When Fox Chapel Area School District students return to school on Aug. 29, there will be new classes to look forward to.
• An elementary STEAM curriculum will engage students in reading, scientific writing, purpose-driven inquiry and digital fabrication.
• High School students built a mobile Fab Lab in a tiny house in the spring of 2017. It will be taken to all four district elementary schools and to other districts where students would otherwise not have access to hands-on science.
The building was made available through a grant from the Pittsburgh-based Grable Foundation and a partnership with 84 Lumber Tiny Living.
• The elementary schools will have a new English Language Arts curriculum based upon the text series “Journeys” by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The program offers curricular resources aligned to the PA Core State Standards.
Students will be encouraged to use critical thinking skills, analyze complex text and write in response to text sources.
• The seventh grade English Language Arts and reading departments will combine into a new Literacy 7 curriculum taught in a 90-minute block. This will allow for greater depth and rigor, district coordinator of communications Bonnie Berzonski said.
• Eighth grade English Language Arts students will have a new curriculum based upon the text series “Collections” by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Students will be doing more in-depth analysis of texts which is expected to promote more rigorous literary skills.
• The ninth grade English Elements course will be a year-long course, as opposed to semester-long, which will enable students to experience more in-depth learning.
Tawnya Panizzi is a staff writer for the Tribune-Review. Reach her at 412-782-2121, ext. 2, tpanizzi@tribweb.com or @tawnyatrib.
