Grades 6, 7, 8 - An Overview
Middle grades at Orion High School consists of grades 6, 7, and 8. Learners in grades 6-8 that enroll full-time at Orion High School login and complete their coursework at Orion High School. Like their high school peers, 6-8 grade Learners are assigned a certified teacher/mentor for each course. Orion Middle School learners progress through four core courses and one elective each grade level at Orion Middle School. After successfully completing the 8th grade, learners are promoted to the 9th grade at Orion High School.
Regular or Honors Enrollment
Learners in Grades 6, 7, or 8, may follow the regular route, or an honors route. Honors courses are designated as such, on the transcript, and learners are required to be more vigilant in their studies. See tuition options below.
Curriculum Requirements
The requirements for Grades 6, 7, and 8 may be downloaded, as part of the Addendum to the Learner Success Guide. All middle grades learners are required to take the core courses, and may supplement per the Addendum.
Progressing Through the Grade Levels
A typical progression/schedule for Middle School is as follows:
Learners at Month 0, which is the month of enrollment, take the Orientation Course, which is considered a 'regular' course, called Cyber Citizenship. Then the progression starts, as above, with month 1. All courses are two-month courses, and all new learners starting, begin with one course, and then follow the above progression. A course, however, may be extended into the third month using Orion's application for extension. If a course is extended into the third month, the first time, will not affect the learner's progression as in the example above. A second course extended, however, will affect the progression, and will extend the progression by one month.
At the seventh month, a learner may request to take an additional elective course, or may end the progression there. At the 7th month, (if no extensions), the learner will take the required Stanford 10 online/end of grade level test, administered by Orion, and will participate in planning for the next grade level. The progression above, stays within the policy of a two-course max during a term.
A Day in the Life
What is a day in the life of a middle school online learner? That's a great question! That's one we are asked when learners start with us. A typical day in the life of an Orion Middle School Learner is:
- Log in to Orion
- Update my status in The Commons (attendance check in)
- Read Old Testament, and keep log to turn in at the end of the year* (there is an assigned curriculum for this)
- Go to my course or courses
- Check announcements or discussion folders.
- View or review the module.
- Go to the assignments folder, and work on the assignments for the module-there are often multiple assignments per module. At this point in your day, you will likely go offline to work.
- Go back online to submit and/or upload my work.
- Message my mentor to let him or her know that I have submitted work.
- Schedule my weekly meeting with my mentor.
- Go back to review the module or to work on additional assignments.
The sample module below, is just that-a sample. We have removed some of our information to protect our own resources; however, this module is representative of the type of information a learner will find in a course. All Orion courses are divided by modules. A module represents a set of ideas that a learner must know and be able to do. The homework and assignments folder is the place where the learner submits work that is representative of his knowledge of the module. Most courses contain up to 10 modules. The module is not representative of the interaction that occurs between the learner and the mentor during the weekly meeting. Weekly meetings are intended for learners to communicate knowledge to the mentor via a presentation, demonstration, or conversation.