All students will participate in a variety of research practices including observations, question development, interviews, artifact collection, field visits, note-taking, and hands-on experiments.

• In an ever-changing world, we believe that it is crucial for our students to learn how to meet the needs of their generation while also keeping the needs of future generations in mind. To cultivate this thinking, our students study their relationship with the world using a lens of sustainability. Our students participate in integrated projects focused on the living world, social justice, and economic justice.

• We will support the use of literacy skills across subject areas by creating units of study to teach specific reading, writing, listening, speaking, and language content outlined in the Common Core State Standards. Using a balanced literacy framework, our students engage in a daily reading workshop, writing workshop, word study session, and read aloud, in addition to integrated literacy work.

• The mathematics program emphasizes student-driven exploration, problem-solving, collaborative group work, and discussion that supports the conceptual understanding of mathematics. We draw from multiple resources to plan Common Core State Standards aligned units of study including TERC Investigations, Contexts for Learning, and Math Solutions.

• We view the arts as a channel for learning, communication, expression, and creativity. Teachers and arts specialists collaboratively plan integrated units of study and our schedule will include time for arts teachers to co-teach with each classroom teacher.