The Urban Assembly Unison School uses an innovative curriculum called Learning Cultures developed by NYU professor Cynthia McCallister.
What is Learning Cultures?
Learning Cultures is a comprehensive curriculum based on the idea that children meet or exceed their potential depending on the resources provided by their culture. The Learning Cultures curriculum is designed to provide every teacher with the supports necessary to create rich classroom cultures that allow all children to rise to their fullest potential.
Learning Cultures is founded on three principles:
- Every child can reach high learning standards when their classroom culture provides adequate experiences and resources
- Children are most successful when they are held responsible for their own learning and have autonomy to pursue their interests
- Social interactions are fundamental to learning
Learning Cultures consists of a simple, yet comprehensive set of classroom practices called Formats. On the surface, Formats look like familiar classroom practices—lessons, small group work, individual conferences, independent work time and group meetings—but these elements are redesigned to incorporate key insights from fields across the behavioral sciences in order to maximize student engagement, autonomy, responsibility and learning.
When the Formats are followed consistently and with fidelity, students of all backgrounds and levels can achieve academic success. Learning Cultures allows teachers of every grade level and subject area to create classroom cultures characterized by student independence, motivation, high achievement, cooperation, and distributed leadership.
For more information, see www.learningcultures.net
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