Middle School (6th-8th)

Sixth Grade:

The Archdiocese of Baltimore 6th Grade Religion Curriculum continues to deepen student understanding of the importance of prayer throughout the church year. In this course of study, students explore various types of church prayer and the place of each in the Liturgical seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter and Ordinary time. The Nicene Creed provides a further historical context for tenants of faith. Units 2 through 4 focus on the journey of the Jews and many patriarchs of our faith. Students explore God’s covenant of love and promises throughout the Old Testament. Units 5 – 7 challenge students to apply the lessons of empathy, respect, and love to relationships within their families and larger communities. Contemporary issues such as world hunger and financial stewardship invite students to create prayer and action as they too journey in faith.

Seventh Grade:

The Archdiocese of Baltimore 7th Grade Religion Curriculum continues to expand and deepen the 7 themes of instruction. Students delve more deeply into the 7 prayer types of adoration, contrition, thanksgiving, supplication, Lectio Divina, meditation, and contemplation. Unit 2 focuses students on understanding the complex role of the Trinity. Students seek a more complete understanding of the life of Jesus through the exploration of the gospels in Unit 3. They learn how Jesus listened in prayer to the will of His Father. Units 4 and 5 reveal that each person is called to a vocation as either single, married, or as a Religious man or woman. Students develop a deeper understanding of the Sacraments of Matrimony and the call to Priesthood through the Sacrament of Holy Orders. Units 6 and 7 continue to build an understanding of making choices to live a moral life in family and larger communities. Students examine the core concepts of Catholic Social Teaching and foster ways to work for justice, peace and equality.

Eighth grade:

The Archdiocese of Baltimore’s 8th Grade Religion Curriculum focuses on the theology of the Catholic Church by examining its history and integrating the fundamental themes of the Catechism of the Catholic Church with Scripture and Catholic Social teachings. It is designed to provide students with the knowledge and understanding of how the disciples of Jesus developed the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Throughout the course students are engaged in rigorous learning experiences that both develop and challenge their thinking skills. Prayer, morality, the Sacraments, Scripture, Church Tradition, and Catholic Social Teachings are integrated in lessons that encourage a life long relationship with God and ongoing service to others through a modernized approach to evangelization.

Students begin the year with a reintroduction to the practices of prayer, reflection, service, and to find God in all things, which they will process and continue to practice throughout the course. Students will learn how the early Church was formed and Christianity spread around the world through the Acts of the Apostles and the lives of the Saints. The course examines the challenges the Church faced throughout history, the formation of Sacraments and Liturgy as well as Church doctrine through the Ecumenical Councils. When the course concludes students will be able to articulate their faith in Jesus and how to apply these beliefs in their daily lives through evangelization leading them into a lasting love for the Church.

enVisionmath2.0 is a comprehensive mathematics curriculum for Grades 6–8. It builds on the proven effectiveness of the enVision series, supporting coherent, focused, and rigorous mathematics. enVisionmath2.0 for middle school emphasizes conceptual understanding and procedural skills through problem-solving, interactive experiences, and visual learning. Personalized math practice, built-in interventions, and customizable content deepen understanding and improve achievement.

English/Language Arts instruction is a double block each day for our middle school students. Students are introduced to Shakespeare, read poetry, and other genres in a small group setting. Language of Literature by Holt McDougal is used as a resource for our students.  Vocabulary Workshop is used teach a variety of strategies to help students acquire new vocabulary and understand figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.  Students write research papers. Grammar and language mechanics are taught through creative writing.

Sixth Grade:

Unit 1: Engineering Design/Unit of Science

Introduce and build a scientific classroom within the first three weeks by exposing children to the design process and the scientific method through hands-on experiences. Teaching lab safety processes ensures safe practices throughout the year and ensures proper identification and usage of lab equipment. The Engineering Design and Nature of Science practices should be implemented within each unit throughout the course of the entire year.

Unit 2: Dynamic Earth & Geologic History

This is a unit of big ideas relating to how Earth’s surface has changed including Earth’s history, weathering & erosion, and plate tectonics.

• Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence from rock strata for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth’s 4.6-billion-year-old history.
• Analyze and interpret data on the distribution of fossils and rocks, continental shapes, and seafloor structures to provide evidence of the past plate motions.
• Analyze maps to explain location of volcanoes & earthquakes
• Develop a model to describe the cycling of Earth’s materials and the flow of energy that drives this process. 
• Explain how humans respond to natural disasters (volcanoes, earthquakes).
• Explain how many earth processes are related to density and convection (topics that will reappear in Units 3 and 4).

Unit 3:  Rocks & Minerals

In this unit, students will learn about rocks, minerals, and how humans use those natural resources.

• Analyze distribution of rocks.
• Identify rocks and minerals based on their properties.
• Evaluate flow of materials and explain how the materials in/on Earth are recycled (rock cycle).
• Select which minerals or rocks are best suited to a specific technology based on their physical properties. 
• Evaluate human impact on the environment as a result of collecting and using rocks & minerals.

Unit 4: Weather & Climate

In this unit, students will learn about how weather and climate are formed and affect life on earth.

• Develop and use a model to describe how unequal heating and rotation of the Earth cause patterns of atmospheric and oceanic circulation that determine regional climates.
• Collect data to provide evidence for how the motions and complex interactions of air masses result in changes in weather conditions.
• Analyze weather and climate maps.
• Develop a model to describe the cycling of Earth’s materials and the flow of energy that drives this process. 
• Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.
• Analyze biome maps and describe how biomes formed.
• Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.

Unit 5: Ecology

In this unit, students will learn how organisms interact in ecosystems.

• Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.
• Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
• Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.
• Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations
• Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.
• Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
• Construct an argument supported by evidence for how human use of resources affects the environment.

Seventh Grade:

Unit 1: Engineering Design/Unit of Science

Introduce and build a scientific classroom within the first three weeks by exposing children to the design process and the scientific method through hands-on experiences. Teaching lab safety processes ensures safe practices throughout the year and ensures proper identification and usage of lab equipment. The Engineering Design and Nature of Science practices should be implemented within each unit throughout the course of the entire year.

Unit 2: Introduction to Life

This unit is an introduction to biology. As 7th grade is a biology (and ecology) course, use this unit to set the stage for a year of study in the biological sciences.

• Analyze objects/living things to determine if they are alive. 
• Compare and contrast characteristics of living and nonliving things.
• Categorize living things based on the nine characteristics of life.
• Conduct an investigation to provide evidence that living things are made of cells; either one cell or many different numbers and types of cells.
• Develop and use a model to describe the function of a cell as a whole and ways the parts of cells contribute to the function.
• Organize living things based on their characteristics.

Unit 3:  Cell Processes

In this unit, students will learn about how cells operate and work together. Students will learn about cell parts, cellular actions, and cellular organization.

• Develop a model to describe how food is rearranged through chemical reactions forming new molecules that support growth and/or release energy as this matter moves through an organism
• Gather and synthesize information that sensory receptors respond to stimuli by sending messages to the brain for immediate behavior or storage as memories
• Describe and model the phases of mitosis and explain what occurs at each step in the cell cycle
• Describe how cells use active and passive transport to move materials through a membrane.

Unit 4: Genetics

In this unit, students will learn about DNA and genetics. Be sure to connect information from previous units to help students understand how traits are passed on and how cell processes are involved.

• Develop and use a model to describe why structural changes to genes (mutations) located on chromosomes may affect proteins and may result in harmful, beneficial, or neutral effects to the structure and function of the organism.
• Predict using a model the expected outcomes or traits of the offspring of two parent organisms.
• Develop and use a model to describe why asexual reproduction results in offspring with identical genetic information and sexual reproduction results in offspring with genetic variation.
• Gather and synthesize information about technologies that have changed the way humans influence the inheritance of desired traits in organisms.
• Discuss the ramifications of selective breeding, cloning, bioengineering, gene therapy, gene doping

Unit 5: Natural Selection & Evolution

In this unit, students will learn the basics of natural selection and evolution. Prepare yourself by understanding the Catholic perspective on evolution..

• Students will extend their knowledge of living organisms to investigate how organisms obtain favorable traits that increase their chance of survival and passing on those traits to offspring. 
• A variety of factors within an environment can change the traits of an organism. 
• Species are grouped based on common traits and evolutionary relationships. 
• The traits of current and past organisms can be explained through the creation theory and evolution theory
• Use arguments based on empirical evidence and scientific reasoning to support an explanation for how characteristic animal behaviors and specialized plant structures affect the probability of successful reproduction of animals and plants respectively.
• Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.
• Apply scientific ideas to construct an explanation for the anatomical similarities and differences among modern organisms and between modern and fossil organisms to infer evolutionary relationships.
• Analyze displays of pictorial data to compare patterns of similarities in the embryological development across multiple species to identify relationships not evident in the fully formed anatomy.
• Construct an explanation based on evidence that describes how genetic variations of traits in a population increase some individuals’ probability of surviving and reproducing in a specific environment.
• Use mathematical representations to support explanations of how natural selection may lead to increases and decreases of specific traits in populations over time.
• Use the classification system for living organisms to describe how all life is related.

Unit 6: Human Body Systems

In this unit, students will learn how the body works by exploring the different organ systems that work together to create a functioning organism. Make sure to carefully preview resources for this unit.

• Use arguments supported by evidence for how the body is a system of interacting subsystems composed of groups of cells.
• Create a model showing the parts and the functions of each of the human body systems.
• Understand that each body system has its function; however all body systems work together for the overall good of the human.
• Categorize the methods in which multicellular organisms and unicellular organisms respond to stimuli.

Unit 7: Ecology

In this unit, students will learn about ecosystems from a biological perspective by exploring population dynamics, energy flow, and interactions between living things.

• Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.
• Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems. 
• Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.
• Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations
• Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.
• Construct an argument supported by evidence for how human use of resources affects the environment.

Eigth Grade:

Unit 1: Engineering Design/Unit of Science

Introduce and build a scientific classroom within the first three weeks by exposing children to the design process and the scientific method through hands-on experiences. Teaching lab safety processes ensures safe practices throughout the year and ensures proper identification and usage of lab equipment. The Engineering Design and Nature of Science practices should be implemented within each unit throughout the course of the entire year.

Unit 2: Introduction to Chemistry

In this unit, students will learn about the foundations of chemistry including atoms, molecules, compounds, chemical bonding, trends in the periodic table, and mixtures.

• Construct a model of an atom and compounds.
• Identify properties of atoms based on their location on the Periodic Table.
• Differentiate between atoms, compounds, and mixtures using models.
• Make and separate mixtures.

Unit 3:  Chemistry Applications

In this unit, students will learn about chemical reactions, how to balance chemical equations, and how to identify whether a reaction releases or absorbs energy.

• Analyze and interpret data on the properties of substances before and after the substances interact to determine if a chemical reaction has occurred.
• Analyze data and develop models to show that mass is conserved during a chemical reaction.
• Analyze data to determine if energy is absorbed or released during a chemical reaction.
• Test pH of substances and describe the chemical properties that result from being acidic, alkaline, or neutral.

Unit 4: Thermal Energy

In this unit, students will learn about thermal energy and how it is used. This unit connects chemistry to physics. Use chemistry concepts to explain how thermal energy can be absorbed or released during chemical reactions. While the substances absorbing or releasing energy are matter, the energy released is not.

• Apply scientific principles to design, construct, and test a device that either minimizes or maximizes thermal energy transfer.
• Construct a model to describe changes in particle motion when heat is added.
• Design an experiment to determine the change in temperature when heat is added to substances.
• Construct an argument to support the claim that temperature increases when heat is added to objects.

Unit 5: Forces, Energy, and Motion

In this unit, students will learn about physics. Use the new topics in this unit and connect them with chemistry concepts (matter). Ultimately, forces and energy change matter.

• Plan an investigation to determine the relationships among the energy transferred, the type of matter, the mass, and the change in the average kinetic energy of the particles as measured by the temperature of the sample.
• Construct and interpret graphical displays of data to describe the relationships of kinetic energy to the mass of an object and to the speed of an object.
• Develop a model to describe that when the arrangement of objects interacting at a distance changes, different amounts of potential energy are stored in the system.
• Construct, use, and present arguments to support the claim that when the kinetic energy of an object changes, energy is transferred to or from the object.    
• Use understanding of simple machines and energy transformations to design a tool that completes a task.

Unit 6: Electricity and Magnetism

In this unit, students will learn about electricity, currents, and magnetism. Students will apply what they learn to explain how electricity is created and used by people.

• Ask questions about data to determine the factors that affect the strength of electric and magnetic forces. 
• Differentiate the relationship between electricity and magnetism and how this relationship affects our world. 
• Describe basic electric circuits and how to use electricity safely.
• Apply understanding of electric forces to design and a circuit that solves a problem (ex/ find a way to connect three loads with equal amounts of electricity.)
• Compare and contrast electrical efficiency between various electronic devices and how they continue to change as technology changes. 
• Mathematically represent the amount of electricity needed for various devices. 
• Explore methods for electricity production (power plants).

Unit 7: Astronomy 

In this unit, students will learn about space and Earth’s place in the solar system. Use physics concepts from previous units (forces, gravity) in this unit to help students make connections.

• Develop and use a model of the Earth-sun-moon system to describe the cyclic patterns of lunar phases, eclipses of the sun and moon, and seasons.
• Develop and use a model to describe the role of gravity in the motions within galaxies and the solar system.
• Analyze and interpret data to determine the scale properties of objects in the solar system.
• Construct and present arguments using evidence to support the claim that gravitational interactions are attractive and depend on the masses of interacting objects.

Sixth Grade:

The Archdiocese of Baltimore’s 6th grade social studies curriculum is the second half of the Ancient Culture course of study. This course focuses on the Ancient World through an examination of geography, culture, economics and political organization and institutions. Throughout the course students are engaged in rigorous learning experiences that both develop and challenge their thinking skills. Students begin the year with an introduction to social studies skills and processes and continue to apply them throughout the course. The course continues with a geographic study of Ancient Greece and Rome as the foundation of government in western societies that follow. The course continues with a view of life during early Islamic civilizations, the Middle Ages, and, finally, the Renaissance era in Europe. This segues into the 7th grade Early American course which starts with the Age of Exploration, moving through to Modern American History.

Seventh Grade:

 Archdiocese of Baltimore’s 7th grade social studies curriculum focuses on United States history from its colonial roots to the Civil War.  It is designed to provide students with the knowledge and understanding of how the United States developed as a democratic society in the modern world.  Throughout the course students are engaged in rigorous learning experiences that both develops and challenges their thinking skills. Students begin the year with an introduction to social studies skills and processes and continue to apply them throughout the course. Students will learn how the nation broke away from Great Britain and established a revolutionary government. The course examines the challenges the founders faced as they sought to stabilize the fledgling republic through the early national period. The course continues through the antebellum era focusing on the issues that would ultimately lead to the Civil War (slavery, state’s rights, sectionalism, abolitions, etc.). The course concludes with students investigating the Civil War and how the nation attempted to re-unite.

Eigth Grade:

The Archdiocese of Baltimore’s 8th Grade Social Studies Curriculum focuses on United States history from post-Civil War Reconstruction to the Cold War. It is designed to provide students with the knowledge and understanding of how the United States developed as a democratic society in the modern world. Throughout the course, students are engaged in rigorous learning experiences that both develop and challenge their thinking skills. The 8th grade curriculum begins where the 7th grade curriculum ends at the Civil War. Students start the year with an introduction to the essential skills and analytic processes of Social Studies and continue to apply them throughout the course. Students will learn how the nation heals in the shadow of the Civil War and evolves into a 20th Century superpower. The course examines the challenges Americans faced as they sought to stabilize the broken republic at the end of the Civil War and explores the turn of the century as Americans rose to address the challenges of the Gilded Age. It concludes with an examination of how the United States traveled through two world wars and dramatic domestic changes to lead the world through the Cold War. 

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