Teaching and Learning/Curriculum and Instruction
Academics
We believe all students can learn, and it is our duty to ensure that all students do learn. We accomplish this by developing a comprehensive, integrated approach that provides system-wide support to schools, families, and the community.
The Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District has a history of commitment to excellence in education. The board of education and district citizens have endorsed this commitment by supporting the development, implementation and evaluation of the curriculum and the instructional program.
Administrators and staff members have worked together to design and implement instructional programs which will meet the many and diverse needs of students from pre-kindergarten through grade twelve.
While there are many reasons to be proud of the district’s instructional program, excellence demands a dedication to continuing evaluation and improvement. The following curriculum brochures provide an overview of our current K-5 instructional program.
Curriculum Brochures
If you would like to have a better understanding of current math instructional practices in MCPASD, learn more about the progression of math skills across grades and learn more about Standards of Mathematical Practice please watch the video below.
This next video outlines the major work at each grade level. It also illustrates the progression of skills across the grades, leading to the math that happens in middle & high school.
This is an explanation of the 8 Standards for Mathematical Practice at an elementary level. I also make note of the 5 shifts that the Wisconsin DPI adopted when considering the teaching & learning of mathematical standards.
Social Emotional Learning (SEL)
Building SEL skills in the classroom. Promoting social and emotional development for all students in classrooms involves teaching and modeling social and emotional skills, providing opportunities for students to practice and hone those skills, and giving students an opportunity to apply these skills in various situations with acknowledgement and feedback.
Responsive Classroom is an approach to teaching based on the belief that integrating academic and social-emotional skills creates an environment where students can do their best learning. The Responsive Classroom approach consists of a set or practices and strategies that build academic and social-emotional competencies.
PBIS is a framework for providing explicit expectations based on skills and behavior supports and interventions around lagging skills to enhance students’ academic and social outcomes.
The Sunset Ridge Way reinforces the following expectations:
Respectful ♦ Responsible ♦ Safe ♦ Learners
Second Step teaches specific skills that strengthen students’ abilities for learning, empathy, managing emotions, and solving problems. It does this by teaching self-regulation and social emotional skills in four areas:
Skills for Learning ♦ Empathy ♦ Emotion Management ♦ Problem Solving
Important Points:
All learning is social and emotional for all students.
It is important that our approaches to SEL are affirming, rather than subtractive, of students’ identities.
SEL approaches should draw out and build on student assets to facilitate understanding and learning.
It is important to deconstruct expectations, cultural norms of schooling, and ways of communicating to expand the definition of success and normative behavior to include experiences, cultural ways of knowing, and aspirations of students of color and their families.
Educational Websites
Students frequently use this site in their technology class. It has links to a variety of educational websites and is divided up by subject. Educational Websites Link
Research, Personal Interest and Facts
Learn virtually anything for free: Khan Academy