Curriculum

The Visual Arts Program provides students in each grade level with unique learning experiences in creativity, self-expression, and appreciation of art history and world cultures.

Art at the elementary school level initiates, develops, and encourages:

• • Individual expression
  • Students' aesthetic awareness
  • Learning to "see" as an artist and become a visual learner
  • Knowledge and use of various media
  • An introduction of significant artists throughout art history
  • An introduction of different genres and movements throughout art history
  • An introduction to an artist's glossary of terms
  • An integrated curriculum through the visual arts

The emphasis in art classes is on student experience through multiple mediums including technology based art and photography. Students familiarize themselves with various mediums, technical skills, subjects, artists, and genres.

Reverend Brown subscribes to a balanced literacy approach to the teaching of language arts literacy. The program strives to foster skilled readers, writers, listeners, and speakers. Aligned with the Diocesan Curriculum and New Jersey Student Learning Standards, the school uses the Reading Street Program published by Pearson as a framework. Assessments include the IOWA, benchmark assessments, running records, and fluency passages. Annually, in the fall, and spring, all students are assessed individually using the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA). This information enables the teacher to differentiate instruction and to group students by instructional level.

Reverend Brown teachers recognize that learning how to read is a complex process, more than just decoding or building rote skill. Beginning readers need a strong foundation in phonics as well. Leading the children to connect with the text by using their personal schema and prior knowledge enables the students to engage and access the material at a deeper level.

Literacy instruction begins in PreK-3 with environmental print, letter and number recognition, acting out stories, rhyming and finger plays. As students progress, reading comprehension strategies include predicting, questioning, visualizing, connecting, inferring, monitoring, summarizing, synthesizing and evaluating. These strategies are first modeled and then practiced and applied during guided reading groups, mini lessons, conferencing, and authentic reading at the student’s individual level.

Daily reading and writing include journaling, buddy reading, read-aloud and silent reading. In addition, teacher-guided word work includes instruction in phonics, phonemic awareness, and structural analysis. All facets of the language arts program including reading, writing, listening, spelling and speaking are taught within thematically based units.

Additionally, reading the morning announcements or leading in song or prayer are among the opportunities offered to students, allowing them to express individual interests and strengths while gaining real-world experiences with literacy. On a school-wide level, the librarian organizes Book Fairs and reading challenges for students. Working together, teachers and the librarian seek to match students with books that will spark their interest and promote a lifelong love of reading.

Students who are identified in need of additional help in the areas of reading and writing receive either supplemental in-class assistance or basic skills instruction with a pull-out model. The instruction is coordinated with the classroom teacher and is based on the student’s Individual Service Plan.

Above all, the goal of the Reverend Brown language arts program is to develop not only skillful readers and writers, but students who love to read and write.

The mathematics program follows a blended curriculum model with a foundation rooted in mastering computational skills, while fostering the development of critical thinking and problem solving. The success of the program relies on the use of various assessment instruments to make adjustments to instructional methods and individualize instruction.

Teachers participate in ongoing professional development and refine the mathematics curriculum regularly. The learning environment is constructed to reach all types of learners through the use of whole group instruction, mini lessons, cooperative learning activities, learning centers, and one-on-one instruction.

The music program provides students in each grade level with the opportunity to perform, to create, and to listen to music with understanding. An understanding of music is gained through sequential development of concepts based on the elements of music. These elements include rhythm, melody, harmony, timbre, form, expression, history and style and composition and performance.

In addition, students have opportunities to experience and make connections with music across the elementary curriculum. To achieve this, all students experience how music has its roots and purposes in various aspects of our lives and its different cultures, traditions, festivals, careers and life situations. Connections are also made with music and the subjects of math, science, language arts, social studies, visual art and character education, as appropriate in each grade.

All students will have the opportunity to develop their Catholic identity and deepen their faith through the experience of preparing hymns and music for liturgical celebrations within the school community.

Our bodies are a gift from God. By respecting them and making healthy choices, we give Him thanks and praise.

The Physical Education Program focuses on students’ improved physical fitness. Classes include exercises designed to increase flexibility, muscle strength, endurance, and cardio-respiratory fitness at every grade level. The program continues to play “game-type” activities in order to provide opportunities for the children to experience maximum participation, healthy competition and good sportsmanship.

Physical fitness as a lifelong goal is promoted in the program. Lifetime activities are those which a person is able to do, after formal education, in order to stay physically healthy.

Religious education is meant to provide a developmentally appropriate, comprehensive and systematic presentation of Catholic beliefs so that students will be knowledgeable about their faith, grow in intimacy with Jesus, and integrate these beliefs and traditions into their personal lives to bring forth the Kingdom of God in the world.

Reverend Brown develops its religion curriculum based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and the Diocesan Religion Curriculum Standards. It includes quality characteristics and goals that specify the desired knowledge, Christian life-skills, and values to be achieved. The curriculum standard addresses the following domains: Triune God, Jesus, Church, Worship and Prayer, Sacraments, Scripture, Doctrine, Morality, Bringing forth the Kingdom of God, and Evangelization.

Opportunities for celebrating the Sacraments of Penance and Eucharist are provided for second grade students as an integral part of their religious education. All students participate in appropriate services for Feast Days, First Fridays and other religious observances. In addition, retreat days are offered for students in grades 2 and 4.

The study of science is the exploration of the universe and all that it encompasses. God entrusts this world to us so that we may develop an effective understanding or awareness of his creation. The message delivered to the students of science is that God is integral to the totality of life, the immensity of the universe, the finite, and the infinite.

The Academy Science Program, which is aligned with the NJ Core Content Curriculum, follows a spiraling framework articulated from the earliest grades through high school. Learning builds upon previous knowledge and skills, which are repeated and reinforced to ensure mastery learning. Teachers of science seek to provide the environment where process and knowledge of science are emphasized. The science curriculum emphasizes the process of science as a way of learning and further emphasizes that scientific knowledge is always subject to change based on additional knowledge.

Teachers provide hands-on science lessons weekly to students in grades K-3 as well. The science curriculum addresses what students need to know so that they can make rational and responsible decisions as they face the intellectual, social and moral challenges of this 21st Century.

In Social Studies, we provide students with in-depth and differentiated learning experiences that are meaningful, challenging, and engaging. The students ask questions and connect social studies to their lives. We tap into the natural curiosity of children and explore themes through the concepts of history, culture, civics, and geography. Some theme examples include: diversity, government, democracy, American values, traditions, beliefs, and communities.

Students use a variety of resources including non-fiction books, maps, documents, newspapers, photographs, online sources, and timelines to research and interpret topics. Students demonstrate their understanding through performance-based assessments and projects such as the 3rd Grade Wax Museum, and the 4th grade New Jersey study featuring a NJ Cake Day, Revolutionary War reenactments, and development of colonies.

It is our mission that as our students move from PreK-3 to Grade 4 they become socially responsible and civic-minded individuals developing skills needed to promote citizenship in a diverse and changing world.

The Spanish Curriculum embraces a broad spectrum of communication skills utilizing the five “c’s” of essential to acquiring a second language: communication, culture, connections, comparisons, and community. The standards offer a vision of what students should know and be able to do with other languages.

In order to attain these standards students require a world language program that provides rich curricular experiences. The goal of this curriculum is to develop positive attitudes and excitement toward learning the Spanish language. Through the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, students are able to broaden their awareness, acceptance, and understanding of the Hispanic culture.

This program is designed to accommodate varying levels of language learners as they progress through the stages of the National Foreign Language Curriculum using Readiness, Foundations and Essential Objectives as its format.  Additionally, elements of the Catholic faith tradition are integrated into this Spanish curriculum in order to provide a meaningful language and cultural experience within the context of the Catholic faith.

Today’s technological revolution presents a broad range of opportunities for teaching and learning. By promoting the use of emerging technologies we can fully support 21st Century Learning and its project-based curriculum.

In grades K-2, students are formally introduced to the basic features and functions of computers. Throughout the school year, classroom topics in Math, Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies are reinforced through the use of online educational games and other software.

In grades 3-4, students understand the purpose of, and are able to use, various computer applications. They continue to develop information-literacy skills and increasingly use technology as a research tool.