Curriculum

Middle School students draw on their natural curiosity and our expansive, 美丽的校园和丰富的资源使他们的学习延伸到课堂之外——俱乐部, athletic activities, rehearsals, art studios, and in building relationships among each other and with their teachers. 

Our curriculum places a premium on intellectual development centered on creativity, critical thought, and personal growth through the embrace of risk and challenge. Courses are deliberately designed to elicit questions rather than provide answers, 我们鼓励学生将课堂学习与校园之外的世界事件联系起来. Find out how Middle School deans help families with curriculum options.

For more detailed information about Poly’s Middle School curriculum by grade and sequence, please see our curriculum guide.

Middle School Curriculum Guide for the 2024-25 Academic Year

In every discipline, 我们制定了学术卓越的标准，旨在培养学生终身受益的思维习惯. Our expectation is that students learn to read, write, analyze, and quantify with purpose, focus, and clarity. 保利预科中学的课程序列旨在使我们的学生在他们选择的任何领域和背景下都能成为积极变革的推动者.

Middle School Curriculum Overview

• Computer Science

  In our Computer and Information Science classes and state-of-the-art Makerspace, students apply their creativity, problem-solving skills, and communication tools to explore new languages, engineer and design 3-D solutions, develop multi-level understanding of the internet and social media, use hands-on technologies such as robotics and microcontrollers, and explore the expanding universe of artificial intelligence.

  计算机语言是保利发展最快、最令人兴奋的研究领域之一, and our digital-savvy students are its natural interlocutors. 保利中学计算机与信息科学课程使学生能够利用技术工具提高学习效率和生产力, and as a means of enhancing collaboration with peers. 计算机和信息科学专业的学生总是以询问和要求理解偏见可能导致的有益和意外后果的方式介绍技术和创新. Diversity, equity, inclusion, 反种族主义工作是我们计算机和信息科学课程的重点, both in content and representation.  As students progress, they are introduced to the design thinking approach, and encouraged to identify real-world problems and develop credible solutions.

• English

  Madeleine L’Engle wrote that, “You have to write the book that wants to be written. 如果这本书对成年人来说太难了，那么你就为孩子们写.” In that spirit, Poly’s Middle School English curriculum challenges as it nurtures, instilling a critical foundation for writing across an array of disciplines. Students explore a variety of writing modes, moving from the expressive to the analytical in increasingly complex forms. 除了了解如何将巧妙的句子转化为发展良好的文章, Middle School students read a wide range of literature, from inspiring classics like Romeo and Juliet and The Giver to the work of contemporary writers like Jamaica Kincaid, as we prepare them to write the books that want to be written.

• History

  At the core of the History Department’s mission is the belief that the study of history has the potential to, in the words of historian Carl Degler, “expand our conception and understanding of what it means to be human.“历史研究是保利培养学生成为世界公民的使命中不可或缺的一部分, 我们的历史课程旨在帮助学生适应导航, both in the past and in the present, the tension between the familiar and the strange. To this end, students develop a deep knowledge of their own country’s history, global history, and area-specific histories. 我们也使学生能够超越他们的当下，寻求对世界的理解, 培养同理心和谦逊，这是深思熟虑的全球公民行为不可或缺的一部分.

• Mathematics

  Our Mathematics curriculum encourages students to become logical and imaginative thinkers. We help students recognize patterns and structures, explore multiple routes to solving problems, develop and apply critical thinking and abstract reasoning skills, and organize and explain their reasoning, both orally and in writing. 因为我们模拟现实世界的情况，并促进演绎和归纳推理, 我们的学生发展智力工具和信心，坚持通过复杂和具有挑战性的非常规问题, 享受探索未知的挑战，享受发现未知的喜悦.

• Science

  Our Science Department recognizes that, now more than ever before, the natural world demands innovative solutions to the most vexing environmental, medical, and resource dilemmas humankind has confronted. 因此，我们的学生参与实验和可观察数据的分析，挑战他们理解科学如何塑造所有现象, from the manufacture of sunblock to the understanding of epidemic disease.

  Middle School courses integrate the disciplines of life science, physical science, and earth/space science. In those courses, 学生使用科学和工程实践来理解现象和设计问题的解决方案, preparing them to become tomorrow’s engineers, physicians, researchers, space explorers, and scientifically literate citizens.  中学科学课程是建立在本质上是迭代和使用技能和概念，从前一年获得作为构建块，挖掘更深入，并从新的角度审视地球系统跨越空间和时间. 这种综合方法将从原子到生态系统的各个尺度的关键概念联系起来，帮助学生理解非生物和生物系统的相互联系. Through integration across scales and time, students continue to build on key competencies such as hypothesis development, data collection, and scientific reasoning in preparation for the transition into the Upper School.

• World Languages/Classics

  Our language courses immerse students in French, Spanish, Mandarin, 和/或拉丁语，作为培养他们对我们学校以外的民族和文化的好奇心的一种手段, fostering understanding that transcends our own context and time. Modern language classes place a premium on speaking, sharing, and celebrating the target language, 尤其是作为一种促进学生文化能力和个人勇气的手段.

  Classics courses promote deeper appreciation of the elements of spoken and written language, empowering our students to use their own language in richer, more sophisticated, and more impactful ways. Local excursions to restaurants, exhibits, 纽约市的社区鼓励学生成为勇敢而体贴的世界公民.

• Learning Support and Enrichment

  At Poly, 我们庆祝学习方式的广泛多样性，并致力于满足每个孩子的学习需求. Our learning specialists help all students to meet the demands of our curriculum, as well as become proficient self-advocates who are resilient, meta-cognitive, and strategic learners.

  Our learning specialists not only work closely with students, deans, classroom teachers, and school counselors, but also oversee the Learning Center, 为学生提供练习技能和利用一系列学术支持的空间. 我们支持教师满足所有学生的需求，丰富他们在课堂上的学习经验.

• Performing Arts

  舞蹈、戏剧和音乐在所有保利中学学生的体验中发挥着核心作用. Our performing arts 课程是校内课程和课外活动令人兴奋的结合, all of which build skills and encourage students to pursue their artistic interests. In grades 5 and 6, students study creative movement, drama, and vocal and instrumental music, all of which are required elements of their curriculum. In grades 7 and 8, students begin to choose from various performing arts electives, 让他们继续探索，进一步发展他们的表演技能. Partnerships with professional arts organizations expand students’ horizons, 舞台上或幕后的机会使所有学生都能参与到我们充满活力的项目中来.

• Visual Arts

  Whether they are beginners or emerging artists, students explore a range of visual arts that match their interests and skill. In our visual arts 在工作室，艺术不仅是动手和具有挑战性的，它也鼓舞人心和社区建设.  Students develop a strong base in traditional practice and materials, while being encouraged to develop their own eye and methods. They experiment, take risks, and solve problems. They look closely, ask questions, see alternate perspectives, and make connections. Through our Arts Partnerships, 他们会见鼓舞人心的专业艺术家(以及通过我们与文化机构合作的艺术专业人士)，从中挖掘宝贵的创意能量，探索和磨练自己的手艺. They become artists.

• Health and Well-being

  Middle school is a time of dramatic physical, emotional and social transition as students move from childhood into adolescence. Poly’s health and well-being curriculum uses an evidence based, 提供专家信息和适合发展的课程，以支持学生探索与他们生活新相关的健康问题. Middle school health takes a sex-positive, 包容的健康教育方法，以边缘化和交叉身份的人的健康需求为中心，并使用减少伤害战略促进健康行为. Health and well-being topics include sex and sexuality education, consent and healthy relationships, digial citizenship, substance use, nutrition, physical activity, sleep, and violence and injury prevention. Through hands-on activities, 讨论和项目学生探索如何生活的方式，促进自己的个人健康和他们的社区. Health and Well-being classes meet once per cycle and are ungraded.

• Physical Education

  Poly Prep stresses the importance of being physically active as a lifelong goal. In our physical education 课程，我们建立了一个基础，确保通过运动健康的生活方式. In grades 5 and 6, 我们专注于发展各种运动技能和运动模式的能力. In grades 7 and 8, athlete development becomes our main goal. Students have the option to choose a sport each season (fall, winter, spring) in preparation for the Upper School athletic experience.

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