SOCIAL STUDIES

Instruction helps students understand their roots, see their connections to the past, and recognize the commonality of people across time. It imbues students with the knowledge, intellectual skills, civic understandings, and dispositions towards democratic values that are necessary for effective functioning in a democratic society.

At HANC, the content is predicated upon New York State mandated curriculum. Seventh grade covers Colonial America, American Revolution, and Exploration through the Pre-Civil War Period. Eighth grade covers Civil War through the Present.

Many opportunities exist to integrate social studies instruction with other parts of the school program. Thus, teachers and students work together so that inquiry, research, and communication skills improve as students read literature, use primary and secondary sources to locate information, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information, construct and use graphs, charts, diagrams, maps and models, and communicate the results of inquiries for specific purposes.

ENGLISH

The mandatedNew YorkStatecurriculum and Common Core State Standards allow ample flexibility to stress both content and application. In English classes students are exposed to many literary genres including novels, short stories, essays, poetry, and plays in addition to non-fiction pieces used to focus on reading for information – a necessary life skill. As writers, they write poems, letters, essays, and stories. Grammar skills are taught and, along with writing skills, are stressed as necessary to use in all subjects and all classes. Teachers work closely to assure consistency in methods and expectations across the grades and subjects.

As HANC Middle  School students move through seventh and eighth grades, they develop and improve the skills necessary to be readers, writers, and communicators for the rest of their lives. They are taught to strive to reach their highest potential and leave us thoroughly prepared for the rigors of high school. Those who wish to express their creative selves have ample opportunities via the newspaper, yearbook, and debate team, to name a few. The newest SMARTboard technology, in many classrooms, provides the means to preparing and presenting creative projects in all subject areas.

MATH

The seventh and eighth grade curricula are based on Common Core State Standards, recently adopted byNew YorkState– one of 48 states who use the Standards.  The Standards are focused, coherent and aligned with college and work expectations. They include rigorous content and application of knowledge though high-order thinking skills.

The Domains for Middle School include ratio and proportional relationships, the Number System, Expressions and Equations, Functions, Geometry, and Statistics and Probability.

Our math teachers strive to allow each student to progress and achieve to his/ her highest potential. Using varied methods of assessment and instruction they insure that each student has a solid foundation and is ready for the next level of mathematics as well as being able to use a variety of strategies to understand content and problem solve.

The eighth grade honors class will take the Integrated Algebra Regents in June and will receive high school credit.

SCIENCE

HANCMiddle   Schoolstudents are able to work in a state-of –the-art science lab enhanced by the newest SMARTboard technology. This hands-on approach encourages them to explore and experience science, rather than just read about it. Students are provided with opportunities to develop their skills of analysis, inquiry, and design through safe and interactive laboratory activities.

Seventh graders learn about Life Science – the study of living things, from the tiniest bacterium to the largest trees. Included are cell theory, body systems, the ecosystem, the life cycle, evolution, and good health, to name a few. In the lab, they learn to use a compound microscope, study cells, membranes, leaves, and flowers, learn about the anatomy of a frog, and investigate food webs and chains.

Eighth graders study Physical Science —  the study of non-living systems including matter, elements, the periodic table, atoms, chemical reactions, motion, force, sound, energy, magnetism and electricity. Through a variety of teaching methods, students learn the necessary concepts which are then applied and reinforced during individual and group laboratory work.

Eighth graders also take a once-a-week Research and Technology course which was developed to teach them how to do a formal research report and use the computer more effectively so they are better prepared for high school.