5th - 6th Grade Curriculum Description 2007-2008

Overview

The simultaneous questioning of and celebration of life will pervade this year in the 5th-6th grade class at Mountain Road School. Academic and creative excellence, ethical and spiritual development, knowledge of self, the building of community and the expansion of perspectives will be cultivated in the 5th and 6th grades.

The curriculum has many components that are directed by student needs and interests (an emergent curriculum). Learning will take place in countless ways, including project work, thematic units, individual and cooperative learning, self-directed learning and the teachings life brings us each day. Students will have opportunities to interact with the community and spend every Wednesday outdoors, interacting with and building awareness of the beautiful land surrounding our school. Throughout the year students will be offered various techniques to build awareness and concentration.

Reading

The focus of reading will include comprehension, fluency and accuracy, word identification and decoding strategies, building vocabulary, and the understanding, analyzing and responding to texts. Students will interact with literary and informational texts, conduct research and participate in and gradually lead their own book discussions throughout the year.

While reading literary texts both independently and in book groups, students will generate questions before, during and after reading to enhance recall and expand understanding. Students will analyze characters, make inferences about problems, make predictions and make connections to self, the world, and other books. The books read together in small groups will often be aligned with topics being explored in social studies, science and other projects students are pursuing.

Students will be interacting with informational texts regularly as they learn about thematic units and conduct their own self-directed learning. Prereading, question generating, obtaining information from text features and synthesizing information are among the skills that will be emphasized.

Writing

The primary goal for writing this year is to write often and in many different genres. We will collect ideas in writer’s notebooks, write persuasive arguments and narratives in our writer’s journals and respond to literature in our reading response journals.

The writing process will be followed, allowing students to practice the 6 +1 Traits (idea development, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions and presentation) while prewriting, drafting, revising, editing and publishing. Students will learn many revision tools and become adept participants in writing conferences with peers and their teacher. Through science labs, thematic units, and self-directed learning, students will have a plethora of opportunities to practice informational writing.

Mathematics

The fifth-sixth grade mathematics curriculum will include an individualized component, a big emphasis on problem solving and opportunities for projects based on student interests and questions. The content strands developed and shared by NCTM and NYS will form the core of our mathematical journey. These strands include Number and Operations, Algebra, Geometry, Measurement, and Data Analysis and Probability.

The individualized component will give students the opportunity to practice, review, assess and teach themselves mathematical concepts and ideas that they need. Because mathematical ideas are interconnected and build on one another, students will continuously be practicing concepts throughout the year to ensure they build a solid understanding in each strand.

Mathematical knowledge will be built through engaging problem solvers, which will consist of real life (or close to real life) problems in which students must determine an appropriate strategy and then apply particular skills to solve the problem. Students will be asked to develop the ability to represent their math thinking in multiple ways. Students already expressed the desire to explore pie in all its glorious forms (that means we’ll be baking and calculating the area of our pies).

Social Studies

Students will continue to gain a deeper understanding of the human condition by learning about past and present cultures around the world. Interest in ancient civilizations, westward expansion, South America, countries in Africa and Asia, and world religions has been expressed by this year’s 5th and 6th graders.

Students will be invited to become aware of the lenses through which they view the world through exploring their own socialization. They will look at their own family dynamics to gain a sense of how they fit into the world, and how and why people have certain tendencies and act these out in the world. Students will learn about themselves by observing the world, and learn about the world by observing themselves.

Students will be given the opportunity to decide what they wish to contribute to their local community, state, country, or the world and then do so. This may take the form of taking on a social issue, promoting peace and justice, or many other ideas that students may have.

Science

We are so fortunate to be members of the Rainbow Clan this year, Flying Deer Nature Center’s weekly co-ed naturalist mentoring program. Students will cultivate many naturalist skills in the classroom of nature every Wednesday. These skills include plant, tree and track identification, community skills of communication, collaboration and consensus, Native history, survival skills and knowledge of self.

Students will be invited to increase their awareness of their surroundings and their inner experience as members of the Rainbow Clan. Please check out what happened when Bella the vole visited our class in September and October. Walking, observing, recording observations and thoughts, asking questions and exploring the Medicine Wheel are among the many activities in which students will engage. Both inside and outside of the classroom, the scientific method will be reviewed and practiced. Students will, often based on their own questions, form hypothesizes, determine and conduct an appropriate experiment, record detailed observations and write a coherent conclusion that uses their observations to support their assertions.

Students have also expressed interest in many animals, and in chemical reactions - building on their explorations of sound and music from last year.

Self-Directed Learning

Self-directed learning is a process in which students choose a topic that they interests them, explore/research/learn about it, and share and evaluate what they learned with others. Students will begin by seeking answers to questions they ask. As they become more knowledgeable about their topic of interest, more questions will arise. They will choose the methods by which they learn and answer their own questions. Learning outcomes and final products will be decided by the student, which will be shared with the community and parents at special gatherings. Students will be in continuous dialogue with the teacher, who will help obtain resources, oversee the learning experience, and promote reflection and critical thinking.

There are many reasons to devote time to self-directed learning. Among them students become more aware of their role in learning- they can make learning meaningful and they make learning happen by their willingness. Students are able to explore what interests them while utilizing and practicing many reading, writing and critical thinking skills. Increased student motivation, independence, self-discipline, self-confidence and the ability to make and reach goals are all outcomes of self-directed learning.

During a short 5 minute brainstorm, students shared over 25 topics that interested them (which are not in the state curriculum). These topics include things such as many forms of ocean life, the Everglades, extinct animals, the Ten Commandments, chemical reactions and castles in the Middle Ages.

Student Portfolios

As the technology becomes available, students will begin working on digital portfolios. These portfolios will be a collection of student goals, student work, and their reflections on their work throughout the year. Students will be encouraged to personalize and utilize technology to effectively present and celebrate their many accomplishments.

Essential Questions

This year’s curriculum flows throughout Mountain Road School’s Essential Questions. Students in the 5th-6th grade will specifically go deeper into the question, “Who am I?” We will do this through observation of thoughts and feelings, learning to listen (to what? that’s a good question), how we communicate with our selves, how we breathe and even how we walk.

Link to: Jon Stevens, 5th & 6th Grade Teacher