Academics
Lower School
The lower school years are a magical time of discovery and curiosity, when children develop a love of learning that will remain with them their entire lives.
From the ages of 5 to 10, children grow immensely – intellectually, physically, and emotionally. They gradually broaden their focus from themselves, to their families, to friends, communities, and the world. As they grow in knowledge, understanding, and skill, they need the caring guidance of adults and an environment that encourages joyful discovery in order to be ready to take on larger challenges with confidence.
We are experts in understanding the developmental stages of childhood growth, and also recognize that young children approach early learning with varied strengths. This understanding informs the individualized approach to a student’s learning journey that our expert co-teachers deliver at Sheridan.
Starting with a warm morning greeting at the entry door from our Head of School, lower school students begin their day noticed, nurtured, and known. Sheridan faculty take pride in ensuring each child is appropriately supported and challenged on a daily basis. A walk through our lower school classrooms might uncover a teacher working with a student to pick an individual reading book, co-teachers leading an engaging lesson grounded in real-life concepts like income diversity in DC, or students working in small groups to formulate a convincing presentation to the rest of the class.
Lower school at Sheridan provides the perfect mix of challenge and nurturing. This balanced approach to education in elementary school sets our students on the path of finding joy and meaning in lifelong learning.
Lower school at Sheridan provides the perfect mix of challenge and nurturing. This balanced approach to education in elementary school sets our students on the path of finding joy and meaning in lifelong learning.
Lower School Highlights
Co-Teaching Model: In lower school, each homeroom has two lead teachers who co-teach. They collaborate in planning, instruction and the assessment of reading, writing, math, social studies, and social-emotional development. Based upon the lesson, the needs of the students, and learning goals, the co-teachers decide upon the instructional model: instructor and floater, dual instructors delivering differentiated teaching, parallel teaching, and/or station teaching. This data-informed model requires advance planning, teacher modeling of teamwork, collaboration during instruction, and constructive feedback loops.
Half Group Instruction: In lower school, we use half-group instruction to ensure that our youngest students get the focused attention that they need to master new skills. Our use of half-group instruction ranges from always (Spanish, science) to frequent (homeroom, music, art) to occasional (PE).
Developmentally-Appropriate Homework and Grading: The goal of learning at home in the lower school is to foster a home-school connection through meaningful assignments. In addition, through regular self-reflection, feedback, and support, students develop self-knowledge that drives them to seek academic challenges throughout the day, exploring subjects more deeply. Learning goals are set collaboratively with teachers, and students receive ongoing formal and informal feedback to improve their work, including report cards at the end of each semester. In the lower school, this model reflects an equal emphasis on process and outcome while incorporating the research-backed idea that children benefit from time after school for creative and physical activities that help them process in-school learning experiences.
Social Emotional Learning Tools:
- Responsive Classroom: The Responsive Classroom approach helps us build a strong, joyful, community of learners. At the heart of Responsive Classroom is the idea that social and emotional learning is just as important as academic learning and that learning occurs through social interactions. Incorporating morning meeting, closing meeting, advisory, all-school rules setting, and more, Responsive Classroom offers guiding principles that strengthen the values of Sheridan and our classroom and community rules.
- Morning and Closing Meetings: These meetings, part of the Responsive Classroom model, are an integral part of the school day and help build a strong sense of community, promote social and emotional learning, and enhance academic engagement. Morning and closing meetings offer reflective time to come together and share, allowing our lower school homerooms to begin and end their days on a positive note.
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Problem Solving Tools: An important component to Responsive Classroom teaches children how to resolve conflicts kindly and respectfully. Two tools that are used in our lower school classrooms are the Peace Rug, where students can discuss their disagreement and come to a resolution, and Problem Solving meetings, where students can bring a problem to the class that they themselves have not been able to solve.
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Quiet Time / Mindfulness: An afternoon moment of intentional, quiet reflection is a component of every lower school day.
- Discovery Days: Lower school students brainstorm a list of topics they are interested in, and then explore them with teachers on multiple days over the course of several weeks. These immersive learning experiences take place both in the classroom and off-campus. At the end of Discovery Days, students stage a multi-media exhibition of their learning for their fellow students and parents/guardians.
- Mountain Campus: Starting in Kindergarten, students visit Mountain Campus for one night in the spring with parents. Mountain Campus trips continue building in duration and independence as students get older, culminating in a two-overnight without parents in the spring of 3rd Grade.
Read our Program Guide for more information about our curriculum.
4400 36th Street, NW | Washington, DC 20008 | (202) 362-7900
Founded in 1927, we are a vibrant K-8 progressive school with no more than 230 students, an engaged community, and a fierce commitment to both equity and diversity.
