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Multi-Grade ClassroomsWhat Park View Does:Park View School features multi-grade classrooms. For example, a child may operate at a second grade level in reading and a third grade level in mathematics. A multi-grade classroom accommodates unique learning levels. Why Park View Does It:Educators estimate that whenever a teacher in a single-grade classroom introduces a new topic, there are really three audiences. About one third of her students already know the topic. Another third are not ready to master it. As a result, two thirds of the students in a single grade classroom are marking time. A multi-grade classroom stimulates and supports individual students with spontaneity and respect. An Environment For LearningPark View Lutheran School typically has six children per adult faculty and staff. This ratio has many positive consequences. Attitudes of adults shine through. Our faculty and staff share their love of the intellectual life, their respect for each other, and their zest for a new day. The students observe and come to share their task-orientation, their inter-dependence, their self-discipline and their deep commitment to life well and fully lived. Each child's talents, learning style and individual needs come into direct focus. We can offer all the benefits of multi-age classrooms because our class sizes are small and naturally cohesive. We tailor instruction to each individual child. Before and After School CareWhat Park View Does:Park View School offers care for your child from 7 AM to 6 PM. In the morning before school begins at 8:15, children meet in the pre-school room, where they can study, use the computers or play together quietly. If a child wants study help, we are happy to provide it! In the afternoon, children who are not picked up in front of school by 3:20 go to After School in the gymnasium. They snack, do homework and then are free to play together. Again, any child who wants study help will receive it! Close ties form in a small school. Almost all our students actively enjoy the opportunity to spend more free time with their friends. Private piano lessons and drawing class also occur in this time slot after school. The completely optional Confirmation Program for Upper Grades children occurs on site, after school as well. The charge for care before and after school is $4 per hour or portion thereof. State reimbursement of after school costs may be available. Preschool students receive this care as part of tuition. Why Park View Does It:We appreciate the sacrifice that families make to provide the best education for their children. We are privileged to do our share. Our After School program provides an opportunity for a nutritious snack, informal tutoring, and wholesome, supervised fun. Families who choose to enroll their children in piano or drawing lessons find the time and place to be a convenience. We make Confirmation class convenient as well. LibraryWhat Park View Does:We have 5,000 volumes for children located in the Church's Fretheim Room. Every student visits this cozy, carpeted space once a week, to read and check out books. The Library is managed and maintained by members of the Park View Lutheran Church community. Books are loaned for one week. Fines are imposed for late returns. Our goal is to stimulate a love of reading, and also a sense of responsibility and self-discipline. Why Park View Does It:Our students tend to reach beyond the scope of our library in the middle grades. When questions and interest levels permit, our students visit the Independence Branch of the Chicago Public Library, a block and a half away. There students order books, audio, video and other material drawn from the entire Chicago Public Library collection. Click here to visit the Chicago Public Library web site. A child's specific interest may require that the child accompany an older class to visit the public library. We try not to waste anything, but especially we cherish a child's academic interest. FencingWhat Park View Does:Fencing teaches each child balance, posture, anticipation, strategy and sportsmanship. Upper-leg muscle development is extraordinary. Fencing is also very aerobic, helping pre-adolescents and adolescents channel their enormous energy in direct and positive ways. Children also learn to observe and appreciate the contribution of safety precautions. At one physical education class a week, students in grades five through eight study Fencing. Park View's teacher leads the Chicago Fencing Club (www.chicagofencingclub.com) and has trained and prepared four Olympic medal winners. Ms. Diana Unger is vigorous in enforcing safety rules. Younger children focus on footwork and balance exercises. Older children use foils to practice and bout. Why Park View Does It:We selected Fencing as our focus sport for several reasons. First, only one child in 13,000 will ever cash a paycheck from professional sports. Also, team sports necessarily give most attention to the strongest players in a group. We believe every child needs to know balance, posture, anticipation, strategy and sportsmanship. Fencing serves each student in a direct and immediate way. Second, Fencing offers excellent exercise. It stimulates general muscle tone. It is also very aerobic! Third, we can offer Fencing in our gymnasium every week of the year without distorting the academic day. Finally, we discovered that Fencing is a fully recognized NCAA Sport. Accordingly, full four-year scholarships are available from many NCAA colleges and universities. Because Fencing does not receive great emphasis as a sport, many of these opportunities go begging. A child need not compete against 13,000 other Fencers in order to qualify for a full scholarship. For a full list of colleges and universities that offer four year scholarships for Fencing, please see the NCAA web site. Field TripsWhat Park View Does:We schedule field trips about once a month. Typically these trips are an extension of classroom study, enriching theory with hands on experience. During the past years, we have visited the following education attractions:
Furthermore, we sometimes go together to fun places. For example, we can't spend Christmas together, so the entire school visits Winterfest at Navy Pier. Why Park View Does It:Children think in concrete terms. A classroom is a small and confined place. The classroom experience is greatly enriched by tangible contact with the physical demonstration of an idea. A child's deeper understanding of a concept develops intellectual satisfaction and genuine self confidence. That confidence supports the exploration of new concepts. We take as many field trips as our curriculum warrants. MusicWhat Park View Does:Our students have three full periods a week. Classroom work focuses on music theory, history, production and performance. Our children use Orff instruments, hand bells and percussion instruments and also sing. In addition, our upper grades students learn to play the guitar. Piano lessons for all ages are available on site, after school, once a week for an additional charge. Families need independent access to a keyboard. The Music Department of the School produces two full-scale performances a year: a Christmas Program and a Spring Musical. Each child in the school has a speaking and singing part. The Church Music Director offers vocal instruction after school as part of a Cherub Choir. The choir, open to children pre-K through fifth grade, prepares and presents a song during Sunday worship each month. Why Park View Does It:Educators agree that music is audible mathematics. It is also the language of human emotion: hospital patients recover more quickly and more completely when they hear live music. Our culture encourages young people to consume recorded music as a passive and individual pleasure. In contrast, Park View sees its music curriculum as an active personal discipline that stimulates muscular memory, self-control, mastery of another language, individual expression and deep satisfaction. Our students have constant opportunities to perform during Chapel and Sunday morning worship. This gives them self assurance and poise. At all ages, the production of live music offers children a wholesome focus for self expression, team work, and self discipline. As children enter their teen age years, producing music with their friends is a safe and healthy alternative to other uses of time. We do all we can to prepare your child for the opportunities and hazards that our contemporary culture poses to teens. American Sign LanguageWhat Park View Does:Each week for forty-five minutes, all students in grades Kindergarten to Fourth study American Sign Language. Why Park View Does It:An estimated 22 million Americans are deaf, and another 12 million are hearing-impaired. Deaf people consciously share a 'deaf world', a unique culture within the larger American context. While many non-English speakers live in America, their children learn English and enter the larger culture in natural ways. This integration doesn't happen among families with genetic deafness. We want Park View students to be able to bridge this intergenerational cultural division. We chose to offer American Sign Language in solidarity with and as outreach to a respected minority. Sign language has its own linguistics, quite different from English tenses, cases and word order. As our students learn to sign, they recognize that a new grammar is at work. Their mastery of English communication arts is enriched by exposure to a foreign language. Our students take responsibility for communicating their ideas in a diverse and complex world. They take pride in knowing they can communicate in a language other than English. They enjoy signing to each other during noisy lunch periods. Their mastery of English is deepened by their knowledge of signing. Ballroom DanceWhat Park View Does:At one physical education class a week, students in kindergarten through fourth grade study dance. Ballroom dance teaches balance and rhythm, poise and partnership. It is also quite aerobic! Students and faculty walk together to the Chicago Dance Studio one block from our school (www.chicagodance.com). Students (and accompanying faculty) have learned the Meringue, the Fox Trot, Swing, and the Rumba, as well as the Electric Slide. The children gave a demonstration to their parents after worship on School Sunday in May. Students tell us they do all they can not to be absent on Dance Class Day. Why Park View Does It:Dance stimulates fitness, poise, coordination and self confidence. Once the children get over their giggles, boys and girls work together to master steps and timing. Often children who excel in no other physical activity are the best dancers in the group. Teachers and children learn together in an energetic and friendly atmosphere. |
