FORT WORTH, TX – Trinity Valley School is a K-12 independent and innovative college preparatory school committed to providing their students with a broad liberal education in the arts and sciences. Luke Jacob, Dean of Learning and Curriculum, is working with teachers in the 2nd, 7th, and 9th grades to develop multi-disciplinary models of The Art of Learning, with an aim to continue to grow each year until the entire school is working with the learning principles.
In each grade, a small team of teachers applies a particular learning principle at the same time, using similar language and lesson structures in their different classrooms. That way, a given student (and his or her parents) encounters three or four iterations of the learning principle. Jacob explains, “This allows for both the consistency and flexibility of the curriculum model, and in a way that would help everyone to see just how similarly the processes of learning function across different fields of study”.
A wonderful example of this process is with the second grade team consisting of Leslie Garcia (classroom teacher), Karen Arrington (technology), and Melissa Black (visual arts). They have developed a unit of study around the principle of Making Smaller Circles. The students explore the concept within the framework of each discipline and then combine their new-found knowledge to create a class e-book. For a more detailed description of the second grade unit, please visit Karen Arrington’s blog or watch this video.
https://vimeo.com/95610910
You can also see wonderful examples of the teachers’ lessons, unit outlines, assignments and more in the elementary (Leslie Garcia) and middle school (Tina Harper) sections of our Educators and Coaches resource page.