At Mitchell School, to develop and enrich student understanding and application of all content areas, we provide a comprehensive and cohesive curriculum that is aligned to the Illinois State Goals.  We believe that instruction, learning, and assessment are purposeful and meaningful.  It is critical that our students connect their learning from year-to-year as they build toward rigorous in-depth understandings of Big Ideas, Enduring Understandings, and Essential Questions (Wiggins, McTighe).

Science Teaching and Learning Philosophy Statement

We believe that science teaching and learning facilitates creativity and inquiry.  Our students generate questions and are able to reason as they discover their environment and the world.  

To this end, our science curriculum:

• Taps our students’ natural curiosity, facilitates their critical thinking, and enables them to problem solve resourcefully
• Facilitates a collaborative and experiential approach to rigorous research
• Embeds data analysis & synthesis and technology implementation
• Supports inquiry via literacy (reading, writing, thinking, and discussing)

Social Studies Teaching and Learning Philosophy Statement

We believe that social studies teaching and learning enables our students to engage in introspective processes that lead to global awareness.   At Mitchell School, we have established a common language for how and why our students learn about themselves and the world at large. 

To this end, our social studies curriculum:

• Enables our students to engage in self-discovery that builds toward community service
• Empowers our students to make a difference as empathetic, responsible, and global citizens
• Facilitates rigorous critical thinking through research, multi-media, and real-life experiences
• Enables our students to discuss and debate matters of the world