aaeds/blog

How can your senses help you learn?
What makes a pet special?
What happens when families work together?

These are some of the essential questions our K-2nd grades will explore through our new reading program, Wonders, by McGraw Hill. The K-2nd team came to me last year to share that they were looking for a reading program that not only incorporated all of the components of a literacy program, but also one that more closely aligned with our current pedagogy, our mission, and our values. The Wonders curriculum encourages our students to think deeply about the world around them while learning and honing foundational reading and comprehension skills.

As an educator, what I love most about Wonders is that it challenges our students wherever they are along their reading journeys. There are endless resources for students reading above grade level, as well as for those students who are approaching grade level in reading. These resources all address the same essential questions, and thus, all students �" no matter their reading level �" read, discuss, and research together. Moreover, the levels are flexible and allow our students to accelerate or slow down depending on where they are at any time.

What I love most about using Wonders at ADAT is the way our teachers plan to use the curriculum as a source of inspiration for design thinking challenges, social studies, and science. Our teachers will use the cross-disciplinary application of this curriculum to challenge our students to think critically and globally. They also use Wonders as a tool to help our students learn about their identity �" to know themselves (as our mission states). See the images below of our K students embodying the alphabet as one example of this and look for an example of the Wonders program at Language Arts Night on November 8.

I cannot wait to see what else this curriculum offers our students and what our students bring to the curriculum. Whatever it will be, I am sure it will be full of “wonders.”

Warmly,

Lauren