The Benjamin School
Course of Study
Middle and Upper Schools
2006-2007
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Mr. Eugene Gross Head of School 472-3405 |
Mrs. Robyn Quaid Assistant Head of School 472-3425 |
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Mr. Charles Hagy Head of the Middle School 472-3435 |
Mr. Jay Selvig Head of the Upper School 472-3440 |
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Mrs. Susan Poncy Middle School Student Services Coordinator 472-3434 |
Dr. Amy Taylor Director of Student Services 472-3441 |
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Mr. Jeffrey Cavallo Middle School Dean of Students 472-3431 |
Mr. Dick Taylor Upper School Dean of Students 472-3442 |
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Mrs. Karen Basil Coordinator of Instructional Services 472-3408 |
Mr. Ryan Smith Upper School Assistant Dean of Students 472-5998 extension 2416 |
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Mr. Brian Meegan Dean of College Counseling 472-3454 |
Mrs. Kristen Learner Ruedt College Counselor 472-5998 extension 2432 |
Mr. Ken Didsbury
Academic Dean
472-3485
Table of Contents
Mission Statement and Non-Discriminatory Policy Page 2
Middle School Course of Study 3
English 4
Mathematics 5
Science 6
Social Studies 7
Foreign Language 7
Skills for Adolescence 8
Computer 9
Visual and Performing Arts 9
Athletics 10
Summer Program 10
Upper School Course of Study 11
Graduation Requirements and Selecting Courses 11
English 12
Mathematics 14
Computer Science 17
Science 18
Social Studies 20
Foreign Language 23
French 23
Spanish 25
Fine Arts 27
Visual Arts 27
Studio Art 27
Art History 28
Computer Graphics 28
Photography 29
Performing Arts 29
Multimedia 29
Music 30
Dance 30
Drama 31
Physical Education 31
SAT Preparation 31
Mission Statement
The mission of The Benjamin School is to provide a challenging college preparatory education to a diverse student body in a structured, nurturing community environment. The School motivates students to master the skills of learning, communicating, and evaluating choices; encourages them to grow intellectually, socially, morally, and physically to their fullest potential; and develops in them a coherent set of values that include love of learning, personal responsibility, self-motivation, concern for others, and a desire to serve society.
Non-Discrimination Policy: The School declares that no application of admission to the courses and programs offered nor applications for employment shall be denied because of race, sex, creed, color, or national origin of the applicant.
Middle School Course of Study
The academic program at the Middle School reflects both the school philosophy and its mission statement. The instructional methodology and curricular offerings in the rigorous, college preparatory program develop independent thinkers and a life-long love of learning. The curriculum emphasizes best teaching practices to help students develop critical thinking and reasoning skills. Professional development for teachers is provided with these goals in mind.
The school provides staff development in CRISS (Creating Independence through Student-owned Strategies), Thinking Maps, Jr. Great Books, The Benjamin School Writing Program, and Understanding By Design to assist students in becoming more effective readers, writers, communicators and metacognitive thinkers. As research indicates, the brain is a pattern detector; and teachers must use visual tools, symbols, and images to provide students with the experiences they need to perceive these patterns and make connections on an interdisciplinary level. Teachers create lesson plans understanding that they can best help students if they use these materials effectively. Rather than taking a formal computer course, students enhance their computer skills as they do projects in other courses. The computer instructor works in tandem with classroom faculty to teach more advanced word processing and spreadsheet skills through class projects. The 7th and 8th grade tablet laptop carts, used in the English and social studies classes, provide opportunities for students to refine their computer skills and to create sophisticated multi-media projects and research reports.
The 6th grade curriculum is developmentally appropriate and interdisciplinary in approach. The sixth grade teachers utilize a flexible schedule, allowing for large and small group lessons and interdisciplinary instruction. In addition to the core academic courses (English, geography, mathematics, science, and foreign language) sixth grade students benefit from exposure to art, drama, band, and music classes in a “wheel,” which rotates each quarter. Sixth graders have a varied schedule in recognition of developmental differences. The sixth grade curriculum also includes one semester of band, one quarter of Skills for Adolescence in tandem with Language Arts. The goal of the diverse and exploratory Grade 6 program is to expose students to academically rich and varied programs, while emphasizing life-long learning skills.
Seventh grade students can build upon their Sixth Grade experience by choosing an elective from the arts: Art, Band, Chorus, Dance Technique, or Drama or by trying something new by choosing Environmental Science, Web Design, or Writer’s Workshop. In addition to choosing an elective and having computer instruction integrated into the curriculum, seventh graders take six courses: Mathematics, Science, English, Language Arts 7, Ancient –Medieval History, and either Spanish or French.
In Eighth Grade, students take mathematics (Pre-algebra, Algebra, Algebra I or Geometry), science, English, Spanish or French, United States History, one semester of Language Arts 8, one semester of Communication and Competitive Debate, and one elective chosen from these offerings: Art, Band, Chorus, Dance Technique, Drama, Environmental Science, Journalism, Web Design, and Writer’s Workshop.
The school offers the Junior Great Books program in all three grade-levels and reflects the commitment of the Middle School to developing its students’ listening, vocabulary, reading comprehension, writing and communication skills. This program, the English curriculum as a whole, and the interdisciplinary focus of the Middle School facilitate “writing across” the curriculum.
Our clubs and activities program provides students with opportunities beyond the elective program for enrichment, acquiring new skills and interests, and pursuing their “passions.”
Course offerings for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students are as follows on the next page:
|
Grade |
Required Courses |
Electives |
|
6th |
English 6 Geography Science 6 Math 6 Spanish or French Band – 1 Semester Skills for Adolescence – 1 Quarter Language Arts 6 – 1 Quarter Visual and Performing Arts Wheel |
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7th |
English 7 Language Arts 7 Ancient-Medieval History Science 7 Pre-Algebra, Algebra, or Algebra I Spanish or French |
Art Band Chorus Dance Technique Drama Environmental Science Web Design Writer’s Workshop |
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8th |
English 8 Communication and Competitive Debate – 1Semester Language Arts 8 – 1 Semester United States History Science 8 Algebra, Algebra I, or Geometry Spanish or French |
Art Band Chorus Dance Technique Drama Environmental Science Web Design Writer’s Workshop |
Students must take six required classes, and one elective or Wheel (6th grade) per year. Registration for required and elective courses takes place in April. The Head of the Middle School determines placement of students.
ENGLISH
English 6 (601) Full Year
Organized to foster, promote, and reinforce essential skills in grammar, composition, reading, and thinking, the grammar component of the course involves all parts of speech and their relationship to each other. The concentration in composition of different sentence forms along with the organization of paragraph(s) occurs through the focus on answering questions and addressing literary specifics and inferences of our reading. The course approaches reading through critical thinking skills including cause and effect, compare and contrast, inferential and literal thinking, drawing conclusions, establishing fact and opinion, and making judgments. It stresses word relationship, analogies, and multiple meanings of words. Study skills include organization, reading a textbook effectively, development of listening skills, note taking strategies, and test taking skills.
English 7 (706) Full Year
English 7 introduces students to analytical reading of short stories, poems, plays, and novels. The major works studied include The Odyssey, Julius Caesar, Things Fall Apart, Great Expectations, and selected poems and short stories. In addition, students enhance their reading through vocabulary, grammar, and most importantly, writing in a variety of forms.
Language Arts 7 (718) Full Year
The course focuses on mastering clear and correct grammar and grasping the meaning and usage of words and language. Each student must demonstrate mastery with parts of speech, phrases, clauses, agreement, and pronoun usage. In addition, sentence variety, paragraph writing, expository writing, and revisions continue the development of writing skills. Students use a variety of strategies to learn and remember vocabulary, grammar, and spelling. Junior Great Book is an essential component of the 7th grade Language Arts course.
English 8 (801) Full Year
The eighth grade English class coordinates closely with the eighth grade history program, both of which investigate the American experience in history, philosophy, politics, literature, and art. While the history class investigates the Colonial period, for instance, the English class investigates the American theocracy through the literature of Arthur Miller and Edward Taylor. The literary works include The Crucible, The Red Badge of Courage, To Kill a Mockingbird, A Night to Remember, Animal Farm, Hiroshima, and all significant American poets from Taylor to Ezra Pound. The students also produce at least three written projects per quarter: a poem, a story, a researched essay written in the MLA style. The program culminates with a class field trip to a cultured American city (Boston, New York, Washington), where the students investigate a certain facet of their historical/English studies and produce an essay, story, or poem based on those travels.
Communication and Competitive Debate (820) 8th Grade - One Semester
This full semester course will address the skills necessary to participate in competitive debates in the Palm Beach Middle School Forensic League. In addition to studying the rules for Parliamentary Procedure, the students will develop facility in original oratory, delivery, argumentation, rebuttal, relevancy, and cross-fire in order to compete effectively in Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Public Forum Debate, and Student Congress. Knowledge of current events and the skill to research current event data bases will be an integral part of this course.
Journalism
(911)
8th Grade – Full Year
Throughout modern history, people have depended on the mass media to spread
the word about events and people of interest to the general public.
Journalism introduces students to the exciting world of the print media.
Students are solely responsible for creating, writing, and managing the
middle school newspaper. This course also introduces students to
journalistic law, ethics and history. These topics complement the major
units of study: reporting, writing, editing, photography, management,
teamwork, and design. In addition, students use state-of-the-art
computer-aided publishing programs and other hands-on production tools.
Language Arts (618) 6th Grade – One Quarter
(818) 8th Grade – Fall or Spring Semester
Language Arts emphasizes the writing process and fundamentals in grammar
usage, through the
Junior Great
Books program. Junior Great Books is a nationally recognized program in
which students read and respond to challenging literature. Known as an
inquiry-based program, it develops and refines students' reading
comprehension, writing, oral communication, and critical thinking skills.
The program emphasizes discussion and focuses on interpretation. Students
read each of the selections at least two times, discovering a deeper
understanding with each reading. This in turn enhances their ability to
discuss the story and support their views.
The selections include, but are not limited to, the following:
6th grade - short stories by Doris Lessing, Isaac Bashevis
Singer, and Toni Cade Bambara; 7th grade - Charles Dickens and Kurt
Vonnegut; and 8th grade - William Saroyan, Carson McCullers, and Maya
Angelou.
Writers Workshop (819) 7th Grade – Full Year
Writer’s Workshop focuses on the creative writing skills of students. Assisted by the laptops, the students learn to write short stories, poetry, and essays, augmented by the multimedia. Their work appears in an on-line literary magazine and "The Poet's Corner" in the middle school newspaper. They also compose works for campus events like the Veterans' Day Ceremony, the Presidential primaries and election, and the Benjamin Breakfast Club.
MATHEMATICS
Sixth Grade Mathematics (614) Full Year
Focusing on algebraic formulas and inequalities, calculator skills with decimals, fractions and proportions, exponents and scientific notation, rational numbers, data collection and household mathematics, geometric formulas, graphical analysis, measurements, statistical sampling and analysis and mathematical probabilities, this course reinforces previous learning, through the application of mathematics to problem solving and critical thinking.
Pre-Algebra (802) Full Year
Beginning with the concept of variables, algebraic expressions, and formulas, this course introduces in a well-paced and careful manner the properties of numbers, prime numbers and related concepts. Problem solving skills, ratios and proportions, number sets, inequalities, radicals, and polynomials are also important topics in this course.
Eighth Grade Algebra (810) Full Year
With emphasis on flexible learning styles, this course begins with a review of Pre-Algebra Basics. Focus continues with the tools of algebra, functions and their graphs, algebraic concepts and simple equations, equations and inequalities, graphing and writing linear equations, and systems of equations and inequalities. The course places considerable emphasis on solving real-word world problems and applications.
Algebra I (800) Full Year
This course is an accelerated introduction to algebra involving the simplification of expressions, operations with real and absolute numbers, factoring of polynomials, analytic geometry, quadratics, trigonometry, probability and statistics. The course places considerable emphasis on solving real-word world problems and applications.
Prerequisite: Pre-Algebra or its equivalent
Geometry (124) Full Year
This course investigates logical structures involving the major postulates and theorems of Euclidean geometry while also emphasizing geometric constructions, coordinate geometry and non-Euclidean geometries. In addition, students apply trigonometry concepts to appropriate facets of geometry. The course explores all topics extensively.
Prerequisite: Algebra I or its equivalent
SCIENCE
Building on the confidence and curiosity fostered in the Lower Division, middle school science creates a framework of formal logic on which rest the major principles of the earth, physical and life sciences. Throughout all four grades logic and the scientific method is treated in an increasingly formal way with expanding applications and relevance to daily life. While 5th grade science is topical, 6th grade offers the student his/her first structured look at all the sciences in a cooperative laboratory setting. Seventh grade starts with additional formal logic as it examines the major phylogenetic changes in living organisms, and as it studies earth science. Logic diagrams and decision machines are explored with an in-depth study of a limited number of topics in physical sciences. Consequently, as students leave the 8th grade and enter the upper division they have a firm cognitive and experimental base, reinforced with critical thinking skills and a confident understanding of logic and its uses. Instruction is rigorous. Students receive abundant and diverse opportunities to demonstrate their level of knowledge and understanding in each course and thereby students determine their own grade.
Sixth Grade Science (603) Full Year
This course is an introduction to general science broadly emphasizing general principles of the four sub-disciplines of biology, chemistry, physics, and earth and planetary science, focusing on student-directed activities and laboratory studies in a constructivist mode. Beginning with logic and the scientific method, the content includes properties of life, ecological concepts and current scientific problems. Safe laboratory techniques are emphasized.
Seventh Grade Science (703) Full Year
In this hands-on, technology-involved, and experiential course, students will study formal logic, biological principles, and basic geology. Commonly, there is a major field trip to a marine station.
Eighth Grade Science (804) Full Year
The examination of logic culminates here in the study of symbolic logic, logic diagrams, and applications to decision making in science and everyday life. Rather than a superficial survey of the physical sciences, this course addresses a few topics in physics and chemistry in considerable detail employing laboratory and field studies and technology.
Environmental Science (963) Full Year
Focusing on the human interaction with and impact on the environment, students explore key environmental issues, such as human population growth and size, quality and continued availability of essential natural resources, and complexity of all environmental problems. Through computer simulations, research, independent inquiry, and group work, students explore, present, and discuss all sides to the on-going ecological debate. A key outcome of the course is developing an awareness of the multiple influences and complex decisions our civilization faces as we struggle to meet the needs of the earth's growing population and the imbalance in resource utilization.
SOCIAL STUDIES
Geography (604) Full Year
Sixth graders study location (absolute and relative), region, and its physical characteristics, movement of people, goods, and ideas through an area. This course develops an understanding of how the land affects a region, and an appreciation and understanding of the many diverse cultures of the world. Students strengthen skills needed to locate information and interpret various types of maps and graphics: political and physical, weather, population, language, and natural resources. Study skills include note taking, summarizing, organizing, interpreting, researching, as well as test taking techniques.
Ancient-Medieval History (704) Full Year
This 7th grade course traces the transition of cultures into civilizations from the Stone Age up to the Age of Enlightenment in Europe. It examines emerging ancient empires in Africa, Asia, and Europe from their early beginnings in river valleys to their most powerful points in history. The second semester moves toward the Renaissance, examining trends in religion and government in the Middle Ages after the fall of Rome and measuring the impact of Islam and Protestantism as they affect the growth of trade, great cities, and monarchies in Europe. Students experience a joint venture with the English Department as they begin their quest of completing an MLA research project.
United States History (805) Full Year
In 8th grade American History students learn about our nation’s past, enabling them to develop an understanding present and future events. This understanding occurs through the exploration of the following six themes relating to the history of the United States: culture; continuity and change; geography; government and the citizen; economics, science, and technology; the United States in world affairs. At the conclusion of the course, students gain valuable insights and understandings regarding how events have shaped and continue to influence the course of American History.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE
French 1 A (899) Full Year
This course is for all students who are new to Benjamin and who have never had French before, or students who have completed the LS program, but are weak in structure and vocabulary. Some topics of study include family, friends, the home, clothing, and animals. The materials used encourage aural/oral comprehension and assist students in attaining a beginning level of reading and writing skills.
French 1B (901) Full Year
This course is for the language student who has completed Lower School French or its equivalent, and French 1A. This course will be comprised mainly of 6th grade students, but can include students of other grades who have successfully completed French 1A. Students continue building basic vocabulary related to people, places and activities that are familiar in their own lives; basic grammar; and simple sentence structure. The materials used encourage aural/oral comprehension and assist students in attaining a beginning level of reading and writing skills. Topics of study include but are not limited to friends, school, families, after school activities, the home, restaurants and French cafés, and shopping. The principal cultural unit focuses upon the cultures of Francophone countries around the world.
French 1C (902) Full Year
This course is a continuation of French 1B. A complete review of the material in 1B reinforces the skills previously taught. The focus is on continuing to build a strong vocabulary through a variety of themes, additional verb tenses and their uses, and complex grammatical structures. The course concentrates on developing aural/oral comprehension, reading comprehension and skills in speaking and writing. It also assists the student in attaining an early intermediate level of proficiency. Topics of vocabulary study and use include but are not limited to various modes of transportation, sports and summer activities, shopping, daily life, driving and staying in shape. The principal cultural unit focuses upon the study of the regions of France.
French 2 (906) Full Year
This course is a continuation of French 1C with the emphasis on application of the concepts and grammar learned in previous levels. The primary goals are to strengthen the skills already learned and to provide the student with a better ability to use those skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing. The class members speak primarily in French, as aural/oral comprehension is an integral part of foreign language learning. Topics of study include but are not limited to summer and winter sports, health, leisure activities, tourism, and finance. The curriculum includes an extensive study of Paris in order to make the French student aware of the historical sites and enhance the cultural understanding of the French capital, while providing insight into French traditions and history.
Spanish 1A (916) Full Year
This course is for all incoming 7th and 8th grade students who are NEW to Benjamin and who have never had Spanish before, or students who have completed the LS program, but are weak in structure and vocabulary. Students finishing this course will be placed into either Spanish 1A or Spanish 1B depending on student performance in this class and general language ability.
Spanish 1B (917) Full Year
This course emphasizes vocabulary building through a variety of themes and teaches basic grammar concepts. Students review and build on material presented in the previous years, enhancing speaking, reading, writing, and listening skills through a variety of methods. In addition to the Bienvenidos primary resources, the course uses supplementary materials to present cultural topics.
Spanish 1C (920) Full Year
This course is for the intermediate Middle School Spanish student who has satisfied the requirements of Spanish I-B. The course also introduces more complex grammar concepts. Students enhance speaking, reading, writing, and listening skills through a variety of methods. The Bienvenidos text and workbook serve as primary resources. Supplementary materials present cultural topics.
Prerequisite: Spanish IB or its equivalent
Spanish 2 (922) &nb