2023-24 5th & 6th Admission Brochure

Fifth and Sixth Grade

Fifth and Sixth Grade Overview

The middle school at FRA is intentionally and purposefully divided into parallel experiences serving the needs of 5th and 6th graders separately from those of 7th and 8th graders. The middle school years span a wide range of social, emotional, academic, and physical development, and we tailor the school experience to the developmentallyappropriate needs of our students. Our scheduling, class offerings, and opportunities outside of the classroom are crafted to ensure we are consistently delivering high-quality pedagogy and programming for students at each grade level. Our goal in the first two years of middle school is to build skills such as organization, responsibility, self-advocacy, grit, and resilience in a nurturing and supportive environment. We want to empower our students for the present while preparing them for the future.

Embedded in our Profile of an FRA Graduate, we strive to instill the following skills and habits in our students: •

Think Critically and Creatively: The learning in each class is designed to invite students into deep thinking, actively engaged in seeking creative solutions to complex problems.

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Demonstrate Resilience and Grit: Through the opportunities, trials, triumphs, and even failures students will experience, our goal is that they know who they are and whose they are – that they are capable of bouncing back from adversity and have the ability to make a lasting difference in the lives of the people around them.

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Lead and Collaborate: The middle school offers a host of leadership opportunities with an active Student Council, Spiritual Life Team, and a robust list of co-curricular offerings where a student’s ability to actively contribute to a team or cast abounds.

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Communicate Effectively: We believe students who can articulate where they are in their learning, think critically, and ask good questions will achieve success in both their academic endeavors and life beyond.

Experiences such as Student-Led Conferences provide students with the opportunity to set meaningful goals, self-advocate, and reflect on their own performance. We want our students to find their voice and use it to make a positive impact on those around them.

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Engage Globally: Research shows when adolescents feel connected to something larger than themselves, their confidence grows and they are better able to discover their own strengths and interests. Through service learning embedded at each grade level, regular and ongoing opportunities to serve our community, and mission trips, we want our students to know they are a part of a bigger story and that they can make a difference.

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Live Out Christian Principles: We begin each day as a complete school family with the pledge, a brief devotional, prayer, and announcements. Many of the devotionals are student-led, empowering students to share their faith with peers. We seek to establish a school community rooted in honesty, kindness, empathy, humility, and love for one another. Our grade level advisory curricula, daily convocation, and annual Spiritual Emphasis Week help build these foundations in our school community.

Sample Schedule:

“A” Day Schedule Example (7th Drops)

Convocation 1st 2nd Break

7:45-7:55 8:00-8:55 8:55-9:50 9:50-10:10

3rd 4th Lunch Advisory

10:15-11:10 11:10-12:00 12:00-12:30 12:30-12:50

Jump Start 12:50-1:15 5th 1:15-2:05 6th 2:05-2:55

Middle School Schedule Highlights: • Morning Convocation: We begin each day as a Middle School “FRAmily” with a scripturally-based devotion, prayer, and student-led announcements. Each day our devotions are given by students, faculty, or the occasional guest speaker. This high-energy, fun meeting gets every day off to a great start!

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Breaks: Cognitive breaks occur between every couple of classes giving students time to regroup mentally.

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Advisory: Each day, students gather in small groups divided by gender and meet with a faculty member who serves as their advisor. This time is right alongside lunch and is intentionally designed for relationship building between peers as well as the students and their advisors.

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Study Hall/Jump Start: Both a rotating study hall and a Jump Start period midday give students time to build selfadvocacy skills and get started on the night’s homework. Students are encouraged to confer with teachers or our academic support faculty to receive re-teaching, clarification, or homework help wherever they may need it.

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Class Periods: Average class length is 50 minutes, maximizing instructional time and facilitating the kind of student-centered learning that we know is best for kids.

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Rotating Schedule: Classes meet at different times throughout the week so that all of our students see their teachers and the content at various times of day.

2023-2024

Middle School Academic Highlights: • Tablet PCs: Middle school students have a tablet to access e-textbooks, homework, and a host of apps to enhance curriculum in each class. Embedded technology is a regular part of the classroom experience at each grade level.

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World Language: Fifth grade students receive a sampling of Spanish, Latin, and French. This allows the children to have some experience and knowledge of each language offered when it comes time to declare their language option in sixth grade.

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English and History: This model promotes connections across the English and history core classes. The historical fiction of our novel studies in English seamlessly blends into the questions formed while studying the founding of our country in history. We create a rich vocabulary for students to share their ideas through emphasizing writing and reading across the curriculum and building solid research skills.

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Innovation Lab: The Middle School Innovation Lab provides students with a wide range of next generation technology resources that will allow them to create, explore, produce, and learn 21st century computer skills.

Students in grades 5-6 attend technology class every other day.

Fifth Grade

Course Offerings: English US History General Science

Program Highlights:

Math Course I or Advanced Math Course I Physical Education Dance

*Enrichment Block Advisory Study Hall Technology

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5th & 6th Grade Retreat: Our 5th Grade retreat is a team-building opportunity to grow deeper relationships and learn how to problem solve. This is intentionally done at the beginning of the school year to strengthen relationships and trust with peers and new teachers.

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JA BizTown: JA BizTown is a unique experiential education program operated by Junior Achievement of Middle Tennessee. This experience is the highlight of an economics unit. This on-site visit is the capstone of the curriculum, which encompasses important elements of community and economy, work readiness, financial literacy, and business management during interim week.

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Living Wax Museum: The Living Wax Museum is an interdisciplinary character study of an historic figure.

Students are first immersed in the history of a famous individual and then design a timeline, explore the early American life experience, and create a portrait for this presentation. The fifth grade living wax museum is a family must see!

*Enrichment Block – We have a six-day rotation. Three of those days, the fifth and sixth graders choose between band and choir. The other three days are on a nine-week rotation and include the following enrichments: • •

Executive Functioning Art

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World Language: French, Spanish, and Latin Bible

Sixth Grade

Course Offerings: English World History Earth Science

Program Highlights:

Math Course II or Advanced Math Course II or Advanced Pre-Algebra Physical Education Dance

*Enrichment Block Advisory Study Hall World Language

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5th & 6th Grade Retreats: Our 6th grade retreat features team-building opportunities to grow deeper relationships and learn how to problem solve. This is intentionally done at the beginning of the school year to strengthen relationships and trust with peers and new teachers.

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NASA’s Space Camp: This cross-curricular week of outings is the culmination of the study of Greece and Greek gods in history, the conclusion of the book Percy Jackson in English, and the study of astronomy in science.

Highlighted by a trip to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama for Space Camp, this Interim week also includes other team-building activities.

*Enrichment Block – We have a six-day rotation. Three of those days, the fifth and sixth graders choose between band and choir. The other three days are on a nine-week rotation and include the following enrichments: • •

Bible Study Hall

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Art Executive Functioning (5th Grade)

2023-2024

4700 Franklin Pike Nashville, TN 37220 FranklinRoadAcademy.com