Middle School Course Information & Descriptions

0.5 credit — Grade 6, 7, and 8

Mode of Delivery: Teacher Supported Online Course

Prerequisites: None

General Visual Art in Upper Arlington makes relevant connections across subject areas, promotes the use of technology, self-direction, formative assessment and provides a personally gratifying study of aesthetics, arts criticism and history. The Course of Study allows for varied entry points to student understanding in the arts, whether through observation, experimentation, reflection on personal and professional artworks, and the opportunity to express unique ideas. Students will have the opportunity to explore varied mediums (such as printmaking, ceramics, digital media and more) and develop their individual techniques in this standards-based course.

1.0 credit — Grade 7 and 8

Mode of Delivery: Teacher Supported Online Course

Prerequisites: Enrollment in course both grade 7 and grade 8

At the Novice Level, emphasis is on learners becoming proficient at a basic level in the three modes of communication (interpretive, presentational and interpersonal). Students are introduced to high-frequency vocabulary and grammatical structures and gradually build a foundation in order to understand and communicate in the target language. Students begin to create with the language, communicate with other students, and learn to speak and write about their personal interests and activities. By reading simple texts and listening to native speakers discuss familiar topics, students develop comprehension of authentic language as well as insight into cultural similarities and differences. Fundamental grammar concepts are introduced at this level to help students develop insight into the nature of language and to support effective communication. Students learn strategies to facilitate and enhance their language acquisition and help them become independent learners.

At the middle school level, Novice Level Global Language is taught over the course of two years. Students who successfully complete Spanish in both 7th and 8th grades will receive one (1) high school global language credit.

1.0 credit — Grades 6

Mode of Delivery: Teacher Supported Online Course

Prerequisites: None

This course eases students’ transition to middle school with engaging, age-appropriate literary and informational reading selections. Students learn to read critically, analyze texts, and cite evidence to support ideas as they read essential parts of literary and informational texts and explore a full unit on Lewis Carroll’s classic novel Through the Looking Glass. Vocabulary, grammar, and listening skills are sharpened through lessons that give students explicit modeling and ample practice. Students also engage in routine, responsive writing based on texts they have read. In extensive, process-based writing lessons, students write topical essays in narrative, informative, analytical, and argumentative formats.

1.0 credit — Grades 7

Mode of Delivery: Teacher Supported Online Course

Prerequisites: English Language Arts 6

Students grow as readers, writers, and thinkers in this middle school course. With engaging literary and informational texts, students learn to think critically, analyze an author’s language, and cite evidence to support ideas. Students complete an in-depth study of Jack London’s classic novel White Fang and read excerpts from other stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Explicit modeling and ample opportunities for practice help students sharpen their vocabulary, grammar, and listening skills. Students also respond routinely to texts they have read. In extensive, process-based writing lessons, students write topical essays in narrative, informative, analytical, and argumentative formats.

1.0 credit — Grades 8

Mode of Delivery: Teacher Supported Online Course

Prerequisites: English Language Arts 7

In this course, students build on their knowledge and blossom as thoughtful readers and clear, effective writers. A balance of literary and informational texts engage students throughout the course in reading critically, analyzing texts, and citing evidence to support claims. Students sharpen their vocabulary, grammar, and listening skills through lessons designed to provide explicit modeling and ample opportunities to practice. Students also routinely write responses to texts they have read, and use more extensive, process-based lessons to produce full-length essays in narrative, informative, analytical, and argumentative formats.

1.0 credit — Grades 6

Mode of Delivery: Teacher Supported Online Course

Prerequisites: None

This course begins by connecting ratio and rate to multiplication and division, allowing students to use ratio reasoning to solve a wide variety of problems. Students further apply their understanding of multiplication and division to explain the standard procedure for dividing fractions. This course builds upon previous notions of the number system to now include the entire set of rational numbers. Students begin to understand the use of variables as they write, evaluate, and simplify expressions. They use the idea of equality and properties of operations to solve one-step equations and inequalities. In statistics, students explore different graphical ways to display data. They use data displays, measures of center, and measures of variability to summarize data sets. The course concludes with students reasoning about relationships among shapes to determine area, surface area, and volume.

1.0 credit — Grades 7

Mode of Delivery: Teacher Supported Online Course

Prerequisites: Math 6

This course begins with an in-depth study of proportional reasoning during which students utilize concrete models such as bar diagrams and tables to increase and develop conceptual understanding of rates, ratios, proportions, and percentages. Students’ number fluency and understanding of the rational number system are extended as they perform operations with signed rational numbers embedded in real-world contexts. In statistics, students develop meanings for representative samples, measures of central tendency, variation, and the ideal representation for comparisons of given data sets. Students develop an understanding of both theoretical and experimental probability. Throughout the course, students build fluency in writing expressions and equations that model real-world scenarios. They apply their understanding of inverse operations to solve multi-step equations and inequalities. Students build on their proportional reasoning to solve problems about scale drawings by relating the corresponding lengths between objects.

1.0 credit — Grades 8

Mode of Delivery: Teacher Supported Online Course

Prerequisites: Math 7

This full-year course is designed for high school students who have completed a middle school mathematics sequence but are not yet algebra-ready. This course reviews key algebra readiness skills from the middle grades and introduces basic Algebra I work with appropriate support. Students revisit concepts in numbers and operations, expressions and equations, ratios and proportions, and basic functions. By the end of the course, students are ready to begin a more formal high school Algebra I study.

1.0 credit — Grade 8

Mode of Delivery: Teacher Supported Online Course

Specific Graduation Requirements Course

Prerequisites: Math 7 and teacher recommendation

This full-year course focuses on five critical areas: relationships between quantities and reasoning with equations, linear and exponential relationships, descriptive statistics, expressions and equations, and quadratic functions and modeling. This course builds on the foundation set in middle grades by deepening students’ understanding of linear and exponential functions and developing fluency in writing and solving one-variable equations and inequalities. Students will interpret, analyze, compare, and contrast functions that are represented numerically, tabularly, graphically, and algebraically. Quantitative reasoning is a common thread throughout the course as students use algebra to represent quantities and the relationships among those quantities in a variety of ways. Standards of mathematical practice and process are embedded throughout the course, as students make sense of problem situations, solve novel problems, reason abstractly, and think critically

*Students who successfully complete this course will earn one (1) high school math credit.

1.0 credit — Grades 6

Mode of Delivery: Teacher Supported Online Course

Prerequisites: None

This course focuses on introducing students to scientific inquiry. Students will cover a variety of topics including Life Science, Earth Science, and Physical Science. After an overview of scientific principles and procedures, the course leads toward a basic understanding of geology and the rock cycle. Students will explore cells and heredity as well as human body systems. After working through these concepts, students will have experience with introductory chemistry and physics instruction.

1.0 credit — Grades 7

Mode of Delivery: Teacher Supported Online Course

Prerequisites: Science 6

This Science 7 course expands students’ knowledge and understanding gained through the Science 7 course. Students will cover a variety of topics including Life Science, Earth Science, and Physical Science. As students refine and expand their understanding of Life Science, they will apply their knowledge in investigations that require them to ask questions and explore the world around them. Students will explore interactions among living things, energy flow in ecosystems, matter, and the physical world.

1.0 credit — Grade 8

Mode of Delivery: Teacher Supported Online Course

Prerequisites: Science 7

This Science 8 course expands students’ knowledge and understanding gained through the Science 8 course. Students will cover a variety of topics including Life Science, Earth Science, and Physical Science. Throughout the course, students will also solve problems, reason abstractly, and learn to think critically. Students will focus on traditional concepts in chemistry and physics, explain the relationship between motion and forces, examine the interactions of Earth’s systems and cycles, investigate the evidence that supports the theory that Earth has evolved, and explore the changes in organisms over time.

1 credit — Grade 9

Mode of Delivery: Teacher Supported Online Course

Prerequisites: Concurrent with Algebra I

This full-year course focuses on basic concepts in chemistry and physics and encourages exploration of new discoveries in the field of physical science. The course includes an overview of scientific principles and procedures and has students examine the chemical building blocks of our physical world and the composition of matter. Additionally, students explore the properties that affect motion, forces, and energy on Earth. Building on these concepts, the course covers the properties of electricity and magnetism and the effects of these phenomena. As students refine and expand their understanding of physical science, they will apply their knowledge to complete interactive virtual labs that require them to ask questions and create hypotheses. Hands-on wet lab options are also available.

*Students who successfully complete this course will earn one (1) high school science credit.

1.0 credit — Grades 6

Mode of Delivery: Teacher Supported Online Course

Prerequisites: None

In Social Studies 6, students study the Eastern Hemisphere, its geographic features, early history, cultural development and economic change. Students learn about the development of river civilizations in Africa and Asia, including their governments, cultures and economic systems. The geographic focus includes the study of contemporary regional characteristics, the movement of people, products and ideas, and cultural diversity. Students develop their understanding of the role of consumers and the interaction of markets, resources and competition.

1.0 credit — Grades 7

Mode of Delivery: Teacher Supported Online Course

Prerequisites: Social Studies 6

Social Studies 7 is an integrated study of world history, beginning with ancient Greece and continuing through global exploration. All four social studies strands (history, geography, government and economics) are used to illustrate how historic events are shaped by geographic, social, cultural, economic and political factors. Students develop their understanding of how ideas and events from the past have shaped the world today.

1.0 credit — Grades 8

Mode of Delivery: Teacher Supported Online Course

Prerequisites: Social Studies 7

The historical focus continues in the eighth grade with the study of the early years of the United States (the New World through Reconstruction). This study incorporates all four social studies strands into a chronological view of the development of the United States. Students examine how historic events are shaped by geographic, social, cultural, economic and political factors.

0.5 credits — Grades 6, 7, and 8

Mode of Delivery: Teacher Monitored Online Course

Prerequisites: None

OA PE encourages students to get active in whatever way fits them! Students are expected to complete an average of 30 minutes per weekday of some physical activity. This can be anything that they want from running around the house to jumping rope, to walking the dog, to riding a bike, or to whatever sports they might play. The goal is for students to be moving to keep their bodies healthy. Students will log what activity they do and for how long each day and turn the log at the end of the week.

0.5 credit — Grade 7

Mode of Delivery: Teacher Monitored Online Course

Prerequisites: None

Encouraging students to make responsible, respectful, informed, and capable decisions about topics that affect the well-being of themselves and others, Healthy Living (full year) is a two-semester course that provides students with comprehensive information they can use to develop healthy attitudes and behavior patterns. Designed for high school students, this informative and engaging course encourages students to recognize that they have the power to choose healthy behaviors to reduce risks.Throughout the course, you will identify characteristics of good mental and emotional health, develop speaking, listening, and nonverbal communication skills necessary for building healthy relationships, describe how sources of conflict, violence, and abuse can be minimized, summarize the effects of tobacco use on family, finances, and society and the effects of alcoholism on families and society, describe the role of medicine in health promotion, disease prevention, and possible complications that may arise from taking them, identify community resources available to help treat and prevent the spread of communicable disease, describe the benefits of physical activity and guidelines for healthy eating.