Electives are very important in Rosemont culture. Your electives are the only classes where you might interact with people from another grade (aside from PE). Electives also offer a break from mandatory classes. This guide is designed to help incoming students decide what electives are best for them.
Choosing electives
When you enter 7th grade, you are presented with a form of all the possible electives you can take. With so many choices, it can seem overwhelming. Fortunately, we are here to help.
When you enter 7th grade, you are told that there is a high percentage of getting your top choices, but this isn’t always the case. While your chances of getting your top pick are very high, there’s still a possibility of ending up with an elective that you never even requested. For the most part, you’ll be stuck with whatever you get. That said, you can always request to change electives, given that there are spaces in other electives.
Some electives are yearlong. These electives include music-related electives, languages, and a few others, including advanced drama, journalism, yearbook, ASB, and cheer.
“…at Rosemont, we offer a lot of electives and we have some …that other middle schools don’t have.” -Douglas Laing, Vice Principal
The process of figuring out 1300 kids’ schedules every year is a very taxing process handled by our two school counselors, Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Serkez. The counselors use a special computer program to enter all the students’ requests. Then, they go back and make sure no class is overfilled with students.
Languages
At Rosemont, we offer three languages- Japanese, Korean, and Spanish. For Japanese, you have to test into the class if you are not already part of the immersion program. The same goes for Korean until eighth grade when you can take Korean 1-2. But for Spanish, there are two classes you can take. We have Intro to Spanish and Spanish 1-2, an elective that counts toward your two years of a foreign language.
Intro to Spanish is a little different from the other classes. Intro to Spanish is a one-semester course teaching you about the culture, history, and language. Unlike the other classes you can take this for one semester to see if you enjoy it before continuing to Spanish 1-2. While the class does not provide graduation/language credit, it is a great introduction to a language class.
“Yes, I do recommend Spanish to 7th graders. Spanish is such a good opportunity to expand your knowledge on other countries and cultures. Not only that, but it’s a great experience and way to meet new people. However, it does take a lot of time and repetition and lots of memorization.”
-Jake Hsu, 8th Grade Student
Taking a foreign language class can lead to successive classes at CV. To qualify for a UC you must have 2 years of language credit but CV counselors recommend 3 years of language. By taking Korean 1-2, 3-4, Japanese 1-2, 3-4 (also known as DLI), or Spanish 1-2 you can get one year of language credit toward graduation and/or college.
These classes introduce and take a deep dive into the language and heritage of these different cultures.
Music Classes
Rosemont offers choir, advanced choir, string ensemble, wind ensemble, and concert band, along with clubs like drumline and jazz band. All music classes are year-long except for regular choir, meaning that they all take up two of your 4 electives for the year. The music teacher, Ms. Chu, teaches all these clubs and classes and is loved by many of her students.
Clubs can be less stressful for some students because you don’t receive a grade. And, it doesn’t fill up two elective slots. In addition, you must join a club of your own accord. A counselor cannot control you getting into something like Jazz Band (audition required). Note: if you audition and get into an advanced class, you are automatically enrolled in that class as one of your electives.
You will have to audition to get into advanced classes, meaning that you need to have experience in whatever instrument you want to play. But with regular classes, you can learn to play a completely new instrument. These classes are welcome and open to all, no audition is required. With all the music classes, you will have concerts where you can perform in front of your parents, friends, and peers.
As for drumline and jazz band, these are after-school clubs, meaning they don’t count as an elective. Drumline meets on Tuesdays and jazz band Tuesdays and Thursdays. This means that after school you go to Ms. Chu’s room where you will meet up with your clubmates and play.
CTE
CTE electives are specialized classes that are designed to lead to specific career paths. CTE stands for Career and Technical Education. CTE classes at Rosemont include woodshop, stage and video production (adv. drama), and forensics. Each of these classes integrates high school classes, workspace learning, and outside connections, all to prepare you for future careers.
The careers associated with CTE classes are hands-on, high-demand jobs with high pay. Every CTE class at Rosemont could lead to CTE electives in high school. For example, the stage and video production elective at Rosemont leads to the cinematography pathway at CVHS. (Stage and Video is only available for 8th graders). CTE classes are great if you know what you want to do as a career or if you want to expand your knowledge of different fields of work.
A special thanks to Vivienne Hong-Harutyunyan, Douglas Laing, Mrs. Rivera and her Spanish students, and all the other elective classes we have visited in the past month.
