El Toro High School’s Freshman Academic Advantage (FAA) is an
innovative program designed for students who have shown academic
potential in their grades and test scores, but have not demonstrated
consistent academic success in both of these areas of measurement.
Research
shows that students with this profile may have a difficult time making
a successful transition from junior high to high school without some
specialized instruction and study skills support. At El Toro High
School, we’re always looking for (and finding) ways to meet the needs
of students with a variety of profiles who enroll here and FAA is one
such solution to a common problem.
FAA contains the same curriculum of our college preparatory classes,
but is formatted and delivered in a way that is designed for academic
success and a productive high school experience. The FAA program is
based on the idea that the past is
valuable because of what we can learn from it, but the present and
future are more valuable because in them, we will show how well we have
learned anything at all.
Both students and parents involved in last year's initial offering of
the program had positive comments to make and this year, some key
improvements have been put in place to make the program even better.
THE PROGRAM
Students in FAA
program are
enrolled in English 1 and Algebra1, just like the many of our
freshman students, but these classes will be blocked, meaning taught
back-to-back in the daily schedule and by the same instructor. This
allows for creative and effective blending of curriculum not only for
mastery, but for reinforcement.
Some FAA students are
also
enrolled in one of several study skills reinforcement classes offered
to our freshman. The academic support class (AIP) will
receive elective credit and is designed to monitor progress in all
classes and provide important study skills.
As a rule, two goals that
parents set for their children are to secure a job that is personally
(and financially) rewarding and to become adults who have productive
and rewarding relationships with others.
The FAA program, as part of El
Toro’s world-class high school education, is designed to move students
toward these goals by stressing three important foundations: community,
content and mastery. These foundations interact to give the program its
dynamic and specialized nature.
THE
FOUNDATIONS
The foundation of community
in the FAA program is important because it affects how learning takes
place. Any community must have expectations and teamwork
in order to be successful.
In the FAA
classroom, expectations about behaviors that lead to learning are clear
and carefully enforced. The highest of these expectations are on-task
behaviors that involve speaking, attention to task and expenditure of
effort (in other words, speaking when appropriate, doing the work at
hand and working hard to do a good job).
Valuable expectations
are best realized through teamwork. In the FAA program, it is expected
that the instructor, parents, students, and support providers will work
as a team, treating each other like family, to provide academic success
for all students in the class. Dragging an unwilling runner across the
finish line is very different than providing training and encouragement
to the developing athlete. The expectations and team roles that are
foundational to the FAA community are keys to getting The Job of School
done well.
The second
foundation is content. Beyond
monitoring the learning community, the
instructor’s primary function is the classroom is to provide relevant
and rigorous content to FAA students. Parents will agree that content
must be relevant so students can easily see they will “use this stuff”
in the future.
When core content is
not only relevant, but rigorous, students will be able to function
successfully in the future as older students and employees, as well as
be the critical thinkers society must have to survive and thrive.
The third foundation
is mastery. Students who work
in a community and are exposed to content
that is relevant and rigorous, will be able to demonstrate the mastery
of skills that are essential to academic and workforce success. Almost
every citizen must work for a living and The Job of School is to
prepare students to be productive citizens and workers.
Students should
learn at an early age that careers that provide the most satisfaction
are not always the ones that have the highest salaries. The best career
path for any FAA student is a unique and distinctive reflection of each
student’s individuality.
However, all
successful and happy workers have a common set of skills: a passion for
their work, the practice that leads to skill mastery and the discipline
to get through the less-desirable parts of any work day. Students in
the FAA program are encouraged to use these three mastery skills to
become masters of core content as they prepare for the career and
academic adventures they will soon choose for their lives. Students and
parents in the program will hear much about the skills + stamina =
success equation that summarizes and extends the foundations of
the program.
MORE
INFORMATION
The freshman year continues a journey rooted in the hopes and dreams of
parents, students, teachers and school support personnel. El
Toro’s FAA program can be an important factor in the success of that
journey.
More information about El Toro’s Freshman Academic Advantage (FAA)
program is available at http://faa.aj2.us
or by emailing Ron Archer, FAA teacher at archerr@svusd.org
About the
instructor
Mr. Archer is celebrating his 32nd year as a teacher in the Saddleback
Valley Unified School District and because he has two teaching
credentials (English and math), over the years he has taught a
variety of curricula at a variety of levels, honors to workshop. He has
extensive experience working in block and blended curricula, most
recently with the American Journey program at Mission Viejo High
School. This program received national attention (and most importantly,
praise from students and parents) for its innovative curriculum design
and delivery. Mr. Archer has worked with teachers Districtwide to
effectively develop and deliver productive classroom experiences.
In additional to his classroom work, Mr. Archer has been employed as a
corporate trainer, delivering workshops on business communication to
sales reps across the country. He also writes and develops branding and
marketing strategies for clients of a marketing company in Dana Point.
Mr. Archer lives in Mission Viejo with his wife. Their two youngest
children are in college and the eldest, a recent college grad, lives
and works in Orange County.
