Academics

English Language Arts

Recent research has shown that while there are many successful methods for teaching reading, none of them is a perfect fit for all students. MCS believes that a truly comprehensive approach to literacy education is one that employs various methods to best suit the individual strengths of each student.

MCS uses a variety of literacy education methods which include:

Shared reading, independent reading and guided reading
Teaching strategies which enable children to construct meaning from a variety of literary and non-fiction texts
Building a strong, decoding, spelling foundation in the early grades using a blend of phonetic, visual and kinesthetic techniques
Teaching skills and strategies which enable students to read in the content areas
Developing rich language experiences through reading, writing, speaking, viewing and listening

Mathematics

Mathematics taught at MCS is the mathematics the student sees in her/his world. The student is in control of his/her own mathematical learning. Students are encouraged to become owners of mathematical ideas and to construct meaning out of the experiences provided by the classroom activities and guidance of the teachers. All students will also master the facets that are essential components of Mathematics, including basic facts, algorithms and problem solving.

Students are exposed to numerous and varied interrelated experiences that encourage them to:

Value mathematics
Develop mathematical habits of mind
Begin to understand and appreciate the role of mathematics in human affairs
Explore, guess, evaluate and re-evaluate solutions so that they gain confidence in their ability to tackle complex problems
Read, write and discuss mathematics
Conjecture, test, and build arguments about conjecture’s validity

Our Music Program

Our Music program is unique to Manhattan Charter School. We offer a comprehensive program to develop the whole child musician. Music at MCS is considered the “fifth core discipline”, and all students receive music instruction each and every day. The program is designed to reinforce, develop, and enhance all areas of learning including reasoning, information processing, memory, and other cognitive skills. Specific musical skills such as singing, listening, instrument playing, tone matching, theory, history, and performance are part of the overall music learning experience. At Manhattan Charter School we believe that music is one of the strongest tools or lenses that students can use to understand one another and the world around them.

Humanities

MCS uses Humanities as a vehicle for inquiring into the historical and social forces that have created our distinctive culture and world situation. We believe that students should be taught to make logical connections between what they learn in school and what they observe as to how society actually functions. MCS uses the collective experiences, observations and surroundings of our families as the launching pad for our Humanities curriculum.

Our objectives are achieved through a number of means including: a chronologically and culturally broad program of history; the inclusion of the history of other civilizations and cultures; and an acknowledgement of the multiplicity of world views and a diversity of traditions. Through all of these pursuits, MCS students gain increased sensitivity to important social issues and to their own social responsibilities.

Science

Science at MCS emphasizes the need for students to become familiar with and use the processes of science, such as observing, classifying, describing, experimenting, measuring, inferring and predicting. MCS also recognizes that science is a structure of concepts and principles that students need to understand to be successful in the ever-changing technological world of the twenty-first century.

MCS believes that children are natural investigators. We make use of this innate curiosity by using their questions as a starting point for helping students investigate and discover answers through the method of inquiry - sensing the problem, hypothesizing gathering data, drawing and testing conclusions.

For our students, Science consists of exploring the world around them. Students try out things to see how they work, experiment and manipulate. These investigations allow them to ask questions, seek answers, to be curious. Science is interwoven with other interests and topics. We live with science and we want students to think scientifically and be scientifically literate.

Our School Culture and Learning Environment

Our students know it is okay to be smart, to be thoughtful, and to achieve. We value a strong sense of community and ethical behavior. Manhattan Charter School is a place where students feel safe and cared for, and a place they call their own.

Our classrooms are print-rich and filled with evidence of student learning. In-room libraries, listening and other learning centers, and a meeting area for whole group instruction cultivate the talents and abilities of each child.