The Process of Transformation

Showing Some Spirit

The Process of Transformation // THE SCOPE & SEQUENCE OF EDUCATION AT COVENANT

At Covenant Christian, there is a belief in the transformative power of education from day one of freshman year until graduation. There will be lots of information: dozens and dozens of books to read, thousands of math problems, projects, performances, and discussions. But at a higher level of planning and purpose for our students, Covenant wants to do more. Education is not simply about the transference of information, but about the transformation of a student into a world-serving, critical-thinking, Kingdom-minded person who is able to change their corner of the world.

To facilitate this experience, Covenant’s curricular scope and sequence helps give teachers and students a framework to understand larger goals each year. Over four years, the goal is for students to start as appreciators, turn into lovers, and then contribute to the school with service and creation. In every course, the goal is to teach the subject while aligning assignments, assessments, and expectations with our semester-based ideological stepping stones of personal development.

The design of the scope and sequence has existed in many forms since the foundation of the school, with Academic Dean David Trujillo helping put language and structure to the framework. According to Trujillo, “We try to really listen to what is happening at different grade levels, to discern what expectations are appropriate at what level. We try to plan to challenge students in this way or that way, to empower them with critical thinking and tools, as well as to help faculty have focused conversations on what their task is, irrespective of what their subject or content area is.”

This progression from appreciation, to knowledge, to independence, and to creation and contribution can be seen in the Biblical and Theological Studies curriculum in particular. After their Bible survey course freshman year, sophomores embark on their first thesis-supported paper, “The Kingdom of God” paper, which involves a lot of support and scaffolding. As they become juniors, they build on the previous work by having less structure around their essays and allowing them to open up their research options. Finally, as seniors, students

“Education is about the transformation of a student into a world-serving, critical-thinking, Kingdom-minded person. “

embark on a year-long Christian Worldview study where the final assessment is an individual thesis-centered essay and a public defense of the student’s argument and worldview on that particular topic. The four-year ladder from grade 9 to grade 12 affords students the time and space to grow in meaningful ways.

In some places, in education, students are being pushed toward critical thinking too quickly without a foundation of knowledge and skills. In other places, they’re not pushed to critical thinking at all, so they remain at knowledge acquisition. Through the scope and sequence, Covenant sets gradelevel appropriate goals to provide an ethos and theme for each year that students can move into with clarity. Administration can revisit the yearly progressions with teachers and ask, “How are you moving students from goal to goal? How are you providing a context for these curricular goals that we have?” It holds teachers accountable to their general commitment as a distinct Covenant teacher in a responsible, pedagogical way, with the end goal of having the student experience be full of growth, love, appreciation, and success.

Seniors gather for their worldview presentations.