Academics
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Inquiry Based Learning
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Learning Expeditions
REACHING BEYOND THE CLASSROOM
AUTHENTIC, ACTIVE, ENGAGING AND RELEVANT
Inquiry Based Learning
At Renaissance teachers design instruction using Inquiry-based learning. This is an active process emphasizing the students role in learning. Students take on the roles of professionals in the field and teachers are facilitators rather than lecturers dispensing facts.
The process begins with igniting curiosity by posing intriguing questions, problems or scenarios. Wonders arise naturally that students are hungry to answer. Students discover and develop answers to their questions through research and present their findings to authentic audiences. Work is followed by time for reflection about what worked, what didn't work and what changes might be made in future work developing a variety of thinking and problem solving skills.
LEARNING EXPEDITIONS
Learning is an expedition into the unknown.
Designed by teachers Learning Expeditions are in depth studies that draw together personal experience and intellectual growth to promote self-discovery and construct knowledge. Learning expeditions involve students in original research, critical thinking, problem solving, and the building of character along with academic skills. Teachers guide students along this journey with care, compassion, and respect for their diverse learning styles, backgrounds, and needs. Addressing individual differences profoundly increases the potential for learning and creativity of each student. Expeditions encompass local topics with real world connections to harness student's natural passion to learn while providing a powerful method for developing the curiosity, skills, creativity, knowledge and courage needed to inspire students toward higher levels of academic achievement, imagine a better world and work toward realizing it.
At Renaissance learning expeditions blend Expeditionary Learning, Outward Bound, The Institute for Humane Education, STEM, Design Thinking and other models to keep learning experiences innovative, modern and relevant.
FRAMEWORK OF A LEARNING EXPEDITION
Focused Topics
Topics are selected to engage student curiosity and passion. They provide opportunities to connect historic, scientific, and other disciplinary concepts to specific case studies that make learning concrete and relevant. Literacy is integrated in every learning expedition to build skills in context and as a means for engaging deeply with content.
Learning Targets
The process of learning shouldn’t be a mystery. Learning targets provide students with tangible goals that they can understand and work toward. Rather than the teacher taking on all of the responsibility for meeting a lesson’s objective, learning targets, written in student-friendly language and frequently reflected on, transfer ownership for meeting objectives from the teacher to the student.
Guiding Questions
Guiding questions are open-ended essential questions that synthesize the “so what” of the topic students are studying and link all elements of a learning expedition or unit of study. Guiding questions often represent key concepts of a discipline. For example, “Where does history come from?” or “What conditions are necessary for a species to survive?"
Building Background Knowledge
Building background knowledge is a protocol that generates enthusiasm about learning new content. It is a short hook into a longer unit of study that builds curiosity and mystery as teachers guide students through a series of texts and other media, helping them to generate questions and promoting a spirit of inquiry about a new content area. BBK's help learners link prior knowledge to new learning, make connections between the various content areas and construct new content area skills.
Case Studies
Case studies are concrete, often local, studies of subtopics within a discipline. They are used to make the major concepts of a discipline or broad topic come alive for students. Sometimes, a case study means investigating a unique person, place, institution or event. Other times, a case study refers to a narrowed subtopic, allowing students to focus their research on one aspect that animates and clarifies the topic. Learning expeditions include one or more case studies; ideally they connect students to a local natural or residential community to provide a window on national or global concepts.
Experts
Experts are often invited into classrooms or teachers take students to an experts workplace. This can serve several purposes. Masters in a field can hook students on a new unit of study and extend learning, can help students make connections between their learning and the real world and possibly provide a chance for students to get authentic feedback on their work.
Fieldwork
Fieldwork allows students to use the natural and social environments of their communities as sites for purposeful learning. As opposed to field trips, in which students are often passive spectators, during fieldwork, students are active investigators, applying research tools, techniques of inquiry, and standards of presentation used by professionals in the field.
Projects and Products
Projects are a primary structure for in-school learning, teaching core skills and content through classroom lessons, discussions, labs, and work sessions, as well as through student research and fieldwork. Projects are used to teach literacy and math skills, critical thinking, collaboration, and problem solving. Projects result in products that are modeled on real-world documents and artifacts, with professional models guiding student work.
Culminating Event or Action
At the completion of a learning expedition a performance or presentation for an authentic audience often takes place to celebrate student work. Other times a solution to a local community problem is presented to stake holders to be considered for implementation.
Service Learning
In service learning, students learn educational standards through tackling real-life problems in their community.
Community service, as many of us know, has been a part of educational systems for years. But what takes service learning to the next level is that it combines serving the community with the rich academic front loading, assessment, and reflection of Expeditions. There are many kinds of projects that classrooms can adopt. Classes can be involved in direct issues that are more personal and face-to-face, like working with the homeless. Involvement can be indirect where the students are working on broader issues, perhaps an environmental problem that is local. The unit can also include advocacy that centers on educating others about the issues. Additionally, the unit can be research-based where the students act to curate and present on information based on public needs.
“What does it look like when students are doing the work of thinking?
The work of learning? The work of achieving? The work of becoming better human beings?
Literally and metaphorically, it looks like a workshop, a place where works -
concrete demonstrations of understanding - are created.”
-SAMANTHA BENNETT, THE WORKSHOP BOOK
LITERACY AND MATHEMATICS
LITERACY
THE WORKSHOP MODEL
Reading and writing are taught using the Workshop Model.
Why workshop? It is good for kids because it provides a framework for instruction that is flexible enough for student choice and passion and to allow for differentiation with individual work and conferences, small group work, partner work/coaching between students and whole group work. It is not a curriculum to follow but allows the teacher and students to choose what to learn and work on and at what pace and schedule. Workshop provides the balance between teaching students valuable basic skills - thinking, reading, writing, math, etc. - and having a total immersion in student passion projects. Workshop meshes with inquiry learning, project based learning and Expeditionary Learning to develop deep thinkers.
MATHEMATICS
At Renaissance math is not quiet. Students work to solve problems and then engage in mathematical discourse in order to develop and discuss solution strategies. This process helps them make connections between their solutions, other students’ solutions, and to deepen their understanding of the mathematical concept that they are building.
Students build proficiency with these concepts and strategies by using them to solve new problems both collaboratively and independently.
We use data to differentiate instruction and create flexible groups.
LEARNING SUPPORT
Literacy Interventionist
Elisha sets a strong foundation of reading and writing for students at Renaissance. Following the Read Act she tests students for reading skills, and for those not reading at grade level she develops individual READ plans. Collaborating with teachers, Elisha helps create goals, track data, facilitate testing and implementation of new reading curriculum and break the classroom down into groups based on ability level so she can work with each group on the specific skills needed. Elisha pulls individuals who need more help to provide an extra level of support boosting the amount of reading intervention time each struggling student receives. By providing early intervention before a student shows a significant need our “fail-rate” is extremely low. The “I can’t read” attitude is dissolved and is replaced with the “I’m a reader” belief.
ELEMENTARY PROGRESS REPORTS
Elementary Progress Reports (EPRs) are published twice a year following the completion of each semester. EPRs will give parents standards-based information in their student's progress in all academic subjects.
To access your child's EPR click here.
Parents/Guardians will use the same username and password used to access Parent Portal.
Additional information about EPRs, click here.
ADVANCED LEARNING PLANS
Advanced Learning plans or ALP’s are created for one or more areas of strength to meet the needs of precocious students. Multiple points of data are taken into consideration when identifying students for an Advanced Learning Plan. The data may include, but is not limited to: cognitive scores, achievement scores, academic profile, portfolios, teacher and parent referrals, and other various pieces that build a body of evidence. The identification process may be initiated by students, parents, teachers, or other district personnel and will be decided upon by a panel of experts at the school.
A student’s ALP is like a blueprint that maps out what the student hopes to learn and accomplish in their area of strength. In addition ALP’s may include some social/emotional learning goals. By becoming autonomous with guidance from home and school the benefits are endless. When students become independent learners and self-advocates they will:
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Take control of their learning
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Have a deeper understanding of their learning style and become strength based learners
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Become the driver in improving their education
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Acquire learning skills that will apply to situations in life
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Will develop a greater sense of their abilities and become autonomous