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Summer at Independence
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Learning Applications

At Independence, we teach our students the skills that are key to academic success. We teach them to engage deeply and explore widely. Most importantly, we teach them that the work of learning is full of joy.

Through our research-based LeApps™ curriculum (pronounced "leaps"), a long-standing hallmark program unique to Independence, each student discovers the best learning strategies to employ, organizational skills, how the brain develops and works, plus much more. LeApps is introduced in 4th grade. Students in fifth grade have an intensive, year-long LeApps course that sets them up for success in the later middle and high school years, when greater independence becomes a requirement. They apply the LeApps lessons directly to work in all content areas. The 6th-grade curriculum includes time to reinforce practices learned. The LeApps curriculum also provides opportunities for individual support in certain situations, guided study halls to apply and practice new skills, and drop-in lessons for lower school classrooms. 

The LeApps Curriculum Includes

  • Listening skills
  • Time management
  • Organizational strategies
  • Goal setting and prioritizing
  • Knowing and using different modalities for learning
  • Test-taking strategies
  • Metacognition (learning about learning)
  • Understanding the neuroplasticity of the brain
  • Steps toward deeper learning
  • Understanding the value of a growth mindset and supporting student-led parent conferences

 

The LeApps program provides students with an edge on peers in their age bracket who have never been taught how to study or how their brain works. Students are naturally interested in learning about themselves and are guided into situations where they can apply their skills to all content areas in the curriculum and organizational circumstances in their lives. 
Ms. Vita Biddle
LeApps instructor, learning specialist & middle school teacher