Middle School Curriculum

"Students build artistic literacy in an art form by applying foundational knowledge and skills while working in four processes fundamental to the arts: Creating, Responding, Performing/Presenting, and Connecting. The Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards in the Arts include five arts areas: dance, media arts, music, theater, and visual arts."

-Minnesota Department of Education 

For more detail, view the Minnesota Department of Education, K-12 Arts Standards curriculum page. 

The Gateway To Technology® (GTT) cutting-edge program is part of the nationally adopted Project Lead the Way (PLTW) curriculum. This program addresses the interest and energy of middle school students while incorporating national standards in mathematics, science, and technology. GTT is “activity oriented” to show students how technology is used in engineering to solve everyday problems in units of study. There are currently five instructional units that excite and motivate students to use their imaginations and teach them to be creative and innovative, while gaining the skills they need to develop, produce, and use products and services. 

For more detail, view the Minnesota Department of Education, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) curriculum page. 

"English Language Arts (ELA) are all of the communication and language skills and processes people use every day to receive and send information. Students in ELA classrooms and across the content areas take in information through reading, listening, and viewing from both literary and informational sources. Students also write, speak, and exchange ideas to express themselves and communicate with others. The ability to use and understand language is critical to every aspect of students’ lives and their future career and college readiness."

-Minnesota Department of Education 

For more detail, view the Minnesota Department of Education, K-12 English Language Arts (ELA) Standards curriculum page.  

The Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) National Standards are based on knowledge and skills needed for home/personal and family life as well as those needed to succeed in related careers. The standards develop the context for many of the individual career areas within Family and Consumer Sciences Education (e.g. dietetics, early childhood, parenting and child development, and interior design)

For more detail, view the Family and Consumer Sciences National Standards webpage.  

"The purpose of health education is to positively influence the health behavior of individuals and communities as well as the living and working conditions that influence their health. Health education improves the health status of individuals, families, communities, states and the nation."

"The Minnesota Department of Education recommends that districts utilize the National Health Education Standards (NHES). These standards establish, promote and support health-enhancing behaviors for students in all grade levels, K-12. The NHES are behavior based, with health education content integrated across each standard."

-Minnesota Department of Education 

For more detail, view the Minnesota Department of Education, K-12 Health and Physical Education curriculum page.  

"Mathematics is a discipline whose basic ingredients are numbers, shapes, and algebraic relationships. Logical reasoning is used to study the properties of these objects and develop connections between them. The results can be used to understand and analyze a vast array of phenomena arising in all of the sciences, engineering and everyday life. For this reason, mathematics is often called the "language of science.” We support mathematics achievement for all learners by providing guidance and technical assistance on implementation of academic standards, current best practices, and multi-tiered systems of intervention."

-Minnesota Department of Education 

For more detail, view the Minnesota Department of Education, K-12 Mathematics Standards curriculum page.  

"The goal of physical education is to develop physically literate individuals who have the knowledge, skills and confidence to enjoy a lifetime of physical activity. To fulfill a lifetime of physical activity, a physically literate individual:

• Has learned the skills necessary to participate in a variety of physical activities.
• Knows the implications and the benefits of involvement in various types of activities.
• Participates in regular physical activity.
• Is physically fit.
• Values physical activity and its contribution to a healthful lifestyle."

-Minnesota Department of Education 

For more detail, view the Minnesota Department of Education, K-12 Health and Physical Education curriculum page. 

"Science is the process of exploring and explaining the processes, structures, designs, and systems that make up our natural and human-made world. In Science, all students engage in practices including making observations, developing and revising models, and analyzing and interpreting data to answer scientific questions and design solutions to problems. Scientifically literate classroom communities make observations of the world around them, design investigations to answer questions, make connections between ideas across the science disciplines, and solve problems using technologies for an ever-changing world."

-Minnesota Department of Education

For more detail, view the Minnesota Department of Education, K-12 Science Standards curriculum page. 

"Social Studies is the interdisciplinary study of citizenship and government, economics, geography, history and other disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. Social Studies empowers learners to become inquisitive, informed, and engaged members of society who use critical thinking, inquiry, and literacy to prepare for college, careers and civic life. "

-Minnesota Department of Education

For more detail, view the Minnesota Department of Education, K-12 Social Studies Standards curriculum page. 

"The goal of world languages education is to develop multilingual leaders who are linguistically and culturally competent to communicate, work and collaborate effectively with people of diverse backgrounds in the global community. Communicating in the language of others and learning about cultures that are different from your own are essential to gain deeper understanding of new perspectives, develop intercultural competencies, increase awareness of self, engage in self-reflection, and cultivate curiosity and empathy that lead to increased capacity to live and work with people who are different from your own.

These characteristics help sustain a mindset of a life-long learner and will help one lead a meaningful life as a member of the global community in the 21^st century. The Minnesota Department of Education supports world language learning for all learners by providing guidance and technical assistance on implementation of academic standards, current best practices, program design, and policy administration related to world languages education."

-Minnesota Department of Education 

Minnesota world language standards are locally developed but must align to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language (ACTFL) Standards.  

For more detail, view the Minnesota Department of Education, World Languages curriculum page.