Porter Academy Approach

At Porter Academy, we take an individualized “whole child” approach. We understand that not all children fit into a mold in regards to what they need to succeed. We bring the expertise of teachers, therapists, and administrators together to develop a comprehensive understanding of each child. This enables us to determine the most effective interventions (academic, social-emotional, and developmental) for that particular child. We enable the child to experience success both through modifications and through remediation of underlying difficulties. The modifications allow for immediate success; the remediation leads to lasting success. Both lead to improved self-esteem and internal motivation to learn.

Program Structure: Our program is structured in the sense that students know what to expect throughout each day in regard to schedules, teacher expectations, and consequences. In other ways, our program is highly flexible in order to accommodate the different learning styles and meet the physical, academic, social, and emotional needs of each of our students. We group our students into classes based on developmental level rather than age. Within each class, we break students into smaller academic groups specific to each subject; this allows us to provide a “just right challenge” in every subject for every student. These academic groups also overlap between classrooms; this allows us to place a child in a classroom that is appropriate academically, socially, and emotionally.

Success is supported through

• Small academic groups to allow for individualized attention
• Differentiated learning in order to provide children with a just-right-challenge and allow them to progress at their own rate and in their own way
• Utilization of well-supported academic programs
• Engaging multi-sensory learning activities
• Layering of information to facilitate retention
• Academic Curriculum: Core Knowledge Curriculum
• Social-Emotional Learning Curriculum: Social Decision Making/Problem Solving Program
• Intentional Character Education Program
• Therapeutic support within a group setting:
• Speech-Language Therapy
• Occupational Therapy
• Music Therapy
• Technology: Promethean Boards in every classroom, computers, Google Apps for Education
• Daily Physical Education
• Specials: Art, Sign-Language, Library