Gordon is committed to teaching socially competent and culturally aware students. Gordon’s mission of “fostering involvement in the world beyond Gordon” requires that students have the critical life skills and the experiences that will support them in future endeavors. Faculty and administrators feel a deep sense of responsibility to help students understand social and cultural complexities and examine situations with knowledge, problem solving skills and responsibility.
Gordon’s current social curriculum is based on Open Circle in Kindergarten through fifth grade, and advisory in fifth through eighth.
For Open Circle, classroom groups meet twice a week for a series of discussions and role-playing activities that teach students skills and the vocabulary that enrich their social and emotional lives.
In Advisory, sixth, seventh and eighth graders meet daily in small groups with an advisor drawn from the faculty or administration. Advisory activities build on those of Open Circle, and also cover topics particular to the needs of Middle School students.
The school had always had a strong, though informal, social skills program, but in 2003, the administration felt the need for a clear scope and sequence in this area. A committee spent the 2003-04 school year researching social skills curricula and available programs. A recommendation came from the committee and was acted upon. The result was a thorough social competency program with a Kindergarten through fifth grade scope and sequence, the Open Circle program of the Stone Center at Wellesley College. Teachers from Nursery through fifth grade, special subjects faculty, and Division Directors have been fully trained in the implementation of this program which underscores the teaching of skills to be productive and powerful problem solvers with the responsibility to be a part of a respecting, caring and just community. This program is taught twice a week in half hour blocks in each classroom in Kindergarten through fifth grade. The curriculum has a spiraling scope and sequence and each year builds upon the previous year’s work. Some of the topics include: being a good listener, teasing, problem solving, and speaking up on behalf of one’s self and others.
Simultaneous with the Kindergarten though fifth grade work in implementing the Open Circle curriculum, the Middle School advisory program was revamped to include a more formal series of themes and activities to address building and reinforcing social skills in our Middle School students. Under the direction of the Middle School Director and the Director of Diversity, the Middle School advisory program for students in sixth through eighth grade gives students a smaller group in which to work on the continuation of the skills introduced in Open Circle with emphasis on the needs and concerns of pre- adolescents. Students meet with their advisors each morning. Once a week there is a longer advisory period where topics are discussed on a deeper level. Students are then involved in work related to such topics as social cruelty, identity, conflict resolution, decision-making and the impact of world events. Each advisory has a notebook comprised of topics to be discussed with activities that promote productive discussion and productive reflection. Also within the Middle School, there exist multiple opportunities for students to continue to develop social skills while practicing skills of citizenship such as programs in community service and service learning, our sixth through eighth grade overnight trips to various learning centers, our eighth grade civil rights trip to the south, and our Student Council.