Curriculum Overview

ENGLISH: The real focus of seventh grade is on writing. Students compose academic essays, research papers, and longer works of creative writing or collections of poetry. They will occasionally imitate the writing style of the authors and works discussed. Students study the qualities of great writing, in addition to such literary elements as plot, theme, and characterization. Important selections of poetry, dramas, and novels complete the seventh-grade English cuniculum. Works such as George Orwell Animal Farm, William Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet, and William Golding Lord of the Flies are read and discussed in a Socratic seminar format. Students regularly practice reading aloud and public speaking.

MATHEMATICS:  Study of the integers includes prime numbers, prime factorization, divisors, multiples, the divisor theorem, positive and negative integers, absolute value, and order. Students practice the basic principles of algebraic manipulation by solving equations of one unknown. Students learn about the coordinate plane. The idea of a function is informally introduced when direct and inverse variation are discussed in the context of word problems. Students work with functions represented by tables, graphs, and equations. The correspondence of a function’s algebraic and graphic representations is emphasized. Geometry includes the straight line, Euclidean constructions, the circle, sectors, chords, and arc length; relations between straight lines and planes, polyhedra, solids of revolution, surface area and volume of pyramids, cones, and spheres.

SCIENCE:  Students keep formal lab notebooks, write extensive lab reports, and learn more about how scientists report their findings. They also design, conduct, and display their own experimental research for the Middle School Science Fair held each spring. Students in seventh grade further explore the internal structure of plants, the composition of soil and rock formations, the physiological systems of humans and animals, electricity and magnetism, plant classifications, and phase changes and heat.

HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY:  Students begin with a study of the Spanish-American War and America’s move toward becoming a world power. Following is a unit on World War I and the relationships among European countries in the early 1900s. Geography is studied in relation to the historical events and students learn the geography of western and central Europe and Asia. Students study the Russian Revolution and the United States during the period of the 1920s to the New Deal, including isolationism, the Scopes “Monkey Trial,” the Harlem Renaissance, the technological advances of the time, and the Great Depression. They study the rise of totalitarianism in Europe and the approach of World War II and study World War II in Europe, the Pacific, and events on the home front.

SPANISH:  The goal of the Spanish program is communicative competence in speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Spanish is divided into levels for beginning, intermediate, and advanced students. Throughout the year, students are introduced to the various cultures and regions of the Spanish-speaking world. In addition, all grades participate in a special unit of cultural study that culminates in a school-wide event.

The focus of the beginning class is on speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Topics include greetings, people and things in a classroom, numbers from one to 100, colors and shapes, animals, days of the week, months of the year, seasons and weather, the community, school, likes and dislikes, time, and the family. The intermediate class reviews previously learned vocabulary and grammar and proceeds to study new basic grammar concepts. More emphasis is placed on grammatical accuracy in both speaking and writing. Vocabulary topics continue to be directly related to the lives of middle-schoolers, but will also include more hypothetical and less concrete topics. The advanced class reviews basic grammar concepts and proceeds to study more complicated grammar, such as grammatical exceptions. Emphasis continues to be placed on grammatical accuracy in all forms of communication. The advanced class also dedicates more time to reading literature.

MUSIC:  Students can opt to receive weekly small group lessons in piano, violin, or viola. The program also includes ensemble playing. Weekly theory classes incorporate in-depth concepts, music analysis, and ear training. Theory and piano or strings studies and master classes prepare students for regular recitals and school concert and musicals, as well as the graded examinations of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, London. Students also participate in the Middle School choir, learning sight singing, proper singing technique, blending with other voices and part singing. They attend the annual Madison Symphony Orchestra Fall Youth Concert. Students give a winter and spring concert, and also participate in a spring musical.

ART:  Work includes in-depth study of architecture, perspective, batik, shading, and volume drawing as students develop advanced drawing techniques and methods. The year includes a section of art history.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION:  The program is composed of six major areas: track and field, swimming, gymnastics and tumbling, water sports, martial arts, and team sports. Games and skill practices are used to build proficiency and teach strategy. Units include swimming, canoeing, tennis, cross-country, track and field (50- and 100-yard dashes, mile runs, discus, and javelin), volleyball, soccer, gymnastics, basketball, softball, sailing, tennis, and fitness conditioning. Students develop the confidence and motivation to participate in organized and individual physical activities. Leadership, teamwork, and good sportsmanship are taught. The program emphasizes lifelong fitness. School-sponsored competitive sports include soccer, touch football, girls volleyball, boys and girls basketball, and track and field.