da Vinci Arts Middle School
Curriculum
Language Arts & Social Studies (Core)
Students receive academic instruction in Reading, Writing, and Social Studies with a mixed-age core group of about 30 students in a 146-minute class (called LA/SS or core). Students stay with the same core teacher for all three years building a realtionship both with the teacher and their classmates. All core teachers are teaching the same history strand at the same time allowing for cross-curriculum collaboration.
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Science
Science is taught everyday for 46 minutes. We have 3 science teachers, each teaching one science strand: Life Science, Earth Science or Physical Science. Science classes are also taught in mixed age groupings. All students are expected to keep a Science notebook, do lab work and both individual and group assignments.
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Math
Math is taught everyday for 46 minutes. Math classes are grouped by readiness. Da Vinci offers 5 different levels of math instruction; 6th grade General Math through high school level Geometry. Placement is done via, test scores, teacher recommendation and a da Vinci adminstered math assesment.
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The arts are often used in the core curriculum classes as a way of engaging students and reinforcing learning.
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Arts - We offer 4 main arts strands: Visual Arts - Music - Dance - Drama
Students have two arts classes each day. One is a year-long focus arts class. The other period has a wheel of 3 12-week long arts exploratory classes. 7th & 8th grade students have the option of taking 2 year-long focus classes with no exploratory wheel.
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Visual Arts - year-long focus classes include Painting, Print Media, Ceramics, Textiles, Year Book Design & Production and Darkroom Photography. Exploratory classes include Drawing and Ceramics.
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Music - Year-long focus classes include Beginning Band, Advanced Band, Intermediate Guitar and Choir. Exploratory classes include African Drumming and Explore Music, a combination of singing, percussion and instruments.
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Dance - There are 4 levels of year-long Dance. Each features a blend of tap, jazz, modern and ballet. The exploratory dance class teaches tap, modern & jazz techniques.
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Drama - There are 3 levels of year-long drama classes, plus exploratory drama classes.
