CURRICULUM


AGPA has a proprietary curriculum based on national standards and the individual needs of each student.  The classroom experience and materials are typically above grade level for national standards.  We use units of inquiry as the framework for our studies and incorporate the rich cultural and educational resources of our city and world in a hands-on, experiential approach to learning.  Teachers bring a variety of resources and tools into the classroom for all subjects, including textbook materials and online resources and kits to provide a resource rich environment as our students explore areas of math, science, social studies, language arts, Spanish, Music, Art and PE daily.  More detailed information follows on two of the resources we use for math and language arts.

 

Everyday Mathematics

Everyday Mathematics is a comprehensive Pre-K through 6th grade mathematics curriculum that focuses on developing students” abilities in terms of real-life problem solving through the means of appropriate technology. The concepts are not presented in isolation, but are linked to situations and contexts that are relevant to everyday lives. The curriculum’s foundation is a variety of student-centered (small groups, partner or individual) lessons with opportunities for open-ended, hands-on explorations, long-term projects and on-going practice. Students are encouraged to verbalize their thoughts and strategies in order to give children the chance to clarify their thinking and gain insights from others.

Junior Great Books

  The goal of Great Books programs is to instill in adults and children the habits of mind that characterize a self-reliant thinker, reader, and learner. Great Books programs are predicated on the idea that everyone can read and understand excellent literature—literature that has the capacity to engage the whole person, the imagination as well as the intellect. Junior Great Books works with a method called “Shared Inquiry”. It is a distinctive method of learning in which participants search for answers to fundamental questions raised by a text. This search is inherently active; it involves taking what the author has given us and trying to grasp its full meaning, to interpret or reach an understanding of the text in light of our experience and sound reasoning. In Shared Inquiry, participants learn to give full consideration to the ideas of others, to weigh the merits of opposing arguments, and to modify their initial opinions as the evidence demands. They gain experience in communicating complex ideas and in supporting, testing, and expanding their own thoughts. In this way, the Shared Inquiry method promotes thoughtful dialogue and open debate, preparing its participants to become able, responsible citizens, as well as enthusiastic, lifelong readers.

DAILY SCHEDULE

Our school day is from 8:30 am - 3:30 pm Monday through Friday.  We offer our students a well-rounded day covering the core subjects in the morning and specials in the afternoon. The core subjects are Math, Language Arts, Social Studies and Science. Depending on the grade level, they are being covered from 8:30-10:30 or 8:30-12:00. The specials are Spanish, Art, Music and PE and are part of every school day for our students.

In addition, we plan to have at least one field trip per month. 

LUNCH AND SNACK

Since it is essential that all of our students are healthy and have nutritious meals, we plan to partner with Whole Foods for daily school lunch (which is from noon - 1 pm) and snacks.  We are a peanut free school.