HighScope

Our Preschool Program uses The HighScope Preschool Curriculum, which is a comprehensive curriculum resource. Play is at the heart of the active learning curriculum. Children engage in play oriented exploratory activities where they construct knowledge through their interactions with materials, people, events, and ideas. Nurturing adults scaffold children’s learning in this process, providing language models, and encouraging decision making and social interactions.

Curriculum content focuses on eight developmental areas which align readily with the Pennsylvania Common Core Early Learning Standards.  Daily planning is guided by child interest, students’ communities and ongoing assessment of developmental levels. The eight preschool content areas include:

American Sign Language

Visual Communication and Sign Language (VCSL) for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children is based on age-typical developmental milestones from birth to age 5. It is standardized based on a national sample of deaf children from signing families and provides the standards of sign language development in young children. The VCSL guides our instructional planning and the development of language goals, as well as provides a mechanism for tracking assessments of each child.

Real OT Solutions:The Size Matters Handwriting Program 

Real OT Solutions is a strong advocate for evidence-based practice. Focus on Size. Form will follow! SMHP is the first instructional program to shift the focus to Letter Size.  When students correct errors in Letter Size, they make an immediate and measurable difference in the consistency, and therefore readability of the written page.  And it’s so easy to teach since there are only three!  That’s why we say, “When it comes to neat printing… SIZE MATTERS!” 

Standards and Related Research: Written-Language_ProductionStandards.pdf, Brain Exercise: Eight Reasons Handwriting is an Essential, 5 Brain-Based Reasons to Teach Handwriting in School

PSD also adopted the McGraw-Hill Education’s My Math curriculum. This curriculum provides the rigor, personalization, and student engagement students need to be successful with the Common Core State Standards. This re-imagined approach to elementary math is fully aligned with the Common Core State Standards and Mathematical Practices, allowing teachers to focus on inspiring a love of learning.

We are currently using Harcourt Social Studies Curriculum. The curriculum review and revision process for our Social Studies curriculum is underway to update our Social Studies resources and our alignment to the common core standards and the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework. We are piloting new resources and curriculum and will be making a final determination for new curriculum adoption in Spring 2020. Our main guiding factor is to how to best support our students’ understanding of the world in which they live and to prepare them for their life and life choices beyond the classroom.

Elementary grade classrooms in the Special Education Department subscribe to an Evidence based model developed by the PaTTAN Autism Initiative using the science of Applied Behavioral Analysis with an emphasis on teaching communication through the analysis of Verbal Behavior.  Not to be confused with a primary focus of vocal behavior or speech production, this approach is broad and inclusive of  all forms of language including sign language, written language and picture exchange.  Intensive instructional teaching practices include errorless teaching, fluency training, Natural Environment Training (NET), social skills, and group participation. 

Learning and language milestones are assessed to include making requests (mands), tacts (labeling), imitation, answering questions (intraverbals) and listener response.  Play, early academics, classroom skills, social skills as well as common acquisition barriers are further assessed to address students needs including behavior challenges.  The mand, tact and intraverbal are classified as expressive language. Imitation skills are also taught. Imitation, when verbal at all, is akin to the echoic for ASL, so it is in this context, expressive language while listener response is receptive language.  Procedures build from simple skills to more complex skills. 

Level One:  targeted skills for early learners which include but are not limited to observational/attending skills, context control responses, and following receptive commands all of which include high rates of active responding and delivery of reinforcement on a rich variable delivery schedule. Visual perceptual skills, motor imitation, match to sample, social behavior and play are addressed at this level.

Level Two: targeted skills for intermediate level learners include expansion of level one skills such as listener response by function, feature and class, and intraverbal skills. Routines and group skills are also addressed at this level.

Level Three: acquisition of skills needed for effective instruction in a less restrictive environment are targeted at this level. With basic skills firmly established in levels one and two, advanced level skills are more complex and incorporate reading, writing and math skills.

With the guidance of Board Certified Behavior Analysts with PaTTAN’s Autism Initiative, and an Internal Coach on-site, all staff working with students in this approach receive intensive training and receive up to 14 hours of direct consultation each month. With highly structured classroom organization, comprehensive data collection systems, parent communication and training, and consideration of motivational variables that increase the likelihood of student cooperation are procedures central to our instructional approach. We strive for students to acquire skills and competencies that lead to independence with essential academic, personal, and employment skills.

PSD has embarked on our journey of becoming a Thinking Maps school. Thinking Maps are consistent visual patterns linked directly to eight specific thought processes. By visualizing our thinking, we create concrete images of abstract thoughts. These patterns help all students reach higher levels of critical and creative thinking — essential components of 21st Century education. In a school-wide implementation, Thinking Maps establish a consistent Language for Learning.