Middle School (5-8)
The Hightower Middle School Program: Leading with love for grades 5 through 8
The Middle School at Branch is a supportive but challenging place, where young people feel safe to try harder, take risks, and test ideas. Amid classmates and teachers who love learning and each other, students delve deeply into an exciting, engaging STEAM-focused curriculum. Students in grades 5 through 8 thrive in their own building equipped with labs, a library, and state-of-the-art technical resources. We will soon break ground on the new Hightower Middle School building which will enhance collaborative spaces so important to our project-based curriculum.
The Branch approach sharpens our students’ academic expertise even as it helps them better understand themselves and all they can contribute to the world. We teach peacemaking so students on the cusp of young adulthood learn to manage themselves in times of conflict, leading to greater understanding and personal insight. The Branch private Middle School experience is further enhanced by hands-on discoveries and a sense of stewardship found in our award-winning Outdoor Classroom, a variety of service-learning opportunities that improve lives in our community, and daily recess that allows students to re-set, reflect, and connect.
Our students come from across Houston and around the world, bringing diverse and varied experiences that expand all our perspectives. Academic and leadership opportunities and expert high school admissions counseling prepares our students for Houston’s best high schools.
We invite you to explore the curricular offerings of each grade level.
Fifth Grade
Math
The Branch Middle School Math program teaches students to think critically, problem solve, and apply their understanding of mathematics. Students become confident in their abilities as mathematicians. In addition to daily mathematical study, students are given the opportunity to apply their understanding of the concepts they learn in class through individual and group projects.
The fifth grade Everyday Mathematics 4 units focus on the procedures, concepts, and applications in three critical areas. Those areas are:
- Developing addition and subtraction fluency with fractions, and understanding multiplication and division of fractions.
- Developing fluency with decimal operations, and extending division to 2-digit divisors, integrating decimals into the place-value system, and understanding operations with decimals to hundredths.
- Developing an understanding of volume.
Lessons in fifth grade address the following standards:
- Operations and Algebraic Thinking
- Write and interpret numerical expressions.
- Analyze patterns and relationships.
- Number Operations in Base Ten
- Understand the place value system.
- Perform operations with multi-digit whole numbers and with decimals to hundredths.
- Number and Operations – Fractions
- Use equivalent fractions as a strategy to add and subtract fractions.
- Apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication and division to multiply and divide fractions.
- Measurement and Data
- Convert like measurement units within a given measurement system.
- Represent and interpret data.
- Geometric measurement: Understand concepts of volume and relate volume to multiplication and to addition.
- Geometry
- Graph points on the coordinate plane to solve real-world and mathematical problems.
Language Arts
In our Language Arts program, student readers study a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to comprehend, appreciate, analyze, and evaluate text.
Student writers learn organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions and presentation through the process of prewriting, drafting and revising. Students learn how to conduct research using primary sources, how to write narratives that are reflective and theme-based, and how to write argument essays that use counterargument to clarify a position.
The fifth grade program uses the Lucy Calkins Reading and Writing Units of Study. These workshops give students the opportunity to choose the literature and writing form that engage them in relevant learning. Studying a wide variety of literature facilitates and inspires observation and original thought expressed through discussions and reflective writing.
Using Jolly Grammar, there is a deeper focus on vocabulary, spelling, and grammar. Students are taught to analyze words and learn their patterns and rules. The students are given a focus for each week. On Fridays, they are given a spelling test covering that week’s pattern.
General Science
Our Middle School science curriculum provides the foundation of inquiry-based learning. STEMscopes, a proven research-based program, is student-centered, focusing on asking meaningful questions based on observing scientific phenomena. The students become collaborating scientists with interactive-based learning, technology and virtual labs.
STEMscopes provides varied hands-on lab activities, plus intervention and acceleration materials. The use of technology makes learning more productive and accessible.
Through using the 5 E model: engaging, exploring, explaining, elaborating and evaluating, their world becomes more relevant.
In fifth grade general science, students use hands-on investigations to explore the physical, natural, and living environments in the world. Students learn to make observations, collect and analyze data, and work with lab equipment. The fifth grade science curriculum provides the foundation of inquiry-based learning.
Social Studies - U.S. History
Our Middle School students, as citizens of a culturally diverse and democratic society, will gain the knowledge to be active and engaged students in public life.
In fifth grade Social Studies, students get a broad overview of American History from the Lost Colony of Roanoke to present day events. Students work both independently and collaboratively through projects. Students also create an interactive timeline of historical events throughout American history which includes primary sources.
- This civic competence rests on democratic values and requires students to use knowledge about one’s community, nation and world.
- Student citizens learn the inquiry process and employ skills of data collection and analysis, collaboration, and problem solving.
- Student citizens take initiative in making informed and reasoned decisions to promote individual character, initiative and peace.
Additional Subjects
- Collaborative Integrated Problem Solving - Sequoia
- Physical Education and Health
- Service Learning
- Spanish
- Technology Foundations
Collaborative Integrated Problem Solving - Sequoia
Working with peers, using technology and project-based learning are among the qualities students note as essential to engagement. The Sequoia Project, a yearlong project involving fifth through eighth graders, integrates the subjects of science, technology, math, social studies, and language arts, and uses the 21st century skills of collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving. Students not only collaborate with each other, but with their teachers, administration, and most of all, with experts in the field. Each year, students use a fictitious island, Sequoia, which they developed, to problem solve real-world issues, such as the discovery of oil and how it will affect their country, designing and building homes in their country during a water shortage, and researching the country’s past through the discovery artifacts in an archeological dig.
Physical Education and Health
Students acquire the knowledge and skills for movement that provide the foundation for enjoyment, continued social development and access to a physically active, healthy lifestyle.
- Students learn group games in which they develop behaviors which exemplify individual character and the sportsmanship to resolve conflicts with peers, including responsibility, best effort, cooperation, and compassion.
- Students actively participate in physical activities that address each component of health-related fitness including: strength, endurance and flexibility.
- Students follow activity-specific safe practices, rules and procedures.
Service Learning
Middle School students have participated in various service projects for the benefit of fellow humans, animals and the environment.Projects last year were incorporated in Sequoia.This coming year, they will partner with Cathedral Urban Service Experience (C.U.S.E.) for weekends to serve in our urban community.
Spanish
Our Middle School students make deep connections to our global society through their exposure to the Spanish language. Spanish is incorporated in cross-curricular activities and practical life situations. Students also use the online Scholastic ¿Qué Tal? magazine and online supplementary program. Middle School students are provided with the tools to become successful foreign language learners. After completing seventh and eighth grade Spanish with a grade of B or better, students may gain high school credit for Spanish I and II.
Technology Foundations
Middle School students learn best when they are actively engaged with the content. Lessons that include technology applications, provide teachers with ways to motivate students into becoming active, real-world learners. Computer-based strategies help students develop higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills. Participation in real-life applications included in technology-rich teaching environments promotes the ability to draw analogies, infer relationships, predict outcomes, and analyze data. In the Middle School, each student has their own laptop which they use daily. All Middle School students also bring a tablet or have access to a school tablet for use during the school day.Each grade level has focused technology skill lessons each week in technology class. All classrooms are equipped with interactive Promethean Boards for both teacher and student use.
Electives
- Art
- Coding
- Debate
- Drama
- Engineering
- Introduction to Band
- Outdoor Classroom
- Woodworking, Textiles, and Basic Cooking
- Yearbook
Art
The Hightower Middle School Art Class is designed to address specific developmental stages and desires of creative and cognitive growth of art students in grades fifth through eighth over the duration of a school year. Throughout the year the students will enhance their skills in drawing, painting and 3D Art. The objectives of this course include: exercising and demonstrating the use and mastery of the elements of design, use of materials, tools and process from a variety of media (including printmaking, painting, sculpture, ceramics and photography), learning to handle materials effectively, creating original objects of art in a specific medium, selecting appropriate media relative to concepts and forms of art.
Coding
Students will learn basic HTML/CSS to build websites. Students will progress to C++ / Python coding using CodeCombat and other resources. Throughout the year students will continue their education with advanced SCRATCH and will begin to recreate classic video games. The class will include an introduction to HTML coding. We will create webpages from scratch, learning HTML terminology along the way. This class will also introduce how the internet was created. Coding with SCRATCH introduces students to block coding. Students will be able to write and modify code for games. We will use the program CodeCombat which allows students to learn and write code in different programming languages such as JavaScript and Python.
Debate
This course will develop and improve public speaking, argumentative, and critical-thinking skills in communication settings. Students will prepare and deliver speeches and participate in several in-class debates and forums on current topics. Techniques will be taught to control speech anxiety, as well structure and how to organize information to present to a variety of audiences. As such, the fundamentals of physical and vocal delivery skills, use of language and gesturing, as well as listening skills will be learned.
Drama
During this course students are instructed in creative expression through basic theater skills and theatrical performances. The focus of the class concentrates on the following: improvisations and scripted scenes based on personal experiences and heritage, imagination, literature and history, developing basic acting skills, developing environments, rehearsals, cultural and historical information to support acting, analyzing, evaluating and constructing meaning from acting, understanding the role of the theater, film, television, and electronic media. The course culminates in a school theatrical production. Students will be required to attend additional rehearsals after school during the week or two before the performance.
Engineering
Students focus on three disciplines of engineering during this course - flight, science in nature and robotics. The study of flight includes exploring air, aerodynamics and flight with hands-on experiments and projects. Students are challenged with STEM activities to discover more about everything that glides, floats and flies, including a closer look at the history and principles of flight, building a model airplane, and creating their own future flying machine. The study of science in nature includes exploring science through the lens of nature. Students will be challenged with STEM activities to discover more about how humans use and are inspired by nature. Students will experiment with natural pigments and pH indicators, learn more about flowers and fruits with a flower dissection, prints and presses, and create a fruit battery. Looking towards nature, students will take a closer look at how nature has influenced inventions and will create their own bioplastic. The study of robotics introduces students to the basics of programming and building using Lego Mindstorms NXT and EV3 robots. Students will then tackle design challenges and end with a sumobot competition.
Introduction to Band
Hightower Middle School (HMS) students can participate in a beginning band class. Students can choose between clarinet, saxophone, trumpet and trombone. Band will meet two days a week during the school day and may require a possible after-school time. Please note, students will need to supply their own instrument.
Outdoor Classroom
This is a project-oriented, horticulture and nature studies exploration guided by two master gardeners with decades of horticulture experience. Among other things, units will include vegetable gardening, landscape plant propagation, native habitat gardening (e.g. butterfly host garden, Monarch waystation, prairie restoration), pond habitat exploration, birdwatching skills and practice, composting theory and experimentation, textile manufacture from plants (we grow cotton on campus) and sheep through ginning, carding, spinning and weaving processes. The class will keep journals that track growth, record observations, and provide the foundation for an ongoing campus calendar record of natural cycles and interesting events and creatures discovered on campus. The class will engage as much as possible with new HMS building project’s landscaping plans from screening vines to participating in the design of the retention pond and bioswale.
Woodworking, Textiles, and Basic Cooking
This course will touch on these three topics during the year. During the woodworking section, there will be three projects: a bird house, home address kit, and interactive display for the playground. The second section will focus on textiles and basic hand sewing. Students will learn simple sewing skills, weaving and other textile crafts. The third section will be “Introduction to cooking: Snack time!” Students will make after-school snacks, dips such as humus, pesto from our Outdoor Classroom, bruschetta, wraps, salad dressings, frozen yogurt bars and light desserts.
Yearbook
As the historians for the school, yearbook members accurately cover the school year, as well as create a contemporary publication that will be enjoyable and relevant to our community for years to come. Students will learn the requirements of publication: design, photography, writing, and project management.
Sixth Grade
- Math
- Language Arts
- Earth/Space Science
- Social Studies - World Cultures
- Additional Subjects
- Electives
Math
The Branch Middle School Math program teaches students to think critically, problem solve, and apply their understanding of mathematics. Students become confident in their abilities as mathematicians. In addition to daily mathematical study, students are given the opportunity to apply their understanding of the concepts they learn in class through individual and group projects.
In sixth grade, Everyday Mathematics 4 focuses on the procedures, concepts, and applications in four critical areas. Those areas are: connecting ratios and rate to whole number multiplication and division, completing the understanding of division of fractions and expanding to a system of rational numbers which includes negative numbers, writing, interpreting, and using expressions and equations, and developing an understanding of statistical thinking. Lessons in sixth grade cover the following standards:
- Ratios and Proportional Relationships
- Understanding ratio concepts and use ratio reasoning to solve problems.
- The Number System
- Apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication and division to divide fractions by fractions.
- Compute fluently with multi-digit numbers and find common factors and multiples.
- Apply and extend previous understandings of numbers to the system of rational numbers.
- Expressions and Equations
- Apply and extend previous understandings of arithmetic to algebraic expressions.
- Reason and solve one-variable equations and inequalities.
- Represent and analyze quantitative relationships between dependent and independent variables.
- Geometry
- Solve real-world and mathematical problems involving area, surface area, and volume.
- Statistics and Probability
- Develop understanding of statistical variability.
- Summarize and describe distributions.
Language Arts
In our Language Arts program, student readers study a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to comprehend, appreciate, analyze, and evaluate text.
Student writers learn organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions and presentation through the process of prewriting, drafting and revising. Students learn how to conduct research using primary sources, how to write narratives that are reflective and theme-based, and how to write argument essays that use counterargument to clarify a position.
The sixth grade program teaches students to navigate expository, narrative, and hybrid nonfiction to understand structural features of nonfiction text, and share understanding and knowledge of nonfiction with peers. Students also compare and contrast nonfiction texts, analyze claims and arguments, recognize the author’s point of view and in small groups conduct independent analysis of research topics. Sixth grade students practice selection of reading materials across genres through reading workshop where they analyze and evaluate characterization, theme, and use of literary devices in texts across multiple genres. Sixth grade students also learn research-based writing with the conventions of the prewriting, drafting, and revising process.
Earth/Space Science
Our Middle School science curriculum provides the foundation of inquiry-based learning. STEMscopes, a proven research-based program, is student-centered, focusing on asking meaningful questions based on observing scientific phenomena. The students become collaborating scientists with interactive-based learning, technology and virtual labs.
STEMscopes provides varied hands-on lab activities, plus intervention and acceleration materials. The use of technology makes learning more productive and accessible.
Through using the 5 E model: engaging, exploring, explaining, elaborating and evaluating, their world becomes more relevant.
In sixth grade science, earth/space science is the focus of the curriculum. Students examine the roll of natural events in altering earth’s systems and explore the solar system, stars and galaxies in the universe through research, modeling, and individual projects. The sixth grade curriculum strengthens critical thinking and problem solving.
Social Studies - World Cultures
Our Middle School students, as citizens of a culturally diverse and democratic society, will gain the knowledge to be active and engaged students in public life.
This course focuses on exploring various world cultures. Students understand the region’s geographical, cultural, natural resources, economic and government processes. These five themes of geography are woven throughout the course. The students are able to look at world events and their impact on countries, cultures, environments, and individuals.
- This civic competence rests on democratic values and requires students to use knowledge about one’s community, nation and world.
- Student citizens learn the inquiry process and employ skills of data collection and analysis, collaboration, and problem solving.
- Student citizens take initiative in making informed and reasoned decisions to promote individual character, initiative and peace.
Additional Subjects
- Collaborative Integrated Problem Solving - Sequoia
- Physical Education and Health
- Service Learning
- Spanish
- Technology Foundations
Collaborative Integrated Problem Solving - Sequoia
Working with peers, using technology and project-based learning are among the qualities students note as essential to engagement. The Sequoia Project, a yearlong project involving fifth through eighth graders, integrates the subjects of science, technology, math, social studies, and language arts, and uses the 21st century skills of collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving. Students not only collaborate with each other, but with their teachers, administration, and most of all, with experts in the field. Each year, students use a fictitious island, Sequoia, which they developed, to problem solve real-world issues, such as the discovery of oil and how it will affect their country, designing and building homes in their country during a water shortage, and researching the country’s past through the discovery artifacts in an archeological dig.
Physical Education and Health
Students acquire the knowledge and skills for movement that provide the foundation for enjoyment, continued social development and access to a physically active, healthy lifestyle.
- Students learn group games in which they develop behaviors which exemplify individual character and the sportsmanship to resolve conflicts with peers, including responsibility, best effort, cooperation, and compassion.
- Students actively participate in physical activities that address each component of health-related fitness including: strength, endurance and flexibility.
- Students follow activity-specific safe practices, rules and procedures.
Service Learning
Middle School students have participated in various service projects for the benefit of fellow humans, animals and the environment.Projects last year were incorporated in Sequoia.This coming year, they will partner with Cathedral Urban Service Experience (C.U.S.E.) for weekends to serve in our urban community.
Spanish
Our Middle School students make deep connections to our global society through their exposure to the Spanish language. Spanish is incorporated in cross-curricular activities and practical life situations. Students also use the online Scholastic ¿Qué Tal? magazine and online supplementary program. Middle School students are provided with the tools to become successful foreign language learners. After completing seventh and eighth grade Spanish with a grade of B or better, students may gain high school credit for Spanish I and II.
Technology Foundations
Middle School students learn best when they are actively engaged with the content. Lessons that include technology applications, provide teachers with ways to motivate students into becoming active, real-world learners. Computer-based strategies help students develop higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills. Participation in real-life applications included in technology-rich teaching environments promotes the ability to draw analogies, infer relationships, predict outcomes, and analyze data. In the Middle School, each student has their own laptop which they use daily. All Middle School students also bring a tablet or have access to a school tablet for use during the school day.Each grade level has focused technology skill lessons each week in technology class. All classrooms are equipped with interactive Promethean Boards for both teacher and student use.
Electives
- Art
- Coding
- Debate
- Drama
- Engineering
- Introduction to Band
- Outdoor Classroom
- Woodworking, Textiles, and Basic Cooking
- Yearbook
Art
The Hightower Middle School Art Class is designed to address specific developmental stages and desires of creative and cognitive growth of art students in grades fifth through eighth over the duration of a school year. Throughout the year the students will enhance their skills in drawing, painting and 3D Art. The objectives of this course include: exercising and demonstrating the use and mastery of the elements of design, use of materials, tools and process from a variety of media (including printmaking, painting, sculpture, ceramics and photography), learning to handle materials effectively, creating original objects of art in a specific medium, selecting appropriate media relative to concepts and forms of art.
Coding
Students will learn basic HTML/CSS to build websites. Students will progress to C++ / Python coding using CodeCombat and other resources. Throughout the year students will continue their education with advanced SCRATCH and will begin to recreate classic video games. The class will include an introduction to HTML coding. We will create webpages from scratch, learning HTML terminology along the way. This class will also introduce how the internet was created. Coding with SCRATCH introduces students to block coding. Students will be able to write and modify code for games. We will use the program CodeCombat which allows students to learn and write code in different programming languages such as JavaScript and Python.
Debate
This course will develop and improve public speaking, argumentative, and critical-thinking skills in communication settings. Students will prepare and deliver speeches and participate in several in-class debates and forums on current topics. Techniques will be taught to control speech anxiety, as well structure and how to organize information to present to a variety of audiences. As such, the fundamentals of physical and vocal delivery skills, use of language and gesturing, as well as listening skills will be learned.
Drama
During this course students are instructed in creative expression through basic theater skills and theatrical performances. The focus of the class concentrates on the following: improvisations and scripted scenes based on personal experiences and heritage, imagination, literature and history, developing basic acting skills, developing environments, rehearsals, cultural and historical information to support acting, analyzing, evaluating and constructing meaning from acting, understanding the role of the theater, film, television, and electronic media. The course culminates in a school theatrical production. Students will be required to attend additional rehearsals after school during the week or two before the performance.
Engineering
Students focus on three disciplines of engineering during this course - flight, science in nature and robotics. The study of flight includes exploring air, aerodynamics and flight with hands-on experiments and projects. Students are challenged with STEM activities to discover more about everything that glides, floats and flies, including a closer look at the history and principles of flight, building a model airplane, and creating their own future flying machine. The study of science in nature includes exploring science through the lens of nature. Students will be challenged with STEM activities to discover more about how humans use and are inspired by nature. Students will experiment with natural pigments and pH indicators, learn more about flowers and fruits with a flower dissection, prints and presses, and create a fruit battery. Looking towards nature, students will take a closer look at how nature has influenced inventions and will create their own bioplastic. The study of robotics introduces students to the basics of programming and building using Lego Mindstorms NXT and EV3 robots. Students will then tackle design challenges and end with a sumobot competition.
Introduction to Band
Hightower Middle School (HMS) students can participate in a beginning band class. Students can choose between clarinet, saxophone, trumpet and trombone. Band will meet two days a week during the school day and may require a possible after-school time. Please note, students will need to supply their own instrument.
Outdoor Classroom
This is a project-oriented, horticulture and nature studies exploration guided by two master gardeners with decades of horticulture experience. Among other things, units will include vegetable gardening, landscape plant propagation, native habitat gardening (e.g. butterfly host garden, Monarch waystation, prairie restoration), pond habitat exploration, birdwatching skills and practice, composting theory and experimentation, textile manufacture from plants (we grow cotton on campus) and sheep through ginning, carding, spinning and weaving processes. The class will keep journals that track growth, record observations, and provide the foundation for an ongoing campus calendar record of natural cycles and interesting events and creatures discovered on campus. The class will engage as much as possible with new HMS building project’s landscaping plans from screening vines to participating in the design of the retention pond and bioswale.
Woodworking, Textiles, and Basic Cooking
This course will touch on these three topics during the year. During the woodworking section, there will be three projects: a bird house, home address kit, and interactive display for the playground. The second section will focus on textiles and basic hand sewing. Students will learn simple sewing skills, weaving and other textile crafts. The third section will be “Introduction to cooking: Snack time!” Students will make after-school snacks, dips such as humus, pesto from our Outdoor Classroom, bruschetta, wraps, salad dressings, frozen yogurt bars and light desserts.
Yearbook
As the historians for the school, yearbook members accurately cover the school year, as well as create a contemporary publication that will be enjoyable and relevant to our community for years to come. Students will learn the requirements of publication: design, photography, writing, and project management.
Seventh Grade
- Math - Pre-Algebra
- Language Arts
- Life Science
- Social Studies - Ancient Civilizations
- Additional Subjects
- Electives
Math - Pre-Algebra
The Branch Middle School Math program teaches students to think critically, problem solve, and apply their understanding of mathematics. Students become confident in their abilities as mathematicians. In addition to daily mathematical study, students are given the opportunity to apply their understanding of the concepts they learn in class through individual and group projects.
In Pre-Algebra, students gain a foundation in algebra while preparing them for future courses in geometry, probability and data analysis. They study variables, expressions, integers and rational numbers, learn to solve multi-step equations and inequalities, work with percents, ratios, proportions, probability and linear functions. Students also study real numbers and right triangles as well as area, volume, angle relationships and transformations. Pre-Algebra is taught with a textbook by noted authors, Ron Larson and Laurie Boswell.
All students also engage in monthly projects based on the current unit of study that help them see real-life uses of the concepts they are learning.
Language Arts
In our Language Arts program, student readers study a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to comprehend, appreciate, analyze, and evaluate text.
Student writers learn organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions and presentation through the process of prewriting, drafting and revising. Students learn how to conduct research using primary sources, how to write narratives that are reflective and theme-based, and how to write argument essays that use counterargument to clarify a position.
The seventh grade program teaches students to develop a passion for reading through the analysis and evaluation of characters in various series. Reading and writing workshops give students the opportunity of creating and developing meaningful stories and characters and then drafting, revising, and editing with the audience in mind. Seventh grade students analyze texts for theme, use of literary devices, and the personal impact of text. Students use aspects of various genres to develop learning tools that support the examination of issues pertinent to them. The literature facilitates cross-curricular connections which inspire observation and original thought expressed through discussions and reflective writing. Seventh grade writers continue to work on organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions and presentation through the writing process of prewriting, drafting and revising.
Life Science
Our Middle School science curriculum provides the foundation of inquiry-based learning. STEMscopes, a proven research-based program, is student-centered, focusing on asking meaningful questions based on observing scientific phenomena. The students become collaborating scientists with interactive-based learning, technology and virtual labs.
STEMscopes provides varied hands-on lab activities, plus intervention and acceleration materials. The use of technology makes learning more productive and accessible.
Through using the 5 E model: engaging, exploring, explaining, elaborating and evaluating, their world becomes more relevant.
In seventh grade science, life science is the focus of the curriculum. Students investigate organisms and environments through research, hands-on laboratory experiments, problem solving, and comprehensive projects to apply theories to real-world situations. The seventh grade curriculum enables students to explore concepts from minute cells to diverse biomes as they better grasp the world around them.
Social Studies - Ancient Civilizations
Our Middle School students, as citizens of a culturally diverse and democratic society, will gain the knowledge to be active and engaged students in public life.
Students are introduced to the beginnings of the human story. As they explore the great early civilizations of Egypt and the Near East, India, China, Greece, and Rome, students discover the secrets of these ancient cultures that continue to influence the modern world. Students work collaboratively on projects, and research information independently to create engaging experiences which help them better understand ancient civilizations.
- This civic competence rests on democratic values and requires students to use knowledge about one’s community, nation and world.
- Student citizens learn the inquiry process and employ skills of data collection and analysis, collaboration, and problem solving.
- Student citizens take initiative in making informed and reasoned decisions to promote individual character, initiative and peace.
Additional Subjects
- Collaborative Integrated Problem Solving - Sequoia
- Physical Education and Health
- Service Learning
- Spanish
- Technology Foundations
Collaborative Integrated Problem Solving - Sequoia
Working with peers, using technology and project-based learning are among the qualities students note as essential to engagement. The Sequoia Project, a yearlong project involving fifth through eighth graders, integrates the subjects of science, technology, math, social studies, and language arts, and uses the 21st century skills of collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving. Students not only collaborate with each other, but with their teachers, administration, and most of all, with experts in the field. Each year, students use a fictitious island, Sequoia, which they developed, to problem solve real-world issues, such as the discovery of oil and how it will affect their country, designing and building homes in their country during a water shortage, and researching the country’s past through the discovery artifacts in an archeological dig.
Physical Education and Health
Students acquire the knowledge and skills for movement that provide the foundation for enjoyment, continued social development and access to a physically active, healthy lifestyle.
- Students learn group games in which they develop behaviors which exemplify individual character and the sportsmanship to resolve conflicts with peers, including responsibility, best effort, cooperation, and compassion.
- Students actively participate in physical activities that address each component of health-related fitness including: strength, endurance and flexibility.
- Students follow activity-specific safe practices, rules and procedures.
Service Learning
Middle School students have participated in various service projects for the benefit of fellow humans, animals and the environment.Projects last year were incorporated in Sequoia.This coming year, they will partner with Cathedral Urban Service Experience (C.U.S.E.) for weekends to serve in our urban community.
Spanish
Our Middle School students make deep connections to our global society through their exposure to the Spanish language. Spanish is incorporated in cross-curricular activities and practical life situations. Students also use the online Scholastic ¿Qué Tal? magazine and online supplementary program. Middle School students are provided with the tools to become successful foreign language learners. After completing seventh and eighth grade Spanish with a grade of B or better, students may gain high school credit for Spanish I and II.
Technology Foundations
Middle School students learn best when they are actively engaged with the content. Lessons that include technology applications, provide teachers with ways to motivate students into becoming active, real-world learners. Computer-based strategies help students develop higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills. Participation in real-life applications included in technology-rich teaching environments promotes the ability to draw analogies, infer relationships, predict outcomes, and analyze data. In the Middle School, each student has their own laptop which they use daily. All Middle School students also bring a tablet or have access to a school tablet for use during the school day.Each grade level has focused technology skill lessons each week in technology class. All classrooms are equipped with interactive Promethean Boards for both teacher and student use.
Electives
- Art
- Coding
- Debate
- Drama
- Engineering
- Introduction to Band
- Outdoor Classroom
- Woodworking, Textiles, and Basic Cooking
- Yearbook
Art
The Hightower Middle School Art Class is designed to address specific developmental stages and desires of creative and cognitive growth of art students in grades fifth through eighth over the duration of a school year. Throughout the year the students will enhance their skills in drawing, painting and 3D Art. The objectives of this course include: exercising and demonstrating the use and mastery of the elements of design, use of materials, tools and process from a variety of media (including printmaking, painting, sculpture, ceramics and photography), learning to handle materials effectively, creating original objects of art in a specific medium, selecting appropriate media relative to concepts and forms of art.
Coding
Students will learn basic HTML/CSS to build websites. Students will progress to C++ / Python coding using CodeCombat and other resources. Throughout the year students will continue their education with advanced SCRATCH and will begin to recreate classic video games. The class will include an introduction to HTML coding. We will create webpages from scratch, learning HTML terminology along the way. This class will also introduce how the internet was created. Coding with SCRATCH introduces students to block coding. Students will be able to write and modify code for games. We will use the program CodeCombat which allows students to learn and write code in different programming languages such as JavaScript and Python.
Debate
This course will develop and improve public speaking, argumentative, and critical-thinking skills in communication settings. Students will prepare and deliver speeches and participate in several in-class debates and forums on current topics. Techniques will be taught to control speech anxiety, as well structure and how to organize information to present to a variety of audiences. As such, the fundamentals of physical and vocal delivery skills, use of language and gesturing, as well as listening skills will be learned.
Drama
During this course students are instructed in creative expression through basic theater skills and theatrical performances. The focus of the class concentrates on the following: improvisations and scripted scenes based on personal experiences and heritage, imagination, literature and history, developing basic acting skills, developing environments, rehearsals, cultural and historical information to support acting, analyzing, evaluating and constructing meaning from acting, understanding the role of the theater, film, television, and electronic media. The course culminates in a school theatrical production. Students will be required to attend additional rehearsals after school during the week or two before the performance.
Engineering
Students focus on three disciplines of engineering during this course - flight, science in nature and robotics. The study of flight includes exploring air, aerodynamics and flight with hands-on experiments and projects. Students are challenged with STEM activities to discover more about everything that glides, floats and flies, including a closer look at the history and principles of flight, building a model airplane, and creating their own future flying machine. The study of science in nature includes exploring science through the lens of nature. Students will be challenged with STEM activities to discover more about how humans use and are inspired by nature. Students will experiment with natural pigments and pH indicators, learn more about flowers and fruits with a flower dissection, prints and presses, and create a fruit battery. Looking towards nature, students will take a closer look at how nature has influenced inventions and will create their own bioplastic. The study of robotics introduces students to the basics of programming and building using Lego Mindstorms NXT and EV3 robots. Students will then tackle design challenges and end with a sumobot competition.
Introduction to Band
Hightower Middle School (HMS) students can participate in a beginning band class. Students can choose between clarinet, saxophone, trumpet and trombone. Band will meet two days a week during the school day and may require a possible after-school time. Please note, students will need to supply their own instrument.
Outdoor Classroom
This is a project-oriented, horticulture and nature studies exploration guided by two master gardeners with decades of horticulture experience. Among other things, units will include vegetable gardening, landscape plant propagation, native habitat gardening (e.g. butterfly host garden, Monarch waystation, prairie restoration), pond habitat exploration, birdwatching skills and practice, composting theory and experimentation, textile manufacture from plants (we grow cotton on campus) and sheep through ginning, carding, spinning and weaving processes. The class will keep journals that track growth, record observations, and provide the foundation for an ongoing campus calendar record of natural cycles and interesting events and creatures discovered on campus. The class will engage as much as possible with new HMS building project’s landscaping plans from screening vines to participating in the design of the retention pond and bioswale.
Woodworking, Textiles, and Basic Cooking
This course will touch on these three topics during the year. During the woodworking section, there will be three projects: a bird house, home address kit, and interactive display for the playground. The second section will focus on textiles and basic hand sewing. Students will learn simple sewing skills, weaving and other textile crafts. The third section will be “Introduction to cooking: Snack time!” Students will make after-school snacks, dips such as humus, pesto from our Outdoor Classroom, bruschetta, wraps, salad dressings, frozen yogurt bars and light desserts.
Yearbook
As the historians for the school, yearbook members accurately cover the school year, as well as create a contemporary publication that will be enjoyable and relevant to our community for years to come. Students will learn the requirements of publication: design, photography, writing, and project management.
Eighth Grade
- Math - Algebra 1
- Language Arts
- Physical Science
- Social Studies - U.S. History
- Additional Subjects
- Electives
Math - Algebra 1
The Branch Middle School Math program teaches students to think critically, problem solve, and apply their understanding of mathematics. Students become confident in their abilities as mathematicians. In addition to daily mathematical study, students are given the opportunity to apply their understanding of the concepts they learn in class through individual and group projects.
Algebra I is a high-school level course in which students may gain high school credit with a grade of B or better. In this course, students gain an understanding of families of functions with special emphasis on linear and quadratic functions. They learn to represent functions verbally, with equations, tables and graphs. They learn to model real-world problems using functions. Students also study probability and data analysis as well as geometry. Extended lessons also deal with exponential functions, polynomials and factoring. This program is taught with the Holt McDougal Larson textbook.
All students also engage in monthly projects based on the current unit of study that help them see real-life uses of the concepts they are learning.
Language Arts
In our Language Arts program, student readers study a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to comprehend, appreciate, analyze, and evaluate text.
Student writers learn organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions and presentation through the process of prewriting, drafting and revising. Students learn how to conduct research using primary sources, how to write narratives that are reflective and theme-based, and how to write argument essays that use counterargument to clarify a position.
The eighth grade program inspires students to be independent readers and engage intellectually with text by using the reading skills of envisioning, predicting, and theory development. Reading and writing workshops give students the opportunity to choose literature and writing that engages them in relevant learning. Reading and writing workshop gives students the opportunity to choose the literature and writing form that engages them in relevant learning. Teacher-provided literature facilitates cross-curricular connections which inspire observation and original thought expressed through discussions and reflective writing.
Eighth grade students continue to develop reading interest within the realm of nonfiction as well as fiction. Eighth grade students also develop an analytical lens for informational reading through working in small groups, comparing and contrasting, analyzing claims and arguments, and critiquing and inventing authors’ point of view. Eighth graders continue to write using organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions and presentation through the writing process of prewriting, drafting and revising as they work, writing the literary essay, and research for an argument/position paper.
Eighth grade students also complete a capstone project and presentation. The Capstone Project requires students to choose a topic to research and create a driving question to guide their research. Capstone Projects must include a writing component, technology component, and creative component. They culminate their project by presenting what they learned in a 2-5 minute presentation to the school community.
Physical Science
Our Middle School science curriculum provides the foundation of inquiry-based learning. STEMscopes, a proven research-based program, is student-centered, focusing on asking meaningful questions based on observing scientific phenomena. The students become collaborating scientists with interactive-based learning, technology and virtual labs.
STEMscopes provides varied hands-on lab activities, plus intervention and acceleration materials. The use of technology makes learning more productive and accessible.
Through using the 5 E model: engaging, exploring, explaining, elaborating and evaluating, their world becomes more relevant.
In eighth grade science, the interdisciplinary, hands-on curriculum has a focus on physical science. Students investigate matter, energy, force, and motion through problem solving, analysis of research, and application to the real world. The eighth grade science curriculum enhances students’ curiosity and encourages them to generate questions about how the world works.
Social Studies - U.S. History
Our Middle School students, as citizens of a culturally diverse and democratic society, will gain the knowledge to be active and engaged students in public life.
In eighth grade Social Studies, students cover the history of the United States from European colonization in North America in the 1500's through the Reconstruction Era in 1877. Students analyze why events happened, compare and contrast primary sources, and research areas of interest using driving questions to guide their learning. Students work collaboratively on projects through Google Drive, as well as create projects on their own.
- This civic competence rests on democratic values and requires students to use knowledge about one’s community, nation and world.
- Student citizens learn the inquiry process and employ skills of data collection and analysis, collaboration, and problem solving.
- Student citizens take initiative in making informed and reasoned decisions to promote individual character, initiative and peace.
Additional Subjects
- Collaborative Integrated Problem Solving - Sequoia
- Physical Education and Health
- Service Learning
- Spanish
- Technology Foundations
Collaborative Integrated Problem Solving - Sequoia
Working with peers, using technology and project-based learning are among the qualities students note as essential to engagement. The Sequoia Project, a yearlong project involving fifth through eighth graders, integrates the subjects of science, technology, math, social studies, and language arts, and uses the 21st century skills of collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving. Students not only collaborate with each other, but with their teachers, administration, and most of all, with experts in the field. Each year, students use a fictitious island, Sequoia, which they developed, to problem solve real-world issues, such as the discovery of oil and how it will affect their country, designing and building homes in their country during a water shortage, and researching the country’s past through the discovery artifacts in an archeological dig.
Physical Education and Health
Students acquire the knowledge and skills for movement that provide the foundation for enjoyment, continued social development and access to a physically active, healthy lifestyle.
- Students learn group games in which they develop behaviors which exemplify individual character and the sportsmanship to resolve conflicts with peers, including responsibility, best effort, cooperation, and compassion.
- Students actively participate in physical activities that address each component of health-related fitness including: strength, endurance and flexibility.
- Students follow activity-specific safe practices, rules and procedures.
Service Learning
Middle School students have participated in various service projects for the benefit of fellow humans, animals and the environment.Projects last year were incorporated in Sequoia.This coming year, they will partner with Cathedral Urban Service Experience (C.U.S.E.) for weekends to serve in our urban community.
Spanish
Our Middle School students make deep connections to our global society through their exposure to the Spanish language. Spanish is incorporated in cross-curricular activities and practical life situations. Students also use the online Scholastic ¿Qué Tal? magazine and online supplementary program. Middle School students are provided with the tools to become successful foreign language learners. After completing seventh and eighth grade Spanish with a grade of B or better, students may gain high school credit for Spanish I and II.
Technology Foundations
Middle School students learn best when they are actively engaged with the content. Lessons that include technology applications, provide teachers with ways to motivate students into becoming active, real-world learners. Computer-based strategies help students develop higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills. Participation in real-life applications included in technology-rich teaching environments promotes the ability to draw analogies, infer relationships, predict outcomes, and analyze data. In the Middle School, each student has their own laptop which they use daily. All Middle School students also bring a tablet or have access to a school tablet for use during the school day.Each grade level has focused technology skill lessons each week in technology class. All classrooms are equipped with interactive Promethean Boards for both teacher and student use.
Electives
- Art
- Coding
- Debate
- Drama
- Engineering
- Introduction to Band
- Outdoor Classroom
- Woodworking, Textiles, and Basic Cooking
- Yearbook
Art
The Hightower Middle School Art Class is designed to address specific developmental stages and desires of creative and cognitive growth of art students in grades fifth through eighth over the duration of a school year. Throughout the year the students will enhance their skills in drawing, painting and 3D Art. The objectives of this course include: exercising and demonstrating the use and mastery of the elements of design, use of materials, tools and process from a variety of media (including printmaking, painting, sculpture, ceramics and photography), learning to handle materials effectively, creating original objects of art in a specific medium, selecting appropriate media relative to concepts and forms of art.
Coding
Students will learn basic HTML/CSS to build websites. Students will progress to C++ / Python coding using CodeCombat and other resources. Throughout the year students will continue their education with advanced SCRATCH and will begin to recreate classic video games. The class will include an introduction to HTML coding. We will create webpages from scratch, learning HTML terminology along the way. This class will also introduce how the internet was created. Coding with SCRATCH introduces students to block coding. Students will be able to write and modify code for games. We will use the program CodeCombat which allows students to learn and write code in different programming languages such as JavaScript and Python.
Debate
This course will develop and improve public speaking, argumentative, and critical-thinking skills in communication settings. Students will prepare and deliver speeches and participate in several in-class debates and forums on current topics. Techniques will be taught to control speech anxiety, as well structure and how to organize information to present to a variety of audiences. As such, the fundamentals of physical and vocal delivery skills, use of language and gesturing, as well as listening skills will be learned.
Drama
During this course students are instructed in creative expression through basic theater skills and theatrical performances. The focus of the class concentrates on the following: improvisations and scripted scenes based on personal experiences and heritage, imagination, literature and history, developing basic acting skills, developing environments, rehearsals, cultural and historical information to support acting, analyzing, evaluating and constructing meaning from acting, understanding the role of the theater, film, television, and electronic media. The course culminates in a school theatrical production. Students will be required to attend additional rehearsals after school during the week or two before the performance.
Engineering
Students focus on three disciplines of engineering during this course - flight, science in nature and robotics. The study of flight includes exploring air, aerodynamics and flight with hands-on experiments and projects. Students are challenged with STEM activities to discover more about everything that glides, floats and flies, including a closer look at the history and principles of flight, building a model airplane, and creating their own future flying machine. The study of science in nature includes exploring science through the lens of nature. Students will be challenged with STEM activities to discover more about how humans use and are inspired by nature. Students will experiment with natural pigments and pH indicators, learn more about flowers and fruits with a flower dissection, prints and presses, and create a fruit battery. Looking towards nature, students will take a closer look at how nature has influenced inventions and will create their own bioplastic. The study of robotics introduces students to the basics of programming and building using Lego Mindstorms NXT and EV3 robots. Students will then tackle design challenges and end with a sumobot competition.
Introduction to Band
Hightower Middle School (HMS) students can participate in a beginning band class. Students can choose between clarinet, saxophone, trumpet and trombone. Band will meet two days a week during the school day and may require a possible after-school time. Please note, students will need to supply their own instrument.
Outdoor Classroom
This is a project-oriented, horticulture and nature studies exploration guided by two master gardeners with decades of horticulture experience. Among other things, units will include vegetable gardening, landscape plant propagation, native habitat gardening (e.g. butterfly host garden, Monarch waystation, prairie restoration), pond habitat exploration, birdwatching skills and practice, composting theory and experimentation, textile manufacture from plants (we grow cotton on campus) and sheep through ginning, carding, spinning and weaving processes. The class will keep journals that track growth, record observations, and provide the foundation for an ongoing campus calendar record of natural cycles and interesting events and creatures discovered on campus. The class will engage as much as possible with new HMS building project’s landscaping plans from screening vines to participating in the design of the retention pond and bioswale.
Woodworking, Textiles, and Basic Cooking
This course will touch on these three topics during the year. During the woodworking section, there will be three projects: a bird house, home address kit, and interactive display for the playground. The second section will focus on textiles and basic hand sewing. Students will learn simple sewing skills, weaving and other textile crafts. The third section will be “Introduction to cooking: Snack time!” Students will make after-school snacks, dips such as humus, pesto from our Outdoor Classroom, bruschetta, wraps, salad dressings, frozen yogurt bars and light desserts.
Yearbook
As the historians for the school, yearbook members accurately cover the school year, as well as create a contemporary publication that will be enjoyable and relevant to our community for years to come. Students will learn the requirements of publication: design, photography, writing, and project management.
This slideshow provides insight into the hands-on, real-world experience found in the Hightower Middle School.
leaf two
This brochure, Rooted in Love: Middle School at The Branch School, will share about the learning experience of our middle school students.