Academics
University-Model
University-Model
When considering a homeschooling model, parents often face these common challenges that University-Model® education seeks to overcome:
- Overwhelming curriculum choices
- Burden of lesson planning
- Concerns for social interaction
- Feelings and questions of inadequacy
- Lack of group instruction
Benefits
- Lesson plans
- Campus days
- Satellite days
SBSUM faculty develop lesson plans for both school days and satellite days. Students benefit from a traditional private school setting, preserving classroom etiquette, which teachers and parents expect from students. In return, students benefit from small class sizes. They receive the highest attention while they learn, which combined with one-on-one satellite instruction results in accelerated learning.
Campus vs. Satellite Days
Students attend on-campus classes two to three days a week with their peers and are filled with structure, organization and rigor. In the remaining days, students learn in satellite locations which can be in the home, office or other suitable learning environments. These days are referred to as satellite days.
Parents and tutors provide oversight and supervision on satellite days to ensure students keep up with their academic regimen. All testing and assessments are handled on campus by SBSUM faculty.
Classical Education
Classical Education?
Grammar
The Grammar phase (grades 1-4) of knowledge covers core subjects like math, science, English and history. Included in the English courses are subject like art, music, and Latin. During the elementary years, students in the grammar stage accumulate and memorize information about each subject while forming a knowledge base to be used in the second and third stages of instruction, Logic and Rhetoric.Logic
In the Logic phase (grades 5-8), students take their knowledge foundation into reason, where the student begins to realize principles and gain a better understanding of all subject in general. During the logic years, students synthesize this foundational information to reason, realize principles, and gain an overall understanding of each subject.Rhetoric
In the Rhetoric phase (grades 9-12), students use an accumulation of understanding and knowledge to learn communications skills both written and oral while incorporating wisdom into their education. During this stage, final preparation for college and life is a key focus, including guidance and mentorship to assist with the next phase of a student's life.Pre-kindergarten & Kindergarten
Pre-Grammar
Pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classes are designed to take full advantage of a young child's God-given disposition to learn. Children in this stage of the classical model possess an innate love for learning. Second Baptist School University-Model will maximize this zeal by offering much more than the traditional exploration and social skill activities.
- Memorizing passages of life-giving Scripture that integrate across the subject matter in each of the four units of Bible study.
- Studying the Word of God inductively, learning essential study skills like cross-referencing, keyword searches, historical context research and systematic markings to help unlock the meaning with accuracy and apply it in their lives.
- Practicing conversational Spanish while exploring the cultures and regions where this language is spoken, with songs, games, and high-energy activities.
- Memorizing poetry of great poets such as Longfellow, Dickinson, Frost, Blake, Yeats, and even Mother Goose.
- Singing traditional hymns filled with sound theology.
- Singing and chanting facts like the books of the Bible, months of the year, math drills, days of the week, colors of the rainbow and much more.
- Routinely presenting mastered material in front of an audience of peers.
- Observing fine art, studying techniques of the masters who produced each piece and trying to recreate some masterpieces themselves.
- Attending field trips in addition to serving the community.
- Listening to classic novels aloud in class and at home.
- Learning to read in a small group setting.
Proverbs 9:10 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." SBS University-Model will partner with parents to develop a Biblical worldview in our youngest learners. We will strive every day to build a solid foundation in which each child will learn to view his/her surroundings, assimilate information and make decisions based on Christ-focused truths.
When you spend time in the pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classrooms, you will soon realize that, although training the mind through gifted teachers and rigorous curricula is highly prized, training the heart for the excellence of God's glory is an even more unique and precious part of what we do.
Grammar School
Grades 1-4
In keeping with the classical education tradition, the Grammar School will use classical strategies such as chants, poems, songs, and sound-offs to memorize significant amounts of information that will be explored on a deeper level in the Logic phase of learning.
- Learning the structure of sentences and word parts along with their function.
- Signing and drilling math facts once we have been taught to conceptually understand the strategies for finding solutions.
- Chanting the grammar of history timeline pegs.
- Singing the presidents, states, state capitals and geographical regions.
- Memorizing scripture and the poetry of great poets like Frost, Stevenson, Belloc, Blake, and Dickinson.
- Reading classic literature, some of which has been omitted from mainstream public schools, like Robinson Crusoe, Huckleberry Finn, Treasure Island, Alice in Wonderland, Little House on the Prairie, and Anne of Green Gables.
- Observing art and artists, and through integration, learning about corresponding history and literature, while observing these timeline pegs through the lens of the Bible.
- Immersing in conversational Spanish, knowing that the early acquisition of foreign language comes easier at a younger age.
- Observing Latin and Greek and the influence these languages had on the development of English, and the role that Latin plays in the field of medicine, science and law.
The focus of the Grammar phase is to lay the foundation of knowledge. Children in grades 1-4 are able to memorize remarkable amounts of information. Though students in this age range may not be able to reason and interpret much of the information during this stage, memorized data will serve as foundational building blocks for the Logic (grades 5-8) and Rhetoric (grades 9-12) phases of learning. These two phases focus on understanding and wisdom.
Logic School
Grades 5-8
In keeping with the classical education tradition, the Logic School will use these classical strategies:
- Writing using the progymnasmata, an ancient system of teaching writing skills based on the systematic study of great writers.
- Beginning geometry, algebra, and the study of logic.
- Continuing the study of Latin.
- Analyzing the why and how of historic events and peoples.
- Memorizing scripture and poetry to begin understanding larger themes.
- Studying the Word of God inductively, learning important study skills like cross-referencing, keyword searches, historical context research and systematic marking to help unlock the meaning with accuracy and apply God's truth in their lives.
- Reading classical literature and summarizing each work in their own words.
- Integrating classical literature and summarizing each work in their own words.
- Integrating the study of arts and science across the history timeline.
- Immersing in other languages like Spanish.
The focus of the Logic phase is understanding and organizing thought processes. Students will begin to interpret and understand much of what they have memorized during the Grammar phase. The instructional strategies of classical education correspond to this developmental phase where students naturally begin to question.
Rhetoric School
Grades 9-12
Rhetoric students learn to speak and write across all subject areas with eloquence, good diction and winsome presence. They will learn to prepare for class in an effort to present knowledge of the truth authentically, humbly inviting the listener to consider and embrace both their position and the pursuit of truth that led to the position.
Quintilian, a Roman orator, writer, and teacher of rhetoric who lived in the first century A.D., saw this as the aim of education, "The good man speaking well." Rhetoric training prepares students for positions of leadership in any endeavor, whether in the sciences, humanities, business, politics, or the arts.
Rhetoric School will encompass many strategies, including:
- Learning around oval Harkness tables in discussion with classmates and teachers.
- Developing and reworking themes written on subjects in the humanities until both the form and substance of a student's thoughts are eloquent and persuasive.
- Learning to express an understanding of difficult concepts with words and through successful calculation and experimentation — even in math and sciences.
- Examining the Western tradition of art, history, literature, theology and philosophy chronologically, recognizing The Great Conversation of the ages and considering what it means to participate in it.
Rhetoric classes are challenging - but not just to be hard. As learners, students cannot articulate more than they understand, and they cannot understand what they have not wrestled within their lifetime. Our world is complex and challenging - understanding it is unavoidably difficult. Students reason in the Rhetoric phase to gain wisdom.
