"The major purpose of this course is to develop student focus and active engagement with text. Students are required to analyze, identify, define, explain, and critique with an increased emphasis on advanced forms of evaluation in expository critique and literary criticism and advanced presentations on problems and solutions. The California Reading/Language Arts Framework (referred to as the Framework) require that by the end of middle school, students will have read one million words annually on their own, including a good representation of narrative (classic and contemporary literature) and expository literature (magazines, newspapers, online articles). The Framework highlights that sixth grade students are expected to write narrative, persuasive, and descriptive texts (responses to literature and research reports) of at least 500 to 700 words in each genre and continue to demonstrate a command of standard English. "  ( Guidelines for Standards-Based Instruction - LAUSD Secondary English/Language Arts)

"This Grade six course investigates the origins and development of ancient societies of major western and non-western civilizations. Included are the societies of the Near East, Africa, the ancient Hebrew civilization, Greece, Rome, and the classical civilizations of India and China. For each of these societies, emphasis is placed on the major contributions, achievements, and beliefs that have influenced civilizations across the centuries to the present day. This course stresses the special significance of geography in the development of the human story and provides the opportunity to study the everyday lives of people living in vastly different areas of the world. The course content focuses on the people in ancient societies; their problems and accomplishments; their social, economic, political structures, and belief systems; the tools and technology they developed; the arts they created; the architecture; the literature they produced; their explanation for natural phenomena, and their direct or indirect contributions to issues such as the role of women and the practice of slavery. " ( Guidelines for Standards-Based Instruction - LAUSD Secondary History/Social Science)

"This grade seven course explores world history and geography from the Fall of Rome through the Age of Enlightenment. The course investigates the social, cultural, and technological changes during this period. This course briefly reviews the role of archaeologists and historians in uncovering the past. It goes on to examine Islam as a religion and as a civilization. The course examines the spread of Islam through Africa, the rise of the Mayan, Incan, and Aztec civilizations; the civilizations of China and Japan; Europe during the High Middle Ages; the turbulent ages of the Renaissance, Reformation, and Scientific Revolution. This course seeks to enhance understanding of the interconnection of past events, people, and ideas to events and issues of importance in the world today." ( Guidelines for Standards-Based Instruction - LAUSD Secondary History/Social Science)