Every academic moment in the classroom is intentionally and strategically planned. In order to make the most of every lesson and interaction, teachers turn to assessment data to plan differentiated instruction in all core academic areas.

For reading, accuracy, fluency, and comprehension, the Fountas and Pinnell Running Record assessment is used to determine every student’s independent reading level. Students are then matched to leveled books for reading independently, with partners and in small guided reading groups lead by the teacher during Columbia University’s Teachers College Readers Workshop. Instruction and feedback is pinpointed to each student’s unique needs. Running Records are assessed periodically as a student demonstrates growth and formally three times within the school year.

Additionally, the DIBELS assessment is used to assess the progress of every student in phonemic awareness and phonetic skills. The information gleaned from these measures also guides instruction in the classroom as teachers and instructional assistants work one on one and in small groups to meet the needs of all students.

Writing is assessed formally at the beginning and end of each unit using Columbia University Teacher’s College Writers Workshop rubrics and checklists. These formative and summative assessments inform teacher decision making in planning lessons and providing useful feedback to students during one-on-one writing conferences.

Pre-assessment and mClass data drive math differentiation. Prior to each unit, students take Chicago University’s Everyday Math pre-test in order to determine specific instructional needs. mClass assessments are administered each trimester and provide teachers with nationally normed data. Teachers use this information to plan and teach lessons that engage and challenge the students. This information is also used to group students in need of support and/or challenge within the curriculum.

Learning Outcomes:

 

The St. Margaret’s kindergarten through grade 5 digital literacy and library program fosters life-long learning through teaching students to be empowered learners, creative communicators and responsible digital citizens. The digital literacy program is three pronged in its focus: students learn to critically evaluate and curate resources and information ethically and creatively; students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving, and demonstrating competency in their learning goals; and students recognize the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning and working in an interconnected digital world, and they act and model in ways that are safe, legal and ethical.

 

While learning digital literacy skills, students will complete units based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the grade level STEAM theme focus, diversity, identity, and concepts covered in their social studies and science curriculum. 

 

Learning Outcomes based on Common Sense Media and the ISTE Standards for Students:

Kindergarten through Grade 3 Lower School students come to music one time per week. The curriculum is mapped backward from what our oldest musicians know and do. Our content focuses on developing students’ understanding of music theory, artistic perception, music history and interpretations of musical works. Through individual and class activities students build a love of music along with self-confidence which apply to students’ social, emotional, physical, and academic intelligence.

Learning Outcomes

 

• Students will learn to sing in tune and on pitch.
• Students will learn to discriminate between high and low pitches.
• Students will learn different tempos in song.
• Students will learn the dynamics: p, pp, f, and ff.
• Students will demonstrate a steady beat.
• Students will be able to discriminate between long and short sounds by echoing melodic phrases and singing a variety of songs.
• Students will learn note reading of the treble clef using lines and spaces.

Essential Questions:

• What would the world be like without fractions?
• How are operations related?
• Why is place value important?
• When is it appropriate to use estimation?
• How do I know which mathematical operation to use?
• Why do I measure?
• How do geometric models describe spatial relationships?
• Why is data collected and analyzed?
• How do people use data to influence others?

Learning Outcomes:

• Students will develop number sense and an understanding of the relationship between numbers, quantities, and place value in whole numbers up to 1,000.
• Students will calculate any whole number sums and differences up to three digits, including the use of money.
• Students will solve simple problems involving multiplication and division, through the use of repeated addition and subtraction, arrays, counting by multiples, and sharing equal groups with remainders.
• Students will construct and solve word problems using the appropriate operation and justify their mathematical reasoning. Students will tell time (analog or digital) and learn to create usable calendars.
• Students will estimate and measure length, weight and distance using standard and nonstandard measures. Students will calculate perimeter.
• Students will identify, compare and classify specific geometric shapes, as well as fractional portions of those objects.
• Students will recall addition and subtraction facts between 1 and 20 with automaticity.

Lower School students come to Physical Education 2-3 times a week. The curriculum follows the California State Framework in addition to following the St. Margaret’s tradition of developing strong skills in leadership, sportsmanship, and lifelong fitness. Our content focuses on developing students’ abilities, learning life skills, developing fundamental athletic skills, and promotion of healthy living. Through individual and team activities students build self-confidence which apply to students’ social, emotional, physical, and academic intelligence.

Essential Questions:

• Why does team work matter?
• What does it mean to be a good sport?
• What is healthy living?

 

Learning Outcomes: “My Partner and I—How we move in space”

 

• Move and change direction quickly and safely without falling.
• Throw an object hard, demonstrating an overhand technique, a side orientation, and opposition.
• Jump a self-turned rope repeatedly.
• Use acquired motor skills in simple, low organized games.
• Develop qualities of leadership within group.

Reading instruction in grade 2 is based upon the Heinemann Units of Study in the Reader’s Workshop program. Readers learn organizational structures to navigate through a wide range of genres including fiction and nonfiction text. Readers develop accuracy and efficiency in decoding multisyllabic words of increasing complexity. They continue to refine the accuracy and fluency of their oral reading and learn to read with appropriate intonation and expression. Students learn to adjust their pace and style of reading, depending on the type of material read, and they also learn how to determine an author’s purpose. Reading comprehension strategy instruction accelerates in grade 2 as students learn to take greater responsibility for monitoring their understanding of texts. Students learn to ask clarifying questions while reading and learn to answer inferential questions. Students are expected to support their answers with evidence from the text or from their own personal knowledge. Guided reading, shared reading, small-group instruction, independent practice and individual coaching provide children with instruction tailored to their personal learning needs, thus helping students gain independence and mastery in applying learned strategies.

Signs for Sounds is an integral part of our Language Arts curriculum. Students are provided with explicit phonics instruction paired with explicit spelling instruction. Students are also instructed in the spelling of irregular high-frequency words. As students master correspondence between sounds and letters, scaffolding diminishes. Students benefit from instruction and immediate self-correction, as well as application in the form of dictation. Students review skills based on performance and differentiation for individuals and small groups is incorporated as needed.

 

In addition to Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, students are taught 95 Phonics Core Program, an evidence-based phonics instruction 30 minutes a day. This program is grounded in the science of reading and builds critical skills to help develop strong readers.

 

Reading Learning Outcomes:

 

• Students will interpret and fluently read independent reading grade-level texts and show their understanding through written response, discussion, and oral presentation.
• Students will continue to strengthen and expand their skills in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.
• Students will ask and answer questions such as who, what, where, when, why and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.
• Students will recount stories including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral.
• Students recognize cause and effect relationships in text and compare and contrast plots, settings, and characters presented by different authors.
• Students will describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.

 

Reading Essential Questions:

 

• What do good readers do?
• What do readers do when they do not understand?
• How do readers make connections within the text to help them understand what they have read?
• How do text features help readers determine the topic and main idea of a text?

Social science in grade 2 is based on Macmillan/McGraw-Hill California Vistas: People and Places social science curriculum. Students extended understanding of historic references, and teaches them to learn to differentiate between events that took place long ago and those taking place more recently. They refine their understanding of absolute and relative map locations and learn to apply geographic terminology in locating and describing places and environments. Grade 2 students also begin to learn the basic institutions and practices of governments in the United States and other countries. Students learn the basic principles of economics including producers, consumers, goods, and services. In the Lower School, service learning is thematically tied to the social studies curriculum. Grade 2 students study the STEM themes of air throughout the course of the year. Students partake in air themed field trips, presentations, explorations, and a service project in which they aim to reduce pollution caused by idling cars.

Essential Questions:

• Why do people move? Why do people stay?
• How does our government help people to get along?
• How does our geographic location affect our development?
• How do we find out about people from long ago?
• What are producers and consumers?
• What are goods and services?
• Why is air a basic need?
• What can we do to protect the air we breathe?

Learning Outcomes:

• Students will observe changes that have taken place in their communities and their families and they will be able to differentiate between things that happened long ago and things that happened yesterday. Students explore their own family heritage.
• Students demonstrate map skills by locating, labeling, and comparing and contrasting locations of people, places and environments.
• Students will explain the structure of community, state and the federal governments.
• Students will explore the lives of actual people who make a difference in their everyday lives and learn the stories of extraordinary people from history whose achievements have touched them, directly or indirectly.
• Students will be aware of people who supply goods and services and how consumers play a role in our economy.
• Students identify natural resources and think critically about how to preserve and protect our earth.
• Students will learn about the importance of air and how pollution negatively impacts air quality.

Our Spiritual Practice class for grades K through 5 is designed to provide a grounding environment centered on moral formation and character development that caters to the whole child. The class provides an opportunity for students to mindfully reflect, contemplate, breathe, and find a pocket of peaceful respite during their day. The class is made up of lessons that support students’ spiritual character development as well as social and emotional development.

Learning Outcomes:

The primary emphasis is on encouraging self confidence in exploring art forms, stimulating curiosity through motivating projects, and continued development in skills and ability, instilling enjoyment and participation in art activities and developing an appreciation of the accomplishments of others. Additionally, students will perceive and respond to art, objects in nature, events and the environment.

 

• Students will use appropriate art vocabulary (line, color, shape/form, texture, value, space) in their own works of art and the art of others.
• Students will use appropriate tools and art-making processes (pencils, erasers, scissors, glue and paint brushes) for this level.
• Students will demonstrate beginning skill in use of art media, such as, watercolors, tempera, crayon and pen.
• Students will view and describe the art of other cultures.
• Students will tell a story and express feelings with their art.
• Students will create a piece of art using overlapping technique.
• Students will enjoy the process of making art. 

Through Columbia University’s Teacher’s College Writing Project, grade 2 students are instructed in a variety of genres, including personal narrative, opinion writing, informational writing, and poetry. Writers are taught genre-specific strategies and learn to refine the focus of their writing. Writers develop their paragraphs with a focus on elaboration and craft. They learn to edit and revise drafts, and organize their writing using leads, transitions, and endings. Throughout each unit, teachers conference one-on-one with students and create individualized writing goals. Students are encouraged to write what they know, incorporating their background knowledge and personal experiences into their writing. Grammar is taught within the Writing Workshop.

The Handwriting Without Tears® printing program in first and second grade develops strong printing skills with hands-on activities and lessons that integrate important language arts skills, including sentence, word, and paragraph composition.

Writing Learning Outcomes:

 

• Students will construct complete sentences and paragraphs utilizing a variety of writing applications, including a lead, descriptive details, transitions and an ending.
• Students will write to communicate meaning and to share stories with others.
• Students will utilize grade-appropriate spelling, vocabulary, and conventions in their own student-generated writing.
• Students will demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).

 

Writing Essential Questions:

 

• How do writers use written language to represent stories?
• How do writers use personal experience to write small moment stories?
• How do writers make their stories easy to read?
• How can stories be revised to improve their quality?
• How do authors learn from each other?
• How can writers express themselves creatively through poetic language?