Curriculum

Middle Grades
Middle School Curriculum
NRMS has developed system-wide instructional guides for grades 6-8. These guides direct instruction and ensure that the Common Core & Essential Standards are adequately addressed. North Carolina is one of forty-six states to adopt the Common Core Standards. These standards describe what students are supposed to know from kindergarten through 12th grade. They define the reading, writing and math knowledge at each grade level. Each year builds on the next so that by graduation, young people are prepared for college and the workplace. To learn more about how parents can support their student through Common Core scan the QR code.

Parents & Community

How can parents get involved?
- Visit & Volunteer in your childs classroom. - Participate in workshops, open houses & parent-teacher conferences. - Communicate. Ask questions, send notes & ask to be updated often.

How will the school be involved?

- ConnectEd Contact, Facebook & Twitter Feeds. - District, School & Teacher websites.

Middle School Development

6th 8th Grade

- Curriculum Focused Open Houses

- Parent Focused Informational Opportunities.

Nash-Rocky Mount Public Schools

930 Eastern Avenue Nashville, North Carolina 27856
www.nrms.k12.nc.us

Executive Summary
Middle School Development

Middle School Development

Cliques vs. Crowds: Cliques are relatively small peer groups that determine acceptance based on specific standards. They provide a stable emotional-social environment for both genders throughout adolescence. Crowds are larger, less organized peer groups, and are more prominent in early adolescences. They allow children to explore new identities and meet new people. Crowds are reputation-based, and are determined by attitudes, attributes or activities. Cliques and crowds play an important role in defining adolescents identity, self-esteem and self worth.

Language & Literacy Development:

Language development in adolescence is largely a function of connectionsconnecting life events to a life story, connecting to each other through shared and similar vocabulary, and connecting with technology. At adolescence, preteens begin to connect these experiences to develop a narrative, or life story. Psychologist Eric Erikson suggests that developing a life story is the first stage in forming a mature identity and thus, adolescence. In their life stories, to convey an enduring identity, adolescents depict themselves consistent across time and situations. Literacy development during adolescence is marked by a broadened vocabulary resulting from widespread reading and writing. Much of adolescent literacy closely aligns with that of their personal development. As students grapple with their own identity and peer relations, they participate in reading and writing that focuses around biographies and autobiographies.

Physical Development: Adolescence is

an unpredictable, inconsistent sensitive, awkward, and energetic period resulting from rapid maturation of the body and mind. Adolescents can be poor decisionmakers and unaware of the effect of their choices on others. They undergo many bodily changes; they also experience awkward and uncoordinated movements. Their development is mostly characterized by gross motor coordination, rather than fine motor skills

Identity, Self-Concept & Motivation:

Children begin to develop a more complex and differentiated sense of self. In middle school, students become aware of the contradictions in their selves. If children arent able to harmonize these seemingly different selves, they begin to ask Who is the real me?

Peer Relationships: In middle school, the

percentage of a childs social interactions involving peers increases as compared to early childhood development. During adolescence, children interact more deliberately with their peers, and being to create sustainable friendships. Children at this age become increasingly concerned about acceptance and rejection amongst their peers.

Cognitive Development: Students

cognitive skills are experiencing qualitative changes during the middle grades. Students are developing the ability to think abstractly, systematically, hypothetically, and deductively. Attention, reasoning, decision-making, and other aspects of thinking begin to develop further as well.