Why I Like St. Joe's:
[by the First Grade class]
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Saint Joseph School of Downers Grove
Educational Excellence
St. Joseph School focuses on exceptional academics and faith building. With two homerooms for every grade, St. Joseph offers kindergarten through eighth grade classes. At every level, the school provides a challenging and well-rounded education.
St. Joseph offers a differentiated academic program, which is designed to accommodate students who learn at different rates. While instruction is geared to above-average learners, each grade offers some individualized assignments for students who are more advanced or who need extra help. To facilitate the differentiated program, teacher’s aides are available at all grade levels to work with individual students and small student groups.
The school employs a “spiral” approach to teaching, which involves introducing basic concepts in each grade, then expanding upon them in each subsequent grade. For instance, St. Joseph students first encounter some basic algebra in kindergarten, when they first learn 1 + 1 = 2 and are then required to fill in the blank when they see 1 + _ = 2.
At St. Joseph, teachers take advantage of different learning styles, such as verbal, visual and tactile/kinestethic, to introduce and reinforce new concepts. First graders, for example, use manipulatives, or objects, to add two numbers as well as memorize addition facts. Seventh graders are encouraged to write a song about the digestive system, which helps them grasp key information in the same way that they learned to sing the months of the year in kindergarten.
To develop the whole child, students attend computer, art and music classes weekly. In first through eighth grades, students participate in physical education classes twice a week while kindergartners attend once a week. Students also learn research skills and borrow books during weekly sessions at the school library.
As the students approach their middle school years, they take on more responsibility starting in fourth grade when they begin changing classrooms to work with teachers who specialize in science, social studies, language arts and math.
The St. Joe's Difference
With St. Joseph, students receive first-class academic instruction along with religious instruction that is offered each day and which is integrated across all curricular areas. Not only is our curriculum aligned with the Illinois State Learning Standards, it is infused with Catholic identity and values. The school selects textbooks based on an approved list from the Diocese of Joliet. This approach makes instruction consistent with what is expected throughout Illinois and the Joliet Diocese while at the same time, St. Joseph creates a special place for learning, exploring, growing and succeeding.
About Standardized Testing
Beginning with the 2007-08 school year, the students in the Diocese of Joliet Catholic elementary schools will take ITBS and its accompanying measure of cognitive skills, the Cognitive Abilities Test™ (CogAT). As a Diocese, we will continue to measure reading, language, mathematics and cognitive ability in grades three, five and seven as well as science and social studies in grades five and seven.