ACADEMICS

The Ranches Academy Charter School will utilize Core Knowledge, Open Court Language Arts and Reading, Saxon Math and other successful curricula to meet or exceed the Utah State core curriculum requirements.

Students are ability grouped in reading, writing and arithmetic. Ability grouping allows the student to work with peers at a pace and curriculum level best suited for their needs. It also allows the teacher to focus on inividual needs better as ability groups tend to be smaller in size than the regular classroom size.

In addition, each student at The Ranches Academy receives yearly standardized testing to help track their progress from grade to grade and measure the performance of the school.

Core Knowledge

In an effort to help fulfill the Mission and Philosophy of The Ranches Academy Charter School, the school will employ the Core Knowledge Sequence by E.D. Hisrch, Jr. There are several Utah charter schools, and many schools throughout the nation, currently using this effective curriculum. This core curriculum helps establish a strong foundation of knowledge, grade by grade. Core Knowledge will be used to help meet the Utah State core curriculum requirements as found at http://www.uen.org/core.

The Core Knowledge Sequence provides students with a broad knowledge base, rich in vocabulary, on which future instruction can build, broaden and deep. The core is structured to continue throughout a student’s education, becoming more detailed and sophisticated in each grade. Using this approach has proved to increase information retention. When meaningful content is paired with effective teaching skills, skill development has shown to come more easily.  

Timpanogos Academy, of Lindon, Utah, has prepared a grade-by-grade analysis showing the Core Knowledge curriculum meets and, in certain cases, significantly exceeds the standards of the Utah State Core Curriculum found at http://www.coreknowledge.org/CKproto2/schools/Alignment.htm.

The Ranches Academy Charter School will use curriculum, methods, and materials with the following foci:

· Reading and Language Arts: Reading, composition and creative writing, phonics, vocabulary, speaking, listening, grammar, persuasion, literature, library skills.

· Mathematics: Problem solving, application and computation skills.

· Grammar and Writing: An emphasis on balance between grammatical terms, concepts and rules with actual creative writing and presentation of ideas.

· Science: A “hands-on” approach as well as training in scientific methodologies.

· Social Science: Emphasis on American and World civilizations and geography.

· Music: Activity based approach to develop musical skills and concepts. An emphasis on singing, instruments, listening, reading and composing.

· Art: Guiding the students in gradual development of skills in the uses of elements and application of principles with art tools and materials.

Going beyond the Core, The Ranches Academy Charter School will incorporate: Physical Education, Spelling, Handwriting and Technology.

Open Court Language Arts and Reading
Open Court Language Arts and Reading will be used to support the Core Knowledge Sequence and help to meet the Utah State core curriculum requirements. The Open Court Language Arts and Reading curriculum is a phonics-based program with an emphasis on comprehension skills. It is balanced with extensive reading of both decodable text and quality literature. This program is designed to ensure that students can begin to read authentic text by the end of the first half of first grade. The program focuses on the fluency, comprehension, writing, research and inquiry with the goal of developing students who are truly life long learners.  

Students participate daily in reading, writing, discussing, researching, and thinking about authentic, high-quality literature encompassing a range of text genres, including different forms of fiction and nonfiction. Each selection in Open Court Reading was chosen specifically because it added a new dimension of thought to the concept of a unit and because it was the best possible example of how different forms of literature can all express a particular theme.

Saxon Math
Saxon Math will be used to support the Core Knowledge Sequence and help to meet the Utah State core curriculum requirements. Saxon Math is unique because the entire program is based on introducing a topic to a student, then allowing them to build upon that concept as they learn new ones. Topics are never dropped but are instead increased in complexity and practiced every day, providing the time required for concepts to become totally familiar.