This is a year-long course designed to provide seventh grade students with an in-depth exploration into the elements and principles of art. Learning the art process requires practice in generating and developing ideas.
Students will learn to make compositional choices. Individual creativity and experimentation are encouraged. As students develop skill exploring a variety of techniques and media, they are also introduced to the concept of critique, within the context of art history. This course provides students with the ability to absorb and evaluate art criticism and make assessments based on a thorough comprehension of the nature of art, as well as an understanding of the language artists employ. Emphasis is placed on the importance and meaning of art in world cultures, exploring the art process and the use of art as a means of self-expression.
Health classes in the 7th and 8th grade are split by gender so that students can focus on learning about how their bodies and minds are changing as they enter or will enter puberty. Trans students will attend the class that they most identify with.
Boys' Health
We teach about these imminent physiological changes and how they may affect boys psychologically or in other aspects of their lives.We also focus on the changing relationships and personal dynamics that occur between people going through these changes.
Girls' Health
The purpose of seventh grade Girls’ Health course is to achieve a comprehensive understanding of puberty, wellness, and other health-related topics that are applicable during adolescence.
A variety of topics will be explored including, but not limited to, healthy relationships, empathy, body image, nutrition and exercise, puberty, pregnancy and birth, and sexuality and gender roles. With the aid of videos and external materials, the girls will discuss and share experiences, while gaining a better understanding of adolescence and young adulthood.
The seventh grade Cultural Geography course is designed to acquaint students with the world around them. The focus is on map skills, longitude and latitude, physical geography, climate and vegetation, natural resources, culture, and history.
Over the course of the year we explore Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Europe. In this way, students will be better able to face the challenges in our increasingly global society.
The seventh grade Ethics course explores the foundations of moral courage, and encourages students to examine historical and fictional characters’ approaches to ethical dilemmas. We look closely at the drivers of these characters’ behavior and examine our own. Units are: Introduction to Ethics, Worlds in Transition: The Path to the Vision is a Dangerous Road, Narrowed Options: Ethics in Wartime, Entering Daylight: The Path toward Acting from a Position of Moral Courage. Vocabulary specific to the study of ethics is introduced.
At mid-year, students concentrate on public speaking and presentation skills. In addition, this course aligns with other grade-level classes by reinforcing common curricular themes including concise communication in written, oral and visual modes, facility at developing persuasive arguments, the ability to clearly organize work and present convincing evidence along lines of valid logic. Students are expected to give credit to all those individuals whose work influenced their own.
In seventh grade language arts, literature is the basis for our writing, creativity, and explorations. We will read a number of texts, including but not limited to, Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Hinton’s The Outsiders, Steinbeck’s The Pearl, Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” and poetry by Elizabeth Bishop, Wallace Stevens, and Langston Hughes.
Seventh grade students take their close reading and analytical skills further, as they practice persuasive writing with a focus on the five-paragraph essay and all of its elements. In order to bring our students closer to poetry, we participate in a local poetry program which allows us to welcome a professional poet to our classroom and learn how to craft our own poems. Creative writing is the space for hands-on play with the writing process through workshops, discussion, and editing, while delving deeper into techniques and forms touched on in language arts.
This course is designed to develop mastery of the basic Latin grammar and vocabulary skills necessary for reading, translating, and most importantly, understanding stories in Ecce Romani I-A. The first chapters of this text form a continuous narrative about a Roman family and nurture an awareness of the culture of the Roman civilization, its historic significance, and its contemporary relevance.
Students learn Latin through reading and discovering for themselves the shapes of words, the structures and mechanics of phrases, clauses, and sentences, all of which help them to understand English better and give them the ability to learn other foreign languages more effectively. Throughout this course students are encouraged to consistently refer to English derivatives, enriching their knowledge of vocabulary and structures
In 7th grade World Music, students explore the music, cultures, innovations and influences from the musical folk traditions of Africa, Scandinavia, the Mediterranean, the Celtic countries, South-East Asia and South America.
Students learn new ways of experiencing music, by gaining an understanding of the many diverse and rich traditions from around the world.
This course is designed to provide an intensive exposure to algebraic methods and notation in order to ensure that, upon completion, students will enter formal algebraic studies with the skills, comprehension, and confidence to produce success.
Topics covered include the following: mastery of working with partial numbers in various forms (i.e. operations with fractions, decimals, and percents and understanding the relationship between these three systems); applications of computational techniques with emphasis on the use of variables, algebraic representations, equations, and specific algebraic techniques for solving more complex problems; word problems and applications foster algebraic thinking and problem solving; working with negative exponents and scientific notation; proper- ties/axioms of real numbers; graphs of simple linear equations; proof of the Pythagorean Theorem and applications in problem solving; application of ratio and proportion to problems involving similar figures; perimeters, surfaces areas and volumes of geometric forms; unit conversions of one, two, and three-dimensional measurements using unit multipliers; and probability and permutations.
This course attempts to show students the state of our environment at this moment and the challenges, both global and local, that face us today.
Students will gain an appreciation for the resources that our planet provides us, and will ideally gain a deeper understanding of the interconnectivity of all species and their habitats. The scientific method is emphasized throughout the course. Topics in environmental science include ecology, climates and biomes, biodiversity, sustainability, economics, energy resources and consumption, human population and population dynamics in general, land use, world food needs, availability of fresh water, water and air pollution and waste production and disposal. Students will create projects in and outside the school and will engage in experiments, student presentations, debates, written reports, and read excerpts from books and various news sources.
All students study a world language four times a week. Students continue to study the language chosen in grades 5 or 6 or if newly enrolling, select from French, Spanish, Japanese, or Mandarin. Students are placed into a multi-grade class with others at the same level of fluency.
All classes are taught by native speakers who conduct classes completely in the language they teach. At THS, we believe that immersion is the most effective method for teaching languages.