Course Directory
Our challenging standards-based curriculum emphasizes the development of essential skills, the understanding of important concepts, and the ability to apply learning to real-world problems.
Our curriculum includes courses of study for all students in English language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, world languages, music, visual arts, physical education, and health. In addition, students take grade-specific trimester courses in technology, research, and study skills which are designed to support their integrated learning experience.
Grade 8
The Arts
The Arts are a valued and integral part of the ASMS experience. Throughout the three years of middle school, all students are exposed to a variety of approaches to making art, including singing in chorus, playing an instrument in the concert band and participating in visual arts classes. The ASMS art curriculum is aligned to the national visual arts standards and our music program is aligned to national music standards.
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Concert Band 8
The band curriculum contains two major components: band as an entire middle school ensemble and individual lessons. The band will study and perform literature across a variety of styles and time periods. The rehearsal curriculum emphasizes ensemble skills, such as balance, intonation, listening, appropriate role, and personal preparation. These elements are needed to make musical connections between individuals in order to recreate the composer's intent. The curriculum helps lead students to discover that individual emotions and expressions in the collective are moving and powerful by making aesthetic connections between the composer, the collective performers, and the audience. While all students (grades 6, 7, & 8) are part of the ASMS Concert Band, there is a separate rehearsal one day a week for 6th-grade band students who will perform a different set of literature in addition to the Concert Band literature.
All students also receive one twenty-minute private or small group music lesson each week. The lesson curriculum emphasizes physical, intellectual, technical, and expressive skills for each instrument required for successful performance. Due to the nature of these skills, the curriculum emphasizes the need for reinforcement of those skills learned in the lesson through student preparation of the lesson material.
Through participation in a band, including concerts, rehearsals, and lessons, students will also learn respect and responsibility for the whole community and understand how the quality of the work they bring to the ensemble will help create an excellent product, one that is far greater than the sum of the combined efforts and contributions of each individual.