Electives: 7th & 8th Grade
Electives
7th Grade Electives
Elective Class Descriptions
**Class availability is subject to change**
7th Grade Electives (Semester Electives)
Art: This course will provide instruction on the basic elements of art. Students will explore how to create and produce arts products, relating and connecting them to historical, current and personal events. Students will also have an introduction to history of art.
Drama: Creating, performing, responding and connecting are some of the skills students use to understand how drama communicates ideas and allows for self-expression. Students will study, write and/or perform scenes and monologues. Students will also be introduced to basic history of Drama.
Music Appreciation: Students will engage, through criteria set in collaboration with the teacher, in meaningful and purposeful music-making within the four Artistic Processes; creating music (improvising, composing, arranging); performing music (singing or with instruments); responding to music (listening to and analyzing); connecting music learning and experiences to the larger curriculum, other cultures and disciplines within and outside of the arts. In doing so, students will experience the following concepts of music: rhythm, melody, form, timbre, texture and harmony, style, and expression; taught by a certified music teacher.
8th Grade Electives
**Class availability is subject to change**
8th Grade Electives
Career Preparedness - A (High School Credit): The course prepares students with knowledge and skills in the areas of career development and academic planning and computer skill application. This course is a prerequisite to Career Preparedness-B.
Spanish I-Full Year Elective (High School Credit): This course is designed for true beginners to learn Spanish. Basic pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and culture are emphasized throughout the course. Cultural aspects that reflect characteristics of day-to-day living, family, and home life are taught in the target language through music, cartoons, games, mini-dramas, audio-visuals, and dialogues illustrating relevant situations.
Library Aid (application process): Students in this class will become familiar with classification of books, card catalog, indexes, and various reference sources through assignment in the Library Manual. Their duties will include assistance in accessing and processing new books, shelving and mending books, filing periodicals, using a computerized cataloging system, and maintaining library records. These students will also assist other students and teachers with their needs.
Office Aid (application process): Students in this class will become familiar with office policies and procedures. Their duties will include front desk assistance with students and parents, answering in house calls, running errands for office personnel, delivering student belongs left by parents, organizing the compassion closet and lost and found, and perform all other duties deemed necessary by office staff. Students should be able to follow directions, work independently, be respectful, hard-working, have great attendance, and minimal tardies. A mandatory skill is confidentiality.
Career Technology: This course is part of the Department of Alabama Career and Technical Education, which prepares students for technical careers available today and the future careers in our region. We will study the effects of technology and explore different careers. Students will learn which careers match their interests and aptitude. They will also practice skills needed in the workforce: oral presentations, writing and summarizing, problem solving, teamwork, etc.
Debate: This course will develop and improve public speaking, argumentative, and critical thinking skills in communication settings. Students will prepare and deliver speeches and participate in several of in class debates and forums on current topics. Techniques will be taught to control speech anxiety, and structure and organize information to present to a variety of audiences. As such, the fundamentals of physical and vocal delivery skills, use of language and gesturing, as well as listening skills will be learned. Please note that time requirements are given for each speech.
Advanced Art (application process): This course builds upon artistic skills introduced in 7th grade to create a foundation for future study in art. The elements and principles of art are fully introduced.
Computer Science Discovery (Year Long Elective): Computer Science Discoveries is a full-year introductory computer science survey course for students in Grades 6-8. The course takes a wide lens on computer science by covering topics such as programming, physical computing, HTML/CSS, and data. Students are empowered to create authentic artifacts and engage with CS as a medium for creativity, communication, problem solving, and fun.
We Build It Better: The We Build It Better program lays a foundation for students to understand the process of developing a new product and equipping them with the skills to design and create an innovative solution to a real-world industry-based challenge. Is the program engineering, manufacturing, computer science? It is ALL of that and more! We Build It Better is an all-inclusive 18-week, industry-designed educator-developed, curricular experience that engages middle school students in a work-like STEAM environment.
General Electives
Yearbook
**Class availability is subject to change**
General Electives: Elective Class Descriptions
***The following classes MAY have an application process***
Yearbook (7th and 8th grade) All Year: Yearbook production is designed from a combination of graphic and language arts skills. This class assumes the responsibility of compiling and designing a yearbook, which provides a complete directory of the school population, a history of the school’s events of the school population, and a history of the school’s events during the course of a year. These responsibilities are accomplished by staff members who have received instruction in the areas of (1) theme selection, (2) basic layout design, (3) techniques in writing, (4) captions and headlines, (5) type-fitting, (6) assessing and selecting interesting photographs, (7) cropping pictures, and (8) preparing materials to be shipped to professional printers. Staff responsibilities include financing publications costs through the sale of advertisements and books. In accomplishing the ultimate goal of producing a quality yearbook, students who are part of the organization gain journalistic training and skills in photography, sales techniques, and organizing material.
Peer Helpers
**Class availability is subject to change**
General Electives: Elective Class Descriptions
***The following classes MAY have an application process***
Peer Helper (7th and 8th grade) Semester class: Peer Helpers are sponsored by the Jennifer Claire Moore Foundation. The Peer Helpers meet daily in an elective class. Students use this time to be involved in peer tutoring, mentoring, peer mediation, kindness and anti-bullying activities, and service projects. They also follow a curriculum that teaches students about compassion, confidentiality, empathy, and other skills needed to help them be successful Peer Helpers. Peer Helpers are chosen based upon completed applications and teacher recommendations.
Morning News
**Class availability is subject to change**
General Electives: Elective Class Descriptions
***The following classes MAY have an application process***
Morning News (7th and 8th grade) Semester class: Listening, analyzing, and writing for SFMS morning news segments. Students will have a variety of real-world experiences writing and editing scripts, producing media pieces, and performing production and operations tasks.
Boys Chorus
Boys Chorus (7th and 8th grade) All Year: This course is designed especially for young men interested in exploring choral music from a wide variety of cultures and time periods through study and performance. By creating, performing, and responding, students will develop basic vocal skills and sight-reading techniques.
Chorus
Gifted
Gifted (7th and 8th grade) All Year: The Gifted Explorations elective course offers 5 hours of weekly accelerated and challenging curriculum that is designed to offer identified gifted students an opportunity to investigate specific units of study. The interdisciplinary curriculum of each unit of study will emphasize higher-level abstract thinking and problem-solving skills. Instructional strategies that may be incorporated into the curriculum include Socratic Questioning and Seminars, simulations, problem-based learning, independent study, and service learning.
Band
Band (7th and 8th grade) All Year: Beginning in the sixth grade, students develop in areas of responsibility, self-discipline, social skills, confidence, leadership and dependability. Being in band will give students a sense of accomplishment and pride. In addition, students will develop musical skills, which will enrich their lives. Band is a wonderful opportunity to make and interact with friends with similar interests. All band students will be carefully screened and should, with practice and effort; achieve success on his or her instrument. The amount of practice and effort on the student’s part will directly reflect upon their degree of success. Parental support and encouragement are vital not only to the student’s musical success now; but will also affect their appreciation of music for the rest of their lives.
If your child is in the beginning stages of band, the emphasis is on learning the fundamentals of music and the basic skills required to play an instrument. Mastery of these fundamental skills will lead to further development of higher-level skills, which will enable students to achieve great things in our band program.
The more advanced students will continue to perfect skills while learning new and more challenging aspects of music and music performance. There is a greater emphasis placed on ensemble performance at this level. Healthy competition is a larger part of this class as well. Instrumentation needs of the ensemble, the individual’s attitude, conduct, playing ability, and existing openings in this ensemble will determine membership.