Crayton Middle School
6th Grade Course Selection Information
2012-13
Daily Schedule
The school day is from 8:30 to 3:45. We encourage students to be
here by 8:25. Supervision is available after 8:00AM and car riders
are asked to be picked up by 4PM. Every student will take Language
Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies classes for approximately 70
minutes every day. They will also have two electives each semester that
meet for around 50 minutes daily.
Core Courses
Students are placed in the appropriate core subject level based on many
factors. These factors include past academic performance, standardized test scores,
PASS scores, as well as teacher and parent recommendations.
Course levels include ACE, AAP (Advanced Academic
Program), and those classes determined by Individual Education
Plans (IEP’s). Math also has a challenging additional levelMEGSSS.
Students may be in different level classes for different subjects. Students are not
locked into any level but may move up or down to challenge them to perform at
their highest academic level possible, without creating undue frustration.
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MEGSSS Mathematics Education for Gifted Secondary School Students is
designed for students, grades six-twelve, identified as superior in
mathematics and verbal reasoning. As of this printing, the eligibility
criteria are based on a 94th National Percentile (NP) on the math
portion of a nationally-normed achievement test taken during the
fall or spring of 4th or 5th grade, or 93rd NP or higher on the nonverbal subtest of the InView or other nationally-normed aptitude
test or a scale score of 716 or higher on the math portion of PASS in
the 4th grade. This is a pre-algebra class preparing students for
high school credit in the 7th grade. Students will be responsible for the 6th, 7th,
and 8th grade standards, as well as theory of mathematics and logic. If your
student has not been tested, please contact the AAP Office after Spring Break
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at 231-6836. Summer testing dates will be announced in late spring. Students
cannot be appealed into MEGSSS. No student can be placed into the
MEGSSS program after completing the 6th grade.
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AAP students may continue in an AAP class, or are required to score at
or above the 80th percentile on a state-designated national achievement test such
as Terra Nova, CTBS, MAT-7, Stanford, Iowa, or MAP. Test scores cannot be older than
the previous school year for consideration of placement into AAP. Students may also
score 692 or higher on the Reading portion, or 716 or higher on the Math portion of
PASS 2011to qualify. PASS scores may not be used for placement in science or social
studies. All students must also have a current aptitude test. If current tests are not
available, the student must be referred to the AAP Office for testing. Please see
additional
information
on
the
Richland
One
website
at
http://www.richlandone.org/departments/aap.
A district committee may also place students in these classes through an
appeal process. Please contact your school or Crayton for an AAP Request for
Appeal Form. Schools will attach the completed Teacher’s Observation Form, a copy
of the most recent report card and send to the AAP Office no later than the third
week of February. After reviewing the appeal information, the district AAP Office will
send a letter to the parents.
Foreign Language Electives
Crayton Middle School is an International Baccalaureate Middle Years
Programme school. The Middle Years Programme (MYP) is the 6th
through 10th grade component of the International
Baccalaureate (IB) Program.
Students are not required to take a foreign language but
may select French or Spanish. In 6th and 7th grade, these courses
are a semester long and are taught at an advanced level; therefore any student
selecting a foreign language in the 6th or 7th grade should already be enrolled in an
AAP Language Arts class. To encourage mastery, students may change languages
only when entering 6th grade or 8th grade. In the 8th grade, students may have an
opportunity to take a year long course for high school credit.
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Arts Electives
A requirement of the Middle Years Programme is that all students take an arts
course every year. These classes are either one semester or two semesters
long (yearlong.) Some of the courses such as Dance and Drama have
audition requirements with limited class size or require purchase or rental of
an instrument. Everyone who has an interest in a program is
encouraged to audition. Any student who does not audition at any one
of our feeder schools as scheduled, must wait to audition until after school starts next
year for any available spots.
Students may also audition when they are in the 7th or 8th grade, if
they do not qualify in the 6th Grade. Students who do not take Band in
the 6th Grade may be required to wait until 9th grade to begin the
program.
Parents/Guardians and their students are invited to attend the
Rising 6th Grade Workshop/Fine Arts Presentation and Tour on Tuesday, January 31st
at 6:30PM in Crayton’s Auditorium to see many of our performing arts groups in
action. Please see handouts included with this packet for more specific information
about individual elective offerings.
Yearlong arts courses offerings~ Students may only take one year long elective
course. Yearlong courses are two semesters long and include:
 Beginning Band Participation in this course requires the purchase or rental of an
instrument. Students will be “fitted” after school starts by the band director to
match the interests and physical attributes of the student with the needs of the
band, and resources of the parents. After school starts, students will participate in
placement testing where they will be shown how to make a sound with all the
instruments and meet with the Band Director to select an instrument. Parents are
encouraged not to buy an instrument before testing.
 Beginning Chorus is designed for students who enjoy and wish to explore music
through singing. This course is similar to what you’ve seen on Glee-the TV show
and is a non-audition elective. Students must be committed and attend all
performances. Previous choral experience is helpful but not required.
 Beginning Dance Students must audition to be placed in this course. Through this
process, students are either state-identified or locally-identified as Gifted and
Talented and placed in class in order of their scores until classes are filled. Class
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size is limited to 25 to 1. If students participate in yearlong Dance, they are not
required to take a Physical Education class. Dance students may take PE.
 Beginning Theatre Students must also audition for this course. Through this process,
students are either state-identified or locally-identified as Gifted and Talented and
placed in class in rank order of their scores until classes are filled. Class size is
limited to 25 to 1. Students will be required to perform a 1-2 minute speech,
monologue or another memorized piece. These students must take PE.
 Beginning Orchestra Students are required to purchase or rent an instrument.
There are a limited number of instruments available for a $20 yearly maintenance
fee. Previous string instruction is helpful but not required.
Semester arts courses offerings
 Want to try different things? There will be four 6th grade exploratory courses
offered. Each will have a different focus or concentration and will explore and
incorporate additional artistic areas into the curriculum. Exploratory focus areas
will include: Art, Dance, Drama and Music. There are no audition or
recommendation requirements.
Other Semester Electives include:
 Physical Education All students (except yearlong dance students) are
required to take a semester of PE.
 Computer/Keyboarding provides an introduction to entering
alphabetic, numeric, and symbolic information on a keyboard using
the touch method of key stroking. This course is not for high school
credit like the 7th and 8th grade keyboarding classes.
Choosing Electives
 Every student must take Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies classes
every day. All 6th Grade students take their core subjects and their related arts
during the same periods to allow teachers time to plan together. The other grades
have their elective classes and lunch at different periods, and change classes at
different times. A scheduling program determines class
periods and semesters to balance class sizes.
 There are two semesters in a school year.
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 Every student is required to take two elective courses each semester.
 Some electives are a semester and some are yearlong (two semesters).
 Students have two electives each day.
 Some categories of electives are required for MYP (such as an arts-type class), or
by the state (Physical Education).
 1st semester begins with the start of school to after winter break and 2nd semester
begins after the winter break and continues to the end of the school year. Below is
a representation of the various combinations possible with semester and yearlong
elective courses:
Beginning of School----------------winter break-------------------End of School
Example 1
Elective1
Elective 2
Semester
Semester
Semester
Semester
Example 2
E1
Yearlong
E2
Semester
Semester
Semester
Semester
Example 3
E1
E2
Yearlong
 Every student must take an arts course(semester or yearlong)
 Every student must take PE (unless you take yearlong dance)(semester)
 Due to staffing and other constraints, there is no guarantee that all
courses listed in this packet will be available next year.
 Any information provided here may be subject to change.
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The Course Selection Process for Rising 6th Graders
Crayton will visit the feeder elementary schools and
distribute information folders to students zoned to
attend Crayton and distribute information packets to
students who are scheduled to attend Crayton.
 Students on transfer status must reapply when
changing schools. Please contact the district’s
Registrar’s Office at 231-6944 for more information.
Students must be approved by the Registrar’s Office before beginning the course
selection process.
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Parents and students are invited to a Course Selection Workshop/Fine Arts
Electives Presentation and Tour that will be held Tuesday, January 31st at 6:30 PM in
Crayton’s Auditorium.
Students will audition for required programs in the elementary schools.
Crayton will visit elementary schools in the evenings as scheduled in the course
selection portfolio to assist parents with Scheduling Request Forms. Parents may
also choose to come to Ms. Taylor’s office at Crayton on Feb. 24th from 9AM-2PM.
Notify parents of audition results during evenings with parents.
Mail draft schedules to students.
Still have questions?
No question is a dumb question! We’re here to try to help
you and your student make the transition to Crayton a
wonderful experience!
Check us out on the web!
(http://crayton.richlandone.org) or call us at 738-7224.
Students are assigned a guidance counselor by their last
name.
Amleht Alston (A-D) at amalston@richlandone.org
Victoria Littlefield (E-K) vlittlefield@richlandone.org
Cordelia Glover (L-R) cglover@richlandone.org
Austin Coleman (S-Z) aucoleman@richlandone.org
Please feel free to contact Cheryl T. Taylor (6th grade assistant principal) at
chtaylor@richlandone.org or 738-7902.