Middle School Programs

Teaching practices include:

• Follow a rigorous curriculum.
• Require students to work toward mastery of the California Common Core State Standards.
• Provide feedback and grades in relation to grade level standards.
• Prepare students for high school humanities courses.
• Develop critical thinking skills.
• Require students to write argumentative essays, narratives, summaries, and responses to non-fiction, primary and secondary sources, and literature.
• Provide opportunities for students to improve listening and speaking skills.
• Use IUSD Board of Education approved instructional materials.
• Utilize technology to help improve reading and writing skills.
• Encourage the consideration and application of multiple perspectives and approaches.
• Make learning relevant to real world experiences.
• Incorporate student choice in expression and product.
• Ensure high levels of academic discourse, peer to peer interaction, and group sense-making activities.
• Stretch students beyond their comfort zone.

Teaching practices also include:

• Ensure a more sophisticated understanding or mastery of the grade level standards.
• Use more complex materials and instructional approaches, sophisticated essential questions and themes.
• Manipulate the task and learning parameters to prompt deeper and more complex learning.
• Provide appropriate scaffolds for students to access and move to mastery of standards. It does not assume students can independently move towards mastery, although student agency and independence are encouraged.
• Ensure a workload that is developmentally appropriate:
  • Does not require students to complete excessive amounts of homework independently.
  • Is qualitatively different and might increase due to task complexity.
  • Requires students to think critically and synthesize the material.

Recommended skills:

• Self motivated and hard working; focused and prepared for class.
• Learns best with thorough instruction and practice of new concepts.
• Appreciates challenges, but also benefits from assistance and practice with complex, critical thinking and novel strategies.
• Thrives with structured guidance when learning, applying, and extending new concepts.
• Actively participates in the learning process.
• Independently reads various genres.
• Collaborates effectively with all peers, values multiple perspectives.
• Participates actively in the learning process.
• Demonstrates a growth mindset in taking intellectual risks and overcoming obstacles.

Recommended skills:

• Excels in the Humanities (ELA and/or HSS).
• Highly self motivated, strong work ethic and works well independently.
• Masters concepts quickly without the need for much repetition.
• Engages in critical thinking, is eager to ask questions and delves deeper into rigorous problem solving.
• Seeks out and actively contributes to classroom discussions.
• Reads higher level, complex texts in a variety of genres.
• Utilizes the writing process effectively and understands the need for multiple revisions.
• Is inquiry-driven, thinks critically about world issues related to the assigned reading and writing (goes beyond surface meanings, makes connections and inferences)
• Manages time well (able to balance school work, family obligations and extra-curricular activities).

*While all students are welcome to participate in advanced learning opportunities, students who demonstrate the abilities and work habits in this column are typically more successful within the honors setting.