Middle School
Grades 5th–8th
Overview
Our middle school program at ASA starts in 5th grade, and goes through 8th grade. Along with the grammar school, we use a 4-year cycle for our history, literature, faith, and science content. In the 2025-2026 school year, our history and literature content will focus on the early modern era and faith will focus on the lives of the Saints within that historical era. Science will focus on the age of reason and the scientific revolution. In subjects like math, writing, or Latin, which follow a progression rather than a content cycle, our small class sizes allow us to work with students at a variety of levels to meet the particular needs of each student.
Part-time Homeschool Options
Our middle school operates on a block schedule, which offers homeschoolers the unique opportunity to sign up for individual classes or combinations of classes. If (for example) you start to get uncomfortable with middle school math, or would love for your student to learn Latin but don't know where to start, we can handle it! Or, you might think your student would benefit from small group discussion of literature, but don't have the small group--we do! Finding a faith class taught from an Orthodox Christian perspective would be a real challenge, except we have one.
There are many reasons you might be looking for local, in-person, homeschool friendly class options, and we'd love to hear from you if you're interested in partnering with us for your child's education. Our current course descriptions and schedule for the 2025-26 school year are below; please contact us if you have more questions or would like to schedule a tour!
Course Descriptions
Composition
This course trains students in composition and rhetoric using the tried and true method of the progymnasmata. The progymnasmata are a series of exercises that were developed in ancient Greece and have trained great writers and orators for centuries.
Read more
Students are trained in progressive steps to imitate masterful writers in narrative, expository, and argumentative writing, and apply the skills they learn to all forms of writing and speaking. Alongside composition, English grammar and syntax will be taught and practiced, including parts of speech, usage and mechanics, and conventions.
$200 per quarter or $750 per year
Please email info@asapdx.org for schedule details
Faith
The Person and work of Christ is the heart of the Christian faith. This course will focus on the Person of Christ and His Incarnation through the lens of the New Testament and Church Fathers.
Read more
This includes the great Ecumenical Councils of the early Church, and the battles against major Christological heresies. This course will be supplemented by Byzantine chant instruction and instruction from clergy/ministerial staff courtesy of St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church.
$200 per quarter or $750 per year
Please email info@asapdx.org for schedule details
Literature
Humans interpret our experience of our lives and the world through stories. For a story to be remembered and passed on, it must touch on common threads of human experience, while also preserving the richly unique cultural worldview of its authors.
Read more
This discussion-based course will delve into that experience by taking early modern era stories and literature as its starting point.
$200 per quarter or $750 per year
Please email info@asapdx.org for schedule details
History & Geography
History is the grand story of humanity, containing multitudes of smaller stories of joy, triumph, beauty, tragedy, and loss. These stories shape our understanding of the world and ourselves, and broaden our perspective beyond the limitations of our own time and place.
Read more
This course will approach history chronologically–with a focus on the medieval period starting from Caesar Augustus and the birth of Christ, and proceeding up to the Fall of Constantinople–to provide students with an outline of that grand story. Along the way, we will spend time with the Roman/Byzantine Empire, western Europe through the Middle Ages, Russia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Japan, China, India, the Islamic caliphates, and others. This course also includes world geography.
M/W/F 10:15am to 11:30am • 3 days a week, 1 hr 15 min
$275 per quarter or $1000 per year
Latin
One of the great languages of culture and learning in the Western world for centuries and especially through the medieval era, Latin is also one of the major languages of the early Church. This course is suitable as an introduction to the language, combining grammar instruction with authentic reading and conversation.
$150 per quarter or $550 per year
Please email info@asapdx.org for schedule details
Logic
Logic is the art of thinking well and arguing clearly in pursuit of truth. This course is a gentle introduction to logic through an investigation of common fallacies. Don’t be surprised if your student is able to catch you using one after a few lessons!
T/Th 1:15pm to 2:00pm • 2 days a week, 45 min
$150 per quarter or $550 per year
Mathematics
Math is a window on the beauty and order inherent in the Cosmos. This course will open that window through differentiated, small group and individual instruction that allows students to learn according to their own ability and pace. Students working on arithmetic operations through algebra are welcome.
$275 per quarter or $1000 per year
Please email info@asapdx.org for schedule details
Science
This course will focus on the age of reason and the scientific revolution. Science is concerned with the material, but it doesn’t have to be reductive–the material part of the Cosmos, which science takes as its object, is full of wonder and beauty.
Read more
This course will investigate scientific phenomena through wonder, with supplemental consideration of the development, philosophy, and practice of science. This course will also be supplemented with engineering/STEM and coding instruction through LEGO Education materials.
$200 per quarter or $750 per year
Please email info@asapdx.org for schedule details
Art
The middle school art program at ASA is developed from techniques taught in grammar school. Elements of art and principles of design are introduced in grammar school, and in middle school they are reviewed and reinforced.
Read more
Art history lessons are sometimes inspired by what students are learning in their history class along with lessons about different art periods and various artists.
Th 2:00pm to 2:45pm
$150 a quarter or $550 a year
Music
We believe music is core to fully educating the person; therefore students receive music instruction 3 days a week.
Read more
ASA music instruction includes a number of well-known methods. Students do ear training following the Solfège Methodology, which involves finding pitches and recognizing tonal intervals while learning to sing on pitch. Students learn various rhythms and tempo using the Orff Method.
Classes include dance/movement, theory, history, and application through singing and playing instruments. Students acquire these skills using children’s songs, classical music, Orthodox music, and American folk songs. These skills are demonstrated in at least two major performances during each school year: the Christmas program and the Spring Fine Arts Night.
M/T/W 2:15pm to 2:45pm
$150 a quarter or $550 a year
Physical Education (PE)
PE is provided for all ASA students three times a week (recess/free play happens daily). Our students learn to develop a sense of physical and spatial awareness through movement. We also develop team spirit, care for the body, and a lifetime of fitness!
Read more
Students pursue health, physical fitness and active lifestyles based on the National Standards for Physical Education. We encourage an active body through dance, obstacle courses, and–most of all–fun! PE develops muscular strength, aerobic capacity, endurance and flexibility. Through cooperative games, creative dance, folk dances, and more, the students learn about other cultures, social awareness, cooperation, problem solving, and self and group expression. At ASA, we believe that physical education is an integral part of becoming a balanced, healthy, and joyful person.
$150 a quarter or $550 a year
Please email info@asapdx.org for schedule details
Interested in joining us?
Whether full-time or for individual classes, we'd love to meet your family.