New Year, New Curriculum: Fay Faculty Develop New Tools and Resources

Fay faculty members who received Curriculum Innovation Grants last spring were hard at work over the summer developing coursework and texts to enrich the academic program.

 

Eighth graders are taking a new course, Modern World Cultures, that continues the linear progression of the Upper School history curriculum that begins with the study of Ancient World Cultures in seventh grade. Over the summer, History Department Chair John Beloff, History Teacher Emily McCauley, and English Teacher Abriana Mayer developed the curriculum for this course that focuses on modern independence movements and the creation of post-colonial political and legal institutions with a focus on Ireland, South Africa, and Palestine, among others. The bulk of the course will focus on the challenging process of state-building, with particular emphasis on systems of justice, government structure, and the cultural influences driving those decisions.

 

The English Department has a new resource for teachers and students created by English teachers Rich Roberts and Abriana Mayer and Director of Alumni and International Relations and former English Department Chair Paul Abeln. The handbook, entitled Tools of the Trade, provides resources for teachers and students to use as they tackle common themes across literary genres such as a common vernacular for literary text analysis and graphic organizers that students can use when first approaching a new text.

 

Design Teachers Andrew Shirley and Lisa Sanderson created a design curriculum and an implementation plan for that curriculum in Kindergarten through grade six. Andrew and Lisa created multiple projects in each grade that build upon skills learned in previous years. This plan ensures that students have a strong foundation in design thinking and design skills from the earliest grades that students will continue to build upon as they progress through Fay and into the Upper School.