GATE Curriculum Night

St.Peter Lutheran Church and School

GATE Program is devoted to helping ALL
students learn, specifically advanced
students with unique learning styles,
talents, and abilities. We work to service
the whole child. We do this simultaneously
Welcome!
with our mission to glorify God by making
“The wisest mind disciples of Jesus Christ.
has something yet
to learn.” - George
Santayana
GATE Weekly Schedule

● Combination of Push-In Support with classroom teacher and Pull

Out in GATE Room
○ ELA every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday
○ Math every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday
● Monthly Life Skills Lessons
Curriculum Specifics

Learn more throughout the year about the

units we are covering by visiting
http://stpetergate.weebly.com/gate-curriculu
m-specifics.html

See what students are doing each week by

checking out photos and information from us
on our Parent Announcement Page .
Curriculum
3rd - 5th Grade: ELA & Math

● GATE will not replace ELA and Math content covered in classroom
● GATE will enhance content covered in classroom to apply and deepen
understanding
● GATE will provide students with skills, tools, and resources to deepen
and advance their learning across all content areas
● ELA curriculum will be a combination of Collaborative Classroom and
William and Mary.
● Math curriculum will be a combination of Project M3 and Big Ideas
Math: Project M3
Goal: To enhance students mathematical
understanding by fostering inquiry and
engaging students in critical thinking,
problem solving, and communication.
GATE with focus on:
● Teaching content through real world
experiences.
● Encourage students to think and act
like Mathematicians.
● Providing advanced thinking and
writing.
Van Hiele Levels of Thinking :
1. Visual: You see a picture of a triangle
and know it is a triangle just by
looking at it.
2. Descriptive: You see a picture and
know it is a triangle because it has 3
sides.
3. Informal Deduction: The ability to
see relationships amongst
properties. An equilateral triangle
has 3 equal sides which means it
must have 3 equal angles.
4. Formal Deduction: Finding proofs in
Geometry (what is asked of students
in a high school geometry course).
What you will see in Math this year...
● Exploring Place Value and Numeration
○ Deepen number sense and understanding of base-ten system
○ Expanded notation and grouping
● Factors, Multiples, & Leftovers
○ Development of mathematical reasoning power with multiplication
○ Exploring division and its relationship to multiplication and addition
● Measuring Up, Down and All Around
○ Estimating & process of measurement
○ Find area of regular and irregular shapes with true understanding of concept
○ Volume and capacity
ELA: William and Mary
● Each unit is designed to engage
students who have higher abilities
by challenging them in their
verbal communication, reading,
writing, and interpretation skills.
● Goal is to provide gifted students
with more opportunities for
higher level thinking.
● The lessons are anchored by
guided discussions and structured
around advanced literature.
Students will be taught specific
literary skills such as:
● literary analysis and
interpretation,
● persuasive writing,
● linguistic competency,
● listening/oral communication
skills,
● reasoning skills, and concept
development.
 William & Mary Unit Progression
Reflecting on Literature, Ourselves, and
the World around them
➔ (Grades 1-2) A World of Wild Wacky Wonderful Words- Study of Language and why its important in
Literature, Our Own Understanding, and in the World around them.
➔ (Grades 1-2) Beyond Words - Dives deeper into the English Language and the importance of word
choice (figurative language, etc) in what students read, how they communicate with others, and how it
is part of the world around them.
➔ (Grade 2-3) Journeys and Destinations - This unit helps students begin to understand change as a
concept that is found when reading literature from beginning to end, change in our own thinking as
we get older and learn new things and new people, and the change we all gain from the world around
us including those in our classroom. It isn’t about the destination of finishing a book it's about the
journey it takes you on.
 William & Mary Unit Progression
Reflecting on Literature, Ourselves, and
the World around them
➔ (Grades 3-4) Explore, Discover, Reveal - Now that students understand that reading literature is about
the journey not the destination we begin to move into exploring our reading through our own lens and
the lens of our classmates to discover and reveal that each of us learns and explores the world in
different ways.
➔ (Grades 4-6) Literary Reflections - This unit begins to integrate all the strands of language arts by
focusing on the interaction with literature while enhancing reading comprehension and textual
analysis skills.
➔ (Grades 4-6) Perspectives (Writing Unit) - Using the knowledge as a reader from past units to apply
new perspective and understanding to writing a narrative.
➔ (Grades 4-6) Patterns of Change - The concept of cyclic patterns of change is the unifying theme of
this unit. Students are introduced to important approaches and ideas of literary review by using their
background knowledge of literature, their own personal experiences, and the world around them
through cycles in history, nature, and human life.
Life Skills
Themes:
● Goal Setting
● Belonging and appreciating individual gifts from GOD
● Self Management
● Problem Solving & Teambuilding
 Homework and Grades
Homework
● Students will NOT have to make up work
missed from the classroom when they are
receiving pull-out support.
● Students are responsible for work their teacher
provides while in the classroom.
● Homework will not be given from the GATE
classroom.
○ Students may be required to begin and
finish classroom research projects at
home. This information will always be
provided to parents via the Friday
newsletter.
Grades
● Students will receive a Math/ELA grade from
their classroom teacher.
● Students will also receive a standards based
GATE grade.
● Student work will be shared with parents
during the quarterly check-in meeting or sent
home at the end of the quarter in their GATE
folder to be signed and returned.
● New students to the program will meet
quarterly to discuss their progression.
Returning students will meet bi-annually.
Supplies *new students only*
All Students

● 2 plain folders
● 1 inch 3-Ring Binder with clear page protector cover
● 1 pad of sticky notes any color
● 1 package of colored pencils any amount
New Students
● 1 Composition Notebook

We will be using shared classroom supplies of pencils, crayons,

scissors, markers, etc*. If you would like your student to have their
own feel free to create a supply box that they can keep in our
classroom for their personal use.