Learning

At the high school level, the curriculum becomes more diversified with more student choice. Every student must meet the requirements established by the State of Iowa for graduation, but those requirements can be met by a variety of courses and in an order conducive to each student’s learning needs. Therefore, a freshman may enroll in a class that a junior is also taking. Our high school curriculum encourages students to synthesize knowledge and use insight and creativity to better understand the world in which they live. The choice of history classes might push students to investigate and compare/contrast political systems from around the world, the intricacies of our own government or the causes and effects of revolution and war, preparing them to be active and informed citizens of their communities. They use a variety of strategies for analyzing a question and communicating effectively through oral presentation, written essays and discussion.  

Our English curriculum allows a variety of group discussion and individual research/reflection. Students are encouraged to be self-motivated, starting tasks without prompting from the teacher. They build writing skills through all forms of composition (narrative, analysis, persuasive, informative, etc.) and skills of analysis of literature, actively seeking feedback from others in order to gain insights into their own thinking.

The science and math curricula encourage students to identify, formulate and solve problems using appropriate information and to apply critical thinking and analytical skills to solve scientific data sets. Additionally, they test hypotheses and draw inferences using quantitative analysis.  Since our high school classes are comprised of all levels 9th-12th, math tends to be individual or very small-group, based on the level and class choice. Our classroom learning experience is based on Bloom’s Taxonomy which includes knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation in an ascending order of cognitive complexity where evaluation represents the highest level. 

A list of our high school courses and requirements will be available here shortly.