Cedar Grove's Middle School Program is student-focused for grades six through eight and is designed to address the characteristics of the adolescent student; meet the special needs and interests of all students.
The middle school program is content specific, data driven, and a rigorous curriculum for Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies. Connections (variety of classes), Physical Education, and Health (Exploratory) classes are instructional Beyond the Core academic classes. These classes are designed to integrate and apply the skills and concepts taught in class and infuse core academic curriculum by reinforcing critical reading, writing, and critical thinking skills.
As you know, Parents and Guardian(s), communication with teachers is essential to a student's success and our goal is to partner with you and provide opportunities to keep you informed of your child’s academic performance through parent teacher conferences and Infinite Campus parent portal. Parents should participate in student-led conferences where the teachers serve as facilitators and the student uses a portfolio to update the parents.
Our middle school program also promotes communication among teachers through the interdisciplinary team approach.
Middle school teachers plan together by team and by subject area to ensure that integration of learning takes place within team planning, discussions concerning the students' performance, analyze student work, and data take place across disciplines. The teachers' communication in team meetings allow teachers to identify areas of weakness and/or strengths to provide remediation or enrichment.
Scholars who need remediation should participate in our academic instruction designed to bring students not performing on grade level, as defined by the Office of Student Achievement, to grade level performance. All scholars can participate in our Before School and After School Tutorial program.
Additionally, middle school teachers are involved with high school team vertical alignment planning for the purpose of aligning and prioritizing curriculum, developing activities, and sharing ideas for the rising 9th graders.
Cedar Grove Middle School provides students with consistent academic and behavior expectations from all Faculty and Staff members. Therefore, a focus on maintaining a school climate which recognizes and encourages academic excellence and high achievement for all students is a key component of a scholar’s success. Middle school is a time when students must begin to take ownership of their own learning with staff support.
Curriculum
The English language arts and reading curriculum focuses on reading and literature, reading across the curriculum, writing, conventions of writing, listening, speaking, and viewing.
Reading Across the Curriculum
Students engage in reading across the curriculum standards comprised of the following literacy activities:
- students will read the equivalent of twenty-five books per year across the curriculum
- students will write weekly
- students will use reading and writing strategies to help them understand and use the content of all classes
- students will write a minimum of one research paper and develop one research-based project each year
Assessment
Assessment is a crucial component of the Reading - ELA curriculum. Periodic assessments are administered and are intended to measure student progress during units of study.
For the middle grades language arts courses, the primary resource material is the Holt, Rinehart, and Winston series, Elements of Literature.
Information for the online access to the textbook is available through the school.
The Extended Learning Time (ELT) class period is utilized to provide additional support for students who are in need of more instruction in order to meet state standards.