Schedule

8:30-9:00 Homeroom

9:00-9:45 Flex (Music/Art/OutdoorEd/Health/Activities)

9:45-11:15 Math/Computer

11:15-12:00 Science

12:00-12:30 Recess

12:30-1:00 Lunch

1:00-1:30 Drop Everything and Read (DEAR)

1:30-2:15 Flex (P.E./Theater/Activities)

2:15-3:30 Humanities

Neskowin Valley School students doing a craft.

Middle School Overview & Schedule

Our middle school students experience a memorable, transformative curriculum that builds upon their inquisitive and relational skills and produces kind, sturdy adolescents. Our rigorous program emphasizes collaboration, inquiry-based experiential learning, interdisciplinary studies, and a global perspective, all within our nurturing environment where students feel safe, included and accepted. Every day, students are offered opportunities to: make connections with their peers and teachers, value and respect the differences of others, and forge a positive outlook on learning and their future. Neskowin Valley School offers a non-traditional environment where excellence, self-confidence, empathy, and joy are nurtured.

Humanities

In Social Studies Middle School students cycle through a three year curriculum that focuses on a different area of Global Studies for the first half of the year, and a related subject of US History for the second half of the year. Year One focuses on Ancient Civilizations and US Immigration & Migration; Year Two moves to West Africa & the Caribbean and the Struggle for Equality, Justice, and Civil Rights in the US; and Year Three takes on Southeast Asia and Influential Thinkers, Systemic Biases, and Marginalized Communities in the US. The class reads: short stories, fiction, historical fiction, poetry and articles. Students participate in class discussions, literature circles, image analysis and group projects. There is an integration of grammar, spelling and vocabulary, as well as interdisciplinary reading. There is a focus on essay structure as our Middle School students work to develop a personal voice and style through both creative and expository writing.

Math

Our Middle School students continue with the Illustrative curriculum, where they solve problems in both mathematical and real-world contexts, make connections between concepts and procedures and participate in lessons designed to encourage mathematical discourse. 

The mathematical work for Grade 6 includes:

  • Area

  • Ratios

  • Rates & Percentages

  • Dividing Fractions

  • Arithmetic in Base Ten

  • Espressions & Equations

  • Rational Numbers

  • Data Sets & Distribution

The mathematical work for Grade 7 includes:

  • Scale Drawings 

  • Proportional Relationships & Percentages

  • Measuring Circles 

  • Rational Number Arithmetic

  • Expressions, Equations & Inequalities

  • Angles, Triangles & Prisms

  • Probability & Sampling 

The mathematical work for Grade 8 includes:

  • Rigid Transformation & Congruence 

  • Dilations, Similarity & Slope

  • Linear Relationships, Equations & Systems 

  • Functions in Volume

  • Associations in Data

  • Exponents & Scientific Notation

  • Pythagorean Theorem

Science

For these three years, students experience OpenSciEd, a comprehensive middle school science curriculum that empowers students to ask questions, design investigations, and look for solutions. The curriculum is: phenomenon based, driven by student questions, grounded in evidence, collaborative, and equitable. OpenSciEd empowers students to be the knowers and doers of science, while they develop their abilities to think, read, write and argue as scientists.