Unique Middle School Programs

Teaching Enriched Artistic Mediums (TEAM)

The TEAM classroom is a new 9-week course this year for students in sixth and seventh grades.  Mrs. Mary Klug is the TEAM teacher.  The class is designed to support and enrich the core curriculum content areas by incorporating arts and crafts, drama, reader’s theater, improvisational theater, art elements, principles of design, 3-D models, and math art.  Students work on wide variety of projects during this 9-week course.  Individual projects include constructing and illustrating books, which teach the Core Democratic Values, math art projects that lead the way into Op Art and design, in Creative Dramatics, the students practice acting out character roles, do mirroring exercises with a partner, recite choral readings, and participate in reader’s theater.  Teamwork and individual creativity are encouraged everyday in TEAM.

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Lego-Robotics Lab

Critical Thinking is a class all 6^th graders take at Coloma Middle School.  This class features a Lego-Robotics lab, complete with laptop computers and over 800 Lego pieces per set. Students are learning how to construct robots out of Legos.  They problem solve on a daily basis while programming their robots to accomplish different tasks each week.  Middle school students are now being exposed to more engineering, computer programming, and robotics concepts than ever before. The class is very challenging and rewarding at the same time.  The students have taken hold of these critical thinking concepts and are soaring for the sky.

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Accelerated Writing and Reasoning Environment (AWARE)

In 6^th grade AWARE, we focus on developing students’ writing styles with rich vocabulary and a variety of sentence structures.  We do this through numerous writing activities including organized essays, creative writing, plays, poetry, persuasive writing, journal writing, and research papers.   In literature, we expose students to many different genres so the4y have a wide range of reading experiences.  We also do an array of projects that assess the students’ learning and encourage both individual work and cooperative group work.  In social studies, we cover primarily ancient history beginning with hunters and gathers through the fall of Rome. We culminate the Roman unit with a simulation video game called Caesar, in which students construct a virtual city.   We include a variety of map skills throughout each unit.  Through the backdrop of ancient history, we explore both civics and economics with a concentration on Core Democratic Values.  Newspapers are used as a weekly tool to discuss current events. We also use technology in a variety of ways to enhance the curriculum.  Students complete numerous projects that require them to be proficient technology users.  

In 7^th grade AWARE, The 7^th grade Language Arts and Geography A.W.A.R.E. block emphasizes self-directed learning, self-guided practice, responsibility, writing across the curriculum, and writing for understanding.  Grammar and mechanics of the written language are stressed, while students are exposed to a variety of literature including short stories, novels, and poetry.  In Geography, students will learn about the Five Themes of Geography, which include: Regions, Movement, Human Environment Interactions, Place and Location. By looking at physical features, history, economics and cultures of countries in the Western Hemisphere, students will gain understanding how these themes shape the world around them. 

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Guided Learning

is a flexible support class for at-risk students.  The goal is to raise grades, self-confidence, and improve work and study skills.  When students are successful, they are returned to the class of their choice.