Marylou Breidenstine
Language Arts Facilitator
The third, fourth and fifth graders have just completed a monthly writing sample. Students are required to dig deep into their imaginations and write an engaging story based on a picture to produce delightful stories within the time frame of 25 minutes allowed during the NJ ASK Test.
Tina Favre
Math Facilitator
Washington Avenue School has successfully implemented a mathematics curriculum based on the continuous review of big ideas, making connections, and continuity to emphasize concepts and help students develop math confidence. Our curriculum maps for kindergarten through fifth grade were developed in alignment with the NJ CCCS, and serve as an important guide for the pacing of essential skills necessary to create excellence in mathematics. In particular, our “windows” strategy focuses on the big ideas of place value, algebra, patterns, and estimation, as well as the real math of measurement, geometry, time and money. These ideas spiral throughout our K-5 curriculum and help students make mathematical connections from year to year. On any given day, students are engaged in meaningful mathematics activities that may involve modeling, building, exploring, cooperating, problem solving and even performing.
Based upon our success over the past five years, all students can learn math and all students need to learn math has certainly become a priority by the entire staff at Washington Avenue School.
Our mathematics program allows for teachers to implement many different types of instructional methods. When teaching new concepts, investigations may include cooperative learning groups, partnering, hands-on activities with manipulatives, and the use of “communicators” for sharing responses. Math lessons often are modified and extended for English language learners, connected to literature and during read-alouds, and integrated with technology on many interactive websites. Whenever possible, math skills are infused into other curricular areas, in particular, science, writing and the arts.