The Junior High years are the
culmination of a student's Far Brook experience! The Junior High students are
leaders and role models, inspiring the younger students to carry on the values
and traditions of the School. Vigorous academics and serious work in the Arts
challenge the students and prepare them to excel in the wide variety of high
schools they attend.
Math in the Junior High is
creative and challenging! Math course
offerings are tailored each year to the needs of each grade and range from
pre-algebra to honors Algebra I and Geometry. Class size is small as students
work individually and collaborate in groups, conducting math investigations and
presenting their work to the class for lively discussions. An emphasis is placed on critical analysis
and communicating the process of arriving at solutions to problems.
The science program is primarily
lab-based, with hands-on experiments a part of almost every class. Students
learn advanced lab skills and build on the skills that were introduced in the
lower and middle school such as observation, analysis, and recording and
presenting of data. Topics for the
Seventh Grade life science curriculum include energy, the workings of a cell,
and the interdependence of living things and their environment. Topics for the
Eighth Grade physical science curriculum include measurement of physical
properties of substances, application of atomic-structure concepts to behavior
or chemicals, and mathematical description of force and motion.
In French, students complete a traditional
French I class over a two-year period. Along with the latest in computer
technology which is incorporated into the curriculum, the students enjoy many
opportunities for speaking and writing the language, and dramatizations. A
culminating experience is traveling to a French speaking country during their
two year course.
The historical core curricular
tradition continues in the Seventh Grade with the study of “Renaissance” as a
theme in different cultures and in the Eighth Grade with the study of American
History. Students in these two history classes wrestle with ethical and global
challenges faced during each period and the impact on contemporary societies. The use of primary source material and
historical documents lends immediacy and authenticity to student inquiry.
The richness of the English
language and the refinement of writing skills continue to be emphasized in the
English classes in Seventh and Eighth Grades.
Readings are often tied to history studies and focus on the diversity of
reader responses and close analysis of text. Works by authors such as William
Shakespeare, Willa Cather, and Langston Hughes are traditionally explored. Writing is approached with a focus on a
workshop method and a particular emphasis on the revision of drafts.
The arts are integrated into the
curriculum for Seventh and Eighth Graders through class plays based on their
history and literature curricula. Examples of recent class plays include
abridged versions of Twelfth
Night and Henry
IV by William Shakespeare, Abe
Lincoln in Illinois by Robert E. Sherwood, Saint Joan by Bernard
Shaw, and dramatizations of The
Bride Comes to Yellow Sky by Stephen Crane and Why I Live at the P.O. by
Eudora Welty.
All students take courses in oil
painting, photography, music theory, handbells, drama, jewelry-making, and
woodworking, each taught by a specialist in the field. These courses are
scheduled three days per week on a rotating basis. All students also
participate in choir and perform challenging cantatas by Bach and
Pergolesi. Students play on interscholastic
competitive sports teams (soccer and baseball for the boys; field hockey and
softball for the girls).
Social and emotional learning is
vital to students in these grades. Connections is a rotating class specifically designed for adolescents that all
Junior High students participate in. Small group meetings take place each week. Guided activities and discussions are tailored to each group and used to explore topics of self-awareness, identity, relationships, communication, ethics, diversity, and, for eighth grade students, the transition to secondary school.
Students in the Junior High continue to extend and
broaden their learning through the use of technology in their classes. Junior
High students use technology to conduct research, learn about recent research
technology, make observations from photographs of ecosystems and biomes, present
projects, plot data, analyze lab results and data, represent data, study
French, graph mathematical equations, animate poetry, scrutinize the
information found through the internet for accuracy, and work with an
educational technology specialist on other class projects.
Service
learning is an essential and growing component of a Far Brook education.
Engaging our adolescent students in service activities that allow them to
experience the larger world around them teaches them invaluable life lessons
and plants seeds that help them grow to be compassionate leaders and caring
citizens. In an effort to prepare Junior High students to become global
citizens, we raise their awareness about social and economic issues in our local
communities through participation in hands on community service activities.
Students may also join our school’s chapter of Girls Learn International.
A highlight of the Junior High
experience is a week-long trip to the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York
during which students and faculty live and work together in a
community-building and nature-immersion experience.
As leaders of the School, Junior
High students produce the School's annual literary publication, The Far Brook Journal, and
the school’s Yearbook;
take on the most responsible and demanding roles in Far Brook's traditions; raise
school awareness of global issues; and for graduation perform a Shakespeare
play, either The Tempest or
A Midsummer Night's Dream,
as their gift to the School.