Alhuda Academy Learning Standards are designed to produce independent learners who are encouraged to:

• Think, question, and communicate
• Gain and apply knowledge
• Work and contribute in meaningful, purposeful ways.

Students think, question, and communicate to make sense or meaning of their world and experiences.

Thinking includes being able to internalize new ideas and connect them to familiar concepts and prior knowledge.

Questioning includes the framing of thoughtful questions, and the pursuit of these questions until the student fully understands.

Communicating means putting learning into the language of speech or writing, and requires reflection in such forms as examination, clarification, analysis, and synthesis.

Students gain and apply knowledge to pursue ideas and experiences, and apply this new knowledge in real life contexts. This pursuit is interactive by nature. The more collaborative and experiential it is, the more powerful the learning.

Students' work needs to be meaningful and purposeful. The process and products of student work need to be valued contributions to the school and community, and the student. Embedded in powerful learning experiences are notions of persistence, self-discipline, hard work, effort, and pride in producing quality work.

Learning is an active, constructive, creative, and often collaborative process that involves a variety of distinct cognitive strategies. Skillful learners use these strategies-largely unconsciously- to access content through text or other media, to make meaning of the content, to make connections with and apply the content in thoughtful and meaningful ways, and to retain the content for later use. In learning these strategies and coming to own them, students learn how to learn in addition to acquiring important knowledge. These strategies include the following:

• Set goals or purposes for their learning.
• Make personal connections between the content and other knowledge, experiences, text, or media.
• Ask questions as they read, listen, or view.
• Clarify the meaning of words or content they do not understand.
• Listen or watch for important elements, themes, or issues.
• Create sensory images.
• Make predictions, inferences and judgments.
• Get "in the shoes" of characters or participants.
• Create ongoing summaries or syntheses.
• Build on their understandings by sharing and discussing them with others.
• Assess their learning and make mid-course corrections.

We understand that people learn via a system that supports the workshop approach to teaching and learning. The workshop approach helps teachers organize their classrooms and instructional time to teach effective reading, writing, and learning strategies and to help students put them into practice. The most important goal of this approach is the development of independent learners who are equipped with the skills and knowledge they will need for a lifetime of learning.

The workshop approach derives from the insight that people learn best by doing; and that teachers often need to provide students with more time to read, write, and use effective learning strategies to explore and understand the content they are studying. The approach also derives from the insight that students need to share in the ownership of the curriculum to increase their investment, engagement, and motivation. Students need to participate in the selection of "just right" books for independent and small group reading and writing activities, and they need to explore, read, and write about topics and ideas of importance to them (as well as the curriculum).

The workshop approach uses a mixture of whole-class, small group, partner, and one-on-one instruction that centers on conversations about content, strategies, and work routines. Each of these varied approaches to teaching and learning is essential to students' development as independent readers, writers, and learners.

The following habits enable effective learning and are essential to students' success in school. Developing these habits in students is the responsibility of every teacher, administrator, parents and other adults involved in the lives of our children.

• Curiosity and Critical Thinking: Students listen attentively, observe carefully, and ask thoughtful questions until they understand; they look for good evidence.
• Respect for Diversity: Students recognize and value racial, ethnic, cultural, age, gender, and individual commonalities and differences; they respect other people's points of view.
• Consideration and Compassion: Students treat themselves and others with care and respect; they build trusting relationships; they help, care for, and share with one another.
• Collaboration: Students work well with others, give and accept constructive criticism, try to be fair, and try to solve problems in a reasonable, peaceful manner.
• Self-Direction: Students check their own work, invite the critical response of others, and make appropriate adjustments.
• Perseverance: Students work hard until the job is done right, and are patient when the answers do not come quickly.
• Initiative: Students try new things, take reasonable risks, and reflect on their successes and mistakes.
• Courage: Students stand up for their rights and the rights of others in a positive manner that shows self- respect and respect for others; they resist harmful pressure.
• Responsibility: Students demonstrate personal responsibility and pursue important goals for themselves and their schools.