Program Overview
English Language Arts
DPISD believes…
…that children are active constructors of knowledge. We believe that reading and writing are a process, and meaningful experiences in reading and writing can best be orchestrated through a workshop approach. In this way, strategies and skills can be taught in a meaningful context rather than in isolation. We believe that the teacher’s role is to support the individual growth and development of each child by gradually releasing responsibility as the student’s competence develops. A successful language arts student has ample opportunities to be actively involved in authentic listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking tasks for a variety of purposes. This text-rich, supportive environment will facilitate both independence and collaborative efforts within and beyond the language arts classroom. Our ultimate goal is effective communication through competent and masterful use of language –in speaking and listening, reading and writing, visual media, and problem solving.
Mathematics
DPISD believes…
…it is critical to find ways to make high quality mathematics available to all students. Students will learn mathematical concepts and procedures with understanding, develop computational and procedural fluency, become flexible and resourceful problem solvers, and be prepared to use mathematics in their life.
Our goal is to provide equity, through experiences and varied instructional deliveries that engage all students. To accomplish this goal is to ensure that achievement gaps close faster than ever before. But it will continue to be one teacher working with one student at a time that makes the biggest difference in the mathematics that a student embraces.
Science
DPISD believes…
…we are always questioning, always discovering, and always creating. Science enables us to examine the world within the parameters of matter and energy. While science seeks to put order in the natural world, it is also a process that gives us a systematic way of testing, collecting and analyzing data and patterns to make meaningful connections of the world in which we live as well as predictions for the future. Future explorations and discoveries will be built on the foundations we generate today.
As Nobel laureate, Richard Feynman reflected about his parents –My parents did not ask, “What did you learn at school today?” but rather, “How many questions did you ask at school today?
Our goal, in Deer Park, is to promote a passion for discovering science. Questioning is the inherent cornerstone of this pursuit. Let us encourage our children to wonder and ask.
Social Studies
DPISD believes…
…social studies involves students in a systematic study of history, geography, economics, society, citizenship and government. Social studies empowers students to become critical thinkers, effective communicators, and participating members of local, state, national and global communities. Understanding the concepts within social studies will enable students to understand the importance of patriotism, the function of a free enterprise society, and basic democratic values of our state and nation.
Our philosophy is to educate students to think and act responsibly as contributing members of a democratic society. We must prepare students to reason and to evaluate the processes that have developed our society and to view their choices in daily life as those that will affect their future and the future of the world.