Details

Parent Category: Our School

Published on Thursday, 31 December 2009 01:05

Language Arts & Social Studies: The goal of the language arts and social studies program is to inspire in each student a love of literature and history and help them become engaged readers and writers. Students participate in literature circles, daily independent reading, and vocabulary development. Students are encouraged to make predictions, summarize, and evaluate texts, sharing their thoughts with classmates. Oak Grove uses the 6 Traits program for writing and writing workshop. Students explore the process of the writing cycle, drafting, revising, editing and publishing their work. They learn the conventions of writing including grammar and writing mechanics. Oak Grove’s social studies content follows the California framework and is then supplemented with topics that arise out of student interest. Student engage in independent research projects where they can investigate topics deeply and present these to their classmates and teacher. More information is available on grade level curriculum maps.

Mathematics: The goal of Oak Grove’s math program is to give children an authentic understanding of math concepts, skills and strategies that can be applied to the real world. Collaborative problem-solving is emphasized and traditional approaches to learning are balanced with experiential and hands-on projects for learning. Active investigation keeps student engagement high. More information is available on grade level curriculum maps.

Science: The goal of the science program is to help students see themselves as scientists, actively investigating the world around them. The science curriculum is offered through the Full Option Science System (FOSS). FOSS is a research-based science curriculum for grades K–8 developed by the University of California. FOSS provides all students with science experiences that are appropriate to their stages of cognitive development. This serves as a foundation for more advanced ideas that prepare them for life in an increasingly complex scientific and technological world. More information is available on grade level curriculum maps.

Spanish: The goal of the Spanish program is to promote a positive attitude toward learning another language and to instill an appreciation of other cultures. Using Total Physical Response (TPR), language is learned and through actions using storytelling as a guide. This approach has the advantage of eliminating translation into English making learning a second language an enjoyable and fun experience and leading the students naturally into talking, reading and writing.

This method includes four areas of work: vocabulary building, listening comprehension, development of verbal skills, study of basic grammar concepts, reading skills and writing skills.