Accelerating K-8 Math Instruction

Book excerpt: Schools have been using various approaches to address the pandemic-related struggles that students are experiencing with mathematics. There is an overwhelming consensus by both educators and researchers that we need to adapt acceleration rather than remediation as a tool to counteract the challenges that students currently face. Acceleration is about equity, which allows all our students to access an engaging, standards-based, academically rigorous, grade-level curriculum. In this book, educational consultant Dr. Nicki Newton shows K-8 teachers how to accelerate mathematics instruction so that all students learn and work on grade level, receive the right scaffolding when they need it, and feel a sense of achievement and success. Educators will in turn experience lower frustration and the joy of helping students thrive. Taking a deep dive into in-school acceleration, chapters address research, planning, assessment, pedagogy, teaching math vocabulary, lesson planning, goal setting and motivation, and action planning. Readers will learn how to use acceleration to get everybody motivated to learn and to create pathways of achievement. Book Features: Unpacks accelerating instruction as a way of saying "everybody is invited to this party." Looks at how acceleration provides a pathway to helping academically challenged students achieve and move in step with their grade-level standards. Offers detailed ways to plan, implement, and evaluate accelerated math lessons in grades K-8. Provides numerous tools, templates, and strategies so readers can use ideas right away.