Bronx Charter School for Better Learning work to help the students make efficient use of the learning powers they already have. Science and social studies units are designed by grade level teacher teams, which readily use the Core Knowledge Sequence as a guiding foundation and FOSS science kits as a resource. As educators, they know that by the time students enter 1st Grade, they have already proven themselves as outstanding learners, able to master such complex tasks as learning their mother tongue. By the end of 1st Grade, most of the children are able to decode words like orchestra, photograph, diaphragm and pneumatic and joyfully do so. At the start of 2nd Grade, they freely write short paragraphs like: I wish I was apt at swimming. I would swim all the way home.
