Real knowledge comes from experiences that are authentic and engaging. Young people learn when learning is connected to the real world they live in, to the other things they are studying throughout the day, and to issues they care about. At Paulo Freire Freedom School we will create learning environments that support powerful teaching and learning. Learning can be hard work, but at Paulo Freire we believe that learning can also be a joyful experience. Our students will be encouraged to pursue individual passions, to explore their issues with peers, and to experience the satisfaction of knowing how to navigate through complex ideas and problems.

At Paulo Freire we will not shy away from thinking about the environmental and social problems facing the world - instead we will immerse our young people in thinking about them. Our curricular focus on social justice and environmental sustainability will be reality-based, but grounded in hope. Students will not only learn about issues and problems, but will be encouraged to think about solutions. Students will be required to act on these solutions through an integrated service learning program. And participation in the democratic structures of the school will help students develop leadership, conflict resolution, and peace-building skills. At Paulo Freire we will not only learn about the world as it is today, we will also dream about it as it can be and work towards the fulfillment of that dream together.

At Paulo Freire we believe that children grow not only academically and physically, but emotionally, socially, and spiritually as well. The growth they experience in these areas is interconnected with their academic success and with their health and happiness as a whole person. We are committed to supporting and challenging every child to rise to their full potential. Within carefully designed learning environments individual students will be supported and challenged to grow and become...to rise and transform ...to develop into integrally whole human beings (body, heart, mind, and soul).

Our Curriculum

All students will take math, science and humanities. Whereas the curriculum in these core classes will be aligned with Arizona State Standards, students will also be challenged to ask and seek answers to open-ended, provocative questions about relevant topics. Teachers will design and implement hands-on and field-based experiences that engage students in active learning.

Science
Paulo Freire's science program will incorporate concepts from physical, earth and life sciences into integrated units of study. We are committed to making science hands-on, relevant and fun. Our focus on the environment will be woven throughout the curriculum and the Jane Goodall Institute's highly acclaimed Roots & Shoots Program will support on-going service learning projects. All students will be required to take part in our annual Science Fair which shall be judged by faculty, guests from collaborating institutions and professional scientists. In addition to learning the scientific inquiry method and conducting rigorous research, students will also master the ability to communicate their findings and methods.

Math
Students at Paulo Freire will use the Connected Mathematics curriculum which was designed to help students develop mathematical knowledge, understanding and skill, as well as, awareness and appreciation of the rich connections among mathematical strands and between mathematics and other disciplines. In Connected Mathematics important math ideas are embedded in the context of interesting problems. As students explore a series of connected problems, they encounter these abstract mathematical ideas, develop understanding of the embedded concepts, and learn to employ appropriate problem-solving strategies and ways of thinking.

Humanities
Humanities will be taught on a two-year cycle for 6th and 7th graders. The course content will be informed by the Arizona Content Standards and organized around essential questions such as "what does it mean to be human?" or "how do you do the right thing in an unjust society." The course will be interdisciplinary by design; integrating skills and concepts from language arts, literature, social studies and philosophy. Our focus upon social justice will be addressed in each unit. The humanities course in the 8th grade will continue to be themed-based and interdisciplinary, providing multiple opportunities for student demonstration of understanding and authentic performance in preparation for the Rites of Passage at the end of the year.

Literacy
Writing will be an integral part of the core curriculum, both as a tool for understanding content and as a measure for assessment. Students will be well versed and have continual opportunities to participate in Writer's Workshop - where students learn and practice the process of writing. Students will also have many opportunities to publish their writing: ranging from persuasive essays in the student newspaper to creative writing in student published 'zines'. The Humanities courses at Paulo Freire will be full of rich literature, exposing students to both the artistry of the written word while at the same time reinforcing the thematic units of instruction. During classroom time and Learning Labs in the afternoon students will participate in 'Shared Inquiry' Discussion Groups - a program developed by the Great Books Foundation. Our school schedule will have time built-in (on a bi-weekly basis) for students to participate in silent, sustained reading and writing. This SSR/W time combined with our homework policy of 'one hour of reading/writing of choice daily' embodies our belief that practice matters. Students who read and write frequently will be better readers and writers and if they are given a choice in what they read and/or write they will develop, more readily, the literacy habit. By fostering a love of the written word at this young age, we will have an impact on their intellectual development for years to come.

English Language Learners & Spanish
All students will be expected to participate in English language literacy. For those students who are English Language Learners, there will be opportunities for additional assistance during Learning Labs. In addition, all staff members will be bilingual in English and Spanish or working towards becoming bilingual, allowing for additional instruction in Spanish to be available as needed. There will be Spanish classes three times a week during which time native Spanish speakers will have the opportunity to improve their reading and writing in Spanish and to study Latin American Literature and culture.

Art/Music Instruction
Visual art and music appreciation will be integrated into the humanities courses through the study of art history and the use of artistic expression to demonstrate understanding of the subject. In addition, students may extend their learning of the core subjects through art projects conducted during Learning Lab. All students will participate in either choir or percussion instruction once a week and the ZUZI! Dance Company will provide an integrated health/performing arts curriculum twice weekly.

Health
As part of the integrated health/performing arts program mentioned above, all students will be required to participate in a midweek integrated course of study and will also be able to choose between Jujitsu, hatha yoga, or aerial/creative movement in a different class once per week. In addition, students will participate in health instruction and team sports activities once a week with their advisory groups. Opportunities to participate in after school intramural and extracurricular sports activity will be available based on student interest. These programs will be fee-based, however, financial assistance will be available.

Our Instruction

Our curriculum will be developed collaboratively and designed "backwards," meaning that we will start by designating what learning is essential (from the articulated standards and our unique curricular focus), and then work backwards - planning how to get students to meet those desired outcomes. Because we believe that "less is more" and that it is better to go deeply into a subject than cover breadth superficially, teacher collaboration will be critical to rectify both redundancies and gaps that might emerge. Subjects will be organized around essential questions that are provocative, relevant and multifaceted.
In addition to their academic work, all students will work towards developing 6 habits of mind, articulated by the National Turning Points Center, which we believe are particularly relevant to middle school development. At Paulo Freire students will be able to:

• Think creatively
  
• Identify and solve complex and meaningful problems
  
• Know their passions, strengths, and challenges
  
• Communicate and work well with others
  
• Lead healthy lives,
  
• Be ethical and caring citizens of a diverse world

Staff Development
The staff of Paulo Freire will be a professional learning community dedicated to examining teacher and student practice on an ongoing basis in order to adapt practice to improve student learning. For ongoing improvement to the Program of Instruction, all staff members will be part of Critical Friends Groups which will examine student work, conduct peer observations, and discuss current research on best practices. At Paulo Freire we will resist the "closed door" policy found in so many schools and instead cultivate a culture of collaboration where all teaching is public.

Our Assessment Program

At Paulo Freire we will evaluate the work of our students in three main ways - authentic performances and demonstrations of understanding, public exhibitions of student work, portfolio assessments, and more traditional testing instruments (standardized tests, course-level assessments and classroom-based diagnostics). While teachers may well use whatever means necessary to make formative assessments of on-going student achievement, the primary means at Paulo Freire for determining what students know and are able to do will be through authentic demonstrations of student learning or Exhibitions. Exhibitions might include students conducting a trial, publishing a school newspaper, or presenting data obtained from their scientific studies to a regulatory panel.

Students will have multiple opportunities throughout the school year to showcase their best work during Exhibitions. Student work (both individual and class projects) will be displayed, viewed, evaluated using rubrics, and viewed by peers, teachers, family and community members. This process will add a layer of accountability for students as they work to publicly demonstrate their understanding of specific content and performance standards.

A portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work, which shows the student's efforts, progress and achievement in one or more areas. The use of portfolios encourages students and teachers to move beyond a one-shot attempt for the purposes of grading, and toward deeper reflection on teaching and learning Portfolios allow a student to demonstrate growth over time, display rigorous work and testify to the development of a style.

Because of the vagueness associated with them and the potential they have to cause harm, report cards with letter grades will not be given in grades 6-8. Instead, at the end of each trimester students will receive written evaluations (narratives) detailing their learning, their improvement, their learning habits and general well being. We believe this type of progress report will provide a more comprehensive and accurate picture of our students' educational experience than the more traditional report card. This policy may be revisited for the high school when external factors (i.e. college admission requirements) come into play.

Personalization/Community

Because Paulo Freire will always be a small school, we have the opportunity to personalize our learning environment in ways that large schools can only dream of. All students at Paulo Freire and their families will be known well and we have very deliberately created structures to enhance further personalization.

Advisory
Student advisory will meet several times a week and address both the academic and interpersonal needs of our students and will allow teachers to ensure that each student's work and emotional life (both critical to student success) remain on track. Additionally, the point of contact between home and school will fall squarely on the student advisory, guaranteeing that each student will have at least one advocate at the school who knows them and their family very well.

Individual Learning Plans
Every student will have an Individual Learning Plan (ILP) that is created by the student in collaboration with parents and teachers and that delineates individual and specific goals/strategies for academic, social, physical, and emotional development. ILPs will be an integral part of each student portfolio and will be central to our student-teacher-parent conferences. During these student-led conferences structured reflection, on progress made toward accomplishing the student's goals, takes place, as well as, the setting of new goals and/or developing new strategies to reach student goals, if necessary.

Intercession
For one week at the end of each trimester, we will break from regular classroom instruction and students and teachers will be able to pursue topics of interest in depth for an extended period of time. Examples of possible intercession units might be: Theater (including putting on a performance); Study of Law (including conducting a mock trial); Analysis of our election process (with speakers and meetings with elected officials); and Camping and bird watching in the Chirichahuas. For students who struggling to attain the academic learning goals in the core subjects for that particular trimester, intersession will provide an opportunity for remediation.

KIVA
School will begin each morning with time to gather as a community to celebrate achievements, share announcements, sing, stretch or simply be together in silence. It will serve as a daily reminder that we are a community of people gathered in a distinctly human endeavor: to learn collaboratively and joyously.

Learning Labs
This is time where students may receive assistance for work assigned during core classes, may work on extension projects or participate in Shared Inquiry Discussion Circles around literature or in Writer's Workshop. Students choose their activities, with input from their advisors, and with their ILPs in mind.

After School Options
Paulo Freire's after school options will be developed with the input of the community we serve; namely, our parents and students. We imagine that expressed needs will include opportunity for tutoring or academic extensions, art instruction and/or sport activities. However, we are open to other creative possibilities.

III. Community Partnerships

Paulo Freire's curricular focus on social justice and the environment, as well as its commitment to service learning, makes community partnerships a natural. We will seek to make connections with Tucson's diverse group of nonprofit organizations in order to enhance our curriculum and to foster student connections with their community. The central YWCA location provides a unique opportunity for partnerships and mentorships between local activists and artists and our young people. Students will be working closely with artists from the renowned ZUZI! Dance Company and will work to forge relationships with several of the environmental organizations currently residing there.

We have chosen the Nationally acclaimed, Roots & Shoots program, founded by Jane Goodall, to guide our service learning program. This program is flexible enough to allow us to structure our participation in a way that coordinates and enhances our unique curriculum, but ties us to the expertise and experience of that of a national network.

Our commitment to forge a relationship with a school in Guatemala provides a unique opportunity to be enriched and informed by another rich culture and to embed our academic learning in a global context. It is important to note that while there is a philanthropic component to this relationship (we will do periodic fundraisers for our partner school), the primary benefit of this relationship is educational.

Finally, our proximity to the University of Arizona will allow for the establishment of future University connections.

IV. Parent Involvement

Research tells us, and we intuitively know, that parental involvement in schools is critical to their child's educational success. Working as partners, we hope to develop relationships with our students' families that is build on trust, mutual respect and open communication.

Family involvement at Paulo Freire begins with the Family Partnership Plan, a mutually agreed upon compact of how each family will participate in the life of the school. It will be co-created with parent(s) and administrators/teachers during a pre-arranged home visit. The process recognizes that each family has unique strengths and challenges and that how a family can and will be involved is dependent on many factors and will look different for each family. For instance a family member may volunteer to work as a crossing guard at the school two days a week; provide food at community meetings; or teach a class on computers for other families. The Family Partnership Plan also states how the school can support the family. For instance, Paulo Freire will work to create a Family Resource Center, a place for parents and families to find social opportunities and needed services. The center will facilitate workshops and the sharing of important resources in areas such as technology and family literacy.

We ask all parents to commit to participating in extended conversations about their children's learning experience and we commit to including their insights, wisdom, concerns and desires when developing and implementing the Individual Learning Plans. ILPs will be monitored in Advisories, and the students' advisors will serve as a consistent, reliable contact for each family.

In order to facilitate these relationships and conversations, and to help parents become part of our larger learning community, we will organize Parent Critical Friends Groups, in which a group of parents can meet on a regular basis to discuss education and parental issues.

V. Governance

At Paulo Freire we have a strong vision guiding the development of the school which includes establishing democratic processes to help with the governance of the school. Initially, an interim school planning team will work to establish the school until a governing board, with family and community representation, is created to coincide with the beginning of the school. Parents participating in standing and ad hoc committees also will have a vital role in the decision making processes.

Students will practice consensus decision making in Assembly, the weekly community meeting, where decisions governing the day to day life of the school will be reviewed and made. In Advisories, students will learn conflict resolution and mediation skills that will be used to resolve disputes. Although a discipline matrix will be in place for serious misconduct, most misbehavior will be dealt through a restorative justice process called Fairness.

VI. Schedule

Our daily schedule will be created to optimize learning in the classroom and to allow for personalized instruction according to students' Individual Learning Plans. Our core subjects (Math, Science & Humanities) will be taught in the morning. Because Paulo Freire is small, we will have the flexibility to adjust our morning schedule as needed. One week instruction could be delivered in 75 minute blocks. Another week, 4 hour blocks of instruction might be needed to allow for off site service learning projects. This could easily be accommodated by rotating the core subjects in 3 days of 4 hour blocks.

The afternoon will be devoted to Advisories, Learning Labs (for individualized learning), Spanish and Health/Art/Music. The afternoon schedule will allow for a balance of facilitated group instruction and individualized learning opportunities.

To see samples of possible morning and afternoon student schedules download the following PDF files: Morning Schedules Afternoon Schedule

VII. Calendar 2005-2006

In 2005-2006 the Paulo Freire instructional year will be divided into three, 12-week trimesters. During the twelth week of each trimester we will have Intersession. There will be an Autumn break following the 1st Trimester and a Spring break following the 2nd Trimester. There will also be a 2-week Winter Break during the 2nd Trimester. The 1st day of classes for students will be on August 23, 2005 and the last day for students will be June 12, 2006. For all the details download the 2005-2006 Calendar in PDF Format.

VIII. National Affiliations

Turning Points
A New American Reform Model for Middle Schools is based on more than a decade of research and experience which focuses on improving student learning for middle school children. Turning Points seeks to create high performing schools through teacher collaboration and data-based inquiry. Turning Points provides member schools with intensive on-site coaching and professional development relating to school organization and instructional practices. Paulo Freire will work towards becoming a Turning Point Demonstration School, and its nonprofit parent organization, El Pueblo Integral - Teaching & Learning Collaborative, currently serves as the Southwest Regional Turning Point Center (www.turningpts.org).

Coalition of Essential Schools
The Coalition of Essential Schools (CES), a network of schools and support centers, promotes higher student achievement and provides strategies for creating more nurturing and humane school communities. Arising out of an investigation of teaching, learning, and school design led by Ted Sizer, CES derives its power as a school reform movement from the authenticity of its principles and its common sense approaches to restructuring schools.
CES schools share a set of beliefs about the purpose and practice of schooling. These beliefs, the "10 Common Principles" inspire a school community to examine its priorities and redesign its structures and practices. The principles imply a radical transformation of schooling to promote intellectual excitement, to facilitate teachers improving their craft, and to ensure that all student thrive and excel, regardless of their gender, race, or class ( www.essentialschools.org).

National School Reform Faculty
At the heart of NSRF's program are the concepts of Facilitative Leadership and Critical Friendship. We have learned that Critical Friendship, an essential ingredient for learning communities, is best achieved through providing deliberate time and structures to promote adult growth that is directly linked to student learning. Facilitative Leadership skills are needed to engage school communities in this practice, and are valuable for all leaders - school leaders, classroom teachers and administrators. Paulo Freire's Co-Directors are national NSRF facilitators, and all staff will be trained in the powerful facilitation techniques to be used in classroom instruction and with the staff (www.nsrfharmony.org).

IX. Facility

Paulo Freire Freedom School will be located at the historic YWCA building at 300 E. University Blvd. Covering 7,500 square feet of space the school will have several classrooms spaces, a science lab, a computer lab, a cafeteria and a library. In addition, students will use the ZUZI! Dance Company studios and theater for their art/health education program. Students will enjoy access to neighboring nonprofits such as the Audubon Society, Friends of the Sahuaro National Park and the Catalina Park. The University of Arizona (including the U of A Art and Photography Museums) is within walking distance.

X. Activities & Traditions

As a new school we have the exciting opportunity to create our own unique traditions and to plan the events that we as a community believe will promote our schools' vision and enhance our school's sense of community. While not yet set in stone, we will likely have events such as:

• Student performances (academic exhibitions as well as dance/music/drama/art shows)
• Back to school night
• Student publications
• Holiday celebrations (we can pick the holidays!)
• Social events
• Athletic events

Regular routines and rituals provide children with a sense of belonging and security. We have scheduled consistent times for the school to meet as a whole (Kiva and Assembly), and will mark the end of each intersession with a sharing celebration. We look forward to thinking about how to co-create new customs with our students, families, and staff!

After-school tutoring and enrichment programs will be available for a fee and fee waivers will be available for families with financial need.