Curriculum Overview

Carmel Academy strives to provide rich, rigorous, and meaningful learning opportunities that foster thinking and action far beyond the classroom walls. Across all general studies and Judaic studies learning, our students explore concepts and master skills. Each unit of study is carefully designed based on the Understanding by Design model of Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, a curriculum methodology Carmel Academy has been using since 2003. Our teachers design and implement these units of study by first identifying the desired results and then "working backwards" to develop instruction. Whether planning a unit of study in a specific grade, an Upper School field trip, a school wide celebration or a 45-minute lesson — be it in math, social studies, TaNaKh (Bible) or Hebrew — we begin the planning by asking ourselves three questions:

Learning in each subject area is broken into 4 or 5 units of study per year. Each unit is driven by essential questions that entice students to explore beyond the specific details of the unit or lesson being taught. Questions such as, “How does learning about other cultures teach me about myself?”, engage our students to think, consider, and evaluate the world around them in light of their new understandings and skills.

 

At Carmel Academy, we are sensitive to the fact that students learn best through different modalities and at different paces. We honor students’ diverse learning needs and processes. By providing a range of instructional methods that ensure that all students learn the necessary skills and concepts, each child develops a growing awareness of who they are as learners and how they learn best.