LEARNING. LIVING. LEADING.
EVERY DAY.

As boys approach their teenage years, understanding deepens, relationships solidify, and maturity begins to take hold – creating a time of significant transition for Boys Middle School students. Mindful of the boys’ increasingly complex brain structure and thinking ability, their Limudei Kodesh and General Studies curricula seize the opportunity to engage students at higher levels of learning.

JUDAIC STUDIES

Our Limudei Kodesh classes carefully balance the goals of skill acquisition and text comprehension for an ultimate goal: demonstrating the beauty and centrality of Torah learning in living as a Torah Jew. In doing so, the relationship between a devoted rebbi and his talmid is emphasized as part of an unbroken chain of tradition; BMS rebbeim serve as role models to their students, welcoming the sincerity of questions and the opportunity to discuss fundamental elements of Judaism.

In middle school, students are introduced to their first years of Gemara study. Students are asked to analyze, challenge, question, and plumb the depths of the complexities that Gemara study offers. One of the primary curricular goals of our Talmud program is to guide students to be independent Talmud learners, which requires a high level of comfort with the Aramaic language, as well as the Talmud’s unique rhythm of comments, queries and intricate discussions. To this end, there is a great emphasis on assuring that each student individually masters the linguistic and cognitive challenges of learning Gemara in the original Aramaic.

Students also learn to be careful readers of Chumash and Navi in our Tanach class. In our study of Chumash, students work to acquire the advanced skills that will allow them to read and translate Chumash and Rashi independently, as well as glean and apply the life lessons that are ever present when one learns Torah. In Navi, Sefer Shmuel I is studied, with the main emphasis on mastering the storyline and relating the lessons from the Navi to one’s own life.

In their Jewish Law, Halacha, is learned daily. Students focus on the laws that are particularly relevant to them, such as those of daily living, Shabbos and Yom Tov, and tefillin. Students are
responsible for an increasingly independent review of the weekly parsha as well.

Modern conversational Hebrew is taught as a dynamic living language. Lessons revolve around themes such as family, friendship, traveling, and food.

A central overarching goal of our Judaic program is to encourage each student in a way that he will be an eager and active member of Jewish communal life. The boys themselves actively coordinate the school’s daily minyan, serving as the gabbaim, ba’alei kriah, and ba’alei tefilla. There are also many programmatic elements throughout the year that encourage students to continue their davening with a minyan, Torah learning, and acts of chessed beyond the school day.

GENERAL STUDIES

In our General Studies program, the students receive carefully crafted instruction designed to be creative and challenging, to accommodate a variety of learning styles and modalities. The students explore information, delve into factual topics, analyze data, and learn the skills necessary to be productive and successful in high school and beyond. Our teachers design their lessons to incorporate the state and national curriculum standards with their own special and engaging flair, encompassing four main subject areas:

Mathematics: In our Mathematics program, the students solidify their basic computation and analytical skills and move into pre-algebraic and algebraic learning and reasoning. Our math classes use a differentiated approach to instruction which helps meet the ability level and pace of each individual student.

Language Arts: In this multi-faceted course, students are immersed in skills, content and literature. Our novel studies and writing expectations require the students to expand their horizons, challenge their written and speaking abilities, and to express their intellect and personality through language.

Social Studies: Whether in the 6th grade World History and Cultures course or the two-year, in-depth study of American History in 7th and 8th grade, the students are given the knowledge
necessary to understand geography, historical significance, and citizenship. Our Social Studies classes address a range of academic and life skills through projects, textbook learning, cooperative groups and a strong emphasis on the development of notetaking and study strategies.

Science: Through learning about the biological and environmental forces that are in unseen motion, students develop an awareness and mastery of concepts regarding Earth, Life and Physical Science. Teachers incorporate experiments and labs that give students real-world exposure to the ideas and theories that are fundamental to understanding the world around them.