Elective Choices 2016/17 Grant Ranch School
Amazing Race: Students will be involved in a research based, project oriented, team challenge as they “travel” around the world “Amazing Race” style to engage in learning about world geography. My goal is to help students connect with the content, think critically about the planet Earth & how humans interact with it, as well as explore other cultures. The 5 themes of Geography will be integrated into class objectives.
Middle Advanced Band: Open to students who already have band experience. This class puts on at least two concerts a year and plays there instruments every day. Focus is on performance, but we also learn music theory and evaluate music. This is a full year class.
Beginning Band:– Students will learn to play an instrument, read music and have the opportunity to continue their learning by joining the Advanced Band.
Middle School Choir :- Open to all students. We sing every day in this class and will give a concert at the end of the trimester. Students also learn to accompany themselves on the ukulele. We also learn about music theory and evaluate music.
Middle School P.E.: Each unit will begin with practicing the basic skills needed to play the game/activity. The emphasis in this class is on the health and well-being of our students. Through movement and activity, the students will demonstrate and understand how physical fitness relates to everyday movement and activities. The activities we will focus on include but are not limited to flag football, soccer, Ultimate Frisbee, volleyball, basketball, floor hockey, team handball, basketball, and kickball. Physical and cognitive assessments are given each trimester. The students will learn about the five health related components of fitness, the six skill related components of fitness, and the FITT principle. The students will learn various dances throughout the trimester/year. **Students are expected to dress into a Grant Ranch PE uniform on a daily basis.
2-d art -Drawing & Color: – Learn the fundamentals of drawing skills. Also, do some cartooning, manga & other drawing. Learn about the different uses and aspects of color.
3-D & ceramics: Create sculptural art including ceramics, masks, plaster sculpture, assemblage, soft sculpture and more.
Contemporary Art: Learn all about the art that makes you go “huh?” from street art, to installation art and video art.
Technology- 6th Grade: Students will learn typing skills using Type to Learn 4. This is a comprehensive instructional keyboarding program that focuses on using home row keys and increasing typing speed. Students will also learn about digital citizenship and be introduced to coding.
Yearbook– Help create the GRS Yearbook from start to finish. Students will be involved in all of the aspects of creating our yearbook including photography, page layout, graphics, cover design and journalism.
Career Technology Education: (7th and 8th Grades only) Using project-based instruction, our DEPCO modules allow students unique opportunities to explore technology through several computer aided hands-on activities.
- Digital Manufacturing
- Graphic Design
- Computer Animation
- Desktop Publishing
- Weather Station
- Webpage Design
- Digital Photography
- Vinyl Sign making
- Flight Transportation
Newscast– Students research and write their own news story events for filming. Newscast is then sent out to the whole school as weekly announcements. Students cover drama and language arts standards.
Drama: Students rehearse, create and memorize a play for a school wide and night time performance. All drama standards covered.
Shakespeare Tri 3: Drama students will learn about Shakespeare’s sonnets, plays and influence on culture. They also will be performing excerpts from his famous work both at school and in a community competition with other DPS schools.
AVID: Advancement Via Individual Determination. A class dedicated to empowering students to get involved in their education and have a brighter future. AVID creates a college-going culture at our school that supports high expectations and levels of achievement for all students.
Brain Bowl: An elective designed to help students prepare to compete in the Brain Bowl which is an academic quiz competition where students demonstrate their knowledge on a variety of subjects.
History of Rock-N-Roll: This course is still under construction. Students will have the opportunity to study the music that spans the decades. They will be introduced to influences on modern music as well as historical context that music brings to our lives.
Mindfulness: Mindfulness is paying attention on purpose to what is happening right now. We will be mindful of sound, breath, movement, thoughts, emotions, and other things. They will be short periods of paying attention on purpose. These simple techniques will be gently strengthening and developing our minds to help us with self- awareness, emotional balance, impulse control and focus.
Cinema History: a film critique class as an elective. Students will learn how to analyze the theme, story, plot, characters, and symbolism. We will discuss the different genres of films. Compare the elements of film. Compare different movies of single story and compare a book to its movie. We could also discuss the lesson or character traits identified in different movies.
Service Learning –Passion Projects: An opportunity for students to engage in the process of developing a project focused on an area they are passionate about and applying skills sets based on curiosity, research, and investigation to develop a plan for service learning.