Core Academic Areas

Core Academic Subject Areas

Language Arts

Literacy is used to access and communicate information and ideas in all disciplines, thus making it the foundation for all learning. The study of literature helps us to understand the human experience that connects us to other disciplines and to other people across time and place. At Sky Vista Middle School, the goal of the language arts curriculum is to blend academia with practical application of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. The Language Arts standards remain constant from elementary through high school, but the complexity of and sophistication with which students apply these skills changes. Students learn to develop critical thinking skills to access and evaluate new ideas and to come to a better understanding of their world. Through this, they will incorporate the conventions of language in order to communicate their ideas for a variety of purposes and audiences and will further develop their literacy skills.

6th Grade

Students will explore a variety of fiction and literary nonfiction in order to analyze how setting shapes and influences character and conflict.  Additionally, students will determine and practice the methods authors use to create conflict.  As our skills begin to develop students will explore a variety of nonfiction texts and resources in order to better understand how to create an argumentative editorial. Students will practice learning what techniques an author can use to help prove their claims. Once students begin to learn how to create an argument, students will examine the different devices that authors use to make their writing better. As the year progresses students will then examine different archetypes through literature and various cultural myths to see why these stories are repeated and help understand how stories are a valuable way of communicating with the world around us.

7^th Grade

The 7th-Grade curriculum covers a wide range of literary and language skills, encouraging students to think critically, express themselves effectively, and explore various themes and concepts. We begin with storytelling's influence and literary analysis. Students examine narrative elements, author’s purpose, character development, and their role in conveying central ideas. In the second quarter, we shift from fiction to narrative nonfiction analysis. Students use literature circles to enhance comprehension, concentrating on main ideas, content-specific vocabulary, supporting details, and the structure of nonfiction texts. As the year progresses, students discuss truth, justice, and perspective. They work toward mastery of argumentative and expository writing, supporting claims with clear reasoning and evidence, exploring bias, and persuasive techniques. In the fourth quarter, students explore perseverance, empathy, and humanitarianism through literature. They conduct research and create visual presentations to compare historical events, emphasizing understanding points of view, motifs, character development, and explanatory writing. Throughout the year, students participate in daily language review, improving their grasp of grammar, vocabulary, and sentence construction.

8^th Grade

Our first unit will focus on the question, “What makes a piece of writing revolutionary?” More specifically, we will be exploring this question by looking at one particular author: Patrick Carman, mystery writer and author of Skeleton Creek. To answer this question, we will also be building our background knowledge of the mystery genre, doing an in-depth study of Poe—the founder of the mystery fiction genre. We will then work to study the allegory and how it may allow an author to transcend his or her own time period. Our next unit, Power of One: Human Response to Suffering, studies how each of us is a witness to history.  Many writers recognize their roles as witnesses and feel compelled to bear witness to the world. They maintain the belief they can change human nature in spite of all the inexhaustible evidence that it never will. As our 8^th graders move on to high school, we want them to know that they are absolutely in control of how they handle whatever comes their way. Our focus in Unit 4 is on the student as a writer, not just a writer within the discipline of language arts, but also a writer of his or her “story.” In other words, we want students to become the active authors that control their own lives, rather than a passive audience that accepts whatever comes as “meant to be.”

Math

The math department at Sky Vista Middle School teaches mathematics to instill within each student a desire to understand how to make meaning of their world through mathematics. We are dedicated to providing a math program that provides students the opportunity to become creative problem solvers who utilize mathematics concepts to make meaning of the world around them.

The math program addresses the Colorado State Content Standards for Mathematics and the Standards for Mathematical Practice. This will be achieved through diverse classroom learning experiences that will involve a combination of group and individual instruction, integrated projects, and exposure to the use of technology and its applications. In this program, students will learn to work toward a deeper understanding of the concepts they are studying by being able to model, explain, and justify their solutions. The goal is to prepare students to become creative problem solvers not just in their mathematics courses, but beyond, making math an integral part of how they make meaning of their world on a daily basis.

Math 6

The course begins with a study of area and surface area concepts. This work sets the tone for later units that use area models for arithmetic using rational numbers.  They will be introduced to discrete diagrams and double-number line diagrams to support representational thinking about equivalent ratios before moving into tables of equivalent ratios. Next, they expand their fractional reasoning with the ability to describe and represent situations involving rate, ratio, and rates per 1.  Drawing on their multiplicative reasoning, students consider how the relative sizes of the numerator and denominator affect the size of their quotient, moving into computing quotients of fractions, interpretations of division in situations that involve fractions, and efficient algorithms.   They work with linear equations that have single occurrences of one variable, building towards writing expressions with whole-number exponents and whole-number fractions, to representing collections of equivalent ratios as equations.  They learn signed numbers and plot points in all four quadrants of the coordinate plane, including the representation of situations that involve inequalities, symbolically, and with the number line. A brief study of data and statistics concludes the new concepts in the course.  The last unit offers students an optional opportunity to synthesize their learning from the year using a number of different applications.

Accelerated Math 6

The course begins with a study of area and surface area concepts. This work sets the tone for later units that use area models for arithmetic using rational numbers. Next, students begin study of ratios, rates, and percentages with an introduction using representations such as number line diagrams, tape diagrams, and tables. Student understanding of these concepts expands by exploring fraction and decimal representations of rational numbers. They explore sums, differences, products, and quotients using intuitive methods and efficient algorithms. Next, students are introduced to equations and expressions including finding solutions for linear equations in one variable and basic equations involving exponents. Student understanding of ratios and rates combined with a basic understanding of equations leads students to study proportional relationships with special emphasis on circumference and area of a circle as an example and nonexample of proportional relationships. This is followed by looking at percentage concepts and applications such as sales tax, tipping, and markup. They learn about rational numbers less than zero expanding their understanding of arithmetic to negative numbers. A brief study of data and statistics concludes the new concepts in the course. The last unit offers students an optional opportunity to synthesize their learning from the year using a number of different applications. Placement in Accelerated Math 6 will be determined using a body of evidence to support students’ readiness for success in this course.

Math 7

As in grade 6, students start grade 7 by studying scale drawings, an engaging geometric topic that supports the subsequent work on proportional relationships in the second and fourth units. It also makes use of grade 6 arithmetic understanding and skill, without arithmetic becoming the major focus of attention at this point. Geometry and proportional relationships are also interwoven in the third unit on circles, where the important proportional relationship between a circle's circumference and its diameter is studied. By the time students reach the fifth unit on operations with rational numbers, both positive and negative, students have had time to brush up on and solidify their understanding and skill in grade 6 arithmetic. The work on operations on 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 the work on expressions and equations in the next unit. Students then put their arithmetical and algebraic skills to work in the last two units, on angles, triangles, and prisms, and on probability and sampling.

Accelerated Math 7

Students begin the course with transformational geometry. They study rigid transformations and congruence, then scale drawings, dilations, and similarity (this provides background for understanding the slope of a line in the coordinate plane). Next, they expand their ability to work with linear equations in one and two variables and deepen their understanding of equivalent expressions. They then build on their understanding of proportional relationships from the previous course to study linear relationships. They express linear relationships using equations, tables, and graphs, and make connections across these representations. Building on their understanding of a solution to an equation in one or two variables, they understand what is meant by a solution to a system of equations in two variables. They apply their understanding of linear relationships to contexts involving data with variability. They learn that linear relationships are an example of a special kind of relationship called a function. They extend the definition of exponents to include all integers, and in the process codify the properties of exponents. They learn about orders of magnitude and scientific notation in order to represent and compute with very large and very small quantities. They encounter irrational numbers for the first time and informally extend the rational number system to the real number system, motivated by their work with the Pythagorean Theorem. The last unit offers students an optional opportunity to synthesize their learning from the year using a number of different applications.

Math 8

Students begin grade 8 with transformational geometry. They study rigid transformations and congruence, then dilations and similarity (this provides background for understanding the slope of a line in the coordinate plane). Next, they build on their understanding of proportional relationships from grade 7 to study linear relationships. They express linear relationships using equations, tables, and graphs, and make connections across these representations. They expand their ability to work with linear equations in one and two variables. Building on their understanding of a solution to an equation in two variables, they understand what is meant by a solution of a system of equations in two variables.  They learn that linear relationships are an example of function to contexts involving data with variability. They extend the definition of linear relationships to include all integers, and in the process codify the properties of exponents. They learn about orders of magnitude and scientific notation in order to represent and compute with very large and very small quantities. They encounter irrational numbers for the first time and informally extend the rational number system to the real number system, motivated by their work with Pythagorean Theorem.  

Algebra 1

The Algebra 1 course is written to align with the first of three courses in the traditional pathway of the Common Core State Standards, as described in Appendix A. Each of the three courses, Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2, contain standards from statistics and probability. The two algebra courses contain the bulk of the work in number and quantity, algebra, and functions. The geometry course covers geometry standards from a transformational perspective and includes right triangle trigonometry and conics. The major purpose of Algebra 1 is to formalize and extend the mathematics that students learned in the middle grades, working with linear and exponential functions, solving systems of equations and inequalities, and analyzing data. The Mathematical Practice Standards apply throughout each course and, together with the content standards, create mathematical learning experiences based upon reasoning and sense-making, building perseverance and problem-solving skills, and rich in mathematical discourse.

Science

At Sky Vista, we believe that all students should be challenged to think critically on a daily basis, to use evidence to formulate conclusions, and to develop their own questions of the natural world.  To this end, our science classes are designed to be hands-on and inquiry based.  By providing multiple opportunities to investigate scientific content, students at Sky Vista will come to understand that science is built on and unified by key concepts.  Students will examine these unifying concepts across the sub-content areas of chemistry, physics, environmental, earth and life sciences.  As a result, students will come to understand that science reflects a particular way of building knowledge and making meaning of the natural world. 

We align our concepts and practices with the Colorado Academic Standards in order to help students meet or exceed them by the end of 8^th grade.  For more information on the Colorado Academic Standards for science please visit the following link https://www.cde.state.co.us/coscience/statestandards.

Social Studies

The Sky Vista social studies curriculum recognizes the world as a diverse, complex, and dynamic place. As such, the goal is to provide students with a better understanding of the United States and its place in the larger geo-political context as well as other influential regions in the world. Employing primary and secondary texts, simulations, performance assessments, and instructional technology, students will develop skills and knowledge in areas relating to civics, history, geography, and economics. The social studies curriculum is designed to address the Colorado State Standards of civics, history, geography, and economics. 

6^th Grade: Western Hemisphere

The 6^th grade year is focused upon building students’ capacities to think and act as practitioners of the Social Sciences. We begin our journey by introducing and applying the various perspectives of a social scientist (Anthropologist, Economist, Geographer, Historian and, Political Scientist) to explore culture and to help discover and make sense of our world. Carrying these various perspectives students will question the power of place upon past and present societies and examine the changing scope of this relationship in a globally connected age. Students will study topics covering the Western Hemisphere, including but not limited to, the Aztec, Inca, and Mayan civilizations, highlighting the cultures and accomplishments of various tribes spanning from the Caribbean, Central America, and South America, how these tribes were devastated by the Columbian Exchange, and how the history feeds into modern globalization.

7^th Grade: Eastern Hemisphere

The 7^th grade year is focused on the Eastern Hemisphere and is aligned with the Colorado

Standards for Geography, Civics, History, and Economics.  Through the themes of culture, human experience, progress, power, conflict, and human rights students will be exposed to many cultures and civilizations of the Eastern Hemisphere.  Our studies will range from ancient history to modern times.  Students will take an investigative approach to studying history and will use claim, evidence, and reasoning to tackle historical debates that current practitioners are struggling with. Throughout the year, students will make connections to current events. Students will realize why the past is worth studying in the present and for the future of our world. The course will develop many academic and social skills including critical thinking, collaboration, formal writing, reading comprehension, creating and defending an argument, and self-reflection.

8^th Grade: United States

The 8^th grade year is focused on exploring the first half of American through Civil War and Reconstruction.  We will explore the themes of American history, which have led to the development of our modern American Identity. Throughout the year, we will analyze historic evidence and documents for students to build an understanding of the American story. For this, students will read primary documents from various periods in our civilization’s past. Periodically, students will also analyze different documents to critique historical accounts and deepen their understanding of the American story and American Identity.

ACC, Extended Core, SAS Support and ELL Classes 

Academic Core Connections Math

This class provides supplemental support in numeracy skills.  This course will allow students the time and space needed to master the skills and standards being taught in their core math class. This course will be planned and taught by a math teacher and SAS teacher.  The SAS teacher may not always be teaching with the math teacher in the classroom.

Academic Core Connections Language Arts

This class at each grade level provides supplemental support in literacy skills.  This course will allow students the time and space needed to master the skills and standards being taught in their Core LA class. This course will be planned and taught by a language arts teacher and SAS teacher.  The SAS teacher may not always be teaching with the language arts teacher in the classroom.

Extended Core

Students in Extended Core will participate in authentic learning experiences while exploring content relevant to the core standards. By engaging in both problem-based and community learning, they will sharpen academic skills from across the disciplines and strengthen their critical thinking.  

Students will be given opportunities to integrate the skills they are learning in core classes as well the time and freedom to explore, and take academic risk in order to develop mastery of different topics as well as self awareness as a learner.

Extended Core extensions 

Health - Students will spend the semester learning how to achieve the best versions of themselves. They will learn about physical and emotional wellness topics such as nutrition, sleep, exercise, stress, and the importance of healthy family and peer relationships. They will also analyze the internal and external factors that influence sexual abstinence and activity. They will incorporate strategies that impact decision making around drugs, alcohol, tobacco, basic first aid, and learn how to build upon smart refusal skills, while learning to express thoughts and feelings appropriately.  This course may be offered during Electives or for Extended Core.

8th grade Leadership - Students in this course practice and hone their leadership skills in alignment with the Colorado Leadership Standards.  Throughout the year, students identify their strengths as leaders and how their strengths contribute to a team, plan and execute school improvement projects, make plans for their continued growth as leaders, and consider the theme of “legacy.”  There is an application process for enrollment in this class.

Every quarter, students will also get the opportunity to be seen as positive leaders by planning and delivering lessons to 6th and 7th grade Cornerstones classes on topics they’ve identified as important, such as organization, standing up to bullying, time management, and resilience.  

SAS Support Classes/Academic Labs

Based on IEP needs, a student will be placed in a SAS class for their 5^th Core class or during an Elective slot.  Please communicate with your child’s case manager to gain an understanding of the offered course.

ELS Support

English Language Support (ELS) is a program designed to support students who speak languages other than English, in the four language domains of Speaking, Reading, Writing, and Listening.  English language learners receive instruction in the core classes (math, science, social studies, and language arts).  Additionally, English language learners receive direct assistance in their English language development while in their co-taught core class.  In a co-taught class, there is a general education teacher and an English Language Specialist trained in English language development. While each student’s level of support is based on their individual language needs, supports such as differentiated instructional strategies, lesson delivery, and assessments that are designed based on the student’s level of English language acquisition and proficiency.