.png?width=2000&height=675&name=2023%20ALN_standard-red%20(3).png "All Learners Network logo")
Why Concrete Tools Matter in ALL Math Classrooms
Concrete tools (manipulatives) support access, equity, universal design and differentiation in every math classroom. Manipulatives support mathematical connections and deep understanding. So why are they missing in so many math classrooms, especially in the older grades? The use of math manipulatives provides hands-on access to all students where quantity is observable and abstract concepts contextualized, creating a more inclusive math classroom.
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How to Plan for Sustainable, Lasting Math Improvement in Schools & Districts
Math pedagogy is the key to improving math performance and math understanding for all students. Pedagogy is the single most important element in instruction to improve math performance and understanding. Teachers are the critical element in improving math understanding and fostering positive math identities. To improve their practice, teachers need supportive instructional coaches and administrators equipped to guide and invest in math pedagogy professional development. Curriculum, math programs and textbooks on their own do not make significant improvements in math understanding. One or two “ …
The Background on the Newly Revised HLC Progressions
All Learners Network (ALN) originally created the High Leverage Concepts (HLCs) Progressions as a resource for classroom teachers, math interventionists, and special educators who create learning opportunities for their students daily. We wanted to build grade level progressions directly connected to the concepts highlighted in our High Leverage Concepts (HLCs) that would provide “road maps” for instructional decisions based on student evidence.
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How Do We Encourage Playful, Productive Struggle in Math Menu?
Our goal in Math Menu is for students to feel both relaxed and curious. Let’s use a recess analogy to help visualize our menu practice. At recess, students are independent and engaged in an activity of their choosing. They are motivated, playful and happy. Some students are working hard at various games and challenges all across the playground space. Others are focused on independent play and exploration. Some students are working to master a particular skill or apparatus. Most students are relaxed during recess. Their curiosity, interest, and preferences drive their choices.
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All Learners Network's Evidence-Based Practices Alignment
Evidence-based practices (EBPs) are specific strategies, activities, or programs that have been found to be effective for improving student outcomes and backed by rigorous, high-standard research, replicated with positive outcomes (What Works Clearinghouse, 2020).
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What is Explicit Systematic Instruction?
How can you support your students in interventions so that they are building conceptual understanding and connecting mathematical concepts and strategies to strengthen their understanding? One recommendation in the IES practice guide from What Works Clearinghouse (2009) is to provide systematic explicit instruction. But what exactly does this mean for our students?
Discourse in the Mathematics Classroom
What is discourse and why does it matter? Discourse is the communication of ideas where there is interaction between students' own thoughts and ideas and the consideration and examination of the ideas of others’ to make meaning and grow collective knowledge. With a significant shift in the role of the math educator from the holder and giver of knowledge to one who facilitates and presents meaningful and engaging tasks, math educators must develop skills and strategies that promote student discourse to position them as meaning makers. The educator role in discourse can be considered in three pa …
What is Specialized Math Instruction?
Specialized Math Instruction (SMI) focuses on improving instructional techniques–or pedagogy– of all educators for teaching mathematics for all students.
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A Case for High Quality Math Instruction for Students with Complex Needs
I would like to discuss a topic dear to me - the importance of high quality instruction for math students with complex cognitive needs. In the state of Vermont, these students tend to fall under the disability category of Intellectual Disability. My background in education is as a special educator. In my role as an ALN facilitator I continue to work with students with more complex needs or low incidence disabilities and the teachers and school districts who support them. (Low incidence disabilities are severe disabling conditions with an expected incidence rate of less than 1% of the total sta …
Purposeful Change: The ALN Rapid Cycle of Inquiry
A group of math coaches and I gathered for a local PLC meeting. We had been looking at student work and discussing some of the problems of practice facing the teachers in our buildings. In any gathering of educators, it’s pretty easy to articulate difficulties. Parents don’t support good math instruction. The administration doesn’t understand our goals and methods. Teachers won’t try new approaches. And the children face ever steeper learning curves. Anyone who’s ever engaged with educators knows that there are many challenges that all of us face daily. But I wanted us to focus our efforts on …
