Our Curriculum

Students receive one-on-one reading instruction where they are cued to employ taught decoding and comprehension strategies. Skill-building in vocabulary, fluency, sentence structure, clarification, retelling and summarization receive special attention during this concentrated reading session. During Language and Literature instruction the Story Grammar Marker® narrative maps and ThemeMaker® expository graphic organizers facilitate the students’ comprehension and organization of stories and content area information with lessons created in accordance with the Massachusetts Frameworks for English/Language Arts Common Core State Standards. Student proficiency in information gathering, concept development, and hands-on practical application of knowledge is the focus of science and social studies areas instruction utilizing reciprocal teaching and the Story Grammar Marker® and ThemeMaker® graphic organizers. The math curriculum encompasses the skills, concepts and processes involved in gaining an in-depth understanding of mathematics via word problems, manipulatives, mental imagery and graphic organizers. Because many language learning disabled students encounter difficulties with retrieval, memory, and retention, teacher-made materials and study guides offer consistent review and re-teaching of difficult concepts as well as reinforcement.

The Social Thinking® curriculum instructs students in the unwritten social expectancies necessary for class and peer interactions and is designed to facilitate thinking strategies that must occur prior to social interactions. Students are educated how their behavior affects the way others perceive and respond to them and how this affects their own emotions and responses to others. Additionally, students have access to a School Clinician focusing on skills for social development with an emphasis on transferring and generalizing these skills to other environments. Finally, students participate in several extra-curricular activities including art, music, sewing, physical education, swimming, agriculture and biking. These settings allow students the opportunity to transfer social skills in a group environment while fostering artistic skills and cooperation.