Music
The courses are Intro to Band, Honors Band, and Latin Jazz Orchestra. Students will choose a specific instrument and develop proficiency on that instrument. They can choose among the woodwind, brass, and percussion families of instruments. Students will learn how to read notes and rhythms, and learn how to play in an ensemble setting. Students will be expected to perform in school concerts.
English
The English curriculum will consist of four courses: 9th Grade English, 10th Grade English, 11th Grade English, and College Writing. The teachers in the English department will work to ensure that students write creatively and clearly and have control of the spelling, grammar, and punctuation conventions of the English language. We have adopted the Collins Writing Program as a way to provide common language for describing writing and creating rubrics for students in every course.
Students will learn to write expository and persuasive essays. In addition, English teachers will work to make sure that our students develop an appreciation for literature and poetry, an ability to present and discuss, and confidence in their ability to think and express their ideas.
Language
The Russian Language curriculum, required of all students, is designed in a way that will give Pritzker students not only a basic linguistic knowledge, but also develops in them an appreciation for the culture. French language is an elective that students can choose to take after school, and Spanish at the AP level will also be available.
Math
Freshmen begin with Algebra 1. Students will progress through Algebra 2, Pre-Calculus and then will take AP Calculus in their senior year. This will prepare them for both Chemistry and the PSAE.
MCJROTC
This military program emphasizes life skills training. Specific program goals include the formation of habits of self-discipline, recognition and proper response to authority, character enhancement, and overall development of cadets as well-informed and responsible adults. Visit the U.S. Marine Corps Web Site.
Reading
The Reading Department includes three courses: Multicultural Literature, American Literature, and World Literature. The reading curriculum was developed over the past five years and includes aspects of Reading, Collins Writing, and reading strategies developed by Pritzker reading instructors.
Science
The Science Department is designed to provide each student with an appropriate foundation for college in the laboratory sciences. Freshman year the students will take physics. This foundation and skill building is followed by sophomore chemistry. In junior year, biology is designed to further explain the world that the student lives in. With a solid mixture of content and experimentation, biology builds on the skills previously learned in the first two years to further explain the world and start providing answers developed by the students for the questions about their world. In their senior year, AP Physics is the conduit to explain the larger world to the student. Experiments drive the students' understanding of laws and theories that explain the world they live in. It also is the introduction to concepts and ideas beyond the known and into the unknown.
Social Science
A student who graduates after four years of study within the Social Science Department will be a person who understands the fortune and profound responsibility of being a member of a community, a citizen of the United States, and a member of the larger global neighborhood.
Starting with Civics in their freshman year, a student explores the underpinnings of American law from the settlement at Jamestown to the framework of the Constitution. An emphasis is placed not only on the structure of our federal system, but also on Illinois State government and Chicago city government. Human Geography course, also taken during freshman year, will expose students to the world's diversity and complex nature of interactions between societes, ecology, and political processes taking place aroung the globe.
During sophomore year, the students will be enrolled in World History, where they will study the foundations of world's civilizations, the proceses and events that shaped the world. They will analyze primary and secondary sources to enrich their writing and discussions of the topics that will foster a better understanding of the world we live in.
Junior year will bring students to the U.S. History and the study of events, people, and processes that established the United States as the political and economic superpower. Once again they will work with a variety of sources to improve their critical thinking, reading, and writing skills.
In the final year, students will be offered AP European history as a culminating class, in which great emphasis will be placed on students' ability to infer, synthesize, and summarize information learned from primary and secondary sources. Additional elective social studies classes may be offered as well.
Special Education
Pritzker places students with disabilities in their least restrictive environment, beginning with access to the general curriculum along side their non-disabled peers. We offer a variety of classes and activities (for credit or non-credit experiences) for all students, including students with disabilities. We have high expectations for all students and require that they participate in these experiences through Community Service and Elective and Enrichment credit requirements.
We assess all of our students through district and state mandated assessments and use school developed standard performance assessments. We hope to provide staff with training to develop content-specific alternate assessment tools that can be used within the general classroom.
We are building a collaborative teacher model from the ground up. SPED staff is included in the development of curriculum. SPED teachers co-teach classes with other Noble Street teachers and help them develop units, lesson plans or classroom activities. We schedule time for co-teachers to meet on a regular basis to discuss lesson plans and student progress.