Ninth Grade at Franklin High School

Each ninth grade student is randomly assigned to a team of teachers when entering Franklin High School.   That team is composed of a Language Arts teacher, a World History teacher and a Physical Science teacher.   Those three teachers share the same group of students and those students travel together as a class between those three classes.   We feel that this structure makes a student's entry into Franklin more personal by giving students a common group of peers and a common group of teachers.   Some features of the program include:

•  Shared Expectations:   Teachers offer common academic and behavioral expectations for all classes.   This consistent focus is designed to help the student develop an awareness of his or her responsibilities as a student and as a member of the academic community of Franklin High School.   Moreover, teachers have developed common expectations and standards in reading, writing, communication and research skills.

•  Skill Assessment and Instruction:  In order to help each student gain the tools needed to become a productive member of society, as well as passing the WASL, students are given a wide range of assessments.   These assessments are used to judge the strengths and weaknesses of the skills of each student.   Once this diagnosis is made, teachers actively will use strategies to help students improve their skills as needed.   To do this we use a variety of strategies, including Project Based Learning, Socratic Seminar, and the strategies of Reading Apprenticeship.   As student assessment work will be contained in a portfolio that will travel with the student throughout his or her career at Franklin.

•  Honors' Credit:   Students have the option of seeking honors' credit in their Language Arts and World History classes.   In order to get honors' credit students first must sign a contract within the first month of the semester.   To meet the requirements for honors' students must show a superior level of proficiency in culminating projects.   Also, students must read additional honors' texts, participate in discussions and complete additional written work.

•  Support programs:   In order to help our students meet their academic goals, we provide a number of additional supports.   We have developed advisory relationships with students.   We schedule parent meetings for struggling students.   We run our own after-school tutoring programs.   We seek community mentors for struggling students.   We also refer students to other support programs such as GEAR-UP and AVID.