Our Program
Our program is more than just academics. We teach the whole student, incorporating academics with life and social skills, sensory awareness and the arts. Our curriculum provides choices that are correlated with different learning styles, enabling all students to learn easily and effectively. By design, it helps students with different learning styles excel by giving them a structure that works in concert with them. We focus on the student's whole life, creating benchmarks for their achievement at school, home and in the community,
Lead teachers have master's degrees and extensive backgrounds in special education. Plus, each classroom has a licensed teaching assistant and a student-teacher ratio of 9:1 or less.TWLS is committed to whole learning, which creates an atmosphere of trust, acceptance, celebration, and success. Your child deserves nothing less.
Our Curriculum
Our curriculum is designed and adapted to meet the unique learning styles of each student. It is developed to maximize each child's innate intelligence and is supplemented with materials and activities to insure learning success and enjoyment. As an extension to the firm academic foundation that learners obtain, each student has the opportunity to celebrate their gifts and talents through our Specialists' programs in art, music and drama.
The teaching at TWLS is hands-on and multi-sensory, integrated and cross-curricular. Students are taught a variety of methods to demonstrate their knowledge and celebrate their strengths. All instruction is individualized and designed at each student's instructional level.
Academics
Reading
The foundation for our reading program is research based and follows the National Reading Panel's recommendation for best practice in teaching reading. We teach five areas of instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension.
We use the Sonday System, a systematic multi-sensory approach for reading (decoding) and spelling (encoding) words. It establishes a firm foundation of phonological awareness and phonemic skills.
Students receive direct instruction in reading comprehension by learning meta-cognitive coaching strategies to encourage student's individual thoughts, interpretations and questioning capabilities to foster understanding. Students also receive direct instruction in specific skills practice such as locating the main idea, predicting, inferences, etc.
Reading fluency and vocabulary development are guided by the teacher and independently practiced by the student using auditory and visual input and reinforcement.
Spelling
The Sonday System, again, is one of our spelling programs. Phonics instruction stresses equal importance on being able to both read and spell phonetic units and words. Additional materials may be used to reinforce skills and to assist with internalization and generalization of rules. High frequency writing words complete our spelling program. Students work through the list at their own instructional speed. The goal in spelling is the generalization of standard spelling in everyday writing.
Written Language
Written language is taught through many opportunities to write. We use Writing Skills as a frame for grammar, parts of speech, sentence and paragraph writing. Writing exercises are done in a variety of modalities from keyboarding to printing and cursive practice.
Math
Our math program focuses on basic operations, problem solving and real life applications. The foundation is life skills math and supplemented with print materials and hands-on manipulatives to reinforce skills. Real life applications will continue throughout the school day including the school store, cooking and planning for field trips using skills for time management, map reading and money.
Health
The health curriculum is created to insure confidence and knowledge in the areas of mind and body, smart choices, exercise, nutrition, safety and body awareness.
Science
Based on Science - Scott Foresman Publisher, our program is accessible and engaging and provides multiple opportunities for experiential learning. Life Science, Earth Science and Physical Science will be explored. Field trips and special projects may supplement learning.
Social Studies
Students will explore their community, country and world. They will develop a strong sense of their belonging and contributions to the world around them. Students will also explore current local and world events. Field trips and special projects may supplement learning.
Life Skills
We believe the ultimate goal for our students is to emerge as independent young adults with a solid understanding of their community. Students learn practical living skills and engage in learning opportunities in independent living, community involvement and career exploration. These experiences are integrated into many aspects of our curriculum and explored through community field trips.
We are developing ways to assist students following graduation by creating relationships with organizations such as Opportunity Partners. Opportunity Partners empowers people with developmental disabilities, brain injury, autism and other special needs to achieve greater independence by providing assistance in employment, housing and education. Through this partnership, we provide students with both the skills and the resources they need for independent living.
Mind/Body Focus
Teaching students sensory awareness is an important key in maximizing their learning potential. We teach our students the tools and vocabulary they need to regulate their own sensory needs and advocate for themselves.
Each day begins with yoga and cardiovascular workouts to get our minds and bodies ready for optimal learning. These physical activities create a sensory diet that increases self-regulation and improves physical fitness. The strategies learned through these activities become personal management tools for students to use in both their physical and mental health development.
Social Skills
We place a high priority on teaching and practicing social skills. This includes helping students better understand, accept, compensate and advocate for their own strengths and challenges. Our social skills program offers direct instruction in social skills development and practice through role play and daily interaction with peers and adults. Social skills learning is reinforced throughout the day across all content areas.
Computer Skills
Technology is now an everyday part of our lives. It is also a gateway to communication and information that's always evolving. To give our students an education that helps ready them for the world, we instruct them on how to make practical use of computers. TWLS provides education in computer skills through direct instruction in computer vocabulary and operating systems such as Windows XP. Students also learn keyboarding, word processing and how to navigate the Internet for research and studying purposes.
Each student has access to personal computers in school and all receive their own Dana by Alphasmart, a wireless, handheld computer with functions such as an address book, calendar and word processing, as well as other functions used frequently in daily life.
The Arts
Art
Art helps students find different outlets to express their individual strengths and gifts. They experience a variety of mediums while investigating the effects
of art on themselves and others. The goal is for students to develop a broad range of artistic skills and knowledge.
Drama
Drama is explored through a collaboration with Stages Theatre Company and culminates in a year-end showcase performance. Students use dramatic play and story-building as ways to enhance their imaginations and creativity and see the world from another point of view. Through drama they learn to integrate thinking and feeling, enhance their analytical and reasoning skills and ultimately gain self-confidence.
Music Therapy
Music therapy is provided through a partnership with MacPhail Center for Music. Our music therapist engages students in instrument playing, song writing, movement and singing. All of these activities promote social interaction, explore sensory stimulation, develop fine and gross motor skills, improve communication skills and teach musical concepts. Music serves as a tool to enhance how students think, reason and create, opening pathways to access higher-order thinking skills.
The Whole Learning School
5524 West 41st Street, St. Louis Park, MN 55416 (952) 345-2295