Welcome to St. Patrick School!
Our 6th grade students study World Geography, which is a natural follow-on to the study of ancient world cultures in 5th grade. At the end of the year, students will present their "Adopt-a-Country" projects to the school & parents. We begin working on these projects after the Christmas break in small stages -- the school always looks forward to this!
7th graders study US History through the Civil War & Reconstruction. 8th grade begins with a unit on government & the Constitution and then picks up with Westward Expansion, studying US History to the present day.
Most days, students begin class by watching "CNN10," a 10-minute current events broadcast designed for ages 11+. Quite often, one of their news stories or special features makes a connection to what we have been studying. Students also learn how to use their textbooks independently in social studies: 6th graders use guided notes and 7th & 8th graders learn to take their own notes. This will help them through high school and college classes to do more than just read when they are assigned pages to read. Our tests are a mix of simple recall (multiple choice & matching), interpretation of documents/diagrams,/short videos, and essay questions that require students to support their answers.
In terms of technology, we've become more and more adept as a school community in using online tools to create and enhance assignments & classwork. We are already familiar with our one-to-one Chromebooks, using google.classroom and the tools within it (tests & quizzes on Google Forms, small projects on Google Slides, essays in Google Docs, and so on). Students work with hardback textbooks at school and have access to their online textbook at home. Students may sign out a physical textbook to take home. While parents have some access as "guardians" in Google Classroom, you would want to ask your child to show you the "Home Screen" and then the invididual classes and the "Stream" and "Classwork" tabs to see more in-depth information about homework, assignments, and notices to the class. We have found the system to be very user friendly.
Our students leave the middle school well prepared to continue with a study of World History (if continuing to Trinity High School) or to transition to the public school social studies curriculum. They will have written essays for contests, done independent research on small and large projects, and have a core understanding of the world's geography and important events and issues in United States history.