Electives

[k3am]

DD was accepted to the middle school of her choice (it's also home middle school, so no real worry or surprise about it). We've done a couple tours and now she's doing elective submissions.. and now I'm wondering.. 

What type of electives do your schools offer? Because while we have some overlap, I feel like the offerings I had back in the day were very, very different. Not sure if it's just a "times have changed" thing or a local/specific to this school. 

[k3am]

FWIW, our options are all visual/performing arts: drama, theater tech, orchestra, band, dance, choir, or art.

No journalism, yearbook, typing (which I guess would be VERY outdated - my class was all on typewriters!), home econ, personal finances, woodshop, photography, etc.

[waverly]

We rotate electives so basically everyone takes them.
Stem, Spanish, Communications, Art, Music. Health is required and now a PE pullout.

Band is a full year elective so they don’t get the other electives. They are redoing scheduling next year do this may change but DD is quitting band anyway. I believe choir was in the mix but might be after school now.

[madringal]

In MS (7th and 8th for us) ours are pretty limited. Orchestra/Band/Choir. World languages in 7th grade so you can play around with a few of them and then actually chose a language in 8th grade. There is also STEM option and a more advanced art class option.

You can make your requests, but there is no guarantee. Especially if you chose orchestra/band/choir because those are limited class time options.

[waverly]

Mar 29, 2024 11:57:38 GMT -5 k3am said:

FWIW, our options are all visual/performing arts: drama, theater tech, orchestra, band, dance, choir, or art.

No journalism, yearbook, typing (which I guess would be VERY outdated - my class was all on typewriters!), home econ, personal finances, woodshop, photography, etc.

We had these kind of electives in high school not middle school.

[k3am]

waverly, I pulled the middle school electives I had off my report cards that I sent DH a few weeks ago before throwing out... so I know they were middle school. But I know that some were also offered in HS (because I took home econ in HS 4th period and was one of the few non football players in the class - we always cooked on game days because they wanted to team to eat!)

[k3am]

Mar 29, 2024 11:59:30 GMT -5 waverly said:

Mar 29, 2024 11:57:38 GMT -5 k3am said:

FWIW, our options are all visual/performing arts: drama, theater tech, orchestra, band, dance, choir, or art.

No journalism, yearbook, typing (which I guess would be VERY outdated - my class was all on typewriters!), home econ, personal finances, woodshop, photography, etc.

We had these kind of electives in high school not middle school.

Who does the yearbook if yearbook isn't an elective in middle school?

[twinmomma]

The yearbook is a club for us, not a class, at least at the middle school level.

My kids rotate through foreign language, art, engineering and design, and health, one per quarter. And then they have a music class (band, chorus, or general music ed) and PE year round. I think next year they'll choose what foreign language to specialize in but otherwise they don't get to choose much until high school. Our high school offers a million electives and has a full vocational/career wing.

[erbear]

We don't have many in middle school -- everyone takes music (band, chorus, strings), art, theater, Spanish or French, plus they have to be in 2 clubs (and the variety is wide-ranging...I run a silent reading club one day and a Survivor Club the other), and everyone is in 2 affinity groups (one race and one gender). The idea is that everyone tries everything.

In high school, electives are mostly in arts for the 9th and 10th graders (they offer music, painting, drawing, photo, ceramics, dance, music production, music theory, technical theater, acting, improv). In 11th and 12th, they start getting options in history (this year, they offer African American History, Global Perspectives of Gender & Sexuality Diversity, Modern China, Echoes of Black Culture, Partisan Politics, The History of World War II, Modern Africa, The Modern Middle East, 20th Century Philadelphia History, American Civil War, Asian American History & Immigration, Campaigns & Consequences, Citizen Activism & Constitutional Law, Class Matters: Social Inequalities in the U.S., From Fallen Timbers to Standing Rock, Gender & Sexuality Diversity in the 20th
Century, Inquisition & Toleration, Roman Republic, U.S. & Latin American: From the Panama Canal to the Border Wall) and English (Socially Immediate Literature: How Do We Understand Injustices?, Sports Journalism, Telling Our Stories–Memoir & Autobiography, Translations–Connections Between Literature & Art, Utopian & Dystopian Visions in Literature, World Literature, Black Women Writers, The Contemporary Novel, Identity & the Female Experience, Race, Gender, & Mythology: Contemporary Issues in Shakespeare’s Works, World Short Story, American Romance, Philosophy: Metaphysical & Epistemology, Reading & Writing Creative Nonfiction, Reading & Writing Poetry, Borders & Borderlands, A Literary History of Philadelphia Writers). They can also do Publications and a Small Farms class.

[twinmomma]

Mar 29, 2024 12:32:33 GMT -5 erbear said:

We don't have many in middle school -- everyone takes music (band, chorus, strings), art, theater, Spanish or French, plus they have to be in 2 clubs (and the variety is wide-ranging...I run a silent reading club one day and a Survivor Club the other), and everyone is in 2 affinity groups (one race and one gender). The idea is that everyone tries everything.

I would like to join this club!

[waverly]

Mar 29, 2024 12:13:32 GMT -5 k3am said:

Mar 29, 2024 11:59:30 GMT -5 waverly said:

We had these kind of electives in high school not middle school.

Who does the yearbook if yearbook isn't an elective in middle school?

I have no idea actually. Possibly the PTO with a school coordinator? Who does it in elementary when the kids are too young to help?

[librarychica]

They’re all arts? Seems odd but I have read some articles about issues offering/funding electives in your state. Usually it was about the lack of arts, though.

DD’s middle school at a public K8 offers visual art, band, guitar, dance, musical theater, Spanish, leadership/service learning, journalism, computer science and a STEM series (Project Lead the Way). Oh and required PE.

[mae0111]

My kids have very few electives to choose from, but lots of clubs and activities.

Their schedules are pretty set - they take the core courses - math, science, ELA, language, history/social studies. The subject matter is set by grade, and then leveled. Their only real choice comes in 7th grade for language. 5th grade Latin is required, then 6th grade the kids spend one semester in each of 3 languages: Latin, French, and Spanish. In 7th they can choose one of those 3 languages to focus on for 2 years, and then they enter the upper school in the 2nd year of that language or switch to a new one (Chinese is also offered in the middle school).

4 days a week, they have an option activity block in the middle of the day. DD1 does yearbook then, and DD2 is doing the school play this term. They have also have the TV station editing during this block, but DD2 is pretty involved in the TV station outside of the activity block. They offer debate, literary magazine, and a couple others that I forget.

For 2 weeks in between sports seasons, there are after school clubs. Anything from sports clubs where the kids just play pick-up games, to podcasting, to knitting. I can't list them all. DD1 did Harry Potter Club first term and Cribbage and Catan second. DD2 did Build an Aquarium with the Head of School first term, and the play second term.

The kids are also required to do an after-school activity, and they encourage it to be a sport. so DD1 did field hockey, basketball, and now softball. DD2 did soccer and rock climbing, and since she plays on 2 soccer teams in the spring, she'd doing an art class this spring.

It's one of the things that I love about their school - there are just so many opportunities for them to try new things. Once they go beyond 9th grade, there will be a lot more opportunity for electives.

ETA LOL I forgot about arts! For all 4 years of middle school they rotate through different arts each term - visual arts, drama, and music - and each year is something different. 5th grade drama is a class play, 6th ties into their studies on Greek Mythology and they create masks and recite poetry. Music is a different instrument overview each year. DD1 learned guitar last term. Dd2 is learning ukelele. Visual arts has electives in 7th and 8th grade. DD1 learned graphic design, but had options for sketching, photography, videography, architecture, and some others. DD2 created 3D art in different media - her final project was kind of a diorama living room scene where she hand-stamped the wallpaper, hung paintings on the wall of the box, and sewed the clothing on the dolls in the scene. It’s pretty neat!

[librarychica]

My public, underfunded, solidly average middle school in the 90s still managed PE, Spanish (I think?), computers/typing, art, band, chorus, and ag. Maybe one or two more but those were the ones I remember my brother and I talking.

[mommyatty]

I had no electives in Catholic junior high. None. DD’s school lets you choose your fine art. 5th grade, they rotate through the arts (drama, orchestra, choir, and art). Sixth grade, they choose two of the four. Seventh and eighth they pick one, though there is a movement afoot among the arts teachers to let them do 2. Then in high school they do a lot more stuff.

My middle school was located with the Catholic high school, so the high school kids did our year book. At DD’s school, same thing. It’s a K-12 school, so the high schoolers do a yearbook that covers everyone.

[AdaraMarie]

My kids middle school has a lot and all the kids have two at all times although the music electives are all year so those kids have fewer over all. 6th grade has quarter long and 7th and 8th grade are semester long.
The ones I remember are:
Tech/typing-required for 6th grade and the only one that is required.
Team sports
Indoor PE
2D Art
3D Art
Digital Art
Digital photography
Robotics
Band
Orchestra
Choir
Theater
Spanish
French
AVID
Health/Skills for Adolescence

There are more than what I had in the 90s but the school is much bigger so they have to have a lot of places for kids to be. We didn't have photography, theater, orchestra, or foreign language but we did have a couple 90s era tech/computer classes and 1 art class.
If the kids take two years of foreign language it is equivalent to the first level in high school so that is pretty cool.

[186momx]

DD's school rotates elective classes on a semester basis but they rest of the classes are a trimester basis.
This year she had academic support (1st semester only because she graduated) and community service all year. If she hadn't graduated academic support she would have had that all year. We had to jump through hoops to take community service vs a full year of PE.

The school offers band, PE, Exploratory (game class), Spanish, Culinary, Textiles/Sewing, Community Service (8th graders help out K-5 teachers) and probably more that I don't know since DD hasn't gotten to take any up to now.
Google Tech and Health are core classes that are also on the semester basis.

She is taking Exploratory they play Uno on Mondays, Chess on Tuesdays, Board Games on Wednesday, Thursdays are card games, and Friday is a movie day. I 100% think this class is a joke and just a time filler.

[supertrooper1]

Some of you have some amazing schools! DS will have the option of band, choir, or art for an elective in middle school. There are more options in high school, but it's still limited compared to what some of you have listed because we have a relatively small rural school.

[sandandsea]

We have band or an elective wheel. Band is a full year commitment while the wheel is two different classes each for a semester. The 6th/7th grade wheel is drama, leadership, music, art, multimedia, computers & robotics. We didn’t get to choose, he was just placed in two. They have different ones for 8th grade that are more focused and for the whole year that includes the above and foreign languages.

[librarychica]

sandandsea, I think an elective wheel is a great idea!

[sandandsea]

Mar 29, 2024 12:13:32 GMT -5 k3am said:

Mar 29, 2024 11:59:30 GMT -5 waverly said:

We had these kind of electives in high school not middle school.

Who does the yearbook if yearbook isn't an elective in middle school?

One of our teachers does the yearbook for our middle school and there might be an afterschool club for it for kids to get involved. We have a ton of clubs available in middle school. Ds has joined the cooking club which is really only an eating club since they meet during the morning break and just try different types of food someone might bring:)

[bee20]

Mar 29, 2024 12:32:33 GMT -5 erbear said:

We don't have many in middle school -- everyone takes music (band, chorus, strings), art, theater, Spanish or French, plus they have to be in 2 clubs (and the variety is wide-ranging...I run a silent reading club one day and a Survivor Club the other), and everyone is in 2 affinity groups (one race and one gender). The idea is that everyone tries everything.

Are these clubs during an extended school day with bussing?  That would be kind of cool, I didn't get to do clubs until my brother could drive in high school to get me home, and then only on the same days he had them.  

For the affinity clubs though I just have so many questions.  Forcing kids to be in one for their race and one for their gender seems oddly rigid and prescriptive.  What kind of things do they do in the boys club and how is that requirement adapted to middle schoolers exploring their gender?  Can multiracial kids pick a different club each year?

At my local middle school, electives are pretty extensive and each kid picks 2 (although it looks like music counts as both):
3 art options: 2D Art, 3D art, or Studio Art

Goal Setting and Social skills (seems to be remedial?)

Drama

Leadership

Literacy (Definitely remedial, it says maximum of 15 students per class to catch up on reading)

4 music options: Jazz Band, Concert Band, Symphony, or Chorus

4 stem options: Energy and Power, Computer Science, Robotics, or Automotive

World Languages

Student Assistant (Library, Office, or PE options)

When I was in school you could choose band, choir, or "Life skills" which was rotating between home ec, shop, and budgeting classes for each of the three years. 

[vasc]

Just did this for my rising 6th grader. Choices were:

Chorus
Band
Strings
Piano
Art
PE
Robotics
Agriculture
Spanish

[k3am]

Ours is a full year commitment to whatever you choose... so if you're drama, it's a year of drama. And then you can switch to another elective, but apparently "most" kids stick with it and move on to more advanced versions of the same thing.

I'm honestly a little confused. One girl was told that as an incoming 6th grader, she couldn't do an advanced art class, even though she's been doing lessons for year because they don't really like to mix up the grades. So if you chose drama in 6th grade and wanted to switch, you'd theoretically be behind if you moved to art? Or be in a class with all 6th graders?

I'm trying not to overthink it. (Which I'm great at!) DD's top 3 choices are drama, dance, and theater tech. Hopefully she'll learn to type in high school.

We've now done TWO 2.5 hour events at the middle school where they basically only talk about electives (first one also touched on PE/sports). I have no idea about clubs or anything after school. I guess we'll find out when we find out.

[erbear]

Mar 29, 2024 15:27:32 GMT -5 bee20 said:

Mar 29, 2024 12:32:33 GMT -5 erbear said:

We don't have many in middle school -- everyone takes music (band, chorus, strings), art, theater, Spanish or French, plus they have to be in 2 clubs (and the variety is wide-ranging...I run a silent reading club one day and a Survivor Club the other), and everyone is in 2 affinity groups (one race and one gender). The idea is that everyone tries everything.

Are these clubs during an extended school day with bussing?  That would be kind of cool, I didn't get to do clubs until my brother could drive in high school to get me home, and then only on the same days he had them.  

For the affinity clubs though I just have so many questions.  Forcing kids to be in one for their race and one for their gender seems oddly rigid and prescriptive.  What kind of things do they do in the boys club and how is that requirement adapted to middle schoolers exploring their gender?  Can multiracial kids pick a different club each year?

At my local middle school, electives are pretty extensive and each kid picks 2 (although it looks like music counts as both):
3 art options: 2D Art, 3D art, or Studio Art

Goal Setting and Social skills (seems to be remedial?)

Drama

Leadership

Literacy (Definitely remedial, it says maximum of 15 students per class to catch up on reading)

4 music options: Jazz Band, Concert Band, Symphony, or Chorus

4 stem options: Energy and Power, Computer Science, Robotics, or Automotive

World Languages

Student Assistant (Library, Office, or PE options)

When I was in school you could choose band, choir, or "Life skills" which was rotating between home ec, shop, and budgeting classes for each of the three years. 

Clubs are 50 minute periods twice a week. Kids have to be in one because they’re in the schedule, but they have a ton of options and they aren’t all serious.

Affinity spaces are a key component of our school. I run a 7th grade white group and an 8th grade girls group. Very different purposes — the white group is more of a class — we do a lot of learning. Right now, we’re watching Colin in Black and White and discussing the issues that come up. The girls group is an affinity space — sometimes we just hang out. The boys groups (like any dominant identity group) is a learning space, though they do some hanging out as well. Last I heard, they were watching The Mask We Wear (about toxic masculinity) and talking about coverage of the NCAA women’s bball coverage vs the men.

There are co-Ed gender groups (not affinity spaces) and mixed-race groups but most kids opt into affinity spaces. There is a gender queer group (it’s large — we have quite a few trans and NB kids, and many more exploring). Kids can move from group to group. There is a multi-racial group, but kids in that group sometimes show up in my white group on any given day. There’s a place for everyone and some of the groups are pretty fluid. It can be a bit of a hard sell to parents who don’t get what we’re doing, but the kids name the spaces as some of the most impactful in middle school 🤷‍♀️

[sdlaura]

I missed the middle school info night and have basically left everything to DD in terms of sign ups, so there may be more options, but her first two choices were yearbook and journalism.

[bee20]

erbear, thanks for the explanation, I've never heard of anything like it. Middle school is such a time of self discovery and it sounds like it's been really helpful for kids in those tough years. Curious how it might scale in other age groups, like higher ed or workplaces.

[mrspez07]

Ours have even shifted some in the few years between my oldest as a 6th grader and my youngest.
Currently offered:
Band, orchestra,
theatre,
tech theatre,
broadcasting/TV (the school channel),
yearbook (1st sem),
STEM,
gym,
exploration of outdoor recreation (*new),
world cultures,
and I think just Spanish for languages.


*this one was created this year by a social studies teacher because of declining enrollment, in part to stay on as a staff member.


Ones they no longer offer include computer sciences (multiple levels), robotics, choir. And they changed from a pre-engineering (which was part shop part stem to just Stem).

[mustardseed2007]

Back in my day electives in middle school were Theater, Orchestra, Band or Art and then Spanish, French, Shop, or Home Economics

In high school we got Yearbook, Journalism (school paper), some computer class, French, Spanish, German, Theater, Orchestra, Band, Art, Speech/Debate, Home Economics, Typing....I don't remember what else. 


My kids go to a very small school so they actually don't have Orchestra or Band (they had band but then the Band teacher left and the new music teacher doesn't teach band right now), but they have Art, Theater, Theater Tech, Broadcasting, Year Book, Cooking, Outdoor Classroom (Gardening), Tennis, and Athletics (extra PE). 

I'm very very concerned about my kids doing something they can do in a public high school so I was really peeved when they got rid of band. Luckily my son does Theater and I'm guessing my daughter will do theater tech in middle and high school. 

[cjcouple]

My kids didn't have a choice on them except they got to choose Band, Music Appreciation or Chorus.

Everyone took: Family Consumer Science, Computer, PE, Health, World Cultures, Art.


I didn't have choice either but my electives were similar except we could choose a language to start and we had a metal shop class.  lol