Middle School TAG

Middle School Advanced Academic Programs

Middle School Honors Academy at Christiana High School

Christiana High School Campus

The Christina School District offers a Middle School Honors Academy (MSHA) at Christiana High School, serving students in grades 6-8. We launched the program in 2017 to create a 6-12 grade option at Christiana High School, which currently offers an Honors Academy for students in grades 9-12.

Students applying to the program are required to complete an Honors Academy application and a Choice application. Applicants will be selected based on their application as well as their potential for success in a rigorous academic program in grades 6-12 that will include Honors courses, pre-Advanced Placement (AP) preparation, Advanced Placement classes, and college-level coursework.

The MSHA is located in the H-wing of Christiana High School. The middle school students take classes separate from the high school students but will be able to take advantage of the many resources available in a high school setting.

LEVEL I: Nine Higher Order Thinking Strategies (based on de Bono, 9 Hats Theory)

All students Kindergarten-Grade 5
Critical and creative thinking lessons are taught by classroom teachers. The lessons incorporate 21st century thinking skills and extend and enrich the core curriculum for all students.
Student responses for the lessons are collected and analyzed for evidence of talented and gifted potential in order to ensure equity and increase access to district talented and gifted programs.
Each grade level will have five lessons to implement. The lessons will be embedded into the existing curriculum guides for either ELA, Math, Social Studies, or Science. This number is based on one year implementation. The program will be evaluated and will increase for year two.
This meets the state requirements for screening and identification of under-represented students in the program.

LEVEL II: Differentiated Lessons in Areas of Academic Strengths

Grades 3-5
Differentiated groups serviced in the classroom by the homeroom teacher during flex grouping or other small group opportunities (reading or math intervention, math or reading flex grouping).
Talented and Gifted teachers will collaborate with these classroom teachers for planning lessons and activities. This may include an advanced math program like M Cubed, higher-level core math curriculum, William and Mary novel student framework, and Jacob's Ladder lessons.

LEVEL III: Pull Out Advanced Academic Program

Grades 3-5
Students will be pulled out of their homerooms (2-3 days a week) for instruction (minimum of 90 minutes per week)
Students identified are challenged through models and strategies intended to enrich the core curriculum in the four core content areas (Math, ELA, Science, and Social Studies).
Some examples may include Caesar's English, William and Mary Curriculum Units (Science, Social Studies, Problem Based Learning Units, ELA), and M Cubed
Students receive direct instruction from the Talented and Gifted teacher in their attending school.

LEVEL IV: Pull Out Advanced Academic Program

Grades 3-5
Students will be pulled out from the clustered homeroom (4-5 days per week) for instruction (minimum of 150 minutes per week)
Students identified are challenged through models and strategies intended to enrich the core curriculum in the four core content areas (Math, ELA, Science, and Social Studies).
Some curriculum examples may include those stated above for Level 3 but will include more in-depth lessons and activities like debate, research, strategic thinking, and STEM.
Students receive direct instruction from Talented and Gifted teachers in their attending school.