QSI

Supporting our Students

Meeting the needs of English Language Learners, students with IEP’s and students scoring at Levels 1 and 2, as well as accelerating the learning of all of our students, are primary goals of the Queens School of Inquiry (QSI).  Several components will help us meet our goals:

1. Each student will have a Student Action Plan, analyzing that particular youngster’s academic strengths and weaknesses and providing a thoughtful action plan, designed collaboratively among the QSI staff, Queens College support staff, parents and the student herself.  The Student Action Plan will be updated regularly to evaluate progress and provide targeted interventions. QSI will help students become aware of their needs and their progress, encourage them that sustained and supported effort will create ability, and provide the resources and instruction necessary for individual success.  During the small group Advisory, students will work on monitoring their own personal academic goals, as well as on acquiring the mature social and emotional skills that will promote their geowth as thoughtful, caring adults.
2. Small class size, an emphasis on learning to think deeply and on taking personal responsibility,  and additional time for intensive literacy and Math instruction during the daily Inquiry period, extended school day and school year will allow teachers to incorporate specific, directed, scaffolded and strategic components to both support successful learning and to develop confident, independent learners.  The daily Inquiry period, based  on student interests and aligned with the QSI curriculum, will allow teachers to focus on strengthening student skills in an environment where school “matters”, where youngsters are engaged  in real world project-based learning.
3. The enrolment of students with disabilities and English Language Learners in QSI will reflect that of the local school district and will follow the NYC Department of Education’s procedures for transitions and supports.  Students with IEP’s  and ELL’s will be integrated into the general education classrooms where QSI teachers will implement a pedagogy of inquiry as a core process.   Within that overarching idea of teaching , instruction will be differentiated for individuals and small groups, based on student data (item analysis of standardized test scores, ongoing assessment – both formal and informal, and  NYSESLAT and IEP information)  and student interests.  Learning and language acquisition are supported through social interaction as well.   Strategies for reading, speaking and writing – the heart of all content areas at QSI – will be modeled, practiced and shared in an interactive classroom.
4. Queens College, the partner of QSI, is committed to enlisting pre-service teachers to keep the ratio of students to adults as small as possible, providing the type of individualized, focused and intensive instruction that our students will need to deepen and accelerate learning to eventually gain 60 college credits.

QUEENS SCHOOL OF INQUIRY     DRAFT 12/21/04

Supporting our students…

   To help each of our students achieve the shared goal of our school – gaining as many as 60 Queens College credits at the same time graduating from High School with a Regents diploma, all the while learning to be independent thinkers, participating citizens and caring adults we have planned these supports:

Student Action Plan

      We recognize that each child has a unique learning style, with both strengths and weaknesses. QSI staff, parents and students will consult to create an individual Student Action Plan. Using information from standardized tests, on line Princeton Review Interim Assessment reports, and previous school records plus a student interest inventory and teacher observations, we can target specific teaching strategies in our small classes to improve student performance.  The Student Action Plans will allow us to differentiate how we teach students in small groups.  Often there will be more than one teacher in the classroom. While students with disabilities, English Language Learners and struggling learners will be part of all of our classes, Student Action Plans will reveal their particular issues and help us support them with the additional services they will need, for example resource services, Section 504 modifications, NYSESLAT information.  Student Action Plans will be updated on a regular basis.  We want our students to love learning, to become aware and responsible, and motivated to work hard to improve in a safe, encouraging and rigorous atmosphere.  We want them to know that we expect the best from them and that all of us – staff, parents and our community together – will help them succeed.

Inquiry Learning

    Built into our student schedule is a daily Inquiry period, reflecting the teaching method at the core of our school – helping students to ask questions and assisting them as they research, read and write to prepare for community presentations.  During this time small groups of students with a staff member will work on a meaningful project of their choice – it might be a survey of family use of the Internet, or a soil study of the neighborhood, or setting up a master class with local musicians, or a videotape of an original student production.  All the while, students will be using the content and skills of literacy, Math and technology in a real world, active experience. We expect that what our students do will matter.

Advisory

    Every morning, students will meet in small groups with a QSI staff member to read together, to resolve concerns about both academic and life issues, to help and encourage themselves and one another as they progress.

Extended Day and Summer Programs

    In order to sustain our students as they move through middle school into high school and then college, we will provide additional time before and after the school day and during summers to concentrate on strengthening skills, building the capacity to learn, and developing a genuine community within our school…one student at a time and in small, focused group tutorials.