Middle School Program

The Warwick Valley Central School District and the community worked closely together to create what is now known as the district's Portrait of a Graduate, which lays out the qualities the district and community believe a graduate needs to succeed in an increasingly global and interconnected society.

To ensure that Warwick students attain these outcomes, teachers — at every grade level — are mindful of approaching each lesson, classroom activity, event, and mentoring opportunity with these qualities in mind. The district is proud to offer curricula that present Warwick students with unique opportunities to envision and shape a future all their own and access to the resources and support that facilitate such growth.

The Portrait of a Graduate includes seven essential skills, qualities, and dispositions. This person is a collaborator, communication expert, creator/innovator, ethical and global citizen, resilient person, problem solver, and life-long learner.

Literacy

Well-stocked classroom libraries – including classic and current titles, in different languages, on varied topics, in all disciplines, across all four grades – are a point of pride at the middle school. There are libraries specific to world language classrooms, math classrooms, social studies, and ELA rooms. Fifth and sixth-grade students participate in a reader’s and writer’s workshop model developed at Teachers College, Columbia University. It includes independent reading, read-aloud, shared reading, word work, and small group instruction.

In the writer’s workshop, students:

• Learn they have stories worth telling and information worth sharing, and they can use their writing to persuade others and affect change
• Self-select their topics, leading to independence
• Write for extended periods, which leads to increased stamina
• Collaborate with peers for feedback and assistance
• Participate in mini-lessons where the teacher offers instruction on a writing strategy or technique to try.

These assessments give teachers insight into what type of reader a student is. A teacher can change their teaching to be more effective for each student with this information.

Mathematics

The district’s approach to math emphasizes conceptual understanding and reinforces that understanding with procedural practice. This approach is much different from the past’s multiple textbook and workbook/textbook models. The middle school program aligns with the same chief instructional resources as the elementary program, which creates an effective continuum of learning from kindergarten through eighth grade.

The math program focuses on process over product. With aligned standards across the elementary and middle school programs, teachers are able to give students working textbooks, a formalized vocabulary, and effectively move students from the concrete to the abstract.

Social Studies

WVMS Associate Principal Mr. Jared Yapkowitz discussed the middle school’s program and how it closely aligns with the high school regents program. The program, which has strong thematic links to the high school program, emphasizes map skills.

“Students in fifth grade deal with world geography, students in sixth-grade look at world civilizations, and students in seventh and eighth grade take on US history. Teachers have also incorporated constructed response questions (CRQ) into their instruction. These assessment items ask students to apply knowledge, skills, and critical thinking abilities to real-world, standards-driven performance tasks.” (Mr. Jared Yapkowitz, WVMS Principal)

Science

With the science curriculum, teachers challenge students to learn new concepts and how to apply them to project-based learning. As with the math curriculum, the science curriculum aims for process over product. Three key dimensions of science learning are integrated into the curriculum – science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts – to help students develop a contextual understanding of the content of science.

Students examine scientific phenomena and how they relate across these three dimensions, giving students valuable skills to be critical thinkers and doers in real-world situations. Adopting and adhering to a new chief instructional resource has guaranteed curriculum across grade levels, and reassessment is ongoing to align the curriculum with current standards. The science curriculum continues to move towards even more experiential, hands-on learning.

Multi-Age Classroom (MAC)

The district wants its students to be able to discuss ideas, think analytically, think critically, and question the world around them. The MAC program at the middle school gets students to inquire about different things, including their own learning and their understanding. The integrated curriculum is a product of collaborative design, and classes utilize reading and writing workshops for ELA.

The program, available in grades 5 and 6, is an extension of the elementary PIE program. MAC teachers incorporate the four PIE cornerstones into an environment wherein students are assigned a homeroom and switch classes throughout the day.

The four cornerstones are:

1. Family Involvement
2. Creative ways to keep parents involved
3. Integrated Curriculum
4. Nature Appreciation

Every year, the MAC program has about half fifth graders and half sixth graders, which provides a wonderful opportunity for the older students to become mentors for the younger ones.

World Languages

Warwick Valley offers Spanish, French, and Mandarin Chinese in its world language curriculum. The district’s approach to teaching world languages is to give students a contextual understanding of the language, as opposed to delivering exercises for rote learning. This top-down approach stands in contrast to the old bottom-up model, which relied heavily on listening and repeating, as well as memorization, to try and build mastery of a new language. This new approach is intercultural and interdisciplinary, and involves tasks that elicit all three modes of communication: interpersonal, presentational, and interpretive. This model encourages students to take charge of their own learning and explore their interests, with the teacher as facilitator.

Engineering

Engineering classes extend across all four years of a student’s career at WVMS, and the district applies Project Lead the Way. PLTW empowers students to develop and apply in-demand, transportable skills through real-world challenges. PLTW offers pathways in computer science, engineering, and biomedical science, teaching students technical skills, problem solving, critical and creative thinking, communication, and collaboration. Teachers are provided training, resources, and the support needed to engage students in real-world learning.

Students are working in areas such as green architecture, automation and robotics, design and modeling, and computer science for innovation and makers. Students have shown themselves to be true innovators, creators, and problem-solvers through their amazing work on projects like designing orthotics, and creating homes from recycled shipping containers.

Response to Intervention

Warwick Valley applies a three-tiered support model called Response to Intervention (RTI) to identify and assist struggling students. Once identified, these students receive help from Academic Intervention Services (AIS) specialists. On tier one, an AIS may advise a teacher on how to handle a student’s needs within the classroom instruction. At tier two, the AIS may enter the classroom for targeted small group instruction. At tier three, the student will meet with an AIS outside of the classroom for a more specialized intervention. A team of teachers from different fields helps teachers make sure that each student is successful in the classroom.

Their RTI process starts with an initial consultation, then an instructional support team meeting, then the agreed-upon interventions, a follow-up meeting to see how things are going, and figuring out what to do next.

Middle School Counseling

School counseling programs play a positive role in a student’s academic development, college and career readiness, and social and emotional development. Each student in grades 6 through 8 meets with their counselor in person. Counselors also work closely, consulting with administrators, classroom teachers, and school staff, as well as a student’s family when needed. Middle school counselors are involved with class scheduling, crisis response and intervention, peer mediation, social-emotional as well as academic support and intervention, 504s, RTI, and Positive Behavior Intervention Supports, among other things.

Character Education: ROAR

They teach and show how to be a good person every day. ROAR is a positive character development program for middle school students and staff.

• Respect
• Outstanding Choices
• Acceptance
• Responsibility

Yale RULER: Recognizing, Understanding, Labeling, Expressing, Regulating

RULER is an evidence-based approach to understanding and expressing emotions, developed at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. RULER supports the entire school community in:

• Understanding the value of emotions
• Building the skills of emotional intelligence
• Creating and maintaining a positive school climate

Clubs and Extracurriculars

The district is proud to provide our students with a broad range of extracurricular activities and clubs that allow them to figure out who they are and what they’re into. Being involved in these kinds of things gives students a better understanding of the world around them.

The middle school offers robust modified sports and music programs, both of which prepare students to continue on seamlessly with their athletic and artistic interests seamlessly into high school. There are special interest clubs for conservation and environmentalism, literature, writing and publishing, and running, among others. The middle school also offers class and community engagement through the National Junior Honor Society and its Student Senate. The middle school chapter of the Warwick Valley Prevention Coalition also gives students a way to be informed and involved when it comes to issues of drugs and alcohol. The group has participated in Red Ribbon Week, participated in a Youth Leadership Academy, and has led community events such as Community Forums, and a successful inaugural Trunk or Treat event this past fall.

Other Areas of Study

The presentation also included segments on Family and Consumer Science, a class where students learn important life skills, including money management and budgeting, how to find a career that suits you, and cooking and sewing. Representatives from the music department discussed the many ensembles available to musicians at all levels, as well as clubs for ukulele, guitar, and specialized string groups.

The art department talked about the growing use of technology in middle school art classes, and highlighted the cross-curricular nature of artist studies in which students engage – learning about an artist from published resources, then combining their knowledge and art skills to create in the style of the artist. The presentation also outlined how things like physical education and mindfulness are being incorporated into the middle school physical education curriculum, which aims to increase students’ physical fitness knowledge and participation.

According to ELA and Math assessments over a four-year period from 2016-2019, Warwick Valley Middle School students ranked among the highest in Orange County, with many students exhibiting mastery of the subject matter.