Programs
Foreign Language Program
Seton Catholic School offers 7th and 8th grade students the option of taking either French or Spanish through the teacher-monitored, computer-based RosettaStone Online Program. These classes are offered within the regular school day schedule for 3 of the 4 quarters, with one quarter being a rotation into the grade level journalism enrichment class.
RosettaStone Online Program is an e-Learning solution designed for beginner to intermediate students. With context-based, immersion methodology, students build fundamental language skills. Language Lessons helps students build language proficiency in an immersive environment through:
Carefully sequenced lessons that introduce vocabulary and grammar, building upon previously learned content
Immediate feedback on every response that reinforces key concepts and correct learning
Speech recognition within all lessons and activities, which helps improve students' pronunciation and speaking confidence
Additional activities are used during class time to enrich the student's understanding of the culture of the people who speak the language.
Fine Arts Program
The Seton fine arts curriculum is aligned with Illinois Learning Standards for Fine Arts. Seton provides visual arts education to students in PreKindergarten through 5th grade for 60 minutes a week. Students in 6th though 8th grade receive 90 minutes of visual arts instruction per week. Seton provides music education to students in PreKindergarten through 5th grade for 60 minutes a week. Teachers use a variety of resources to implement these fine arts standards.
The arts enrich the quality of life and contribute to children's development. When students create in images, sounds, gestures, and words, they discover ways to share their thoughts and feelings with others. Seton provides this access to the arts through creation, performance, and study. The visual arts program at Seton is designed to expose children to a variety of art forms, including drawing, painting, mixed media, sculpting, printmaking, and as many age appropriate mediums as possible. Students learn of the work of varied artists and their techniques. Each year builds on the students' previous years' skills and knowledge as progressive projects also seek to enrich other subject areas such as science, religion, and social studies.
The music arts program at Seton is designed to expose children to the basic building blocks of music, including rhythm, melody, and harmony. Students learn the importance of musical collaboration through singing, movement, dance styles, and instruments. Students progress to learning how to read notation, identify different genres of music, and learn of classical composers and their music. All of Seton students are ultimately eligible to join choir, band, and to participate in weekly Mass and concerts.
Seton students learn the language of fine arts and how to interpret visual images, sounds, movement and story. The arts are both universal and culturally specific. This helps students increase international and intercultural awareness. The Seton fine arts program is an opportunity for all our students to succeed in fine arts at Seton and in our world.
Journalism Program
Seventh and Eighth grade students at Seton Catholic School may choose to have four quarters of journalism each year as part of our enrichment program. Seventh grade students participate in a newspaper journalism class that focuses on news, feature and editorial writing. Students publish a periodic Seton School newspaper. Writing and editing skills will be emphasized in a cooperative learning/writing team atmosphere. Guest speakers and special presentations will be scheduled.
Eighth grade students participate in a broadcast journalism class that focuses on all aspects of preparing and broadcasting a live television news program, using the school’s television studio. Seton News Network (SNN) produces periodic complete news broadcasts, as well as, daily news announcement that are broadcast to the entire school.