Common Core Curriculum

Capitol Collegiate’ s English Language Arts program aligns with the three primary shifts required by the Common Core State Standards.

1. Complexity: Practice regularly with complex text and its academic language
2. Evidence: Ground reading, writing, and speaking in evidence from text, both literary and informational.
3. Knowledge: Build knowledge through content-rich nonfiction

Teachers utilize, and are extensively trained and supported to implement, Capitol Collegiate’s core curriculum, Wit & Wisdom.  The curriculum’s approach is integrated and text-based – daily reading, writing, speaking, listening, grammar, and vocabulary study is based on—and draws on evidence from—engaging and complex texts. Wit & Wisdom is an integrated approach to mastering all English-Language Arts standards: students engage in writing tasks throughout each module that require them to incorporate language standards and skills with reading standards within each of the genres of writing. Speaking standards are incorporated to support both writing and knowledge building by engaging scholars in collaborative practices such as Socratic Seminars prior to each major writing assessment. 

Early Reading Instruction

Capitol Collegiate’s systematic early reading instruction focuses on securing foundational skills and building knowledge and vocabulary. In addition to the core language arts program, kindergarten through second grade scholars engage in 30-minutes of direct foundational skills instruction and 30-minutes of guided reading instruction daily. 

• Foundational Skills: K-2 teachers provide systematic, explicit foundational skills instruction that is crucial as students learn to read and write in English.  Structured foundational skills instruction in English moves the youngest scholars along a continuum of skills in four key areas: print concepts; phonological awareness; phonics and word recognition; and fluency.  Kindergarten through second grade teachers utilize the Reading Mastery curriculum and SIPPS curriculum as guides.
• Building Knowledge and Vocabulary: K-2 students engage in 30-minutes of small group Guided Reading instruction daily, using Geodes, a collection of accessible, knowledge-building books. Instruction on specific decoding strategies is coupled with content and vocabulary knowledge. Teachers plan standards-aligned questions, tasks, and activities that help students unpack the ideas of the text while drawing on their own knowledge and skills, strategies, and modes of co-constructing meaning.

As the ELA program is, Capitol Collegiate Academy’s mathematics program is aligned with the shifts in mathematics: 

1. Focus: strongly where the standards focus
2. Coherence: Think across grades and link to major topics within grades
3. Rigor: In major topics, pursue conceptual understanding, procedural skill and fluency, and application with equal intensity

Teachers utilize, and are extensively trained and supported to implement, Capitol Collegiate’s core curriculum, Eureka Math.  Eureka Math is coherent and focuses on key concepts that build over time, allowing students to gain a complete body of knowledge of math not just a discrete set of skills. The curriculum uses the same models and problem-solving methods from grades kindergarten through eight, and students in all grades use hands-on manipulatives to support conceptual understanding.

​Capitol Collegiate Academy’s 60-75 minute math block (depending on the grade-level) allows for additional time for small group, targeted math instruction and technology-enhanced review lessons (through Khan Academy, Reflex, or Zearn, for example). 

The Eureka Math curriculum addresses the Shifts for mathematics. 

• Greater focus on fewer topics.  
• Linking topics and thinking coherently across grades.  
• Pursue conceptual understanding, procedural skills and fluency, and application with equal intensity (rigor). 

Capitol Collegiate’s science program is aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards, with the Amplify Science curriculum at its center. Amplify is a phenomena-based program for grades K–8 that integrates the latest practices in science teaching and learning, as well as interactive digital tools and hands-on activities, to teach students how to think, read, write, and argue like real scientists and engineers.

Capitol Collegiate’s adopted history curriculum, Studies Weekly, is inquiry-based. Scholars investigative a content-specific question that they answer by deeply engaging in a variety of primary and secondary sources. Scholars use a variety of writing and reading strategies to pull details and facts from a variety of texts.  The curriculum aligns with the State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects, and offers virtual field trips and interactive maps, videos, and primary source material. 

Capitol Collegiate is committed to a comprehensive student education and provides a variety of enrichment courses.  

In our elementary (K-5) program, students take a different enrichment class each trimester: visual arts & music, drama, or computers. Each class culminates in the creation of a ‘capstone’ project – an art showcase, musical performance or play, or a computer-developed academic presentation, for example. 

Beginning in middle school, students select an elective course each trimester. Elective courses give students the opportunity to practice their core subject skills in addition to public speaking, critical thinking, and advancement in areas of interest. Electives offered in the 2022-23 school year included: Engineering; Animation; Book & Film; Sustainability & Green; Model UN; Computer Design; School Newspaper; and Gardening.

Physical Education
Capitol Collegiate’s Physical Education (“PE”) program uses the SPARK curriculum as its guide, with a focus on students developing a healthy lifestyle, motor skills, movement knowledge, and social & personal skills.  In their physical education courses students develop a variety of basic movement and manipulative skills which they use regularly in cooperative games and sports experiences. To help students seek out physical activity and practice skills, PE teachers lead optional games, activities, and sports for students during recess and afterschool.  As all Capitol Collegiate teachers do, PE teachers focus on students’ ability to get along with others, in this case in the movement environment (e.g., share space and equipment, be a good sport and demonstrate cooperative behavior).