Social Studies

Hope Community Charter School’s social studies program helps children develop the language necessary to construct meaning. The program is comprised of three parts: “Read to Learn,” “Write to Learn,” and “Explore to Learn.” The first part focuses and gives students practice in the five essential reading skills: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. “Write to Learn” provides opportunities for students to express their knowledge and understanding by practicing communication skills in a variety of formats including narrative, expository, and visual.  “Explore to Learn” uses interactive and visual formats that include both reading and writing. By combining practice of students’ visual interpretation with text, comprehension of both will increase. Students read in the social studies content area, especially nonfiction, use reference tools and follow step-by-step directions. Students learn that we read using different skills when we read to learn information. Teachers use focus questions to lead students to read with a purpose and encourage students to create their own questions of text and visual information.

 

 

World Language

The world language program at Hope Community Charter School is part of a larger cultural arts offering. Teachers draw upon all the school and community events, the current topics under investigation in the content disciplines, as well as the art program to embed world languages and culture, exposing students to other ways of looking at the world and leading students to greater understanding and respect for cultural perspectives and practices. The program at Hope Community Charter School is developed around the Classroom Teacher Model for grades kindergarten through second grade. The program for grades three and four is developed around the World Language Teacher/Specialist model to ensure a high level or proficiency and culturally authentic teaching.