What is Saturday School?
The Saturday School program’s project-based structure and culturally relevant curriculum fosters academic growth and social awareness. Operating on three college campuses (CSU Long Beach, Pomona College and UCLA), our effective Saturday School program is the most innovative and student-centered program, catering to 4-11th grade students.
Saturday School is a learning program that operates in conjunction with a traditional weekday setting. The program, as the name implies, is structured to operate on Saturday rather than taking place after regular school hours during the week. In general, Saturday School is designed for children from the kindergarten age to grade 12. There are two common applications for a Saturday School platform. In some communities, the school on Saturday is geared toward providing additional learning opportunities for gifted students. When this is the application, the components of the program are configured to compliment the areas of study that are appropriate for each grade, but provide a degree of challenge that is above the standard curriculum. This allows students who are somewhat bored with school during the week to be intellectually stimulated on Saturdays, and possibly help to avoid the incidence of impaired performance during the week. A second application of the Saturday School program has
Saturday School began in January of 2002. The group grew out of a need for blind children to interact with other blind children. The group has evolved into a wonderful collection of families. The group meets the second Saturday of the month at the Department for the Blind in downtown Des Moines. The key component of the meetings are that the blind children are able to work with blind role models. For two hours every month the children interact with blind adults who live with the blindness every day. They work on a variety of topics or issues. One month it may be cane travel, Braille skills, how to tie shoes, how to cook or whatever the need or concern may be. Some months the children have baked cookies, jumped rope or explored the Department in sleep shades. The children love the opportunity to work and talk with the blind adults and see and learn from the “pros”. At the same time the children are working with the blind role models, the siblings and parents are working on a variety of
