What Learning Looks Like at S.C.O.P.E. Academy

Learning At SCOPE

The Structured Literacy Approach

Our Language Arts curriculum is firmly rooted in the Structured Literacy approach based on the Science of Reading. The Structured Literacy (SL) approach places a strong emphasis on highly explicit and systematic instruction encompassing all crucial components of literacy. These components encompass foundational skills such as decoding and spelling, as well as advanced literacy skills like reading comprehension and written expression. SL also prioritizes the development of oral language abilities crucial for literacy, including phonemic awareness, sensitivity to speech sounds in oral language, and the ability to manipulate those sounds.

Students engage in extensive reading and writing activities on a daily basis, with varying levels of support. The instructional process involves the teacher modeling tasks, providing support as needed, and allowing students to complete tasks independently with the teacher serving as a guide. Daily instruction includes Word Study (covering phonics and spelling), interactive read-alouds, and shared reading and writing experiences. This multifaceted approach ensures a comprehensive and effective learning experience for our students.

The program we have chosen to guide our ELA instruction is EL Education. Below you will find more details about the EL curriculum.

At EL Education, the definition of student success is in three dimensions: mastery of knowledge and skills, character, and high-quality work. This 3-dimensional view captures our commitment to a definition of student achievement that goes beyond traditional educational views that focus solely on the mastery of knowledge and skills. These three dimensions offer the vision for education that we would want for every child and that they truly provide the “north star” for all of our work towards educational equity.  Our curriculum addresses every single College and Career Ready grade level standard to help students master knowledge and skills, but it also intentionally embeds character development and teaches routines and processes for the creation of high-quality work. EL Education’s Language Arts curriculum was created to support students in building skills and content knowledge, to meet college- and career-ready standards, and, at the same time, to become more confident and collaborative learners. 

Language Arts Curriculum: K-2

The Grades K-2 curriculum offers:

• Two hours per day of content-based literacy (module lessons and Labs) 

• One hour of structured phonics (K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block). 

All together, these three hours of curriculum are considered comprehensive, meaning that they explicitly teach and formally assess all strands and standards of the Common Core State Standards for ELA/literacy for each grade level.

Language Arts Curriculum: 3-4

The Grades 3-4 curriculum includes two hours of rich content-based literacy instruction per day: 

• One hour of module lessons 

• One hour of the Additional Language and Literacy Block 

These two hours of curriculum are considered comprehensive, explicitly teaching and formally assessing all strands and standards of the Common Core ELA/literacy standards for each grade level. 

Labs

Labs are an important feature of the curriculum because they complement and extend student learning from the Module Lessons. They are designed to help teachers ensure that all of their students get the time to play and explore, become immersed in oral language and content knowledge, and practice skills and habits of character that they need—both to live joyfully and to be fully successful and proficient.

Children learn best when activities are authentic, purposeful and based on real life.. Hands-on, integrated, project based learning allows children to connect to big ideas and attach real world meaning to what they are learning. Children participating in project based learning delve deeply into topics of study and are encouraged to ask questions, find answers and take ownership of their learning. Learners will work individually and collaboratively on projects to build character and can make a difference, allowing them to develop respect and compassion for individuals, our community and the global community.

Our Lab Time is room to play, have fun and learn by researching and making things. Students share, photograph, write about, draw and discuss what they wonder, research and create. They learn how to find and develop ideas, problem solve, collaborate, share and show off what they've made. We believe that a strong emphasis on science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) integrated with literacy and social studies is essential for learners to become innovative, creative problem solvers.

Math Workshop

Our Math Workshop encourages students to be mathematicians who investigate the big ideas of mathematics from Day 1. Our Eureka Math Squared curriculum connects math to the real world in ways that take the fear out of math and build student confidence-helping students achieve true understanding lesson by lesson and year after year. Curiosity and engagement are hallmarks of our teaching. Throughout our daily Math Workshops, students:

• use manipulatives, digital  and visual representations to explore attributes of objects, likenesses and differences, the baseline for all problem solving.

• focus on deep understanding of small numbers, which enables them to work with larger numbers and develops number sense which is critically important.

• discover shapes and space in their environment, applying their knowledge of attributes to measure width, length, weight and capacity.

• play math games and solve puzzles reinforcing that math is fun!

 Students learn multiple math strategies, so they can solve more kinds of problems more efficiently, but they also gain a deeper understanding of mathematics and how to use it in daily life. Our students pursue mathematics with positive attitudes because they believe everyone can and must do mathematics.