Curriculum and Assessment

Christ Lutheran Day School’s curriculum philosophy is based upon the following principles:

• Developmentally appropriate practices as established by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
• A focus on the whole child – to include development in the areas of literacy; sensory organization; motor activity; social-emotional development; and approached to learning.
• A belief that children develop through a developmental continuum, rather than accomplishing a particular skill set all at once.

Christ Lutheran Day School has created a curriculum that looks at each child’s individual needs and goals to help scaffold him/her to his/her fullest learning potential.  The foundation of our program is based on the Creative Curriculum.  We use this program as a framework to support the learning environment each teacher creates in the classroom.  This includes creating interest areas around the room, and a consistent schedule that meets the needs of the children.  The Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines are followed as well.

In addition to Creative Curriculum, we use the Learning Without Tears curriculum.  This multisensory, developmentally appropriate instruction helps to give our children all the tools they need to learn to express their thoughts, step by step, and eventually letter by letter.

Conscious Discipline is utilized as a foundation for our teachers to integrate social-emotional learning into our curriculum.  (See Discipline & Guidance section for more information)

CLDS students are continuously assessed on the continuum.  These assessments are designed to measure a child’s performance of a real or designed task or activity relevant to the desired learning. Performance observations are directly related to the child’s development and achievement.

We are utilizing the Teaching Strategies Gold system to assess and meet the individual goals of each child.  This allows teachers a set of developmentally appropriate and intentional goals to set forth for each child.  It also gives each teacher a valid assessment tool in order to see the progress each individual child is making throughout the school year.  The formal assessments are given at varied times throughout the year and include family feedback and collaboration.   The teachers use formal and informal assessments to guide their weekly lesson plans.  Teachers use daily observations, the Teaching Strategies Gold observation/documentation program, and individual weekly journals to keep track of each child’s progress throughout the year.