Academics :: Curriculum
Grades K through 5: Students will be grouped in self-contained classrooms with the same teacher for both language arts and math. Students will receive instruction in Physical Education, Art, and Music once every three days.
Language Arts: Language Arts instruction will follow a Balanced Literacy model, including reading and writing both independently and in small and large groups. Teachers will differentiate instruction through guided reading and writing using a workshop approach. A hallmark of the Balanced Literacy model is that, through careful observation, teachers can provide children with daily experiences reading and working with words at their true instructional levels. Teachers will use every opportunity to integrate school-wide themes into their language arts instruction. For those students who, despite rigorous, differentiated language arts instruction, appear at risk of falling behind in reading, we will offer early intervention services provided by a reading specialist. Such services will be designed to meet the specific needs of the students requiring intervention.
Math: SBCS has selected as its math curriculum "Investigations in Number, Data and Space," a curriculum developed by the TERC Research Consortium in conjunction with the National Science Foundation. In this curriculum students are expected to learn basic facts and skills, but with emphasis on mathematical thinking and reasoning. In our math classes, students will explore problems in depth, find more than one solution to the many problems they work on, develop problem-solving strategies, and represent their thinking using models, diagrams, and appropriate technology.
Science: Science units will reflect the recommendations of Project 2061: Science for All Americans, developed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The goals of this project stress the constructivist, experiential approach adopted by SBCS. Students will work at times with others their own age and at times in multi-grade teams. While instruction will be delivered initially to individual classes, teachers will make every effort to blend their classes with those of their team members, particularly for hands-on projects and field trips.
Social Studies: Social Studies instruction will come from work on Integrated Thematic Units. Whenever possible, our students will go on field trips that reinforce topics and themes in the Social Studies curriculum. Again, students will work at times with others their own age and at times in multi-grade teams.
Grades 6 through 8: Each Upper Team teacher will specialize in a given subject area. Every day, Upper Team students will move from classroom to classroom. Their subjects will be Humanities (Language Arts and Social Studies), Math and Science. Students will have the same teacher for each of these subjects for three years, allowing for the continuity of instruction that looping provides. Students in the Upper Team will assemble portfolios each year, and eighth graders will be required to defend their portfolios in year-end reviews before they graduate.
