Carden West Upper School program provides fourth through sixth grade students with a rigorous, exciting academic program in which students find both challenge and support. Working in partnership with parents, teachers, and the community, we foster a sense of self-confidence, connection, and curiosity in learners who are capable of creative and critical thinking in the classroom and beyond. Our goal is to help children develop a life-long love of learning which extends to meaningful and deep contributions to others and the changing world around us.
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Upper Grade students work closely with caring, committed teachers who develop and implement an interdisciplinary and individualized full curriculum with a team teaching approach.
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Areas of study include English/language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, technology, physical education, one of three world languages, art, and music.
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Each course is taught by an experienced subject area specialist who possesses an in-depth understanding of the content as well as an ability to foster an excitement and love of learning within each student.
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The Carden West upper school combines outstanding individualized attention with rigorous academics, critical thinking and discussion, and innovative hands-on learning.
In addition to the curriculum standards for 4th-6th grades, students demonstrate intellectual reasoning, reflection and research skills using
- Chronological and spatial thinking
- Research, evidence and point of view
- Historical interpretation
- Effective communication
Students are assessed frequently, both formally and informally, to ensure that the curriculum is understood and internalized. Each student is taught time management, organizational and study skills, and is assigned a Teacher Mentor who provides additional support. High standards of behavior and academics are expected and maintained.
Language Arts
Sixth grade students master many standards in reading, writing, spelling, listening, and language on their way to becoming literate individuals. At this age they demonstrate independence in comprehending and evaluating complex texts across a wide range of disciplines. They
- create effective arguments, discern a speaker’s key points, ask relevant questions and use relevant language conventions,
- build strong content knowledge and comprehend as well as critique,
- value evidence and use technology and digital media strategically,
- respond to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline,
- come to understand and appreciate other perspectives and cultures.
Mathematics
By the end of 6th grade, students have mastered the four arithmetic operations with whole numbers, positive fractions, positive decimals, and positive and negative integers. They accurately compute and solve problems and they apply their knowledge to statistics and probability.
Students
- understand the concepts of mean, median, and mode of data sets and how to calculate the range;
- analyze data and sampling processes for possible bias and misleading conclusions;
- use addition and multiplication of fractions routinely to calculate the probabilities for compound events;
- conceptually understand and work with ratios and proportions;
- compute percentages;
- know about pi and the formulas for the circumference and area of a circle;
- use letters for numbers in formulas involving geometric shapes and in ratios to represent an unknown part of an expression;
- solve one-step linear equations.
Proficient students of all ages expect mathematics to make sense. Therefore, we strive to integrate and apply the following abilities in the areas of study in alignment with the National Standards for Mathematics.
1) Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
2) Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
3) Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
4) Model with mathematics.
5) Use appropriate tools strategically.
6) Attend to precision.
7) Look for and make use of structure.
8) Look for and express patterns in repeated reasoning.
Science
6th Grade Science includes study of:
1) Plate Tectonics and Earth’s Structure
2) Shaping the Earth’s Surface
3) Heat (Thermal Energy) (Physical Science)
4) Energy in the Earth System
5) Ecology (Life Science)
6) Resources
7) Investigation and Experimentation
Information is taught in segments and supported by hands-on activities that reinforce students’ connections in their learning. Some projects are completed individually while others are accomplished as group processes. Projects give students an opportunity to further practice using the Scientific Method in their investigations and are designed to integrate technology, language arts and math, as well as science.
In an effort to create life-long learners, opportunities to question, predict, experiment, reflect, and draw conclusions are integrated in the curriculum. Students explore the ways in which science appears in their daily lives. Studies meet all state and national standards.
World History and Geography - Ancient Civilizations
Sixth grade students expand their understanding of history by studying the people and events that ushered in the dawn of the major Western and non-Western ancient civilizations. Continued emphasis is placed on the everyday lives, problems, and accomplishments of people, their role in developing social, economic, and political structures, as well as in establishing and spreading ideas that helped transform the world forever.
Students develop higher levels of critical thinking by considering why civilizations developed where (and when) they did, why they became dominant and why they declined. Students analyze interactions among various cultures, emphasizing their enduring contributions and the link, despite time, between the contemporary and ancient worlds. Geography is of special significance in the development of the human story.