Admissions Faculty & Staff Academics Athletics Art Horticulture Cooking & Nutrition Transitions Program School Events Learning Challenges Manus Minute Store Home

A customized model of instruction and accommodations

To ensure that we deliver to each student the customized instruction he or she needs to succeed academically, our entire staff follows the Manus Academic Process (M.A.P.).The Manus Academic Process consists of 6 integrated steps that we continuously repeat as students achieve mastery of targeted skills and learn new ones. The steps are:

  1. Assess each student’s current skill levels and academic barriers.
  2. Develop a customized instructional program.
  3. Deliver instruction.
  4. Monitor, assess and report on the student’s response to instruction.
  5. Adjust the instructional program, if needed.
  6. Continue the process again.

When developing an instructional program for a student, we consider these essential elements: a) the learning environment; b) accommodations; c) academic goals and objectives; d) curricula; and e) intensity of instruction.

The learning environment

Some of our students learn best with one-to-one instruction, while others respond well to small-group instruction with anywhere from one to five other students. Some students need a compressed schedule during which they work intensively with an instructor on core subjects for a few hours a day. Others benefit from a five-hour school day. To ensure each student’s academic success, we supply the environment in which he or she learns best.

Accommodations

Accommodations involve changing certain environmental conditions so students learn well despite their barriers. Accommodations do not directly target the barriers; they help students by-pass them. Accommodations include: small class size, low student-teacher ratio, relatively quiet classrooms, frequent teacher prompts, noise-blocking headphones, adjusted schedules, untimed tests, oral tests, audio books, guided outlines, study sheets, fidget toys, opportunities to move when restless and opportunities to speak with a teacher or administrator when concerned about something. Each student’s teaching team (i.e., teacher, tutor and lead teacher) works closely with the student to determine then make available those accommodations that are particularly helpful to him or her.

Students who have difficulty regulating their attention, behavior and emotions receive both accommodations and direct training from their teachers and support staff. Specifically, students are trained to manage their behavior, resolve conflicts effectively, maintain a sufficient level of alertness during their lessons and use self-relaxation techniques as needed throughout the day.

Academic goals and objectives

A key element of any instructional program is establishing goals and learning objectives that the student can achieve with reasonable effort under the right educational conditions. For instance, when establishing starting points of instruction for a student with reading delays, we begin instruction at the level at which the student can correctly read the targeted words approximately 85% to 90% of the time and at relatively fluent speeds. When developing a program for a student with delays in math computation or word problems, we begin instruction at the level at which the student can correctly solve the targeted calculations approximately 85% or more of the time and at steady speeds.

Starting at “medium-easy” levels ensures that students practice the skills both extensively and intensively and achieve set goals with reasonable effort. When students begin work at the appropriate levels, they master successive skills quickly. They waste little to no time being confused or having to relearn skills they keep forgetting. (These two problems often occur when students have to learn too many skills at once or begin at too high a level.)

Students in our college preparatory program sometimes take one or two credits in skill-building coursework before taking another course that relies heavily on the given skill. For instance, a student with delays in written expression may take our writing composition course before completing the coursework for high school English. This skill building helps ensure that the student can complete the advanced coursework with reasonable effort and the appropriate accommodations.

Curricula

Much of our curricula have been developed by the founder, Rosanne Manus. The goals and objectives within these curricula follow national and state standards for each grade level. Teachers deliver instruction using procedures and strategies that are based on decades of educational research that tell us how to maximize student learning.

Our curricula and procedures are also subjected each year to rigorous in-house testing and updating. This process allows us to offer the most effective instruction possible at any particular point in time. Our teachers receive regular training and consultation in the prescribed teaching techniques to ensure they all employ the same effective methods.

Regardless of whether we are teaching science or social studies content or delivering intensive remedial work, we use strategies that maximize students’ participation and correct responses. One of the key strategies is direct instruction. Direct instruction has been tested extensively over the past few decades and found to be highly effective with students, particularly students with specific learning needs.

Direct instruction involves intensive interaction between teachers and students and it promotes a high degree of student participation and focus, which, in turn, leads to efficient learning. Key methods involved in direct instruction include: a) teaching in small, manageable steps; b) teaching in a cumulative sequence with each skill an extension of the preceding skills; c) reviewing in a cumulative sequence; d) following the steps of guided instruction, which includes extensive teacher modeling and prompting during the initial stages of learning; and e) monitoring progress and adjusting instruction.

In addition to teaching students academic skills, we teach them how to organize their school materials, manage their time and study and learn effectively. These skills increase students’ abilities to consistently perform well, or show what they know. Also, knowing how to interact successfully with others and solve, or at least manage, one’s problems are as important as mastery of academic skills; therefore, we also directly instruct students in social and problem-solving skills.

Our middle school curricula cover both basic skills and content courses. The basic skills are: 1) receptive and expressive language; 2) social and problem-solving skills; 3) reading; 4) handwriting and spelling; and 5) organizational, time management and study skills. Our content courses are: English (i.e., grammar, usage and writing mechanics; literature; written expression), math, science, health and social studies.

We have two courses of study for our high school students: the college preparatory course of study and the basic course of study. Students planning to pursue a bachelor’s degree at a university or college follow the college preparatory course. Students planning to seek an associate degree at a community college or enter a specific vocational program take the basic course of study.

During the admissions process, students and their parents meet with the admissions staff to determine each student’s course of study and customize his or her instructional program. Depending on what is most appropriate, students may work at the standard pace of one grade level per year or at a slower or faster one.

Intensity

The final key element of an effective academic program is intensity. For students to master skills at a steady rate, they must practice these skills to sufficient degrees. Some students can master certain skills with light or moderate practice and other students need intensive practice to achieve specific goals.

By measuring each student’s work produced and/or practice trials completed, we can determine the rate at which he or she progresses under ideal instructional conditions and the amount of practice he or she needs to make steady growth. In writing each student’s academic program, we include the number of practice trials or amount of other work we would like the student to complete each day, week, month and year. We then regularly compare the student’s completed practice to the recommended practice and to skills mastered to help us determine if his or her instructional program is as effective as possible.