ScholarShift®

What is ScholarShift®?

Beginning with the SSM Class of 2018, our educational approach for the 11th and 12th grades grew to include, in addition to the excellent college preparatory academic program we have long offered, a series of educational experiences comprised of blended classes, a parallel curriculum of learning modules, and a year-long self-designed educational experience. We call this series of experiences ScholarShift.

11th and 12th grade academic classes will be offered in a blended class model. This model opens up the weekly schedule so that students can engage in the opportunities ScholarShift provides alongside their traditional, classroom-based academic program. It also requires students to hone their time management skills and prepares them for the college model in which seeking extra help from professors requires planning and initiative and each day is not predetermined hour by hour.

Juniors will choose from a broad catalog of modules, many of which have been proposed by the students themselves. The modules focus on everything from financial literacy to writing poetry, from film making to gender roles in popular media. Students will have the opportunity to study botany in our own backyard, record and edit podcasts in our weCreate Center, and grapple with the complex issues facing our local and national communities today. After completing this foundational year, seniors will spend their final year at SSM engaged in internships, developing significant research projects, or designing other year-long experiences that explore their passions and expand their skills and talents.

To meet our academic graduation requirements, our students will complete their academic coursework plus the three-year ScholarShift series of experiences. Completion of these new requirements will be reflected on student transcripts along with the full array of rigorous college preparatory courses currently offered in our curriculum.

ScholarShift Curriculum

Seniors

The parallel curriculum is designed to inspire the juniors to develop their own learning experience for their final year at SSM. Seniors complete a Senior Initiative - a year-long, self-designed educational experience - in addition to their academic courses. The modules juniors choose through the parallel curriculum should inspire a spark so that, senior year, they will extend their learning through internships in the local community, creative and innovative endeavors in our weCreate Center, significant service learning opportunities, critical inquiry and research into issues of personal and academic interest, deeper exploration of a module experience, and/or other opportunities which allow them to explore their passions and learn as they do, not as they sit!

Advisors act as primary mentors for students as they develop and engage in these opportunities. During spring term of each year, juniors work on plans for senior year in their advisories.

Juniors

Using the flexibility of our blended-course model, juniors complete a parallel curriculum in addition to their academic courses. The parallel curriculum is comprised of a series of six ScholarShift modules. These mini-courses cover a diverse set of exciting and engaging interdisciplinary topics and introduce students to new skills and concepts that they do not normally have the chance to learn from their core classes. Facilitated by Shattuck-St. Mary’s faculty and staff and by guest lecturers, students step out of their comfort zone and learn more about themselves before they head off to college. Students choose their own path through this rich curriculum, reflect on who they are as people, as learners, and as leaders, and engage deeply with ideas and problems they see in the world today.

Juniors have distribution requirements to consider as they choose their modules. They choose one module from each of four categories, and their final two modules can be from any category they like.

The categories are:

Developing Creativity
Exploring Self
Learning How
Asking Why

Modules are held in single-day intensive meetings or spread out in shorter meeting times; they are scheduled in several different time frames to accommodate all of our students.

While we help each student develop a plan for each term, we also anticipate offering some “pop-up” modules throughout the year as interesting opportunities arise, we develop relationships with guest teachers and volunteers, and students discover new interests.

Advisors are the primary mentor for juniors as they orchestrate their academic week, schedule their modules for the year, and begin to imagine ideas for senior year.

Sophomores

The structure of the academic program for the sophomores remains the same as in prior years. Students take English and higher-level English as a Second Language (ESL) courses in the blended model as an introduction to this structure. Because many of our upper-level World Language and Math courses are primarily populated with juniors and seniors, some sophomores might have more than one blended class if they enroll in those courses. Teachers and advisors coach students regarding time management, self-advocacy, and engagement in the instructional opportunities blended classes present.

In preparation for ScholarShift®, we have added a weCreate element to the sophomore-year experience. We believe that exposure to and exploration of the opportunities available in the Center enhances our students’ work in their current academic classes, their level of engagement and preparation for ScholarShift, and the skill set they bring with them to college and their professional careers. To that end, our weCreate faculty has developed a curriculum for students to complete over the course of the year. Students choose to complete mini-projects in Sketch-Up, Photoshop, iMovie, GarageBand, and other weCreate elements. Faculty are available to advise students as they progress through this curriculum, and advisors will help monitor student completion.

Middle Schoolers

When our Middle School students enter 10th, 11th, and 12th grade, they engage in the same set of experiences described in detail for our 10th – 12th grade students. Those experiences include:

An introduction to year-long academic classes in the blended model in 10th grade
A self-paced weCreate experience in the 10th grade
An academic blended model schedule in 11th and 12th grade
A parallel curriculum of six ScholarShift modules: mini-courses that cover a diverse set of exciting and engaging interdisciplinary topics and introduce students to new skills and concepts that they do not normally have the chance to learn from their core classes.
A Senior Initiative: a year-long, self-designed educational experience, such as internships in the local community, creative and innovative endeavors in our weCreate Center, significant service learning opportunities, critical inquiry and research into issues of personal and academic interest, deeper exploration of a module experience, and/or other opportunities that allow them to explore their passions and learn as they do, not as they sit!

The teachers of students in grades 6-9 help students develop the academic skills and habits of mind they need to be successful, and the community life program of the Middle School emphasizes character and community. We also continually explore how to specifically prepare our Middle School students to enter the blended model and ScholarShift experience in the Upper School. To this end, all students are introduced to online educational tools such as Moodle, students are highly encouraged to participate in weCreate courses, and 9th graders enroll in a one-term blended course on Health and Wellness as an introduction to the blended model. In addition, teachers include interdisciplinary projects, oral presentation skills, collaborative work, and research projects as part of our students’ academic work.

We encourage you to reach out if you have any questions or thoughts about what your children’s educational experience at the Upper School will involve.

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