OUR PROGRAMS​

 

CAVE COURSE CATALOG

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WEN: Wisconsin eSchool Network

 

The Wisconsin eSchool Network (WEN) consists of about two dozen virtual schools in Wisconsin. CAVE is a member. The consortium provides us with online courses.  We can also share teachers across schools.  For instance, CAVE doesn’t have any foreign language teachers, but through WEN we can offer many languages courses.  Teachers from other schools teach those courses.  WEN offers courses for grades 6-12 and is developing elementary courses for future years.

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WEN has a learning platform (BUZZ) that tracks completion of student courses. Students complete their course lessons on BUZZ and submit assignments to teachers through the system.  Teachers evaluate work and give students feedback through the system. The WEN system produces a Student Transcript with a percentage grade.  If you take a WEN course you do not need to design a project for that content area.

 

ALEKS MATH

 

ALEKS stands for Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces.  It is a web-based system that uses adaptive questioning to determine what a student knows and doesn’t know.  ALEKS provides the student with math lessons on topics that are the next step for the student to learn.  As students work in ALEKS they are periodically reassessed to make sure they are retaining what they learned.  ALEKS is aligned to the Common Core Standards in Math which are assessed on the state Forward Exams and on the ACT (11th grade) and ACT/Aspire (9th & 10th Grade) tests for high school students.  

 

We require students taking math in grades 3-12 to use ALEKS.  Students have the option of using other materials as supplements, but ALEKS is the primary curriculum.  Students in grades 3-6 will work to reach a minimum completion percentage of 55% of the curriculum for 1st semester to meet standards.  They will continue to work to reach a minimum percentage of 85%  for 2nd semester to meet standards.

Students in grades 7-12, will also work towards meeting the minimum completion percentage of 55% of the curriculum for 1st semester.  Student will earn a grade of a “B” once they have accomplished this.  However, students can earn an “A” if they have an approved supplementary project or they have at or above 60% of their curriculum completed. At that time they would earn ½ credit.  For 2nd semester, students need to meet 85% of the curriculum to earn the last ½ credit of that course and earn a letter grade of a “B”.  If students wish to earn an “A”, they can do another approved supplementary project or work towards completion at or above 90% of the curriculum
 

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PROJECT BASED LEARNING (This is for all courses that are not online in ALEKS, Odysseyware, WEN or some other similar system)

 

If you want to use paper curriculum or digital course materials of choice you may design projects that meet academic standards.  We use a Learning Management System for tracking the student projects that you design and teachers approve. Each student will be set up with an account.  Students should consult their account each school day to review work to be completed, deadlines to be met and view messages from teachers.  You have many options and choices for structuring learning in this system.  

 

• DRIVING AND ESSENTIAL PROJECT QUESTIONS - First, design learning projects that captivate students and answer big questions young people wonder about.  For some examples:  How do cell phones work?  How are rainbows formed?  Why can we divide fractions by multiplying by the reciprocals?  

• EARNING GRADES IN PROJECT BASED LEARNING - For students 6th grade and younger, their grades will be awarded upon NOT MET, MET or EXCEEDS Expectations.  Students at these grade levels are encouraged to do many projects, however, they also need to meet at least 1 of the State Standards.  For students grade 7-12 their grades will be awarded on a POINT system, where students will need to earn enough points during the course of the semester on a 100 point scale. (60% = D, 70% = C, 80% = B, 90% = A).  For example, some projects which are smaller (i.e. a book report) may earn up to 10 points.  Some project may be larger and earn up to 50 points.  Each project should be geared towards reaching as many State Standards as possible.  We use the LMS to keep track and organize these projects to their standards. Teacher guide the family toward appropriate State Standards for each grade.

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STANDARDS OR LEARNING TARGETS

• Students are required to meet a specific number of standards in a course.  The number of standards varies according to grade level of the student and the content of the course.  Students meet standards through “projects” they create and complete or through completion of pre-designed online courses through the WEN network, Odysseyware or ALEKS.  Staff will provide more details about standards during the registration process

 

PHONE CALLS OR VIDEO CONFERENCING

Teachers will call to schedule conferences or short lessons with students.  Students and families are expected to answer those calls and schedule times with the teacher(s).  Students and parents are also welcome to call school personnel to request help.  This is done through Skype, Google Hangouts, ZOOM, FUZE, Goto Meeting or some other product.

 

SERVICE LEARNING

We encourage students to become contributors to their communities.  One way to do that is through service learning.  Students and families may choose to build volunteer time or service components into their projects.  These activities may be recorded as part of the time spent on the project work.