Curriculum
To further improve the quality of the first year of the elementary program, four key features of the curriculum will be crafted. First is preparation of curriculum. Second is establishing simple and effective classroom management and school culture/climate practices. Third is helping new students and staff navigate quickly into a safe and cooperative school space and time together. Fourth is ensuring that as many classrooms and building components are in place and functioning as possible before classes start. The goal is that school starts well and students quickly ease into engaged learning and relationship building. To achieve this, we must find ways to minimize confusion and imposing too many simultaneous “learning-curves” on teachers, staff, students and families.
A K-4 program will be developed that fits well with Metro School’s current program designs and teacher teaching and collaboration practices, especially focused on serving a high number of English Language Learners. Final decisions on curriculum choices will be made based on a review and adoption process for the program. Set Academy’s curriculum will be rigorously aligned to the Minnesota Academic Standards.
The elementary academic program will also emphasize the literacy and comprehension strategies as a building block of our Literacy Framework initiative where students receive explicit reading and writing support in English, Science, and Social Studies. This is an especially valuable approach for English Language Learners who need many opportunities to read, write, and speak and it helps most other students as well.
Another design feature is individual student goal setting through conferences with teachers, advisors, parents, and other students. This is particularly important for EL students to help them establish personal vision and goals for mastering English. Set Academy will adapt its Academic Literacy courses that involve teachers and EL teachers coteaching with a focus on literacy for K-4th grade students. All K-4th grade students will receive Academic Literacy lessons based on their WIDA levels and needs, and EL teachers will support teachers in understanding and practicing instructional practices that align content standards with WIDA ‘I-can’ statements. This helps ensure that instruction matches student language levels, that activities are aligned with student abilities, and language acquisition and academic growth are at the forefront.
Then over time Set Academy’s curriculum will be modified and integrated to use students' lived experiences to enhance learning in each of the subject areas. See research and applications developed in part by Bhaskar Upadhyay at the University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN.
Incorporating students' lived experiences helps them bridge from personal knowledge and understanding into all the academic subjects such as language arts, mathematics, social studies, science, environmental education. This will enhance students' understanding of new academic content and provide relevance to improve motivation for learning. This kind of curricular integration will take time so Set Academy will start with its selected curricula resources and then craft lessons and units that connect students' lived experiences with particular standards and benchmarks in the various subjects. This approach will help ELL students and Special Education students to enable them to construct new knowledge growing from their life experiences.
For reading, staff utilize teaching methods defined by the National Reading Panel and Balanced Literacy strategies for teaching reading. Skills are implemented within a Balanced Literacy instructional approach within the Readers and Writers Workshop framework of instruction. Key elements of the framework include: Interactive Read Aloud, Modeled Shared Readings, Guided Reading, Phonics/Word Study, Rigorous Independent Reading, and Literature Circles. Set Academy will use Reading A to Z and the CHUNK as key reading curriculum resources.
In math Set Academy plans to utilize the Envisions mathematics curriculum, which aligns with the Minnesota Mathematics Standards. The Envisions curriculum has the advantage of providing a more visual approach to helping students understand math concepts.
Set Academy’s elementary science curriculum will inspire thinking skills necessary for scientific inquiry and to introduce students to the wonder of science. Set Academy plans to adopt FOSS and Discovery Education as primary resources. The FOSS (Full Option Science System) hands-on curriculum, developed by the industry-leading Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California-Berkeley, engages students through activity-based learning and investigations. Discovery Education Discovery Education Experience is a simple-to-use online learning platform that combines dynamic curated curriculum content (a rich video library) with teaching strategies and tools.
The social studies curriculum will engage students in learning about government, economics, culture, and geography from past, present, and future aspects of society. Set Academy will also utilize lessons on a variety of topics in history, economics, citizenship, government, and geography from the National Council for Social Studies Online National Teachers’ Library, Minnesota Center for Social Studies Education, the Minnesota History Museum, and National Geographic.
Elements of our social studies program will include the NCSS Online National Teachers’ Library, Minnesota Center for Social Studies Education, the Minnesota History Museum, and National Geographic provide online detailed lesson plans for teachers to follow on a variety of topics in history, economics, citizenship, government, and geography. Northern Lights 2nd edition created by the Minnesota Historical Society is also planned for use and meets Minnesota social studies standards. Northern Lights materials include interactive investigations that reference primary sources and make connections among history, civics, economics, and geography. This includes enriched American Indian content.
IXL is an online resource for supplemental content in reading, math, and social studies that Set Academy also plans to utilize.