Voyager KENT PLACE SCHOOL
2 015
Our Curriculum: Relevant, Dynamic, Intentional By Julie Gentile, Director of Studies
K
ent Place students benefit from a learning environment that fosters what the mission statement terms “an academically rigorous curriculum in a caring atmosphere.” But what does an “academically rigorous curriculum” look like when the workplace seeks candidates who have the ability to participate in and contribute to an information economy? How are our faculty thinking about what they teach – content and skills – in order to create a cohesive curriculum that prepares girls for college, their professional lives and thoughtful citizenship? There’s no doubt that how we provide education has changed, and that it’s changing still. Our students are not limited to the classrooms that most educators and parents experienced. Pedagogy is different: kinesthetic, specialized and collaborative learning strategies pervade instruction. Subject matter may be interdisciplinary and is presented not just within the classroom; our students also learn through online investigation and evaluation, from one another and through historical thinking and inquiry-based science. The tools we use are numerous and varied, largely a result of technology integration. Long gone is the heat of the overhead projector and the unique odor of the carbon-copy machine – remember those? Kent Place is particularly poised to offer the most relevant learning opportunities, inspired by a dynamic curriculum. As resources to build our own benchmarks and expectations for student progress, we draw on standards such as those set by the Common Core; various disciplinespecific organizations such as the American Council on Teaching Foreign Languages (ACTFL), the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and English (NCTE); and even the College Board. We design our curriculum to exceed the standards usually determined by grade; in fact, all of our core academic courses in the Middle and Upper Schools are at the honors or AP level and require critical thinking, inquiry, skill application, innovation and creativity. Ask a dozen people what rigorous means to them and you may get a dozen responses. At Kent Place, it means that expert teachers challenge students to stretch their ways of thinking – to question, to experiment, to argue, to prove – in order to become confident and well prepared for what lies beyond our school. In 2014, more than 50 percent of our 11th- and 12th-grade students were named AP Scholars – perhaps that’s proof of rigor? Or maybe the information economy in which we all participate drives teaching and learning to a different kind of rigor that emphasizes essential learning outcomes. The chart below outlines a thought-provoking way to consider these outcomes.
Essential Learning Outcomes Knowledge of Human Cultures and the Physical and Natural Worlds
• Sciences • Mathematics • Social sciences • Humanities
• Histories • Languages • The arts
Intellectual and Practical Skills
• Inquiry and analysis • Critical and creative thinking • Written and oral communication
• Quantitative literacy • Information literacy • Teamwork and problem solving
Personal and Social Responsibility
• Civic knowledge and engagement – local and global • Intercultural knowledge and competence
• Ethical reasoning and action • Foundations and skills for lifelong learning
Integrative Learning
• Synthesis and advanced accomplishment across general and specialized areas
Source Association of American Colleges and Universities, College Learning for the New Global Century
How we devise our curriculum is dynamic, intentional and largely collaborative, and takes many forms. Faculty examine courses, assessments and individual units in their field and revise and update as needed. They collaborate over the summer; they participate in large-group work within their divisions and within their academic departments throughout the year. In each of these forums, our teaching staff consider learning both vertically (by grade and by student progress from year to year) and horizontally (focusing on skills and content emphasized at a particular grade level). An academic committee comprising administrators and faculty from each division and academic department then reviews and makes recommendations on all major curricular revisions. The proactive way in which we think about what we teach creates an environment most conducive to enhancing our intentional curricular strands, such as girls’ leadership, STEM, women’s studies, economic and financial literacy, cultural competency education and ethics. In this issue of Voyager, we honor the 2014–15 schoolwide focus on curriculum. Each academic department contributed information we hope you’ll find interesting and indeed impressive. In addition, each has presented a highlight or description of an aspect of its curriculum that exemplifies the kind of challenging and inspiring work our students take part in. We are united in our goal: that each student attain the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in the 21st century – and love learning in the process. Further Reading College Learning for the New Global Century. Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2007. “The Rhetoric of Rigor.” In Ideas and Perspectives, September 22, 2014.