About K-8

Berkeley Independent Study Assisted Home School is for Kindergarten through 8th graders. Students meet with their teacher once a week for 90 minutes. Curriculum in the K-8 program adheres to state standards, and what BUSD offers for all K-5 and 6-8 schools. BIS K-8 includes a wide range of resources that students study both with their teacher and at home. Parent involvement at home is a necessity for this program, for approximately 20-25 hours per week of assistance and supervision.

At the beginning of each session, students are informally assessed as teachers review their work and listen to them discuss their assignments. Teaching strategies are then modeled and parents are coached to implement the strategies at home. Next, they review curriculum together for the multiple subjects, select lessons and discuss thematic units and projects that can be done the following week.  It is a weekly collaborative approach between the teacher, parent teacher and student.

The tutoring and gardening programs are also available to K-8 students. A significant amount of each garden class is comprised of K-8 students. K-8 students can sign up for tutoring in the same manner as BIS high school students. Group art classes and field trips may also be included.