CURRICULUM

FOUNDATIONAL FLUENCIES & DEEPER LEARNING CONCEPTS WHAT WILL WE TEACH AND LEARN AT TLS?

Our students will achieve foundational fluency in reading, writing, math, world languages, and computer programming.

They will also be exposed to deeper learning concepts in wellness, integrated arts, integrated science, civics, finance, global societies, economics, and statistics.
Learning and advancing through our curriculum will happen when each student will have 
fully mastered target objectives, concepts, and skills. In most schools, time spent learning is constant while the quality and level of content mastery varies. At TLS, the opposite is true: learning time is variable — but the quality and level of mastery for all students is constant.

Our mastery-based curriculum includes:

MIDDLE SCHOOL
Mathematics
Languages
Science
Entrepreneurship
Social Studies
Programming
OPTIONAL COURSES SKILL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM SPORTS PARENT FUNDED TRAINING COURSES
World Languages
Robotics
Carpentry
Art, design, and
Calligraphy
Basic Auto Mechanics
Basketball
Futsal
Table Tennis
Wall Climbing
Chess
Swimming
Shooting
Para Gliding
Horse Riding

Middle School Level 1 : first year

In Middle School, students will learn how to read for deeper meaning through collaborative discussion of a wide range of texts. Students may begin to understand themes and main ideas and will be able to identify different genres and structures. They will practice asking and answering questions to facilitate understanding and learn to support their arguments with evidence from the text. In addition, students will work on individualized term-long projects to develop their writing craft. They will learn style, organization, and content. Emphasis will be on continual revision and peer and mentor feedback not only fosters a growth mindset but provides an application-based avenue for students to learn grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

Middle School Level 2 : Second and Third Year

In Middle School, students will focus on how to:
Cite textual evidence to support inferences, conclusions, predictions, and generalizations.
Identify the theme or central idea of the text.
Explain how literary elements and devices contribute to the theme.
Provide objective summary of text distinguishing between objective details and subjective opinions.
Describe how characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.
Identify the stages of plot, including exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.
Determine the meaning of the words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings.
Analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone.
Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator in a text.

In Middle School, students will work toward personalized goals based on Tynker and Khan Academy. They will learn programming basics, build robots, and eventually progress to creating interactive webpages using jQuery. Game-based, self-paced tools will foster a passion for problem-solving in our students and build creative confidence.
In Middle and Upper School, students will develop solutions using their knowledge of programming. They will definitely set goals for personalized projects and use computing to strengthen their skills in inquiry, analysis, synthesis, diagnosis, innovation, reasoning, and managing complexity.

We would like to utilize Khan Academy Math for our self-paced math a this personalized, blended learning is supported by
small-group and one-on-one lessons with our STEM Content Specialists. 

“While the standards may be common, we know that students are not – they each will have their own learning journey. This is why we are committed to personalizing learning that lets students practice what they most need help on, at their own pace, at absolutely no cost.”–Sal Khan Academy has grade-level “missions” aligned to the National and CAIE curriculum. Each student has their own learning dashboard that uses state-of-the-art, adaptive software to identify gaps and show progress. Students also receive fun badges, energy points, and avatars along their grade-level “mission.”

Students, teachers, and parents are empowered with instant data to track students’ progress over time. Our Content Specialists are able to quickly identify which students need more one-on-one attention and which students are meeting their personal goals.

We value learning through investigation. Students will construct meaning by designing, conducting, and reflecting on scientific investigations. The scientific process, which encourages hands-on experience, inquiry, and critical thinking will enable students to make informed and responsible decisions, not only in science but also in other areas of life.

TLS students are going to be provided opportunities to work individually and with their peers to learn about science within and beyond the classroom. They will develop safe and responsible working habits in practical science. The knowledge, skills, and attitudes that students will develop in sciences courses provide a meaningful foundation for further study and help to prepare students for careers in academic and corporate research, as  laboratory assistants and managers, in scientific consultancy for a range of
companies and NGOs, in teaching, in fieldwork and journalism.

There will be few direct lessons as well.

Students have the option to attend parent-funded language options during Extended Day, such as Arabic, Mandarin/Chinese, French and Spanish. Our Foreign Language Content Specialists focus on teaching…
• Conversational and cooperative interactions, which come to life during the school day as skits, dialogues, and video communications.
• Foundations for understanding oral languages, such as nasheeds and tongue twisters.
• Foundations of literacy. Students read books, practice working with a dictionary, and learn grammatical structures and patterns.
• Cultural exposure and broadened perspective: our students will take field trips, host celebrations, cook, and makes arts and crafts relevant to the study of each language.
• They learn the value of speaking another language and spend time seeing the world.