December 16, 2024
Foundational skills in math, science, and literacy are the cornerstone of students’ educational experience. Rigorous and effective instruction sets students up for both positive experiences at school and better life outcomes, so educators need special support when designing their lessons, their classrooms, and their departmental programs.
This Spotlight gives educators the tools to do their work more successfully, including an app that uncovers math classroom inequities, a blog post that clearly spells out evidence-based “science of reading” insights, and a framework for science educators to self-assess and improve their lessons.
Encourage Math Classroom Equity With the EQUIP Observation Tool
Student voices and engagement are essential in math class, where missing a critical skill or getting an incomplete understanding of a process can have long-lasting effects on student outcomes. But not all students feel comfortable speaking up in class, which inspired math experts Niral Shah and Daniel Reinholz to create the Equity Quantified In Participation tool, or EQUIP.
EQUIP is an observation tool intended to help educators transform their classrooms, according to Using the EQUIP Observation Tool to Advance Equity in Math Classrooms, a WestEd report on EQUIP’s implementation in an elementary school and a community college. The app’s users begin by uploading their student rosters and the associated demographic information they are interested in tracking. “Common lines of inequity include race, gender, socioeconomic status, and special education status,” notes the report.
Educators can also opt to specify a particular student’s talk interest, such as the length of time a student talks or the types of questions asked. Then an observer watches a live or recorded class session and records and codes student contributions to classroom discussions. When the observation is complete, EQUIP generates analytics that show where classroom inequities lie, giving educators data to work with when planning lesson structure, classroom setup, and class policies.
As the report’s authors note, “While the tool has the potential to shift the way teachers interact with their students and, consequently, student experiences in the classroom, the transformative power is not in the tool itself but in how it is used to enact change.”
Read More About the EQUIP Tool
Do “Science of Reading” Insights Have Value in the ELA classroom?
A recent interview with literacy education expert and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago Dr. Tim Shanahan offers educators clarity on evidence-based reading instructional practices.
“Many schools mandate a two-hour English language arts block. I would suggest that they provide additional guidance on how to divide those instructional efforts, perhaps with one hour aimed at developing foundational skills and the other committed to reading comprehension and writing,” says Dr. Shanahan.
In addition, Dr. Shanahan continues, research has identified that students benefit from being taught the following:
- decoding (alphabet, phonemic awareness, phonics)
- text reading fluency (reading text accurately, with automaticity and proper expression)
- reading comprehension (written language abilities, cognitive strategies, knowledge of the world)
- writing (writing is important, of course, but writing and spelling have also been found to make important contributions to decoding and comprehension)
Learn More About the Science of Reading
Designing Science Classrooms That Inspire Student Engagement
“This is an exciting time for science education,” write science education researchers Christopher Harris and David McKinney, who credit the release of A Framework for K–12 Science Education and Next Generation Science Standards with focusing attention on motivating students to understand and use real-world scientific principles.
And yet there are few resources for science educators who want to encourage student participation, which is why Harris, McKinney, and other science education experts created a professional learning experience for educators. M-PLANS (Motivation—Planning Lessons to Activate eNgagement in Science).
M-PLANS is a framework for planning science lessons using five design principles: belonging, confidence, learning orientation, autonomy, and relevance. Using the M-PLANS framework, educators can self-assess their lessons and then use M-PLANS tools to implement changes.
Read More About the Five Principles of Design
New ideas in literacy, math, and science instruction can shed light on just what motivates and sustains student achievement, producing educational experiences that equip students for the real-world demands that will be placed on them throughout their lives. The resources included in this Spotlight can help teachers take a look at their own instructional practices, fine-tuning them for the needs of their student population to improve outcomes for every student.
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