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Every Student Matters

Elementary Curriculum

Take some time to explore the elementary experiences in our schools. Below you will find (K-2) and (3-6) curriculum overviews. The navigational links under Important Links will provide you with important K-6 curriculum information.

  • South Street School & Tuttle Avenue School Curriculum Overview (Being Updated)
  • Dayton Avenue School and Eastport Elementary School Curriculum Overview (Being Updated)

 

Assessment

A variety of assessments are used to measure what students know and are able to do within specific disciplines and more broadly in foundational literacy and math skills at the elementary level in preparation for more advanced study at the secondary level. Assessment at the elementary level vary and include:

  • Diagnostic Assessment
  • Formative Assessment
  • Interim Assessment

The fact is that at the elementary level all assessments to a greater extent are formative, which means, “that the information from the assessment is used, during the instructional segment in which the assessment occurred, to adjust instruction with the intent of better meeting the needs of students assessed.” W. James Popham - Assessment Expert

Specific examples of assessments that students experience at the elementary level include:

 

Diagnostic Assessment

Diagnostic Assessment is a tool teachers can use to collect information about a student’s strengths and weaknesses in a skill area.

i-Ready: i-Ready is used as a universal assessment to identify students' grade-level performance. It provides teachers, administration, students and families with information to support a child’s growth in reading and math. The assessment is administered three times annually in the Fall/Winter/Spring. All three diagnostics measure a full year of grade-level standards.

F&P Benchmarking: Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System (BAS) is used to determine student’s independent and instructional reading levels, teachers are able to observe student reading behaviors one-on-one, engage in comprehension conversations that go beyond retelling, and make informed decisions that connect assessment to instruction. F&P Benchmarking is administered three times annually in the Fall/Winter/Spring.

 

Formative Assessment

Formative assessment is the most commonly used form of assessment and is defined by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) as a “planned, ongoing process used by all students and teachers during learning and teaching to elicit and use evidence of student learning to improve student understanding of intended disciplinary learning outcomes and support students to become self-directed learners.”

New York State Assessments in Reading and Mathematics Grades 3-6: The New York State Assessments in Reading and Mathematics at one time considered a High Stakes Assessment with scores on these exams used to determine student placement in Academic Intervention and Support (AIS) are now utilized as another form of formative assessment and important indicator of student strengths and areas identified for improvement that teachers can use to design instruction. The elementary state assessments are aligned with New York State Learning Standards and are designed to prepare students for the High Stakes Exit Assessments (Regents Exams) students take in high school. Furthermore, as a school we receive a wealth of information and sophisticated data we would be unable to generate locally to make instructional decisions. This data from state assessment scores is provided to us through the Easter Suffolk BOCES Assessment Reporting System (BARS).

 

Interim Assessment

These assessments take place over an extended period of instruction. These assessments tend to be more formal and include: written tests, extended essays, projects graded using a rubric. Interim Assessments can help teachers identify gaps in student understanding and provide data for teachers to address student gaps in knowledge and remediation during upcoming instruction and activities. Students participate in Reading and Writing Celebrations, hands-on experiments in Science 21 and Elevate Science and historical investigations in social studies using the Inquiry Design Model.