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The Lower School Approach

The LowerSchoolhas three overarching goalsin itsapproach to theeducationof young children: inspiringa loveof learning,encouragingcreative exploration,andempowering youngminds. Ascurriculum and programmingare designed and implemented,thesegoals are pursuedvigorously and with a student-centered focus.

Inspiringa Love ofLearning

• Blending academic growth and achievement (in reading, writing, arts, math, digital technologies, science, language development, etc.) • Offering a hands-on experiential and inquiry-based learning environment • Learning about our interconnected and diverse world • Providing a relevant and personalized learning environment that stimulates curiosity • Offering multimedia resources with rich content for enhancing knowledge • Realizing the art and beauty of storytelling and creative expression • Creating an interdisciplinary curriculum where thematic focus helps students make sense of their world

EncouragingCreative Exploration • Working through the Creative

Design Process to solve real-life problems • Learning to take risks and using a variety of problem-solving skills • Applying the STEAM disciplines for creative problem-solving • Exploring the Lower School

Garden as an open-ended laboratory • Learning with mixed grade levels in ColLabs to study the environment and explore an engineering problem • Offering choices and opportunities for individual interests • Using creative expression to expand possibilities for a deeper learning experience

EmpoweringYoungMinds • Developing a global understanding with empathy for others • Exhibiting knowledge with an understanding of voice, point of view, and audience awareness • Developing reading and research skills for content exploration • Learning to be a self-directed learner and a curator of individual portfolios • Building authentic relationships between teachers and students and equity in the community • Working collaboratively with individuals with diverse views • Valuing and celebrating individual strengths and interests • Understanding self and responsible decision-making

Central Questions and IntegratedCurriculum In the Lower School, teachers take an interdisciplinary approach to curriculum design. This type of approach allows students to develop a deeper understanding of the different disciplines taught. Brimmer teachers create meaningful, relevant, and challenging content that helps students make connections to the real world. This allows Lower School students to be more successful and achieve mastery in the classroom.

At each grade level a Central Question is presented at the beginning of the school year to frame students’ learning goals throughout the year. The Central Question serves not only as a lens to explore key concepts, themes, and ideas but also as the thread that interweaves multiple disciplines. This question challenges students to think critically and make connections as they discover and explore science, math, literacy, and history. The Lower School’s approach to learning prompts students to strive for a higher level of learning and academic engagement.

Backward Designand CurriculumPlanning The curriculum design and planning in the Lower School is grounded in specific educational philosophies and methodologies, is informed by research, and incorporates the experience and expertise of the Lower School faculty.

Grant Wiggins’ and Jay McTighe’s “Backward Design” guides the Lower School faculty’s approach to their work. This curriculum, unit, and lesson planning approach requires teachers to

1. identify learning objectives 2. determine acceptable evidence of student understanding 3.plan learning experiences and instructional activities

Backward Design promotes student learning from proficiency to mastery. In using Backward Design, Lower School teachers are intentional: they plan lessons and units with clear goals and purposeful actions to achieve sought-after results.

Pedagogy and curriculum design are also grounded in and have evolved from the Coalition of Essential Schools 10 Common Principles, specifically by defining roles as “student as worker, teacher as coach,” providing an environment of “unanxious expectation,” and assessing learning through “demonstrations of mastery” (exhibitions and portfolios).

Lastly, Lower School teachers and administrators examine and use educational research to inform pedagogy, curriculum development, and programming.

GlobalFocus The Lower School begins the educational process about the world and seeks to initiate student engagement with it through interdisciplinary study. At each grade level teachers introduce students to geography, history, language, cultures, and customs. Teachers work with students to develop cultural awareness and understanding; to present different perspectives; and to spark imagination, empathy, and curiosity about the greater world they inhabit. The Lower School’s global focus enables students to expand their understanding of what it means to be citizens not only of the School and local community but also of an interdependent world.

SomeGlobal Focus Program Highlights Pre-Kindergarten: The Natural World

Kindergarten: The 7 Continents; Geography

Grade 1: The United States, Canada, and Mexico; Geography and Maps

Grade 2: Massachusetts History; The Pacific Northwest and Alaska; African American History; Brazil and the Amazon

Grade 3: African Geography and History; Kenya

Grade 4: Asia; The Silk Road; India; Japan; Immigration; World Geography

Grade 5: Renaissance; Colonial America and the American Revolution; Maps

CreativeDesignProcess While foundational skills in literacy and numeracy are central components of the curriculum, so too are habits of mind that encourage critical thinking, collaboration, communication, problem-solving, and creativity. The Lower School develops these skills and habits of mind through the STEAM Program and design work. The Design Process is an iterative one, which includes generating ideas to address a problem, designing and brainstorming solutions, making a plan, testing a prototype, revising one’s plan as needed, and finally, sharing and showcasing the work. Through this iterative approach students learn scientific and engineering principles, as well as the essential skills of problem-solving, persevering, and sitting with the confusion and messiness of deep, generative learning.

The STEAM curriculum reflects the Lower School’s educational philosophy and implementation of the whole child learning model. The Lower School’s focus on empathy prompts students to create and to design prototypes with human needs in mind. Students learn that part of the Design Process is to take the user’s needs and desires into consideration. They discover that empathy is what drives innovation forward. It is empathy that propels all to be better designers as well as better people.

Students are also asked to be thoughtful about the materials they choose. They are challenged to consider the properties of materials and the purpose they will serve in their prototype. Reflecting on design choices is also a cornerstone of the STEAM Program, and the debriefing session is an essential part of the Design Process. This reflective process fosters the students’ ability to reason with evidence and explain why their prototype worked the way it did, as well as learn about different design ideas from peers. As students grow this skill, they begin to calculate their design choices and learn from their experiences.

Authentic Assessment: Exhibitions,Project Based Learning,and Portfolios

EXHIBITIONS Exhibitions are a hallmark of a Brimmer education. Students in the Lower School take part in Exhibitions of Knowledge that allow them to demonstrate what they have learned either in a unit of study or over the course of the school year. In and across their several disciplines, Lower School students learn how to research, prepare, and present what they know with poise and creativity. These exhibitions promote active learning by encouraging students to think and work both independently and collaboratively and to approach learning with enthusiasm and confidence.

Exhibitions are an important assessment tool that allow teachers to evaluate how students integrate the skills they have learned and students to demonstrate their understanding of concepts and their depth of knowledge.

A Brief Listing of Lower School Exhibitions

Pre-Kindergarten: Informance, Portfolio Exhibition

Kindergarten: Informance, Portfolio Exhibition

Grade 1: Crêpe Party, Portfolio Exhibition Grade 2: Brazil Exhibition, Music Showcase, Portfolio Exhibition

Grade 3: Ancient Egypt Exhibition, French Plays, Music Showcase, Portfolio Exhibition

Grade 4: FourthFest – India and Japan Exhibition, Music Showcase, Portfolio Exhibition

Grade 5: Mars Colony Exhibition, Music Showcase, Capstone Exhibition: What is Strength of Character?

Project Based Learning Project Based Learning Assessment promotes student engagement with learning in more concrete ways and includes both the achievement of content learning objectives and the acquisition and development of core skills. Hands-on and multi-faceted projects inspire students to apply what they’ve learned to a deeper exploration of a topic.

Throughout each Project Based Learning experience, teachers incorporate formative assessment to guide and develop students in their work. Teachers use multi-dimensional assessment, including providing meaningful feedback, asking guiding questions, and offering coaching assistance to promote student understanding and success. They also encourage student self-reflection to assess progress and to promote student self-assessment as they advance through a project.

While completing their project work, students learn to engage risk-taking with excitement and see mistakes as learning opportunities. Throughout the Lower School, teachers engage Project Based Learning Assessment to empower students and support specific and general academic success. Frequently, students demonstrate

their understanding and achievement before an authentic audience in an Exhibition of Knowledge for classmates, Lower School students, faculty, parents, or the larger School community.

PORTFOLIOS Throughout their Lower School years, students choose work in multiple disciplines or interdisciplinary projects that represent their growth, learning, and achievement. They include this work in a portfolio that advances with them from grade to grade as they progress through the Lower School. The portfolio also includes student reflections on individual pieces and year-end reviews. The portfolios are shared annually with the community at end-of-year Portfolio Exhibitions.

A dynamic form of assessment, portfolios serve as both documentation and self-evaluation for Lower School students. In addition, portfolios are alternative forms of assessment that teachers use to help them understand student growth and progress throughout the year and from one school year to the next.

LearningBeyond theClassroom: FieldTrips and Experiential Learning

FIELD TRIPS The Boston area offers numerous educational resources and opportunities for young students to learn about science, history, art, culture, and many other topics. Throughout the school year Lower School teachers plan field trips to a variety of local sites to augment and enhance their students’ classroom learning.

A Sample of Recent Field Trips in 2019-2020:

Pre-Kindergarten: Honey Pot Hill Orchards, Chestnut Hill Post Office Kindergarten: New England Aquarium, Metropolitan Waterworks Museum

Grade 1: Massachusetts Audubon’s Blue Hills Trailside Museum, Museum of Science - Planetarium

Grade 2: Boston State House, Drumlin Farm

Grade 3: Metropolitan Waterworks Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary

Grade 4: Edward M. Kennedy Institute, Peabody Essex Museum, Museum of Science, Arnold Arboretum

Grade 5: Freedom Trail Tour, Plimoth Grist Mill/Plantation, McMullen Museum of Art (Boston College)

EXPERIENTIALLEARNING Lower School students have many opportunities to engage in experiential learning through classroom-related activities, field trips, community service, and Signature Programs. Specifically, the Garden, STEAM, and Design Lab Programs and curricula all provide experiential learning opportunities for students. These programs are described in the pages that follow.

LearningSupport The Lower School provides academic support through a combination of strategies, systems, and dedicated personnel. Academic support is provided through direct instruction; in-classroom observation and feedback; evaluation and recommendations; and consultation about organization, study skills, and strategies.

Teachers, teacher’s assistants, and specialists provide direct support to individual students or small groups in the classroom as a part of the Lower School’s teaching model. If more support is needed, teachers may also solicit the help of the School Nurse, School Counselor, the Lower School Student Support Team (SST), Lower School administrators, and the Director of Academic Services. The Lower School SST is composed of the Lower School Head, Assistant Head of Lower School, Director of Academic Services, the Director of Teaching and Learning, the School Nurse, and the Director of Counseling Services.

The Lower School Director of Academic Services works to support student academic progress and provides support to classroom teachers in several ways: observes classes and offers feedback to teachers; lends expertise on learning strategies and insight on appropriate and effective learning resources for instruction; prepares learning profiles for students with educational assessments that indicate a range of learning differences; measures and interprets student progress on and against a variety of standardized testing instruments; teaches sections for specific academic support, e.g., reading literacy as needed; and meets with students individually on an interim basis to help them with organization and study skills, learning strategies, academic goal-setting, and self-reflection.

Socialand Emotional Learning(SEL) Social and emotional development is an integral part of the Lower School Curriculum. Its approach to Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) aligns with the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), which identifies and promotes SEL core competencies.

Early Childhood SEL Skill Development includes becoming responsible friends, developing listening skills, cooperating, sharing, being kind and respectful to others, and building empathy and self-awareness among others.

Upper Elementary SEL Skill Development includes continuing to develop Early Childhood SEL Skills, building community, developing independence, finding and using one’s voice, and problem-solving, among others.

Students need to feel safe and socially and emotionally comfortable at school in order to achieve their personal best academically. The Lower School focus on the Core Values, Buddy Groups, and the Share Assembly programs are designed to address this need. Under the guidance of the School’s mission, Lower School faculty work to develop social skills, to promote ethical behavior by emphasizing individual responsibility and citizenship, and to inspire a propensity for personal integrity, compassion, and fairness.

SEL ANDANTI-BIASPILOT PROGRAMMING To further develop the use of common language and key practices throughout all grades, the Lower School implemented two programs. These programs provide a focus for the Lower School faculty’s SEL work and include Anti-Bias education. Both include some integration with the Lower School social studies curriculum.

SEL: Choose Love Enrichment Program

Choose Love was founded by Scarlett Lewis, a mother whose son was killed in a school shooting. Lewis worked with educators, child psychologists, and neuroscientists to build a program that is rooted in CASEL’s framework of the five core competencies.

The program is divided into four units--Courage, Gratitude, Forgiveness, and Compassion in Action--spread over approximately 23 lessons. The program offers a great mix of tools and strategies such as journaling, breathing techniques, movement, mindfulness, affirmations, videos, and literature.

The curriculum will be taught throughout the year as follows, with each grade working on the same topics at the same time:

September: Choosing Love in Our Brave New World (this is designed specifically to address the current social environment) October/November: Courage

December/January: Gratitude

February/March: Forgiveness

April/May: Compassion in Action

Source: ©2020 CASEL. All Rights Reserved. www.casel.org

Anti-Bias Education: Anti-Bias Building Blocks–An Elementary Curriculum for K - 5 Educators

With this curriculum the Lower School seeks to • create a safe and comfortable classroom environment • understand individual strengths, skills, and identity • understand bias and discrimination • confront and challenge bias and bullying

The Anti-Bias Building Blocks curriculum provides “a K 5 curriculum designed for elementary educators who want to promote anti-bias concepts in order to create safe, inclusive, and respectful classroom and school environments. Each lesson plan helps teachers and children create a safe and comfortable

classroom environment, explore their identity, understand and appreciate differences and analyze and challenge bias.” (from books. google.com/books/about/Anti_ Bias_Building_Blocks)

Lower School teachers present lessons during a morning meeting time, as an introduction to for a social studies unit, or as part of the SEL curriculum. The activities used are hands-on and meaningful. Each lesson is followed by a debriefing session in which students are asked probing questions to help them understand big ideas and take away key concepts.

Buddy Groups Teachers in the Lower School lead Buddy Groups of between six and eight students. Older students are matched with younger students and placed in groups. The Buddy Groups participate in a range of activities, including events and programs in Share Assemblies. Buddy pairs enjoy being together for Buddy Walks and Buddy Reads, for special field trips such as the annual Apple Picking Trip, and for all-School events. Buddies also often interact at exhibitions, performances, and other Lower School events. Overall, Buddy Groups promote personal connections between students and foster the older students’ sense of responsibility.

Share Share Assemblies occur most Friday throughout the school year. At Share, Lower School students come together for performances by students and special guests. Buddy Group events are held during Share Assembly time as well. These weekly Lower School gatherings and activities build a feeling of community through shared experience. They also present the opportunity for students to learn how to be part of an audience during a performance and how to engage appropriately and successfully with their peers during Buddy Group activities.

Equityand Inclusion Together with the Director of Equity and Inclusion, the Lower School Diversity Committee, consisting of Lower School faculty and staff, develops and facilitates diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programming that focuses on identity, culture, representation, and experience. DEI programming includes a global curriculum that begins with the study of self and community in Pre-Kindergarten and the world in Kindergarten and culminates with the Grade 5 study of Native Americans during the early colonial period. Throughout the Lower School years, students’ understanding and appreciation of cultures and communities around the globe broadens and deepens with each unit of study.

Beyond the academic curriculum, students are also able to participate in DEI-focused Share Assemblies, lunch groups, and after school clubs (when offered). Lower School faculty participate in ongoing DEI trainings and professional development throughout the year, which equips them with the knowledge, understanding, and language to engage with each student and to create equitable classrooms, where personal identity and self-expression are valued.

CommunityBuilding and ServiceLearning The Lower School engages students in community building at micro and macro levels: in Buddy Groups, in the classroom, in grade-level activities and programming, in Share Assemblies and all-Lower School events, in all-School events, and through community service with populations and organizations beyond the School campus. Community building is important for young learners who need a comfortable, safe, and supportive educational environment in order to have the opportunity to grow and reach their personal best in their academic work.

In the Lower School, community service projects play a vital role in the life of students and reflect the School’s mission, which promotes reaching beyond the School community. Having a heart for civic engagement and an awareness of the importance of public responsibility happens over time for children. In addition, service-learning opportunities support the development of social skills and empathy and an understanding of self and others. They also provide an opportunity to learn how to build rewarding relationships with peers, teachers, and other community members.

The Lower School celebrates an annual Community Service Day in December when the students gather in the gymnasium to celebrate giving and to learn about each grade’s unique community service project.

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