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The Curriculum
Curriculum Methodology The Curriculum Methodology is influenced by the belief that learners construct knowledge based on personal experience. The IST teacher starts from the point of the child's current understanding and by creating the conditions for learning to occur, devising the activities and providing the materials, s/he leads the learner into new areas of knowledge. This is done through a process of structured inquiry. Inquiry can mean:
IST believes that this style of learning is collaborative, social and communicative, and provides an ideal vehicle for the construction of knowledge and the acquisition of linguistic competence. The basic vehicle in the IST approach is through carefully designed activity and questioning, initially generated by the teacher and later increasingly by the students themselves. These "starting point questions" are
The school year begins with a two-week Diagnostic Unit and is then followed by six Teaching Units. During the Diagnostic Unit, the teacher assesses the knowledge, experiences and interests of the class and s/he uses this information to plan the Teaching Units. The Teaching Units vary from class to class, teacher to teacher and year to year however all fit within the following six themes :
The Curriculum is divided into:
The Core Curriculum of Language, Humanities, Mathematics and Science is taught through the two target languages : Spanish and English. Pre-Kindergarten classes are taught entirely in Spanish so that students entering Elementary school are orally equally proficient in both languages. Students also learn the basic skills of reading and writing in Spanish as these skills are directly transferable into English. The Specialist Curriculum of Art, Music, Drama, Information and Computer Technology (ICT) and Physical Education is taught through the language of the teacher. IST's Curriculum Contents are divided into :
Unfortunately, a topic-based curriculum does not provide an indication as to exactly what a student learns, to what depth s/he studies it or whether s/he in fact learns anything. For this reason, the focus of the IST Curriculum is defined as a list of "Skills", what a student is expected to be able to do. "Skills" suggests the Demonstration or Application of Contents, Learning and Study Skills, Interpersonal Skills, and Subject-Specific Skills. The IST Skills are essentially a set of expected outcomes or standards, and they define what we expect our students to be able to perform or demonstrate with the Topics that have been studying. All language programs follow the same Curriculum although the associated language teaching points may vary, as may the depth or order of Topics. However, the Skills covered are the same. Pre-School (ages 3 – 6) Click
here to go to the P3 (Pre-Kindergarten, three year-olds) Curriculum. Junior School (ages 6 – 11) Coming Soon J1 (six year-olds) Curriculum General Click here for more information on the Languages
program. For more detailed and specific information on the IST curriculum, please contact the Head of School. |
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The
curriculum of the International School of Tucson (IST) has as its
premise that as we cannot know what tomorrow's world will be like, nor
what tomorrow's world will require of its citizens, what our children
know will matter less than what kinds of people they are. Secondly, that
as what passes for knowledge today is changing so rapidly, what our children
know will matter less than what they know how to do.
IST's
curriculum is comprised of two parts: the Curriculum Methodology and the
Curriculum Contents. Our Curriculum Methodology (see below) draws on a
prestigious international program, Our Curriculum Contents (see below)
are drawn from the Arizona State Standards, the Argentine National Curriculum
and the National Curriculum of England and Wales amongst other sources,
and also has as a goal the development of an international-mindedness
in our students. For a more detailed discussion of the IST Curriculum,
We
believe that learning occurs when the student passes through the above
stages to the point where s/he reflects on the experiences s/he has had
and on the information s/he has gained through a process of discovery.
Through the guidance of the teacher, the learner acquires and moves beyond
the "core" body of knowledge required to become an "educated
person".
Curriculum
Contents
The list of "Topics" corresponds to a traditional curriculum
form and what students still study today in a traditional school, and
indeed may appear to most parents to be what they studied when they were
at school. "Topics" suggests Knowledge, Understanding, Creativity,
Originality, Insight and Critical Response.