Curriculum
We are pleased to share with you
the 2009-10 Schechter Manhattan curriculum guide, which contains descriptions
of the main subjects taught at each grade level.
Each description incorporates
information about the content, skills, and process of learning. At Schechter
Manhattan, we envision this process as a spiral. Subject matter and skills are
not studied and set aside, but rather returned to repeatedly with greater
complexity, depth, and sophistication as the children grow. In mathematics, for
example, students study most topics at least three times in different years,
first to introduce each topic, the second time to teach for mastery, and the
third time to review and reinforce. Thus the multiplication table appears in
the curriculum not only in third grade, but also prominently in fourth grade,
then as a briefer review topic the following year. In t'filah, Gan
students begin with short excerpts from the Sh'ma and Amidah, and
return to these t'filot in later years in greater detail as they build
their knowledge of the liturgy. In reading, upper elementary students have a
unit each year on non-fiction, in which they draw on their earlier reading as
they study increasingly challenging books.
While the curriculum guide offers
detailed information about the content and skills planned for the coming
academic year, content and skills are only a small part of curriculum. Drawing
on the work of Professor
Joseph Schwab
of the University
of Chicago, we see
curriculum as consisting of four elements, or commonplaces: the subject
matter, the learner, the teacher, and the school community. While this guide
describes the subject matter in considerable detail, it says much less about
the other three commonplaces, and about how they interact. As a constructivist
and child-centered school, we hope that this will not be a static
document. Instead, we see it as a working plan that will be revised and
reshaped all year long in accordance with our children's interests and needs.
We hope that you find this guide
informative and interesting, and that it helps you place your children's
day-to-day, week-to-week experience in school in a broader context. If you have
questions about your children's experience, please feel free to contact their
teachers, their division heads, or me.
Click here to download the full curriculum guide.
