Third - Fifth Grade

Helping a child reach their full potential in school begins with a solid foundation in reading and writing. Without this, every other task is made more difficult. Traditionally, students in grades 1-3 focus on learning to read, while students in grades 4-5 focus more on reading to learn. The Reading/Language Arts path helps students grow in their confidence as readers by focusing on strategies to improve reading comprehension with the rewards program. Carrying forward the Sonday curriculum used in first and second grade, students are given individual attention to their particular needs. This path also equips them with the tools they need to express themselves in writing with proper grammar using the Step Up to Writing program. Our students leave the regular classroom during reading and writing to go to the Pathways classroom and are taught in small groups, allowing the teacher to focus on individual strengths and weaknesses.

Fourth and fifth grade students are in the intermediate grades, which simply means they change classes and teachers throughout the day. For students in these grades, we offer three different paths: Executive Function, Reading/Language Arts, and Math. All classes are limited to 6 students to maximize individual attention to specific needs.

Many students who experience difficulty in school suffer from some degree of poor organization, ineffective study habits, or low executive functioning. Broadly speaking, “student skills” is a set of strategies all students need to organize themselves and their work. Without these, even the brightest students can struggle to be successful. These skills must be taught and reinforced over long periods of time before they become habitual. The Executive Function path teaches students how to get their “school life” together, so they can truly discover what they are capable of achieving. In addition to basic organizational and time management skills, students who struggle with executive functioning skills usually have difficulty with working memory, task initiation, flexible thinking, and self-control. Commonly, these same executive function weaknesses are often found in students with ADHD. This class will focus on improving all of these skills, which will benefit students across the curriculum. Students in grades 4-5 visit Executive Function four days a week, in place of their world language and library classes. 

The Math path offers students the opportunity to reach their full potential by reducing their math anxiety and building the confidence they need to move forward in the math curriculum. The content of the class remains relatively the same as others in the same grade, but the design of the class is fundamentally different. The content is individualized to your child’s specific learning needs. Students use the Sadlier math program in order to focus on math vocabulary and more traditional problem solving skills. Our students leave the regular classroom during math to go to the Pathways classroom to receive instruction in a smaller setting. 

Students new to MBCA and the Pathways program must have a current private psycho-educational evaluation to ensure proper placement.