Middle School (6-8)

Teaching and Learning in the Middle School

• Religion is an academically oriented study of the Old and New Testament along with the geography and historical context of each and also covers Catholic-specific Sacraments and vocabulary.
• Literature enriches students lives with various literary genres including poetry, short stories, and novels. Literature class allows for educational gains in comprehension, analysis and verbal reasoning.
• Language Arts is taught as a separate subject so that students learn proper grammar, sentence structure and advanced vocabulary in preparation for high school.
• Social Studies introduces students to other cultures, significant events in U.S history and geography and involves individual and small group projects and oral presentations.
• Each grade level in Middle School has 3 tiers of Mathematics, which has drawn many families to our program; on-level, accelerated and one-grade-advanced. Students on the one-grade-advanced track have the option to take Geometry in eighth grade, typically a high school course.
• Science courses challenge students to move beyond the important subject foundation from text books. Students gain a better understanding of science concepts and an idea of how other subjects often complement this subject area through hands on small group and individual experiments and projects. Each class emphasizes the importance of problem solving skills and scientific inquiry.
• World languages are an increasing important part of success in our ever changing economy and global community. We offer Spanish as part of our core curriculum from K-8. After completing three years of Middle School Spanish which includes root word exploration and the study of Spanish-speaking countries across the globe, OLG graduates are often able to move into Spanish 2 as ninth graders. 
• Viewing complex topics through many lenses often helps students access and better understand more abstract ideas and encourages interest in a wide range of professions. As such, academic themes and topics are taught across the curriculum, including but not limited to Literature, Science, Social Studies and even the Arts.