Curriculum
Student Learning
SASD standards and benchmarks will provide the basis to the academic disciplines of science, social studies, language arts, and math. Interdisciplinary thematic units will be taught in a manner that allows students to make authentic connections and apply their knowledge to the real world.
Academic disciplines
Multiple intelligences (MI) as an educational approach delivers academic content to students through multiple entry and exit opportunities. This creates balanced and diverse learning opportunities for students by engaging their logical-mathematical, verbal-linguistics, spatial, body-kinesthetic, music, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist intelligences through integrated activities. Academic content is applied and learning is assessed through these eight multiple intelligences.
Two-way integration of academic disciplines and the arts allows students to use all their MI to create authentic connections and demonstrate content knowledge. Dance, drama, music, visual arts,and creative writing will be woven into the academic disciplines while being assessed with their own set of standards and benchmarks.
Innovation and creative thinking will be honed through the arts. The arts will also be used to enhance academic content and to apply what has been learned.
High-order thinking skills prepare students for advanced academic work, 21st Century careers and daily life. Our Culture of Thinking teaches students how to use their minds well by facilitating high-level creative and critical thinking. Harvard’s Project Zero states that thinking can be divided into a hierarchy of six levels of cognition, with knowledge being the basic level. Analysis, synthesis, and evaluation make up the highest level of thinking.
Our curriculum teaches students synthesization, to bring together information from many sources in different disciplines into a coherent whole and then apply this knowledge to make decisions and solve problems.
Project-based learning challenges each student at their academic level and allows them to explore areas of personal interest within guided thematic units. Working in collaborative teams, students bring their unique set of multiple intelligences and skills to the projects.
Hands-on learning engages students directly with concepts in the academic disciplines so they can develop their own interpretations. Through the integration of creative and visual thinking, students are given the opportunity to experience different ways to communicate and to find innovative solutions to problems.
21st Century skills are woven into many aspect of our curriculum. 21st Century skills at The Mosaic School include digital/technological literacy, innovative thinking, interactive communication, effective use of real world tools, personal and social responsibility, prioritizing and managing for results, teaming and collaboration, curiosity, creativity, risk-taking, cultural literacy, and global awareness.
