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Curriculum

WEDJ PCS will follow a standards-driven, performance-based developmental curriculum. Our curriculum is carefully framed around knowledge about children’s physical, social, emotional and cognitive growth. It is based on what children need to know and be able to do in both the artistic and academic arena and our collective knowledge about how children learn. The task of teachers then is to adjust the curriculum through their understanding of each child both as an individual and as members of a class.

High quality learning experiences will form the core of teaching and learning atWEDJ PCS. Our interdisciplinary program, as dictated by the National Standards forEducation in the Arts, will provide for long-term, in-depth explorations of a theme ortopic across the curriculum. It will reinforce both skill and content for all students andthereby enable students to approach a topic from many different learning styles. This willpromote high academic achievement, critical thought, essential work skills and habits,personal and social development and high-quality original demonstrations/presentations.Each term or year, depending on the grade of the student, will end with a class orensemble presentation/demonstration involving each student in front of audiences offamily and community members.Flexibility with materials allows us to teach the performance-based standards throughcontent standards that adjust with current events and the local arts season. The standardsfocus on process before product.

English/Language Arts

Projects and explorations will be designed to inherently require extensive reading,writing, listening and speaking. Daily student work in reading, writing andcommunication will be related to ongoing projects and will occur in class discussions,small groups and individual and team activities. Students will read and listen to multipleliterature genres including historical fiction, nonfiction, diaries, poetry, musical verse,plays and newspapers to find information related to the subject of a theme. Daily studentwriting opportunities may include journals, lyrical content, note-taking, notation, list-making, project designs, and letters and opinion pieces. The Performing Arts programrequires that students prepare and present quality work to real audiences. Daily practicein various forms of literary communication will help move students on that path.Standards for quality will be established with students for all activities.Balanced Literacy instruction will combine the best practices of a literature-basedprogram. Classroom practice will include daily reflection, self and outside evaluation andgoal setting. Our school will pay special attention to developing strong literacy skills inthe early grades. As early as Kindergarten, we will begin intervention strategies forstudents experiencing difficulty.Literacy instruction will occur in a variety of settings. Group sizes will vary fromone-on-one tutoring and/or special education instruction to whole class presentations. Theavailability of educational aides, trained tutors, special education specialists, literacycoaches and the structure provided by the America’s Choice program facilitate individualand small group instruction.Books at a range of reading and instructional levels will be available in eachclassroom as well as in a central reading/reference area in the school. Books will beleveled according to the Scholastic Guided reading Program and Guided reading Levelsas listed in Fountas and Pinnells’ publications. At all times, books and other readingmaterials central to the school and/or classroom current themes will be availablethroughout the school building. All classrooms will be print-rich and display evidence ofstudents’ reading, writing and thought across the entire curriculum. All members of theschool community will engage in Stop, Drop and Read, as Sustained Silent ReadingProgram, on a regular basis each week thereby reinforcing the pleasure of readingthrough structured available time and adult modeling. Additionally, student willparticipate in independent reading each and every day. Students will be expected to logfree reading and to meet benchmarks each year in completing numbers of books andother reading materials read.WEDJ PCS is adopting the America’s Choice Model for Literacy. America’s Choiceoffers opportunities for students to engage in reading and writing assignments across awide variety of genres and is easily integrated with Social Studies, World Language andPerforming Arts Standards. It provides clear instruction to teachers, tutors and aides andis aligned with the national standards in literacy.Training and consistency are critical to the successful implementation of the literacyprogram. We will work with the America’s Choice Program Consultants and our internalliteracy coaches to provide ongoing support and professional development for teachers tomost efficiently and efficaciously provide instruction to our students.The overall goal of Reading/Language Arts is to develop a literate citizenry. Ourperformance standards are designed to produce effective communicators who speak andwrite clearly and fluently; independent thinkers who can also work cooperatively; andconfident community members whose literacy informs their roles in the worlds of careerand family. In addition, students will comprehend and compose a wide range of written,oral (including musical) and visual texts, respond in many ways to a rich variety ofliterary texts in relation to one’s life and the lives of others, use language and symbolsystems to define problems, retrieving, interpreting and organizing information incommunicating to defined audiences and use language in a variety of social and culturalinfluences of texts

Mathematics

Mathematics will be both integrated into all subjects and studied as a separate subject.Our approach to mathematics instruction will rely on the heavy use of manipulatives aswell as real-life examples and models to further reinforce both mathematical skills andtheir practical application to Arts Education and Vocation. The University of Chicago Mathematics program encourages students to usemathematics in an authentic way to solve problems and gain knowledge. This programwill be supplemented with the use of musical and video instruction of mathematicalconcepts such as multiplication and intervals, particularly at the lower levels. SesameStreet™ counting videotapes, Schoolhouse Rock™ and Count With Me™ are examplesof these types of supplements for our early grades. Promoting mathematical literacy andits practical applications to music, performance, artistic perspective and businesspractices will be the goal of our mathematics program.All goals in the mathematics program will be aligned with the National Council ofTeachers of Mathematics standards. The University of Chicago Mathematics programemploys a developmental approach to teaching mathematics, emphasizes problem-solving, provides quality implementation support for teachers and allows flexibility toadapt to student and class needs. It is also an ambitious academic model that providesyoung students with a strong mathematical foundation for higher order math subjects inhigh school.

Each year, Mathematics teachers will be provided with opportunities for furtherprofessional development in math. Students will demonstrate and understanding ofnumbers and pattern and the way they are used, create models, equations and graphs tosolve problems and to describe and analyze relationships among variables, useappropriate tools and technology to apply measurement concepts to solve problems ineveryday life, draw inferences and make predictions and logical deductions about realworld problems and situations, and gather, display, organize, interpret and analyze data todetermine probability and to statistically model mathematical situations

Science

Students will be engaged in an authentic science program that teaches basic scientificthinking skills while it encourages enthusiasm and a desire to conduct independentscientific inquiries. Our goal is for children as young as Pre-K to become engaged inmodeling the work of real scientists. Students will follow the scientific method whenconducting science investigationsThe natural world in which we exist seamlessly integrates science and the arts. Allaround us is color, sound and movement. In the course of our daily lives we experiencesituations which are easily translated, duplicated or mimicked in an artistic environment.The emphasis in the William E. Doar School, a school dedicated to artistic development,will be to support the artistic focus of the school with science curricula that elucidates thespecific areas of science that apply to the artistic endeavor. The language of elementarymathematics will be utilized to show how all of the scientific areas are linked and howmathematics relates to artistic development and craft.The K through 2nd grade focus will be to introduce the students to the worldaround them and to teach them to formulate and logically describe what they haveobserved. The special focus here will be to place more emphasis on comprehending light,sound and movement production than would normally be a part of a K through 2nd gradeprogram. At the 3rd through 8th grade level, the introduction to the sciences begun at theK through 2nd grade level will be further developed to assist the students in scientificinvestigation and documentation. The emphasis on the understanding of light, sound andmovement, begun in the K through 3rd grade level, will be continued through themechanism of experimentation and research. At the 3rd through 8th grade level thecurricula will take advantage of the natural connection that science and artistic endeavorshare in areas such harmonics, the wave nature of light and sound; and the production,use and the effects of color.

At the 9th through 12th grade levels, the science curricula will seek to expand theunderstanding of areas relating to the world of the artist and how science supports theartistic effort. Building upon the emphasis on light, sound and movement introduced inthe earlier grades, the four core science areas will be expanded, and fully integrated,supported by the language of mathematics to expand the students understanding ofscience and its relation to the world of the artist. The introduction to the physicalsciences, augmented with introductory biology and physics, will also place specificemphasis on light, sound and movement as they relate to vocal and instrumental music,movement and design for the stage. The program of anatomy and physiology likewisewill emphasize the structure of bones and muscles as they relate to movement and dance.And all of the four core science areas [Introduction to Physical Science, Biology, Physics,Anatomy & Physiology] taken together, will seek to develop an early appreciation of themany elements that constitute production.

The overall effort throughout will be to assist the students in understanding thenatural world from a holistic standpoint; to see their art as a means of complimenting thenatural elements around them; and to fully understand the scientific basis for the art thatthey will seek to create.

Scientific projects will incorporate hands-on, inquiry based science activities thatmeet science content standards and often relate to a larger project. The Math and Scienceinstructors will be the same person at the lower grades. Science teachers will specializein the Middle School division.

The appropriate teachers will be provided with opportunities for professionaldevelopment in Science. Students will understand and apply the properties, position andmotion of materials and objects, understand and apply the properties of light, sound, heat,electricity and magnetism and understand of the characteristics, life cycles, and changeover time of organisms and environments.

Social Studies

The History Alive! approach to Social Studies consists of a series of instructionalpractices that allows students with multiple intelligences to “experience” history. Theseteaching methods were developed by teachers who carefully and thoughtfully combinedthe following three educational theories:

1. Students have multiple intelligences. Howard Gardner has found that every studentexcels in two or three of the multiple intelligences. Verbal Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, Visual-Spatial, Body-Kinesthetic, Musical-Rhythmic, Interpersonal andIntrapersonal

2. Cooperative interaction increases learning, improves social skills, leads toincreased student interaction and, ultimately, to increased learning gains. Teachinghistory in an interactive and engaging way necessitates creating a cooperative, tolerantclassroom. In this environment, students will learn to share ideas, to work togethercooperatively, to tolerate differences, to disagree honestly, and to take risks—and allstudents will feel valued and respected.

3. The spiral curriculum is the belief that all students can learn if a teacher showsthem how to think and discover knowledge for themselves. Students learn progressivelymore difficult concepts through a process of step-by-step discovery.Through this approach to learning Social Studies, all students will develop skills andelements of social studies of historical chronology, geography, economics, and politicalsystems, examine and discuss ideas, beliefs, and themes; organize and follow patterns ofevents; describe and analyze how individuals and societies have changed in DC and theUnited States, examine and discuss ideas, beliefs, and themes; organize and followpatterns of events; describe and analyze how individuals and societies have changed inthe world. They will also use geographical concepts and processes to examine the rolesof culture, technology, and environment in the locations, distribution and interaction ofhuman societies, develop economic reasoning to both understand the development ofeconomic systems and to apply as citizens, consumers, and workers, understand politicalconcepts and processes of authority, power, and influence in DC, the United States, andthe world and develop skills and attributes of responsible citizens and understand anddescribe the similarities, differences, and interactions of peoples and cultures within DC,the United States, and the world.

World Language

A well-rounded academic program hosts World Language choices for students. Wesupport and will provide instruction in several languages. In keeping with our focus onthe Performing Arts, it must be noted that much musical notation is done in Latin basedlanguages. In addition, in conjunction with our Social Studies content and desire toexpose students to arts in many forms and cultures, we will require participation in WorldLanguage courses for all students. One area of focus in the languages will be AmericanSign Language. Interested students will be taught interpretation for arts performances andwill be able to satisfy their foreign language requirements through instruction in ASL.Also, BAPA’s Imagination Stage produces a deaf access theater company and classes intheater taught in ASL. Students will engage in conversations, provide and obtaininformation, express feelings and emotions and exchange opinions, reinforce and furthertheir knowledge of other disciplines through World Languages, demonstrate anunderstanding of the relationship between practices and perspectives of the culturestudied and demonstrate an understanding of the nature of language through comparisonsof the language studied and their own.

Technology Integration

Mission: Technology in Everyday Life3The mission of the Technology in Everyday Life (TEL) program is to teach students andstaff to be effective, life-long users of ideas, information and technology in the context ofa world-class education.

WEDJ PCS believes that infrastructure improvement, curricular change and professionaldevelopment are necessary in order for today’s schools to use twenty-first centurytechnologies to the fullest. Technology must be integrated into the life of the school, sothat it becomes an everyday part of the school members’ lives and is meaningfullyconnected to the work that each member of the school community is responsible for. Wewill put in place the support and practices that will:

Educate our school community in the use of current and future technologies.
Develop methods to integrate technology into our curriculum.
Provide on-going professional development for our staff in the uses andapplications of technology.

WEDJ PCS is committed to providing an environment in which technology is integratedthroughout the curriculum in order to:

Enhance student productivity, efficiency, creative expression, communication,and access to information,
Produce students who are life-long learners,
Improve levels of critical thinking and problem solving,
Prepare students effectively for the transition from school to work,
Promote family involvement in student education.

Vision: Technology in Everyday Life

Technology is a lifetime skill. People use technology to communicate, invent, solveproblems, and to express ideas and emotions. At WEDJ PCS, we believe learning to usetechnology must be a part of everyday life.

The best way to learn to use technology is to live in a culture that uses it. At WEDJ PCS,technology will be an integral part of the culture, as natural a part of school life as booksand pencils. Rather than talking about technology, school staff, students, and families willlearn to use technology. Most importantly, members of the WEDJ PCS community willuse technology to learn, to teach and to inform.

Technology in Everyday Life (TEL) is grounded in the following key principles:

• Build Capacity: WEDJ PCS is committed to building the capacity of all membersof the school community to use technology in powerful ways. This will require anongoing process. Whenever possible, specific technologies will be taught andlearned in the context of practical application, not as isolated skills. It is theprimary responsibility of the Technology Manager to build capacity among allparticipants in the school community to use technology. All instructional staffmembers are expected to attend 45-minutes of technology training each week.The purpose of the training is to facilitate the use of technology in the classroomand support teachers in planning and implementing lessons that use technologyappropriately and effectively.

• Ensure Equitable Access: Because technology will become a principal means ofcommunication at WEDJ PCS, those who are unable to use it or access it run therisk of being excluded from the school community. All full-time professional staffmembers will have desktop computer. School leadership members will beprovided with a laptop computer.

• Promote Continuous Learning: TEL focuses on helping individuals learn how tolearn. As staff and students gain experience and expertise they will be expected tomodel, teach, and support others, regardless of their age or role within the school.To promote continuous learning, WEDJ PCS will create a process similar to themerit badge model used by the Girl/Boy Scouts of America. Technology Licenseswill define the desired skills; to earn a license, staff and students mustdemonstrate or apply those skills in a project that is presented to a responsiblemember of the school community. Licenses will enable learners to take onadditional responsibilities such as checking out or using a particular piece ofequipment without direct supervision, or to coach others.

WEDJ PCS is committed to providing the time, resources, training, and supportnecessary to enable technology to become a language through which school staff andstudents communicate and do their work.

Performing Arts Program

Study after study has shown the importance of Arts Education to overall studentachievement. Performing Arts education in particular also contributes to the self-confidence, communication and public speaking skills of students all qualities necessaryfor ultimate occupational and educational success. The SPECTRA (Schools, Parents,Educators, Children, Teachers Rediscover the Arts) program infused the arts throughoutthe curriculum. Not only did this infusion improve attendance rates and reduce disciplineproblems, but the SPECTRA group students scored considerably higher in mathcomprehension and demonstrated significant improvement on total reading scores,reading vocabulary, reading comprehension and math comprehension.4 Beyond simplyproviding students with opportunities for arts appreciation, as a Performing Arts School,arts classes will be given equal billing with academic subjects as well as provide the basisfor creating a hands-on inquiry based academic setting for students. As both a contentarea and a teaching tool, arts education is at the core of our entire school program.The school will employ full-time arts administrators and full and part-time teachers indisciplines including: graphic, music, plastic, drama and movement. Our dance programis being designed in partnership with the CityDance Ensemble. In addition, all teacherswill use art as a tool for helping children learn in a developmentally appropriate mannerabout society, culture, history, science and the human experience. The arts, includingboth exhibits and performances will also be the subject of many field trips throughout theregion.

In recognition of the wealth of artistic resources in the Metropolitan Washington, DCarea, we will continue to work on forging partnerships with area arts and culturalinstitutions. These organizations may include, but are not limited to: Kennedy Center forthe Performing Arts, the Smithsonian Institution, Wolf Trap Center for Performing Arts,the National Symphony Orchestra, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Folger ShakespeareCompany, Imagination Stage, The Levine School of Music, The James Weldon JohnsonCommunity School for the Arts and many others. These types of community partners willprovide additional opportunities for our students to have a breadth of arts experiences tobolster and augment those programs provided in our school building.The Visual and Performing Arts standards provide both the foundation for creatingcurricular decisions and the opportunity for meaningful assessments in all four art forms.The standards are organized in three sections applicable to all of the arts: Creating andPerforming, Perceiving and Analyzing, and Understanding Cultural and HistoricalContexts.

The following standards apply to all Performing Arts disciplines. Students will:
PA1. Identify and understand relationships between the arts and disciplines outsidethe arts.
PA2. Understand the arts in relation to history and culture.
PA3. Critique formal and informal performances, in both oral and written formsbased on prior knowledge and personal preference.
PA4. View, analyze and describe world music, theater, dance and visual art.
PA5. Use technology to research and create art.

Music

MU1. Sing a wide variety of music alone and with others.
MU2. Perform on instruments both alone and with others.
MU3. Compose, arrange and improvise music within specific guidelines.
MU4. Read and notate music.
MU5. see PA1.
MU6. see PA2.
MU7. see PA3.
MU8. see PA4.
MU9. see PA5.

Theater

TA1. Script writing by planning and recording improvisations.TA2. Acting by creating characters in improvisations and scripted material.TA3. Designing by visualizing and arranging environments for dramatization.TA4. Collaborating by planning and rehearsing dramatizations.TA5. Integrating historical and cultural information to support dramatizations.TA6. see PA1.TA7. see PA2.TA8. see PA3.TA9. see PA4.TA10. see PA5.

Dance/Movement

DA1. Identify and demonstrate movement elements and skills in performing dance.DA2. Understand choreographic principles, processes and structures.DA3. Understand dance as a way to create and communicate meaning.DA4. Make connections between dance and healthy living.DA5. see PA1.DA6. see PA2.DA7. see PA3.

From National Standards for Arts Education,Published by Music Educators National Conference (MENC). Copyright 1994 by MENC. Used bypermission. The complete National Arts Standards and additional materials relating to the Standards areavailable from MENC. The National Association for Music Education, 1806 Robert Fulton Drive, Reston,VA 20191 (telephone 800/336-3768)

Visual Art

VA1. Understand and apply media, techniques and processes.VA2. Use knowledge of structures and functions.VA3. Choose and evaluate a range of subject matter, symbols and ideasVA4. see PA1VA5. see PA2VA6. see PA3VA7. see PA4VA8. see PA5

Example of a Themed Arts-integrated Unit:

The 4th grade class is studying the United States literary era known as the HarlemRenaissance. In the English/Language Arts class, the students read literature (i.e. poetry,essay, and fiction) either produced or considered popular at the time. In Social Studies,the same students learn about the social and economic influences that lead to this periodin upper Manhattan. They would also learn about important historical figures of the day.In the performing arts, jazz music would be the topic. Students would have theopportunity to study this art form unique to the United States. Jazz studies would includethe study of rhythms, instruments and improvisations required to perform, as well aslistening and critiquing previously recorded music. These criticisms would also reinforcethe ELA standards.

Perhaps this unit would culminate in the students reenacting an evening at The CottonClub. The research for this project would involve ELA, Social Studies and the use ofTechnology. Math is used in the involvement of writing music. The students in theirreproduction of the club would perform that music. Students would also dance in thestyle of the period and culture. The environment would be created as a part of the theatercurriculum, involving math and science for such elements as building furniture, lightingand even preparing food. The possibilities are endless and this is only a small sample ofwhat WEDJ PCS plans. Such integration will only boost the academic and artisticachievement of our students. Because they are reinforcing their knowledge byconnecting it with many other disciplines, students will retain information and skillslonger and make them a permanent part of their repertoire.Integrated units will be developed during grade-level meetings.

Citizenship

1. Community ServiceCommunity Service is an essential component to a civilized society. Our emphasis onthe Performing Arts reinforces our desire to produce well-rounded citizens of the world.All students will be expected to fulfill requirements in community service. The schoolwill generate many of these service activities and will focus on bringing “Arts toOthers”6. Through performances/ demonstrations at community centers, senior centers,hospitals and other schools, our students will be taught to share their knowledge andtalents with others.

2. Social CurriculumOne of the guiding principles of the WEDJ PCS education is self-discipline. While itdoes not appear as a subject, it underlies the whole educational structure. It is the key toself-control, character, orderliness and efficiency. It means good conduct and properconsideration for other people, their rights, their talents and their property. We believethis to be of primary importance in today’s society. At WEDJ PCS, we believe thateveryone has the right to learn and no one has the right to interfere. It will be expected forstudents to recognize the appropriate conduct for a given situation and that students willexhibit courtesy such that it brings compliments to our school.As a part of the classroom environment, teachers will provide opportunities forchildren to learn to care about themselves, each other and their environment. Over thefirst few weeks of school, teachers, administrators and other academic and supportpersonnel will provide students with instruction in appropriate behavior and academicexpectations of the school. The academic and performance instruction will be interwovenwith the social curriculum until the two are indistinguishable. We feel it is necessary towork with a social curriculum program in order to provide consistency for students fromclassroom to classroom and curriculum area to curriculum area. It is important to giveteachers both parameters and support in managing effective classrooms and students’guidance in those areas so they can learn to make good decisions about their behavior.

Methods of Instruction

Instructional Methods to be used by WEDJ PCS faculty are to include but are notlimited to: Direct Instruction, Cooperative Learning, Lecture, Hands-On LaboratoryExperiences, Journaling, and Portfolio.Examples of teaching methods that will be used on a frequent basis in WEDJ PCSprogram are as follows:

1. Cooperative learning
2. Collaborative learning
3. Peer tutoring and cross age tutoring
4. Small group and large group instruction
5. Project-based learning, simulations
6. Manipulatives
7. Games
8. Modeling

WEDJ PCS’ program will use the following strategies to implement an activity based academic curriculum program: project-based learning, cooperative learning, art therapy,personal experiences, choral response, manipulatives, small group learning, story telling,field trips, structured play, drama, games, songs, IEP, and other strategies that fit withinthe constructivist model of learning.The research on the above pedagogical practices strongly supports and correlatesthem with high academic achievement among urban students. They are also associatedwith developing a supportive learning climate for all students. These strategies willsupport high student achievement and allow the Charter to attain its goals.

Special Education

The Board of WEDJ PCS endorses the US Department of Education’s self-evidenttruth that special education is not a place, but a process. Rather, special education is a setof services to support the needs of children with disabilities to succeed in generaleducation classrooms.

IDEA-97 seeks to enhance the learning experiences of children with disabilities byeducating, to the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities in the sameclassrooms with children who are not disabled. IDEA de-emphasizes special classes,separate schooling, or other removal of children with disabilities from the generaleducational environment. The law seeks to ensure that separateness occurs only when thenature or severity of the disability of a child is such that education in general classes withthe use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily.WEDJ PCS recognizes its responsibility for providing a Full Educational Opportunityfor all children with disabilities. WEDJ PCS is committed to supporting collaborationamong personnel who are involved in educating children with disabilities, increasingaccess for students with disabilities to the general education curriculum, and recruitingand hiring appropriately and adequately trained personnel to provide special educationand related services to children with disabilities.