Instructional Vision

Excellent art instruction will lead each Eden Prairie Schools learner to....

• Examine connections between art and life
  • Learners will cultivate curiosity and appreciation for exploring both the visual culture that is part of their everyday life, as well as artwork spanning a diverse range of perspectives across human experience.  Students will make connections to art that are both familiar and worldly, learning to recognize how personal, social, cultural, and historical factors influence both the creation and reception of art.  
• Build visual literacy
  • Visual literacy is the ability to understand, interpret, and evaluate images and visual messages.  Learners will become keen observers and critical consumers of visual media, developing skills to analyze visual texts in order to better understand how and why these images impact viewers in various manners.
• Develop a creative process
  • Original artwork is cultivated through incubating, implementing, and revising ideas in new and different ways.  Learners will form a positive relationship with the creative process, developing enthusiasm, confidence, and perseverance in their ability to explore new concepts through visual media that results in the creation of authentic work that expresses their individual identities as artists.
• Hone technical skills for visual artmaking
  • Learners will explore foundational knowledge as well as utilize the appropriate tools to practice and apply the skills and techniques needed to effectively convey ideas across a variety of traditional and contemporary mediums .
• Share artwork with others
  • Learners will exhibit their artwork in both physical and digital spaces for a variety of audiences to initiate conversations through visual communication.  Students will learn to think deeply about the stories they are telling through their work and to communicate those aesthetic choices and reasoning to others, through both writing and oral presentation.  In doing so, learners will also expand their ability to self-evaluate the impact their work is having.

Instructional Vision

Excellent Career & Technical Education instruction will lead each Eden Prairie Schools learner to....

• Explore personal career pathways
  • Students will be given frequent opportunities and resources to investigate a variety of potential careers and to align their strengths and interests to a career pathway.  Opportunities will be provided to students to further explore interests and develop skills through apprenticeships, job shadows, internships, or entry-level work experiences.  By engaging in career and skill exploration, students will be able to take increased ownership and pride in pursuing coursework and cocurricular activities that expand their opportunities to make informed post-secondary education and career choices.  
• Develop professionalism and transferable skills  
  • Through continual dialogue with community members and business leaders, a variety of common, highly-valued professional skills will be regularly identified and emphasized across all CTE courses to increase the future employability of each student and ensure opportunities for further advancement and success.  Students will learn to demonstrate professionalism, develop and engage in entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial activities, and deepen their visual, technical, and media literacies through the use of industry-standard  technology.  Students will also learn and demonstrate life skills that contribute to their professional success such as interpersonal communication, finance management, and maintaining social/emotional/physical wellness. 
• Engage in authentic work within authentic environments
  • Students will be presented authentic learning experiences  that exist  in or mimic real-world occupational settings.  They will practice critical evaluation, reflection and creative problem-solving to design and present solutions to genuine contextual situations posed across various career areas, using the same tools and technology as professionals in those fields.
• Collaborate effectively with others when completing projects
  • Engagement in our global economy requires individuals to exhibit effective communication and collaboration with clients/customers, managers, and co-workers.  Students will learn to navigate working within a team environment and will hone skills to be able to communicate and collaborate effectively with diverse audiences using writing, speaking, listening, and technology.

Instructional Vision

Excellent Language Arts instruction will lead each Eden Prairie Schools learner to....

• Develop a positive literacy identity
  • Literacy identities are the deeply-held beliefs students form about their own capacity to be lifelong readers and writers.  Developing a positive literacy identity and providing opportunities for student choice allows learners to find personal fulfillment in reading, writing and speaking and embrace these tasks with confidence and purpose.  Students will strengthen their literacy identities through setting goals, taking risks, and engaging in personalized, authentic reading and writing tasks.
• Read a wide variety of texts from diverse perspectives
  • A large and expanding range of texts exist in today’s world, and students need to be able to independently navigate any text they encounter with proficiency.  Students will regularly engage with high-quality, authentic literary and informational texts from a variety of forms (i.e. prose, poetry, scripts, technical writing, etc.), genres (i.e. realism, fantasy, memoirs, journalism, etc.), and modalities (i.e. visual texts, audio texts, multimedia, etc.).  Simultaneously, learners will explore multiple perspectives by engaging with texts that are written by authors of varying demographics and that represent diverse cultures, viewpoints, and beliefs.  Finally, students will stretch and hone their skills as they study texts of increasing complexity befitting their growing skill levels.
• Communicate effectively for a range of purposes and audiences
  • Students will learn to communicate for a variety of audiences within a variety of contexts in response to a variety of authentic tasks.  Students will utilize different modes of communication (writing, speaking, multimedia), purposes (narrative, informational, argumentative), styles of delivery (formal and informal), and forms of composition (mirroring the wide range of texts they read/view/hear). Personal identity and diverse approaches to communication will be affirmed and valued as each student finds his/her own unique voice and uses a writing process that involves drafting, feedback and revision loops, and editing for publication.
• Think critically about literacy 
  • Students will move beyond mere fluency and comprehension to learn to analyze and evaluate craft decisions made by creators of texts and synthesize ideas expressed within and across texts.  Learners will assess texts for bias or stereotypes and will use evidence to construct and counter claims. Through the integration of literacy skills across contexts and content areas, and by engaging in personal reflection and collaborative discourse, students will build connections between texts, themselves, and their broader world.
     

Instructional Vision

Excellent mathematics instruction will lead each Eden Prairie Schools learner to....

• Form a positive math identity
  Mathematical identities are the attitudes and deeply-held beliefs students form about their ability to successfully and meaningfully participate in mathematical processes, using mathematics in powerful ways. Students with strong math identities embrace beneficial mindsets such as persistence, flexible thinking, curiosity, and belief in their personal ability to grow and succeed. They are confident problem solvers, eager to take risks, and willing to work through challenging tasks.
• Collaborate within a math community
  An effective math community values all members as partners in learning, recognizing that every child brings insights and is appreciated in the classroom. It provides a safe place for students to take risks, share ideas, and learn from mistakes. It values multiple perspectives, diverse thinking, fostering a sense of belonging and collective ownership of learning outcomes. Foundational to a collaborative math community is the recognition that each student has something important to contribute to the collective knowledge of the group and rich math-centered conversations are framed by questioning, explaining and justifying mathematical thinking, contributing math ideas, and taking responsibility for learning.
• Understand how and why math concepts work
  Moving beyond rote memorization of mathematical procedures meets the demands of the 21st century. Students need to achieve a conceptual understanding of why and how mathematical principles work so they are able to explain their thinking, justify their reasoning, defend their problem-solving approaches, create or describe visual models of mathematics, and retain their learning over time.
• Use math procedures fluently
  Students who understand why and how math works (conceptual understanding) coupled with understanding when, why, and how to apply mathematical procedures to solve problems (procedural fluency) are able to solve problems more efficiently, flexibly, and accurately, setting them up for immediate and future success. Students need opportunities to connect concepts to procedures, develop a variety of strategies and algorithms, and learn how to choose from multiple strategies to solve problems. Students need to be able to do more than repeat a procedure or process in math; they need to make sense of problems and persevere in solving them, reason abstractly and quantitatively, and use appropriate tools strategically.
• Apply math to real-world situations
  Students are better able to understand what they are learning and why they are learning it when concepts are presented in real-world contextual situations that connect to students’ lived experiences and cultural perspectives. This enables students to apply their learning from the classroom into their lives, where they need to be able to identify problems, devise solution strategies, and choose the most useful strategy for solving problems. They also need to be able to distinguish what is known and relevant from what is unknown. A mathematical concept or procedure is useful when students recognize when and where to use it, as well as when and where it does not apply. 

Instructional Vision

Excellent music instruction will lead Eden Prairie Schools learners to…

• Form a positive musical identity
  • Learners will value music as an integral and enjoyable part of their lives, both in the capacity of a creator and a consumer of music.  Learners will see themselves as continually learning and growing as musicians.  
• Connect to a wide-variety of music 
  • Music is deeply connected to identity, culture, history and society, allowing participants to engage in their personal and shared humanity.  Learners will be exposed to a wide variety of musical styles (with an increasing level of complexity) in order to develop an appreciation for and an ability to critically respond to different types, styles, and performances of music they will encounter throughout their lives.  
• Collaborate in music-making processes
  • Music is a collaborative exchange between a variety of participants: musician-to-musician, musician-to-audience, audience-member-to-audience member.  All participants share personalized connections to the music that bring value to the experience as a whole.  Students will learn how to cooperatively work within and across these roles.
• Build musical craft
  • Learners will understand how and why music works, developing fluency in their ability to effectively read and create music.  Students will learn basic musical theory and vocabulary and will practice and refine a variety of foundational musical skills, adopting a growth mindset of continued improvement as they work to produce quality musical products.

Instructional Vision

Excellent physical education/health instruction will lead each Eden Prairie Schools learner to....

• Develop physical literacy
  • Physical literacy is the ability to move with competence and confidence in a wide variety of physical activities that benefit the healthy development of the whole person.  Learners will develop an understanding of how and why to be a physically active person (both within and outside of physical education classes) so that they will incorporate physical activity into their identity and enjoy it throughout their entire lives.
• Become self-advocates for healthy lifestyles
  • Learners will develop a positive self-image and become inspired to engage in health-enhancing behaviors.  Students will learn how to take care of themselves, both physically and emotionally,  how to proactively identify potential health concerns, and how to make responsible decisions that contribute to a healthy life.
• Create personalized plans for fitness, nutrition, and wellness
  • Learners will design, create, and apply individualized health plans while embracing a growth mindset about self-improvement.  Students will explore personal fitness through a variety of physical activities; will analyze personal nutritional habits using healthy guidelines; and will learn how to find relevant and accurate information on health-related topics in order to manage stress and improve personal wellness.
• Foster positive relationships with self and others
  • Living a balanced life involves learning how to interact effectively with others.  Students will develop interpersonal collaboration and communication skills while exploring personal relationships and participating in a variety of individual and team activities that can be engaged both cooperatively and competitively throughout one’s life.  

Instructional Vision

Excellent science instruction will lead each Eden Prairie Schools learner to…

• Develop foundational knowledge of science  
  • Learners will develop a coherent, scientifically-based view of the world by attaining knowledge of the core ideas and processes found within the disciplines of physical science, life science, earth and space science, and the application of science within society through engineering and technology.
• Apply crosscutting concepts across the fields of science and engineering
  • Learners will be able to make connections between scientific topics studied in various disciplines and grade levels. These crosscutting concepts include: patterns, cause and effect, scale/proportion/quantity, systems (and system models), energy and matter, structure and function, and stability and change.
• Think critically about scientific questions
  • Learners will think critically in a variety of ways.  They analyze and evaluate data to make meaning; they use math contextually and procedurally to answer scientific questions; they use evidence and reasoning to defend or support a scientific claim; they learn to recognize bias; and they find causal relationships and examine local and global impacts.
• Seek scientific solutions to real-world problems
  • Learners are innately curious; through discovery, they can create solutions to authentic problems.  Learners will find personal, local, and global relevance in their scientific learning as they plan and carry out investigations in the field or laboratory, make connections between scientific and non-scientific disciplines, and bring a scientific perspective to being citizens of the world.
• Collaborate and communicate about scientific matters
  • Learners of science ask and refine questions that lead to descriptions and explanations; they create, construct, use, and refine models as helpful tools for representing ideas and explanation;  they look at multiple perspectives, share their learning, and collaborate with others to solve problems; and they communicate clearly and persuasively the ideas and methods they generate.

Instructional Vision

• Emphasize the connection between historical events, social issues, and contemporary situations, events, and experiences
  Students will analyze how the past, present, and future are relevant to their lived experiences. By exploring history and other social studies disciplines through authentic lenses, students will understand why knowledge of these concepts and skills is vital for active participation in our democracy.
• Demonstrate understanding, empathy, and respect for different cultures, ethnicities, and backgrounds
  Students will be heard, seen, and valued through learning experiences that include diverse narratives and perspectives. Students will develop skills and strategies to effectively engage and contribute to the community–both in person and digitally–in positive and meaningful ways throughout their lives.
• Ask questions, investigate, and critically analyze sources, information, and ideas
  Students will be encouraged to initiate their own inquiries. Students will actively gather and analyze evidence from multiple perspectives to support their compelling questions, empowering them to take ownership of and apply their learning.
• Demonstrate essential social science skills, including critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, collaboration, and information literacy, to ensure informed decision-making and civic engagement
  Students will experience a well-rounded education that encompasses history, geography, civics, economics, and other related disciplines, promoting the understanding of the interconnectedness of these subjects and their relevance to students' lives.

Instructional Vision

Excellent world language instruction will lead Eden Prairie Schools learners to…

• Interpret the target language through reading and listening  
  • Learners will be able to understand the main ideas being communicated within texts that are spoken, written, or signed within the target language.  They will learn to recognize vocabulary in context and use their knowledge of the language to comprehend, interpret, and analyze writing or speaking in the target world language.  
• Communicate ideas within the target language through speaking and writing
  • Learners will be able to use the target language to communicate purposefully and effectively with others through written, oral, or signed communication, in both formal and informal settings.  They will explore key grammatical concepts and structures and learn to consistently adhere to those conventions when communicating.  They will be given opportunities to present or exchange information, express thoughts or opinions, and narrate events or experiences using the target language.
• Engage in authentic usage of the target language
  • Learners will be prepared to use the target language in a variety of real-world contexts by practicing with authentic and culturally-relevant, tasks, texts, and experiences.  They will hone strategies for coping with and reacting to the circumstances that arise from a variety of situations in which they may need to use the target language in everyday life.
• Explore different cultures associated with the target language
  • Learners will understand the connection between language and culture and value the study of world languages as a way to acquire global perspective and become well-informed global citizens.  Learners will strengthen their cultural competence by studying the products, practices, and perspectives of various cultures in comparison to their own.
• Embrace language learning with a growth mindset
  • Learners will grow in confidence in their use of the target language by taking risks, embracing challenges, and learning from mistakes.  They will develop a value of continuous learning and become motivated to take responsibility for their own learning, seeking language and cultural experiences outside the classroom.