Academics & Curriculum

The academic program at the Middle School is designed to develop the skills and habits of mind that students will need to be successful in a rigorous high school setting and at the college level. Our teachers work collaboratively to revise and adapt a carefully designed curriculum that pushes our students to think critically and creatively. As our students gain experience with the authentic endeavors of readers, writers, public speakers, scientists, political scientists, artists, and athletes, they engage in learning that taps into young adolescents’ desire to question and explore their world. While addressing the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks, our curriculum is designed to value the learner’s need to investigate, inquire, debate, and explore and to demonstrate new understanding through a variety of authentic performance assessments and projects. Our goal is to raise young learners who are equipped with the critical thinking skills and background knowledge to succeed when they graduate from our school and to use their knowledge to question and enhance the world around them.

As they grow and learn in 5th through 8th grade, our students and teachers work together to make connections across the subject areas, to the world around them, and to their own lives and experiences as they explore new topics, which reflects our belief in the interconnected and interrelated nature of knowledge. Our teachers collaborate frequently to explore interdisciplinary questions, themes, and projects through:

• Shared Essential Questions which explore powerful topics such as What is justice?, What is the role of the individual in society? and Who am I on a cellular level? in each course.
• Shared Grade Level Themes which connect learning across the subject areas such as Discovery in Grade 5, Choices in Grade 6, Identity in Grade 7, and Leadership in Grade 8.
• Interdisciplinary Projects: Teachers at each grade level work throughout the year to develop interdisciplinary projects in which students apply learning from multiple subjects in culminating projects. For example, a 7th grade project on deforestation in Haiti which incorporates Science, Mathematics, English, and Social Studies.
• Exhibition Nights: In the spring of each year, students at each grade level present an Exhibition Night for families and community members in which they demonstrate their learning across the subject areas.
• Interdisciplinary Lessons: Teachers collaborate informally to design lessons that emphasize learning goals from other subjects. A visit to 6th grade classes might reveal students are designing original buildings to scale in Mathematics, studying earthquake patterns in Science to choose an ideal location for their buildings, and learning to speak and write persuasively in English, Science, and Social Studies in order to market their design well.

Program Highlights

Reading

At the Middle School, students engage in reading a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts to develop their skills as critical readers and to foster a life long love of reading. As they read, students explore their world, pose powerful and original questions, explore diverse points of view, develop vocabulary, and build their knowledge of the core subjects. Students read fiction, non-fiction, and poetry as they build knowledge across the subject areas and for pleasure during Reading and Research class or Drop Everything And Read (DEAR) time.

Writing across the Curriculum

Teachers in all subject areas work to incorporate common reading and writing practices into their lessons on a continual basis, and as a regular part of project based learning, they provide students with practice in expressing their ideas through writing. In Science, English, Spanish, Social Studies, and Mathematics, students communicate their ideas through informal and formal writing and consider how to express their ideas to an audience well. This may occur through a monologue developed in Performing Arts and English, a newspaper Op-Ed assignment in Science and Social Studies, a creative writing assignment linking English and Science, a play in Spanish, or a Mathematics portfolio in which students must communicate their problem solving process, strategies, and questions to their readers. At each grade level, teachers use common writing goals, expectations, and teaching tools to support student learning as students develop their ability to express themselves effectively through writing.

Library and Media Lab Collaboration

At the Middle School, library skills are integrated into all academic areas. Our library collection [Link to MS library page] was developed during the 2006-2007 school year to support the project based learning taking place in all subjects and to celebrate the diverse stories and backgrounds of our students. In the classroom, students further their information literacy skills through research projects, reading assignments, and activities done in collaboration with the library and library media specialist. Students are required to access, read, evaluate, utilize, and present all types of information including print and electronic resources. The school library media specialist works closely with classroom teachers to ensure that the students have access to resources that support and enhance the goals and curriculum of each grade level and department. Students are also encouraged to continue their exploration of fiction and non-fiction literature for their own personal enjoyment.

The Middle School Calderwood Writing Center

Established by a generous grant from the Stanford Calderwood Foundation, the Calderwood Writing Centers at Prospect Hill Academy’s Middle and Upper Schools provide students and faculty with ongoing support around writing and the teaching of writing.

The four main objectives of the Calderwood Writing Center are to improve and support in writing across the curriculum, to provide relevant professional development focused on writing and writing instruction, to encourage student leadership and involvement in this writing initiative, and to promote and encourage multigenerational literacy and writing projects.

Through a partnership with the Expository Writing Program at Harvard University, the Calderwood Writing Center employs several Harvard Scribes, undergraduate students who provide writing support to Prospect Hill Academy students on a one-to-one basis.

The Humanities

English, Social Studies, and Reading & Research

English and Social Studies courses are designed collaboratively by our Humanities teachers and are linked by overarching themes and essential questions to help students make connection between the characters in the literature they are reading and the events they are studying in history. English and Social Studies teachers also work collaboratively to identify major reading and writing goals for students and to develop interdisciplinary projects and assignments. In 6th through 8th grade, students take an additional literacy course called Reading & Research, which helps students build critical reading skills and dedicate time during the school day to reading for pleasure.

Mathematics

The Middle School Mathematics curriculum emphasizes inquiry, conceptual understanding of Mathematics concepts and cooperative learning. In grade 5, students explore Mathematics ideas and build skills with the Everyday Mathematics curriculum. In grades 6-8, students continue to develop their skills with a collaboratively designed Mathematics curriculum that emphasizes conceptual understanding through inquiry based and cooperative learning. In addition, the curriculum emphasizes verbal and written communication of reasoning and problem solving strategies through projects such as presentations, Problems of the Week, and end of unit portfolios.

Spanish

Prospect Hill Academy is proud to offer Spanish as one its core academic subjects. Middle School students explore Spanish and build their skills as readers, writers, and speakers of Spanish in order to communicate effectively by the time they reach college. In 5th and 6th grade, students take Spanish class twice a week as they build an understanding of vocabulary and grammar, with an emphasis on cultural exploration. In 7th and 8th grade, Spanish classes are leveled to accommodate students who enter Prospect Hill Academy in the Middle School grades and to provide an appropriately tailored challenge for students at different levels of language acquisition. In all Spanish classes, instruction is student-centered and students are encouraged to take risks and build language skills by speaking, presenting, and performing as a regular part of project based learning.

Science

Middle School students engage in inquiry and project based Science learning that emphasizes critical thinking and the habits of mind of scientific thinkers. As students build their knowledge of Earth Science, Life Science, and Physical Science through a curriculum that addresses the MA State Frameworks and prepares students for the rigor of high school Science, they apply their understanding by developing hypotheses and designing experiments to test their ideas. Students also work to develop their skills as effective readers, researchers, and writers through lessons and projects that address grade level Literacy goals. The Middle School Science experience culminates in an 8th Grade Science Fair, during which 8th grade students present the design and results of an original experiment to guest judges from the PHA and greater Boston scientific communities.

Exploring the Arts

As Middle School is a time of great exploration for the adolescent, our Arts program is designed to give students an opportunity to explore a variety of new and familiar passions in the spirit of artistic expression. In grades 5-8, students take Performing Arts once a week throughout the year as well as one semester each of Visual Arts and Music. During these classes, students are invited to experiment and develop the skills of artists, actors, singers, and dancers by completing projects and units of study that connect to units of study across the curriculum. Our goal is to help students discover new interests in the arts by exposing them to a wide variety of experiences as they grow through the Middle School years.

Physical Education

Since physical fitness is a key ingredient in maintaining health, managing stress, and providing time for students to play and release energy, Middle School students take Physical Education once a week throughout the year. Although the Physical Education course provides students with an introductory experience to specific sports (basketball, football, soccer, gymnastics, and floor hockey, etc.), the design of the course emphasizes giving students’ time to move, work as a team, and have fun with peers as they run, play, and yell during this weekly workout.