Curriculum

Love
for learning.

Self Development Academy teaches a grade higher than traditional Arizona schools and enhances this already accelerated curriculum with enriched instructional methods, one-on-one tutoring, and small-group interventions.

The demanding but engaging curriculum seeks not only to inform, but to instill the ability to think critically, as well as creatively. For example, students learn not only learn math, but mathematical thinking through our logic program. Students learn language arts but also creative nonfiction and poetry. We aim to develop an informed curiosity and  love for learning.

Mastery
Learning Model

Traditional schools teach one curriculum, in one way, directed toward one child: the middle performer.  Our teachers focus on addressing the strengths and weaknesses of each student.

We teach to different learning styles in the classroom because each child’s curiosity is triggered by focusing on different senses, stories, presentations.

Interventions and enrichment activities like these help all students achieve mastery—and that is when the excitement begins. After mastery, we provide opportunities for bright, gifted students to broaden and expand their learning so that they can begin to truly explore the shape and significant of the knowledge just learned.

These flexible, agile instruction methods are built into our weekly professional development sessions and our quarterly in-service trainings. Our mastery learning approach encourages students to try new concepts, appreciate their abilities, and link effort with achievement.  It is our core belief that every student is capable of mastery level learning.  Indeed, it is our job as educators to bring students to mastery level.

Integrative
Approach

Traditional schools teach subjects as if you can take the science out of geography and the politics out of a history. Instead, we look at how these subjects are intertwined.

The real world does not compartmentalize itself neatly into math and science and metaphor. The math of accelerating wind speed and the science of thermodynamics exist together as a messy hurricane.

Our unique, integrative curriculum allows children to learn without the restrictions of subject boundaries, so that they may explore the limitless connections between what they learn in school and what they experience in the world. We focus on the inter-relatedness of all curricular areas in order to help our students recognize, understand, and navigate the connections and relationships which exist among all subjects, and indeed among all things in life.

SDA’s Curriculum
Objectives

★ ★ ★

Think deeply.
Create wildly.

We teach a grade higher than most Arizona schools, but our curriculum is much more than that. We focus on instilling an ability to learn but also to think deeply and create wildly.

(480) 641-2640

(602) 274-1910