THE PARAGON VISION
What is Paragon?
A World of Ideas That Makes A World of
Difference
Across Eras, Continents and Disciplines
The unique Paragon Curriculum is based on the idea that we must impart to all children the content knowledge and academic skills that will provide them with the necessary intellectual capital to succeed in mainstream culture. Rather than teach history in bits and pieces in arbitrary sequence, Paragon’s fully integrated, chronological approach demonstrates to students how one idea builds on and evolves into another. The curriculum illustrates how sweeping cycles of conflict and resolution repeat themselves and leads students to understand how and why various world cultures have risen to power and prominence, only to be supplanted by new precedents set by others.
Studying history across continents depicts for older students, the manner in which many ideas develop at the same time in independent cultures unaware of the other’s breakthroughs. Students develop a larger conceptual picture of history and an enhanced awareness of the interrelationships of many areas of knowledge. Rather than memorize names, dates and wars in isolation, students recall the sequential circumstances surrounding these events and remember more readily both factual information and conceptual relevance.
The Paragon Curriculum is designed around eight ages of history or Human Eras, which constitute the monthly conceptual themes:
-
The Ancient World 40,000 B.C. to 500 B.C.
-
The Classical World 499 B.C. to A.D. 500
-
The Middle Ages 500 to 1460
-
Renaissance & the New World 1460 to 1600
-
Kingdoms & Colonies 1600 to 1750
-
Revolution & Independence 1750 to 1825
-
Unification & Industrialization 1825 to 1900
-
The 20th Century 1900 to 2000
Aligning Paragon with Local and State Standards
Although all Paragon students will immerse themselves in the historical, cultural and scientific worldview of the Human Era they are studying simultaneously with other grade levels, each grade will focus on a unique Essential Question. This enables Paragon to satisfy various local and state curriculum standards by highlighting those areas that students are expected to master at a specific grade level. Paragon accommodates specific content standards with monthly units based on an essential question that can address skills and content knowledge appropriate for the different grade levels. Paragon aligns its curriculum units with national, state and local district needs, freeing faculty to spend their time crafting creative and compelling lessons for the unique interests and needs of their students. Step-by-step daily lesson plans are organized around investigative questions, the types that have no easy answers and that have captivated thinkers for millennia.
THE CONTENT CORE OF THE
PARAGON CURRICULUM
History and Social Studies
Social studies represent the integrated
study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic
competence
and intellectual capital.
Social studies constitute the organizing,
chronological core of the Paragon curriculum precisely
because it is multidisciplinary
and interdisciplinary in nature. It provides
coordinated, systematic
study drawing upon such disciplines as anthropology,
archaeology, economics, geography, history, law, philosophy,
political science, psychology, religion, and sociology,
as well as appropriate
content
from the humanities, mathematics, and natural
sciences.
Social issues, such as poverty, crime, and
public health, are increasingly understood to transcend the
boundaries of disciplines, cultures, and nations. As these issues grow increasingly
complex, the work to develop solutions demands an increasingly
integrated view of scholarly domains and of the world itself.
Technology
provides increasingly easy access to databases that are interdisciplinary
and multidisciplinary
as well as to scholarship in many disciplines.
Paragon employs a constructivist,
student-centered approach to hands-on learning.
Science
Science is also integrated into the Paragon Curriculum, which features biographies of great scientists, accounts of breakthrough discoveries, and detailed hands-on activities for students to stimulate interest in the scientific method. Mathematics as the language of science, and of economics, also constitutes an integral part of the Paragon experience for students. Paragon draws from and extends the morning session’s traditional core programs.
Technology and
Computer Literacy
Technology is the application of scientific knowledge for the purpose of solving practical problems, extending human capacities, and improving the quality of life. Paragon emphasizes the use of technological tools to facilitate and enrich learning. Students use computers to communicate via the Internet, to express themselves creatively, to solve problems, to organize data, to conduct research, and to explore mathematical and scientific principles through simulations. Paragon lesson plans direct students to specific Internet sites on a regular basis.
Each classroom is equipped with a TV/VCR, Elmo, and LCD projector to support Paragon, which features film clips from classic and quality motion pictures to make history come alive for students. Elmo’s and LCD projectors in every classroom further enable teachers to engage students with the captivating images that support Paragon lessons.
The Arts
Rather than relegate art, music and foreign language to the periphery of the curriculum, Paragon’s design integrates them into its interdisciplinary center. Daily Paragon lesson plans are outlined with step-by-step instructions to ensure seamless implementation. Art, drama, music and dance interrelated to the core curriculum draw students into the center of learning.
Paragon’s purpose is to make the arts a vital component of a child’s education, while at the same time placing the strongest possible emphasis on the basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic. The arts offer children opportunities to assimilate and apply what they have learned in ways relevant and meaningful to their experience. Their enhanced skills of communication, analysis and self-expression enable them to compete far more successfully with their traditional learning classmates.
Music
According to Plato, “Music...gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination... and life to everything.” The impulse to make music is ageless and universal. Music has the capacity to communicate volumes about an era and its people. Paragon conveys to students features of the music of different eras and composers by having them sing, dance, and perform with rhythm instruments.
Achieving academic excellence
through Paragon :
Paragon is designed to increase the student’s
ability to read, study, search
for information, use social
science technical vocabulary
and
methods, apply
the scientific
method
to real world situations,
practice reasoning through
mathematical analysis and
logic, and
use computers
and other electronic
media. To develop this skill
category, Paragon increases the student’s
ability to use the writing
process and to classify, interpret,
analyze, summarize, evaluate,
and present
information in
well-reasoned ways.
Paragon
calls upon the student to
work individually and in
groups. Students learn about character,
ethics, empathy and self-esteem
implicitly
by studying the
world’s greatest thinkers,
both canonical and unsung,
and by stepping into the shoes
of great
historical figures, both real
and imaginary. Paragon students
contemplate questions that
have captivated thinkers for
millennia: What makes a hero?
What makes me unique? How
can we learn from the past?
How do
we apply
that knowledge
to the
future?
By studying the history
of human culture, students
learn
implicitly
about values
and ethics that
transcend time
and place:
- Individual beliefs/majority rule
- Obeying the law/the right to dissent
- Cultural variety/cultural assimilation/uniformity
- Community
progress/individual liberties
- Individual rights/public safety
- Celebrity vs. Heroism
THE features OF THE PARAGON CURRICULUM
The Paragon Curriculum features the
following aspects of the best teaching and learning
practices worldwide: Integrated interdisciplinary work
- Allows for more efficient use of time for students and
teachers.
- Provides mechanism through project-based learning for integrating
newly
acquired knowledge from different disciplines.
- Applies skills developed in reading, writing
and mathematics to relevant,
real-world situations.
- Enables students to develop accelerated academic, aesthetic
and technical
skills.
Essential Questions
- the
Paragon Framework
- Reflect the grand, sweeping patterns in the evolution
of cultural worldviews.
- Represent a breakthrough in how
people see themselves, their purpose or
their relation to the physical world. Also exemplifies a transition in awareness
of
the material
world or the
universe.
- Define a prevailing worldview.
- Illustrate
a “great” idea with relevance,
significance and endurance
that transcend time and place.
- Address the “so what” question that we would
have students consider in their writing, discussions,
and
presentation.
- Amplify the role of common people
who become heroes in developing
ideas, inventions and art that become mainstream social norms.
Paragon instills and
cultivates the following:
- Decision making - identifying and struggling with
complexities, solving
problems and thinking critically, developing creativity, rather than strict
conformity to conventional
practices;
- Self-direction and personal initiative
- Strong interactive skills- cooperation, networking, teamwork
and
information pathway knowledge.
- Responsibility for learning, identification of
goals, development
of a plan, gathering information, and implementation of a plan.
- A sense of
awe and a passion for inquiry.
Paragon Curriculum is practical because it is meaningful.
- Students learn connected networks of knowledge, skills,
beliefs,
and attitudes that they will find useful both in and outside of school.
- The
significance and meaningfulness of the content is emphasized
both in how it is presented to students and how it is developed
through activities.
- Classroom interaction focuses on sustained
examination of a few
important topics rather than superficial coverage of many.
- The teacher is
reflective in planning, implementing, and assessing
instruction.
- All disciplines, including math and science, the liberal
arts,
fine arts, social sciences, foreign language and physical education weave strands
of
connection between different
ways of
knowing.
Paragon teaching and learning are powerful
because they are value-based.
- Powerful Paragon teaching considers
the ethical dimensions of topics
and addresses controversial issues, providing an arena for reflective
development of concern for the common
good
and
application of social values.
- Students are made aware of
potential social policy implications
and taught to think critically and make value-based decisions about related
social
issues.
- Rather than promulgate personal, sectarian, or political
views,
Paragon teachers make sure that students:1) become aware of the values, complexities,
and dilemmas
involved
in an issue;
2)
consider the
costs and benefits to various groups that are embedded in
potential
courses of action; and
3)
develop
well-reasoned
positions consistent
with basic democratic social and political
values.
Paragon Curriculum teaches to
the Multiple Intelligences.
Multiple
Intelligences, a term coined
by psychologist and
author, Dr. Howard
Gardner, refers to seven
domains of ability in which
students
can excel:
- Linguistic Intelligence- (speaking, reading, explaining
things
to others.)
- Logical-Mathematical Intelligence- (measuring recipes, balancing
a checkbook, estimating distance.)
- Spatial Intelligence- (drawing, finding one’s way
around
a room, picturing something in the mind’s
eye.)
- Musical Intelligence- (listening to music, singing,
playing an
instrument)
- Kinesthetic Intelligence- (playing sports, making
things by hand.)
- Interpersonal Intelligence- (having friends,
working or playing
with a group)
- Intrapersonal- (enjoying time alone to think to wonder
and to
imagine.)
The afternoon
session,
the
interdisciplinary
Paragon
Curriculum,
cultivates
all
seven
of
these
multiple
intelligences,
along
with
an
eighth,
the “Integrative
Intelligence,” which
refers
to
the
ability
to
make
connections
across
disciplines.
To
illustrate,
a
Unit
3
Medieval
lesson
for
fourth
grade
in
the
Paragon
Curriculum
features
a
lesson
on
Robin
Hood.
During
the
2-hour
session:
- Students read
an excerpt
from the
classic version
of the
story, discussing
the “old-fashioned” language
features (Linguistic
Intelligence.)
- Students
then
view
and
compare
film
clips
of
the
folk
hero’s
adventures
(Linguistic
and
Spatial
Intelligence.)
- Students
make
a
storyboard
(comic
strip
for
video
production)
of
the
sequence
of
events
in
the
reading
selection,
dividing
into
groups
to
make
tableaux
in
dramatic
poses
(Linguistic,
Spatial,
Interpersonal
and
Kinesthetic
Intelligences.)
- Students
learn
to
make
a
16-piece
thumbnail
sketch
of
a
human figure
(Spatial
Intelligence)
and
debate
the
contradictions
of
Robin
Hood
being
both
a
hero
and
an
outlaw
(Linguistic,
Interpersonal
and
Intrapersonal
Intelligences.)
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