Adolescent 2

Adolescent 2 (grades 9 & 10) Program

Great River School’s Senior High consists of two levels, Adolescent 2 (A2) for students in grades 9 & 10 and Adolescent 3 (A3) for students in grades 11 & 12.

Students in A2 work with four core teachers, have core classes together and learn in their own section of the school. They rotate between classes and open work during which students work on a long term project assigned from one of their core classes.  As much as possible, topics are integrated as teachers help students see how the world works and the reality of overlapping disciplines.

Key experiences

Fall Trip

The school year begins with all high school students participating different key experiences.  All 9th and 10th graders will spend their fall experience at The Land School, owned by Lake Country School, in western Wisconsin.  They will participate in farm activities such as gardening, animal care and stewardship.  They will also continue with their academic studies.  The fall experience includes an opportunity to travel, camp,  live, work and study together.

Spring Intensives

Spring Intensives revolve around the interests and planning by students with faculty support during the last eight days of school in June.   Students will return from their fall trip to begin planning these activities. They may be based in the Twin Cities, a music or art intensive with some time here and some on the road, or a backpacking or bicycle trip where students are gone the entire time.  Working together as a group here or on the road will strengthen the community that has been forming all year long.  If students are involved with a spring intensive that includes travel of over 500 miles, they will be responsible for fund raising as part of the planning.

Core Curriculum

Adolescent 2 core curriculum includes English, Science (earth and physical science offered this year; biology offered next year), history (geography and world history offered this year; civics/governmentoffered next year) and math.  Math classes offered include Algebra 1 and 2 and geometry.  If students need higher level math, arrangements can be made.

A2 Course Catalog

Weekly schedule

Each day begins with a 15 minute advisory period during which announcements and level activities take place.  Following advisory, student will attend their first elective class.  The middle of the days includes two 1.5 hour core time periods split by lunch. Core time is when students have their core classes and open work time.  To close out the day, students attend their second elective class.  On Wednesdays, students have only one elective and core class time as they spend the afternoon in CAS (see below).

Creativity, Action and Service (CAS)

All GRS students participate in CAS which originally comes from the International Baccalaureate Program.  However, consistent with Great River School’s core value of learning in the broadest sense, CAS activities allows students to nurture opportunities for self-expression including artistic and imaginative activities, be physically active and give service to their community.  Most CAS activities take place on Wednesday afternoons during school.  Planning and doing community service is the student’s responsibility.  Each A2 student must complete 30 hours of service each year as a graduation requirement.  Many opportunities are available at school for doing service but students are encouraged to seek out activities in the wider community for which they are passionate.  The student’s advisor is available to help student’s find appropriate activities for all CAS options.

Communication

Each student is assigned an advisor for the two years they are in A2.  This teacher is the first point of contact for any issues, academic or social, students or parents/guardians might have.  To identify the advisor for your student, please go to Power School and find the teacher assignment under the Advisory Class period on their Bell schedule.

Teacher emails: For individual teacher’s emails, please refer to the Faculty Directory to the right.

A2 Classjump website: The A2 faculty maintain a website to keep students informed about assignments and announcements for the core classes.  This site is intended for students.  Website address coming.