Curriculum
A comprehensive list of BUSD District-Adopted Curriculum is HERE.
In addition to district-adopted curriculum, teachers supplement learning with other resources to meet the needs of the students.
LANGUAGE ARTS
For both reading and writing instruction, BUSD uses the TCRWP program (Teachers’ College Reading Writing Project). During each session of Reader’s Workshop, teachers teach a mini-lesson and, then, meet with individual students for conferences, providing each child with feedback to make their reading stronger. Teachers, also, meet with small groups, providing them with targeted, individualized instruction at their instructional reading level. All other students in the class are provided with books at their independent and instructional reading levels and are reading independently when not meeting with the teacher. In writing, all students are taught how to write in three different genres each year: narrative, persuasive, and informational.
Each year, teachers build on what students have learned about each of these writing genres the previous year. For each of these units, students go through the writing process (brainstorming, drafting, editing, and revising), ending with a “published piece” that is shared with families. Similar to the reader's workshop, writer’s workshop involves a mini-lesson, conferences, and small group work. For phonics instruction in kindergarten through second grade, teachers use the FastTrack Phonics curriculum in order to help students with letter sounds and spelling patterns.
In addition to the core curriculum provided in each classroom, Oxford is fortunate to have a Literacy Coach, Amy Fry and an additional reading intervention teacher, Dianne Snyder. Both Ms. Fry and Ms. Snyder provide targeted, systematic reading instruction to students who need additional support to meet grade level expectations. They read with small groups of students and provide 1 to 1 instruction as well. Ms. Fry also works with teachers, providing instructional coaching and instructional support. In addition, Ms. Fry coordinates the BUILD afterschool program, which pairs Cal students with Oxford students to offer additional reading practice to students who need it.
Field Trips
Each teacher designs field trips to connect to or enhance their curriculum.
In previous years, students have gone to a behind-the-scenes tour of the Oakland Airport, on a ranger-led walk to understand more about butterflies in Tilden Park, to a Marc Chagall art exhibit at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, and to the Steinhart Aquarium at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park.
The Oxford PTA subsidizes field trips for each class.
District-Adopted Curriculum
Toolbox Curriculum
All BUSD elementary schools practice a social-emotional learning curriculum called the Toolbox. Years of research in the field of childhood resiliency and social-emotional learning have taught us that emotional and behavioral regulation skills can be explicitly taught in schools, and that the benefits are huge.
The Toolbox curriculum gives students (and adults) “tools” to help us become effective learners, friends, community members, and citizens. For example, the first “tool” is the breathing tool. The idea is to teach students to use their tools when faced with challenging situations or to help them through life.
Enrichment Curriculum
Enrichment Programs
Oxford Elementary’s learning opportunities are enhanced by a variety of enrichment programs, offered during the school day and after school.
District-Funded Programs:
Library with Ms. Sasamoto (once a week)
Garden Class with Gardener Sarah
Music 1st - 5th
PTA or Site-based Funded Programs
PE class (once a week)
Art Class (once a week)
Kindergarten Music and Dance
Afro-Haitian Dance
Music
Every class at Oxford receives weekly music instruction. The Oxford PTA pays for kindergarten music or dance instruction and the district-wide music program begins in the 1st grade.
Kindergarten through 3rd grade students have music instruction once a week. The 3rd graders learn to read music and play the recorder. All 4th and 5th graders learn to play an instrument. In 4th grade each student receives an instrument (wind, brass or string) and begins instrumental instruction twice a week through 5th grade.
Music training continues into middle school, where students can participate in band or orchestra.
Art
Anna Rainer, Oxford's amazing art teacher, works with classroom teachers at all grade levels to integrate the visual arts into their content-area instruction.
Science
Students in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades have science once a week with the science teacher; students in the 4th and 5th grades have science instruction two times a week. The curriculum is based upon the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
Physical Education (P.E.)
Every class has P.E. instruction at least once a week, and sports and games are organized for students during recess.
Library
Oxford Library
Oxford's librarian, Karen Sasamoto, lovingly and expertly maintains the school's library. By giving kids the freedom to explore, while also knowing just which books to suggest that will engage their interests and grow their literacy skills, Ms. Sasamoto serves as an invaluable resource for the school's readers (budding and voracious!).
Oxford is small (~275 students) but our students checked out over 17,500 in the 2022-2023 school year!
Oxford Library Online has so Many Resources!
Librarian Karen Sasamoto maintains an Oxford Library site as part of the Libraries portal of the BUSD website. It’s a portal to a number of online resources that are free to the Oxford community. The Oxford Library site includes a Reading Suggestions database organized by topic, our Library Catalog, a robust Research portal with World Book Encyclopedia/Enciclopedia Estudiantil and other tools, our Class Projects portal, Google Classroom and many STEM resources.
What’s at Tales2Go for elementary school students
Also available in our library portal: more than 4,000 audiobooks, for listening via computer, tablet or phone, thanks to BUSD Library’s Tales2go account.
See the BUSD Library’s Tales2go page for login and easy instructions.
Read Widely and Diversely!
Reading with your student is the most important activity you can do with your child to support their education. For example, did you know children understand stories read aloud at a higher comprehension level than what they can read on their own?
