Middle School

Seventh Grade at Burgundy

Building off of the organizational and analytical strides made during sixth grade, seventh graders are now asked to expand their thinking beyond their direct community and take worldly perspectives that nurture greater empathy and compassion. Seventh graders extend their reasoning abilities and develop greater independence and autonomy by analyzing text, participating in lively debates, engaging in hands-on explorations, and collaboratively grappling with social-emotional challenges. Seventh graders reach new levels of abstraction and need to be more organized with their materials. During the winter trimester, they collaborate on and build community with a full-scale drama production. Finally, to cap off the academic year, they take on new leadership roles as they honor the graduating eighth graders.

HUMANITIES

The theme of Humanities 7 is Ways of Seeing.  Students consider the essential questions, What is America? To whom does she belong? Who is included and who is excluded?  Students begin their exploration with an examination of the traditional American flag.  They analyze revisions of the flag by established artists, then design their own flags that reflect what America must address to live up to its noble ideals.  For additional answers to the essential questions, students look at The Constitution, the War with Mexico, Reconstruction, and other historical events from the perspectives of marginalized groups.  In addition, major units feature literature by diverse authors, such as Sherman Alexie’s novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, Gene Luen Yang’s graphic novel American Born Chinese, Sandra Cisneros’s novella House on Mango Street, and Jacqueline Woodson’s volume of narrative poetry Brown Girl Dreaming.  These texts demonstrate how identity is shaped by history, oppression, stereotypes, and culture.

To process the literature and history, students participate in scholarly conversations, collaborate with peers, do a range of writing assessments, complete projects that incorporate art and technology, and engage in lots of hands-on activities and assessments. Writing workshops, vocabulary, and grammar are also integral parts of the curriculum.  Overall, Humanities 7 provides a rich integrated language arts and social studies experience.

MATHEMATICS

Middle School mathematics at Burgundy is guided by Math in Focus, a Singapore approach. Math in Focus is a mix of constructivistism and more traditional elements that build number sense through a progression of concrete (hands-on), pictorial (drawings and figures) and abstract thinking (numbers and operations). Seventh grade topics include significant work with equations to set them up for algebraic thinking, proportions, geometric constructions, stats and probability, and properties of angles and lines. Teachers often pull resources beyond Math in Focus to round out the program and meet students’ varying needs. Most students will end 7th grade ready to move into a full Algebra course in 8th grade.

SCIENCE

Fundamentally, 7th grade science is a tour of the human body. Through activities, simulations, lab reports, and up-close encounters with some of the organs themselves, students investigate the body’s systems, focusing on how the structure of each system enables it to play an important role in the body’s survival. Students begin with the study of DNA and cells to first understand the most fundamental building blocks of the human body. Next, a deep exploration occurs for each body system (skeletal, muscular, digestive, respiratory, etc.) with regular connections to how multiple body systems combine to allow for life.

WORLD LANGUAGE

Spanish and French are the two world languages available for study in the Middle School. We offer two levels of Spanish and one level of French. Spanish levels will be determined by students’ exposure to the language and individual learning style. Grammar concepts and oral communication skills become more important in 7th grade as students begin to express themselves in the past and future tenses and begin to read more complex passages. Middle School Spanish and French programs are engaging and relevant as both are cultural-based, giving students an opportunity to explore new countries and the associated foods, clothes, expressions, and lifestyle.

ARTS

By the time students reach 7th and 8th grades, they have the ability to choose an art form that they are most passionate about and want to focus on. This chosen course is called the student’s “arts concentration,” which take place three days per week for 50 minutes each class.

Arts concentrations include: Visual Art, Wind Ensemble, Strings, Vocal Music, Theater Arts, and Makerspace. Additionally, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, students will take part in “arts electives.” Some examples of arts electives include: Mural painting, Percussion Ensemble, Improv, Theater Set Building, WoodWorking, and Guitar.

HEALTH AND WELLNESS

Middle School students at Burgundy get a full trimester of health and sexuality each year. The health program is rooted in the Our Whole Lives curriculum, which aims to equip youth with the knowledge, attitude, and skills to become healthy people who feel good about themselves and their bodies, and build loving relationships. While we use a set curriculum to guide lessons, much flexibility is afforded to ensure we remain responsive to students needs and curiosities.

Eighth Grade at Burgundy

Throughout the Middle School journey, students develop important critical thinking and collaboration skills. Then in 8th grade, they really begin to understand themselves as learners and their roles as leaders of the community. Expectations around the quality of their academic work rise to a new level, and students take responsibility to be out in front, leading all-school meetings. Late in the academic year, all eighth graders collaborate on a musical to complete the final dramatic performance of their Burgundy careers.

In late spring of 8th grade, students have three days of outdoor adventure and camping at Calleva Farm in Poolesville, MD where they get ready to say farewell to their longtime friends. Finally, 8th grade students are the directors of their own graduation, planning speeches and performances, and creating a one-of-a-kind ceremony to celebrate their time at Burgundy.

HUMANITIES

The theme for 8th Grade Humanities is “Voices of Change,” and students study how artists, authors, activists, and advocates have challenged systemic or institutional problems and tried to make the world a better place. Building on their study of the causes of the Civil War and the hopes and failures of reconstruction at the end of 7th grade, students consider why the American Civil Rights Movement was so necessary. They consider the various activists and their strategies as they examine key victories and setbacks of this movement. From there, they learn what life was like for women in America since its founding while studying the movement for the elective franchise and then second-wave feminism of the 60s and 70s. They also reflect on gender roles that persist to this day. Finally, we study what life was like for LGBTQIA+ citizens and their movement for change. All of the above-mentioned topics serve as engaging content for students to explore historical events, develop their reading comprehension and vocabulary skills, and hone their creative, persuasive, and expository writing skills.

MATHEMATICS

Most students will complete a comprehensive Algebra I program during their 8th grade year and be well-prepared for high school-level Geometry or Algebra II. Other students may take an Introduction to Algebra course that sets them up for Algebra I in high school. The major Algebra I topics include distributive property, solving and graphing linear equations and inequalities, rates of change, exponential growth, powers and roots, quadratic equations and functions, linear systems, and polynomials. While students develop mastery of algebraic algorithms, they are also asked to understand the deeper “why” of algebraic concepts through cooperative work, class discussions, and independent exploration.

SCIENCE

In preparation for high school, 8th grade science is intended to hone skills and strategies while maintaining the wonder of natural phenomena. The focus of the year’s work is in the exploration of physical sciences. Students are introduced in multiple forms, including research and labs, to atomic structure, bonding, physical and chemical properties of matter, the periodic table, and chemical reactions. Energy, including how it transfers and is conserved, is a major focal point throughout the year. Students explore past beliefs, the progression of the scientific process and the laws and principles arising from repeated experimentation.

WORLD LANGUAGE

By the end of eighth grade, world language students are expected to have a high novice level of knowledge and skill in their language of choice. They will continue to build competence in the past, present, and future tenses. Both Spanish and French programs are engaging and relevant as they are cultural-based, giving students an opportunity to explore new countries and the associated foods, clothes, expressions, and lifestyles. Burgundy 8th graders typically receive credit for at least one year of high school level instruction and enter into a high school level II class, though some will begin high school at level III.

ARTS

By the time students reach 7th and 8th grades, they have the ability to choose an art form that they are most passionate about and want to focus on. This chosen course is called the student’s “arts concentration,” which take place three days per week for 50 minutes each class.

Arts concentrations include: Visual Art, Wind Ensemble, Strings, Vocal Music, Theater Arts, and Makerspace. Additionally, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, students will take part in “arts electives.” Some examples of arts electives include: Mural painting, Percussion Ensemble, Improv, Theater Set Building, WoodWorking, and Guitar.

HEALTH AND WELLNESS

Middle School students at Burgundy get a full trimester of health and sexuality each year. The health program is rooted in the Our Whole Lives curriculum, which aims to equip youth with the knowledge, attitude, and skills to become healthy people who feel good about themselves and their bodies, and build loving relationships. While we use a set curriculum to guide lessons, much flexibility is afforded to ensure we remain responsive to students needs and curiosities.