Upper Grammar Stage (3rd-5th) Curriculum Objectives
Curriculum objectives developed by the St. Jerome Curriculum Group and used with permission from the Education Plan of St. Jerome Academy.
Third Grade: The Medieval Year
Fourth Grade: The Modern Year
Fifth Grade: The American Year
History
Knowledge
Understand key figures and events of Medieval, Modern, and American history
Appreciate how the lives of the saints shaped the respective historical periods
Know how people in the Middle Ages understood God and man
Recognize how Medieval culture exhibits an understanding of truth, goodness, and beauty
Know that Christianity has shaped the world and that the expansion of Christianity has brought increasing liberty, reason, and culture
Distinguish how the Modern period differs from the past in its understanding of God and man, and truth, goodness, and beauty
Understand how America understands God and man
Recognize how American culture exhibits an understanding of truth, goodness, and beauty
Understand history of America in the context of Catholic and world history
Appreciate the novelty of America in relation to its European origins
Understand what it means to be a good citizen
Understand difference between Medieval and Modern political forms
Understand key technological developments of the historical periods they are studying
Recognize basic geography (major world land masses and bodies of water; European and U.S. states and capitals)
Memorize songs and chants for relevant kings and queens, states and capitals, original 13 colonies, etc.
Recognize major periods of history using timelines
Understand how the differences between these periods and cultures are reflected in art
Skills
Compare, contrast, and explain the essential characteristics of cultures, governments, and figures in different historical periods
Memorize significant dates and be able to build timelines from them
Recognize correlation between “secular” history and Biblical/Church history
Explain cause and effect of historical events
Discuss philosophical and theological questions which arise from history
Narrate historical stories
Read and recognize symbols on maps
Recognize how geography contributes to historical events
Write biographical reports and do basic research on important figures in history
Understand the contribution of major historical figures
Aptitudes
Continue to develop an interest in history
See the relevance of past to present
Develop love of country
Develop a desire to be both a good citizen and a faithful Catholic
Begin to understand themselves and their culture as historical
Continue developing curiosity to know how things came to be and why people acted as they did
Appreciation of the beauty of saints and integrity and courage of heroes
Cultivate a desire to imitate the good qualities of these saints and heroes
Religion
Knowledge
Begin to recognize how the Christian culture of the Middle Ages is reflected in art, music, architecture, literature, the liturgical calendar, the structure of cities, organization of labor, and the code of chivalry and how this is transformed in the Modern period
Begin to understand importance of the Trinity and Incarnation
Know they belong to God's chosen people and are part of his family, the Church
Know they are made for heaven and that creatures and the created world exist to help them get there
Memorize books of the Bible, important verses, Apostles, Beatitudes, basic prayers of the Mass in English and Latin, sacraments, major events of salvation history
Know the parts of the Mass
Know the major moments of salvation history from creation to Pentecost
Understand basic teachings on Confession and Eucharist
Understand sin, grace and the sacraments
Know the Creed and understand each of its tenets
Know lives of the major saints of the periods of history they are studying
Know how to pray the Rosary
Skills
Give more advanced theological explanations of Church doctrines
Learn how to "assist" at Mass through acolyte training
Memorization and recitation of Scripture, Bible facts, catechism, prayers, and hymns
Learn to pray liturgically, intercessory, and contemplatively
Learn to regard and participate in sacred music as a form of prayer
Aptitudes
Cultivate longing for God
Develop personal relationship with Christ as friend and Mary as mother
Begin to value silence
Have favorite saints and relationships with them
Examine conscience, go to Confession, "offer up" a sacrifice,
Strengthening of the conscience to begin to love God's will and wish to avoid sin
Take responsibility for faults or failure and apologize sincerely
Acquire a spirit of service, collaboration and genuine friendship
Art
Knowledge
Understand the significance of the Christian contribution to art
Begin to appreciate an art history perspective in addition to a cultural history perspective
Study and give explanations of art of relevant time periods, especially Medieval and Renaissance
Begin to give more complex explanation and interpretation of works of art
Continuation of rendering
Develop an understanding of and be able to apply the following principles in artistic work (drawing, painting, and other media): line, shape, texture, color, value, and form
Recognize and employ basic elements of space and perspective
Skills
Continue to learn how to look at, examine, and see a painting and other works of art
Learn to tell the story of a painting
Learn how to justify why something is beautiful or not
Begin to reflect on experience of beauty
Develop drawing, painting, and sculpting skills
Copy more complex images according to rules
Aptitudes
Deepen the habits of attending and noticing
Sit still and carefully observe art and whatever is the subject of rendering
Deepen love and appreciation of beauty
Begin to look at art contemplatively
Deepen appreciation of art and beauty in the life of faith
Be able to question art works for their meaning
Language: Literature, Grammar, Composition, Latin, and Drama
Knowledge
Acquire familiarity with classic folklore and literature of the historical periods they study
Begin to master grammar
Begin to analyze and diagram sentences
Write complete sentences and paragraphs
Acquire facility in spelling and vocabulary
Have a repertoire of light verse, Psalms, ballads and historical mnemonic devices committed to memory
Memorize the fundamentals of Latin: primary declensions, conjugations, and vocabulary
Memorize Latin prayers, hymns, and phrases
Skills
Be able to use prefixes, suffixes, and root words as clues to meaning
Be able to read chapter books without help
Recognize plot, theme, symbolism, and other literary elements
Evaluate characters in stories
Ability to identify the main idea of a story
Write complete sentences and construct coherent paragraphs
Read and write summaries of readings
Practice good penmanship, especially cursive
Write paragraphs and recognize topic sentences
Identify conflict, climax, and resolution in a story
Write an organized, multi-paragraph composition in sequential order with a central idea
Research a topic using multiple books
Ability to understand more complex poetry
Narration: re-tell more complex stories in detail, with vocal clarity, poise, and eye contact
Construct simple stories
Be able to read aloud with good inflection and diction
Recitation: students recite poems, speeches, psalms from memory with vocal clarity,
poise, eye contact
Conversation: students should understand and be able to follow rules for 'Socratic'
discussions; students should be questioning and discussing various texts.
Follow four rules of discussion: 1. Read the text carefully. 2. Listen to what others say
and don’t interrupt. 3. Speak clearly. 4. Give others your respect.
Perform a play: memorize lines and help design costumes, props, set, etc.
Aptitudes
Listen attentively to peers and instructor
Read and concentrate for long periods of time
Learn to ask questions about the moral or meaning of stories and symbols
Learn to speak directly and confidently
Be basically truthful and dependable
Touchstones
Every week students and teachers in Grades 3-8 will engage in a Touchstones discussion. The readings will occasionally integrate nicely with the time period being studied, though the primary purpose of Touchstones is to develop the habits of Socratic inquiry. Teachers and students will engage in close study of philosophical and literary texts and will learn, over time, to speak clearly and listen attentively. The skills acquired in Touchstones will be carried over into all aspects of school and home life. Students and teachers will:
Acquire the habit of asking questions
Learn to seek understanding together through group discussion
Think more deeply about fundamental human matters
Learn to read a text carefully
Learn to respect and listen to their peers
Relate texts to issues in classroom and life
Be exposed to samples of good writings of literature, philosophy, art, math, and science from many different cultures
Exhibit manners and respect for others
Nature Studies
Knowledge
Recognize the study of nature as part of the human endeavor to understand the world
Understand science as one aspect of the study of nature which must be integrated into a more comprehensive vision of reality as God’s creation and thus behold nature in a different way
Recognize persons and animals not as historical accidents or the sum of their mechanical parts, but as living wholes that transcend their parts and are irreducible to them
Understand that as living wholes, organisms possess an inexhaustible depth and are worthy of our awe, wonder and affection
Understand that nature is therefore hierarchically arranged according to capacity for selftranscendence:
All organisms, including plants, exhibit some form of metabolism that relates them to the world through appetite
Animals exhibit metabolism as well, but also a capacity for self-movement and an awareness through the senses
Human beings, in addition to these, move and transcend themselves through reason and will, are able to contemplate God and the world, and can offer themselves in love
Beginning with the study of living things, students should be able to:
Render detailed observations of different organisms
Distinguish between genera in the plant and animal kingdoms
Specify essential differences between species
Identify unique characteristics in different forms of animal life
Explain what these characteristics mean in the life of the animal
Identify essential differences distinguishing human beings from other animals
From this basis, students should proceed to the interior world of plants and animals:
Botany
Anatomy
Physiology
Students should then proceed to the external world, understanding Earth as home for life:
Ecosystems
Natural processes which support life (e.g. weather, soil formation, water cycles)
Earth’s place in the solar system: the finely-tuned astronomical factors necessary to support life
Skills
Continue to develop the skill of observing, rendering, and cataloguing this knowledge in a 'nature notebook'
Narrate the above knowledge
Begin to ask philosophical and scientific questions of nature
Gain detailed, firsthand experience of nature through growing things and recording the various stages of growth
Follow directions carefully when carrying out scientific experiments
Aptitudes
Acquire reverence for nature as God’s creation
Be able to attend to and notice nature
Have a sense of wonder and appreciation for the natural world and the mystery of living things
Have an enthusiasm for examining nature and acquire the habit of curiosity regarding the physical world
Acquire a desire to experiment with what they are studying and observing
Mathematics
Knowledge
Deploy numeracy/counting: whole numbers into the millions; decimal place value
Recognize geometric shapes and calculation of perimeter and area
Have facility in addition, subtraction, multiplication, division whole number operations
Add, subtract, multiply, and divide decimals up to the thousandths place
Use fractions (reducing, adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing)
Measure accurately using both customary and metric systems
Estimate measurement when measurement tools are not available by comparison of surrounding or similar objects
Solve word problems
Count money and basic decimals
Acquire basic algebra skills (looking for unknowns)
Begin to understand proportions
Comprehend basic averages and ranks (median and mode; mean by grade 5)
Introduce classical geometric and architectural design (choose a building from historical time period being studied and analyze its geometric and proportional properties)
Analyze rounds and simple canons to identify simple progressions
Recognize and construct fundamental shapes in plane geometry: points, lines, rays, angles, parallels, perpendiculars, quadrilaterals and regular and irregular polygons
Analyze composition and use of light in art in relation to geometry
Analyze perspective in art in relation to angle measurement
Construct Platonic and Archimedean solids
Use Euler’s formula for the number of vertices, faces, and edges of polyhedral
Solve more complex codes such as a single replacement and translation code
Apply numeric methods in describing natural phenomenon—for example, estimate the number of leaves on a tree by modeling the splits in a branch
Skills
Memorize and master addition/subtraction tables (0-10)
Memorize and master of multiplication tables and division (0s-12s)
Use mental arithmetic
Multiply single- and multi-digit numbers
Divide multi-digit numbers by one-digit numbers
Tell time to the quarter- and half-hour and to five minutes and one minute
Add and subtract decimals, and compare decimals and fractions
Multiply multi-digit numbers by two-digit numbers
Divide larger multi-digit numbers by one-digit numbers
Find the area of two-dimensional shapes
Reason mathematically both orally and in writing through word problems
Use problem-solving strategies to solve real-world math problems
Add and subtract fractions and decimals
Identify and describe three-dimensional shapes, and find their volumes and surface areas
Use long division to divide large numbers by multi-digit numbers
Recognize numerical patterns in music and nature and geometrical patterns in nature and art
Solve simple probabilities, including independent and dependent events and simple truth tables for conjunctions, disjunction, negation, and implication
Read and use bar, line, and circle graphs
Measure shape and position over time, such as tracking the phases of the moon and simple astronomy, including solar measurements (measuring shadows and angles at different times of the year)
Count back change up to $100
Recognize basic Biblical numerology
Aptitudes
Acquire a foundation for logical reasoning through math
Be attuned to the relevance and significance of number and shape
Begin to appreciate the 'aesthetics' of number through recognition of patterns
Music
Knowledge
Understand the concepts of melody, harmony, and rhythm
Be able to recognize beautiful music and be able to explain why it is beautiful
Recognize instruments by sight and sound
Be able to sing and, if possible, play an instrument
Be able to read music
Memorize lyrics and know how to sing liturgical music
Sing carols, ballads and authentic folk music from periods of history they are studying
Sing the Hail Mary and Our Father in plain chant
Recognize forms of music from the periods of history they have studied
Skills
Acquire some musical skill singing and/or playing an instrument
Be able to concentrate, listen, and discuss a piece of music
Begin to learn how to sing/play various parts of a musical piece (applying their understanding of melody, harmony, and rhythm)
Aptitudes
Develop a love and appreciation of beautiful music and its power
Understand the relationship between music, prayer, and liturgy
Acquire the habit of patient, attentive listening, and active participation
Physical Education
Knowledge
Understand their bodies and physical abilities as gifts
Learn the rules of major sports and races
Recognize importance of discipline for achieving bodily excellence
Understand dynamics of competition
Skills
Acquire facility in throwing, catching, hitting, and kicking
Learn to work as a team in order to achieve a goal
Compete against other students of similar skill level
Learn basics of contra, square, and ballroom dancing
Aptitudes
Practice teamwork and good sportsmanship
Aspire to physical gracefulness
Admire excellent athletic performances, especially their aesthetic qualities
