Level 2: Grades 4, 5 and 6 "THE FALCONS"
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Students in these upper-elementary years are in a transitional phase of development. They are defining themselves as individuals and are also realizing the rewards and responsibilities of being members of a group. Their language abilities expand dramatically, and their physical transition into adolescence begins. Our Level 2 program supports the healthy development of these students through active learning opportunities and by creating inclusive classrooms.
Reading
Level 2 students have multiple opportunities throughout the day to practice and develop their reading skills. The programs and techniques used include literature circles, independent reading, nonfiction reading, and read-aloud.
In literature circles, students read fiction and nonfiction in small groups of readers at similar levels. Students also regularly engage in independent reading. By giving students choice in reading materials, we give students an opportunity to foster their interest in reading and to practice reading skills. Reading non-fiction is also essential to our program because of our project-based approach to learning.
Through independent or group project work, students develop expertise in an area of study and must read to acquire knowledge. Last year, for example, students studied geography and were each responsible for learning about a country. To create their presentations, they needed to use non-fiction text resources. Teachers help students understand these texts by teaching reading strategies. Read aloud (or story time) is an interactive and whole class endeavor using both fiction and nonfiction. This provides a shared experience with literature and provides opportunity to teach students comprehension strategies.
Whenever possible, we seek out opportunities to read to younger students through “buddy reading” programs. Sometimes this is with younger students in our school but sometimes involves collaborative work with children at the Early Learning Community at Pacific University. By sharing our reading skills with others, we also develop our own fluency and confidence, while having fun mentoring young friends.
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Writing
Writing at Level 2 involves extensive practice with the writing process in both assigned writing and in free writing. We focus on the six traits of writing: ideas and content, organization, sentence fluency, conventions, word choice and voice. Writing skills are introduced in the form of a mini-lesson once or twice a week. Students are then given time to practice working on that skill. These lessons can be as simple as learning a song that teaches one of the traits, or it could be performing “surgery” on an essay (cutting it into pieces) and then arranging the sentences in an order that makes the most sense and sounds the best.
By giving students opportunities to write on a topic of their choice throughout the week, we give students practice, help them to develop their voice and foster a love of and interest in writing. Students also keep a personal writing journal for just this type of writing.
For our spelling program, we use Words Their Way curriculum in addition to teaching Rebecca Sitton’s high frequency words. In Words Their Way, students are assessed at the beginning of the school year to determine their spelling stage, which determines their program. Each week, students receive a new set of words to work with to learn about the spelling patterns imbedded in them. In addition to Words Their Way, students receive spelling words each week. To the best of our ability, these spelling words are related to our current unit of study and are a mixture of words from Rebecca Sitton's high frequency words and from the vocabulary of our unit of study.
Mathematics
The Level 2 Math Program takes two main forms: grade-level math and classroom math. For grade-level math, students leave their classroom group, four days a week, joining students from other classes that are in the same grade level. Classroom math, on the other hand, is math instruction within the mixed-age classroom and is integrated into the thematic unit to varying degrees depending upon the content of the unit.
Grades 4 and 5 use The Bridges Math Program and Grade 6 uses Hands-On Equations, among other math teaching techniques. Regardless of the program, each grade-level classroom employs similar strategies that feature a combination of whole-group, small-group, and independent activities. Lessons incorporate increasingly complex visual models – seeing, touching, working with manipulatives, and sketching ideas – to create pictures in the mind's eye that helps learners invent, understand, and remember mathematical ideas. By encouraging students to explore, test, and justify their reasoning, the curriculum facilitates the development of mathematical thinking.
Differentiation occurs in math classrooms through a number of means. First, pre-assessments are given for each math unit, so that we have an understanding of students’ starting points for each given unit. Using this information, we can use a variety of strategies to meet learners’ needs. For more advanced learners, we use challenge problems that teach the same content but at a higher level. For students who are struggling with the current unit, we create curriculum to target the area of weakness.
Classroom math provides rich opportunities to integrate place-based and thematic learning with math concepts and skills. At times, math is added to the lesson and story problems are often used to make the connection (e.g., What percentage of states voted for Barack Obama and John McCain?). Other times, math is the central focus of the lesson - for instance when we measured the heights of trees in our community.
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Social Studies & Science
As at other levels, science and social studies in Level 2 are integrated through class-wide projects. Areas of study are drawn from state and national standards for social studies and science education and include, among others, the study of ecology, Westward Expansion, human and animal migration, and consumerism. Social studies and science units provide rich opportunities for our Out & Abouts. Last year, for example, as part of a unit on Colonial times, Level 2 students visited the A.T. Smith House (built in 1856), went to Goodwill as part of a study of consumerism, and visited the Washington County election offices to learn how ballots are processed as part of a study of elections.
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Art
Art is an integrated subject at FGCS, and each art project is designed to complement the place-based curriculum of the primary class. This allows each art project to draw from the rich historical, cultural, social and political context being explored within the classes. Through this integrated approach, students are intrinsically motivated to explore artistic genres and experiment with various media and skills, because their creations have immediate relevance to their studies, families, community and world.
Level 2 students have art two times a week for a total of two hours. Building on the foundation laid in the prior level, Level 2 students continue to explore their visual voice as they focus on the basics of design. Their greater maturity allows these students to explore with a broader variety of media. Integration with courses provides depth to in-class projects. During the World Fair project, for example, students learned about analogous color families while creating oil pastel landscape drawings of the countries they were studying.
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Physical Activity 
We take a comprehensive view of physical activity (PA) at the school, planning our schedules and program with an eye to promoting the habits of physical activity in students. Physical education, breaks, and Out and Abouts are components of our PA program.
Physical Education
Students in Level 2 have PE once a week for 60 minutes. Our program is designed to provide movement experiences through which students continue to develop motor skills as well the characteristics of teamwork and sportsmanship. Through cooperative and competitive games, students learn how to use their bodies for a specific purpose. Choice in activities is the norm, based on our commitment to giving students voice in their education.
Breaks and Out & Abouts
Level 2 students are physical throughout the day and week. With 40 minutes of daily break time on the playground and weekly Out & Abouts - which almost always involve significant walking - we model and promote activity in students.