Academics

Together with our parents and a highly qualified and dedicated staff we will engage all of our students in rigorous, critical thinking, learning activities and tasks and tasks aligned with the Next Generation Learning Standards. Our academic and enrichment curriculum is designed with well-crafted instructional units and appropriate supports that are also fully aligned to the Standards.

We strive for student centered learning and leverage the strengths of our students and support areas of possibilities through a warm, welcoming affirming environment where students feel safe and respected.  Every child is unique, has many talents, and has experiences and interests that we recognize and celebrate.  

Below you will find a detailed explanation of our curriculum according to each of the  subject areas that our students are learning at PS 971. 

Foundational Skills

Fundations

A research based phonics program that teaches the underlying structure of the English language and utilizes an efficient, effective approach that teaches decoding and spelling. It consists of modeling and scaffolding instruction that ensures that students understand the skill being taught, learn the procedures, and are able to use the skills and procedures on their own. 

Heggerty

A phonemic Awareness curriculum that is systematically programed with daily lesson plans that provide a high level of explicit modeling and student engagement through rhyming, initial phoneme isolation, blending, isolating final and medial phonemes (sounds), segmenting, adding phonemes, deleting phonemes,  substituting phonemes

Reading & Writing

HMH Into Reading

Into Reading is a K–5 literacy curriculum based on the latest research designed to teach every child how to read. It supports phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, language and writing instruction with scaffolds and supports for all students.  All students learn to read across a variety of genres and formats, from environmental texts, to the classics, to graphic novels. Books are used as a springboard for writing and discussion.

HMH Into Reading teaches all students how to become independent writers by using daily explicit lessons designed to teach students how to write across genres and in response to reading.  Our students will work on mastering the writing process in a variety of genres such as opinion, narrative, persuasive, expository writing and  how to respond to literature.

Mathematics

Investigations 3

We utilize Investigations 3, which is a K-5 inquiry – based approach to mathematics as our primary math curriculum. Students actively explore mathematical ideas to develop understanding and fluency. They collaborate, investigate, and take part in problem-based learning. We will continue to go deeper with our mathematical thinking and teach our students more than one way to solve problems, explain their thinking and justify their reasoning. 

Literacy and Mathematics Digital Platform

i-Ready

i-Ready is an online program for reading and mathematics that will help your child’s teacher determine student specific reading and math needs, personalize individual learning, and monitor progress throughout the school year. i-Ready allows teachers to meet students exactly where they are and provides data to increase your child’s learning gains. i-Ready consists of two parts: Diagnostic and Personalized Instruction. 

Social Studies

NYCPS Passport & Civics for All

The Social Studies curriculum is taught by following the New York City Scope and Sequence and Common Core Learning Standards. Essential Questions are explored using an inquiry and project based approach to support and facilitate each of the grade specific topics. The New York City Department of Education Units of Study in Social Studies along with trade books and workbooks will be used to teach and reinforce grade appropriate concepts, research & geography skills. In addition to the NYCDOE Passport & Civics for All curriculum, students are also encouraged to read informational text and other literature independently to deepen their understanding of Social Studies concepts. We encourage families to visit the local library with your child to support the work we are doing in school.  

Science

Amplify Science, Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

The Science curriculum we utilize in the classroom is called Amplify Science and is designed to implement and follow the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in science, English Language Arts and Math. The Amplify Science curriculum that inspires students to read, write and argue like scientists to gain a better understanding of the world, as the students gain skills needed to master the NGSS by thinking about different science phenomena and engage in a group project called a mission performance task. The curriculum blends grade level reading texts and hands-on experiences that allow students to visualize scientific phenomena, so that they can think like scientists and engineers and use the information they are learning to solve real-world problems. Each unit aligned to the NGSS provides students with an anchoring phenomena event, discussion questions, hands-on activities and supplemental materials.

In addition students in grades 3-5 will also engage in hands-on investigations to become active scientists. These investigation tasks foster classroom discussions, literacy integration, Simulations and modeling tools. These hands-on experiences follow the engineering design process. Students discover and learn the wonders of science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) which promotes inquiry and excitement as students engage in real-world scientific connections.