The Learning Center Goals

Overarching Goal:

TLC students will understand themselves and appreciate their many strengths. They will understand their personal learning needs and will develop strategies that allow them to close the gap between their academic performance and their intellectual ability. They will be inquisitive, eager students and will have a growth mindset. They will also benefit from the core values – Childhood, Learning, Belonging, Balance – of the Almaden Country Day School experience.

Goal #1: Self-knowledge

TLC students will understand and appreciate their learning profile. They will articulate their learning strengths and weaknesses and will develop strategies to manage their weaknesses. They will self-advocate, articulate their needs, and know what they need in terms of a successful learning experience. They will develop a personal, strengths-based approach to learning. 

Goal #2: Academics

Using the Orton-Gillingham Approach, students build accurate reading, spelling, and writing skills; these will help close the gap and ensure students perform effectively in the general education classroom. Explicit, systematic, and diagnostic instruction will provide access to grade-level content that builds from the simple to complex in all content areas. Students will effectively communicate, both orally and in writing. They will analyze and think deeply about the written word. Students will also learn to edit their own written work and check for understanding.

Mathematics is taught using a multisensory approach. Students are familiar with the math practices, mindsets that extend across grade levels. We teach math as conceptual ideas, rather than as procedures and formulas. Students are taught to think flexibly, to understand that depth is more important than speed, and to develop multiple methods to solve problems. Additionally, we rely on the instructional practices that focus on conceptual understanding (without the use of “tricks”); developing number sense; teaching the language of math; and teaching grade-level content using “friendly numbers.”  Our students learn that everyone is a “math person.”

Goal #3: Executive Functions and Study Skills

Executive functions and study skills are critical to success in school and beyond. Therefore, our TLC students learn and extend these skills in deliberate and systematic ways. Students will understand how executive functions are brain processes that help us carry out goal-oriented behaviors, including initiating, sustaining, monitoring, and adapting our actions. Students will identify the functions of attention, memory, emotion, motivation, and effort; they will know which are personal strengths and which are struggles. Additionally, they will learn strategies for organizing time, materials, and information; they will practice these daily. Students will understand how study skills, when used effectively, are able to support executive functions. They will appreciate how important both are to achieving academic proficiency.

Goal #4: Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

Our students have a “can-do” attitude. Appreciating their many strengths helps them maintain their perspective when they face challenges. They are open to taking risks, and they know that making mistakes is part of learning. “Yet” is a common reference - “I don’t know how, yet.” Having a growth mindset is part of our daily language and the students are able to speak to its benefits.

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