Curriculum
The goal of Wildwood Secondary’s college preparatory curriculum is for students to develop the knowledge and skills that will allow them to be thoughtful learners and engaged citizens who use their minds well. To achieve this goal, the secondary program features a learner-centered curriculum that is:
- Integrated, hands-on, and project-based,
- Guided by Seven Habits of Mind and Heart that students use in every subject area,
- Connected to the real world, and
- Assessed in a narrative format.
The curriculum encompasses the core subjects of Humanities (language arts and social sciences), mathematics, science, second language, visual and performing arts, and physical education. Additionally, Wildwood’s curriculum includes an Advisory component, in which students develop interpersonal and leadership skills. The size of each class is deliberately small - the typical teacher to student ratio is 1 to 15.
In order to make learning relevant and meaningful, the curriculum is integrated - content from different subject areas is linked and organized around common themes so that students learn how different subject matters fit together and can make connections between subjects. A social science project might involve using a mathematical model to research data, or it could utilize the visual and performing arts to explore a historical period. Through interdisciplinary connections, students gain a deeper understanding of subject matter because they are using it in real contexts.
The curriculum features active rather than passive learning experiences. Subjects are taught in longer blocks of time so that students can apply what they are learning in class and teachers can act as coaches, not just as lecturers. The length of time for each subject is based on what will achieve effective student learning, rather than an eight-period-a-day system that does not allow the time for in-depth learning.
To instill in our students the habits that we believe will lead to their success as lifelong learners, Wildwood’s curriculum is organized around the school’s Seven Habits of Mind and Heart. In each subject area, students view their work and have their work assessed through the habits of perspective, evidence, connections, convention, service to the common good, collaboration, and ethical behavior.
For Wildwood graduates to be engaged citizens, it is important that they have opportunities to use in the real world what they have learned in school. Wildwood students have multiple opportunities to apply what they have learned in the classroom to meaningful real-life experiences through outdoor education, community involvement, and internship programs.
Students demonstrate their knowledge through projects, demonstrations, and presentations. Their work is assessed through a series of rubrics based on the school’s Seven Habits of Mind and Heart. In each subject area, students and their families receive narrative assessments that describe in detail how the student is meeting the program’s expectations. Student work is assessed on four levels: Exceeds Expectations, Meets Expectations, Approaches Expectations, and Does Not Meet Expectations. Three times a year, students, guided by their Advisor, lead a family conference in which they present their work to date, talk about their strengths and stretches, discuss their future goals, and plan the strategies they will use to achieve them.
Each Division has a number of portfolio requirements in each subject area that students must successfully complete in order to move on to the next Division. A student’s portfolio is a compilation of his or her best work, which demonstrates how he or she has grown as a learner. At the end of each Division, students must have fulfilled all the portfolio requirements for the Division and have successfully made a Gateway presentation of their work to a panel of faculty, administrators, family, and other students. This one-hour presentation gives students the opportunity to showcase and reflect upon their work and to demonstrate their ability to move on to the next Division or to graduate.
