Facilitation of Skill Development

• Reading: Reading mechanics and reading comprehension are covered on the early levels with remedial help available through upper level transfer students. All Classical and Modern Literature classes stress close, critical readings with a comparative approach.
  
• Writing: The School offers an intensive study of the domain of language from mechanics and handwriting classes on the lower level, through composition and grammar on all levels, to formal academic writing on the upper level. Students acquire increased critical acuity in their own communicative acts while discovering the beautiful nuances of form and the persuasive power of disciplined speaking and writing. Students are also challenged to trace their subtle day to day progress in regular journal entries.
  
• Spelling: Spelling rules. Greek and Latin roots are taught. Words are taken from leisure and academic reading, and from chronic misspellings in compositions.
  
• Listening: Listening is encouraged in all disciplines as students first absorb information and then exchange ideas. Listening is an integral component in audience skills and necessary for appreciation of and critical responses to cultural events.
  
• Expressing Ideas: Rhetoric, Logic, and Discourse are studied at Renaissance Preparatory.
  
• Speaking Clearly: Speech is taught on all levels, from the mechanics of vocal production and phonetic articulation to informative and persuasive speaking, debate, and even oral interpretation.
  
• Critical Thinking: Critical thinking is demanded of the students in all disciplines, from structuring and executing labs in science, to quantitative reasoning in math, and post performance critical responses in fine arts classes.
  
• Basic Mathematical Computations: Math is taught one on one in small groups. The students progress at their own individual rate with mastery of skills as the goal.
  
• Observing Carefully: Among other activities, observation skills are honed in science labs, on field trips and Intensives, and in preparation for critical responses and journal entries.
  
• Solving Problems: Problem-based learning is highly compatible with thematic, interdisciplinary units, and is included in most individual and group assignments.
  
• Effective Group Participation: The school's curriculum demands effective group participation and the schedule is structured to enable daily practice.
  
• Healthy Living: Smaller units on healthy living on the lower levels are formalized into the required Health class on the high school level.
  
• Aesthetic Experiences: The school strives to provide aesthetic experiences with all disciplines and in all instructional delivery modes. Whether away from the school during Intensives or Field Trips, or at the school for theatre productions or viewing art from the Art Institute during class, aesthetics are explored.
  
• Career Development: As a college preparatory, the school believes in colloquia, independent study, and mentoring as a way to encourage students in their chosen discipline. For those who have not clarified their goals, the school offers advising and exposure to possible careers through master classes.
  
• Clarification of Individual Values: Issues of ethics and values are presented objectively for discussion and analysis in advising sessions and in class. The students are led through a process of research, analysis, evaluation, and decision rather than to a predetermined position.