First Program
Philosophy
The learning philosophy of First Program is one of developing proficiency over a diverse group of international standards to prepare students for Middle and Upper School. While students are guided through a range of content topics and essential skills, we promote a growth mindset with our application of Standards Based Grading. With a Growth Mindset, students are encouraged to take risks with learning and develop confidence of the learning targets at their own pace. With this style of learning, students become much more focused on learning for the sake of learning. First Program
Curriculum
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Though English is our primary language of instruction, students take daily classes in Chinese.
Students in grades 1-5 have a diverse and well-rounded curriculum.
- ◆ Core Curriculum
- English Language Arts
- Mathematics
- Science
- Social Studies/Social Sciences
- ◆ Enriched Curriculum
- Chinese
- Computer Science
- Fine and Performing Arts
- Physical and Health Education
- We also help students to build positive working habits, organizational skills, and social-emotional learning throughout the program. We provide feedback to parents on these aspects of school through the behavior and work habits section in our growth reports that are released every quarter.
External Assessments
As a method to measure student growth and achievement, we utilize various external assessments.
NWEA MAP – grades 1-5
WIDA – grades 1-5
