Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary School: Basic Tenets of Academics

Assumption, in the legacy of academic excellence in Catholic schools believes that every child is blessed by God with unique skills and talents. Its job as educators is to nurture EVERY child’s development at every level – spiritually, academically, physically and emotionally. The highest level of learning occurs when all these facets are integrated and holistically considered. Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary School (ABVM)’s goal is that every child loves school and masters grade level standards and beyond. To accomplish this, its curriculum standards, instruction, materials, and assessments must be closely and intentionally aligned. As part of its academic practice (also dependent on grade level) ABVM:

• Teach and nourish early foundations in our Catholic faith through a comprehensive study of Catholic liturgy, practice, and traditions with emphasis upon moral development and service to others. Our faith is integrated in all subjects as feasibly reasonable.
• Focus on experiential exploration and the use of concrete materials(encouraging students to use multiple learning styles to acquire knowledge).
• Focus on early literacy – instilling a growing curiosity, engagement, and joy for reading through exposure, instruction and wide range reading experiences in both informational (non-fiction) and literary (fiction stories) text.
• Establish a foundation of strong academic vocabulary in all subjects that help students have meaningful conversations and allows them to understand how we learn (meta-cognitive skills). This is done primarily through explicit teaching of strategies and prompted questioning where students learn to be self aware learners, capitalizing on their own learning strengths.
• Use critical, comprehensive thinking in setting up and solving problems in all subject areas.
• Connect math to real life application and integrate the Mathematical Practice Standards throughout all math lessons.
• Provide varied and balanced learning experiences for individuals, partners, and small and whole groups, for the purpose of both personal and collaborative learning benefit .
• Practice Writers’ Workshop methodology (beginning in kindergarten), encouraging students to see themselves as writers with something important to say. Writing is thinking on the page.
• Focus on Spanish conversation and comfort with taking risks to speak, adding grammar and writing in grades 4 and up.
• Know that every minute counts! Therefore we support establishing consistent environments that include clear student expectations, routines, and transitions from one activity to the next.
• Plan its lessons with active engagement that is purposeful – fostering good work habits, citizenship toward peers, and optimal learning.
• Understand that creativity is critical and is expressed in many different ways.
• Never presume to know the limits of a child’s learning capacity and potential.
• Continually analyze and improve our instruction through the uses of data, student observations, technology, high school acceptance data and ongoing research.

For more detailed information regarding these grade levels go to:
Assumption website Teacher Pages and/or

Common Core and State Standards
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/documents/glckindercurriculum.pdf

Archdiocese of Los Angeles
http://www.la-archdiocese.org/org/dcs/curricula/Pages/default.aspx

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary School, 2660 E. Orange Grove Blvd., Pasadena, (626) 793-2089 or visit school.abvmpasadena.org.