The Ten Essentials

These three major areas that make Odyssey different come from our Ten Essentials, which you will see across clusters. 

• 1. Team Teaching

  • When teachers collaborate, students receive many benefits.

  • Two or more teachers working together create the opportunity to pool 

  • personal and instructional resources.

  • Increases creativity and ability to meet the needs of individual students.

  • Allows students to be in flexible groups and teams for art, math, literature 

  • and many components of their day.

  • Teachers flow between groups, too, allowing them to teach to their

  • strengths.

• 2. Multi-age Classrooms

  • Blended grade levels allow students to progress at their unique

  • developmental rate.

  • Student developmental rates are often very different than their 

  • chronological rate.

  • For math, reading and literature, students are placed in groups according to 

  • their assessed needs.

  • For all other subjects, students work in mixed-age teams, which include both 

  • older and younger students at a variety of academic levels.

• 3. Cooperative Learning

  • Research shows that cooperation is more effective than competition in 

  • improving academic achievement.

  • Provides the opportunity for older students to learn and practice leadership

  • helping younger children who look up to them.

  • Students benefit from:

  • Constructing knowledge together as a team.

  • Contributing at their unique level. 

  • Leading in their areas of strength.

  • Receiving assistance in areas where they are less confident.

  • Non-threatening environment supports problem solving, and effective 

  • communication and collaboration.

• 4. Community Support

  • Odyssey welcomes and encourages parent and community involvement in many

  • ways both during and outside of the school day.

  • Teachers, students, and families join together to foster learning, creating 

  • a community school.

  • Parents participate in the way each chooses—everyone is needed and valued.

  • This approach creates a strong and engaged learning community.

  • Parents connect to what their children are experiencing.

  • Dedicated community support helps teachers achieve their educational goals.

  • All students feel supported by a group of adults who care about 

  • them.

• 5. Differentiated Instruction

  • To meet all the needs of a diverse student population, The Odyssey Program 

  • differentiates instruction.

  • Individual students learn in a wide variety of ways and have different 

  • interests.

  • Instructions reaches out to students unique learning styles, interests, 

  • readiness, and needs in order to create the best learning environment possible.

  • All learning is designed to use scaffolding activities, engaging students’ 

  • areas of strength (i.e., visual, auditory, kinesthetic) and moving them to 

  • mastery of areas of need.

• 6. Open-Ended Curriculum

  • Our learning format has no bottom or top.

  • Curriculum fosters the development of creative and critical thinking skills 

  • in all subject areas.

  • Students at all academic levels experience much growth during the school 

  • year.

  • Gifted students are challenged, while those needing to master the basics are 

  • supported toward success.

  • Curriculum helps students view learning as an ongoing, life-long process. 

  • All students are encouraged to deepen their learning through 

  • extensions.

• 7. Theme-Based Learning

  • The Odyssey Program is based on integrated curriculum and enrichment

  • Centered around historical themes based on Oregon learning benchmarks.

  • Prominent American educator Dr. Mary Beth Klee argues that, "For too many 

  • years we have undershot with America’s elementary school children.

  • "They come to us with their fresh minds, their keen curiosity, their 

  • enthusiasm for learning, and for far too long we have served up pabulum.

  • "They come to us longing to connect with the broader world, the world they 

  • do not know, but hunger to know."

  • In our program, we strive to satisfy this "hunger."

• 8. Enrichment

  • Hands-on learning activities meet the needs of a wide range of students and

  • appeal to their specific interests.

  • Art, writing, science, language arts, and social studies are integrated into 

  • the curriculum for each unit.

  • Singing, dancing, and drama are emphasized in a culmination performance for 

  • each unit.

  • Extended field studies culminate learning each year in grades 3-8.

• 9. Integrated Curriculum

  • Education is more effective when students know why they are learning

  • something, and are offered a context for new information.

  • Studying rivers, mountains, and rock formations becomes much more meaningful

  • when a child also learns how this topography affected Lewis and Clark’s 

  • expedition, or the lifestyles of the Northwest Indian tribes.

  • Integrated study at The Odyssey Program mean that subjects will naturally 

  • flow together.

  • Students won’t have to stop thinking about science and start thinking about 

  • spelling just because a bell has rung.

  • Students might not realize what "subject" they learned on a particular day, 

  • but will be able to describe a wealth of knowledge gained and tell a 

  • fascinating story of why it is important.

• 10. Interactive Learning

  • In this educational model, no child is a passive learner.

  • During each unit of study, students take on the identities and lifestyles of persons from the theme period.

  • Students learn the music, collect the artifacts, and engage in interactive simulation activities where learning comes alive.

  • This approach appeals to the imagination of every child.

  • Learning is never isolated and abstract, but always meaningful and exciting.

•  
  Downloads:
  multi_aged_classrooms.doc
  team_teaching.doc
  ten_essentials.pdf