The main thrust of the educational program of Pinellas Primary Academy will be to engage the multiple intelligences that students possess and to allow them to work cooperatively and collaboratively with their peers to master content. We believe strongly in the ideals of Project Based Learning. is our belief that learning needs to be authentic and integrated for students to truly understand and ingrain the lessons taught into their everyday lives.

Take for example reading, EJ EJ Hirsch (2010), an educational researcher, wrote that “to be fully literate is to have the communicative powers of language at your command--to read, write, listen and speak with understanding,” but he breaks the process of reading into two distinct parts: decoding and comprehension.  Today, in traditional schools much of a primary student’s instruction focuses almost exclusively on the decoding. In order to comprehend the text, students need to have prior knowledge to tie their reading to in order to make sense of the text. We believe by tying together all instructional areas through the use of Project Based Learning, PPA students will see a purpose for their reading and they will be able to build a more significant base of background knowledge, which will enable them to be more successful with their reading and truly succeed in all communicative tasks.

Over the course of the next few months, we will be examining various curricular materials and textbook packages to determine which set of materials will best fit with the Project Based Learning focus of the school.  While doing so we will also try to find continuity between what students use at PPA, Jr. as well as Pinellas Preparatory Academy. Listed below are the curricular packages currently utilized at PPA.

Once the materials are selected, and during the planning period before school starts will be developing the project based themes, and correlations between the standards and content to be taught. If you would like to view our initial drafts of the correlations, you may click here to view the draft submitted as part of our charter application. To learn more about the process that will be used to develop our lessons and projects, please visit our process page. 

Language Arts

Our initial plan is to utilize the Macmilliam/McGraw-Hill Treasures series, which is the same curricular material package used by Pinellas County Schools. We have found it helpful to try to follow the same series as the district in regard to Language Arts, due to the wealth of materials we then can access from the district (i.e. trainings, teacher created materials, etc.). While we will utilize the materials and curriculum provided by the publisher, we will be rearranging the stories into themes that are more integrated with the interdisciplinary, Project Based Learning model we will be using at PPA, Jr. Please see Table 3 for an example of how the curriculum might be rearranged. Stories will be interwoven into the instruction during the project portions of the day, and the supporting lessons that go along with the units (such as the word study skills, fluency instruction, oral language, shared reading and reading/writing workshops) will be included as mini lessons to be used to support and enhance the work students are completing as part of their overall projects. The research listed in the bibliography supports that by infusing literature instruction into more real world scenarios, students will be more engaged in and retain their instruction more effectively.

In addition to the materials provided by the Treasures series, we plan to ensure our teachers have training in the utilization of the “6+1 Trait® Writing” program as has been developed by Education Northwest. This program breaks writing into six (plus one) components as a way of teaching and evaluating student writing:

• Ideas (the main message);
• Organization (the internal structure of the piece);
• Voice (the personal tone and flavor of the author’s message);
• Word Choice (the vocabulary a writer chooses to convey meaning);
• Sentence Fluency (the rhythm and flow of the language);
• Conventions (the mechanical correctness);
• and Presentation (how the writing actually looks on the page)

Math

Our initial plan is to utilize the Saxon Math series, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. We have utilized this series at PPA for the last 5 years with extremely positive results. Unlike traditional math series, Saxon is designed in a way that is extremely repetitive and cyclical ensuring students are frequently reintroduced to and practice the math skills as they cycle through their math training. Math skills will be integrated into the project based learning, but a separate time will be given to math instruction, as many of the math skills required in the primary years are primary skills and as such, are unable to be built into the project based schedule. However, certain projects will lend themselves to some of the tasks highlighted in the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards more than others. For example, in Table 3 you will see that in the first grade project/theme “Community Helpers” we intend to focus more heavily on the math skills of currency, while during the theme of “Mapping” we intend to focus on measurements, units of measuring and comparing/order items based on measurement. 

Social Studies

Too often in the reality of high stakes testing, the Humanities and Arts are neglected in schools today. Often times parents coming to us from other schools have complained to us that their students haven’t had Science or Social Studies lessons until the last few weeks of school; after the FCAT has been completed. We maintain that instruction should be based on more than just basic skills; it should be founded in the roots of essential and real life knowledge and feel much of this comes from the areas that are so often dropped from the curriculum. As a result, Social Studies and Science instruction will be an instrumental part of the academic program at PPA, Jr. and will be the driving force behind many of the project based themes that the school will utilize. Initially, we intend to use two curricular material sets for Social Studies. Most students will utilize the History Alive series, published by TCI. The History Alive series offers a great deal of hands on experiences, actively engaging students in simulating what they are studying. One downfall of the TCI materials is that they do not have a specific Florida Studies textbook for fourth graders. As a result, we like the Houghton Mifflin Florida Studies Fourth Grade textbook to help our fourth graders learn more about Florida history, as aligned to the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards.

Science

The science program we intend to initially use is the Scott Foresman Science series published by Pearson. This program offers many opportunities for students to participate in hands on experiences related to the subjects they are studying. The program aligns well with the Sunshine State Standards, and is also the program used at both PPA and the Pinellas County School Board. The actual sequence of the instruction will be modified to incorporate the project based themes being used within the school. Scientific inquiry and the science standards will be heavily infused into the project designs to ensure students are meeting the required standards.