English Language Arts
The English Language Arts curriculum at KSA is developmentally appropriate and increases in complexity from grade to grade. It is aligned with statewide standards and changes as a result of regular and thoughtful evaluation of our practice. Students learn to read, understand and analyze various genres of literature and learn to identify their characteristics. They pose questions, listen to the ideas of others and contribute their own information.
As students advance through the grades, they:
KINDERGARTEN TO GRADE 2
The focus in K-2 is emerging literacy in all its forms. The primary method of instruction is through Guided Reading and Guided Writing. Children learn in a language-rich environment using language experience charts, big books, choral reading, drama, reading aloud, and author parties. As a class, they write group stories stemming from a common experience or a story starter and compose group letters for a variety of occasions. Students are introduced to dictionary spelling and may use an individualized personal dictionary. They record their thoughts in journals, write stories, and complete worksheets.
GRADES 3 – 5
In the intermediate grades (3-5), children learn grammar, punctuation and spelling through reading and writing. This is supplemented with direct teaching of the rules of Standard English. Students move towards using dictionary spelling in their writing. Teachers use trade books and teacher-made packets that ask students to analyze literature, think critically and forge personal connections to books. Other instructional approaches include journal writing, story writing, directed writing assignments, drama, and reading aloud. In addition, teachers assign outside reading and students complete reports or projects in varied forms.
In grades 6-8, text analysis and support of one's position using textual evidence becomes more central. Students read from a rich and varied body of literature and are exposed to different genres of writing. They participate in large and small group discussions and regularly respond to literature in writing. Following rules for standard written English is expected and emphasized in all student writing. Students also learn through drama, film, reading aloud and lecture. Outside reading and writing assignments are required.
In 8th grade, the Language Arts experience becomes more sophisticated and interdisciplinary as it is incorporated into a Humanities class where students practice research as well as critical writing, reading, and thinking skills in preparation for high school. Students use the tools of humanities - inquiry, analysis, and interpretation - to think not only about literature and history but also about what it means to be human. The course helps students become more aware of what is happening in the world, past and present, and teaches them the skills to work to change this world for the better, through words, writing and action.
Science and Math
A unique program, the Science and Math Initiative, was established in the Kehillah Schechter Academy by a scientist and a mathematician, Dr. Nitzan Resnick and Dr. Shai Simonson respectively, and is currently directed by Dr. Resnick and Ms. Ivonne Krasnick. The program was designed based on Dr. Resnick’s experience with undergraduate and graduate college students, suggesting that students today lack important basic research skills and curiosity toward science and mathematics. The overarching approach to teaching science and math at KSA are to:
Technological tools are used in science and math at all levels and grades. SmartBoards, laptops, online animations and games, video conferencing and advanced scientific equipment are all part of the math and science classes.
Throughout the grades, mathematics instruction has a dual focus at KSA – to both establish a strong base of fundamental mathematics skills and to teach students to think analytically about the how and why of what they do to solve problems. Whether students are learning about counting, number operations, variables, or graphing, the same mathematical principles are emphasized.
By bringing math to life and presenting it as a multidisciplinary subject, both within the classroom and in extracurricular arenas, we not only reinforce the skills and procedures of mathematics but also work to instill a love and enjoyment of mathematical thinking and challenges.
Science in the lower school is taught through hands-on and investigative processes. Each year, students are introduced to a plethora of subjects, e.g., earth science, life and health science, and engineering, with a unifying theme and an emphasis on one or more skills.
KSA has established a science learning community with a Israeli school in Haifa which has led to an international collaboration on a middle school science fair. Inter-grade teams from KSA and Ironi Gimmel (IG) design and execute an independent research project with the academic help of mentors from both schools and scientists from the Technion, Tel Aviv University, and MIT. As part of this process, the KSA grade 8 trip to Israel focuses on science and students spend time with their Israeli team mates and visit several academic and research institutes. The collaboration culminates in the visit of the IG community to KSA where, in unified teams, the students then present their research projects to scientists and to the community.
The KSA Social Studies curriculum incorporates history and geography and integrates economics, government, psychology, sociology and the humanities. Its purpose is to examine and understand the experience of all people, with the goal of empowering students to become active, responsible and contributing citizens in a diverse democracy and an interdependent world.
Our students develop their capacity to learn many points of view and discover similarities and differences among people. They question and work with texts, primary sources and literature to understand what happened and why. Embedded in all of our studies is the history of the Jewish people and the role they played throughout history. Our students study cause and effect relationships and learn the way that actions lead to particular outcomes. They study the concept of time and its impact on both continuity and change.
As they move through the grades, students learn about the physical environment and its impact on people, as well as the impact of the people on shaping the environment. Students:
Hebrew is our other primary language at KSA. Our students receive daily Hebrew language instruction and use Hebrew also in tefillah (prayer), Tanakh (Bible), Rabbinics, and shirah (singing). We teach Hebrew through the use of oral expression, songs, poetry, games, movement, art, books, drama, and more. In Hebrew classes, KSA students learn to understand spoken and written Hebrew, to speak and to write. They learn vocabulary, grammar, poetry, stories, and dictionary skills. They actively use Hebrew to supplement their learning of holidays and knowledge about and love of Israel.
Hebrew language instruction is provided on a variety of levels, including Grade Level, Advanced, and Emergent Hebrew, in classes geared to meet the needs of every kind of language learner. Our Hebrew teachers are language specialists and, since they teach multiple grades, they grow to know our children very well. Teachers are able to vary their literature according to the interests of the class, the timing of the Jewish holidays, and in integration with other subjects. In the highest levels of the upper grades, students often request to study or discuss specific subjects or ideas in Hebrew class.
In grade 7, we introduce Spanish as a modern foreign language. The focus of our Spanish program is to teach the fundamentals of the four linguistic skills--listening, speaking, reading and writing--while developing a solid understanding of the grammatical structure of the language. The ultimate goal is for students to develop the ability to understand and speak in practical, everyday situations.
The textbook chosen for the Spanish course is the Scott Foresman text, Paso a Paso. The thematically organized chapters in the textbook provide a wide variety of topics that provide key vocabulary for communication. The topics include: friendship, school, sports, activities, food, family, clothing, home, health and community. Along with the textbook, students use a CD program with exercises, chapter tests and overhead transparencies that elicit student conversations in Spanish. The teacher supplements the text with various teacher-created materials. Our goal is that, upon completion of Spanish 1, students will be able to transition comfortably into any high school Spanish 2 course.
All of our students are required to study Hebrew language. For some students, for whom the addition of another foreign language may be too difficult, we have developed an alternative to Spanish that includes instruction in organizational and study skills that support them in their other studies.
Tefillah is our opportunity to reach outside ourselves, toward God and toward the greater Jewish community. Tefillah links us to Jews who have come before us, Jews who will come after us and to Jews all over the world.
In each grade, beginning in Kindergarten, new tefillot are added. By the time they graduate, students are familiar with the weekday Shacharit (morning service); Hallel (psalms for joyous occasions); Mincha (afternoon service); Kabbalat Shabbat (welcoming Shabbat) and Havdalah (concluding Shabbat). Students also learn layning (Torah cantillation).
Tefillah at KSA includes:
Students daven every day at KSA, usually in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon so that they also learn the mincha service. Birkat HaMazon is recited after every lunch.
Tanakh (Torah Study)
All teaching is sacred and the teaching of sacred text is a special responsibility. At KSA the Tanakh program is enhanced by the strong sense of yirat shamayim, reverence that our faculty brings to their teaching of Tanakh.
Similar to a math curriculum, the study of Torah easily flows from year to year.
We begin the teaching of Tanakh in the lower grades with the weekly study of the parashat hashavua (Torah portion of the week). Teachers integrate stories and lessons from the weekly Torah reading into their classroom activities, often including art, music, reading, math questions, and science connections, with a special emphasis on social behavior. They make the Torah stories more concrete through storytelling, drama, illustration and writing. As young as kindergarten and grade 1 and continuing into grade 2, the students have deep discussions and record their thoughts in Torah journals.
In grade 3, the students receive humashim (Torah) and begin their textual Torah study, along with the continued study of the weekly portion. Grade 3 and 4 are devoted to Genesis, grade 5 studies Exodus, grade 6 studies Numbers and grade 7 studies selections from Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Grade 8 students study Prophets with an emphasis on building their analysis and writing skills. They are exposed to classical and modern commentators and examine a variety of translations of the Torah text.
Teachers of students in all grade levels look for ways for students to relate the stories and lessons they are learning to their own lives. In middle school this takes on interesting dimensions as the teachers may bring in examples from popular culture or analyze the behavior of people in the text in comparison with the behavior of typical young adolescents like themselves.
Rabbinic literature is introduced as its own subject beginning in grade 6. The relationship between the written and the oral Torah is the lens by which most units are approached. Whether students are learning about kashrut or the death penalty, the Pesach seder or laws of property damage, the meta-lesson is the same: evolution of the interpretive tradition, and notions of canon. Students learn to see themselves as part of the ongoing tradition of conversational Torah.
Rabbinics includes a combination of whole group and small group instruction and occasional guest speakers. It incorporates varied assessments: traditional quizzes/tests, creative writing assignments, art projects, role-playing (skits), and differentiated assessment based on students’ Hebrew levels and abilities.
There are four main areas within Rabbinics that are taught in each of the three middle school grades: holidays, prayer, torts/damages (nezikin), and ethics. Each year builds on the foundation established in the previous year, and each year the material becomes more sophisticated in both content and approach. In addition, the curriculum carefully takes into account the developmental needs of children in different age groups.
We teach and celebrate Jewish holidays through formal and informal classroom learning, assemblies, performances, songs, stories, art, and more. Our students learn the “hows” and the “whys” as well as the tastes and the smells of the holidays.
Every grade teaches or reviews, as appropriate, the basic blessings, ideas and symbols of each holiday: for instance, how to hold a lulav or how to light a hanukkiyah. Students learn about the holidays in their homeroom classes and the learning is reinforced by the Hebrew, music and art teachers. In Hebrew class, students learn holiday vocabulary and read stories about different holidays and holiday customs in Hebrew.
Holiday themes and ideas become progressively more complex as the students grow and mature. Every grade, K-5, has an “essential question” that they answer for every holiday. The essential questions are designed to be age appropriate and to integrate into the larger grade themes and units. Our youngest students learn about symbols and basic ideas of the holidays. They hear stories, draw pictures, sing songs, and much more. As they grow, they build on the foundations they have established and they are able to apply the basic ideas and symbols to more complex ideas and understandings. In middle school, students delve into holidays in depth in Rabbinics classes.
We celebrate many holidays in school through assemblies and other school-wide observances. On Hoshanah Rabbah, at the end of Sukkot, the whole school gathers for Hallel and willow beating. We open the Torah scroll around the entire student body so the students will feel enveloped by the Torah. On Purim we gather again for a student Megillah reading and a Purim spiel, as well as carnival games, costumes, hamentaschen and fun. Right before Shavuot, local rabbis visit us to teach Torah to our middle school students.
For many holidays grades take turns creating and presenting a program for the school. This practice is typically done for Veterans’ Day, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Martin Luther King Day, Tu B’Shevat, Pesach, Memorial Day, and Shavuot.
Yom HaAtzmaut itself is a gala day in which students learn from and teach each other, experience aspects of Israeli culture, eat falafel, participate in special Yom HaAtzmaut t'fillot and sing Israeli songs together.
Rosh Chodesh Live
At the start of each month (Rosh Chodesh), the entire school assembles in the gym for a spirited and spiritual circle of Tefillah (prayer), song, story, and dancing. During “Rosh Chodesh Live,” younger children sit in the laps of older children, listening intently and then singing with exuberance as one community. The 8th grade students look forward to the year when they are the leaders and role models and are invited to remain in the gym for a short Israeli dance session. Please check the school calendar for Rosh Chodesh Live dates.
One cannot spend very long at KSA without noticing our strong connection to and emphasis on Israel: the land, the State, the people. We strive to foster an emotional connection with Israel to convey knowledge of the history and culture and to strengthen Jewish identity. This is done on a regular basis through many different venues including: current events, connections to holidays, prayers for the State of Israel, use of Israeli materials and curricula, exposure to Israeli music, relationships with Israeli teachers, and, of course, within our Hebrew classes all year long.
We have a very close connection with our sister school in Haifa, Ironi Gimmel. Our grade 7 students do a literature project with Ironi Gimmel students, reading and discussing a book about the Holocaust together and learning about the different and similar ways that students in Haifa and Massachusetts react to the same material. In grade 8, the students work together on a combined science project and science fair. Past topics have included: comparing the salinity of the water in the Mediterranean Sea with the water in the Atlantic Ocean, designing a new planet, studying the habits and qualities of migrating birds. Students communicate by way of the internet and become friends as well as study partners. In the spring students from Haifa come to Boston to visit our school and spend time with our students.
There is an annual eighth grade trip to Israel which brings to life for our students nine years of studying and learning about Israel. It is an incredible opportunity for our youngsters to see Israel, meet their Ironi Gimmel counterparts, travel throughout the country and use Hebrew.
Our Israel curriculum reaches its peak each year on Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel Independence Day. During the days between Pesach and Yom HaAtzmaut, every grade studies Israel with increased intensity and an integrated curriculum.