Curriculum Overview
Christopher House’s curriculum and instruction focuses strongly on a college preparatory curriculum and promotes a disciplined, but supportive learning environment. We aim for all our scholars to be prepared to succeed in high school, in college, and in life.
Adhering to the current educational practice of meeting students’ individual needs, Christopher House Elementary School teaching staff are highly trained to plan a broad spectrum of activities that respond to a broad range of learners.
Differentiated Learning Goals
- Recognize differences in students’ learning strengths, styles, interests, and paces
- Provide challenging, meaningful activities for all students
- Provide equal opportunity for all students to develop potential and skills for success
- Meet varying needs of students by matching instruction to child
- Integrate higher-level learning within the general standards-based curriculum
- Encourage teachers to continue their own education and training for understanding and supporting differentiation using data
- Provide a nurturing environment that is conducive to higher-level questioning and discussions
- Promote excellence in instructional decision-making
- Transform potential into production
- Learn persistence, organizational skills, and study skills to maximize student potential
Multi-Tiered Systems of Support
MTSS matches a leveled response of instruction and intervention with the needs of the individual student. Leveled instruction is categorized into three tiers of support – Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3.
Determination of the level of support needed is based on student monitoring and on-going data collection. More intensive intervention strategies are provided to students based on the student’s ability to progress in the general education curriculum. Our teachers and MTSS team work collaboratively with parents to ensure ongoing communication and support throughout the process.
Specialized Services
Christopher House strives to be inclusive of all and responsive to the needs of each individual student and family. We provide a variety of services tailored to our students’ needs. Learn more below:
An inclusive model of of supporting our Diverse Learners mainstreams students to the fullest extent possible. An Individualized Education Plan (IEP) is developed to address each child’s unique needs. The Christopher House philosophy supports a belief that students can be served in a general educational setting to the degree it serves their special needs and allows for the natural progression of the general education program. Christopher House hosts a special services team to assist general educators in meeting students’ complex, individual needs.
Our ELL teachers support individualized instruction for scholars at their current levels of English acquisition. They plan and instruct alongside our general education and Diverse Learner teachers to ensure all students feel supported and included in all areas of the curriculum. Our ELL teachers are both Spanish-speaking and provide native language support to our Spanish-speaking students as appropriate, supporting our philosophy of cultural respect and relevance in our curriculum.
Assessments
The curriculum of Christopher House Elementary School is rigorous. Our goal is to promote preparedness for each scholar as they progress through the grade levels successfully. In order to achieve this goal, instruction is differentiated depending on the needs of the scholar. Christopher House and its teachers are committed to doing whatever it takes to ensure the success of each individual child.
All scholars must demonstrate progress towards the achievement of Common Core State Standards. Scholars will be assessed every five weeks and at key stages during the academic year to ensure attainment and growth of new skills and knowledge.
We utilize the following research-based assessments:
- NWEA (MPG and MAP Math; MAP Reading)
- Fastbridge
- Illinois Science Assessment (5th and 8th)
- IAR (3rd grade and up)
Personalized Learning
Personalized learning practices allow scholars to take ownership over their own learning, to set and achieve ambitious goals, to serve in an active role as learner, and to have choice and input into their learning. At Christopher House Elementary School, we merge the Reggio-Emilia approach found in our Early Childhood schools with personalized learning practices. This includes adaptive planning, co-planning with scholars, choice menus, blended learning options, engaging in goal-setting and conferencing with teachers and family members, project-based options and learning based on qualitative and quantitative data.
Reggio-Emilia inspired instructional practices are used to create holistic learning environments. Emergent learning is made possible through adaptive unit planning. Students have choice boards in K-1st to support differentiated learning needs, styles, and paces. The Arts are incorporated into academic subjects.
We utilize students’ surveys, goal-setting and conferring to support student progress. The upper grades also engage in increased interest-based projects that cross grades and subject-levels. This occurs through the use of creative scheduling that allows for more flexibility in teacher and student schedules. Teachers engage in increased vertical planning to align Standards and benchmarks, ensuring cohesive programming that works in tandem with the personalized learning structures.
At all ages, we incorporate STEAM units, which is an educational approach to learning that uses Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics as access points for guiding student inquiry, dialogue, and critical thinking.
Contact Us. We’d Love To Hear From You.
We would love to hear from you. To learn more about our learning community and for general questions regarding Christopher House Elementary School connect with us.