Academics

Alpharetta Elementary School utilizes many resources to create a learning experience that is rich, interactive, and supportive of each student's needs. Provided here is an overview of our school's curriculum. For full details, please review the FCS Curriculum Handbook.

 

Alpharetta Elementary's Instructional Approach

With instruction always grounded in best practices, Alpharetta Elementary employs a variety of instructional models in which selected teaching strategies, approaches, and student activities achieve the greatest student understanding, engagement, and outcomes.

Standards

The Georgia Standards of Excellence (GSE) provide schools and families clear guidelines for teaching and learning. The standards explain what students should know, understand, and be able to do at the conclusion of a grade level or course. The standards define the level of rigor expected in the work enabling the teacher to know "how good is good enough." The standards provide the framework for Fulton County Schools to prepare students to be college and career ready.

 

Continuous Achievement  

The Fulton County Board of Education supports our mission statement that each child should be given the opportunity to reach their full potential. To that end, our continuous achievement framework for advancement allows each child to progress in language arts and math at their optimum pace and depth, expanding and compacting the curriculum as appropriate. The framework includes a process for advancement in the current grade level and an acceleration process which allows a student to advance above grade level. 

For more information, contact Alpharetta’s Curriculum Support Teacher, Brian D. Madej. 

 

Literacy: English/Language Arts  

Philosophy  

Whether reading is used to enter into the imaginative world of fiction; learn from academic texts; meet workplace demands; acquire insight and knowledge about people, places, and things; or understand a graphic on an Internet website; readers must adapt their skills and strategies to meet the comprehension demands of a particular task at hand.  

Fulton County Schools believes that students’ literacy skills and strategies can be cultivated to do so in all content areas. Literacy-rich classrooms integrate the teaching of disciplinary literacy skills and strategies into real-world contexts and give students opportunities to read and respond critically to text; write creatively, expressively, and analytically; develop effective oral language skills; investigate and present topics of interest using research methods; and use media and technology to communicate for a variety of purposes.  

Goals  

Through our English/language arts program, the learner will 

• communicate and interact effectively with others in the world. 
• think, interpret, create, and respond critically in a variety of settings to a myriad of print and non-print text. 

• access, use, and produce multiple forms of media, information, and knowledge in all content areas. 

 

Mathematics 

Fulton County Schools implements the Georgia Standards of Excellence for mathematics. The Fulton County Schools Mathematics curriculum stresses rigorous concept development, presents realistic and relevant applications, and keeps a strong emphasis on computational skills. Teachers strive to create student-centered classrooms where students engage in rich mathematical tasks and experiences that create mathematical discussions among students. Teachers will ask purposeful questions that draw out evidence of student thinking and motivate students to persevere in their problem-solving process. Teachers build math fact fluency in students based on conceptual understanding, so procedures are meaningful and can be replicated over multiple years. The use of technology and manipulatives further support the conceptual development of mathematical concepts and skills. 

 The Georgia Standards of Excellence for mathematics are organized into content standards and standards for mathematical practice. The content standards are organized into domains: counting and cardinality, operations and algebraic thinking, number and operations in base 10, numbers and operations-fractions, measurement and data, and geometry. The standards for mathematical practice are an essential part of learning for all students. Students will use these standards as a way of acquiring and using content knowledge. The eight practice standards emphasize problem solving, reasoning, representation, modeling, connections, and communication. These strands are consistent throughout the K-12 Mathematics Curriculum. 

 

Social Studies 

The purpose of the Fulton County School System’s social studies curriculum is to prepare students to become citizens who participate in a democratic society in an increasingly interdependent world. Through social studies education students should acquire a continuing interest in their society; develop a respect for the dignity and worth of all persons; and achieve the depth of understanding, the loyalty to democratic ideas, and the skills necessary to accept responsibilities and rights of citizenship. 

The Fulton County Social Studies Curriculum is based upon the Social Studies the Georgia Standards of Excellence for Social Studies (GSE). An important feature of the GSE for Social Studies is that each grade, K-12 includes four strands, history, government, geography and economics. The economics strand includes a unit on personal finance in each grade K-12. 

 

Science 

At each grade level, kindergarten through fifth grade, the content is divided into three domains or strands: (a) Physical Science, (b) Earth and Space Science, and (c) Life Science. Integrated into these content strands are science and engineering practices and crosscutting concepts. The science and engineering practices, content, and crosscutting concepts are used throughout K-12 science courses and build towards a progressively deeper understanding of the dimensions as students’ progress through the years. Hands-on, student-centered, and inquiry-based approaches should be the emphasis of instruction. 

 

Supportive Academic Software Programs

I Ready - Provides students individualized instruction in math and reading. Reading and math are used in grades K-5.  

 

Tumblebooks - An online collection of animated, talking picture books as well as beginning readers, chapter books, and graphic novels and is part of our eBook collection. 

 

Reading A-Z- An online program providing literacy resources for teachers to help with reaching students at all levels.  

 

Write Score- Students in grades 3-5 will take a diagnostic assessment that will present the school with data to help with decision making. It also provides many rigorous reading and writing resources that help teachers to target instruction base don student need.  

 

Digital Citizenship by Common Sense Media - Yearly, Alpharetta Elementary provides Digital Citizenship instruction using the Common Sense Media curriculum for grades Kindergarten through 5th grade.  This instruction helps to create a positive school culture that supports safe and responsible technology use.  AES also yearly applies and meets the requirements to become a Digital Citizenship Certified School. 

Guidance 

Communications between Alpharetta Elementary and parents are of paramount importance for positive relationships and student well-being. Our weekly newsletter, Eagle Wings, provides periodic up-to-date school information and event dates.  For overall school information, please refer to our online handbook. For additional information, please contact our school. 

 

TAG 

Alpharetta Elementary offers TAG (Talented and Gifted) instructions to those qualifying students.  Students meet every Monday-Friday for 45-50 minutes for this program. 

Screening for the Gifted Program takes place twice a year for Fulton County Schools. Automatic Screening takes place in August- September.  Parents will be notified before any testing begins.   Students referred for testing will be tested during the Fall semester.  All parents will be notified of eligibility by December. The Classroom Screening will take place for a two-week period from January – February. Each school will select the two-week period that best fits the overall school calendar.  Students Identified for testing will be tested January-March.  All parents will be notified of eligibility by the end of the school year.   For more information please read the Parent Notification of Screening and Referral for Gifted Services, Spanish Notification of Screening and Referral for Gifted Services, refer to the Questions & Answers Regarding Screening and Referrals, or the Fulton County Schools TAG page. 
 
For additional information, contact Suzanne O'Brien at obriens@fultonschools.org or Kellie Cleveland at clevelandk@fultonschools.org.

Early Intervention Program 

The Early Intervention Program (EIP) is designed to serve K-5 students who are at risk of not reaching or maintaining academic grade level.  The purpose of EIP is to provide additional instructional resources to help students who are performing below grade level obtain the necessary academic skills to reach grade level performance in the shortest possible time.  

Please contact the school for additional information or refer to the Fulton County School EIP web page. 

 

English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) 

The Quality Basic Education Act provide for the creation of programs designed to help English language learners. These programs develop proficiency in the English language skills of listening, speaking, writing, reading and comprehension so that students can experience success in their classrooms and in social contexts both inside and outside of the school. Students from other cultures become acclimated to American culture through language-based instruction. All instruction in the ESOL program is given in English to facilitate the acquisition of English language skills for successful academic and social pursuits. 

Please visit the ESOL Program Page on the Fulton County Website for additional information or contact  Phyllis Silverio at silverio@fultonschools.org. 

 

Exceptional Children Services 

Alpharetta Elementary provides services to students with disabilities. The services are provided through a continuum of educational environments from regular class placement to full day programs in specialized environments. The type and degree of services provided are determined through the development of an Individualized Education Program (I.E.P.) 

For additional information, please contact our IST, Christi Aysh, or visit Services for Exceptional Children on the Fulton County website. 

 

Speech Services 

Alpharetta Elementary provides speech services to identify and evaluate students who meet eligibility requirements for speech-language impairments. We work collaboratively and communicate with professionals and parents to integrate speech and language goals into the classroom and school environment. 

For additional information, please contact Christi Aysh, our IST. 

 

Pre-Kindergarten Class 

We are proud to house two pre-kindergarten classes. Because of limited space, pre-kindergarten registration is handled by a lottery system. Alpharetta Elementary registration and lottery is in March. 

Parents can visit the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning web site to determine the availability of other pre-kindergarten program providers.