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When developing our Middle School Curricula, we pulled heavily from the tenets outlined in the Association for Middle Level Education's position paper entitled, 'This We Believe.'
Individualized Instruction and Differentiation
Individualized instruction means meeting the needs of individual learners as they move along their learning journey. This does not mean a 'one-to-one' teacher/student ratio, but rather a way of viewing each student as a unique human being with distinct and specific learning needs. Research indicates that people differ as learners, and in order to address the varied needs of each individual learner at CSD, teachers use the method of differentiation as a means of teaching essential content. Differentiation is a student-centered instructional approach where teachers study and assess their students' learning needs and adapt instruction accordingly.
Through differentiation, teachers are able to attend to individual students' differences in readiness, interest, and their overall learning profile, which results in the ability to connect more effectively with each student. Teachers achieve this by implementing a wide variety of instructional techniques to enhance the overall learning environment. Key principles of differentiation in the classroom are rooted in the teachers' responsibility to: create a classroom community, utilize high-quality curriculum, offer relevant and meaningful tasks for all students, and use on-going assessments to formulate instruction plans. Through these differentiation methods, students are allowed and encouraged to take greater responsibility for ownership of their learning and as multiple pathways to learning are established, the possibility that all students will experience success and reach their full potential as learners is maximized.
Hands-On Learning
At Community School of Davidson, we believe that students learn best when they gain knowledge through exploration and active learning. We do not rely on text books and lectures to teach content. We do engage students in meaningful, hands-on, real-life experiences that challenge them to think and explain their reasoning instead of memorizing and reciting facts. After these hands-on activities, students use the data they've collected to construct their own personalized "text book" to use as a resource and study guide for the remainder of the school year.
Hands-on learning allows students to make connections among and between the different disciplines, thereby enabling them to formulate deep, conceptual understandings of over-arching themes and concepts within our world. As a result of this type of learning, passions are ignited and student motivation soars. Students fulfill their brain's innate desire to make meaning of information, while also learning how to think critically about the learning process, as well as the experiences.
Assessment and Testing
At Community School of Davidson, on-going assessment constantly drives instruction, enabling teachers to individualize instruction and promote student learning at the highest level. All assessments are authentic in nature, meaning that students do not "prepare" for a test only to forget the material immediately after. Rather, assessment is used as a tool to inform and guide teachers as they make instructional decisions.
CSD teachers utilize a variety of assessment techniques in order to cover the various domains of learning. Therefore, assessments take on many forms, including performance-based tasks, teacher anecdotal notes based on oral discussions and/or written responses, cooperative group work, portfolios, and also, the more traditional paper-and-pencil "tests."
Along with administering high-quality assessments that target the "whys" and "how’s" not just the "what’s", teachers promote student ownership of their learning by continuously providing specific feedback to students. By working together as partners in the teaching and learning process, teachers stay informed of their students' learning, and students feel empowered and motivated to reach their full potential as learners.
As a public charter school in North Carolina, CSD follow the NC Standard Course of Study (SCOS). Our students take End-of-Grade (EOG) tests beginning in Grade 3. While we acknowledge standardized test-taking as a component of our balanced assessment program, we do not teach to the test. Rather, we engage the students in meaningful hands-on experiences linked directly to the curriculum all year long, and then six weeks before the EOG tests, we teach our students test-taking strategies and skills in order to promote their best performance on this particular mode of assessment. All in all, our assessment program is about balance; parents and students can expect to see a variety of assessment techniques utilized with specific feedback given to maximize the learning potential of each individual student.
Report Cards and Conferences
At Community School of Davidson, we do not give traditional letter grades in middle school. We do, however, use the results of the variety of on-going assessments to determine where students are on the journey to mastery of content for their grade level. Our report cards include meaningful and authentic information, detailing a student's academic growth and development. Report cards are issued three times a year, October, February, and May.
Parent/Teacher conferences are wonderful opportunities for sharing and receiving information about your student. The Parent/Teacher Covenant Conference takes place in August and is a chance for parents to share information about their child to their Advisor, and the advisor can share goals and expectations. This mutual sharing allows both parties to understand, from the very beginning, that a partnership is being formed in the education of the student. Parent/Teacher conferences are held in October, February, and May. During the October and February conferences, middle school students will lead the parent conferences and report on their own progress as learners. They will learn how to facilitate a student-led conference during Advisory.
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