Our Approach- Middle School

ELA

We believe that for scholars to become great readers, they need to love reading.  We use a multi-faceted approach that includes a 70 minute Literature class in addition to writing and guided reading daily.  We believe that it is important for our scholars to have access to novels at their grade level, so each scholar is given a copy of each novel that they read in Literature to annotate in class, and keep at home after reading.  This affords scholars the opportunity to re-read novels, read to others, and ensures that they always have books at home to read and share.  PAVE Middle School scholars read, write, and listen to complex texts and look at them through a historical perspective through an integrated Social Studies curriculum.

Math

Problem solving and investigation are the foundation of mathematics learning at PAVE. PAVE develops scholars who reason mathematically and do the ‘heavy lifting’ when it comes to problem solving. We expect our scholars to develop problem-solving strategies from a foundation of deep number sense and fluency with operations and math content. All PAVE teachers utilize and receive training in an approach called Cognitively Guided Instruction and we implement a balanced math curriculum that includes direct instruction in mathematics, a daily multi-step math story problem and cumulative review. PAVE expects that children don’t just learn math but that they understand math.

Academic Passion and Rigor

At PAVE we believe that teachers are the most integral part of achievement for our kids.  For this reason, we incorporate a passion for core content areas, data review protocols, and common core standards to ensure that our scholars are getting a top-notch education.  Children in grades 5-8 attend departmentalized classes in core content areas taught by teachers with specialization in that area.  In this way, we promote scholars to be passionate about their work, and allow teachers to teach rigorously.  In combination with review of scholar achievement data and regular assessments, we believe that we can push scholars to achieve at high levels.  Because our teachers are the key lever in ensuring a great education, PAVE provides a variety of opportunities for professional development both on and off-site.

Competitive High School Preparation

We know that in order to ensure that our scholars are successful in college and beyond, we need to prepare our scholars for competitive high schools.  We prepare all PAVE scholars to take the Specialized High School Exam in 7^th grade, and help them through the high school admissions process.  We prepare scholars to have an opportunity to enroll in Regents classes in 8^th Grade and to take Regents Exams in up to 3 content areas. This gives scholars an advantage in high school, allowing them the chance to start college with credit towards graduation.