Academics
QHS: Creating opportunities, inspiring achievement, celebrating success.
Instruction at QHS is...
- Rigorous – Instructional activities follow the four steps of Rigor as identified by Robyn Jackson (2011). These steps include Acquisition, Application, Assimilation and Adaptation. Rigorous instruction focuses on how students interact with content and new material. Activities that require students to think critically, solve problems with no obvious solutions, draw inferences, make conclusions are a regular part of instruction.
- Engaging – Students at QHS will be immersed in content-rich and text-rich environments. Engaged instruction asks students to interact with concepts, ideas, text, and materials in realistic, hands-on, meaningful, often social ways. Engaged instruction reflects the fact that the brain needs to be exposed to new material in a number of different contexts that take into account a variety of learning styles (Tate, 2003).
- Focused – Quality instruction at QHS will consist of activities that have been shown over time to increase student achievement and learning. These activities represent the basic, essential skills necessary for success and also encompass the rigor and engagement needed for higher level thinking. These activities include close, analytical reading, writing, discussion, summarizing, and solving problems with no obvious solution (Marzano, 2008; Schmoker, 2011).
