Middle School Curriculum

PJA’s middle school humanities program integrates the themes and content of social studies within a strong language arts curriculum. The block period allows for the meaningful exploration of topics and supports the goals of developing active learners and informed citizens who think critically, read analytically, engage effectively in classroom discussion, and write with clarity and understanding of purpose. Students read a wide variety of literature across genres and, through book club discussions and individual writing assignments, develop their identity as engaged and independent readers.

At PJA, students engage with the Big Ideas curriculum, acquiring knowledge and skills through a structured educational framework. This curriculum is further enriched with complementary resources and lessons, including online materials, interactive classroom activities, creative projects, and engaging educational games, fostering a holistic learning experience. Students are responsible for their learning by participating in classroom discussions, activities, and projects, keeping an interactive notebook (ISN) containing daily notes and practice problems, and completing daily homework assignments. 

6th grade math topics include:

• Numerical Expressions & Exponents
• Order of Operations, Prime Factorization, Greatest Common Factor and Least Common Multiple Fractions & Decimals
• Ratios & Rates
• Percents
• Algebraic Expressions & Properties
• Writing & Solving Equations
• Area, Surface Area, & Volume
• Integers, Number Lines, & the Coordinate Plane

Pre Algebra Prep

At PJA, students engage with the Big Ideas curriculum, acquiring knowledge and skills through a structured educational framework. This curriculum is further enriched with complementary resources and lessons, including online materials, interactive classroom activities, creative projects, and engaging educational games, fostering a holistic learning experience. Students are responsible for their learning by participating in classroom discussions, activities, and projects, keeping an interactive notebook (ISN) containing daily notes and practice problems, and completing daily homework assignments. 

Pre-Algebra Prep topics include:

• Adding & Subtracting Rational Numbers
• Multiplying & Dividing Rational Numbers
• Converting between fractions & decimals
• Algebraic Expressions
• Adding & Subtracting Linear Expressions
• Using the Distributive Property
• Factoring Expressions
• Solving Equations Using Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, & Division
• Writing & Graphing Inequalities
• Ratios, Rates, & Unit Rates
• Percents & Proportions

Pre-Algebra 

At PJA, students engage with the Big Ideas curriculum, acquiring knowledge and skills through a structured educational framework. This curriculum is further enriched with complementary resources and lessons, including online materials, interactive classroom activities, creative projects, and engaging educational games, fostering a holistic learning experience. Students are responsible for their learning by participating in classroom discussions, activities, and projects, keeping an interactive notebook (ISN) containing daily notes and practice problems, and completing daily homework assignments. 

Pre-Algebra math topics include: 

• Solving simple & multi-step equations
• Rewriting equations & formulas
• Examining angles formed by parallel lines & transversals
• Proving properties of angles, triangles & other polygons
• Writing and graphing linear equations, the slope of a line, and the three forms of representing linear equations and solving systems of linear equations by graphing, substitution, and elimination. 
• Represent functions
• Identify linear & nonlinear functions
• Data Analysis & displays, comparing data with scatter plots and lines of fit.
• Analyze & sketch graphs 
• Classify real numbers 
• Learn, understand, and apply the Pythagorean Theorem to classify triangles, derive and use the distance formula, and evaluate square roots. 
• Transformations of rigid figures including translations, reflections, rotations and dilations.
• Similar figures and relationship between sides, angles, perimeter, and area.
• Volume and surface area of solids and similar solid.

Algebra
At PJA, students engage with the Big Ideas curriculum, acquiring knowledge and skills through a structured educational framework. This curriculum is further enriched with complementary resources and lessons, including online materials, interactive classroom activities, creative projects, and engaging educational games, fostering a holistic learning experience. Students extensively use the TI-83 Graphing Calculator and Desmos to illustrate, explore and deepen their understanding of course concepts. Students are responsible for their learning by participating in classroom discussions, activities, and projects, keeping an interactive notebook (ISN) containing daily notes and practice problems, and completing daily homework assignments. 

Algebra math topics include:

• Solving Linear Equations
• Solving Linear Inequalities
• Graphing Linear Functions
• Writing Linear Functions
• Solving Systems of Linear Equations
• Exponential Functions & Sequences
• Polynomial Equations & Factoring
• Graphing Quadratic Functions
• Solving Quadratic Equations
• Radical Functions & Equations

Express. Interpret. Engage.

In Middle School, students use Hebrew with increasing independence, complexity, and purpose.
They engage with authentic and adapted Hebrew texts, conversations, media, and cultural content while developing their ability to understand main ideas, identify details, make inferences, and interpret meaning from context.
Students sustain longer conversations, narrate and describe across time frames, ask follow-up questions, express and support opinions, and adapt their language to different audiences and purposes.
As proficiency grows, Hebrew becomes a language through which students can explore Israeli society, culture, history, relationships, ethical questions, and contemporary life.
 

What if my child has not studied Hebrew in the past?

Students entering Middle School who have not learned Hebrew before will be in a beginner-level Hebrew class. We offer academic support to children entering PJA with little or no knowledge of Hebrew.

Know Yourself. Engage Others. Act.

Middle School Jewish Studies is organized around Hillel's enduring questions: If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?

Students bring increasingly sophisticated skills to Jewish texts, history, Israel, ethics, identity, and contemporary questions. They learn to examine evidence, distinguish text from interpretation, encounter multiple perspectives, listen seriously to disagreement, and develop ideas of their own.

Across Grades 6-8, the questions become increasingly personal and consequential: Who am I becoming? What do I owe other people? How do I engage thoughtfully with complexity? What does Jewish tradition ask of me?

By Eighth Grade, students put their learning into action through Capstone service, study of Modern Israel through multiple narratives, Shoah study, contemporary “Hot Topics” through Jewish texts, and a culminating drash connecting Jewish learning with lived experience.

Students leave PJA not simply knowing more about Judaism, but knowing how to think Jewishly, engage thoughtfully, and turn learning into action.
 

PJA’s Middle School Science program focuses on student-centered learning, with an emphasis on hands-on lab and field work. Over the three years, students develop scientific skills and a greater understanding of scientific concepts. 

• Scientific practices: Asking questions; conducting investigations; analyzing data; constructing explanations; arguing from evidence; using mathematics; using models; & communicating information
• Concepts: Scale, proportion, & quantity; cause & effect relationships; systems & systems models; energy & matter; structure & function; & patterns

Exploratories are elective classes where students explore their interests and follow their curiosity. Students choose a new exploratory each trimester. These classes are mixed ages for students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. These are just a few of our recent Exploratory class offerings: Art, Cooking, Drama, Fitness, Leadership, PJA Press, Problem Solvers Workshop, and Virtual Tourist.

The middle school curriculum culminates in Capstone, a multifaceted, interdisciplinary experience. 

• Each 8th grade student meets with a faculty mentor to uncover the student’s interests and values, eventually identifying a local or global community need the student wants to address. 
• With the guidance of the faculty mentor, the student designs and implements a service project that addresses the identified need while also educating and engaging the PJA community. 
• The student selects a related topic to research and present in a formal, thesis-driven essay, using the fundamental skills of the research process and academic writing as taught by the Humanities department.
• Finally, the student writes a drash - a speech that explores the connections between their service project and a Jewish teaching - and delivers it in front of their friends and families.  

Through their work on Capstone, PJA 8th grade students put their understanding of PJA’s middot (values) into action, further develop the fundamental research skills and academic writing they’ve worked on in Humanities classes while integrating key aspects of the Jewish Studies program. 

Click to view an infographic of our Middle School Capstone Projects

A Special Winter Term for PJA Middle School Students

Each winter, PJA middle schoolers step out of their regular schedules and into something extraordinary: Taglit Week (taglit is the Hebrew word for discovery). Designed as an extended, immersive learning experience, Taglit allows students to deeply explore topics not typically covered in traditional classes. Working in mixed-age groups, students engage in community-based, hands-on, and non-traditional learning that sparks curiosity and builds connection. At its core, Taglit reflects PJA’s mission to cultivate curious, engaged learners grounded in Jewish values. 

Learn more