First & Second
First-grade students extend their knowledge of language arts in significant and exciting ways by learning skills that enable them to read and write more independently. Students will increase their academic and content-specific vocabulary by reading a variety of literature and informational text. As first-grade students learn to write for different purposes, they’re able to apply their growing knowledge of language structures and conventions. Students in first grade will extend their knowledge of mathematics as they learn to add and subtract within 20, develop an understanding of whole numbers and place value within 100, measure and order objects by length, interpret data, work with shapes to compose new shapes, and partition shapes to create “equal shares.”
For students in second grade, instruction focuses on further developing literacy and proficiency in language arts with the goal of helping students become lifelong readers, competent writers, and effective communicators. Literacy is critical to academic success and is the key to becoming an independent learner in all of the other subjects. In second grade, skills such as fluency, comprehension, and analysis are the focus of reading instruction. Students will ask and answer clarifying questions about text, be able to identify and locate important information within text, and consider the author’s purpose, Students in second grade also extend their understanding of place value, build fluency in addition and subtraction, and start to use simple concepts of multiplication and division. They measure the length of objects by using appropriate tools and identify shapes and their attributes. They will learn how to model and solve problems involving amounts of money and use graphs to represent and interpret data.
Middle School Grades 6-8
Students in sixth grade focus on active engagement with text. They are required to analyze, identify, define, explain, integrate, evaluate, compare, contrast, and cite supportive evidence. Deeper analysis of literature and informational text continues to be the focus of sixth-grade instruction, although reading fluently and accurately remains a Standards-based goal for all students.
Sixth-grade students develop an understanding of the concept of a ratio and use ratio reasoning to solve a variety of real-world and mathematical problems, including those involving unit pricing and constant speed. Students extend their understanding of operations with fractions to include multiplying and dividing. They locate rational numbers on a number line, add and subtract negative numbers, and graph points in all four quadrants of the coordinate plane. Students write expressions and equations with variables and apply the properties of operations to generate equivalent expressions. They build upon the foundation of area to determine area and volume of more complex shapes.
In seventh grade, the English language arts standards establish a higher level of communication skills and comprehension strategies. Students demonstrate a growing understanding by connecting ideas and information in two or more texts and analyzing and evaluating textual evidence more carefully. Their writing reflects both a deeper understanding of texts and the interrelationship between reading and writing as they draw evidence to support their claims and convey concepts and ideas. Seventh grade students build on their communication and collaboration skills from earlier grades. As they engage in collaborative discussions, they are able to acknowledge and analyze new information and, when appropriate, modify their own view based on the new information. Students continue to acquire and use general academic language and domain-specific vocabulary. They also learn to use precise and concise language to express themselves in their speaking and writing.
Seventh grade students will extend their understanding of and apply proportional relationships, including percentages; develop understanding of operations with rational numbers and working with expressions and linear equations; solve problems involving scale drawings and informal geometric constructions, and work with two- and three-dimensional shapes to solve problems involving area, surface area, and volume; and draw inferences about populations based on samples. Students also work toward fluently solving equations.
In preparation for high school and beyond, students in eighth grade must have a firm grasp of skills to be a literate person in the twenty-first century. They read and respond to significant works of literature and examine how modern works of fiction draw on traditional themes and characters. Given informational text, students will read critically the arguments and specific claims in a text, assessing conflicting evidence and viewpoints. Students will connect their reading to their writing by drawing evidence from literary and informational texts when writing analyses or short research projects. In eighth grade, students build on the communication and collaboration skills from earlier grades. As they engage in collaborative discussions, they probe and reflect on discussion topics and are able to justify their own views in light of evidence presented by others. Students continue to acquire and accurately use general academic language and domain-specific vocabulary. Eighth-grade students will build on their understanding of proportional relationships and solve related real-world and mathematical problems. They will apply this understanding to graphing and solving linear equations and systems of linear equations. Students will comprehend the concept of a function and use functions to describe quantitative relationships. They describe and analyze two- and three-dimensional figures using using distance, angle, similarity, and congruence as well as understanding and applying the Pythagorean Theorem. Students also work toward fluency with solving simple sets of two equations with two unknowns by inspection.