SOAR Academy uses the Rae Schaper Literacy Curriculum: Read It Once, Read It Twice, Read It Once Again. This curriculum touches all domains of learning (language, cognitive, motor, self-help, socialization, music and rhythm). Incorporated into this curriculum is the use of Mother Goose rhymes.
SOAR uses Edmark Reading Program which is a sight word reading approach. This program is taught individually at the student's pace. The lessons are reinforced with computer activities that come with the curriculum. Children with special needs learn differently from their typical peers. For many children who never master beginning reading and language a carefully sequenced, highly repetitive sight word approach offers the highest probability of success. The Edmark reading program is such an approach. It teaches frequently used words using a highly structured word recognition method. Vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency skills are developed through this approach.
SOAR supplements its reading program with Rigby which is a literacy program that has provided innovative and effective learning solutions in primary education for seventy years that meets the need of each individual student. This comprehensive research-based literacy program is proven to help teachers provide effective instruction and generate results. It helps students develop skills and strategies in guided reading, shared reading, phonics, phonemic awareness, word structure and writing.
We also use TouchMath, a multi-sensory teaching approach that bridges manipulation and memorization. The program is designed to ensure all students succeed at the concrete level of development and then progress through the pictorial level at their own pace. After these basic learning needs are met, when higher levels of concrete thinking develop more easily, TouchMath launches students into symbolic math learning.
Micah works on Edmark Reading in the computer lab.
Grace works on TouchMath.
Other curriculum areas include science, social studies and the arts. SOAR Academy welcomes local performing artists each month in addition to our regular classroom activities. We also have a Christian music program which students may elect to take.
All therapy disciplines and curriculums are integrated at SOAR Academy. Therapists and teachers work together to incorporate therapy into the classroom setting and curriculum based objectives into therapy sessions. Integration provides for a more cohesive treatment and educational plan for each student. Parents, therapists and teachers work closely together at SOAR Academy utilizing a team approach to produce an optimum environment for student achievement. Integrated therapy and early intervention for children with special needs are the essential elements to our program's proven success.
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