all enhance the curriculum and support a discovery-based approach to learning. Throughout each unit, students are prompted to make connections between historical issues and current events. The course culminates with a Choosing to Participate Fair in which the students research a current day social issue of their choosing and prepare a presentation to educate the school community on it.
Spanish is offered at the middle school level for grades 6-8. The Spanish curriculum is organized into themed units that combine vocabulary, grammar, and cultural knowledge in order to express complete thoughts on the topic. Unit themes include classes on telling time, personality traits, activities, food, places in the community, clothing, weather, travel, rooms and furniture, parts of the body and health. Conjugation of regular and many common irregular verbs in the present indicative tense is a part of each unit. In the upper levels, students also learn to talk about actions in the past tense. Activities that promote the development of listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills and that foster an appreciation of culture, form the core of the foreign language program. Visual cues and total physical response methods are employed to maximize language acquisition and accommodate multiple intelligences.
Conversational skills are emphasized through class discussions, question and answer practice, listening to audio recordings, and viewing authentic-material videocassettes. The program emphasizes correct pronunciation, aural comprehension, and cultural awareness. Oral practice, songs, games, role-play, recitations, story reading, and simple writing work are included. Language structures are presented and are related to a communicative function. At the end of a unit, students have learned the vocabulary and grammar concepts needed to talk and write effectively about the unit theme.
Hands-on projects are an important part of both learning and assessment in the foreign language curriculum. Students produce one or two projects per unit, either individually or in small groups. They are given the criteria, vocabulary and grammatical requirements of the assignment, but they are able to choose from different media to showcase their understanding of the unit. They may decide to create a video, slideshow, poster, book, or labeled model. Students are motivated by awards for the most effective projects.
In addition to using the language for communicative purposes, the student is exposed to the study of other cultures, which in turn allows him or her to develop an understanding and appreciation of other people. Periodically throughout the study of a foreign language, the student also becomes acquainted with geography, culture and history of the countries or regions where the language is spoken. Through the study of geography, the student becomes familiar with the topography, important cities and their contributions to the cultural development of the area. Students employ the presented material and prior knowledge to compare and contrast other cultures with their own.
Children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) find it particularly difficult to concentrate on tasks, to pay attention, follow directions, modulate their energy, and control impulsive behavior. Some children only exhibit inattentive behaviors that make success at school difficult, while others also struggle with hyperactivity and impulse control. ADHD presents differently as children mature.
At Bay Ridge Prep we coach children every step of the way to utilize strategies to help them regulate attention and meet their goals.
Bay Ridge Prep helps children with attention difficulties by:
Dyslexia is a language-based learning-disability officially referred to as a “specific learning disorder in reading”. Children diagnosed with dyslexia have difficulty learning to read and can also struggle to organize written and spoken language, reading quickly enough to comprehend longer sentences and sections of text, spelling, and even memorizing number facts.
In classrooms where teachers lack training in effective reading instruction and knowledge about how students with dyslexia learn best, children can become discouraged, anxious, and unmotivated. Bay Ridge Prep’s teachers are highly trained in research-based approaches to help students overcome dyslexia and become more confident, engaged, and independent readers.
Children with reading challenges at Bay Ridge Prep receive:
We explicitly teach skills that build emotional and social intelligence which help students create healthy and constructive relationships in and outside of school.
We provide students the freedom and responsibility to pursue their interests through open ended projects, course selections and student-initiated clubs.
We emphasize innovation, creativity and practical application over acquiring rote knowledge that can be easily accessed on any digital device.
We build social responsibility through school-wide, student selected community service initiatives and projects.
We offer a full array of arts programs and dynamic electives including ceramics, graphic design, theater arts, music composition, band, chorus and studio art.
We value all athletes and celebrate team spirit and positive role-modeling in our championship athletic program.
We value all athletes and celebrate team spirit and positive role-modeling in our championship athletic program.
Students come to Bay Ridge Prep with a complex array of strengths and weaknesses, multiple intelligences, and a vast set of interests and passions. When designing schedules, we look at each student as an unique and evolving individual. There is no static track for children in our support programs.
Our dynamic scheduling includes:
It is very common for children diagnosed with ADHD to have executive functioning issues, but children without ADHD can struggle with weak executive functioning also. The simplest way to explain executive functioning difficulties is to look at how they impact a child’s day. For the most part, a child who has weak executive functions has difficulty with multitasking, taking notes while listening or reading, initiating activities, and /or moving from one step to another. Some children can also have trouble thinking flexibly. These children often overgeneralize new skills, have trouble thinking differently about new concepts, taking the perspective of others, correcting errors, and making course corrections when new information is introduced academically or socially.
Organizing time and materials can also be a challenge for children with weak executive functions. Forgetting books, losing assignments, and procrastinating when assignments require many steps or effort can also be commonplace.
Starting in the earliest grades we help students develop strategies and systems to manage time, attention, and materials that they can take with them into adulthood including:
The success of Bay Ridge Prep students starts with our passionate leadership and faculty. They are experts in their respective fields and animated by the school’s fresh approach to education. Their extensive training to support children with different learning needs both inside and outside of the classroom creates a culture where everyone belongs and everyone learns.
While it isn’t unusual to occasionally feel stress and worry at some point during their time in school, for some students typical school activities like making and keeping friends, public-speaking, managing assignments and test taking can become a source of great discomfort and anxiety.
To support students who experience higher levels of anxiety Bay Ridge Prep:
Writing is one of the most complex tasks students undertake on a daily basis in school. They need to juggle ideas, the content, genre, the perspective of the reader, the rules of grammar and spelling, and motor skills (forming letters or keyboarding). Students that have dyslexia, executive function and/or attention difficulties can find the writing process all the more burdensome.
To help students gain confidence, master skills, and maintain motivation when faced with a writing task Bay Ridge Prep provides intensive writing supports including:
Dyscalculia is a learning disability officially referred to as a “specific learning disability with impairment in mathematics”. Students diagnosed with dyscalculia have difficulty learning, understanding, and performing math tasks. Dyscalculia does not affect a child’s performance in other subjects like English or History. Some children who struggle with reading, executive functions, attention, and anxiety also have difficulty learning mathematics.
To increase student confidence and mastery in mathematics our school provides: