Monument Academy welcomes students from preschool through 12th grade, and each stage of school sounds different. Elementary students build foundational knowledge. Middle school students strengthen their reasoning. High school students learn to communicate and defend their ideas.
Spend a Tuesday morning in each of those classrooms, and you see how our classical approach grows with your child.
Key Takeaways
- Elementary students build foundations through instruction, memorization, and practice.
- Middle school students explore how and why, connect information, and support their ideas.
- High school students develop their voice through discussion, research, writing, and presentations.
Elementary School: Building the Foundations
Walk past an elementary classroom at Monument Academy and you may hear a song that helps students remember a language rule. In another room, students practice multiplication facts, learn new vocabulary, or retell a story.
These lessons belong to the grammar stage. Here, grammar means the foundational knowledge of every subject, including math, science, history, and language. Songs, rhymes, and repetition work alongside hands-on learning. Together they build the knowledge students rely on as lessons grow more complex.
Teachers ask, “What happened first?” and “What does this word mean?” Children begin to explain their answers and listen to their classmates. Curiosity belongs in the foundation, too.
Middle School: Asking How and Why
Middle school students begin to look at how ideas connect. They do more with the facts they learned in elementary school.
In literature, they discuss whether a character’s actions were justified. In science, they develop and test hypotheses. In math, they work through more abstract problems and explain their reasoning.
This is the logic stage. Students organize information, notice connections, and support their conclusions with facts.
Teachers ask, “Why do you think that happened?” and “What evidence supports your answer?” Questions like these help a student turn a first opinion into a reasoned explanation.
High School: Explaining and Defending Ideas
In high school, students enter the rhetoric stage. They use research, writing, and speaking to share well-supported arguments clearly and confidently.
During a Socratic discussion, a student interprets a passage, offers evidence, and responds to a classmate’s challenge. The teacher guides the conversation with purposeful questions: “What supports your position?” “How would you respond to that objection?” “Has this changed your thinking?”
Students defend their ideas respectfully and stay willing to reconsider them. That takes careful reading, subject knowledge, and good listening.
The same habits shape written work and presentations. Students make a clear claim, support the claim, and explain why the evidence matters.
Why Our Students Work Problems and Write by Hand
At Monument Academy, handwriting is part of how students practice and show what they have learned. Our Cursive First approach introduces cursive in the elementary years. Students analyze sentence structure, organize their thoughts in writing, and work math problems by hand, showing the steps behind their answers.
Technology has a purposeful place in our classrooms. Teachers use technology when a lesson calls for it, and reading, writing, and thoughtful discussion stay at the center of learning.
One Approach That Grows With Your Child
The stages overlap. Elementary students ask thoughtful questions, and high school students also memorize information. The emphasis and complexity change as students grow. The Core Knowledge Sequence guides learning through eighth grade. High school follows a college-preparatory curriculum. Each stage builds toward the next.
Here is the exact curriculum map we use at Monument Academy, so you can see the building blocks of learning at each grade level.
Beyond the Core Classroom
Students explore their interests through the arts, languages, physical education, and enrichment subjects, with offerings that vary by grade. As they move up, students have more opportunities in strings, band, and choir.
Middle and high school students can participate in athletics, including football, volleyball, basketball, cross country, cheer, soccer, golf, and more.
Character grows alongside academics. Through Capturing Kids’ Hearts, students learn empathy, self-direction, teamwork, responsibility, respect, kindness, courage, perseverance, and integrity.
Bringing the Conversation Home
Your after-school questions can grow with your child:
- Elementary: “What did you learn? Can you teach me?”
- Middle school: “What did you discuss, and why do you think that happened?”
- High school: “What idea did you support? Did another perspective change your thinking?”
These conversations show how students learn to remember, question, reason, and communicate. That is “a traditional education for modern times.”
See a Monument Academy classroom for yourself. Schedule a tour.
FAQs
Does Monument Academy offer support for gifted students?
Yes. A full-time licensed Gifted and Talented teacher works with advanced learners. Our content-rich curriculum gives them plenty of depth to explore.
What help is there if my child struggles?
Special education staff, a social worker, a school psychologist, and counselors support students. An occupational therapist and a motor lab help children with sensory needs, with or without an IEP (a written special education plan).
Does the curriculum teach character?
Yes. Through the Capturing Kids’ Hearts program, students learn empathy, self-direction, teamwork, responsibility, respect, kindness, courage, perseverance and integrity alongside their academic work.
Who runs Monument Academy?
A Board of Directors made up of five current Monument Academy parents governs the school. Visit our Board of Directors page to learn more.
What is a charter school?
A charter school is a public school with greater flexibility in its curriculum and educational approach. Monument Academy is a tuition-free public charter school serving K–12 students and focused on classical education.