• Curriculum

    At da Vinci Arts Middle School, we strive to sustain a robust and rigorous Arts-Focus option program for all students. |
    Students engage in our academic and arts program in a 7- period day.

    Our Academic Program 
    da Vinci students have four core academic classes each day - see your students' teacher web page/calendars for specifics.

    6th-grade students experience their academic courses with other 6th graders in a model designed to support their transition to Middle School. All students in 6th grade will take one quarter-term  each of  AVID, Health and Dance for PE credit. Other quater term electives include explorations in drama, music appreciation, and visual art.

    7th & 8th-grade students experience mixed-upper grade classes for ELA, SS, and Science & are placed in their Math classes per the .

    To enable the mixed upper-grade classes, our teachers follow a 2-year curricular rotation. Like other èßäapp¹ÙÍø schools, da Vinci follows the èßäapp¹ÙÍø Instruction, Curriculum & Assessment.

    • English Language Arts
    • Social Studies
    • Science
    • Math- courses we offer: 6th, 7th, & 8th grade Common Core Math, and Compacted Math 1 (7G) and Compacted 2 (8G) per the . 
    • Dance- All students take at least one-quarter of Dance per year to meet the state Physical Education requirement. 
    • Health- All students take at least one-quarter of grade-level Health. 

    The arts are often used in the core academic classes as a way of engaging students, integrating content, and reinforcing learning.

    Our Arts Program
    - Most da Vinci students have three art classes each day.
    - da Vinci offers Dance to fulfill Physical Education requirements.
    - All students forecast for both Year-long and Explore arts preferences each year, and we strive to place students in one of their top 3 preferences.
    - New students to the school, including 6th graders, generally take the 2nd period Explore wheel (a rotation of four quarterly arts classes) alongside 7th and 8th graders who want only one term of Dance to meet their PE requirement.


    da Vinci Arts program:

    • Visual Arts - Year-long and term classes in Visual Arts.
    • Music - Year-long classes include Beginning Band, Advanced Band (level determined by teacher) and Choir.
    • Dance - There are 3 levels of year-long Dance (level determined by teachers) all featuring a blend of tap and jazz. 
    • Drama - There are 3 levels of year-long drama classes. 
    • Nine-week Explore arts classes include - Visual Art, Drama Tech, African Drumming, Creative Writing, Dance, Drama, and Guitar.

    Our Special Education Program
    Students who have qualified for Special Education services have an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). Students with IEPs at da Vinci are generally fully mainstreamed into the 4 academic classes and one arts class each day and also take a Study Skills class (in lieu of the second art class) through our Learning Center classrooms or our District-placed Communication Behavior Program.