2013-2014
Course Description Guide
4500 South Himalaya Street
Aurora, CO 80015
720-886-4710
www.sky.ccsd.k12.co.us
Dr. Tony Poole, Principal
Table of Contents
Introduction
Principal’s Welcome / 2
The School Day / 3
Learning without Limits / 4
The Parallel Curriculum / 5
Student Achievement Services (Special Education) / 8
Core Academic Areas
Language Arts / 9
Social Studies / 11
Science / 13
Mathematics / 14
Elective Offerings
Sixth Grade Elective Courses / 20
Seventh Grade Elective Courses / 23
Eighth Grade Elective Courses / 27
Inspire Excellence in Every Student, Every Day
Welcome to Sky Vista Middle School. I am proud of our facility, not only due to its unique architecture, but also because of its state of the art integrated technology and educational functionality. As nice as our surroundings are, however, I am most proud of our staff. It is the people that make a building come alive, and I think we have hired the best people in the educational world.
Middle school is a time of great change for adolescents. A strong middle school program is focused on a rigorous, challenging curriculum across the core subjects. It also offers students the opportunity to explore a variety of interests through a comprehensive elective program. Throughout this educational process, however, it is important to remember the social and emotional needs of this age group and ensure that the school climate is safe, supportive, and kind.
Our mission statement and our values clearly reflect those beliefs. As a school, our commitment is to
Inspire Excellence in Every Student, Every Day.
We also model and teach our common values:
Know every student
Challenge and expect every student to achieve at a high level
Model kindness and respect
Develop and maintain relationships
Learn, reflect, grow
This course guide will be your first glimpse into the latest academic offerings for Sky Vista. The course and program offerings will not be completely finalized until May when our enrollment projections and staffing are completely finalized. However, in order to begin our preliminary planning it is important that we have a good idea of our students’ academic needs and interests. The pre-registration process outlined in this packet will help us along our journey. Thank you for taking the time to read this packet, and thank you for sending your student to Sky Vista Middle School.
A Day in the life of a Sky Vista Student:
The schedule was designed with our mission and values in mind. It allows for a great deal of flexibility to balance academic instruction, enrichment, and support. While schedules will vary by grade level, below is an example of a typical day:
Period 1: Elective
Period 2: Elective
Period 3: Language Arts
Period 4: Social Studies
Period 5: Lunch
Period 6: Science
Period 7: Math
Period 8: Extended Core
Electives: Students have two elective periods each day. These include a combination of mandatory and student selected electives. Some electives are by grade and others have mixed grades.
Core: Students are part of an academic core team by grade level. Each team consists of approximately 110 students and the four core teachers in language arts, math, science, and social studies. Each team has its own pod of classrooms and lockers.
Lunch: There are a variety of options for hot and a la carte lunches. Students may also bring a lunch from home. There is time during this period for the students to go outside, visit the media center or socialize in the cafeteria.
Extended Core: This class provides an extension opportunity from one of the student’s core classes. It may take the form of an enrichment class or an opportunity for support and review. These classes change every semester.
The Infinity Philosophy: Learning without Limits
We take our mission seriously. When we say that our goal is to Inspire Excellence in Every Student, Every Day, we mean Every Student. As we designed this school we realized that the true purpose of a middle school is not just to prepare students for high school, but to prepare them for success in high school, with the eventual goal of gaining acceptance to the college of their choice. To make this possible, we believe that every student must take the highest level of classes. Rather than keeping students from such classes through exclusive selection criteria, we expose all of our students to high level classes. There are no limits to what students can learn at Sky Vista. Our staff development program focuses exclusively on high level and gifted and talented instruction. To support our focus on high level instruction and high school preparation, the entire teaching staff is trained in Advanced Placement instruction through the College Board. To support our focus on high level instruction, our staff continues to implement the Parallel Curriculum Model, a framework for teaching highly gifted and talented students, on a school-wide basis.
No model provides all the answers, however. Even though our classes are very challenging, some students need and deserve and even higher level of academic challenge. For those looking to really push themselves, we have a number of opportunities. First, we offer a GT elective class. You can see the details of that class in the elective offering section. We also have AID Language Arts classes on each team. These classes offer an advanced language arts opportunity in both curriculum and pacing. Finally, for students seeking a challenge in science and social studies, we offer an Honors Project. Students will be able to choose to do a major research project to prove an extremely high level of learning and competence in a particular subject area. Upon completion, they will receive an Honors Designation on their report card. The elective class, the AID classes, and the Honors Project are open to any student interested in an extremely challenging academic opportunity. Our math curriculum already prepares students to take and succeed in Algebra I by the end of 8th grade, but for advanced math students, acceleration is available. Please consult the math section of this guide for more details.
Some students should be in advanced classes but may struggle with organization, study skills, and motivation. With those students in mind, we are now offering the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) Program at Sky Vista. Middle school AVID is an outgrowth of the nationally recognized high school AVID Program. This program was designed to prepare students who need additional support to put them on the academic path for high school and postsecondary education success. Students who participate in the AVID program complete an application and interview process in order to be enrolled in this class.
With such high expectations, we also realize that we need to offer support to many students who may struggle with a rigorous academic program. There are various levels of support, from a range of services for Special Education students, to support classes in reading, writing, and mathematics throughout the day. We also offer English Language Acquisition (ELA) classes for English Language Learners.
A Basic Overview of the Parallel Curriculum Model
The Parallel Curriculum Model (PCM) is an instructional model developed by six authors working in conjunction with the National Association of Gifted Children (NAGC). It is not a defined curriculum where every teacher teaches the same thing on the same day. It is a framework for high level, effective instruction. Although it was developed for gifted and talented students, Sky Vista uses PCM school-wide because we believe every student should be challenged at a high level and have the opportunity to receive the finest education possible. It makes no sense to expect every child to achieve at a high level if we don’t teach them at a high level.
There are four parallels that give the model its name: Core, Practice, Connections, and Identity. The Core Parallel is the foundation of learning. It is exemplified by the State Standards and the specific subject area curriculum. However, for teaching and learning to be done at a high level, it is important to also ensure that the instruction and resulting student tasks reflect high levels of academic rigor and discourse. Without this, the Standards and curriculum are just words on a page. At Sky Vista we also believe that much of knowledge is connected and universal. To this end, we have developed the Big Ideas. These are six universal concepts that help our students focus on larger questions and deeper understandings. The Big Ideas are Power, Identity, Communication, Change, Conflict, and Systems. For example, students in the 8th grade study the American Revolution. In addition to studying the actual event, students must meet the State Standards of using historical inquiry, understanding historical chronology, and analyzing civic responsibility. Using the Big Ideas, students might also study revolutionary identity, the role of conflict in creating change, how power is transformational, or how systems change. In this way, student thinking and analysis are taken to a much higher level. These Big Ideas are discussed in all classrooms throughout the building, no matter the content area.
The Parallel of Practice asks students to become practitioners in the different disciplines. It is not enough to just study history, language arts, science or math. PCM asks students to think and work as historians, writers, mathematicians, and scientists. It emphasizes the vocabulary of the discipline as well as patterns of thought and practice that are discipline specific. Using the American Revolution example from above, students would examine how we know the details of that historical period and how they could contribute to that specific body of knowledge as working historians. In science class, students become chemists working on real life problems and experiments. Math students work as mathematicians using mathematical patterns of reasoning and the language of the mathematician. Becoming a practicing member of a discipline is a powerful tool for truly understanding the subject matter.
The Parallel of Connections asks students to connect knowledge across disciplines. Connections are made at a universal level rather than just within a subject area. The Big Ideas provide ample material with which to connect lessons and units. For example, students studying poetry learn that, at its most basic level, poetry is simply an expression of a person’s voice and identity, no matter the format or topic. With that foundation, it is easy to connect to other disciplines and subjects. For example, Chemistry is about the identity and interactions of elements. Art and music are rife with expressions of identity and voice. Algebra is about the identity and interaction of variables. In this way, students can engage in very high level discussion of the true nature of identity or relationships and start to see that much knowledge is connected in various ways.
The Parallel of Identity engages students at a personal level in the learning. This is an essential component to any learning. If a student is to remember anything we teach, it must have meaning to them! Identity seeks out avenues of connection to self. Students in the American Revolution unit may not find it to be the most interesting topic, but they can connect to the learning by examining their own lives and interests and looking for commonalities. What revolutions have they witnessed? When have they felt they were treated unfairly? What types of revolutions have occurred in music, or sports, or fashion, or within a certain culture? Seeking out ways for students to examine who they are in relation to the world around them becomes a powerful learning tool for themselves and for the topic at hand.
PCM is a very complex instructional model. It requires an astounding amount of teacher planning and thoughtfulness, and it is very hard to master. However, the rewards are well worth it. Sky Vista students seem to enjoy the classes they take and find the level of thought and academic discourse to be challenging and engaging. We certainly have not perfected the model, but we will continue to work with it because we believe it is the way to engage every student in a rigorous and engaging middle school experience. Inspire Excellence in Every Student, Every Day. That is our mission. PCM is our path.
Dr. Tony Poole
Student Achievement Services (SAS)
Student Achievement Services (SAS) provides services to any student who scores “unsatisfactory” on CSAP and/or Map tests and special education services to students who qualify under the IDEIA, Colorado Department of Education, and Cherry Creek School District guidelines. Specific guidelines mandate qualifications pertaining to a student's inability to receive reasonable educational benefit from universal and/or targeted interventions.
A continuum of services is provided to students by the SAS staff including accommodations and modifications for regular educational instruction and curriculum, consultative programming, team teaching, and classes that address specific skill areas such as reading, writing, and math. Instruction outside the regular classroom is offered based on student need, thus "Needs Based Programming." Student needs are addressed through the implementation of an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) or documentation through a Responsive To Intervention plan (RTI). Teachers, counselors, mental health staff, parents, and the student develop these documents.
Specific Services may also include:
• Mental health support - includes interventions from a school psychologist and/or social worker.
• Speech-Language - supports students with areas such as language development, articulation, voice, and fluency through classroom, small group, or consultative programming.
• Physical/Occupational Therapist - students are supported in these motor areas as needed and provided for by the IEP.
• ILC programming - serving students with significant developmental or cognitive delays and/or students with significant needs w/physical impairments.
• SED programming- serving students with significant behavioral and/or emotional disabilities.
• Other specialty areas as deemed necessary.
SAS teachers work closely with teachers, counselors, para-educators and parents to monitor programs and progress for each individual student. It is the goal for each student to work toward proficiency according to the Colorado State Standards and to be challenged to excel to their given potential.