Academic Program

Common Core Curriculum

High-quality instructional materials and grade-level standards in every classroom.

Visit any Capitol Collegiate classroom and you will observe teachers delivering essential content in which:

  • All lessons focus on content that advances students toward grade-level standards or expectations and differentiates specific content and questions to individual student needs.
  • Students consistently and independently make connections between what they are learning and other content across disciplines.
  • All activities students engage in are aligned to the stated or implied learning goal(s) and are well-sequenced and build on each other to move students toward mastery of the grade level State Standard(s).
  • All instructional materials students use, such as texts, questions, problems, exercises and assessments, are high-quality and appropriately demanding for the grade/course and time in the school-year, based on guidance in the State Standards and are specifically differentiated based on multiple data points.

English Language Arts

Capitol Collegiate’s English Language Arts program aligns with the three primary shifts required by the Common Core State Standards.

Complexity: Practice regularly with complex text and its academic language.

Evidence: Ground reading, writing, and speaking in evidence from text, both literary and informational.

Knowledge: Build knowledge through content-rich nonfiction.

Teachers utilize, and are extensively trained and supported to implement, Capitol Collegiate’s core curriculum, Wit & Wisdom. The curriculum’s approach is integrated and text-based – daily reading, writing, speaking, listening, grammar, and vocabulary study is based on—and draws on evidence from—engaging and complex texts. Wit & Wisdom is an integrated approach to mastering all English-Language Arts standards: students engage in writing tasks throughout each module that require them to incorporate language standards and skills with reading standards within each of the genres of writing. Speaking standards are incorporated to support both writing and knowledge building by engaging scholars in collaborative practices such as Socratic Seminars prior to each major writing assessment.

Early Reading Instruction

Capitol Collegiate’s systematic early reading instruction focuses on securing foundational skills and building knowledge and vocabulary. In addition to the core language arts program, kindergarten through second grade scholars engage in 30-minutes of direct foundational skills instruction and 30-minutes of guided reading instruction daily.

Foundational Skills: K-2 teachers provide systematic, explicit foundational skills instruction that is crucial as students learn to read and write in English. Structured foundational skills instruction in English moves the youngest scholars along a continuum of skills in four key areas: print concepts; phonological awareness; phonics and word recognition; and fluency. Kindergarten through second grade teachers utilize the Reading Mastery curriculum and SIPPS curriculum as guides.

Building Knowledge and Vocabulary: K-2 students engage in 30-minutes of small group Guided Reading instruction daily, using Geodes, a collection of accessible, knowledge-building books. Instruction on specific decoding strategies is coupled with content and vocabulary knowledge. Teachers plan standards-aligned questions, tasks, and activities that help students unpack the ideas of the text while drawing on their own knowledge and skills, strategies, and modes of co-constructing meaning.