The Betsy Ross Arts Magnet (BRAMS) is a middle school that draws its population from two separate pools: first, through a lottery system which brings in students from the entire city and, secondly, neighborhood (local) students. BRAMS is considered the neighborhood middle school. The students attending are not required to be gifted in the arts, but must express an interest in the field. Admittance is not predicated on any specific academic criteria. As a result students who attend BRAMS are from every part of the city, from various socioeconomic backgrounds, and have a wide range of academic abilities.
My current assignment is teaching Language Arts and Social Studies to fifth and sixth grade students who function at the lower end of the developmental range. Their problems can range from low academic performance to specific learning disabilities (LD) to language deficits. Frequently children are identified in their early years as having a learning disability when in fact they are simply developing and maturing normally, but at a slower rate than the average child. This has little to do with their intelligence or abilities, but rather with their own inner time clock.
Generally speaking we all learn differently, based on our strengths and weaknesses; any curriculum should allow for differences whether problems exist or not. To allow for learning problems and developmental differences, curriculum design needs to be flexible and compensatory. The subject matter being taught should be presented in such a way as to engage all of each child’s senses while allowing for developmental differences.
The design of this unit will utilize an interdisciplinary approach. Students will be expected to develop and use written and verbal skills, improve motor skills, increase levels of awareness, sharpen visual discriminatory skills, increase vocabulary, employ problem solving techniques, implement skills learned in the arts component, and begin to develop an appreciation for the esthetics of architecture.
