West End Secondary Academics
WESS READS - Summer Assignments for all Grades 2023
Curriculum Matters at WESS
At the beginning of a new year, we often reflect on what is important to us. We truly value your presence at WESS and your commitment to our learning community. We are thankful that we have the opportunity to teach your children and are looking forward to sharing our best practices and curriculum with you.
Utilizing New York City and its rich cultural resources as our learning lab, WESS immerses students in authentic learning experiences that require investigation, discovery, and innovative thinking. We believe that children should understand and interact with the world beyond school walls. Through carefully crafted lessons designed to spark their imaginations, students will develop the capacity to become reflective questioners and critical thinkers who consider multiple perspectives while arriving at their own interpretation. Every classroom will present complex material that students will encounter with a mix of uncertainty and struggle, but such struggles promote patience and perseverance, both of which inevitably lead to growth. Learn about our terminology here.
6th Grade Expeditions
Beginning with the guiding questions “What are the most important aspects that make up who we are as individuals? How and why do we collaborate?”, 6th grade students are challenged to explore connections in ELA, Mathematics, Sciences, and Social Studies.
7th Grade Expeditions
Through personal storytelling, climate change analysis, mathematical inquiry, gaming and more, 7th graders research and build practices to better examine the 21st century problems and solutions.
8th Grade Expeditions
By connecting food justice with history; algebra with urbanization, 8th graders explore the importance of legacy both in the United States and throughout the larger, global community.
9th Grade Expeditions
9th grade students will study how our experiences shape our identities by seeking answers to the question: How can I find my place in the world? Through reading multicultural literature in English, studying population shifts in AP Human Geography, and examining the world as a “universal neighborhood” in Earth Science, students will deepen their understanding of what it means to be a global citizen.
10th Grade Expeditions
10th grade students explore the ethics of exchange by seeking answers to the questions How does the creation, maintenance and disruption of exchange systems impact populations? And, how does exchange cause both stability and disruption? Through studying the legacy of the Colombian Exchange in English and AP World History, evolutionary change over time in AP Biology, and the exchange of superstitions through storytelling in Spanish, students will come to understand the interconnectedness of our world.
11th Grade Expeditions
In 11th grade, students will reimagine limits in our society by exploring the tension between freedoms and limitations across classes, touching on the ways limits expand and restrict our horizons through scientific, mathematical, historical, political, literary, and creative endeavors.