Curriculum
The purpose of the St. Louis Catholic Academy (SLCA) curriculum is to provide formalized standards for instruction and learning without stifling or limiting the creativity and autonomy of classroom teachers. The curriculum combines requirements and philosophy. The SLCA instructional guide is a standards and benchmark curriculum. These benchmarks and standards are culled from Missouri State Standards, the Nativity/Miguel Network benchmarks and the St. Louis Archdiocesan curriculum. These benchmarks establish a dual responsibility for what teachers must teach and what students must learn.
Fundamental to this instructional process is the adoption of High Yield Instructional Strategies. Teachers are expected to use these strategies frequently in their classroom instruction. When applied consistently and properly, these instructional techniques improve standardized test scores and create a dynamic classroom environment. The High Yield Instructional Strategies include the following nine components:
- Identifying similarities and differences
- Summarizing and note-taking
- Reinforcing effort and providing recognition
- Homework and practice
- Nonlinguistic representation
- Cooperative learning
- Generating and testing hypotheses
- Cues, questions and advance organizers
The ultimate goal of our curriculum is to establish a formal pedagogy and an intellectual philosophy. Pedagogically, the SLCA curriculum builds on the skills learned in prior grades. Each grade-level teacher is responsible for preparing his or her students for the following grade. Philosophically, this curriculum is intended to create a school-wide culture of learning predicated upon an expectation of excellence. This culture of learning helps students:
-accept a life of the mind,
-demonstrate an appreciation of culture and aesthetics, and
-embrace a love of knowledge, both pure and applied.
