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Early Light Academy is a K-9 public charter school. The first year of operations, 2009-2010, will operate through the 8th grade and when resuming in the 2010-2011 year the 9th grade will be added. The mission of the Early Light Academy is to deliver a high-quality education with a deep, rich and engaging curriculum utilizing effective instructional techniques and emphasizing history, taking our students from the Stone Age to the Space Age, the Information Age and beyond. "Understanding history sheds light on our future...Our actions today will impact our tomorrow." At the Early Light Academy (ELA) we strive to improve student learning by creating a learning environment which encourages inquiry, supports comprehension, and develops mastery. History, our chosen curricular emphasis, fosters a culture of inquiry-based study. In the strictest sense, history is the study of specific events, persons, and places of the past. ELA curriculum emphasizes historical inquiry which will necessitate active thinking from our students, engaging them in the journey that is education while becoming familiar with the significant events and individuals of the past, identifying patterns of change over time, assessing the relevance of evidence and analyzing the relationship of the past to the present. Careful consideration of historical fact promotes critical thinking skills. Such engagement encourages each student to take responsibility for learning, providing ELA students with the skills for a smooth transition into high school as well as the motivation for life-long learning and responsible citizenship. By its broadest definition, history is the study of all human endeavors, the acquisition of solid foundational knowledge. At ELA our curricular emphasis will enable students to acquire this solid foundation over a broad range of disciplines, improving student learning with each year expanding their basic knowledge in the Sciences, the Arts, and the Humanities to progress to higher level skills. Students will become capable generalists able to access an ever-growing collection of facts. Cognitive scientists now recognize that students who possess such a stockpile of background knowledge are more successful readers, able to decode as well as create meaning by forging relationships between prior knowledge and new ideas to create a cognitive map or schemata on which to build increasing levels of understanding. In this sense the study of history is essential to development of successful reading comprehension skills. ELA will emphasize new and innovative teaching methods through professional development and mentoring to nurture an active community of learners. These instructional methods will include, but not be limited to the following:
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