Sample Curriculum

Here’s an example of our Interdisciplinary Approach: 

Our entire Middle School explored the social and environmental aspects of peace, justice, and strong institutions, beginning their unit of study with a compelling presentation by Or Shaked, Israel’s human rights advisor to the United Nations focusing on the rights of children.  Over the course of several weeks, students explored the topic from an historical, social, or environmental perspective, as well as present day, and most importantly, looking toward the future.

Mr. Shaked explained the deep connection between peace and justice and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, which represent a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a "blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all". He inspired students to consider what their call to action will be and what steps each student can take to help preserve these two powerful concepts for our future.

View a video clip here.

Grade 5

We begin by reviewing summer reading, There's a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom by Louis Sachar and El Deafo by Cece Bell. Fifth-Grade English begins the year by reading mysteries. The students learn the key elements of the mystery genre, including clues, evidence, red herrings, victims, crimes and suspects. Students are divided into two groups according to reading level and read From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and The Westing Game. The active reading skill of annotating the text is introduced and established. Mid-year, students begin studying the Civil Rights Movement and read a work of historical fiction, The Watsons Go to Birmingham. Students continue to practice annotating the text and effectively summarizing what they have read. Toward the end of the semester, students read The Egypt Game, making a cross-curricular connection with history class. In addition to reading the course’s assigned novels, students are also expected to read independently. The fifth graders demonstrate their developing writing abilities through monthly reading responses and book reviews on their chosen books. Assigned essays focus on helping students support their opinions with evidence from the text. Our writing lessons emphasize sentence structure, outlining, drafting and paragraph writing, as well as editing and revising written work. In addition, the students learn to distinguish between main ideas and details. Throughout the year, students study vocabulary, grammar, punctuation and analogies.

Grade 6

In Sixth-Grade English, we dive into the books March, Book 1, Lucky Broken Girl, The Giver and Wonder. Through this mix of classic and modern texts, students explore what it means to live by society’s values. Through collaborative and individual assignments, students engage in inquiry-based learning and seek creative responses. We then read the memoir Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. While reading this text, students dissect figurative language and analyze the impact of free verse poetry. Students also create their own poetry and collaborate on jigsaw assignments. The building blocks of language -- grammar, spelling, and vocabulary -- are studied in all units. We use literature as a way to understand our own values, how these values are formed, and how to uphold those values in a complex world. Students develop and refine skills through literary analysis, writing in a range of genres, independent research, and process reflection. The literature we read pushes us to examine the theme of “Discovering and Remaining True to Oneself.”  We ask ourselves who and what defines someone’s identity, and, ultimately, why does it matter? Through various works of literature we consider how we can foster a “commitment to menschlichkeit, reflecting fineness of character, respect for others, integrity, and the centrality of chesed in all its manifestations,” a foundational aspect of Ramaz’s mission. We explore how to navigate the desire to become a part of something larger while remaining true to what is morally correct. Not only is this theme relevant to each novel, but it is also applicable to the lives of young adolescents who are attempting to find their place in the world around them.

Grade 7

In 7th grade English, we start the year by discussing the summer reading books A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park and A Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. Writing exercises model the structures of Anne Frank’s diary entries, and the students discuss some of the big ideas of Anne Frank’s diary in Socratic seminars, where half the class discusses a topic and the other half observes and holds them accountable for their productive participation. In the summer reading books and in our first novel, Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse, students work on using the text to support their ideas, practicing annotating, close reading, and gathering meaningful quotes worthy of analysis. The students write a series of analytical paragraphs, using evidence sandwiches to organize their evidence to support a claim. The writing process is presented as a series of smaller steps and the importance of revision is stressed. Over the course of the semester, students also expand their vocabularies with Wordly Wise and learn basic grammar and appropriate mechanics and conventions in their writing. In addition, students continue to write on prompts at the beginning of every class in their writer’s notebook, and they complete independent reading projects on books of their choice. 

In second semester students read Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Students continue to practice their literary analysis skills and to support this by annotating, close reading, and identifying and interpreting literary elements in a text. They continued to practice writing analytical paragraphs that use meaningful evidence to support an interpretive claim. To understand To Kill a Mockingbird, students consider big ideas about our country’s history and about how communities and prejudice are formed by both written and unwritten rules. They finish their study of the novel with a persuasive essay using the skills they have practiced all year in building strong analytical paragraphs. Then students tackle their first Shakespeare play, learning how to approach a dramatic work with sometimes challenging language and form. An assignment on a speech from Romeo and Juliet asks students to not only paraphrase and summarize a selected speech, considering its meaning and purpose in the larger play and its themes, but to memorize and recite the speech to the class. This allows students to further interact with the text and immerse themselves in Shakespeare’s language. Students continue their grammar and vocabulary work and their creative writing skills in their writer’s notebooks and in projects on their independent reading. 

Grade 8 English

In the fall semester, Eighth-Grade English explores questions of identity, morality, and the rise of totalitarianism through the lenses of the dystopian novels Lord of the Flies and Animal Farm, as well as the coming-of-age novel The Chosen. In-class passage analysis assessments build upon writing skills gained in previous years, while pushing students to examine language more closely for its diction, tone, and syntax. Students then incorporate this close textual analysis into sophisticated essays driven by arguable thesis statements, for which they produce outlines and multiple drafts. In addition, students exercise their creative writing skills by composing stories and poems inspired by the assigned authors. In the spring, we delve into Nella Larsen’s Passing and Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, exploring issues surrounding identity, race, gender, and class in the books. Assignments for this unit include a passage explication and recitation of a monologue, as well as multiple drafts of a thesis-driven, analytical essay. We round out the year with a unit on mythology, using Edith Hamilton’s book to learn about different versions of various ancient stories. Students write their own versions of myths by examining familiar stories from fresh points of view.  Throughout the year, students write frequently in their journals and complete vocabulary and grammar assignments, which are designed to further enhance their writing skills. In addition, each student independently reads a minimum of two books per semester, on which they write and share reviews with the class.

Grade 8 English

In this workshop-style class, we utilize the Hochman method of sentence development and expansion. The writing curriculum aims to support sentence and paragraphing skills, and to help students organize their essays more effectively. We practice writing across a range of genres in class and receive support for writing assignments in other classes, such as assigned papers or assessments.

Grade 5

Fifth grade history curriculum focuses on the world's ancient civilizations. We begin with an exploration of how today's archaeologists learn about the distant past by studying fossils and artifacts. Students begin the year with a study of Mesopotamia and learn how geography played a key role in its development. The class explores life in ancient city-states, social order, the role of government and religion and Mesopotamian inventions including the wheel, the calendar and irrigation techniques. Fifth graders also study the development of Egypt in the Nile River Valley and the role of the Nile and Mediterranean in the development of the kingdom. This unit affords us the opportunity to examine artifacts from Ancient Egypt at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  

Students then study Greece as a democracy and contrast its geography with that of other civilizations. The final unit of the year focuses on China. 

Each unit of study features a project, such as an oral presentation combining research, writing and technology skills.

Grade 6

Sixth graders begin the year by learning about the tools needed to study history and are introduced to historiography. Students are given a framework for understanding history, emphasizing how the discipline may be affected by individual background, culture, beliefs, and point of view. Students learn about the Maya, Aztecs, and Incas, and the cultures of North America. In their units on Europe they study Feudalism and the Middle Ages, and the Italian Renaissance. Much of this learning is supported through textbook and "Renaissance Reader" readings, primary and secondary source analysis, visual resources, and note-taking.

During the second semester, students continue their exploration of World History by learning about the end of the Italian Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and the Age of Exploration. This content is directly tied to early American history as students spend the last few months of the second semester learning about the first European Colonies founded in North America, the establishment of the Thirteen Colonies, and the English Parliamentary Tradition, along with the economic Theory of Mercantilism. Student learning is supported through frequent textbook readings, primary and secondary source analysis, note-taking, and a technology/history assignment.  Additionally, students spend three months focusing on all aspects of the research and writing process for their history research reports, including: choosing a topic, finding reliable source material, note-taking, outlining, writing a first draft, citing sources using parenthetical documentation, composing a works cited page, editing, and formatting a final research report.

Grade 7

Seventh graders begin by learning about lands and climates of the United States, economics and social sciences, roots of colonial government, and the American Revolution. Much of this learning is supported through textbook readings, primary and secondary source analysis, note-taking, and computers/history projects that directly support and expand upon curriculum content. Through primary and secondary source analysis, students practice the skills of "reading like a historian", which include: sourcing, contextualization, corroboration, and close reading. These skills engage students in historical inquiry, allowing them to evaluate the trustworthiness of multiple perspectives and learning how to make historical claims backed by evidence. 

During the second semester, students continue their exploration of American history by studying the Constitution and the three branches of government, the U.S. Civil War, and the second Industrial Revolution. Much of this learning is supported through frequent textbook readings, primary and secondary source analysis, note-taking, and technology/history projects that directly support and expand the curriculum content. The second semester is also devoted to more long-term projects such as a Photo Archive assignment, a U.S. History Map assignment and the History Research Report. Students created a custom U.S. History Map using Google Maps that reflected the various time periods, locations, events, and current events learned about in class and from Upfront Magazine. Additionally, students focus on all aspects of the research and writing process for their History research reports, including: choosing a topic, finding reliable source material, note-taking, outlining, writing a first draft, citing sources using parenthetical documentation, composing a works cited page, editing, and formatting a final research report. The semester culminates in a group "Decades Project" where students spend four weeks immersing themselves in a specific decade of the 20th century. Students utilize a variety of web tools, visuals, audio, and video to teach their peers. 

Grade 8

The primary focus of the Grade 8 History course is modern Jewish History.  Students begin the year by studying the history of Zionism and Israel from the emergence of modern Zionist ideology to the early 20th century aliyot, reading selected primary and secondary texts.  They conduct a reinactment of a World Zionist Congress, in which groups of students defend a particular Zionist philosophy.  Students then embark upon an extensive unit on the history of the Holocaust.  While discussing pre-war life in Europe, students research a particular European Jewish community from before the Nazi rise to power and produce a documentary film in which they compare their own experiences to life in the community they are studying.  Students are also exposed to historiography, comparing historians' differing views on an essential Holocaust question.  

After completing our unit on Holocaust history, including studying resistance, rescue, and the modern-day canard of Holocaust denial, students learn about the rise of the modern State of Israel.  We study the country's wars, its geography, and the various ethnic groups that make up Israeli society.  Students read articles from the New York Times and Wall Street Journal to better understand how history impacts life today.  Students also study American Jewish History, discussing the different waves of Jewish immigration to the United States beginning in 1654, as well as examining the four branches of Judaism: Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist.

The major assignment of the second semester is a research paper.  Students develop a thesis, collect primary and secondary resources, format a works cited page, and write a detailed outline followed by a four page paper. 

Educational Technology 

Fifth- through seventh-grade students have a formal computer class once per week, with access to an apple computer lab. Eighth graders have computer literacy twice a week. Computer classes are project-based and are integrated with classroom curricula. Students practice responsible use and care of technology systems and learn about proper digital citizenship.  Students learn to use developmentally appropriate digital resources such as digital maps, subscription databases, and websites selected by teachers. Each classroom has an interactive board that projects the teacher’s computer. 

In the fall of 2022, students in the seventh and eighth grades will begin using the dynamic Hebrew language program, B’Shvil Haivrit. The goal of this multi-level learning program is to bring the learning of Hebrew alive for our students with engaging print and digital materials, focusing on skill-building in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Using materials ranging from Midrash to Israeli rap songs, historical documents to comics, students will be introduced to viewpoints on daily life in Israel, Jewish tradition, and history, learning the language through conversations and literature, poetry and discussion, current events, song, writing, and independent reading, as well as biblical texts.