ARTSALIVE!
Middle School Courses
The earlier levels of ArtsAlive! make many connections among different art disciplines, but our middle school courses take these connections to a whole new level. The courses are structured into Experiences, each carefully crafted to engage students in interdisciplinary, project-based learning. This allows students to expand their skills and explore the arts in an entirely different way. Each grade comes with a beautiful interactive Notebook that helps students engage with the material, work through various creative processes, and keep track of their projects.
ArtsAlive! Sixth Grade
ArtsAlive! Sixth Grade is geared to ages 11–12 and aligns with select National Core Arts Standards and Common Core English Language Arts Standards for sixth grade. All four of the Experiences in this level explore storytelling and center around interdisciplinary projects involving music, theater, creative writing, and the visual arts. With an overall theme of Try, these projects challenge students to explore and expand their skills, including writing lyrics and scripts, learning to play chords on a ukulele, experimenting with cartooning and animation, and having fun writing their own myth.
ArtsAlive! Seventh Grade
ArtsAlive! Seventh Grade is geared to ages 12–13 and aligns with select National Core Arts Standards and Common Core English Language Arts Standards for seventh grade. The four Experiences mix and match different domains of the arts, including music, comedic theater, creative writing, performance, and the visual arts. The course’s theme is Practice and addresses the importance of planning and persistence when creating something new. Students build on their skills with the ukulele, work through the details of designing a diorama, learn step-by-step how to create a spoken word poem, and develop and rehearse a comedic monologue.
ArtsAlive! Eighth Grade
ArtsAlive! Eighth Grade is geared to ages 13–14 and aligns with select National Core Arts Standards and Common Core English Language Arts Standards for eighth grade. The four Experiences in this level explore music, visual design, performance, and creative and persuasive writing, and they all focus on a very interesting person: the student! With a theme of Be Your Best, the lessons guide students as they learn to play a melodica, master skills to record music, develop and market themselves as a unique brand, research their favorite musician, and craft a meaningful autobiographical story.