The Senior Pod is home to our 7th and 8th graders. Students within this pod are typically between the ages of 12 and 14. The middle school age is all about transition. Students are leaving their childhood years and gaining more independence as they look forward to high school. At this time, our program emphasizes working collaboratively as a team, developing the skills to cope with stressful situations as students navigate a rigorous curriculum that incorporates the multiple intelligences and applications to the real world.
The academic subjects are taught by teachers specifically certified in that content area. The teachers meet multiple times a week to discuss student progress and work together as a team to allow our students to have the best possible educational experiences. The Senior teacher focuses not only on the growth of each individual student academically but also on the students’ social and emotional well-being. The teachers have weekly meetings with the students regarding bullying and any other social issues that occur within the middle school grades. It is the goal of teachers in this Pod to have students ready for the transition to high school. Students usually attend 4-5 different high schools in the area after they graduate, so we embody guidelines to prepare them for any of those atmospheres, such as Scranton High School, Holy Cross High School, Scranton Preparatory School, or Wyoming Seminary.
The Senior Cultural curriculum focuses on the formation of the American system of government and the United States Constitution. Students analyze the discussion and arguments that took place during the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and take a look at how those decisions paved the way to the American Civil War. The class looks at the causes of the war as well as the wartime experiences of Northeastern Pennsylvanians by analyzing primary source material. Throughout the year, while discussing these overarching topics, the class will also study the geography of the United States as well as take a look at current events issues taking place locally, nationally, and worldwide. Students engage in various assignments, projects, tests, and quizzes throughout the year, which provides them the opportunity to be an accountable and self-directed learner, and by showing their understanding of class material in the way best suited for their needs.
The Senior English and Language Arts content is designed to develop our students as readers and as writers. This means students do a great deal of both reading and writing! As readers, students engage with real-world issues, learning to understand, analyze, and discuss both fiction and nonfiction. As writers, they learn to respond to their reading directly and analytically, but most often they write in a workshop setting with a set-aside time for grammar instruction. Such a structure gives students freedom of choice, while also helping them use professional English and practice the rhetorical moves that will allow them to clearly communicate with a particular audience.
The multiple intelligences work their way through each facet of the curriculum. While reading, different students may be asked to discuss different facets of the text based on their stronger intelligences. For some cumulative novel projects, students will choose to respond to a novel in one of several different ways, each geared for particular MI strength. In writing, the workshop setting grants students a great deal of choice in what they write, allowing them to follow their interests and their strengths.
Student progress is monitored through multiple formative assessments per week, post-unit assessments, periodic due dates for writing projects, and conferences with the teacher during writing workshop. Beyond that, students take online CDT’s 2-3 times per year, along with the PSSAs in April.
Our math curriculum utilizes textbooks and online sources such as Imagine Math and CK12 to enhance learning in the classroom and during math enrichment. Students are given a variety of methods for assessment. In addition to traditional in-class tests, projects and activities are utilized monthly to allow for group collaboration and opportunities for the multiple intelligences to be used. For example, students in 7th grade complete what is called a Better Buy Activity, where they compare prices at local grocery stores and design their own ad, saying where the better buys are. 8th graders get to compile what are called Function Machines, where they use input and output values based on what expressions their machines compute. Both 7th and 8th graders get to complete athletic activities utilized during Outdoor Education, where they can find exit velocity, speed of their walk, and the distance of a throw, etc. Students will also be asked to do a “Sharktank” pitch for a new product. They will do a group presentation similar to the television show, but will also need to add in a jingle. We also offer for our advanced students an Algebra I course, which culminates with them taking the Keystone Exam for High School Algebra in May.
Student progress is monitored throughout the year through a variety of formative assessments based on the many activities they engage in and through both the online assignments given weekly and textbook pages that spiral back to previous concepts and benchmark assessments including the CDTs 2-3 times a year. They also take the PSSA in April.