Seventh Grade

Seventh graders build on the skills learned in sixth grade while deepening their critical thinking. The curriculum includes contemporary and classical works from a diverse group of authors and highlights a range of styles. In our short story unit, students learn to dig beyond the main idea of a text and uncover how an author’s craft enhances the story’s content. After analyzing the themes, structures and techniques of these stories, students then tackle their own original narratives, focusing on building conflict by showing rather than telling. Literature is the starting point for writing, conversations and projects that engage and challenge students and reward careful attention to detail.

Building on skills honed in sixth grade, seventh graders continue to write in many forms with increased emphasis on analytical essays. Students develop incisive thesis statements and cite the text to support their analyses in well-organized and fluid paragraphs. In addition to learning how to write a powerful argument, the seventh grade mock trial project challenges students to enhance their argumentative reasoning through public speaking. The year concludes with a study of Romeo and Juliet during which students display a deep understanding of a complex text through a dramatic presentation of a scene from this iconic play. With increasingly challenging texts and writing assignments, students deepen their critical thinking skills one step at a time.

The Middle School mathematics program develops mathematical thinkers who value collaboration and communication when investigating big ideas, identifying patterns and explaining relationships. We utilize the Illustrative Mathematics problem-based curriculum in which students work collaboratively through a carefully crafted sequence of problems to construct their understanding. Teachers facilitate student learning and encourage deeper thinking through questioning and discussion to ensure that the mathematical takeaways are clear. Students gain a rich and lasting understanding of concepts and procedures and experience applying this knowledge to new situations.

In seventh grade, students are introduced to scale drawings, an engaging geometric topic that supports subsequent work on proportional relationships. Students continue to develop their understanding of and computational fluency with rational numbers. The work on operations with rational numbers, with its emphasis on the role of the properties of operations in determining the rules for operating with negative numbers, is a natural lead-in to work on expressions and equations. They build connections between proportional relationships and linear equations by considering how to model various situations through graphing. Finally, students put their arithmetical and algebraic skills to work in units on angles, triangles, and prisms and on probability and sampling. Students can be placed in either the grade-level or accelerated section, and we allow for flexible movement between the sections to best meet the needs of each student. The accelerated section explores each of these topics and more with greater complexity and moves through the material at a quicker pace.

In seventh grade, students learn the fundamental physical and chemical properties of matter. Students engage through hands-on, project-based learning units that foster independent thinking, inquiry, communication, procedural and analytical skills. They learn to distinguish among mixtures, elements and compounds and recognize the underlying principles governing physical and chemical changes. At the mid-year point, students undertake the boat project, a comprehensive unit in which they work in teams to apply their understanding of density and displacement to design, build and test a miniature boat capable of carrying a piece of precious cargo designated by a faculty 'client.' As the year continues, atomic theory is examined and applied as students learn their way around the Periodic Table of Elements. Students build and test windmills to apply their understanding of subatomic particles and electricity generation, and they hone their communication skills in science through written and oral lab reports and presentations. They collaborate with classmates as they interpret data and form substantiated conclusions. 

Using religion and human geography as overarching themes, students examine the ancient and pre-modern civilizations of Greece, Rome, the Americas, the Islamic world, Western Africa and the European Middle Ages. Using both primary and secondary sources, students explore the connections among different aspects of each civilization, including connections between culture and religion, social and political life, and each civilization’s relationship to its natural environment.

Teachers expand on students’ note-taking and research skills. By completing expository and creative works and preparing for debates and presentations, students enhance their critical thinking, writing and public speaking skills. Through study, research, interdisciplinary projects and class discussions, students refine their ability to evaluate the past from multiple perspectives.

In the seventh grade, students explore the design process and gain insight into how creativity and innovation impact people’s lives. Students tackle real-world problems and learn to communicate design ideas via sketches, computer-aided designs (CAD) and mathematical models. They generate and analyze data and work collaboratively to research various topics and meet design requirements. For their final project, students apply what they have learned to design, fabricate and test a therapeutic toy for children with cerebral palsy. They then refine their designs based on testing results and feedback.

The Middle School World Languages program develops confident communicators and a deep appreciation for the language’s culture. The Language 7 program includes courses in Chinese (Mandarin), French, Japanese, Latin and Spanish. This class engages students in meaningful activities which foster interpersonal, interpretive and presentational skills. Lessons are crafted around thematic vocabulary units and designed to expose students to a wide variety of cultural practices and perspectives. Students make comparisons between the target language and English, and acquire a solid foundation of knowledge and skills.

Civic education is an indispensable part of democracy and constitutes the core building blocks that make for a good citizen and ultimately a good nation. As Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free…it expects what never was and never will be.” Indeed, it is difficult to understand how we can realize our full potential as a nation if our citizens lack a firm understanding of our political history, its leadership, governmental institutions and practices, and the evolution of our political system. What citizen can be truly informed in casting a vote, leading an organization, voicing an opinion or joining a protest movement without a sound background in civic education? Most importantly, as we make this journey as a class to become more informed and better prepared citizens, we will also place a high premium on the obligation for each of us to respect one another as individuals and to further respect and to even show empathy for the opinions and views that each of us hold and voice. 

All Middle School students in grades six, seven and eight participate in a trimester of studio art during each school year. Experiential in nature, the art program introduces students to a wide range of methods, mediums and subjects while encouraging individual expression and artistic growth. Through hands-on exploration, students are introduced to basic design concepts and elements of composition, and work with a variety of drawing, painting, printmaking and mixed-media collage materials and techniques that will serve as a foundation for problem solving while furthering individual discovery and artistic growth. In seventh grade, students further build on these methods and continue to develop their critical thinking skills, expanding on the range of materials, techniques, mediums and subjects. Drawing serves as a foundational tool for exploration and problem solving throughout all three years in the Middle School arts program and continues into the Prep School program. In addition, elements of art history and theory are introduced throughout all three years in the Middle School as students become familiar with the work of a wide range of artists and artistic movements. 

Middle School students participate in an art-integrated curriculum with other core content subject areas, such as social studies, world language, science and mathematics. Arts integration is an approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate understanding through an art form. Students engage in a creative process which connects an art form to  another subject area and achieves evolving objectives in both.

In the seventh grade, students infuse English with the arts while working on a unit in poetry. In conjunction with the English department, students interpret poems and illustrate their work. Other projects may include researching early photographic processes and building pinhole cameras in Science while studying the basic artistic principles of composition and design in a photographic image.

On occasion, students have the opportunity to explore the vast array of world-renowned museums New York City has to offer, further reinforcing an understanding between the visual arts and the core subjects. 

Library in seventh grade is officially called Research and Digital Literacy, and students learn research skills and to be critical users of information. The curriculum focuses on online information literacy, intellectual curiosity and responsible information use. Library is integrated into English, social studies, science, math, art and language classes to support a deeper understanding of how all subjects are connected as well as a love of reading across all genres and topics. The library collection is regularly updated, based on the needs and interests of students, to reflect current issues and information, and to best support learning in and out of the classroom.

All sixth, seventh and eighth grade students take a theater class for a full trimester during each year of Middle School. Theater class is a lively space for students to sharpen their observational skills, to expand their expressive capacity both physically and vocally, to practice following their intuition and to build trusting, supportive relationships with their peers. Students learn to understand the hidden messages of a script, master a number of theater games and exercises, develop and communicate their creative ideas with collaborators and practice the essential tasks of actors, directors and designers. Our younger theater students create original "story theater" adaptations of folktales from around the world. Older students work on contemporary one-acts, delve into international theater history and begin to infuse the issues that matter to them into the performances they create for the stage.