Curriculum
Curriculum
Effective Dual Language programming requires the division of the Pennsylvania State Standards, Next Generation Science Standards, and the C3 Social Studies Framework between the languages of instruction, across a student’s Vida education.
| Grade | Spanish | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | Spanish Language Arts | Science | Math | Music |
| 1st Grade | SLA | Social Studies | Music | |
| 2nd Grade | SLA | Science | Math | Music |
| 3rd Grade | SLA | Social Studies | Music | |
| 4th Grade | SLA | Science | Math | Music |
| 5th Grade | SLA | Social Studies | Music | |
| 6th Grade | SLA | Science | Math | Music |
| Grade | English | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | English Language Arts | Social Studies | Art, PE | ||
| 1st Grade | ELA | Science | Math | Art, PE | |
| 2nd Grade | ELA | Social Studies | Art, PE | ||
| 3rd Grade | ELA | Science | Math | Art, PE, CS | |
| 4th Grade | ELA | Social Studies | Art, PE, CS | ||
| 5th Grade | ELA | Science | Math | Art, PE, CS | |
| 6th Grade | ELA | Social Studies | Art, PE, CS | ||
The plans above reflect the division of content into our two program languages. Vida Charter School aspires to maintain as close to a 50:50 division within a student’s day as is possible.
Guided by the scholarship of Doctors Karen Beeman and Cheryl Urow, writers of Teaching for Biliteracy: Strengthening Bridges Between Languages, and in collaboration with Vida teachers and the Academic Excellence Committee, Vida Charter School has refined and concretized its Language and Content Allocation Plan in order to allow students adequate opportunities to learn content-specific language in both languages.
According to Beeman and Urow, the “bridge” is “the instructional moment when teachers purposefully bring the two languages together, strategically guiding bilingual learners to:
- transfer the academic content they have learned in one language to the other,
- engage in contrastive analysis of the two languages, ... and
- develop ‘metalinguistic awareness’”
Grades kindergarten through 5th grade will follow a curriculum designed in collaboration with the Center for Biliteracy which integrates language arts standards with science and social studies, in accordance with our Language and Content Allocation Plan. Grade-level Biliteracy Curriculum Guides can be found on our website here. Students share their knowledge in public-facing presentations three times per year.
Vida Charter School anchors instruction in the Pennsylvania Core Standards, and maintains its rigor by seeking authentic resources in both program languages. We draw upon the following resources and supplements for instruction: Fundations (English), Reading A-Z (both program languages), Great Minds Eureka Math² (Mathematics).
On top of core academic subjects, all Vida Charter School students attend music, art, and physical education classes twice per cycle on a 6 day rotation and participate in a Service Learning Project. Upper grade students will begin a weekly Computer Science course in the 2025-2026 school year. They may also participate in the school choir. 4-6th grade students may join the Vida Charter School band, which includes instrument-specific sectionals, as well as the guitar and violin program. 6th grade students experience an outdoor learning/camping trip, scheduled for October 2025.
Textbooks and School Library Texts
Students are responsible for the maintenance and care of all materials supplied by VCS. Parents/Guardians and students are responsible to pay for damaged and lost books.