What successes have you had in closing achievement gaps?

In my teaching experiences, I have found myself drawn towards the students who
struggle, whether it is with the material or in their social lives. I want everyone to
achieve to their greatest potential. Achievement is not defined by the work a student
produces, but the struggle and effort they put in to their work and lives. If a student
struggles to grasp a concept or fails to deliver to the highest standards of the class, it
simply shows that they have further to go before they are successful with the subject
matter, not that their achievements are any less than a student who breezes through
assignments on their way to straight As. Acquiring the desire to learn and the ability to
strive is the most important thing taught in schools, and is what allows us to close
achievement gaps.

I have had wonderful experiences differentiating to my students in the math classroom.

It has not always been easy, but for the students that struggle with math and the
students that are talented in math, the same strategy has proven to be extremely
effective. It is my job as the educator to teach students how to learn, study, struggle,
grapple, and find satisfaction in the process. This is no easy task, but can be done
many ways. I use the viewpoint I have cultivated studying math, geology, physics, and
the natural world to engage my students in STEM subject matter. By sharing my own
experience in academia with my students, I help them develop the skills they need to
pursue their own ambitions, as well as create a life long love of learning.

In order to make sure that students learn to apply themselves appropriately to the
material, a wide variety of difficulty, depth, and breadth is required for each core concept
that they are expected to learn. Often it is the highest achieving students that never
learn to grapple, and who stumble later in life when school or work become challenging.
Since they never learn how to meet a challenge, they do not have the skills to deal with
adversity when it arises. On the other end of the spectrum, those students who
consistently struggle with the concepts need to be given an appropriate level of material
that allows them to experience success through difficulty, without repeating their past
failures. By encouraging all of my students to push beyond their limitations, I develop in
them the desire to learn and achieve.

My experience working with remedial math students has been eye opening for my
pedagogical practice. The pace is slower, and these students need extra attention and
help with the most basic skills. These students especially become much more invested
in their learning when they feel that it is relevant and valuable to their own lives.
Through conscious alignment of the curriculum to my students’ funds of knowledge and
experiences I make it relevant. By making sure that our assignments lead towards
useful skills that are in line with my students backgrounds and circumstances, I fulfill
my students’ need to see value in learning and their own educations. As a teacher, it is
my responsibility to teach my students how to overcome their limitations by showing
them that they can succeed, in order for them to successfully overcome their barriers to
success, and close the gaps in school and beyond.
How do you create and foster an environment in which all students are engaged
in learning and making academic progress?
The foundation for an environment in which students can effectively be taught and learn
starts with ensuring that their basic needs are met. If my students are not rested or well
fed then they cannot hope to be good learners, and I am being remiss in my duties as a
teacher. Thankfully, many of these basic needs are met by students’ parents and the
school. Nonetheless, as an educator I must know my students intimately in order to be
able to recognize and fix these issues when arise. Whether by allowing students to rest
when they need it, or having food available to keep their brains running, I provide for my
students this most basic level of care. My classroom is first and foremost a safe place of
comfort and care.

My relationship with my students is critical to fostering an environment in which my

students can learn. By creating this relationship, I provide for them the next level of their
basic needs: security, safety, and friendship; as well as help them to develop these
relationships with their peers and feel a sense of belonging. I care passionately about
my students, and develop these relationships by getting to know my students well, in
addition to developing curriculum that allows them to interact deeply with each other
and get to know themselves more fully.

Once this bedrock of physiological and psychological needs has been created, I add to
my focus the self-actualization of my students. The remedial students that I work with
need to experience success to have the drive to learn, but all students from those with
special needs to those who are gifted and talented need to experience success outside
of their comfort zone. This is the ultimate piece to the puzzle of creating a learning
environment that engages and fosters progress. My curriculum is carefully scaffolded so
that our progress through the material is demanding on all students, yet out of reach of
none of them. Students who progress faster than others are assigned material that
offers greater breadth of knowledge. Students who are struggling get to the same depth
of understanding through carefully designed work that helps them understand the most
essential concepts. In this way I manage my own time so that those who need the most
assistance get it from me, but students are not left feeling bored or dissatisfied since
there is always a broader understanding to be found.
Please share three instructional strategies that you have found to be effective in
engaging students in mastering concepts in the content area for which you are
applying.
Adapting my instructional strategies to my students is both a challenge and a pleasure.
In order to effectively translate the curriculum for all of my students’ various learning
styles I have had great success using multiple styles of presentation of the material. Not
only do I find it to be a fun and effective way to teach and learn, but having a variety of
touches with math techniques and theory helps students to retain the material longer
and understand it more fully. Although math is often seen and feared as a largely
conceptual study, it can be presented in a powerfully visual and tactile manner. By using
manipulatives, a variety of stimulating visual representations, and hands-on real-life
activities math can be made to be a corporeal study, and thus greatly more
approachable for the students that often find its purely conceptual nature to be a
daunting prospect.

Mathematics is one of the areas of academics that benefits most from repetitive
practice. However, I do not believe that having students practice “plug-and-chug” alone
is an effective means for learning the great variety of methods that are taught in the
secondary math curriculum. It does not allow us to effectively address
misunderstandings and misconceptions, and serves only to widen achievement gaps in
the class. And yet, if used appropriately, rote practice is a powerful tool for learning
math. I have been working with diverse classrooms and having excellent success with
brief instruction alternating with periods of practice, which allows me to conduct multiple
formative assessments within a single class period, adjust student groups to ensure
heterogeneity, and address issues as they arise on the spot. When used in this manner
— and applied through a variety of practice techniques such as pair- and group-work,
worksheets, book work, real world applications, exploratory activities, puzzles and
quizzes — repetitive practice is a powerful instructional strategy.

The reason many students struggle with math is that they fail to see the relevancy in the
material, even though math is all around us, all the time, informing our actions and
improving our lives. Allowing students the opportunity to discover how math applies to
our lives is a wonderful method for creating the relevancy that fosters much needed
student buy-in to the curriculum. Using project-based learning, and exploratory
methods, students can uncover powerful theorems on their own and find out how math
governs the various facets of their lives. My own experience with math has been one of
discovery. It has given me a deeper understanding of the natural world and instilled in
me a life long desire to learn. It is this sense of wonder that these instructional methods
can foster in our students, giving them the desire to master the practices of
mathematics.
Please share your philosophy of assessment.
Assessment is both the bane and the boon of education. It is critical for assessing how
students are developing in their path towards mastery of the concepts being taught. Yet
if applied improperly it becomes a barrier to many students understanding of the
material. Especially in mathematics, where concepts are so frequently assessed using
tests in which answers are either RIGHT or WRONG, students can become
discouraged and lose their drive to succeed and grow. However, this form of testing is
also critical for mathematical assessments, where mastery of a concept requires a
certain level of practice with techniques, and answers are either correct or not.

In mathematics specifically, if our students are more focused on the grade they receive
than the material they are learning, they can miss the huge value of math as it applies to
the real world, and simply learn to plug numbers in to the equations they have learned
in order to get to the “right” answer. Towards this end I believe that assessments that
are well designed to drive home key concepts, and yet open ended enough to allow for
exploration and individual expression are crucial for fostering the explorative nature that
is so inherent in a good math education. Utilizing assessments of both the right-wrong
and the exploratory or project based nature is the best way to not only asses students
growth, but to foster this growth in the first place, as well as create students with a
mathematical mindset.

Too often assessment becomes a way for students to demonstrate their mastery of a
single concept or group of skills before moving on to the next ones. Instead,
assessment should be a means to an end. It should help students to see where their
mastery of content is lacking. It should also be used to show students how they are
achieving compared to their own potential. Although we need to assess fairly and
strictly, assessments are for the benefit of the students progress, showing them where
they are struggling or succeeding. Furthermore, they are critical in demonstrating to me,
the teacher, what concepts need to be further explored and when we have achieved
mastery as a class.