Middle School Curriculum
The Middle School curriculum includes a core of language, literature, mathematics, history and science, enriched by art, dance, drama, music, health and physical education. The academic program builds on the strong foundation established in the Lower School, with an approach that values process as much as product, incorporating interactive classes, independent and collaborative projects and skill development.
Humanities
In Middle School Humanities, we cultivate a love for learning by offering rich academic content and the necessary skills to engage with it. Students explore and examine the narratives and historical events of our world, and they endeavor to comprehend the origins of the present by delving into the past, using this knowledge to make thoughtful and well-informed decisions.
Class 4 and 5 students experience humanities as a single subject to immerse themselves in the essential connections between history and story, geography and culture, creative expression and the human condition, and even etymology and spelling. Students use strategies that demystify critical reading and encourage confident and clear communication as they interact with both class texts and books they have chosen on their own.
Class 6 and 7 students explore the humanities in separate English and history classes as they give specialized attention to the higher-level demands of the disciplines. Though divided into two distinct subjects, the unified nature of humanities pervades their experiences, as teachers coordinate themes such as how communities deal with conflict and skills such as how to decode complicated syntax in works such as A Midsummer Night's Dream and the U.S. Constitution.
In all grades, we seek to cultivate the unique voice of each student, and we celebrate their original works through in-class readings, performances in assemblies, and publication in various literary magazines. We believe that the fundamentals of communication—grammar, spelling, and the power of style—must be explicitly taught and integrated meaningfully into the reading and writing experience. True understanding of the structural underpinnings of our language can only be relevant if they affect how students read, speak, and write.
We seek to move beyond literacy, driving our students to a real passion for language and for our history that propels itself at home and out in the world. Toward that end, we provide our students with deep integration with the arts, to viscerally enter and deeply understand–and own–a text. Students work with faculty from our dance, music, drama, and visual arts departments, and they partner with performers such as those from The Juilliard School. Whether dancing the geological forces that forged the early river civilizations or setting a Langston Hughes poem to music and performing the piece in front of peers, our students learn with their senses to interpret and respond creatively as well as analytically. These projects are truly interdisciplinary as they meet the learning outcomes of both the humanities and arts departments.
Science
Our mission is to provide a Middle School science program that ignites curiosity, fosters a deep understanding of the natural world, and empowers students to become active and responsible stewards of the Earth. Through engaging and hands-on experiences, we aim to cultivate scientific literacy, critical thinking skills and a passion for lifelong learning. By incorporating technology, promoting environmental awareness, and celebrating diversity in science, we inspire the next generation of innovative thinkers and problem solvers to make positive contributions to our community.
In Class 4 science, students investigate forms of energy and its transfer, transformation, and sources. Through the Trout in the Classroom program, they learn about biological structures and witness the life cycle firsthand. They also research severe weather systems, build climate change models, and explore its impacts and solutions.
In Class 5, students begin with a unit on forces and motions that culminates in an engineering design challenge. Students explore Astrophysics, focusing on the force of gravity and its application in astronomy; Chemistry, studying atoms and how they build matter and transform the matter around us; and Ecology, during which they discover how living organisms interact with their nonliving environment.
In Class 6 science, students explore earth, space, life, and physical science. They investigate intriguing phenomena, practice scientific inquiry, and problem solve. Topics include the solar system, sound, cells and microscopes, and body systems. Hands-on experiments, collaborative work, and science journals enhance STEAM skills. Connections to real-world events and current science issues are often integrated.
Class 7 scientists explore phenomena such as how plants obtain food molecules, what causes chronic fatigue in a patient, and the origins of super strength in certain cattle and humans. This leads students to investigate topics such as botany, cell biology, genetics and human evolution. As students delve into these exciting topics, they have opportunities to engage in scientific work through the Science and Engineering Practices, which involve asking questions, developing models, conducting investigations, and constructing explanations, among others. Throughout the year, our teachers nurture students’ scientific identities by expanding their knowledge and skills.
Physical Education
The physical education program in Middle School provides a blend of sports-specific, cooperative, and fitness activities in which students expand on the skills learned in Lower School. They are exposed to numerous sports and activities and taught more complex and specialized skills to reach a more advanced level of play. Units currently include: soccer, volleyball, basketball, field hockey, lacrosse, badminton, track and field, fencing, handball, floor hockey, pickleball, and ultimate Frisbee, flag football and rugby, circus activities, softball, kickball, yard games and international games.
In addition, through competitive game play, the program strives to increase each student’s knowledge of rules and concepts, strategic thinking, and ability to move, adapt, and react. Cooperative activities and team-building challenges are also incorporated into the curriculum to enhance teamwork, communication, critical thinking, leadership, respect, and problem solving. Fitness is a component of each class; promoting cardiovascular endurance and muscular strength to educate and motivate the students to become lifelong active learners. Beginning in Class 6, students are introduced to our state-of-the-art fitness facility, where safety and proper technique are taught, with an emphasis on making exercise fun.
Throughout Middle School, the focus in P.E. is on instilling a passion for play, and building confidence and competence to pursue physical activities and athletic team opportunities that will lead to lifelong fitness.
Dance
The Middle School Dance curriculum focuses on technique, performance skills, and choreography. Proper alignment, consistent energy, musicality, confidence, and expressiveness are emphasized in each class. Classes begin with a warm-up of stretches, yoga poses, pliés, balances, and small jumps, followed by longer dances that include quick entrances and exits, chassés, jumps, leaps, and turns. Creative work is central to the curriculum.
Choreography projects explore a wide range of topics, many of which are aligned with the academic curriculum. Recent topics have included the Louisiana Purchase and decoding messages through dance, as well as exploring poetry through movement. Through these projects, students learn how to explore ideas through movement, how to structure a dance, how to create movement phrases, and how to use elements such as level, dynamics, speed, theme and variation, and stillness effectively. Frequent in-class presentations of student choreography provide opportunities for detailed discussions, which help students revise their work. Additional performance opportunities include our Winter Concert, which features music and dance, the Middle School Musical (Classes 6 and 7), and our Middle School Dance Club.
Music
The Middle School music program provides opportunities for students to develop vocal skills, aural discrimination, and a deeper understanding of world music through singing, listening, improvising, and composing. The music curriculum continues to build upon the melodic and rhythmic concepts covered in the Lower School music classes. The program is a sequential and experienced-based approach and is based on the music education philosophies of Kodály, Orff, and Dalcroze.
A study of world music and music of the master composers (medieval through contemporary) in social, historical, and cultural contexts provides students with a greater understanding of musical forms, historical periods, and world cultures. Arts-integrated learning and creative exploration are important aspects of the Middle School music program. During arts-integrated projects, students engage in a creative process, which connects music to history and the humanities while creating deeper and meaningful connections within each discipline. Arts-integrated units of study include the Early Renaissance, Shakespeare, the Harlem Renaissance, Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt and Nubia, and Ancient India and China.
Library
The Middle School Library is a welcoming and magical environment where students can grow into more engaged, compassionate, and responsible readers. The ever-expanding collection serves the diverse range of all our Middle School students, both meeting them where they are and offering pathways for challenging, joyful reading. Readers advisory – where a librarian converses one-on-one with students to provide individualized recommendations based on their interests and reading level – is at the heart of the Middle School Library experience. A significant portion of every once-a-cycle library class is dedicated to readers advisory, independent book selection, and quiet reading. Studies show that independent reading helps Middle School students build stamina and self-reliance, offering them the opportunity to comprehend increasingly complex texts on their own. Building this kind of autonomy is central to the Middle School Library program because it goes hand-in-hand with the research and information literacy skills emphasized in our curriculum.
Class 4 students learn how to find and select school-appropriate sources from both the library collection and online databases, and our Class 5 students begin to connect that undertaking with the importance of citation, recognizing that the more authoritative their sources, the more effective their arguments.
Classes 6 and 7 have multiple independent research projects – often in collaboration with the Humanities – that allow them to stretch their visual literacy, practice organized note-taking and paraphrasing, and write convincingly with style. Underpinning it all is the Library's endeavor to help students learn personal responsibility for their books, their academic work and themselves.
Mathematics
The Middle School Math curriculum is designed to allow students to discover the beauty of mathematics by making connections within mathematics, between other subjects, and to the real world. Classroom activities are intentionally inquiry-based, meaning that questions are posed for students to explore. The students are encouraged to explore creatively and courageously, and they are empowered by taking responsibility for their own learning. Investigations are carefully designed to guide discovery within mathematics. Through these discoveries students learn how to be creative problem solvers who enjoy being challenged. In the classroom, a large emphasis is placed upon reflection. Students learn how to reflect upon their own thinking, and how to use communication, both verbal and written, to learn new strategies and modes of thought.
In Classes 4 and 5, a large part of the curriculum is based upon developing students' number sense. Through discussions, hands-on activities and group work, students learn how to become fluid and flexible with all kinds of numbers.
In Classes 6 and 7 they develop this even further while also combining these skills with algebra, data, and geometry. Learning and discovering math in the Middle School provides opportunities for math to be accessible, enjoyable and challenging for all students.
Technology
Technology in the Middle School consists of three pillars: digital citizenship, responsible use of technology tools and devices, and technology skills needed for academic support and creative design. We currently have a 1:1 MacBook laptop ratio for in-school laptops in Classes 4 and 5 and a 1:1 MacBook Air Laptop Integration Program (LIP) with family-owned machines beginning in Class 6 and continuing through Upper School. Students also periodically use school-owned iPads in various courses.
Each year, our Middle School students read and discuss the Middle School Responsible Use of Technology Policy. This encourages developmentally appropriate conversations, both at school and at home, about appropriate technology use, digital footprints, online communication, and cyberbullying, and encourages our students to recognize opportunities to use technology “for good.”
In Classes 4 and 5, technology lessons are integrated into the curriculum. For example, students in Class 4 learn to make presentations and websites to communicate information they have gathered during their nonfiction reading unit in humanities class. In Class 5, students create podcasts to demonstrate what they have learned about in social studies or science. Additionally, Class 4 and 5 Technology Integrators utilize curriculum resources from Common Sense Media to deliver age-appropriate and timely instruction around digital decision making and media literacy. As keyboarding skills are important across the curriculum, all students in the Middle School are provided with a Typing Agent account to be used for ongoing typing practice at home and at school. Another important technology skill, coding, is integrated into the Class 4 and 5 experience in several ways, through classroom-based activities and maker projects in our Hayot Center for Innovation.
As part of our 1:1 MacBook Air Laptop Integration Program, students in Class 6 have a separate Technology and Design course, designed to support the students’ use of their new laptops in each of their classes. After an introduction to laptop care and the responsible use policy for their take-home machines, they learn to understand the world of the laptop by investigating topics such as file extensions and sizes, the operating system, export options in all programs and troubleshooting techniques. Each unit of the course is also intended to help students recognize the opportunities for using technology “for good,” such as making public service announcement videos on a topic of their choice, using Excel to analyze data sets, or building websites about social issues using HTML and CSS. Special attention is given to addressing digital communication issues, problem solving around digital dilemmas, and strategies for finding a balance between students’ technology lives and non-technology time.
In Class 7, technology instruction and discussion is once again integrated into the broader curriculum with greater independent use of various applications to support academic work and projects. Special attention is given to the use of online communication, social media, and the concept of the digital footprint through an integration initiative with Class 7 Health.
THE HAYOT CENTER FOR INNOVATION
Named in honor of Chapin’s 6th Head of School, Dr. Patricia Hayot, the Hayot Center for Innovation provides a space for students to explore design thinking principles, utilize state-of-the-art tools and experience the maker mindset.
Teachers collaborate with our HCI Director to design thoughtful projects that allow students to express their learning and ideas through hands-on activities using the HCI's low-tech and high-tech tools. Examples of such projects include: Class 4 students design “Trout Houses” for the Brooktrout they raise through our partnership with Trout in the Classroom. Using a 3D modeling program, they collaborate on their designs before printing the final products on our Prusa 3D printers. Class 5 students use various tools, including the Glowforge laser cutter, to produce intricate games to teach peers and younger students about the ancient civilizations they researched; Class 6 students create virtual reality experiences using Co-Spaces to teach others about exoplanets they researched.
World Languages
SPANISH in CLASSES 4 & 5
Middle School students in Classes 4 and 5 build upon their study of Spanish from the Lower School. Collaboration among teachers and content integration with other subjects are essential to the curriculum in these two grades, as the units taught in Spanish class often run parallel to those in other subjects. Examples of integrated content at Chapin are the study of animal classification and adaptation and the study of the solar system in Class 4, and, in Class 5, the study of our community, a unit on biographies, and the reading of a portion of the book Esperanza Rising (Esperanza Renace) by Pam Muñoz Ryan.
LANGUAGE CHOICE IN CLASS 6
In Class 6, students choose one of three languages to focus on. Students may continue with Spanish or to switch to French or Mandarin Chinese. Although Upper School offers more flexibility, it is expected that students commit to the study of the language selected in Class 6 through their time at Chapin, with the goal of developing the highest level of proficiency possible in a language other than English.
Class 7 is the first year of a two-year mandatory core curriculum in Latin, which students pursue while also studying their modern language. The curriculum follows the new and exciting Suburani textbook. Suburani is the most current reading course available for Latin and provides a more diverse perspective of the Roman Empire in its Latin and English readings as well as in its visual elements. Latin in the Middle School exposes students to the spoken methodology, which encourages students to develop listening comprehension and speaking competencies in Latin.
CONTENT AND LANGUAGE INTEGRATED LEARNING (CLIL)
While the development of speaking proficiency is the primary goal of the World Languages program in the Middle School, World Languages in Classes 6 and 7 give greater emphasis to reading and writing as students progress in their language study. Students in Mandarin Chinese learn handwriting and the correct order of strokes, which our curriculum prioritizes over typing. Technology in all language classes allows teachers to bring authentic materials to their lessons that promote listening comprehension skills, pronunciation, and develop global literacy and citizenry. These resources allow students to experience and connect with the cultural and linguistic diversity, which is essential to second-language learning. Students maintain digital portfolios with projects that range from skits and presentations to poetry and essay writing, and they self-reflect on their growth throughout their Middle School years. Integration with the arts, humanities, and sciences is the foundation of the methodology employed by the World Languages department in the Middle School.
BEYOND OUR WALLS
Experiential learning is essential to the study of world languages at Chapin. In Chinese class, students learn songs, traditional dances, ping-pong, and Chinese hacky sack, kinesthetic activities that allow students to retain attention while learning cultural elements of the Chinese world. For the Winter Concert, students learn and perform songs in all three languages. Students in French and Spanish classes learn how to describe, interpret and analyze art while developing linguistic skills in the target language. Students in Spanish 6 design their own clothing with recycled materials in a unit where they hone environmental stewardship and creative skills.
We realize New York City–perhaps the most linguistically diverse city in the world–is both our home and our backdrop. The World Languages Department sponsors two main day trips in the upper Middle School. In the spring of Class 6, students experience Chinatown, The Met (a visit connected to a unit where students learn how to talk about art in Spanish class), and Issyra Gallery in Hoboken, NJ, to experience Francophone West African art. Connected to the annual celebration of the Declaration of Human Rights in December, Class 7 students visit the United Nations Headquarters and learn about the important work of this international organization.
Drama
In Middle School Drama, students continue to develop the actor's instruments - body, voice and mind - through ongoing exploration of the physical, vocal, characterization and staging elements of drama. In all classes, MS Drama students participate in a variety of group and individual activities in process and performance. Integrated projects with other subjects create multiple opportunities for deep and experiential learning, as well as the chance for teachers to link learning objectives within the arts and core content subjects.
Class 4 Drama explores how inspiration affects what we create. Using different prompts including words, pictures, and objects, students learn specific skills, such as still image and concrete mime. Improvisational skills are utilized in a study of Forum Theatre where students use themes of family, school, and friendship to examine injustice and to explore how they can use their individual power to solve personal problems that they encounter in their lives.
In Class 5, text becomes a major focus in the Drama classroom. Students gain skills as emergent playwrights by identifying and utilizing elements of dramatic text in writing and theater activities. Class 5 students also engage in a unit on collaborative playwriting and performance to further strengthen their skills.
Class 6 places a focus on creating characters using various forms of inspiration, including contemporary texts. Students apply imagination and analysis to the creation of original characters and a backstory, therefore, deepening the actor’s individual process of becoming a character.
Heightened text is introduced in Class 7 with Shakespeare and his plays. In addition, Class 7 students engage in a scene study unit, using all of their MS drama skills to create, stage, perform, and refine a fully realized scene from a contemporary play.
Visual Arts
Excitement and enthusiastic exploration permeate the Middle School art classrooms as students are exposed to a wide range of media, skills, and visual concepts. Challenged to solve creative problems as they learn visual language, the program is developmental in nature based on priority learning outcomes which are determined and reviewed annually. For example, by the end of Middle School, each student will have learned how to use hand tools to work with wood and how a three-dimensional illusion is created on a two-dimensional surface.
Projects are connected to the larger world through cultural references, and interdisciplinary work is a cornerstone of the program. Students learn how to discuss their work and that of fellow students through group critiques, and the constant immediate exchange that occurs with classmates and the teacher is a result of the open seating arrangement. Media literacy and technology are introduced where appropriate throughout the program as well.
Learning Resources
The Middle School Learning Resources team provides a hybrid approach to student support. Our learning specialists understand the unique needs of each learner and work to support these needs within and outside the classroom. In Classes 4 through 6, support is provided as a push-in model, providing elbow-to-elbow support to all students. Students with documented needs in Class 7 receive a strategy-based Academic Workshop class designed to establish literal and virtual tool-kits to support each individual learner. In addition, the Learning Resources team provides professional development to the Middle School Faculty on the growth mindset and intervention strategies targeted for individual needs. Our partnership and collaboration with families is an essential part of our core work and creates a solid foundation for open and transparent communication.