At IDEAL, we are preparing informed Global Citizens through engaging and diverse activities and discussions, that deepen understanding of topics, and their impacts. By emphasizing critical thinking, students connect ideas across disciplines. Our adaptable curriculum builds on students’ prior knowledge, using carefully vetted professional resources aligned with best practices in gifted education.
Grouping
Due to the distinctive nature of our students’ learning requirements, we forgo traditional age-based grade-level groupings. Instead, we design our courses and class groups based on students’ readiness.
Assessments
We use pre-assessments, formative assessments, and project-based post-assessments to gauge and guide student progress. Pre-assessments identify prior knowledge for tailored instruction, formative assessments adjust ongoing learning, and post-assessments demonstrate cumulative skills. Our diverse formats—writing, images, presentations, problems, and projects—showcase depth of understanding and curriculum application.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
Our ELA program develops critical reading, writing, and analytical skills through diverse literature, personalized instruction, and comprehensive writing activities. Students are grouped by reading levels for tailored learning, and technology enables customized assignments to match their interests and needs.
Diverse Literature
We offer fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, allowing students to work on shared or individual texts sourced from various platforms.
Comprehensive Writing
Students explore creative, narrative, expository, persuasive, and descriptive genres, with integrated grammar, spelling, vocabulary, and handwriting instruction.
Our goal is to foster a rich, engaging environment that supports growth and a love for language arts.
MATHEMATICS
Mathematics is more than numbers; it’s about understanding their principles, processes, and applications. Our math program ensures students work at appropriate levels, explore multiple solution paths, and grasp key concepts.
- Pre-Algebra: Understanding Pre-Algebra and Mathematical Reasoning by The Critical Thinking Company.
- Levels 1–5: Singapore Math Primary U.S. Edition, a rigorous system from the Singapore Ministry of Education.
- Algebra: Understanding Algebra 1.
- Geometry: Understanding Geometry.
We enhance learning with manipulatives and supplementary materials, fostering engagement and enrichment. Our approach builds a strong, well-rounded foundation in math for academic success and real-world applications.
Science
At IDEAL, our science curriculum reflects professional methodologies, tailored to students’ readiness and developmental stages. Through hands-on experiments and the scientific method, students explore Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Earth Science, Computer Science, and Engineering on a three-year cycle. Key Focus Areas
- Physics & Engineering: Annual integration with mechanical, electrical, and other projects.
- Computer Science: Self-paced software learning with programs like code.org and Code Combat and hardware with MicroBit.
- Biology: Topics include humans, animals, and plants.
- Earth Science: Geology, ecology, and astronomy.
- Chemistry (Fall 2024 focus): Elements, states of matter, conservation of matter, chemical changes, and real-world applications.
Our interactive approach fosters curiosity and deepens students’ understanding of scientific principles.
Social Studies
Our program develops broad perspectives and essential skills, covering history, culture, civics, and geography. Students learn logical discernment, ethics, and analysis using multiple resources, including primary documents, while considering diverse viewpoints.
The curriculum balances U.S. and world history, with earlier years focusing on American history and geography and upper levels exploring world history and its modern connections. Resources include:
U.S. History: utilizes The Core Knowledge Foundation, Carson Dellosa workbooks, and Evan-Moor’s History Pockets.
World History: uses The Story of the World series by Dr. Susan Wise Bauer.
We enrich learning with primary sources, historical fiction, biographies, arts, and multimedia tools. Activities like map work, timelines, projects, and discussions emphasize critical thinking and help students connect historical events to current issues, fostering curiosity and preparing them as informed global citizens
Soft Skills:
In today’s fast-paced world, human skills that span subjects, cultures, and systems are essential. This class equips gifted and twice-exceptional students with the tools they need to thrive socially, emotionally, and academically. It fosters independence, deep learning, creativity, flexible thinking, critical analysis, and organization.
Gifted and twice-exceptional students often face unique challenges, grappling with unprecedented issues while being highly sensitive and sometimes overwhelmed. This class provides a supportive space to help them navigate complexity and develop self-awareness, understanding of others, and broader perspectives.
Through enjoyable activities, students will explore intrapersonal skills, growth mindset, organization, creative problem-solving, logic, community, family, ethics, leadership, communication, and empathy. They will build connections, make friends, and strengthen crucial social, emotional, and practical skills.
House Meetings:
House Meetings are a place to be yourself. They build peer connections and support. Students find common interests build trust, learn tolerance, collaborate, and develop group accountability. They help create a sense of belonging by encouraging each other, including new students, and they motivate through choices of activities in a supportive and collaborative environment
Foreign Language
Our Foreign Language curriculum offers students a rich and diverse linguistic education. For Latin, we use the “Latin for Children” series from Classical Learning Press, which provides a structured approach to learning Latin grammar and vocabulary, fostering a deep understanding of the language and its historical significance.
In Spanish, we employ a comprehensive program that combines multiple resources that focus on communication and the structure of the language. We use “QTalk’s” Spanish program, which emphasizes natural speaking and conversational skills, helping students to use Spanish fluently in everyday situations, and “Flangoo,” a student-centered program for reading. This approach ensures that students not only understand the rules of the language but can also read and communicate effectively.
Visual Art
Our Visual Art program follows Victor Lowenfeld’s developmental approach, nurturing artistic growth at every stage. Students learn the Elements of Art (line, shape, form, space, color, value, texture) and Principles of Design (balance, contrast, emphasis, movement, pattern, rhythm, unity) through cohesive, developmentally appropriate units.
Using the Art in Action series and the instructor’s 40+ years of experience, we provide high-quality art education at no extra cost. Students build technical skills, creativity, critical thinking, and hand-eye coordination, fostering confidence and a lifelong appreciation for the arts.