Middle school students at Nativity are taught to reason. That is, they are challenged to engage with what they learn in deep and critical discussion. Reasoning skills prepare the young to judge everything they see and hear, seeking to find the true, the good, and the beautiful in all things.

RELIGIOUS STUDIES

• Old Testament

• The Commandments of God

• Morality

• Revelation

• Prayer memorization and devotions

• Service, social justice, and servant leadership

• Weekly mass and adoration

• Daily rosary

SOCIAL STUDIES

• Geography

• Ancient civilizations

• Introduction to economics in early trade

• Development of ancient law and civics

• The rise and fall of ancient civilization

• Social, cultural, religious, and world perspectives

MATHEMATICS

• Exponentials and real numbers

• Integer addition and subtraction

• Geometry

• Interpretation of graphs

• Introduction to algebra

• Probability

• Formulas to solve problems

LITERATURE

• Fact, opinion, propaganda, and reasoned judgment presented in a text

• Apply Catholic values and teaching in evaluation of literary themes and plots

• Expand the use of reference materials for gathering information and develop a rubric for evaluating validity of sources from web sources

• Describe how an author establishes the point of view of the speaker or a character in a poem, drama, or story

SCIENCE

• Physical science

• The nature and history of science and the scientific method

• Ethics and science

• Stewardship and environmental science

• Scientific reading and writing literacy

LANGUAGE ARTS

• Understand word relationships, including distinguishing words with similar denotations but different connotations

• Use arguments in which students introduce a claim about a topic or issue and organize the reasons and evidence to support the claim

• Write informative/explanatory texts in which students introduce a topic and organize information appropriate to the purpose, using strategies like definition, classification, comparison, contract, and cause and effect

religious studies

• The person of Christ; introduction to Christology

• New Testament

• An in-depth look at liturgy

• Confirmation and the life in the Spirit

• Dignity of human life

• Christian and secular norms for success

• Marian devotions

• Christian family life and human sexuality

• Vocational life

• Weekly Mass and adoration

• Daily rosary

social studies

• World history

• Cartography and map reading

• Geographic effects of colonization and imperialism

• Economic effects of exploration and industrialization

• Introduction to medieval and modern times

• The origin and growth of the world’s religions

• The spread of Christianity culture and religion

• Introduction to American history

• Respect and understanding of cultures different from one’s own

mathematics

• Square roots

• All functions applied to negative numbers

• Calculating area using geometric tools

• Pythagorean Theorem

• Probability, statistics, and the analysis of data

• Applying algebraic expressions

• Rational and irrational numbers

literature

• Cite several sources of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly, as well as inferences drawn from the text

• Analyze how two or more themes or central ideas in a text relate, drawing on key details

• Interpret text using background knowledge, literary elements, and inferences

• Describe how an author introduces, illustrates, and elaborates a key idea in a text

science

• Integrated health and the human systems

• Organisms

• Viruses

• Classification

• Bactria, Protista, Fungi

• Plants and animals

• Cell structure and function

• Heredity and genetics

• Human anatomy

• The nature of science and morality

language arts

• Explain the function of phrases and clauses in general and their function in specific sentences

• Predicate nominative and predicate adjective

• Identify and use direct and indirect objects

• Make effective language choices by using words and phrases that express ideas concisely, eliminating redundancy

religious studies

• Catholic identity and tradition

• The Church and the book of Acts

• Development of doctrine in the Church’s history

• Catholic social teaching

• Sin, grace, and happiness

• Living a life of mercy

• Weekly Mass and adoration

• Daily rosary

social studies

• Political systems

• American history to the end of the Cold War

• American government

• Geography and economic development in the US

• The growth of the American stock market and its crash

• Trade yesterday and today

• Immigration history in the US

• Foreign policy, the UN, and foreign policy

• Care for God’s creation

mathematics

• Algebra 1

• Algebraic logic

• Simple aspects of logical argumentation

• Linear equations and functions

• Proportional reasoning

• Systems of equations

• Polynomials

• Factoring

• Quadratic functions

• Rational expressions and equations

literature

• Analyze how recurring images or events contribute to the development of a theme or central idea in a text

• Analyze how elements of a story or drama interact

• Compare and contrast the works of various authors

• Provide an objective summary of a text, accurately conveying an author’s view and specific points

SCIENCE

• Heathy lifestyle and human risks

• Matter and its properties

• Periodic table of elements

• Acids and bases

• Earth science

• Surface changing processes

• Geologic changing processes

• Resources and renewable energy

• Introduction to astronomy

• Scientific experimentation

language arts

• Perform short, focused research projects in response to a question and generate additional related questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration

• Produce writing in which the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience

• Use a variety of techniques to convey sequence, shift from one time frame or setting to another, and/or show the relationships among the events or experiences