Elementary Distinctives

Lead & Course Teachers

Students at the elementary level interact with both lead teachers and course teachers on a daily basis. 

Lead Teachers act as the manager of their class/classroom and are responsible for observing and encouraging the overall holistic education of the students in their class, including the academic, social, emotional, spiritual, and ethical. Each student is placed in one classroom with similarly aged peers with one lead teacher. Lead teachers also teach courses within their area of expertise. 

Course Teachers are responsible for coming into the classroom and teaching a specific set of academic content within one discipline (Language Arts, Creative Arts, or STEM). For example, a farmer may partner with us at the Academy and come in to teach garden classes for our students. Course teachers are responsible to communicate with Lead Teachers to ensure the overall philosophy of the Academy is in tact.

No Mandatory Homework

At the elementary level, students will be assigned homework in Language Arts and Bible classes. While it is highly recommended, it is not mandatory. Students are offered incentives to complete the work, but are not penalized for not completing homework assignments. Assignments are meant to assist in their learning process and give them more opportunities with the content learned in class. It is not meant to function as the main assessment of how a student is progressing with content.

No Letter Grades (for assignments or courses) 

At the elementary level students do not receive letter grades for their assignments or their courses. The reason why students don’t receive grades is because it’s been my (Mr. Garner’s) observation (and study) that most children are not able to differentiate between their work being graded and their person being graded. For example, a 4th grader can get a C- on an assignment (where they are told the C- means below average), and unfortunately, many come to believe that they are below average, as a person. Or at least that they are below average when it comes to that particular subject matter. This is of course a misconception, but the labeling becomes difficult to compute for a mind that has yet to develop the cognitive capacity for making abstract connections. It’s for this reason that our elementary students do not receive letter grades. It helps our teachers to focus on meeting students where they are within a certain subject matter, and helps them to move forward at a pace relative to their capacity.

Once they get to the second year of the Focus level when we begin preparing them for Jr. High, we want them to understand what a grade is: merely a way to gauge how well you accommodated expectations related to an assignment, and NOT a label characterizing you as a person. 

So, in order to help our students experience grades in a healthy way we have to demystify and also neutralize the psycho-social power that the label has. We do this by walking students through how they should understand the grading process.

The reality is that grades are common place and in college these kids will be graded. I want to prepare them to see what a grade is and that a grade is again, merely a way to gauge how well you accommodated an expectation to an assignment. This will also prepare them for their careers when they will have supervisors and others who will give them “grades” so to speak, or critiques. Hopefully they’ll know enough about grading that when it happens they won't take it personal, but they will be moved to asked the right questions and gauge expectation so that they can perform accordingly.

Benchmark Assessment - The Alternative to Traditional Grading

Instead of traditional letter and percentage grades at the elementary level, each course has a series of benchmarks that a teacher covers throughout a semester with their students. On a student’s report card at the end of a semester, they will receive a rating based on the following scale to show how they progressed: 

• Excels in this benchmark

• Achieved benchmark 

• Close, but needs more time to achieve the benchmark 

• In progress of learning benchmark 

• Aware of the benchmark 

• NA - This benchmark did not apply 

Multiple Intelligences

At the elementary level, instruction gives students opportunities to learn using the 9 different multiple intelligences. Children approach learning in different ways. When students begin elementary school, we don’t yet know what intelligences they have, but their proclivities are noted by teachers over the span of elementary school in order to give them access to learning that will best meet their needs.

No Grade Levels

Aside from Kindergarten, the Academy does not use traditional grade levels (first, second, third, etc.) as a way to distinguish between classes at the elementary level. Instead, students progress through a series of levels that are grouped in two-year segments. Following Kindergarten, students begin two years at the Generals Level, then two years at the Specifics Level, then finally two years at the Focus Level. Since traditional grade levels aren’t used to distinguish between grades a specific theme is used each year that each classroom is identified by (i.e. colors, countries, etc.) These levels can be identified by the following distinctions:

Generals 

• General overview of curriculum, giving students exposure to a wide variety of topics and activities in a general way. 

• All students receive the same courses at this level. 

• Time is given to discover what types of interests and intelligences emerge from each child during these first two years. 

Specifics 

• The curriculum becomes more specific by giving students a deeper understanding of concepts they started learning in the Generals level. 

• Student coursework and homework is more specifically tailored to the intelligences that have emerged in them over the course of their Generals education.

• Students should be able to discuss concepts with more depth, taking something that they once ‘generally’ understood to a more specific level. 

Focus 

• Students take more responsibility for their own learning. 

• Students are offered elective courses, which gives them the opportunity to develop a specific skill or interest. 

• Classes and homework are tailored to the students’ learning styles and intelligences that they display. 

• By the end of Focus level, students begin to receive letter grades in Language Arts and Bible to help them understand grades as they transition into Jr. High.

Fluid Course Schedules - Specific to Students Needs (Individuated Education)

The academic and social development of a child is extremely fluid from the ages of 5-12. Keeping this in mind, we strive to create a space for the various growth and cognitive development rates of our students so that damaging labels and mindsets have no place in our midst. We accommodate for these differences in development by giving each student a homeroom class of similarly aged peers while also allowing students to fluidly move between levels for various courses (reading, math, writing, and Bible most specifically). Instead of the cookie-cutter classroom that requires all students to have similar development in academic areas, the Academy for G.O.D. acknowledges that students gain understanding at different rates and in different ways.

Elementary Courses Offered at the Academy for GOD

While Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic are all classes offered at the elementary level, students attend a variety of classes within our three main disciplines (Language Arts, Creative Arts, and STEM) as well as classes related to spiritual formation. On a daily basis, students typically attend one Language Arts Course, one STEM course, and up to Two Creative Arts courses. Here are some of the courses offered at the elementary level: 

• Bible (Torah from Generals through Focus level) 

• Chapel (All Levels) 

• Garden & Nutrition (All Levels) 

• Heroes of Faith (All Levels) 

• Anatomy (All Levels) 

• Spanish (All Levels) 

• Building (All Levels) 

• Coordination & Balance (Generals)

• Talking to Adults & Manners (Generals) 

• Chores & Cleaning (Generals) 

• Prayers & Songs (Generals) 

• Verses (Generals) 

• My Emotions (Generals & Specifics) 

• Conflict Resolution (Specifics) 

• Performing Arts (Generals-Focus) 

• Board Games (Specifics)

• Physical Education (Specifics & Focus) 

• Choir (Specifics) 

• Intro to Music & Instruments (Focus) 

• Emotional Intelligence (Focus) 

• Variety of Discipline-Specific Electives (Focus)