Curriculum
Teaching and Learnin
AXIS is founded on the understanding that schools prepare students to have a full and active life inclusive of family, culture and society. A coherent curriculum is the key to alignment of vision, mission, learning targets, pedagogy and assessment. Learning at AXIS is student centered, helping learners to discover and develop their unique identities and talents.Learning Philosophy Statement
Community
Relationships are the core of good teaching and help provide a safe learning environment. Integrity and respectful communication are fundamental to good relationships.
Achieve Excellence
We aim for each child to achieve excellence in multiple forms, including academic success. We encourage and support action and service to the community and engagement with our many cultural groups.
Student Agency
We provide a broad and differentiated program that nurtures talents and interests, builds knowledge of self, and promotes student agency.
Collaboration
Information gathered during the program and from parents is used to continuously improve the student experience. Data from multiple points should be collated and considered to understand the implications for the individual learner, the class as a whole, and the curriculum.
Curriculum
Our curriculum framework is carefully constructed to provide a relevant scope and sequence of learning. Teachers deliver the curriculum in collaboration with colleagues and analyze the success of each unit or course and consider innovations and improvements which will benefit students in the future.
Language
We are all language teachers. Fundamental to our community is the maintenance of Mother Tongue, and support for English acquisition. AXIS faculty leverage research based strategies and approaches to support second language learners. Language
Knowledge Constructors
Learning is an active pursuit. AXIS learners are engaged and supported to plan and think. We believe that individuals co-construct knowledge by adding to what they already know when presented with experiences that stretch and challenge.
Multiple Pathways
Students learn at different rates and AXIS faculty provide multiple pathways to understanding and recognize learning when it occurs and provide caring and differentiated assessment and feedback to encourage learning and celebrate progress for each learner.
Curriculum Design
The curriculum at AXIS is student-centered; our students are at the center of everything we do. Student-centered curriculum is commonly defined as the student’s ability to construct meaning of the content through their passions. The role of the teacher is to guide the students in their learning toward a commonly agreed goal. In this case, the student is actively engaging and directing their learning with their teacher serving as a facilitator toward the end goal. In short, students are responsible for their own learning.
Learning Design
As a student-centered school, we implement an inquiry-based instructional model. Using this model, the teacher's guide students through questions, explorations, and real-life examples. Students actively explore information to support their investigations and construct meaning.
Our curriculum is aligned to the Common Core standards. Being aligned to standards ensures that our students meet an approved level of quality that is accepted among schools using the same standards. Teachers use backward planning design, known as Understanding by Design (UBD). By knowing the end result and where students need to be, teachers can create lessons that incrementally build-up to the end result.
Standards-Based Reporting
Students' progress is assessed in all subject areas through a variety of assessments including formative, summative and standardized. Report cards are key for future goal-setting and celebration of accomplishments and progress. Standardized achievement tests are a supplement to classroom achievement information and are one data point in monitoring individual growth of students.
At AXIS, we use standard based reporting to report the students’ level of proficiency on the Common Core education standards and their approaches to learning. Student learning is assessed using rubrics reflecting each child’s progress. The standards-based report shows where students have excelled and where they can grow. The approaches to learning report identify the skills and dispositions that accompany the academic standards to complete the curriculum. The levels of proficiency are Emerging, Developing, Proficient, and Exemplary.
At AXIS, we believe that:
- Students benefit academically with feedback that describes their proficiency levels against identified standards.
- Feedback on skills and dispositions accompany the academic standards to complete the curriculum and are given separately.
Assessments
Students are assessed at the end of a unit and our students receive continuous assessments and feedback, which are both formative and summative. Formative assessments are used by teachers to check for understanding and allow the teacher to modify their instruction to meet the needs of students. Summative assessments monitor progress at predetermined checkpoints throughout the unit.
