Mastery of Knowledge and Skills

Shorewood District Vision for Academic Mastery: "All students, regardless of their race, gender or socioeconomic status, are able to demonstrate authentic learning by integrating their knowledge and skills through creative application to real-world challenges."

Strong student achievement begins with strong teaching and a commitment to empowering all students to own their learning. Atwater classrooms were already great places of learning for most children when the school began its journey with EL Education; however, the staff embraced a growth mindset and were ready to challenge themselves right along with their students. Early work plans and professional development (PD) laid the foundation for Core Practice 28: Crafting and Using learning Targets, and Core Practice 29: Checking for Understanding in Daily Instruction. These foundational practices brought a rhythm to classrooms across the building, and teachers could see an impact in student engagement and learning. Expeditions began to hold rigorous long term learning targets, and daily learning targets for core lessons were visible and alive in classrooms. Focus group feedback over the years shifted, as students were able to talk about what they did with learning targets and how they could advocate for themselves during a lesson.

This school-wide norming of teacher practice and shift in children’s mentality paved the way for students to own their learning more and more over time. Portfolios were developed and staff worked together to help determine the parameters for what these held, based upon a vision for Passages. School-wide Student-led Conferences were rolled out, and together with portfolios and Passages, there were now structures that held high expectations for the learners at Atwater.

Undergirding everything was Core Practice 33: Learning Evidence-Based Strategic Improvement. Thanks to the Instructional Leadership Team’s commitment to quality instruction at Atwater, layers of staff ownership of data and teacher development and analyzing of classroom assessments (Core Practice 30: Using Assessments to Boost Student Achievement) occurred through professional development cycles each year. Atwater’s commitment to Core Practice 36: Leading Professional Learning, and Core Practice 34: Positive Professional Culture, meant that the entire staff was working together as a Crew towards positive student impact. The ILT complimented the tracking of student data with progress monitoring teacher practice through periodic walkthroughs that leveraged the Dimensions tools. Guiding Atwater in the years to come is an even deeper dive into Core Practice 19: Differentiating Instruction. While the school has seen strong data overall on the state assessment, and wonderful growth in their Latinx population, the community of Atwater is still striving to improve their teaching practice to see excellent growth and achievement for every student in the building.

Graphic Representation of Atwater's MKS Journey

The graphics below show the paths taken by Atwater students and staff toward our Mastery of Knowledge and Skills claims. The large arrows represent professional development opportunities staff participated in, which led to the blue rectangles - student impacts. The building of these professional development cycles and resulting student impact results led to the development of our MKS claims. The long rectangle holds key core practices that provided the foundation for our professional development and student growth.