Grades 5 through 8 will be required to take the following courses for the number of class periods indicated:

 

The top five courses (Language Arts, Reading, Math, Science and Social Studies) are considered “academic subjects” and are described below.

Reading/Language Arts

During their four years of attendance, Nativity students are expected to achieve a degree of English proficiency that exceeds state standards for their grade level. They are asked to demonstrate an ability to retain concepts from reading, analyze passages for main ideas, grasp and apply grammatical rules, employ critical thinking skills to make inferences, abstract from concrete material, memorize and retain new vocabulary, write with clarity and precision, and utilize their creativity when working on individual or class projects. The English Curriculum works to address these expectations by dividing the double period into three substantial areas: Reading, Vocabulary, and Grammar.

We want students at Nativity to develop a belief in their own ability, to garner a love for literature and a compassion for the experiences of the human animal. We want students to thrive on their own inquisitive energy, to develop a self-respect and confidence through hard work, and to express themselves openly in a creative environment. We want them to understand that true success is not a measure of income or material possession, but an endless effort to improve oneself. We want each and every student to leave Nativity Prep with more wisdom of the world than he possessed when he entered the doors. We want the typical student to cherish memories of intense exploratory discussions, to recall the spark of animation that awakened him to interest, and to translate his experiences at Nativity into an energy that will propel him to a life of learning.

Mathematics

In grades five through eight, students are expected to achieve proficiency in basic skills, develop critical thinking skills and reasoning ability, and to learn procedures and methodologies to solve problems in order to prepare them for a rigorous secondary school program.

Students should be able utilize good methodologies to solve problems. A structured approach to solving problems helps students to organize and sequence strategies. This becomes critical when more complex multi-step problems are introduced in advanced math courses. As they learn step-writing skills appropriate to each level of mathematics, they apply them to solving more complex problems. The outcome is greater accuracy and a growing confidence in their ability to solve challenging problems.

Students should learn to ‘grapple’ with challenging new material with growing confidence in their problem solving ability. To achieve this outcome, new concepts are taught through an investigative process as much as possible. Students generate or review data, describe patterns they discover, and try to formulate mathematical rules. This growing ‘ownership’ of learning increases confidence and encourages them to solve problems more independently. As much as possible, teachers should become facilitators of student learning and students need to become more involved in that process. Increasingly, students work through problems in small groups with teachers posing the right questions to lead them to a more complete understanding of mathematical concepts. Students will be able to retain the information better and apply it to new problem solving situations more effectively when they have learned it through this discovery approach.  Students should be able to apply estimating skills to evaluate their use of strategies and procedures in various problem solving situations. Estimating skills are taught at every level of mathematics and reinforced frequently. Students are encouraged to think about mathematics outside the classroom with a bi-monthly "Math Challenge" question. All students are encouraged to participate in this extracurricular activity. Its purpose is to develop logical thinking skills in combination with simple mathematical concepts to solve problems.

Science

The overall purpose of the science department is to advance each student’s understanding of scientific principles and concepts. Fifth graders study general science, learning concepts from many fields including: botany, chemistry, physics, geology, astronomy, and biology. The sixth grade focuses on Earth Science: geology, meteorology, oceanography, and astronomy. The seventh grade studies Life Science: biology, zoology, and botany. The eighth grade studies Physical Science: physics and chemistry.

Science classes are also a place of social learning, where heavily debated topics like natural resource conservation and energy dependency can be brought to the table from the perspective of science.  Students are encouraged to think about science outside the classroom with a bi-monthly "Science Challenge" question.

Social Studies

During their four years of attendance, Nativity students are expected to achieve a degree of proficiency in Social Studies that exceeds state standards for their grade level. They are asked to demonstrate an ability to retain concepts from reading, analyze passages for main ideas, employ critical thinking skills to make inferences, abstract from concrete material, memorize and retain historical facts, write with clarity and precision, and utilize their creativity when working on individual or class projects. During fifth grade students study a general survey of American History. In the sixth grade the focus turns to Ancient and Classical Civilizations. In the seventh grade the curriculum builds on Ancient History with a broad study of Global Civilizations and Cultures. Finally, in the eighth grade, students return to a thorough and critically-engaged study of American History, which addresses events from early exploration to the 20th Century.

We seek to develop in each student the skills necessary to take notes from oral lectures, outline lessons in the text, identify main ideas in passages, write about history and contemporary politics, speak in public, think rationally, and discuss issues intelligently. Indeed, the curriculum is not limited to specialized historical studies. We stress the importance of incorporating current affairs and contemporary issues into the class structure. Students are often required to report on events in the news or deliver a presentation about an important aspect of the world – globalization, the stock market, a political election, or a world religion. We hope that students leave Nativity with the ability and desire to formulate independent opinions about political issues at large in the world today. As such, we encourage teachers to stage classroom debates as often as possible. We also engage seventh and eighth graders in the Bristol County Mock Trial Competition, and require all students to complete vacation reading and a thoroughly-involved Social Studies Fair research project in the spring.