Academics

Philosophy of Teaching & Learning

We have developed and prioritized three key learning strategies to address our most pressing academic, social, and emotional challenges.

Personalized Instruction

Students enter Roosevelt with a wide range of reading and math skills.  In order to accelerate student growth, we will adopt a personalized approach to teaching and learning that is highly dependent on each student’s strengths and needs.  

1. Learner Profiles through Digital Portfolios – Students will create a digital portfolio to keep track of their strengths, interests, and needs and present their work to peers, families, and school staff.
2. Personalized Learning Paths – Through adaptive instruction, each student will have his/her own personalized plan that lays out his/her learning path to achieve high academic and social outcomes.
3. Competency-Based Progression – Instead of generic letter-based grades, each standard will be assessed separately so students, families, and school staff will know which skills a student has mastered, which s/he is beginning to master, and which s/he is yet to master.
4. Flexible Learning Environments – Students will have the opportunity to work on their own, in small groups independently, or with a teacher in a small group.
5. Student Ownership – Students will drive much of their own education, selecting topics for projects, setting their own learning goals, monitoring their own progress, and learning to ask for appropriate help.
6. Advisory - Students will receive feedback as they monitor their own progress on their learning path.
7. Math and Reading Intervention/Acceleration – Students who are behind in their math and reading skills receive targeted attention to bring those skills up to grade level. 

Real-World Application

All students deserve the opportunity to succeed in our rapidly changing world.  In order to help prepare our students, we feel strongly that we need to provide them with opportunities to do authentic work that is culturally relevant and useful to the world outside of school.  

1. Design Thinking - In every class and extracurricular activity, students will approach challenges by designing and implementing solutions.
2. Project-Based Learning - Across the curriculum, students will collaborate on meaningful projects that provoke critical thinking and require them to acquire and apply new knowledge in a problem-solving context.
3. Field Work – All work connects to the real world in some way.  This could include a field trip, an interaction with a professional of a certain field of study, or an internship.
4. Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Curriculum – Teachers co-plan their lessons and include student and family input to ensure that students experience learning that is connected personally to students, to other subjects, and to the world.
5. Academic Language Development – Each unit of work in every class ends with an essay, a speech/debate, or other language-intensive product.
6. Exhibition of Student Work – Students present their ideas to authentic audiences.

Whole Child Approach

We recognize that adolescence is a period of important and dramatic social and emotional development.  As such, our model incorporates numerous layers of social and emotional support for our students to help them develop the skills they will need to succeed in middle school and in the future.  

1. Habits of Mind – We focus on supporting students to develop a range of “soft skills,” such as curiosity, grit, and self-control, that they can leverage to excel in the classroom and in life.
2. Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS) - We work to create a positive school climate by implementing tiered behavioral interventions that support our students diverse social and emotional needs.
3. Restorative Practices - We take a restorative approach to discipline by implementing proactive community-building circles school-wide and responsive harm circles, when necessary.
4. Student Jobs - Our students take an active role in the operation of our school by fulfilling meaningful jobs such as working in the office, facilitating assemblies, leading tours, and running our student store.
5. Community Assemblies - We frequently gather as a community to acknowledge individual and collective effort and growth.
6. Advisory - Our advisories support students in developing social skills, monitoring academic progress, and goal-setting.
7. Campus Aesthetics - High-quality student work will be displayed everywhere in the school. Students take ownership over the school grounds by taking care of their personal workspaces and common areas.