Junior High

By the sixth grade, students are well into the "logic" stage of the classical curriculum. Junior high school students begin to show more interest in the "Why?" behind the facts. Students are capable of forming abstract thoughts and detecting causal relationships between topics. During these years, children are challenged to rationally explain a particular fact, connect it to another related idea, or even evaluate how significant the fact truly is. Writing composition is a key component of the educational model during these years. Creating thesis statements, paragraph construction, developing supporting evidence, and logically organizing a five-paragraph essay are highly emphasized throughout all of the humanities subjects. Expanding vocabulary is also extremely important in order to handle the rigors of college preparatory, liberal arts High School curriculum. In mathematics, students polish off their algebraic skills in order to take more challenging math courses by the end of high school. Students are also taught how to explain why a particular event or idea in history happened, and why it shaped the way we think today.


Junior High Course of Study



Grade 6

Grade 7

Grade 8

Theology

Spirit of Truth
Catechesis I
Sacred Scripture
Catechesis II
Living as a Disciple of Christ
Catechesis III
The Communion of the Faithful

Literature

Good Books I
Good Books II
Good Books III

History

Modern History
The Making of the Modern World
American History
The History of the United States
Church History
The Story of the Church

Latin

Introduction to Latin Fundamentals of Latin Latin I

Math

Math in Focus 6 Math in Focus 7 Algebra I

Science

Earth Science Astronomy Physical Science

Grammar & Composition

Institute for Excellence in Writing & Analytical Grammar

Fine Arts

Sacred Music, Art History and Art

Physical Education

Physical Education  oInterscholastic Athletes



Feature: Good Books


This information is taken from our full Mount Royal Academy Humanities Canon. For the Good Books courses, each grade has several required readings, supplemented with with additional novels, short stories, and poems for teachers to choose from. This structure provides both stability and consistency to our curriculum, while allowing our teachers some creative liberty to teach from a place of passion.


Grade 6

Grade 7

Grade 8

Required

A Cricket in Times Square
George Seldon

Wanderings of Odysseus
Rosemary Sutcliff
The Giver
Lois Lowry

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Mildred Taylor
Watership Down
Richard Adams

The Hobbit
J. R. R. Tolkein

Teacher Selection

Novels

A Midsummer Night's Dream
William Shakespeare

The Magician's Nephew
C.S. Lewis

Where the Red Fern Grows
Wilson Rawls

Anne of Green Gables
L.M. Montgomery

Tanglewood Tales
Nathaniel Hawthorne

My Side of the Mountain
Jean Craighead George

Redwall
Brian Jacques

Golden Goblet
Eloise Jarvis McGraw

Bambi
Felix Salten
The Tempest
William Shakespeare

Wind in the Willows
Kenneth Grahame

Tom Sawyer
Mark Twain

Carry on, Mr. Bowditch
Jean Lee Latham

The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Elizabeth Speare

Call of the Wild
Jack London

Far Traveler
Rebecca Tingle

King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
Roger Lancelyn Green

The Adventures of Robin Hood
Roger Lancelyn Green
Twelfth Night
William Shakespeare

Little Women
Louisa May Alcott

A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens

The Bronze Bow
Elizabeth George Speare

Diary of a Young Girl (the play)
Anne Frank

Hound of the Baskervilles
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Chosen
Chaim Potok

Adam of the Road
Elizabeth J. Gray

The Miracle Worker
William Gibson

Journey to the Center of the Earth
Jules Verne

Teacher Selection

Short Stories

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Washington Irving

Rip Van Winkle
Washington Irving
Mythology (excerpts)
Edith Hamilton

Father Brown Mysteries
G.K. Chesterton
Mythology (excerpts)
Edith Hamilton

The Gift of the Magi
O. Henry

To Build a Fire
Jack London

Teacher Selection

Poems

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Robert Frost

The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost

Dust of Snow
Robert Frost

A Prayer in Spring
Robert Frost

I, Too
Langston Hughes

The Donkey
G. K. Chesterton

 Casey at the Bat
Ernest Lawrence Thayer

Composed Upon Westminster Bridge
William Wordsworth

"Hope" is the Thing with Feathers
Emily Dickinson
The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

O Captain! My Captain!
Walt Whitman

As Kingfishers Catch Fire
Gerard Manley Hopkins

When the Year Grows Old
Edna St. Vincent Millay

September, The First Day of School
Howard Nemerov

The Schoolboy
William Blake

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou

Gathering Leaves
Robert Frost

The Need of Being Versed in Country Things
Robert Frost

Christ's Nativity
Robert Southwell
Woods in Winter
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Rainy Day
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Wreck of the Hesperus
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Aftermath
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

God's Grandeur
Gerard Manley Hopkins

Death, Be Not Proud
John Donne