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S1-05: How does coding fit in the science classroom? A conversation with Aryanna Trejo of Code.org

Podcast cover titled "Science Connections" featuring Aryanna Trejo, Season 1, Episode 5. It includes abstract illustrations of a globe and telescope, discussing coding in the science classroom.

In this episode, Eric sits down with Aryanna Trejo, a professional learning specialist of Code.org. Aryanna shares her journey from working as an elementary teacher in New York City and Los Angeles to teaching other educators at Code.org. Eric and Aryanna chat about computer literacy within the science classroom, problem-solving skills, and ways to model productive struggle for students. Aryanna also shares ways to teach coding and computer literacy in schools, no matter the classroom’s technology level. Explore more from Science Connections by visiting our main page.

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Aryanna Trejo (00:00):

I would hear teachers saying things like, “Well, I just can’t do coding; this is too hard for me; the time has passed.” And I would ask them, “Would you say that to your student about math or English?” And they would always sheepishly go, “No.” And I’d say, “Well, be as kind to yourself as you would be to your student.”

Eric Cross (00:19):

Welcome to Science Connections. I’m your host, Eric Cross. My guest today is Aryanna Trejo. Aryanna is a member of the professional learning team at Code.org. Before joining Code.org, Aryanna led computer science professional development for elementary school teachers, and served as an instructional coach for new educators. She also taught fourth and fifth grade in both New York City and in Los Angeles. In this episode, we discuss Aryanna’s journey to Code.org, where she helps educators connect coding to real life, how to use a rubber duck to solve problems, and how coding and computer science principles can be taught to students in areas without access to the internet…or even a computer. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Aryanna Trejo. So I was born and raised here, and I saw that you went to UC San Diego.

Aryanna Trejo (01:11):

I did, I did. I actually just put a deposit down on an apartment in University Heights, ’cause I’m moving back.

Eric Cross (01:16):

You’re coming back?

Aryanna Trejo (01:17):

I’m coming back. Yeah.

Eric Cross (01:19):

So if you need a classroom to visit….

Aryanna Trejo (01:21):

I would love to do more classroom observations!

Eric Cross (01:24):

Are we doing this? Let’s do—we’re making this happen.

Aryanna Trejo (01:26):

We are. Yeah. So I’ll be there. I’m moving there in April. I actually grew up in Orange County too, so I’m like a very diehard SoCal person.

Eric Cross (01:35):

So I feel like I know the answer to, hopefully—Tupac or Biggie? ‘Cause you’re on the East Coast, and you’re on the West Coast.

Aryanna Trejo (01:40):

Yeah. I like Tupac, but I have more Biggie songs committed to memory. Which is not a lot. I have “Juicy” and “Hypnotized” memorized.

Eric Cross (01:53):

All right. So you’re just memorizing, and you have the Biggie songs memorized, but not the Tupac ones.

Aryanna Trejo (01:58):

No, but I do love Tupac songs. You know, it’s like, Biggie has the flow, but Tupac has the lyrics. Nobody’s—they both have something really amazing about them.

Eric Cross (02:06):

You know, I can respect that you broke it down into both of their strengths.

Aryanna Trejo (02:11):

Thanks for buttering me up before this interview. And not….

Eric Cross (02:15):

<laugh> Oh, we already started.

Aryanna Trejo (02:16):

Huh? We already started?

Eric Cross (02:17):

We’re already started. Yeah. We’re already into this.

Aryanna Trejo (02:19):

We’re into it.

Eric Cross (02:21):

You were in the classroom, fourth and fifth grade, and you were doing TFA.

Aryanna Trejo (02:26):

I did. I did Teach For America. I was 2012, New York City Corps. Right after graduation. ‘Cause I graduated UC San Diego in 2012. So graduation was on June 17th, and I touched down at JFK on June 19th.

Eric Cross (02:40):

Even though I wasn’t in TFA, I know a lot of the fellows that are in it. And there’s just some phenomenal teachers in there. How long were you doing elementary school when you were teaching?

Aryanna Trejo (02:49):

Yeah, I taught for—well, I did, three years of teaching fourth grade. Then there happened to be an instructional coach opening in my fourth year. I took that, did some instructional coaching within the same network, and then I moved back to LA and I taught fifth grade for a year.

Eric Cross (03:11):

  1. And what was it like now? Did you go to Code.org right after the classroom?

Aryanna Trejo (03:17):

No, I didn’t. No. I transitioned after teaching fifth grade for a year in downtown Los Angeles, in the Pico-Union neighborhood. I ended up getting this email out of the blue from someone who had actually found me through the Teach for America job site. ‘Cause I was hitting the pavement; I was really looking to transition out of the classroom. And she invited me to interview with this company called 9 Dots. And they taught computer science to kids K–6 throughout Los Angeles and Compton. And I was like, “Sure, no problem. Let’s do it.” So I interviewed, I got the job, and yeah, that’s how I transitioned to 9 Dots. And then after almost four years there, I transitioned to Code.org, with the same person. Actually, she moved over to Code.org first, and then she helped me get this job.

Eric Cross (04:07):

Oh, that’s happened a lot—like, that relationship kinda carries over.

Aryanna Trejo (04:11):

Yeah. We’re meant to be coworkers.

Eric Cross (04:13):

Yeah. Are you still? Is she still there? Are you both still together?

Aryanna Trejo (04:17):

Yeah, we’re on the same team and it’s nice. I saw her last night for Happy Hour, with another coworker who’s in LA. So we’re tight. And she’s a wonderful, wonderful mentor to me.

Eric Cross (04:28):

That’s great. Did you have computer-science background, when you were doing elementary school teaching? Did you have—

Aryanna Trejo (04:34):

No. <laugh> Not at all. When I was teaching in New York City, I had like four desktop computers in my classroom, and we rarely used them. Which was such a shame. And then when I moved to Los Angeles and taught fifth grade there, we were a one-to-one school, and the joys of that are just amazing. It was just really wonderful to, you know, get the students used to typing on the computer, using different software to submit their assignments. Getting creative—as creative as you can get—with Google Slides. You know, to show off what they know. And stuff like that. That’s all I had, though. And you know, when I transitioned to 9 Dots I was like, “Sure, why not? Let’s give a shot.” And I learned a lot. It was really interesting, yeah.

Eric Cross (05:26):

And so now at Code.org you are…well, so my journey with Code.org, I’ve been in the classroom for eight years. Still in the classroom as of…an hour ago, I was there. <Laugh> And I use Code.org, and I feel like I’ve checked it periodically, and I feel like it’s evolved over the gaps. And I’ve seen it. It’s become more robust in the things that they offer, over the years I’ve been an educator. Just to kind of…could you give a thumbnail sketch? Like, what is Code.org? Who’s it for? Who’s the target audience? What resources are there?

Aryanna Trejo (06:00):

Yeah. So it’s for everyone. It is a nonprofit that provides curriculum and training and a platform for teachers and students. We provide curriculum for K through 12. It’s completely free. And it comes with lesson plans, slideshows, all that. We focus specifically on underrepresented groups. So we have targeted measures for Black students, for Native American students, for students who identify as female. That’s a huge part of our mission. But we’re really working to expand access to computer science to as many students as we can.

Eric Cross (06:41):

One of the things I’m hearing in your story is you were teaching in Compton; you were in Bronx, New York. One of the reasons why I got into the classroom is because of educators, and the impact they made on me in exposing me to science and technologies I’d never had access to. And that intentionality, that you’re going about it…are there…not just the code, but how you bring that across to different groups…are there strategies, or are there ways to connect this idea of coding to diverse groups and diverse audiences? Or is it kind of, the curriculum applies for everyone? ‘Cause in science, when I’m teaching, I’m always trying to make what I’m doing relevant to the backgrounds of my students.

Aryanna Trejo (07:28):

Sure.

Eric Cross (07:28):

So I’m teaching biology, and I’m trying to make this kind of connection. Sometimes it’s more organic; sometimes it feels kind of forced. Because it’s just not always a nice fit. But it sounds like Code.org is really about inclusion. And in the numbers that I’ve seen for representation, in especially computer science software engineers, the groups that you’re focusing on are not necessarily represented in the professional workforce. At least disproportionately.

Aryanna Trejo (07:54):

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that’s correct.

Eric Cross (07:57):

And so how do you go about being intentional about reaching groups that we don’t see in, you know, the Silicon Valley software engineers? How do you start that? Like, at a young age, do you look for specific schools in specific areas to say, “We are going to bring this to the school. We’re going out to these populations of the cities”? Because we’re just not seeing…you know, on the map, we’re not seeing anybody really doing anything with coding here. Or we’re not seeing the numbers come out of these areas, out of these cities, of students who are going into STEM or going into computer science fields.

Aryanna Trejo (08:41):

Yeah. I don’t necessarily work on the recruitment side of it, is the issue, in my position. But I do work on the professional learning, that is brought out to teachers. And we have a huge focus on equity throughout the workshops that we create from K–12. It’s something we’re really passionate about. We definitely aim to prepare teachers to teach computer science. That’s a huge part of it. Knowing the content, but also thinking through, “What does recruitment look like at your school to make sure that the demographics of your classroom match the demographics of your entire school?” Also, thinking through, “How can we make sure that female students feel included in your classroom? How can we make sure that we are, giving students creativity to think about, or we are setting students up to be creative and think about the problems that are in their community, and how they can use computer science to solve them, or at least work towards them?”

Eric Cross (09:39):

So solving real-world problems and that inclusion aspect…are there things like…you were saying “female or students who identify as female”…are there things that teachers can do to ensure that they’re being more inclusive? Or to recruit, or encourage more female students to take part? One of the things I was thinking of, that I’ve seen, is I’ve seen coding kind of camps.

Aryanna Trejo (10:06):

Sure.

Eric Cross (10:08):

That were specifically for a female audience. And that seemed to help with recruitment. Is that something that you see on your side?

Aryanna Trejo (10:16):

That’s not something that we set up, no. But the curriculum that I work with is CS Principles. And it’s offered as an Advanced Placement course, as well as an AP class. So that’s a curriculum that’s designed for students who are in grades 10 through 12. And so at that point, we can really talk to teachers and ask them what the recruitment strategy is. But in terms of strategies that teachers can use to recruit those students…I mean, I’ve heard over and over from lots of different teachers who identify as female that they didn’t think that computer science was for them, until they saw a role model in that position. And so just being a role model for those students is really wonderful.

Eric Cross (11:00):

And I see it too, with—like, we do “Draw a Scientist” activity, which is like a popular science thing—

Aryanna Trejo (11:05):

Sure, yeah, I’m familiar.

Eric Cross (11:05):

But it’s the same thing, right? Like, it fleshes out. My students don’t draw themselves as scientists. They draw what they perceive, based on what television says. I imagine with computer science, it’s probably really similar, when you think about “What’s a software engineer look like?” Do students tend to draw themselves? Or is it even a mystery? Because I don’t even know what a software engineer looks like.

Aryanna Trejo (11:28):

Yeah, absolutely. Well, one of the things we love to do with our professional learning workshops is talk about understanding yourself, your identities, how they show up in the classroom as biases. And, you know, things like stereotype threat. We see that as really important to understand, and think through, and consider, before you step into the classroom. So that you’re not, you know, coddling certain groups of students because you don’t believe that they are able to be successful in computer science. Holding all the students to the same expectations and believing that they can succeed. And computer science, I think a lot of the times people have this conception of it being this utopian, bias-less, technocratic field. When in reality, everything has bias. And people talk about algorithmic bias and facial recognition, but also the people who created computers and computer languages have their own bias that comes through. And I think it’s really important to show students that. So that they can, one, know what they’re working with, and two, make sure that they can create products that reduce that bias.

Eric Cross (12:50):

It’s like…it’s not objective, just because we’re creating software. Like, once it gets to a point of being so sophisticated…I think, like, AI software, right? With facial recognition? And we’re seeing more and more articles come out about, you know, predicting trends based on historical data.

Aryanna Trejo (13:12):

Sure.

Eric Cross (13:13):

But then, the trends and things that they’re seeing tend to target things that have happened in the past. But it also doesn’t take into consideration a lot of other factors that can lead to certain groups or populations being identified. And I’ve seen some articles lately about how your code is really just representation of what you put into it. And like you just said, your bias—if you have that, conscious or unconscious—you’re gonna put that into your code. And the input is gonna be an impact, is gonna impact the output.

Aryanna Trejo (13:44):

Yeah, absolutely. Or even just—and I’m ashamed to say this, ’cause this is an idea that came to me just recently, through an article that I read—but computers themselves have bias. The hardware assumes that you have vision, that you can see the screen, that you are able-bodied, that you can use your hands to work the keyboard, the mouse, et cetera, and that you don’t have to use assistive technology. You know, there are small things like that, where we think that technology, like I said, is this utopian, futuristic science…but there are biases throughout.

Eric Cross (14:19):

You’re absolutely right. I’ve never even—I’ve never even considered that. Even though I do use assistive tech, and figure it out, I’ve never thought from the ground up, the process is built for an able-bodied, sighted, hearing person.

Aryanna Trejo (14:31):

Exactly.

Eric Cross (14:32):

To be able to engage with the hardware. And then these other things, these tertiary things that we kind of add on, so that you can do this, but it’s not designed from the ground up for people who are, you know, different audiences, physically. So I’m glad you brought that up, though. Now I’ve seen—and I haven’t done this—but I know Hour of Code is a big thing. And this is something that’s ongoing. Can you talk a little bit about what Hour of Code is? I know it’s, it’s a big thing for the classroom teachers.

Aryanna Trejo (15:08):

Yeah. So Hour of Code is really exciting, and it’s just blossomed from something small to something tremendous. This year is gonna be the 10th Hour of Code. So what it is, is it happens during CS Education Week in December, during Grace Hopper’s—or to honor Grace Hopper’s birthday. She was a computer scientist and Navy Admiral. And basically the aim of it is to get as many students on the computer doing an hour of code, and demystify what coding is. You know, to do seed-planting. To show teachers that this is something that you can facilitate for your students. And also to show students like, “Hey, computer science is something you can absolutely do. Not just for an hour, but more if you want.” So, yeah. Now it’s worldwide, and it’s really exciting.

Eric Cross (15:58):

That’s awesome. And I think about teachers and I still hear the apologetic—when I’m helping teachers in the classroom with education technology—the self-deprecating “I’m a dinosaur; I’m not good with tech,” which is never true. Like, they’re better than they even realize. And I feel like sometimes there’s still a stigma, too. It’s like <laugh> The Simpsons’ Comic Book Store Guy. The condescending tech support person—

Aryanna Trejo (16:27):

Sure.

Eric Cross (16:28):

—who has that tone. And so I feel like some people have been so negatively impacted by that person. So I know when I’m helping people, I actually try to go full-spectrum the other side. But I’m thinking about teachers’ barrier to entry. Sometimes code is like, “Whoa.” And I don’t teach computer science. Do you see those barriers to entry, or at least the perception of them? And then, what’s the reality for like someone listening, and going, “I’m a fourth grade teacher,” or “I’m a humanities teacher in ninth grade.” What’s the perception that you see, versus reality, with the teachers that you train? Is it much more accessible than we think? Or is there a level of sophistication that you have to have coming into it?

Aryanna Trejo (17:10):

No, not at all. I know computer science, and that says a lot! <Laugh> You know, I know my own corner of computer science. And you know, that’s me being self-deprecating, too. But I think learning computer science has helped me in so many different ways that I wasn’t expecting. I recently took the GRE in hopes of, you know, getting back into grad school. And I think just the way that computer science teaches you to search for bugs in your code, or errors, and kind of tirelessly look at a problem from multiple different angles, I was able to carry that into the math that I was doing. And I noticed just a huge difference in the way that I approached it, and the way that I was open to it. But you asked a great question, in regards to the barriers to technology. In my position at 9 Dots, I was working directly with teachers to lead professional development with them. Sometimes it would be a full day; sometimes it would be an hour after school. And the one thing that I always had in my back pocket that was really useful is that I would hear teachers saying things like, “Well, I just can’t do coding; this is too hard for me; the time has passed.” And I would ask them, “Would you say that to your student about math or English?” And they would always sheepishly go, “No.” And I’d say, “Well, be as kind to yourself as you would be to your student.” You know, it takes some patience and nobody’s gonna get it perfect 100 percent of the time. Have I banged my head against the wall trying to solve one tiny little syntax error in my code? Absolutely! But it feels absolutely phenomenal to fix that. And I was an English major in undergrad, and I had never done computer science before. So it’s something that becomes really satisfying.

Eric Cross (19:07):

Yeah, I imagine. I had someone—a trainer or a presenter—one time bring up the fact that our students rarely get to see us learn in real time.

Aryanna Trejo (19:19):

Yeah.

Eric Cross (19:19):

So we don’t get to ever really model failure. I mean, unless we’re in a classroom situation <laughs> in our failures, with classroom management. Then they see it, they see it! But they don’t get to see us model learning failure. And I don’t mean like failure—and yes, I know, “first attempt is learning,” and “no such thing as failure”—that’s not what I’m talking about. But just when we’re not successful with our code, and then we experience real-time frustration.

Aryanna Trejo (19:42):

Yep.

Eric Cross (19:42):

And they said that is actually a great learning experience for your students to watch you go through productive struggle. And that was really liberating for me. Because now I’m in the classroom, and I’m trying to go through it with my students, and the beautiful thing was, they started helping me. We were all trying to solve the problem. And then we had this authentic problem-solving experience. I think it was like a Scratch program, where we were trying to solve, trying to embed it somewhere, or something. And then, in the background of the class: “Mr. Cross! I got it! I figured it out!” And it was this really neat bonding experience. And I felt that—your ears get red, and you get hot, ’cause you’re not—

Aryanna Trejo (20:19):

Oh yeah.

Eric Cross (20:20):

You don’t know it! And you’re in front of 36 kids! And I said, “OK, I need to tell them how I feel.”

Aryanna Trejo (20:25):

Yeah.

Eric Cross (20:26):

So I said, “Now I feel really frustrated.” Like, “I want to go through this, and here’s my thoughts.” ‘Cause I knew that it would be helpful if they saw and would hear my thoughts. So I just did a quick think-aloud and I said, “In my head, <laugh> I want to just quit,” I said, “But I realize that this is the part where my learning’s happening. So I just want you all to hear what’s going on in my brain.” And now I feel like when I’m doing coding with my students, and it’s just basic coding, I feel much more comfortable, like, not knowing. But I needed someone to release me from that “I have to be the expert in everything” to do it.

Aryanna Trejo (21:06):

And teachers are used to being the experts. Right? And they should be. And coding is just such a different landscape. But I think once you kind of give over to the power of tinkering, I think it’s really gratifying. I love being able to…you can revise a sentence, and then read your paragraph back to yourself in English, and say, “OK, I get it.” But there’s something so gratifying about changing a line of code or a block and then being able to hit play and watch your program come to life, and say, “Hmm, that’s not quite what I wanted. Let’s try something different.”

Eric Cross (21:39):

I love your connection to tinkering. ‘Cause—I had never thought about it—’cause I love tinkering with my hands. But I always think about physical things. But coding is exactly that. It’s tinkering.

Aryanna Trejo (21:47):

It’s exactly that.

Eric Cross (21:47):

That’s exactly what it is.

Aryanna Trejo (21:49):

And a lot of it is, for me, especially when I’m trying something new, it’s guess-and-check. It’s like, “OK, that didn’t work. What if I add a semicolon here? Will it finally work? Or what if I add a ‘for’ loop? Will this get me what I want?” And it’s wonderful because you have that with students as well. Like, you have that record of their thinking, and you can ask them to go step-by-step and tell you, you know, “First, I added this, because I wanted the program to do this,” and so on and so forth. And so you have that record, but you can always get rid of it. Students often wanna get completely get rid of it. That’s something that I’ve noticed a lot as I’ve taught computer science. But, once you can get them to target the specific parts of the program, tinker with that, and continue, that’s a really wonderful learning space. There was also something you said about modeling failure. I love the fact that in computer science you can model failure for your students. You said to your students, “I’m getting frustrated.” I love that, because I never got that in math. Nobody ever showed me what it was like to be frustrated with graphing a parabola. Right? Like, my math teachers were always like, “Doot, doot, doot, here you go, you’re done!” <Laugh> And I would get so frustrated, because it didn’t come that easily to me. And I think there’s two parts to that. So there’s modeling the learning and the thinking and the productive struggle, but also there’s the identity of being a computer scientist and modeling what that looks like. So for me, when I get really frustrated with a program, I walk away. I take five minutes. I take a deep breath. I say, “I’m not gonna think about it in these five minutes.” And I come back to it. And I think once you start teaching computer science, you can facilitate that for students. And there’s so many different strategies that they can pick up. They can pick up rubber ducking, which is where they pick up a rubber duck or a similar object, and they talk to it as if they were a partner and talk through their code. And oftentimes, as you’re rubber ducking, you’re gonna find that error, because you’re explaining it to someone who’s a stand-in for a novice. And rubber ducking is a well-known strategy for computer scientists who make it their career. You know, there’s pair programming. Some students love pair programming; some students hate it. But the students start to build this identity about how they problem-solve. And how they approach failure. And I just love that.

Eric Cross (24:31):

I’m writing this down. Because the rubber-ducking strategy, I love. I just imagine my seventh graders, a bunch of 13-year-olds with, like, rubber on the desk. And not necessarily in coding, but I was thinking in my science class. And they’re working through a challenge, and they’re all looking at this duck, and they’re talking to it. But I just love the the idea of externalizing your thought process and talking through it yourself so that you can hopefully arrive at a conclusion. But it’s such a great practice, and this is something that’s been around for a long time, apparently. So.

Aryanna Trejo (24:59):

Yeah. Yeah. It’s a real thing. And you know, you can go low-fi. It doesn’t have to be a rubber duck. You can have students talk to their pencils or their imaginary friends. That’s not the issue; the issue is, you know, talking to somebody.

Eric Cross (25:10):

I know you support teachers. But I just wanted to…I was just curious about your typical day, what that’s like. And then what you do, how you support ’em.

Aryanna Trejo (25:15):

So, at my previous job at 9 Dots, I was in there with the teachers in the classrooms. I was coaching our internal staff who went out to co-teach with teachers. And I loved that. And I had such a great impact on a local scale. But now at Code.org, I have a much broader impact. But I don’t get to interface with—that’s such a tech-y word!—I don’t get to interact with—

Eric Cross (25:42):

You work at Code.org! You get to—

Aryanna Trejo (25:42):

I know! But I’m a teacher at heart, forever, right? That’s my identity that I forged when I was 22 years old. And a typical day looks like opening up my computer, taking a look at my calendar. I often have meetings to talk about, different things that we’re doing to support our facilitators who go out to our teachers and lead their workshops for them. I recently worked on a product that was designed for CS principles, teachers, to onboard to the course if they weren’t able to get into an in-person workshop. And it’s completely self-paced, so it gives teachers an on-ramp into the course. And now I’m working on some in-person workshop agendas. So I feel really wonderful that my work is going out to thousands of teachers. But at the same time, I really, really miss talking to teachers. Because that’s something that energizes me so much.

Eric Cross (26:46):

When should students start learning computer science? I feel like we see it in this kind of narrow lane. Like, this is computer science if you make an app. Can it be more than that? As far as like the benefit of computer science? And—I guess two-part question—when should students, one, start being exposed to it? And then two, what are some of the benefits beyond just, “I wanna just make an app”?

Aryanna Trejo (27:08):

I taught coding to kindergartners. It can start as early as you as you want it to. And it doesn’t necessarily need to be on the computer. A lot of students that I worked with didn’t have computers at home, were interacting with computers for the first time. And that’s a huge barrier, of course, to a lot of teachers. But there are so many unplugged lessons that you can do to start to start to have students think about algorithms, which is just a series of steps to complete to solve a problem. As long as a student can use a computer, I think they can do computer science. There are products out there like codeSpark, where students—and Code.org has these products too—where students are moving an avatar around a board, kind of like a quadrant to…you know, they feed the directions to a computer and then the computer enacts it for them. And with that, they can learn algorithms. You know, that is computer science. And a lot of people don’t see it that way, but it really is. And it starts to set students up for more complex thinking as they move on.

Eric Cross (28:13):

One of the biggest underserved communities, geographically, are students in rural areas.

Aryanna Trejo (28:20):

Yep.

Eric Cross (28:21):

They can be reservations; they can be places just not an urban area. Is there a way to serve our communities of students and bring these skills in an unplugged way?

Aryanna Trejo (28:32):

Yeah. Yeah. If you typed in “unplugged computer science lessons” to Google, you’ll have a ton of hits. And there are so many students out there—not just in rural areas. But there’s incarcerated students. It hurts my heart to even say those words, but in urban areas too. Like in my classroom, where I only had four desktop computers. Access is a real struggle. And there’s things, like I said, instead of moving an avatar around a grid on the computer, I used to have an actual mat that I would take out to my kindergarten classrooms, lay it out, and it would have a grid on it. And we’d have one of the students act as the avatar and the rest of the students would give them directions to get to a different point on the grid. And there, you’re building an algorithm or just a series of steps. Like I said, it’s not some fancy term to solve a problem. And there’s multiple ways to solve that problem, too. And I think investigating that can be a really good way to stretch those lessons.

Eric Cross (29:32):

It almost sounds like an oxymoron, but this low-tech computer science strategy. Develop these skills and then transfer that once you have access to the tools.

Aryanna Trejo (29:39):

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And I think it’s a good way for students who need kinesthetic means to start to understand something, or just different learning styles, to start transferring that over.

Eric Cross (29:53):

I probably have students in the classroom where those kinesthetic moving things would help be a great way—or WILL be a great way—for them to learn the principles and the fundamentals of coding. Instead of only giving the option to just do the computer, actually giving them some choice. Or giving them a way to be able to manipulate things. We’re still in the system of education that’s still very siloed. It’s been the same way for a hundred years. We got math and then we got science and we got English. I’m wondering, how can a teacher fit this into their daily lessons? And then, do you have any experiences or stories or things that you’ve seen, just really creative ways that you’ve seen teachers incorporate this? Outside the norm of, “This is a computer science class; we’re just gonna code.” But have you seen it branch out? In the trainings that you’ve done?

Aryanna Trejo (30:40):

I’ve seen examples of that. I’ve seen a teacher use Scratch to demonstrate different climates of California, and show the different climates. This past year for Hour of Code, my friend Amy—the one who helped me move to 9 Dots and at Code.org—she created this incredible tutorial called Poetry Bot. And it was a way to get students to match the mood of the poem to some of the elements that were happening in the stage. So they would have different backgrounds show up at different parts of the poem. When the words would show up, they would have different sprites show up. They would have, sometimes, sounds. Or the text would show up with different animations. So there are cross-curricular opportunities everywhere, if you can be creative enough to find them, or if you beg, borrow, steal from other educators who are doing this incredible work out there.

Eric Cross (31:36):

Yeah. I say this all the time, but I’m an educational DJ, not an MC.

Aryanna Trejo (31:44):

Oh yeah.

Eric Cross (31:45):

So MCs write their lyrics and DJs remix with things that other people have done.

Aryanna Trejo (31:48):

Absolutely.

Eric Cross (31:48):

I was like, I’m a DJ. I was like, all day. Sometimes I’ll write a lyric, once or twice, but most of the time I’m remixing things. So teachers, if you’ve been out there and you got an awesome interdisciplinary thing, or you’ve incorporated coding and it’s something that’s traditionally not seen, please send it to us. Share it with us.

Aryanna Trejo (32:03):

Yeah. And there are so many different places where you can find that. We have a forum for Code.org, but there’s also CSTA, the Computer Science Teachers Association. You can join your local chapter and get to know other computer science teachers out there.

Eric Cross (32:19):

I guess…to wrap up, I’ve been using Scratch programming, the MIT website. My students do the basic animated name, CS First, stuff. But over the years, I’ve noticed that my students are coming in with a higher level of sophistication in Scratch to where now the differentiation…some of my students are just doing very basic…and then I have other students who’ve created full-on video games with complex…like, you look at their Scratch page and it’s just an amazing amount of blocks and integrations and things that they have. Is there anything on Code.org that could be a next step? That takes them beyond, maybe like the visuals? And if so, what would be a good next step, to take students to advance them to another platform? There’s so many coding languages out there, I feel like. Or I might not even be thinking about that the right way.

Aryanna Trejo (33:20):

No, I think you are. You know, we have three different curricula out on our website right now. We have CS Fundamentals, which is probably more in line with what you’re talking about. We have a free CS Discoveries curriculum, and that is designed for, grades, I believe, 6 through 10. And that would be a really good entry point, for both teachers and for students.

Eric Cross (33:44):

There’s a lot of new stuff that I hadn’t seen yet, a few years ago.

Aryanna Trejo (33:49):

Yeah.

Eric Cross (33:49):

So I was really excited.

Aryanna Trejo (33:50):

One thing that I do know is that CS Discovery has just added an artificial intelligence slash machine-learning unit, that you can just pick up and give to your students. You don’t have to go in order with CS Discoveries, like you do with CS Principles. And I’ve gone through some of those lessons. They are really rad. And I would’ve loved to have learned that when I was in middle school or high school. So yeah, we’re constantly thinking of how we can make things one, relevant to our students, and two relevant to what’s going on in the world.

Eric Cross (34:20):

So would I be overselling it if I said, “If you go through this, you’ll be able to create an AI or a neural net to do all your homework”?

Aryanna Trejo (34:26):

You would be overselling it.

Eric Cross (34:27):

I would be? OK. So what I’ll do is, I’ll wait until the end of the school year, and then introduce it, and then by the time they’ve realized it’s not true, they’ll be eighth graders.

Aryanna Trejo (34:35):

There you go. Good old bait-and-switch.

Eric Cross (34:37):

You’re amazing. Thank you for serving teachers, and for being part of such a great organization that puts out great stuff. So much free curricula for teachers to be able to use. Especially nowadays we hunt and scour the internet for those types of things. And to be able to bring computer literacy into the classroom, and with your focus of serving communities of underrepresented groups, it feels good to know that not only is it high-quality material, but it’s also trying to raise everyone up. Because ultimately when we have more people trying to solve a common problem, we come up with better solutions. And I was talking to somebody who was a materials engineer somewhere in Europe, and he said one of the things about the U.S., As he was critiquing me on this flight, critiquing the U.S., He said, “One of the things about your country is that you have a heterogeneous group of people who, in a group, when you have multiple perspectives attacking a problem, you come up with more novel solutions.” He says, “That’s one of the great things, is that there’s not necessarily just a hive mind.” And I think that that’s one of the great things. We uplift different communities, and we uplift women, people of color, people who, have backgrounds that parents didn’t go to college but have these amazing qualities and strengths. And we put everybody focusing on the same issue. We come up with novel solutions that we wouldn’t have come up with if only select groups were trying to look at it and solve it. And so—.

Aryanna Trejo (36:22):

Yeah.

Eric Cross (36:23):

And we couldn’t do that without organizations like yours, that help empower teachers. So.

Aryanna Trejo (36:27):

Yeah! You really said it.

Eric Cross (36:29):

You’re coming to my classroom when you’re back in San Diego?

Aryanna Trejo (36:31):

Yeah! I totally will. Yeah. Let’s make it happen.

Eric Cross (36:34):

Last question. If you think back in your schooling, your own schooling, K through college, is there a person or a teacher that had a big impact on you? Or a learning experience that had an impact on you? And it could be, you know, positive or negative. But something that impacted you, even to this day, that stands out to you, that you remember?

Aryanna Trejo (36:56):

This is a big diversion from the topics that we’re talking about. But in grades 10 through 12, my drama teacher, Mr. Byler, who I still talk with, was such a huge impression on me. Really wonderful. And I couldn’t tell you the teaching moves that he did that were wonderful. I don’t know much about his management. But I can tell you that he gave me space to be confident, and grow into myself, through drama productions. They were high school productions, so they weren’t amazing. But I just really came into myself in high school, because I had the confidence to get on stage. And he was just such a wonderful mentor to all of us. So, props to Mr. Byler.

Eric Cross (37:39):

Shout out to Mr. Byler for creating space for Aryanna to fly! Thanks for making time, after your workday, to talk with us and to share Code.org with teachers.

Aryanna Trejo (37:54):

Of course. Happy to.

Eric Cross (37:59):

Thanks so much for joining me and Aryanna today. We want to hear more about you. If you have any great lessons or ways to keep student engagement high, please email us at stem@amplify.com. Make sure to click subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. And join our brand new Facebook group, Science Connections: The Community for some extra content.

Stay connected!

Join our community and get new episodes every other Tuesday!

We’ll also share new and exciting free resources for your classroom every month.

What Aryanna Trejo says about science

“I would hear teachers saying things like, ‘Well I just can’t do coding, it’s just too hard for me.’ And I would ask them…Would you say that to your student about math or English? Be as kind to yourself as you would be to your student.”

– Aryanna Trejo

Professional Learning Specialist, Code.org

Meet the guest

Aryanna is a member of the Code.org Professional Learning Team. Before joining Code.org, Aryanna led computer science professional development for K-6 teachers and served as an instructional coach for new educators. She also taught fourth and fifth grade in New York City and Los Angeles. In her spare time, Aryanna loves taking advantage of the California sunshine, creating wheel-thrown pottery, and hanging out with her dog Lola.

Person with curly hair smiling, standing in front of a brick wall. Circular frame with decorative star in the corner.

About Science Connections

Welcome to Science Connections! Science is changing before our eyes, now more than ever. So…how do we help kids figure that out? We will bring on educators, scientists, and more to discuss the importance of high-quality science instruction. In this episode, hear from our host Eric Cross about his work engaging students as a K-8 science teacher. Listen here!

You might also like:

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Coding Science Internship

Integrate coding into your science classroom with Amplify Science’s brand-new Co…

Two students collaborate on schoolwork at a table, with a laptop and a notebook. Other students are focused on their own tasks in the background.

Earn CE Credit! Free Coding Webinar

Integrating Code-to-Learn Experiences in Middle School Science Classrooms

Logo of Math Teacher Lounge with large letters "MTL" in teal, orange, and blue. Text reads "Presented by Amplify + desmos.

Math Teacher Lounge

Looking for ways to support students in problem-solving? Check out the Amplify’s…

Welcome to Amplify Science!

This site contains resources designed to support Clark County’s use of Amplify Science for grades K–8. Check back for exciting updates!

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Program Introduction

Learn more about Amplify Science

Click the buttons below to explore the Amplify Science Program Guide. You can access the full digital Teacher’s Guide from the Program Guide to explore the program.

Grades K–8

Clark County Training Sessions – Reference Materials

Participant Notebooks:

Planning Resources:

2021-2022 Session Materials

New Teacher Training Part 1

Unit 2: Standard Curriculum Relaunch / Guided Planning

2020-2021 Session Materials

New Teacher Orientation Part I

Returning and New Teacher Part II

Orientation Sessions

Remote Learning Session

Unit 2 Unpacking Session Materials

Unit 2 Part II

Unit 3

2021-2022 Session Materials

Unit 2: Standard Curriculum Relaunch / Guided Planning

New Teacher Training Part 1

2020-2021 Session Materials

New Teacher Orientation Part I

Returning and New Teacher Part II

Orientation Sessions

Remote Learning Session

Unit 2 Unpacking Session Materials

Unit 2 Part II

Unit 3

2021-2022 Session Materials

Unit 2: Standard Curriculum Relaunch / Guided Planning

New Teacher Training Part 1

2020-2021 Session Materials

New Teacher Orientation Part I

Returning and New Teacher Part II

Orientation Sessions

Remote Learning Session

Unit 2 Unpacking Session Materials

Unit 2 Part II

Unit 3

2021-2022 Session Materials

Unit 2: Standard Curriculum Relaunch / Guided Planning

New Teacher Training Part 1

2020-2021 Session Materials

New Teacher Orientation Part I

Returning and New Teacher Part II

Orientation Sessions

Remote Learning Session

Unit 2 Unpacking Session Materials

Unit 3 Unpacking the Unit Phenomenon

Unit 4 Unpacking Amplify Science for Hybrid Learning

2021-2022 Session Materials

Unit 2: Standard Curriculum Relaunch / Guided Planning

New Teacher Training Part 1

2020-2021 Session Materials

New Teacher Orientation Part I

Returning and New Teacher Part II

Orientation Sessions

Remote Learning Session

Unit 2 Unpacking Session Materials

Unit 3 Unpacking the Unit Phenomenon

Unit 4 Unpacking Amplify Science for Hybrid Learning

2021-2022 Session Materials

Unit 2: Standard Curriculum Relaunch / Guided Planning

New Teacher Training Part 1

2020-2021 Session Materials

New Teacher Orientation Part I

Returning and New Teacher Part II

Orientation Sessions

Remote Learning Session

Unit 2 Unpacking Session Materials

Unit 3 Unpacking the Unit Phenomenon

Unit 4 Unpacking Amplify Science for Hybrid Learning

2021-2022 Session Materials

Unit 2 Metabolism Engineering Internship: Unit Internalization / Guided Planning

2020-2021 Session Materials

Unit 2 Unpacking

Unit 2 Metabolism

2021-2022 Session Materials

Gr 7 Scope and Sequence 2021-22

2020-2021 Session Materials

Navigating Program Essentials

Launch Unit: Guided Internalization with @Home Resources

Unit 2 Session Materials

2021-2022 Session Materials

Gr 8 Scope and Sequence 2021-22

2020-2021 Session Materials

Grade Level Orientation and Refresher

[Synchronous Session Agenda] LAUSD MS, Summer 21

Navigating Program Essentials

[Asynchronous Session Agenda] LAUSD MS, Summer 21

Remote Learning Session (6-8)

Grade 6

Gr 6 Scope and Sequence 2021-22

Grade 7

Gr 7 Scope and Sequence 2021-22

Grade 8

Gr 8 Scope and Sequence 2021-22

New! Lesson Prep Videos

Unit 1

Grade 3 Lesson Prep Videos can be found in the Resources section in the Amplify Science- Elementary group in Schoology. Access code: W4PK-W466-63F5B

Grade 4 Lesson Prep Videos can be found in the Resources section in the Amplify Science- Elementary group in Schoology. Access code: W4PK-W466-63F5B

Grade 5 Lesson Prep Videos can be found in the Resources section in the Amplify Science- Elementary group in Schoology. Access code: W4PK-W466-63F5B

Remote Learning Resources

We’ve created some guidance on resources you can send home with students and ways for you to adapt our K-5 or 6-8 curriculum for remote learning.

Learn more at Remote Learning Resources for Amplify Science

Onboarding: What to expect

Welcome to Amplify Science! To help you know what’s coming next, we created the following visual that outlines the steps of the onboarding process. You can use it as a reference.

Icons illustrating steps for teachers: attend workshop, log into guide, gather materials, ensure student access to tools, prepare lesson.

Onboarding videos

To start using Amplify Science quickly in your classroom, check out the following onboarding videos. They cover what you need to know to get started fast, from unpacking materials to logging in and navigating the digital Teacher’s Guide.

Unpacking your first hands-on materials kit

The following videos give you a quick look into our Amplify Science classroom kits. For each grade level, we have a video for the first unit in the scope and sequence, and we show you how to unpack the kits for all the units.

A woman in a classroom setting demonstrates a large book with illustrations while sitting at a desk. She gestures towards the book, which is held open. An orange play button overlay is centered on the image.

Looking for help?

Powerful (and free!) pedagogical support

Amplify provides a unique kind of support you won’t find from other publishers. We have developed an educational support team of former teachers and administrators who provide pedagogical support for every Amplify curriculum, assessment, and intervention program. This service is completely free for all educators who are using our programs and includes:

  • Guidance for developing lesson plans and intervention plans
  • Information on where to locate standards and other planning materials
  • Recommendations and tips for day-to-day teaching with Amplify programs
  • Support with administering and interpreting assessment data and more

To reach our pedagogical team, use our live chat within your program, call (800) 823-1969, or email edsupport@amplify.com

Timely technical and program support

Our technical and program support is included and available from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, through a variety of channels, including a live chat program that enables teachers to get immediate help in the middle of the school day.

For your most urgent questions:

  • Use our live chat within your program
  • Call our toll-free number: (800) 823-1969

For less urgent questions:

Email support

2025

September 18, 2025

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2024

December 18, 2024

EdSource: “State takes another step toward mandatory testing for reading difficulties in 2025”

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The 74: “As NY District Implements Science of Reading, Parents Push for New Focus on Math”

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Tech & Learning: “Tech & Learning Announces Winners of Best for Back to School 2024”

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EdNC: “‘Dedication of our teachers’ praised in an update on the state’s science of reading journey”

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The 74: “Classroom Case Study: To Maximize the Impact of Curriculum Mandates, Follow the Science of Reading”

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Chalkbeat: “Should teachers customize their lessons or just stick to the ‘script’?”

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July 7, 2024

The Economist: “Will artificial intelligence transform school?”

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April 25, 2024

Edutopia: “Using Tech Tools to Energize Young Students’ Math Learning”

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The 74: “New Data: Despite K-2 Reading Gains, Students Face a ‘Much Harder Journey’ Ahead”

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The 74: “Case Study: How One Texas School District Is Repurposing Staff Development Time to Embrace the Science of Reading”

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Times Record News: “UPDATED: Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath likes what he sees at local school”

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Chalkbeat: “Chicago Public Schools recover from pandemic declines more than other districts, study shows”

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The 74: “Building Oral Language Skills and Equity Through High-Quality Reading Curriculum”

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2023

December 19, 2023

The 74: “Best Education Articles of 2023: Our 23 Most Important Stories About Students, Schools & Learning Recovery ”

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Education Week: “Aligned Science Curriculum, Better Scores? Research Finds a Connection”

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December 6, 2023

WRAL News: “Reading readiness rises in NC’s K-3 classrooms, new data shows”

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November 27, 2023

The Dallas Morning News: “Dallas’ new lessons aim to keep kids on track, but some worry about limiting teachers”

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Fort Worth Report: “Black students in Fort Worth ISD still struggle to read at grade level”

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October 31, 2023

Chicago Tribune: “Lake Forest-area schools take stock of state grades; ‘While we celebrate our successes, we acknowledge that the journey … is ongoing’”

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October 19, 2023

Chalkbeat: “NYC eyes middle and high school literacy overhaul. It’s asking families to weigh in.”

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October 16, 2023

The 74: “As Virginia Rolls Out Ambitious Statewide High-Dosage Tutoring Effort This Week, 3 Keys to Success”

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October 6, 2023

Language Magazine: “Embracing Bilingual Assessment”

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September 18, 2023

Tech & Learning: “Best for Back to School 2023”

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September 18, 2023

Chalkbeat: “Chicago Public Schools hired hundreds of tutors with federal COVID money. Can they keep them?”

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September 7, 2023

EdNC: “Perspective | Union County Public Schools empowers educators, elevates readers”

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August 14, 2023

Chicago Parent: “Common Core Math: How to Help Your Kids”

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August 6, 2023

The News & Observer: “NC sees big increase in reading skills among K-3 students. Is the state back on track?”

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August 4, 2023

The 74: “Slow Literacy Gains, Long COVID in Kids: 7 Insights into Pandemic Recovery and Aftermath in U.S. Schools”

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August 3, 2023

EdNC: “State Board of Education: New reading data, parental leave, and a call to support public schools”

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July 28, 2023

Houston Public Media: “New literacy curriculum is among the many changes coming to HISD”

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July 17, 2023

Houston Chronicle: “Mike Miles says HISD schools will teach the ‘science of reading.’ Here’s what that means.”

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July 11, 2023

The 74: “‘Education’s Long COVID’: New Data Shows Recovery Stalled for Most Students”

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June 29, 2023

The Report Card: “Larry Berger on Curriculum”

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June 2, 2023

EdWeek Market Brief:”K-12 Dealmaking: Substitute Teaching Startup Secures $38M; Amplify Raises Undisclosed Series C”

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April 21, 2023

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April 18, 2023

The 74: “Louisiana District Ravaged by Hurricane & COVID is Bouncing Back with Science”

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April 5, 2023

WFAE: “NC midyear reading data shows gains, but third-grade goals remain elusive”

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April 5, 2023

EdNC: “K-3 students show growth in literacy skills, mid-year DPI data show”

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March 24, 2023

The 74: “COVID & School Recovery: Critics Warn Washington Bill Would Reduce Classroom Learning Time By 4 Hours a Week”

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March 24, 2023

Edutopia: “Using Collective Leadership to Make a Major Shift in Your District”

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March 15, 2023

K-12 Dive: “California at center of latest push for science-based reading approaches”

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March 7, 2023

District Administration: “ESSER pressure: How one district intends to spend wisely as deadline looms”

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The 74: “‘The Other Long COVID’ Affecting Kids: Missed Opportunities”

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March 2, 2023

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March 1, 2023

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February 27, 2023

The 74: “Exclusive: Despite K-2 Reading Gains, Results Flat for 3rd Grade ‘COVID Kids’”

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February 27, 2023

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CBS17.com: “K-3 students in NC make significant strides on literacy exams, DPI says”

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2022

December 20, 2022

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May 24, 2022

Forbes: “States That Want To Boost Literacy Should Keep An Eye On Texas”

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April 24, 2022

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The Baltimore Sun: “National test scores show student gains from in-person learning in all but a critical group: new and pre-readers | COMMENTARY”

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March 15, 2022

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March 10, 2022

NY Daily News: “Read it and weep: The new reading instruction emergency”

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March 10, 2022

WISH TV Indianapolis: “Study shows student performance plummeted during pandemic”

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March 9, 2022

New York Post: “Young students have suffered ‘alarming’ drops in reading skills during pandemic”

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March 9, 2022

The Daily Caller: “Childhood Literacy Plummeted Following Pandemic Shutdowns, Studies Show”

Read Full Article

March 8, 2022

The New York Times: “It’s ‘Alarming’: Children Are Severely Behind in Reading”

Read Full Article

March 7, 2022

Education Next: “The Education Exchange: Pandemic Hurt Younger Students’ Learning Worse, Amplify Data Suggest”

Listen to the Podcast

February 28, 2022

The 74: “Our 12 Best Education Articles in February: Reflections on 700 Days of COVID Chaos, Setting a Bar for Unmasking in Schools, Burying Schools in Record Requests & More”

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February 24, 2022

The Daily Advertiser: “Reading scores improve slightly, but pre-COVID reading levels are ‘the wrong goal’”

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February 24, 2022

Wall Street Journal: “The School Shutdowns and Lost Literacy”

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February 23, 2022

K-12 Dive: “DIBELS data illustrates pandemic reading setbacks”

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February 22, 2022

ABC 7 Buffalo: “Children falling behind in reading”

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February 18, 2022

The Carolina Journal: “Report: Elementary students lag in literacy due to pandemic”

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February 16, 2022

The 74: “‘We Have First-Graders Who Can’t Sing the Alphabet Song’: Pandemic Continues to Push Young Readers Off Track, New Data Shows”

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February 16, 2022

Education Week: “More Than 1 in 3 Children Who Started School in the Pandemic Need ‘Intensive’ Reading Help”

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February 4, 2022

Literary Hub: “EXCLUSIVE: Watch Joshua Bennett Discuss A.R. Ammons’s poem “Cascadilla Falls”

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January 26, 2022

The Ross Kaminsky Show: “Susan Lambert and the Literacy Gap”

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January 19, 2022

K-12 Dive: “Report: Colorado reading law update boosts quality of literacy curriculum”

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2021

December 15, 2021

Chalkbeat: “How Denver plans to address a drop in early elementary reading scores”

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December 8, 2021

The SHRM Blog: “What’s the Best Work Perk of All? Contributing to the Social Good”

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November 13, 2021

Hechinger Report: ‘The Reading Year’: First grade is critical for reading skills, but kids coming from disrupted kindergarten experiences are way behind”

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October 20, 2021

Hechinger Report: “OPINION: Younger students were among those most hurt during the pandemic”

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September 2, 2021

EdSurge: “An Edtech User’s Glossary to Speech Recognition and AI in the Classroom”

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September, 2021

SIIA Education: “ED TECH SUCCESS STORIES”

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August 23, 2021

CNN: “Irish tech firm helps kids’ voices be heard”

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August 18, 2021

SoapBox Labs: “Can Speech Recognition Help Children Learn to Read?”

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August 12, 2021

FOX Chicago Broadcast Interview: “Pandemic widens literacy gap for students”

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August 3, 2021

T.H.E Journal: “More Students of Color at Risk in Reading After Pandemic”

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July 28, 2021

The 74: “Early Reading Skills See a Rebound From In-Person Learning, But Racial Gaps Have Grown Wider, Tests Show”

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July 28, 2021

K-12 Dive: “Reports: Math, reading progress slowed during first full school year of pandemic”

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July 20, 2021

EdNC: “The mCLASS reading assessment tool is back in North Carolina classrooms, but it’s going to look different”

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July 5, 2021

WBAL: “Baltimore students from all socio-economic backgrounds get a chance to ‘Amplify’ their learning skills”

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June 15, 2021

Language Magazine: “Using Evidence to Overcome Adversity”

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May 7, 2021

The Dallas Morning News: “How can a one-minute kindergarten test help teachers tackle the ‘COVID slide’?”

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April 20, 2021

Education Week: “How Teachers and Curriculum Will Shape Ed Tech’s Future: A CEO Makes the Case”

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March 24, 2021

The Hechinger Report: “OPINION: Children will need summer tutors to make up for pandemic learning loss”

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March 23, 2021

Education Week: “Most States Fail to Measure Teachers’ Knowledge of the ‘Science of Reading,’ Report Says”

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March 17, 2021

Axios: “How online education and tutoring could fight COVID learning loss”

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March 16, 2021

USA Today: “Students are struggling to read behind masks and screens during COVID-19, but ‘expectations are no different’”

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March 16, 2021

The 74: “Schools and COVID, a Year Later: 12 Months After Classrooms Closed, 12 Key Things We’ve Learned About How the Pandemic Disrupted Student Learning”

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February 25, 2021

K–12 Dive: “Reading gaps widen in mid-year data, especially for K-1 students of color”

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February 24, 2021

The 74: “One Year into Pandemic, Far Fewer Young Students are on Target to Learn How to Read, Tests Show”

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February 17, 2021

NBC Los Angeles: “Local Students Design Rovers in Mission to Mars Student Challenge”

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February 5, 2021

District Administration: “To save literacy, focus first on high-quality core instruction”

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February 4, 2021

The Hechinger Report: “5 ways schools hope to fight Covid-19 learning loss”

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January 5, 2021

The 74: “Science Matters Now More than Ever. The Time to Start Teaching It Is in Elementary School”

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2020

December 15, 2020

Education Week: “Students’ Reading Losses Could Strain Schools’ Capacity to Help Them Catch Up”

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December 9, 2020

Education Post: “How to Help Beginning Readers During the Pandemic”

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December 3, 2020

American Consortium for Equity in Education: “The Importance of Quality Curriculum With Industry Voice”

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September 29, 2020

The 74: “Beyond the Scantron: Ed Tech CEO Larry Berger on Why the Pandemic Is No Excuse to Abscond Accountability and ‘Disruptions Are Great Opportunities to Try Something New’”

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May 25, 2020

The 74: “Class Disrupted Podcast Episode 2: Why Is My Child Doing So Many Worksheets Right Now?”

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February 5, 2020

Getting Smart Podcast: “Larry Berger on EdTech Past and Future”

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Professional development for core programs

Amplify professional development provides learning experiences that intentionally develop the knowledge and skills you need for effective and self-sustaining implementation.

Learn and apply impactful instructional techniques and develop a deeper understanding of your Amplify program(s) by investing in professional development.

Professional Learning Partner Guide Certified Provider

Amplify professional development has been vetted by Rivet Education’s team through a rigorous three-step process and is listed in the Professional Learning Partner Guide.

Contact us
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About Amplify core programs

Amplify’s high-quality programs make it easier for you to teach inspiring, impactful lessons that celebrate and develop the brilliance of your students. By equipping teachers with resources and strategies to provide robust scaffolding and differentiated instruction, Amplify’s core programs ensure that all students can fully engage with rigorous subject matter.

Literacy

  • Amplify ELAR K–5
  • Amplify SLAR K–5
  • Amplify ELAR 6–8

STEM

  • Amplify Math
  • Desmos Math
  • Amplify Desmos Math (for Grades K–Algebra 1)*
  • Amplify Science

We provide PD sessions for all Amplify programs. Contact your account executive to discuss the extended catalog of PD session options or request a quote.

*Amplify Desmos Math is a new core PreK–12 program from Amplify and Desmos Classroom—available in English and Spanish—that applies a problem-based approach to get results by developing deep conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application. Contact us to learn more about the packages and sessions currently available.

About Amplify Professional Development (PD)

Change is more likely to stick and get results when you take a systemic approach. Partner with us to do just that by developing a learning plan that will drive your program implementation, enrich your instructional practices, and increase student impact. Begin and Practice packages are available for core programs.


Prepare
Begin
Practice
Advance
Program-agnostic sessions will set up educators for success in areas such as the Science of Reading and/or problem-based approaches to math. Program-aligned packages will support those who are new to Amplify’s programs. Program-aligned packages will support those who have experience using Amplify’s programs. Offerings will support advanced implementation, build capacity for instructional leaders, certify in-house trainers to deliver Launch sessions, and more.

At each phase of implementation, we offer a range of unique packages and offerings. Sessions are strategically bundled for multiple touch points throughout the year. A variety of high-quality sessions set educators up for success with Amplify programs—whether you’re years into using them or just starting out.

Session types

Select a package to uncover the benefits of a customizable Coach session.

LAUNCH STRENGTHEN COACH
Beginning of year Mid-year, end of year Mid-year, end of year
Illustration of a rocket ship with a red tip, gray fins, and orange flames, featuring a person with red hair visible through a window.
Illustration of a woman with red hair lifting a dumbbell, sweating and flexing her arm to show a muscle.
Three people are in a rowboat; two are rowing while the third faces them, appearing to give instructions or shout.
Propel your teachers into the new school year with sessions that introduce them to their Amplify program and support them in a strong implementation.
 Boost implementation with sessions that target specific instructional practices.
 Guide teachers and leaders with targeted learning tailored to their specific needs.
Before teaching
 After 6+ weeks of teaching
  
Select a package to reveal the components of a launch session. To explore the core strengthen sessions, select your program: Select a package to uncover the benefits of a customizable Coach session.
Literacy Strengthen sessions
STEM Strengthen sessions

Interactive sessions empower teachers and leaders implementing Amplify programs, giving them the tools and skills they need to inspire all students to think deeply, creatively, and for themselves.

Explore enhancement options to see how you can further customize your package to build capacity in teachers and leaders and meet the needs of all learners within Amplify literacy, biliteracy, and/or STEM program(s).

Begin packages

You’re in your first year of implementation. You’re ready to start making the shift to evidence-based practices, using your Amplify program(s). You know that individual change is critical to organizational change. Let us support educators with professional development that develops new skills, knowledge, and a positive orientation to change.

Explore the program-aligned package options below to learn more about the modality and duration of each Launch, Strengthen, and Coach session available to you during your first year of implementation.

Select from flexible on-site, hybrid, or virtual packages, including:

  • Launch sessions to introduce Amplify programs and support strong implementation.
  • Strengthen sessions to deepen understanding of the program.
  • Coach sessions to elevate instructional practice and help meet teachers’ and schools’ specific needs.

Each package supports up to 30 participants in similar grade bands.

Overview: Begin packages for Amplify core programs

Package title and duration On-site package (15 hours) Hybrid
on-site package (15 hours)		 Hybrid 10 package (10 hours) Hybrid virtual package (15 hours) Virtual package   (7 hours)
Launch
One session per package		 On-site
6 hr.		 On-site
6 hr.		 On-site
3 hr.		 Virtual
6 hr.
(2 half-days)		 Virtual
3 hr.
Strengthen
One session per package		 On-site
3 hr.		 Virtual
3 hr.		 Virtual
1 hr.		 Virtual
3 hr.		 Virtual
1 hr.
Coach
One session per package		 On-site
6 hr.		 On-site
6 hr.		 On-site
6 hr.		 On-site
6 hr.		 Virtual
3 hr.
Suggested enhancements
Launch add-on On-site or virtual,
3 hr. session		 Program overview for leaders

On-site package

Begin: On-site packages include program-aligned, on-site Launch, Strengthen, and Coach sessions. Providing 15 hours of professional development for up to 30 participants, this package will build understanding of research-based practices supported by Amplify program(s) and develop knowledge and skills through a variety of curated sessions.

Begin: On-site package
(15 hours for 30 participants)
    Select the session to learn more.
Launch (1) On-site, 6-hr. session Initial training for teachers
Strengthen (1) On-site, 3-hr. session Explore Core Literacy and Core STEM Strengthen sessions. Session titles scheduled upon request.
Coach (1) On-site, 6-hr. session Coach session
Suggested enhancements On-site or virtual,
3-hr. session		 Program overview for leaders

Launch

Propel your school or district into the new school year. Program-aligned Launch sessions introduce teachers and leaders to their unique Amplify program(s) and support a strong implementation.

Initial training for teachers

On-site, 6 hours

Initial training sessions are designed for educators who are new to our program. In our initial training session, educators are oriented to the key components of their program(s), including learning how to navigate, teach, and monitor student progress, while exploring content and program resources. Participants will leave the session with foundational knowledge and skills necessary to begin teaching with the program.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy, Amplify ELAR 6–8, Amplify Math, Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5 or 6–A1), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Suggested enhancement: Program overview for leaders

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

The program overview for leaders session supports district and school-level instructional leaders in effectively coordinating the implementation of the program. Leaders will learn the foundational elements of the program, build an understanding of the key teacher and student practices to look for in classrooms, and develop an implementation plan.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy; Amplify ELAR 6–8, Amplify Math, Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5 or 6–A1), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Strengthen

Strengthen your Amplify implementation with program-specific sessions that support personalized learning and practice in your classroom.

To explore the core strengthen sessions, select your program:

Literacy Strengthen sessions STEM Strengthen sessions

Amplify will partner closely with you to select the appropriate session(s) that will deepen educators’ understanding of Amplify program(s) and equip them with the tools they need to improve students’ learning outcomes. Each package includes one Strengthen session. Additional sessions can be added as Enhancements.

Coach

Elevate instructional practice and help meet teachers’ and schools’ specific needs with customizable Coach sessions.

Coach session

On-site, 6 hours

Coaching sessions focus on building internal school and district capacity and leadership excellence. Coaching is customized to meet a school or district’s needs and can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy, Amplify Math, Amplify Desmos Math, Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Individual teachers, grade-level teams, PLCs,
and/or instructional leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Hybrid 15 on-site package

Begin: Hybrid 15 on-site packages include program-aligned, on-site Launch, Strengthen, and Coach sessions. Providing 15 hours of professional development for up to 30 participants, this package will build understanding of research-based practices supported by Amplify program(s) and develop knowledge and skills through a variety of curated sessions.

Begin: Hybrid 15 on-site package
(15 hours for 30 participants)
    Select the session to learn more.
Launch (1) On-site, 6-hr. session Initial training for teachers
Strengthen (1) Virtual, 3-hr. session Explore the Core Literacy and Core STEM Strengthen sessions. Session titles scheduled upon request.
Coach (1) On-site, 6-hr. session Coach session
Suggested enhancements On-site or virtual,
3-hr. session		 Program overview for leaders

Launch

Propel yourself into the new school year. Program-aligned Launch sessions introduce teachers and leaders to their unique Amplify program(s) and support a strong implementation.

Initial training for teachers

On-site, 6 hours

Initial training sessions are designed for educators who are new users. In our initial training session, educators are oriented to the key components of the program, including learning how to navigate, teach, and monitor student progress, while exploring content and program resources. Participants will leave the session with foundational knowledge and skills necessary to begin teaching with the program.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy, Amplify ELAR 6–8, Amplify Math, Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5 or 6–A1), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Suggested enhancement: Program overview for leaders

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

The program overview for leaders session supports district and school-level instructional leaders in effectively supporting the implementation of the program. Leaders will learn the foundational elements of the program, build an understanding of the key teacher and student practices to look for in classrooms, and develop an implementation plan.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy; Amplify ELAR 6–8, Amplify Math, Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5 or 6–A1), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Strengthen

Strengthen your Amplify implementation with program-specific sessions that support personalized learning and practice in your classroom.

To explore the core strengthen sessions, select your program:

Literacy Strengthen sessions STEM Strengthen sessions

Amplify will closely partner with you to select the appropriate session(s) that will deepen educators’ understanding of Amplify program(s) and equip them with the tools they need to improve student’s learning outcomes. Each package includes one Strengthen session. Additional sessions can be added as Enhancements.

Coach

Elevate instructional practice and help meet teachers’ and schools’ specific needs with customizable Coach sessions.

Coach session

On-site, 6 hours

Coaching sessions focus on building internal school and district capacity and leadership excellence. Coaching is customized to meet a school or district’s needs and can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy, Amplify Math, Amplify Desmos Math, Amplify Science

Audience: Individual teachers, grade-level teams, PLCs,and/or instructional leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Hybrid 10 package

The Begin: Hybrid 10 package includes program-aligned, on-site and virtual Launch, Strengthen, and Coach sessions. Providing 10 hours of professional development for up to 30 participants, this package will build understanding of research-based practices supported by Amplify program(s) and develop knowledge and skills through a variety of curated sessions.

Begin: Hybrid 10 package
(10 hours for up to 30 participants)
    Select the session to learn more.
Launch (1) On-site, 6-hr. session Program overview for teachers
Strengthen (1) Virtual, 1-hr. session Explore Core Literacy and Core STEM Strengthen sessions. Session titles scheduled upon request.
Coach (1) On-site, 6-hr. session Coach session
Suggested enhancements On-site or virtual,
3-hr. session		 Program overview for leaders

Launch

Propel your school or district into the new school year. Program-aligned Launch sessions introduce teachers and leaders to their unique Amplify program(s) and support a strong implementation.

Program overview for teachers

On-site, 3 hours

Program overview sessions provide a basic introduction for educators who are new users of the program. In a program overview session, educators learn how to get started with the key features and materials of the program.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy, Amplify Math, Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5 or 6–A1), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Suggested enhancements: Program overview for leaders

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

The program overview for leaders session supports district and school-level instructional leaders in effectively supporting the implementation of the program. Leaders will learn the foundational elements of the program, build an understanding of the key teacher and student practices to look for in classrooms, and develop an implementation plan.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy; Amplify ELAR 6–8, Amplify Math, Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5 or 6–A1), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Strengthen

Strengthen your Amplify implementation with program-specific sessions that support personalized learning and practice in your classroom.

To explore the available core strengthen sessions, select your program:

Literacy Strengthen sessions STEM Strengthen sessions

Amplify will closely partner with you to select the appropriate session(s) that will deepen educators’ understanding of your Amplify program(s) and equip them with the tools they need to improve student’s learning outcomes. Each package includes one Strengthen session. Additional sessions can be added as Enhancements.

Coach

Elevate instructional practice and help meet teachers’ and schools’ specific needs with customizable Coach sessions.

Coach session

On-site, 6 hours

Coaching sessions focus on building internal school and district capacity and leadership excellence. Coaching is customized to meet a school or district’s needs and can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy, Amplify Math, Amplify Desmos Math, Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Individual teachers, grade-level teams, PLCs,
and/or instructional leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Hybrid 15 virtual package

Begin: Hybrid 15 virtual packages include program-aligned, on-site Launch, Strengthen, and Coach sessions. Providing 15 hours of professional development for up to 30 participants, this package will build understanding of research-based practices supported by Amplify program(s) and develop knowledge and skills through a variety of curated sessions.

Begin: Hybrid 15 virtual package
(15 hours for up to 30 participants)
    Select the session to learn more.
Launch (1) Virtual, 6-hr. session
(2 half-days)		 Initial training for teachers
Strengthen (1) Virtual, 3-hr. session Explore Core Literacy and Core STEM Strengthen sessions. Session titles scheduled upon request.
Coach (1) On-site, 6-hr. session Coach session
Suggested enhancements On-site or virtual,
3-hr. session		 Program overview for leaders

Launch

Propel your school or district into the new school year. Program-aligned Launch sessions introduce teachers and leaders to their unique Amplify program(s) and support a strong implementation.

Initial training for teachers

Virtual, 6 hours (2 half-days)

Initial training sessions are designed for educators who are new to our program. In our initial training session, educators are oriented to the key components of their program(s), including learning how to navigate, teach, and monitor student progress, while exploring content and program resources. Participants will leave the session with foundational knowledge and skills necessary to begin teaching with the program.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy, Amplify Math, Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5 or 6–A1), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Suggested enhancement: Program overview for leaders

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

The program overview for leaders session supports district and school-level instructional leaders in effectively supporting the implementation of the program. Leaders will learn the foundational elements of the program, build an understanding of the key teacher and student practices to look for in classrooms, and develop an implementation plan.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy; Amplify ELAR 6–8, Amplify Math, Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5 or 6–A1), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Strengthen

Strengthen your Amplify implementation with program-specific sessions that support personalized learning and practice in your classroom.

To explore the available core strengthen sessions, select your program:

Literacy Strengthen sessions STEM Strengthen sessions

Amplify will closely partner with you to select the appropriate session(s) that will deepen educators’ understanding of Amplify program(s) and equip them with the tools they need to improve students’ learning outcomes. Each package includes one Strengthen session. Additional sessions can be added as Enhancements.

Coach

Elevate instructional practice and help meet teachers’ and schools’ specific needs with customizable Coach sessions.

Coach session

On-site, 6 hours

Coaching sessions focus on building internal school and district capacity and leadership excellence. Coaching is customized to meet a school or district’s needs and can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy, Amplify ELAR 6–8, Amplify Math, Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5 or 6–A1), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Individual teachers, grade-level teams, PLCs, and/or instructional leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Virtual package

Begin: Virtual packages include program-aligned, on-site Launch, Strengthen, and Coach sessions. Providing seven hours of professional development for up to 30 participants, this package will build understanding of research-based practices supported by Amplify program(s) and develop knowledge and skills through a variety of curated sessions.

Begin: Virtual package
(7 hours for up to 30 participants)
    Select the session to learn more.
Launch (1) Virtual, 3-hr. session Program overview for teachers
Strengthen (1) Virtual, 1-hr. session Explore Core Literacy and Core STEM Strengthen sessions. Session titles scheduled upon request.
Coach (1) Virtual, 3-hr. session Coach session
Suggested enhancements
Launch add-on
 On-site, 3-hr. session Program overview for leaders

Launch

Propel your school or district into the new school year. Program-aligned Launch sessions introduce teachers and leaders to their unique Amplify program(s) and support a strong implementation.

Program overview for teachers

Virtual, 3 hours

Program overview sessions provide a basic introduction for educators who are new users of the program. In a program overview session, educators learn how to get started with the key features and materials of the program.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy, Amplify ELAR 6–8, Amplify Math, Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5 or 6–A1), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Suggested enhancement: Program overview for leaders

Virtual, 3 hours

The program overview for leaders session supports district and school-level instructional leaders in effectively supporting the implementation of the program. Leaders will learn the foundational elements of the program, build an understanding of the key teacher and student practices to look for in classrooms, and develop an implementation plan.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy; Amplify ELAR 6–8, Amplify Math, Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5 or 6–A1), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Strengthen

Strengthen your Amplify implementation with program-specific sessions that support personalized learning and practice in your classroom.

To explore the available core strengthen sessions, select your program:

Literacy Strengthen sessions STEM Strengthen sessions

Amplify will closely partner with you to select the appropriate session(s) that will deepen educators’ understanding of your Amplify program(s) and equip them with the tools they need to improve students’ learning outcomes. Each package includes one Strengthen session. Additional sessions can be added as Enhancements.

Coach

Elevate instructional practice and help meet teachers’ and schools’ specific needs with customizable Coach sessions.

Coach session

Virtual, 3 hours

Coaching sessions focus on building internal school and district capacity and leadership excellence. Coaching is customized to meet a school or district’s needs and can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy, Amplify ELAR 6–8, Amplify Math, Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5 or 6–A1), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Individual teachers, grade-level teams, PLCs,
and/or instructional leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Practice packages

You’re becoming familiar with Amplify programs and are ready to deepen your knowledge and implementation. Our team will facilitate learning that emphasizes deeper understanding of resources and instructional practices through learning experiences focused on continuous improvement, enhancing your understanding of your Amplify program(s), and customized coaching.

Explore the program-aligned package options below to learn more about the modality and duration of each Strengthen and Coach session available to you at any time during your second year of implementation.

Select from flexible on-site, hybrid, or virtual packages, including:

  • Strengthen sessions to deepen understanding of the program, expand practice, and drive student outcomes.
  • Coach sessions to elevate instructional practice and help meet teachers’ and schools’ specific needs.

Each package supports up to 30 participants in similar grade bands.

Overview: Practice packages for Amplify core programs

Select the package title to view session descriptions

Package title and duration On-site package
(15 hours)		 Hybrid 15 package
(15 hours)		 Hybrid 13 package
(13 hours)		 Virtual package
(9 hours)
Strengthen*  One session per package On-site, 3-hr. Virtual, 3-hr. Virtual,1-hr. Virtual, 3-hr.

Coach
Two sessions per package    

 On-site, 6-hr. On-site, 6-hr. On-site, 6-hr. Virtual, 3-hr.

*The topics of the Strengthen sessions will vary in Practice packages as determined by the needs of the school/district.

Suggested enhancements
Select the sessions to learn more.
Launch add-on
 Virtual, 1-hr. session Amplify ELAR Grade 3 Skills supplement training for teachers

On-site package

Practice: On-site packages include program-aligned, on-site Strengthen and Coach sessions. Providing 15 hours of professional development for up to 30 participants, this package will build understanding of research-based practices supported by Amplify program(s) and develop knowledge and skills through a variety of curated sessions.

Practice: On-site package
(15 hours for up to 30 participants)
    Select the session to learn more.
Strengthen (1) On-site, 3-hr. session Explore Core Literacy and Core STEM Strengthen sessions. Session titles scheduled upon request.
Coach (2) On-site, 6-hr. session Practice: Coach session
Suggested enhancements
Select the sessions to learn more.
Launch add-on
 Virtual, 1-hr. session Amplify ELAR Grade 3 Skills supplement training for teachers

Strengthen

Strengthen your Amplify implementation with program-specific sessions that support personalized learning and practice in your classroom.

To explore the available core strengthen sessions, select your program:

Literacy Strengthen sessions STEM Strengthen sessions

Amplify will closely partner with you to select the appropriate session(s) that will deepen educators’ understanding of Amplify program(s) and equip them with the tools they need to improve student’s learning outcomes. Each package includes one Strengthen session. Additional sessions can be added as Enhancements.

Coach

Elevate instructional practice and help meet educators’ specific needs with customizable Coach sessions.

Coach session

On-site, 6 hours

Coaching sessions focus on building internal school and district capacity and leadership excellence. Coaching is customized to meet a school or district’s needs and can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy, Amplify ELAR 6–8, Amplify Math, Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5 or 6–A1), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Individual teachers, grade-level teams, PLCs, and/or instructional leaders (maximum 30 participants)

New

Suggested enhancement: Amplify ELAR Grade 3 Skills supplement for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Participants will get an overview of how to implement Amplify ELAR Grade 3 Skills in their classrooms! Learn the foundational elements of Amplify ELAR Grade 3 Skills, including becoming familiar with materials and key lesson components.

Session options: Amplify ELAR

Audience: Grade 3–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Hybrid 15 package

Practice: Hybrid on-site packages include program-aligned, on-site and virtual Strengthen and Coach sessions. Providing 15 hours of professional development for up to 30 participants, this package will build understanding of research-based practices supported by Amplify program(s) and develop knowledge and skills through a variety of curated sessions.

Practice: Hybrid 15 package
(15 hours for 30 participants)
    Select the session to learn more.
Strengthen (1) Virtual, 3-hr. session Explore Core Literacy and Core STEM Strengthen sessions. Session titles scheduled upon request.
Coach (2) On-site, 6-hr. sessions Coach session
Suggested enhancements
Select the sessions to learn more.
Launch add-on Virtual, 1-hr. session Amplify ELAR Grade 3 Skills supplement training for teachers

Strengthen

Strengthen your Amplify implementation with program-specific sessions that support personalized learning and practice in your classroom.

To explore the available core strengthen sessions, select your program:

Literacy Strengthen sessions STEM Strengthen sessions

Amplify will closely partner with you to select the appropriate session(s) that will deepen educators’ understanding of your Amplify program(s) and equip them with the tools they need to improve students’ learning outcomes. Each package includes one Strengthen session. Additional sessions can be added as Enhancements.

Coach

Elevate instructional practice and help meet educators’ specific needs with customizable Coach sessions.

Coach session

On-site, 6 hours

Coaching sessions focus on building internal school and district capacity and leadership excellence. Coaching is customized to meet a school or district’s needs and can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy, Amplify ELAR 6–8, Amplify Math, Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5 or 6–A1), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Individual teachers, grade-level teams, PLCs,
and/or instructional leaders (maximum 30 participants)

New

Suggested enhancement: Amplify ELAR Grade 3 Skills supplement for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Ideal add-on to Launch sessions
Participants will get an overview of how to implement Amplify ELAR Grade 3 Skills in their classrooms! Learn the foundational elements of Amplify ELAR Grade 3 Skills, including becoming familiar with materials and key lesson components.

Session options: Amplify ELAR

Audience: Grade 3–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Hybrid 13 package

Practice: Hybrid on-site packages include program-aligned, on-site and virtual Strengthen and Coach sessions. Providing 13 hours of professional development for up to 30 participants, this package will build understanding of research-based practices supported by Amplify program(s) and develop knowledge and skills through a variety of curated sessions.

Practice: Hybrid 13 package
(13 hours for 30 participants)
    Select the session to learn more.
Strengthen (1) Virtual, 1-hr. session Explore Core Literacy and Core STEM Strengthen sessions. Session titles scheduled upon request.
Coach (2) On-site, 6-hr. sessions Coach session
Suggested enhancements
Select the sessions to learn more.
Launch add-on Virtual, 1-hr. session Amplify ELAR Grade 3 Skills supplement training for teachers

Strengthen

Strengthen your Amplify implementation with program-specific sessions that support personalized learning and practice in your classroom.

To explore the available core strengthen sessions, select your program:

Literacy Strengthen sessions STEM Strengthen sessions

Amplify will closely partner with you to select the appropriate session(s) that will deepen educators’ understanding of Amplify program(s) and equip them with the tools they need to improve students’ learning outcomes. Each package includes one Strengthen session. Additional sessions can be added as Enhancements.

Coach

Elevate instructional practice and help meet educators’ specific needs with customizable Coach sessions.

Coach session

On-site, 6 hours

Coaching sessions focus on building internal school and district capacity and leadership excellence. Coaching is customized to meet a school or district’s needs and can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy, Amplify ELAR 6–8, Amplify Math, Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5 or 6–A1), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Individual teachers, grade-level teams, PLCs, and/or instructional leaders (maximum 30 participants)

New

Suggested enhancement: Amplify ELAR Grade 3 Skills supplement for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Ideal add-on to Launch sessions
Participants will get an overview of how to implement Amplify ELAR Grade 3 Skills in their classrooms! Learn the foundational elements of Amplify ELAR Grade 3 Skills, including becoming familiar with materials and key lesson components.

Session options: Amplify ELAR

Audience: Grade 3–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Virtual package

Practice: Virtual packages include program-aligned, virtual Strengthen and Coach sessions. Providing nine hours of professional development for up to 30 participants, this package will build understanding of research-based practices supported by Amplify program(s) and develop knowledge and skills through a variety of curated sessions.

Practice: Virtual package
(9 hours for 30 participants)
    Select the session to learn more.
Strengthen (1) Virtual, 3-hr. session Explore Core Literacy and Core STEM Strengthen sessions. Session titles scheduled upon request.
Coach (2) Virtual, 3-hr. sessions Coach session
Suggested enhancements
Select the sessions to learn more.
Launch add-on Virtual, 1-hr. session Amplify ELAR Grade 3 Skills supplement training for teachers

Strengthen

Strengthen your Amplify implementation with program-specific sessions that support personalized learning and practice in your classroom.

To explore the available core strengthen sessions, select your program:

Literacy Strengthen sessions STEM Strengthen sessions

Amplify will closely partner with you to select the appropriate session(s) that will deepen educators’ understanding of your Amplify program(s) and equip them with the tools they need to improve student’s learning outcomes. Each package includes one Strengthen session. Additional sessions can be added as Enhancements.

Coach

Support teachers and leaders with learning experiences tailored to meet their specific needs.

Coach session

On-site, 6 hours

Elevate instructional practice and help meet educators’ specific needs with customizable Coach sessions.

Session options: Amplify ELAR, Amplify SLAR, or Amplify ELAR/SLAR biliteracy, Amplify ELAR 6–8, Amplify Math, Desmos Math 6–A1, Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5 or 6–A1), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Individual teachers, grade-level teams, PLCs,
and/or instructional leaders (maximum 30 participants)

New

Suggested enhancement: Amplify ELAR Grade 3 Skills supplement for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Ideal add-on to Launch sessions
Participants will get an overview of how to implement Amplify ELAR Grade 3 Skills in their classrooms! Learn the foundational elements of Amplify ELAR Grade 3 Skills, including becoming familiar with materials and key lesson components.

Session options: Amplify ELAR

Audience: Grade 3–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Enhancement options

Want to extend learning for teachers and leaders? Have a unique need that you’d like to address? Seeking more targeted coaching options? Our package enhancements allow you to tailor your PD experience to meet the needs of your staff, whether they’re new or returning to the program.

Enhancements can be purchased for all teachers/leaders or a subset of educators.

General enhancement offerings

Add-on session name Leadership Launch session Leadership Strengthen session Launch
(Practice) session
 Strengthen session
 Coach session
 Amplify ELAR Grade 3 Skills supplement for teachers session
Session audience Leader Leader Teacher, Leader Teacher, Leader Teacher, Leader Teacher
Session modality
/duration		 On-site
3-hr.		 On-site
3-hr.		 On-site
6-hr.		 On-site
3-hr.		 On-site
6-hr.		 Virtual
1-hr.
Virtual
3-hr.		 Virtual
3-hr.		 On-site
3-hr.		 Virtual
3-hr.		 Virtual
3-hr.		 –
– – Virtual 6 hr.
(2 half-days)		 Virtual
1-hr.		 – –
– – Virtual
3-hr.		 – – –

Biliteracy packages

Biliteracy packages for Amplify ELAR and Amplify SLAR

Built on the Science of Reading, Amplify Texas English Language Arts and Reading (ELAR) sequences deep content knowledge with research-based foundational skills. Amplify ELAR is a K–5 literacy curriculum that inspires curiosity and drives results, empowering all students with rich background knowledge.

Amplify SLAR serves as the perfect Spanish language arts partner to Amplify ELAR. These aligned programs combine deep content knowledge with systematic foundational skills instruction grounded in the Science of Reading. They adhere to biliteracy principles and support multiple teaching models.

The table below lists Amplify ELAR and Amplify SLAR packages for first year implementation and beyond.

Begin packages

  On-site
package
(15 hours)		 Hybrid on-site package
(15 hours)		 Hybrid virtual package
(15 hours)		 Virtual package
(10 hours)
Select the session title to view each description.
Launch session
Initial training for teachers		 On-site 6 hr. On-site 6 hr.  Virtual, 6 hr. (2 half-days) Virtual, 6 hr. (2 half-days)
Strengthen session
Session titles scheduled upon request.		 On-site 3 hr. Virtual 3 hr. Virtual 3 hr. Virtual 1 hr.
Explore Core Literacy Strengthen sessions aligned with the duration and modality of your biliteracy package.
Coach session On-site 6 hr. On-site 6 hr. On-site 6 hr. Virtual 3 hr.

Practice packages

  On-site
package
(15 hours)		 Hybrid 15 package
(15 hours)		 Hybrid 13 package
(13 hours)		 Virtual package
(9 hours)
Strengthen session On-site 3 hr. Virtual 3 hr. Virtual 1 hr. Virtual 3 hr.
Explore Core Literacy Strengthen sessions aligned with the duration and modality of your biliteracy package.
Coach sessions (2) On-site 6 hr. On-site 6 hr. On-site 6 hr. Virtual 3 hr.

Companion programs

Additional sessions are available for Amplify ELAR’s companion programs (Writing Studio and Language Studio).

To learn more about enhancing your Amplify experience by purchasing companion programs and/or accompanying PD sessions, please contact your account executive.

Get in touch with a PD expert

We’re here to provide answers and guidance as you explore your PD journey. Fill out the form to connect with us and discover how Amplify PD can enhance your educational journey.

Professional development for multi-program suites

Amplify professional development provides learning experiences that intentionally develop the knowledge and skills you need for effective and self-sustaining implementation.

Now you can learn and apply impactful instructional techniques and develop a deeper understanding of the suite of Amplify programs.

Professional Learning Partner Guide Certified Provider

Amplify professional development has been vetted by Rivet Education’s team through a rigorous three-step process and is listed in the Professional Learning Partner Guide.

Contact us
A diagram shows three math programs: mCLASS Math with a student's photo, Amplify Desmos Math with math tools, and Boost Math with a robot illustration, all connected by orange lines.

Amplify suites

Each of Amplify’s high-quality, research-based programs is designed to help you teach inspiring math lessons that celebrate and develop your students’ brilliance. When used together, our comprehensive math suite provides even greater support and coherence for every student across your curriculum.

Contact your account executive to discuss PD options or request a quote.

Math

Amplify Desmos Math with mCLASS Math assessments and Boost Personalized Learning combine the best of problem-based lessons, intervention, personalized practice, and assessment into a coherent and engaging experience for both students and teachers. With the full suite, teachers gain access to all the tools they need to inspire and motivate all learners in math class.

Empower educators with:

  • High-quality professional development
    Comprehensive PD sessions equip teachers with the skills and knowledge necessary for effective program implementation, enhancing instructional practices and boosting student outcomes. These sessions support educators in leveraging the full suite of Amplify’s K–5 math programs, ensuring seamless integration and maximizing classroom impact.
  • Core instruction for grades K–12
    Amplify Desmos Math lessons provide a structured approach to problem-based learning, helping teachers create a collaborative math community with students at its center. Each lesson systematically builds on students’ curiosity to develop lasting grade-level understanding for all students. Available in English and Spanish.
  • Integrated personalized practice
    Personalized Learning activities help students access grade-level math through engaging, independent digital practice. Responsive FeedbackTM adjusts to students’ work, providing item-level adaptivity to further support their learning.
  • Screening and progress monitoring
    mCLASS Assessments, along with daily formative checks, measure what students know and how they think. The asset-based assessment system provides teachers with targeted, actionable insights, linked to core instruction and intervention resources.
  • Embedded intervention
    Integrated resources like Mini-Lessons, Fluency Practice, and Math Adventures provide targeted intervention on a specific skill or concept connected to the daily lesson. Extensions are also available to stretch students’ understanding.

Each suite package will include:

LAUNCH STRENGTHEN COACH
Beginning of year Mid-year, end of year Mid-year, end of year
Three people work together at a computer in a classroom; one woman points at the monitor while the others watch attentively.
Two people sit at a table reviewing documents together against a yellow background. An icon of a barbell is displayed in the top left corner.
Two women sit side by side at a table, each with a laptop. One woman points at the other’s screen as they focus on the display against a plain blue background.
Receive one on-site or virtual Launch session for Amplify Desmos Math.
 Receive one on-site or virtual Strengthen session for Amplify Desmos Math.
 Receive one on-site or virtual Coach session for Amplify Desmos Math.
  In addition, select one 1-hour virtual Strengthen Focus session for the program of your choice:

  • Amplify Desmos Math
  • mCLASS Math
  • Boost Math
 In addition, select one more on-site or virtual Coach session for the program of your choice:

  • Amplify Desmos Math
  • mCLASS Math
Add-on: Suggested enhancements are available for each Launch, Strengthen, and Coach session options.
Before teaching After 6+ weeks of teaching  

Begin packages for grades K–5, 6–A1, or high school

Launch sessions

  On-site package
(22 hr.)		 Hybrid 22, on-site package
(22 hr.)		 Hybrid 17 package
(17 hr.)		 Hybrid 22,
virtual
package
(22hr.)		 Virtual
package
(14 hr.)
One Launch session per package On-site,
6 hr.		 On-site,
6 hr.		 On-site,
3 hr.		 Virtual,
6 hr.
(2 half-days)		 Virtual,
3 hr.
Amplify Desmos Math: Initial training for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers
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Amplify Desmos Math: Program overview for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Suggested enhancements
Launch add-on On-site or virtual, 3 hr. session Amplify Desmos Math: Program overview for K–5, 6–A1, or high school leaders
Launch add-on On-site or virtual, 3 hr. session mCLASS Math 2nd Edition: Program overview for grades K–5 or 6–8 teachers

Strengthen and Coach sessions

One Strengthen session and one additional Strengthen session (1 hr. Focus only) per package. Choose any of the following as a secondary Strengthen touchpoint.

  On-site package
(22 hr.)		 Hybrid 22,
on-site package
(22 hr.)		 Hybrid 17 package
(17 hr.)		 Hybrid 22,
virtual
package
(22hr.)		 Virtual
package
(14 hr.)		 Virtual
package
Strengthen On-site, 3 hr. Virtual, 3 hr. Virtual,
1 hr.		 Virtual, 3 hr. Virtual, 1 hr. Virtual, 2 hr.
Amplify Desmos Math: Enhancing planning for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers
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Amplify Desmos Math: Enhancing practice for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers
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Amplify Desmos Math: Enhancing observations for K–5, 6–A1, or high school leaders A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.    
Amplify Desmos Math: Supporting all learners: Differentiation in Amplify Desmos Math for K–5 or 6–A1 teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.    
Amplify Desmos Math: Teaching a lesson with digital student screens for K–5 teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Amplify Desmos Math: Unit-level planning for
K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers		     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Amplify Desmos Math: Snapshots in the Teacher Dashboard for 6–A1 teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
mCLASS Math: Leveraging assessment data to strengthen mathematical explanations for K–5 or 6–8 teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Coach On-site,
6 hr.		 On-site,
6 hr.		 On-site,
6 hr.		 On-site,
6 hr.		 Virtual,
3 hr.
Coach session
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Suggested enhancements
Strengthen add-on On-site or virtual, 3 hr. session mCLASS Math + Boost Math: Understanding and using data to plan intervention for grades K–5 or 6–8 teachers
Strengthen add-on On-site or virtual, 3 hr. session Amplify Desmos Math: Supporting and facilitating meaningful discussions for teachers

Launch session options

Propel your school or district into the new school year. Program-aligned Launch sessions introduce teachers and leaders to their unique Amplify program(s) and support a strong implementation.

Begin: Amplify Desmos Math: Initial training for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers

On-site, 6 hours

Initial training sessions are designed for educators who are new to our program. In our initial training session, educators are oriented to the key components of their program(s), including learning how to navigate, teach, and monitor student progress, while exploring content and program resources. Participants will leave the session with foundational knowledge and skills necessary to begin teaching with the program.

Session options: Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5, 6–A1, or high school)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Amplify Desmos Math: Program overview for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Program overview sessions provide a basic introduction for educators who are new users of the program. In a program overview session, educators learn how to get started with the key features and materials of the program.

Session options: Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5, 6–A1, or high school)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Suggested enhancement: Launch add-on: Amplify Desmos Math: Program overview for K–5, 6–A1, or high school leaders

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Ideal add-on to Launch sessions
The Program overview for leaders supports district and school-level instructional leaders in effectively coordinating the implementation of the program. Leaders will learn the foundational elements of the program, build an understanding of the key teacher and student practices to look for in classrooms, and develop an implementation plan.

Session options: Amplify Desmos Math

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

New session

Suggested enhancement: Launch add-on: mCLASS Math 2nd Edition Program overview for K–5 or 6–8 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Dive into the essentials of your mCLASS Assessments. Learn how these assessments both highlight students’ strengths and help identify what’s next through an asset-based approach. Leave ready to administer assessments and understand reporting.

Session options: mCLASS Math (grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Strengthen session options

Strengthen your Amplify implementation with program-specific sessions that support personalized learning and practice in your classroom.

Amplify will partner closely with you to select the appropriate session(s) that will deepen educators’ understanding of Amplify program(s) and equip them with the tools they need to improve student’s learning outcomes. Each package includes one Strengthen session. Additional sessions can be added as Enhancements.

Begin: Amplify Desmos Math: Enhancing planning for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Dive into planning for Amplify Desmos Math, both big picture and day-to-day. Practice using lesson- and unit-planning protocols that will help you build a deep understanding of the math content you’ll be teaching and the planning resources available to you in the curriculum. Walk away with practical strategies for planning, even when you may not have much time.

Session options: Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5, 6–A1, or high school)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Amplify Desmos Math: Enhancing practice for K–5 or 6–A1, or high school teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Dig into Amplify Desmos Math’s Launch, Monitor, Connect framework to level up the student discourse in your math class. Explore in-the-moment differentiation support to help you orchestrate discussion and make the most out of key opportunities for conversation and collaboration.

Session options: Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5, 6–A1, or high school)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Amplify Desmos Math: Enhancing observations for K–5 or 6–A1 leaders

Virtual, 1 hour

Elevate your program knowledge to support teachers with effective Amplify Desmos Math implementation. Leave prepared to identify key instructional elements in a problem-based math lesson, analyze data, and conduct effective classroom observations.

Session options: Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5 or 6–A1)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Supporting all learners: Differentiation in Amplify Desmos Math for K–5 or 6–A1 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Learn how to use the differentiation supports in Amplify Desmos Math to effectively support all learners, both in the moment during a lesson and beyond the lesson. Leave with a plan for implementing resources to support, strengthen, and stretch students’ thinking.

Session options: Amplify Desmos Math

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Amplify Desmos Math: Teaching a lesson with digital student screens for K–5 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Get ready to facilitate digital lessons with your students. Explore what’s possible with the Teacher Dashboard and plan to make the most of these exciting instructional moments.

Session options: Amplify Desmos Math (K–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Amplify Desmos Math: Unit-level planning for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Dive into unit-level planning to learn the story of your upcoming unit, and discover the big ideas you will explore alongside your students in Amplify Desmos Math.

Session options: Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5, 6–A1, or high school)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Amplify Desmos Math: Snapshots in the Teacher Dashboard for 6–A1 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Explore how to use the Snapshots tool in the Teacher Dashboard to create a collaborative classroom that invites and celebrates student thinking. Leave with planning tips and tricks that will get you ready to use Snapshots during your busy math classes.

Session options: Amplify Desmos Math (Grades 6–A1)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Strengthen Focus: mCLASS Math: Leveraging assessment data to strengthen mathematical thinking for grades K–5 or 6–8 teachers

Available for grades 6–8 teachers Oct. 2026

Virtual, 1 hour

Dig into mCLASS Math to reveal what students understand about mathematical concepts, and give them the tools to become more clear and confident communicators in math class.

Session options: mCLASS Math (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

New session

Suggested enhancement: Begin: mCLASS Math and Boost Math: Understanding and using data to plan intervention for grades K–5 or 6–8 teachers

Available for grades 6–8 teachers Oct. 2026

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Ideal add-on Strengthen session
Explore how Boost Math uses mCLASS Math data to inform intervention recommendations and monitor student progress. Dig into your student data, explore relevant instructional resources, and leave with actionable next steps for intervention.

Session options: mCLASS Math (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

New session

Suggested enhancement: Begin: Amplify Desmos Math: Supporting and facilitating meaningful discussions for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Explore how Boost Math uses mCLASS Math data to inform intervention recommendations and monitor student progress. Dig into your student data, explore relevant instructional resources, and leave with actionable next steps for intervention.

Session options: mCLASS Math (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Coach session options

Elevate instructional practice and help meet teachers’ and schools’ specific needs with customizable Coach sessions.

Coach session

On-site, 6 hours

Coaching sessions focus on building internal school and district capacity and leadership excellence. Coaching is customized to meet a school or district’s needs and can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning.

Session options: Amplify Desmos Math (K–5 or 6–A1) and/or mCLASS Math (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Individual teachers, grade-level teams, PLCs, and/or instructional leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Practice packages (grades K–5 or 6–8)

Launch sessions

  On-site package
(16 hr.)		 Hybrid 16, on-site package
(16 hr.)		 Virtual package
(16 hr.)
One Launch session per package On-site, 3 hr. Virtual, 3 hr. Virtual, 3 hr.
mCLASS Math 2nd Edition Program overview for K–5 or 6–8 teachers
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Strengthen and Coach sessions

  On-site package
(16 hr.)		 Hybrid 16, on-site package
(16 hr.)		 Virtual package
(16 hr.)
One Strengthen and two Coach sessions per package Virtual, 1 hr. Virtual, 1 hr. Virtual, 1 hr.
Amplify Desmos Math: Teaching a lesson with digital student screens for K–5 teachers
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Amplify Desmos Math: Unit-level planning for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers
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Amplify Desmos Math: Increasing engagement with instructional routines for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
mCLASS Math: Leveraging assessment data to strengthen mathematical thinking for grades K–5 or 6–8 teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Coaching On-site, 6 hr. On-site, 6 hr. Virtual, 3 hr.
Coach session
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Suggested enhancements
Strengthen add-on Virtual or on-site, 3 hr. Amplify Desmos Math: Enhancing planning for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers
Strengthen add-on Virtual or on-site, 3 hr. Amplify Desmos Math: Enhancing practice for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers
Strengthen add-on Virtual or on-site, 3 hr. Amplify Desmos Math: Enhancing observation for K–5, 6–A1, or high school leaders
Strengthen add-on Virtual or on-site, 3 hr. Amplify Desmos Math: Supporting all learners for K–5 or 6–A1 teachers
Strengthen add-on Virtual or on-site, 3 hr. Amplify Desmos Math: Supporting and facilitating meaningful discussions for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers
Strengthen add-on Virtual or on-site, 3 hr. Amplify Desmos Math: Assessment in action: Analyzing data and reports and planning next steps for K–5 or 6–A1 teachers
Strengthen add-on Virtual or on-site, 3 hr. mCLASS Math and Boost Math: Understanding and using data to plan intervention for K–5 teachers

Launch session options

Propel your school or district into the new school year. Program-aligned Launch sessions introduce teachers and leaders to their unique Amplify program(s) and support a strong implementation.

Practice: mCLASS Math 2nd Edition Program overview for grades K–5 or 6–8 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Dive into the essentials of your mCLASS Math assessment program. Learn how these assessments both highlight students’ strengths and help identify what’s next through an asset-based approach. Leave ready to administer assessments and understand reporting.

Session options: mCLASS Math (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Strengthen session options

Strengthen your Amplify implementation with program-specific sessions that support personalized learning and practice in your classroom.

Amplify will partner closely with you to select the appropriate session(s) that will deepen educators’ understanding of your Amplify program(s) and equip them with the tools they need to improve students’ learning outcomes. Each package includes one Strengthen session. Additional sessions can be added as Enhancements.

New session

Practice: Amplify Desmos Math: Strengthen: Focus: Teaching a lesson with digital student screens for K–5 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Get ready to facilitate lessons with digital student screens. Explore what’s possible with the Teacher Dashboard and plan to make the most of these exciting instructional moments.

Session options: Amplify Desmos Math (K–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Amplify Desmos Math: Unit-level planning for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Dive into unit-level planning to learn the story of your upcoming unit, and discover the big ideas you will explore alongside your students in Amplify Desmos Math.

Session option: Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5, 6–A1, or high school)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

New session

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Amplify Desmos Math: Increasing engagement with instructional routines for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers

Available Oct. 2026

Virtual, 1 hour

Explore how to use the instructional routines in Amplify Desmos Math to support and engage students as they make sense of new contexts, develop mathematical language, and solve problems.

Session option: Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5 or 6–A1)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

New session

Practice: Strengthen Focus: mCLASS Math: Leveraging assessment data to strengthen mathematical explanations for grades K–5 or 6–8 teachers

Available for grades 6–8 teachers Oct. 2026

Virtual, 1 hour

Dig into mCLASS Math to reveal what students understand about mathematical concepts, and give them the tools to become more clear and confident communicators in math class.

Session option: mCLASS Math (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

New session

Suggested enhancement: Practice: Amplify Desmos Math: Enhancing planning K–5 or 6–A1 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Dive into planning for Amplify Desmos Math, both big picture and day-to-day. Practice using lesson- and unit-planning protocols that will help you build a deep understanding of the math content you’ll be teaching and the planning resources available to you in the curriculum. Walk away with practical strategies for planning, even when you may not have much time.

Session option: Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5 or 6–A1)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

New session

Suggested enhancement: Practice: Amplify Desmos Math: Enhancing practice for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Dig into Amplify Desmos Math’s Launch, Monitor, Connect framework to level up the student discourse in your math class. Explore in-the-moment differentiation support to help you orchestrate discussion and make the most out of key opportunities for conversation and collaboration.

Session option: Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5, 6–A1, or high school)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

New session

Suggested enhancement: Practice: Amplify Desmos Math: Enhancing observations for K–5, 6–A1, or high school leaders

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Elevate your program knowledge to support teachers with effective Amplify Desmos Math implementation. Leave prepared to identify key instructional elements in a problem-based math lesson, analyze data, and conduct effective classroom observations.

Session options: Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5, 6–A1, or high school)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

New session

Suggested enhancement: Practice: Supporting all learners: Differentiation in Amplify Desmos Math for K–5 or 6–A1 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Learn how to use the differentiation supports in Amplify Desmos Math to effectively support all learners, both in the moment during a lesson and beyond the lesson. Leave with a plan for implementing resources to support, strengthen, and stretch students’ thinking.

Session option: Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5 or 6–A1)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

New session

Suggested enhancement: Practice: Amplify Desmos Math: Supporting and facilitating meaningful discussions for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers

Available Oct. 2026

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Explore how to transform your mathematics classroom into a social and collaborative environment where students deepen their understanding by sharing their mathematical thinking. Learn more about how Amplify Desmos Math provides support for these meaningful mathematical conversations.

Session option: Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5, 6–A1, or high school)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

New session

Suggested enhancement: Practice: Amplify Desmos Math: Assessment in action: Analyzing data, reports, and planning next steps for K–5 or 6–A1 teachers

Available Oct. 2026

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Deepen your understanding of the different types of assessments in Amplify Desmos Math and how they provide evidence of student learning. Analyze sample student work to calibrate on assessment scoring, interpret student thinking, and make a plan for instructional next steps.

Session option: Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5 or 6–A1)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

New session

Suggested enhancement: Practice: mCLASS Math and Boost Math: Understanding and using data to plan intervention for K–5 teachers

Available for grades 6–8 teachers Oct. 2026

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Ideal add-on Strengthen session
Explore how Boost Math uses mCLASS Math data to inform intervention recommendations and monitor student progress. Dig into your student data, explore relevant instructional resources, and leave with actionable next steps for intervention.

Session option: mCLASS Math (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Coach session options

Elevate instructional practice and help meet teachers’ and schools’ specific needs with customizable Coach sessions.

Coach session

On-site, 6 hours

Coaching sessions focus on building internal school and district capacity and leadership excellence. Coaching is customized to meet a school or district’s needs and can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning.

Session options: Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5 or 6–A1) and mCLASS Math (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Individual teachers, grade-level teams, PLCs, and/or instructional leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Contact us

Ready to lock in your dates? Want to learn more about developing a professional development plan to meet your needs?

Amplify welcomes the opportunity to partner with you to design professional development plans to meet the needs of your staff. Whether you’re returning or new to Amplify program(s), we provide guidance in answering your questions and making package/session recommendations.

If you’d like to order professional development services, please contact your local Amplify sales representative or call (800) 823-1969.

Tulsa, exciting updates in CKLA 2nd Edition!

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Archived Professional Learning Resources for NYC (K-8)

Welcome! This page contains archived professional learning resources designed for the New York City Department of Education Amplify Science adoption for grades K–8.

2023-24 Sessions

Previous Years

Winter 2021 materials:

Fall 2020 materials:

Summer 2020 materials:

Fall 2019 materials:

Summer 2019 materials:

  • Needs of Plants and Animals Presentation (Year 1 schools)
  • Needs of Plants and Animals Presentation (Year 2 schools)

Winter 2021 materials:

Fall 2020 materials:

Summer 2020 materials:

Fall 2019 materials:

Summer 2019 materials:

Winter 2021 materials:

Fall 2020 materials:

Summer 2020 materials:

  • K-5 New Teacher Orientation with Participant Notebook
  • Grades 2-3 Utilizing Program Assessments Effectively Webinar
  • Reaching All Learners for Grades 2-3 Webinar
  • Grade 2 Returning Teacher Remote Learning: Guided Planning Workshop Webinar

Fall 2019 materials:

Summer 2019 materials:

  • Plant and Animal Relationships Presentation (Year 1 schools)
  • Plant and Animal Relationships Presentation (Year 2 schools)

Spring 2021 materials:

  • Unit 4: Focusing on Evidence of Learning for New Teachers Webinar

Winter 2021 materials:

Fall 2020 materials:

Summer 2020 materials:

  • Grade 3 New Teacher Orientation Webinar with Participant Notebook
  • Grades 2-3 Utilizing Program Assessments Effectively Webinar
  • Reaching All Learners for Grades 2-3 Webinar
  • Grade 3 Returning Teacher Remote Learning: Guided Planning Workshop Webinar

Fall 2019 materials:

Summer 2019 materials:

Winter 2021 materials:

Fall 2020 materials:

Summer 2020 materials:

  • Grade 4 New Teacher Orientation Webinar with Participant Notebook
  • Grades 4-5 Utilizing Program Assessments Effectively Webinar
  • Reaching All Learners for Grades 4-5 Webinar
  • Grade 4 Returning Teacher Remote Learning: Guided Planning Workshop Webinar

Fall 2019 materials:

Summer 2019 materials:

  • Energy Conversions P(Year 1 schools)
  • Energy Conversions Energy Conversions (Year 2 schools)

Winter 2021 materials:

Fall 2020 materials:

Summer 2020 materials:

  • Grade 5 New Teacher Orientation Webinar with Participant Notebook
  • Grades 4-5 Utilizing Program Assessments Effectively Webinar
  • Reaching All Learners for Grades 4-5 Webinar
  • Grade 5 Returning Teacher Remote Learning: Guided Planning Workshop Webinar

Fall 2019 materials;

Summer 2019 materials:

Winter 2022 materials:

Spring 2021materials:

Winter 2021materials:

Fall 2020 materials:

Summer 2020 materials:

Fall 2019 materials:

Summer 2019 materials:

Winter 2022 materials:

Spring 2021 materials:

Winter 2021 materials:

Fall 2020 materials:

  • Grade 7: Progress Builds & Embedded Assessments Webinar
  • Grade 7: Amplify Science Remote & Hybrid Resources Webinar

Summer 2020 materials:

Fall 2019 materials:

Summer 2019 materials: 

Winter 2022 materials:

Spring 2021 materials:

Winter 2021 materials:

Fall 2020 materials:

  • Grade 8: Progress Builds & Embedded Assessments Webinar
  • Grade 8: Amplify Science Remote & Hybrid Resources Webinar

Summer 2020 materials:

Fall 2019 materials:

Summer 2019 materials:

Tulsa, exciting updates in CKLA 2nd Edition!

As part of our commitment to creating even richer and more wide-ranging curricula, we have built on the foundation of 1st Edition to release a new edition of Amplify CKLA with a collection of program enhancements that save you time and help you reach every student.

Explore the 2nd Edition Program Guide to learn more.

A couple gazes at three circular vignettes showing an astronaut, a president at a podium with an american flag, and a person breaking a wall with a hammer.

Amplify Caminos for Spanish literacy

Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts® (CKLA) is proud to introduce Amplify Caminos al Conocimiento Esencial, a Spanish language arts program that will inspire and engage your students to become confident readers, writers, and thinkers.

Three colorful book covers featuring artistic styles: a bird in flight, a bicycle near a vine-covered wall, and a vibrant portrait of a woman with flowing hair.

Like Amplify CKLA, Amplify Caminos is designed to spark curiosity through content-rich instruction. Amplify Caminos features complex interactive Read-Alouds and authentic Spanish literature to develop reading and writing skills and build bridges across Spanish and English.

Explore the Amplify Caminos Program Guide.

Research units to inspire inquiry and curiosity

Our brand-new Knowledge Research units carry forward Amplify CKLA’s powerful and proven instructional approach while also:

  • Adding more content for students from all walks of life. The rich topics and highly visual components featured in these units provide students with even more “windows and mirrors” and perspectives as they work to build knowledge.
  • Adding more authentic literature. Each new research unit revolves around a collection of high-interest authentic trade books that will spark more curiosity and inspire more inquiry.
  • Adding more flexibility. Units can be implemented for extended core instruction during flex periods, district-designated Pausing Points, or enrichment periods.

Units cover a variety of rich and relevant topics:

Three illustrations: one shows people at a gaming session, the middle depicts a diverse group standing together, and the third portrays a group gardening outdoors.

With these new units, students will soar to new heights with Dr. Ellen Ochoa, Amelia Earhart, and the Tuskegee Airmen. They’ll feel the rhythm as they learn about Jazz legends Miles Davis, Tito Puente, and Duke Ellington. And they’ll explore the far reaches of the world with Jacques Cousteau, Matthew Henson, and Eugenie Clark.

  • Grade K: Art and the World Around Us
  • Grade 1: Adventure Stories: Tales from the Edge of the World
  • Grade 2: Up, Up, and Away: The Age of Aviation
  • Grade 3: All That Jazz
  • Grade 4: Energy: Past, Present, and Future
  • Grade 5: Beyond Juneteenth: 1865 to present

Watch the overview webinar to learn more.

Units will be made available in English and Spanish, and will include the following components:

A collage of educational materials including comic panels, illustrated worksheets, and classroom posters featuring diverse characters.
  • Teacher Guide
  • Student Activity Books
  • Image Cards
  • Trade Book Collection
  • Digital Components (grades K–3 and 5)

Richly illustrated Skills Readers

Student Readers in grades K–2 are newly redesigned with gorgeous illustrations that celebrate students’ diverse experiences. The new readers feature individuals with a broad range of identities and culture, providing students with more windows and mirrors. Each reimagined reader has a unique illustration style to draw students into the engaging stories, characters, and plots.
Review the new readers.

New digital platform with presentation slides

Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition is on Interactive Classroom, a new digital platform, that makes it easier and more engaging than ever to plan lessons, present digital content, and review and assign student work online.

A person navigating through the curved, narrow sandstone walls of antelope canyon. the natural rock formation casts pink and orange hues.

Interactive Classroom provides ready-to-use, customizable lesson slides, complete with all the prompts from the Teacher Guide embedded in the teacher view. As teachers deliver each lesson, students engage with the content through slides that include digital activities, digital components, multimedia, Student Readers, and more. Students can complete work in the platform through digital Activity Pages that allow them to type, draw, record audio, and more.

Explore the Interactive Classroom overview brochure.

Improved layout, more focused lessons, new content & more

From 1st Edition to 2nd Edition, we made updates to make it easier to plan and deliver Amplify CKLA lessons, including a variety of ways to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of all students.

Key enhancements include:

  • Scaffolds for English Language Learners added to all lessons
  • In-the-moment differentiation opportunities added to support and challenge all students
  • Integrated Grade 3 into one instructional strand to better match students’ learning trajectories
  • New layout to make Teacher Guides easier to scan and use.

New content at the beginning of each lesson:

  • Primary Focus Objectives identify the goals of each lesson. Each objective is standards-aligned and corresponds to a formative assessment.
  • Formative Assessment opportunities are explicitly called out in a chart at the beginning of each lesson. Formative assessments are aligned to the Primary Focus Objectives.
  • Universal Access suggests modifications to the lesson to support a diversity of learning styles.

New content within each lesson:

  • Support and Challenge sidebars added throughout for extensions, support, and enrichment.
  • Access Supports provide scaffolds to support English Language Learners across five proficiency levels.

New content in each Skills Strand lesson:

  • Additional Support section at the end of every Skills lesson provides opportunities for re-teaching and reinforcing skills taught in the lesson. Specific activities and extensions are provided to meet the needs of all learners.

New content in all grades, including:

  • Grade K: Picture Reader with supporting instruction
  • Grade 3: Content integrated into one instructional strand to improve pacing and closely match students’ learning trajectories; excerpts of read-aloud text now appear in select student readers; added new Vikings Quest (problem-based interactive learning).
  • Grade 4: Updated the Personal Narratives unit, added The Contraption Quest (writing across the year).
  • Grade 5: Updated Personal Narratives unit, added Chemical Matter unit, added The Robot Quest (writing across the year).
  • Moved Contemporary Fiction unit from Grade 5 to Grade 4.
  • Supplemental cursive instruction and activity book added for Grades 3 and 4.

Take a deeper look at the enhancements.

Language Studio for English Language Learners

Language Studio is a companion English Language Development program to 2nd Edition designed to support students learning English at all proficiency levels. Aligned to WIDA, the program helps students strengthen vocabulary and academic language skills while deepening the background knowledge developed in the core program. This unique approach provides an effective structure for moving English Language Learners students towards English proficiency.

View sample lessons to see how it works.

Multimedia Hub for teachers and students

Students will be able to access multimedia resources and engage in a new way on the Amplify CKLA Hub. Students can access digital resources independently from anywhere, taking full advantage of the instructional multimedia experiences that Amplify CKLA has to offer. Students can access the Hub at home, in the classroom, and on the go, making it ideal for remote learning. It’s compatible with laptops, Chromebooks, tablets, and desktops.

Grades K–2

Grades K–2 students will have access to Knowledge Builder videos to introduce each domain; Sound Library videos and songs for each sound in the English language; and audio-enabled eBooks of grade-level Student Readers.

Grades 3–5

Grades 3–5 students will have access to the Vocab App for independent practice with domain vocabulary and audio-enabled eBooks of grade-level Student Readers in English and Spanish.

Texas core programs professional development-NEW

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S3-04: Using AI and ChatGPT in the science classroom

A graphic with the text "Science Connections" and "Amplify" features colorful circles and curved lines on a dark gray background.

In the latest episode of the Science Connections podcast, we explore AI in education and its impact on students. Listen as I sit down with teachers Donnie Piercey and Jennifer Roberts to discuss ChatGPT and how we can use it to build science and literacy skills in K–12 classrooms while preparing students for the real world.

And don’t forget to grab your Science Connections study guide to track your learning and find additional resources!

We hope you enjoy this episode and explore more from Science Connections by visiting our main page!

DOWNLOAD TRANSCRIPT

Jennifer Roberts (00:00:00):

If a kid graduates from school without knowing that AI exists, they’re not gonna be prepared for what they face out in the world.

Eric Cross (00:00:07):

Welcome to Science Connections. I’m your host, Eric Cross.

Eric Cross (00:00:12):

This season of the podcast, we’re making the case for everyone’s favorite underdog, science. Recently we’ve been highlighting the magic that can come from integrating science and literacy. So if you haven’t checked out those recent episodes, definitely go back in your feed after you’re done with this one. This time around, we’re going to deep dive into what artificial intelligence means for literacy instruction, and how science can be a force for good, in responsibly exposing students to AI. To help me out, I’m joined by two extremely accomplished educators. Jen Roberts, a veteran high-school English teacher from San Diego, who among many things runs the website LitAndTech.com. And I’m also joined by fifth-grade teacher Donnie Piercey. In addition to being Kentucky’s 2021 Teacher of the Year, Donnie also has an upcoming book about bringing AI into the classroom. Whether you’ve never heard of ChatGPT or whether you’re already using it every day, I think you’ll find this a valuable discussion about the intersection of science, English, and technology. Here’s Jen and Donnie.

Eric Cross (00:01:17):

So first off, welcome to the show. It’s good to see you all. What I wanna do is kind of start off by introducing both of you. And so we’ll just go K–12. So <laugh>, Donnie.

Jennifer Roberts (00:01:30):

Donnie goes first.

Eric Cross (00:01:31):

Donnie’s gonna go first. Donnie out in Kentucky. Just a little background. What do you teach; how long you’ve been in the classroom; and what are you having fun with right now?

Donnie Piercey (00:01:38):

Yeah, so my name is Donnie Piercey. I’m a fifth-grade teacher from Kentucky. Live and teach right here in Lexington, Kentucky, right in the center of the state. I’m the 2021 Kentucky Teacher of the Year. But I’ve been teaching elementary school for the past … I think this is year 16 or 17. It’s long enough where I’ve lost count, and I can’t even count on fingers anymore. My friends like to joke that I’ve taught long enough where now I can count down. You know, it’s like, “All right, only so many more years left.” But yeah, teach all subjects. Science definitely is one of the subjects that I don’t just try to squeeze into my day, but make sure that … it’s not even a devoted subject, but one that I definitely try to — don’t just have that set time, but also try to do some cross-curricular stuff with it. So definitely the rise of AI in these past few months, which feels like years by this point, has definitely played quite the role, in not just changing the way that I’ve been teaching science, but really all my subjects. So, excited to chat with y’all about it.

Eric Cross (00:02:47):

Nice. I’m excited that you’re here. And Jen?

Jennifer Roberts (00:02:51):

Hi, I’m Jen Roberts. I teach ninth-grade English at Point Loma High School, and that’s where I usually stop when I introduce myself. But for your sake—

Eric Cross (00:03:00):

I will keep introducing you if you stop there. <laugh>

Jennifer Roberts (00:03:04):

I am nationally board-certified in English Language Arts for early adolescence. I am the co-author of a book called Power Up: Making the Shift to 1:1 Teaching and Learning, from Stenhouse, with my fabulous co-author Diana Neebe. Shout out to Diana. I blog at LitAndTech.com about teaching and technology and literacy and the intersection of those things. And I’m looking forward to talking about how AI is showing up in my classroom and the fun things I’m doing with it.

Donnie Piercey (00:03:31):

And one of us is actually secretly a robot, and you have to guess which one.

Jennifer Roberts (00:03:35):

Have to guess which one. Yes. <laugh>

Eric Cross (00:03:37):

That would be super-meta. And you were the CUE — Computer-Using Educator — outstanding teacher or educator? Whatever. Either one. Of the year.

Jennifer Roberts (00:03:45):

I was the CUE ’22 Outstanding Educator. Yes. And I’ve won a few other things as well.

Eric Cross (00:03:53):

The gaming backpack.

Jennifer Roberts (00:03:54):

I’ve won a gaming backpack recently! Yes. I once won an iPad in a Twitter chat.

Eric Cross (00:03:58):

What?

Donnie Piercey (00:03:58):

What’s a gaming backpack? Hold on. We need to talk about that.

Jennifer Roberts (00:04:01):

We will talk about that. <laugh> And then, I was once a finalist for county Teacher of the Year. That’s as close as I got to Donnie. Donnie was the Kentucky Teacher of the Year. He got to go to the White House and stuff. That was exciting.

Donnie Piercey (00:04:13):

<laugh> I mean, to be fair, there’s only three million people in Kentucky, and about what, 50 million people that live in California? <Laugh> So odds are definitely stacked in my favor, I think.

Jennifer Roberts (00:04:23):

So you’re saying we’re even there? Is that, is that what you’re going for?

Donnie Piercey (00:04:25):

Yeah, evens out. Evens out.

Eric Cross (00:04:27):

So I’ve been looking forward to talking to you both for a while now, and talking about artificial intelligence. It’s like the big thing. And both of you, at different ends of the spectrum and in my life, have contributed to this. Donnie, you’ve been sharing so much great information online about how you’re using AI in elementary. Jen, you are the reason I got into education technology years ago, right when I was becoming a teacher. And so being able to talk with you both about it excites me a lot. So first off, for the listeners who may not have any experience with it — and there’s still a lot of people out there who have not been exposed to it, haven’t got their feet wet with it yet — I’m hoping we could start off maybe with an explanation of … we could do AI, ChatGPT, I know that’s the big one. But simply explaining what it is, just for the new person. And whoever wants to start off can tell us about it. Or maybe we’ll start … we’ll, let’s actually, let’s do this: Let’s continue going like K–12? So Donnie, maybe you could … what’s your pitch to the new person of, “Hey, this is what it is”?

Donnie Piercey (00:05:31):

All right. So, AI, artificial intelligence, probably the way that most people are exposed to it, at least since November when it launched, is through ChatGPT. Where if you Google it, you know it’s made by a company called OpenAI. The best way to describe what it is … when you go there for the first time, make an account, it’s free. You have like a little search window, looks like a Google search bar. And instead of searching for information, you can ask it to create stuff for you. So for example, like on Google search, you might type in a question like, “Who was the 19th president of the United States?” Where on ChatGPT, instead of just searching for information, it creates stuff for you. So you could say, you could ask it to, “Hey, write a poem about the 19th president of the United States.” Or, “Write a short little essay comparing, I don’t know, Frederick Douglass to Martin Luther King Jr.” And it would do that for you. You know, that’s most people’s first exposure to AI, at least in these past few months. Instead of … you know, it’s artificial intelligence, but it’s not just chatbots. There’s lots of other AI that exist out there.

Jennifer Roberts (00:06:47):

And I think that’s the thing: that people don’t realize how much AI is already in their lives.

Donnie Piercey (00:06:51):

For sure. Yeah.

Jennifer Roberts (00:06:52):

You know, they just haven’t seen … the term that I see being used a lot now is “generative AI.” AI that can produce something. It can produce writing, it can produce art, it can produce a script, it can produce a character. But the AI that has been helping you pick what to watch next on Netflix and the AI that’s helping Google help you get where you wanna go on Google Maps faster, those are forms of artificial intelligence as well.

Donnie Piercey (00:07:21):

Yeah. I mean, even those, when you get that that message in Gmail, and instead of having to type out that response that says, “Yeah, that sounds great,” you can just click the little button that says, “Yeah, that sounds great.” I mean, that’s been in Gmail for years, but that’s artificial intelligence too.

Eric Cross (00:07:39):

Absolutely. So why is it important, do you think, for educators to, to be familiar with it? Like, why are we all so excited about it?

Jennifer Roberts (00:07:47):

So, educators need to know what kids are into, and kids are obviously into ChatGPT. And anyone who’s an educator right now has probably already had something cross their desk — or more likely their computer screen — that was written by AI and passed off as a student’s own work. And that is, of course, the great fear among teachers everywhere, that this is what kids are just gonna do these days and they won’t be able to catch it and children won’t be doing their own work and this and this. But I think the big reason teachers need to know what’s going on is because teachers need to be futurists. Our clientele will live in the future. We teach kids, kids will become adults, adults will live in the world. And so if we’re not thinking about and trying to predict on some level what’s gonna happen 5, 10, 15 years from now … we might be wrong, but what if we’re right?

Jennifer Roberts (00:08:38):

And if we’re not at least trying to think about what is their future world gonna look like, then we’re not serving our students well. I did a whole night talk on that. So I think ChatGPT is part of that. I teach seniors. I had this moment of realization I felt a few months ago. I’m like, “This is gonna be the world they graduate into. They need to know what this is before they leave me.” If I don’t teach them how to use this well, and not the way they’re using it — which is to copy and paste the teacher’s assignment and drop it into ChatGPT and take whatever it spits out and turning that in without even looking at it — if I don’t teach ’em how to use it critically, if I don’t teach them how to write effective prompts, if I don’t teach them how to use the AI as a tool, as a collaborator, then they’re gonna graduate into a world where they lose out to people who do know how to do that. And I think the advantage goes to kids who have access and knowledge of what’s in front of them and what’s available, and can use all of the tools at their disposal. Because when you’re writing in school and you write with a collaborator, that could be considered cheating. But when you do that out in the adult world, that’s considered doing a good job. <Laugh> Being a team player. <Laugh> You know, adults don’t work alone for the most part. And adults are expected to churn out beautiful, perfect content no matter how they got there. So if I’m not teaching my kids how to use this, they’re not being ready. They’re not gonna be ready to be the adults that I want them to be.

Donnie Piercey (00:10:07):

A hundred percent agree. And I also believe … as you know, I teach elementary school. I also don’t think anybody is saying that on the first day of kindergarten, you hand a kid a Chromebook and load up an AI chatbot or ChatGPT and say, Hey, this thing’s gonna do all your work for you for the next 12 years; just coast through life. You don’t have to think creatively. You don’t have to learn how to develop a paragraph or learn how to write a speech or develop an idea. Like, I don’t think anybody’s saying that, because as an elementary school teacher, there’s many days when I’m like, “Y’all, we’re just putting the Chromebooks away today and we’re just gonna go old-school. We’re just gonna maybe just jot down five quick ideas and stand up and present those ideas to the class.”

Donnie Piercey (00:10:54):

Because while AI definitely will, like you were saying, Jen, play a significant role in the lives of our students who are, not just graduating, but the 10- and 11-year-olds in my classroom this year. A significant role in their lives. It’s also really important to recognize that we’re not saying that this means that “Hey, kids don’t have to work anymore.” They still have to put forth that effort. There’s still — one of the ways that you become a good writer is by trial and error. And sometimes that trial and error comes through talking to a teacher or talking like you were saying to a peer or collaborating with a peer and saying to them, “Well, this sentence here, this paragraph here, really doesn’t make sense.” And I do believe one of the ways — especially as AI starts to become more fine-tuned and starts to be embedded more and more in tools like Google Docs and Microsoft Word — is it’s almost going to be a tutor to students.

Donnie Piercey (00:11:56):

Mm-hmm. <affirmative> Where I could very easily see in a few years, or maybe a few months, who knows what Google or any of these other big companies has rolling out, where a student could highlight a paragraph that they wrote simply, and then say, “Hey, proofread this for me,” or “Check for coherence.” Or even just ask a simple question: “Does this paragraph make sense?” Because you can already do that. You can copy a paragraph over into a chatbot and say, “Hey, does this make sense?” You know, “Rate my idea from one to 10,” and it’ll do that for ’em.

Jennifer Roberts (00:12:26):

We did that last week <laugh>.

Donnie Piercey (00:12:28):

Yeah. Right. I mean, that’s the thing. That technology exists now. It’s just not totally embedded yet. But based on what I’ve read and what I’ve seen, that’s gonna happen sooner rather than later. And it’s really, really important that we teach our students that, “No, you’re not just gonna use this, this tool to cheat, but you can use this tool to help you become a more creative student.”

Jennifer Roberts (00:12:50):

This is the use case in my classroom. Can I talk about that? You ready for that?

Eric Cross (00:12:53):

Please.

Jennifer Roberts (00:12:54):

OK.

Eric Cross (00:12:54):

Please.

Jennifer Roberts (00:12:55):

So my ninth graders are writing a comparative analysis essay, where I took them to the student art gallery and I made them pick two pieces of completely unknown student art and take notes on it, so they could go back and write this essay. And as soon as we got back to class, I said, can ChatGPT write this for you? And they all kind of froze ’cause I didn’t tell them what ChatGPT was. And they weren’t sure if they were allowed to know or not. And finally one of them kind of bravely raised his hand and said, “No.” And I said, “Why not?” And he said, “Well, the AI hasn’t seen the art. How can it write an essay about art when the art is completely original that we just went and looked at?” I said, “It’s almost like I planned it that way, isn’t it?” And they laughed nervously. And then I said, “Does that mean it can’t help us with this assignment?” And they said, “Well, no — of course it can’t help us, because it has not seen the art.” And I said, “Well. …” And I open ChatGPT, and I typed in what they were trying to do: “I need to write a comparative analysis essay comparing two pieces of student art on these reasons. And I need to choose which one did it better, basically. Can you help me with an outline?” and ChatGPT produced a lovely outline. And I looked at that with my students and we looked at it together and I said, “This is what it gave us. Would this be helpful to you?” And they’re like, “Yeah, that would be helpful to us.” So we — to be clear here, I was the only one using ChatGPT in the room. They were not actually using it. We were using it together. I copied and pasted the outline that it gave us and put it in their learning management system where they could access it so they could use the outline that the robot provided, and then they could use that to make their own writing better. So then I let them write for a little while, and, after they’d written for a little while, I said, “Does anybody wanna let me share your first paragraph with ChatGPT and see what it thinks of how you’re doing?” And a brave student raised his hand and we took his paragraph and we put it in ChatGPT, and it spit back advice. We said, “This is what I have so far for my first paragraph. Do you have any advice for me?” And we gave it the writing, and the first piece of advice it gave back was very generic, you know, “Add a hook,” you know, like kind of thing. But after that, it started to get more specific about things he was actually doing in his writing. And it started to give him some feedback. And we looked at that together as a class. And I said, “Does any of that feedback help you?” And he said, “Oh yeah, absolutely. I’m gonna go add some revisions to my paragraph.” And other students did too. They looked at the feedback he got and used that to improve their writing. And so everybody went and revised. And I said, “Look, if you take what the robot gives you and you copy and paste it, and you turn it in as your own work, it’s gonna get flagged for plagiarism. And that’s not gonna go well. But if it gives you writing advice the same way I would give you writing advice, and you decide that advice is good, and you take that advice and you incorporate it into your own writing yourself, then the robot’s making you better, but you’re still the one doing your own writing.” And the writing they turned in from that assignment was, was better. It wasn’t written by ChatGPT; it was still about the student art that they found in the gallery. But I showed them a path. Like, it can help you with an outline, it can help you with feedback. Right? These are fair ways to use it that’s gonna make you better. And they really liked that. They really liked — no one had shown them that before. The idea that you don’t just take the teacher’s prompt and give it to it … like, these are new uses to students and worked well.

Eric Cross (00:16:17):

So right now, you both just laid out these ways that you’re using it. And I do this with people that I’m trying to introduce to ChatGPT or AI. ‘Cause I get excited. Anyone could write a 500-word persuasive essay on the use of color in The Great Gatsby or The Outsiders, and they can get something back within seconds. But for a lot of educators, it might feel like the sky is falling.

Donnie Piercey (00:16:43):

Oh, understandably! Understandably. I mean, that totally makes sense.

Eric Cross (00:16:49):

What would you say to them? Donnie, go ahead.

Donnie Piercey (00:16:51):

Yeah. Well, I feel like every teacher kind of goes through the same experience when they see like a generative chatbot. I mean, all these major companies are gonna start incorporating AI, the generative AI piece. And a lot of times, when they see it for the first time, two things. First they’ll say “Oh, but I’ll know that that’s not my students’ writing.” Which, frankly, I think is a good thing, because that tells me that the teachers know their students’ writing. They’ve seen them write in person. They’ve conferenced with them one-on-one. And if a student were to turn something in to me, who I know might be a struggling writer, maybe it’s not their strength, and all of a sudden they’re turning in this10-page dissertation-worthy thesis written at a PhD level, I’m like, “All right, man, you’re nine. Can we talk about where this came from?” <laugh> But I also don’t think that at like the heart, I don’t feel like kids want to cheat. I really don’t. I feel like sometimes like kids are in a situation where they’re like, “OK, I’ve got nothing left. I gotta get this assignment done.” And when those kind of things happen, that’s when we as teachers, we have those one-on-one conversations. Even when I showed my students ChatGPT and even some of the AI image-generating stuff for the first time, and I talked to them about, “What do y’all think about this?” Because, you know, they’re under 13. In my district, ChatGPT is blocked for students. Staff, we have access to it. And that’s just because one, it’s so new, and at the same time, we need to figure out, “What’s the best way they can go about using this tool?” But when we were talking about it as a class, you know, I didn’t want to ignore the elephant in the room. So I asked them, I said, “Hey, do you feel like this is something that you all would use to. …” I mean, I used the word. I said “cheat.” And to be honest, the majority of the students in my class, they were taken aback. They’re like, “What? You think we just would cheat all the time?” Right? <Laugh> And I’m like, “Oh, well good. I’m glad to know that integrity is still alive and well.” But yeah, that’s definitely my thoughts on it, as far as not only the student integrity piece — I think that that’s the big thing that you need to just bring up with your students. Because again, I like to think that I’ve seen my students write enough that if they were going to turn something in that wasn’t their voice, or it didn’t sound like them, like I could have that conversation. And don’t be surprised, too, if in the next … I don’t know, one month to a year, there’s lots of AI detectors that exist. A lot of them are these like third-party things. You can go ahead, but I would not be surprised if in the next year or so, like you start to see those AI detectors be built into Google Docs, into Microsoft Word, into even Canva. And honestly, it’s almost like a fail-safe button for teachers, that we could say “All right, this is telling me that this is 99% probably written by AI.” So you can have that conversation with a student that way.

Jennifer Roberts (00:20:03):

I mean, if you’re worried about it, Formative, right now, will even tell you if something is copy-and-pasted into the boxes that they give you for students to write in. I find that kids who cheat are desperate, you know. Especially at the high school level. They’re panic mode. And, and usually their panic comes from, “I have no idea how to even start this assignment.” And so part of what I wanna use ChatGPT for is to lower that barrier for them. Like, you’ve got an assignment, you don’t know where to start. Tell the robot, tell ChatGPT, about the assignment and ask it for a list of steps. You know, ask it for an outline. Ask it for a time management plan. I see so much tremendous potential for this to help many of my students with IEPs who have executive functioning issues.

Donnie Piercey (00:20:49):

Oh, a hundred percent, right?

Jennifer Roberts (00:20:51):

Yes, a hundred percent. This can be their personal assistant who, you know, instead of me sitting with them one-on-one and saying, you know, “This is the task you need to do, let’s break it down into these six discrete chunks,” the artificial intelligence can do that for them. And it can do that for teachers too. <laugh>

Donnie Piercey (00:21:09):

Jen, I was just thinking about, how long until we see like the phrase artificial intelligence written onto a student’s IEP? I could see that happening very, very soon.

Jennifer Roberts (00:21:20):

Right? They should be able to use that. And then, also, of course, all of its amazing beneficials for teachers. I had to completely rewrite a unit of my curriculum. I knew what I wanted to do. I had some ideas of things I wanted to put in there. And I resorted to, I went to EducationCopilot.com and typed in my stuff that I had: You know, what standards I wanted to cover, what outcomes I was hoping for mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And it generated an eight-week unit for me. And I actually told it then to go back and do it as a 12-week unit so that I’d have more stuff in there to go and cherry-pick to decide what I really wanted to do. But it gave me ideas. It gave me places to start. It saved me an hour of just brainstorming. And I don’t think that was cheating. I still got to go in and decide which ideas were valid. And I still got to … you know, I mean, I’m a teacher. Can I get accused of cheating? I don’t think that’s a thing. It’s—

Eric Cross (00:22:18):

That’s collaborating! It’s collaborating!

Donnie Piercey (00:22:20):

Collaborating! It’s a feature! It’s a feature.

Jennifer Roberts (00:22:22):

It’s Tony Stark talking to Jarvis. You know, they’re figuring it out together.

Donnie Piercey (00:22:26):

Oh, when you use the AI, Jennifer, do you call yours Jarvis? In my class we call him Jeeves. ‘Cause remember Ask Jeeves?

Jennifer Roberts (00:22:33):

I think Eric calls it Jarvis.

Eric Cross (00:22:35):

Yeah. Jarvis is gonna be the AI’s name when, when I can get that fully functioning. There are some things that you had said, I just wanna circle back on. Donnie, Jen — so what I heard was like, best intentions. The part you said about integrity and students wanting to cheat … even the mindset that we go in assuming our students, what they would want to do and assuming best intentions, really kind of frames how you look at this kind of technology. And then Jen, you kind of brought up why students cheat, and realizing that either they don’t feel equipped, or maybe it’s time management, or something else. But most people — and I believe this as an educator — most students want to learn, and they want to be able to perform and achieve. And when they cheat, it’s because they didn’t feel like they could, for whatever reason. Whether it’s it’s outside factors, whether it’s something internal, motivation, whatever it is.

Jennifer Roberts (00:23:24):

Or they were very disconnected and just didn’t care.

Eric Cross (00:23:27):

Sure.

Jennifer Roberts (00:23:27):

This is just busy work the teacher’s giving me, so I’m gonna give it very little of my time and energy. But I think, yeah, it can be that. But if the kid cares about it, if they wanna learn, they wanna learn, you know?

Eric Cross (00:23:40):

Right.

Jennifer Roberts (00:23:40):

This is the day of the internet. Any kid can learn anything they really want to learn. And we see that all the time in our classes. The kid who has zero interest in what I’m teaching in English, but he is an expert coder, and that’s what he wants to spend his time learning. He’s like, “Can I read this C++ book as my independent reading book?” And I’m like, “You know, actually, you can. Go ahead.” <Laugh>

Eric Cross (00:24:01):

Yeah. And for both of you, saying that this makes content more accessible … and I think Donnie, or Jen, you said something about IEPs. I actually put in having it write an IEP to see what would happen. I gave it a prompt for a student’s ability level and I asked it to create a plan. And then I asked it to create a rationale. And it did! And it was good! I went through and vetted it. And right now … you know, a lot of it is funny, ’cause the conversation I’m having with different teachers is kind of like the Wikipedia one. Remember when Wikipedia first got out and everyone was like trying to discourage everybody from using it, because, well, it could be changed by anybody? And now everyone’s like, “Oh, check Wikipedia, and then steal the sources, ’cause they’re already done for you.” Like, the mindset has shifted since then. And I was talking to someone and they said, “Well. …” And I said, “We can use AI, it could be a tutor, these other things. …” And they said, “Yeah, but what happens?” And then insert apocalyptic scenario. Like, what happens if you don’t have access to wifi? And it reminded me of, for some reason, cooking classes. So in the 1700s you probably had to be able to farm to be able to generate your food. Right? Like, you had to get it from somewhere. But if you take a culinary class now, you just go to the grocery store. And someone might say, “Well, but you should know how to farm, ’cause what if there was this worldwide apocalypse and nobody could go to the grocery stores?” <Laugh> And you’re like, “Well, balance of probability though.” You know, it’s like we’ve been really been living in these iterations of life, and I think this next step for some folks … like, we don’t even realize, even like something like bank statements, right? So many folks are paperless. And there’s always a what-if scenario. What if you need it and the internet goes down. But we get so used to to to technology advancing and making our lives different. This kind of seems like that next iteration. And I wanna ask you this question: Are we looking at like the next calculator? The next internet, with this tech? Or do you think it’s too early to say?

Donnie Piercey (00:26:01):

Well, I’ve seen a lot of people compare ChatGPT to a calculator. I’ve seen that pop up on social media. There’s, “Oh well, no, this is like when the calculator was invented. Everyone was up in arms about how ‘that’s not what math students should do.’ Math should be pencil and paper, math should be this.’” However, you can give a kid a calculator and you can give ’em a word problem and they can punch in all the numbers, but they could do the wrong operation or they could put the decimal point in the wrong place, ’cause the student is still the one who’s controlling what’s on the calculator. Where with AI, all you gotta do is just copy it and then paste it into the bot and it’ll spit out whatever the question asked it for. Whether it was, you know, a 500-word rationale or proof for something in geometry, or if it’s analyzing data on a chart, it’ll do all that.

Jennifer Roberts (00:27:00):

Yes. But it’s not that magical. It’s back to what Eric did with the IEP. He put in a prompt and then he knew enough to ask for a rationale and then he knew enough about IEPs to critically read the results he got and make sure they actually worked for what he needed. He had to know all that. He was an expert using it to do an expert thing. My husband’s a computer scientist; he got ChatGPT to help him write an app, and it was a new programming language to him, and he could put in the data and he could ask for things that I would’ve never thought to ask for. But because he knows the language of computer science, he knew what to ask for. And when it gave him results that were bad, he could see that, and he could say, “Yes, but do it again, but without this,” or “make this part more efficient.” He, again, knew what to ask for. So I think the generative AI is, as a partner with humans, a powerful thing. But if the human doesn’t know what they’re doing, yeah. You’re still not gonna get great results.

Donnie Piercey (00:28:03):

<laugh> And I think that’s why I’m coming at this from the elementary school perspective, right? Because in K–5 students are still learning, like, “Hey, where does the decimal point go?” They’re still learning, you know, if you’re dividing by a two-digit number, where does the first digit go, if you go in the old long-division algorithm? And so they’re still acquiring that base-level knowledge that … I don’t know, maybe this is similar to in Jurassic Park when Jeff Goldblum says, “It didn’t take any knowledge to attain,” you know, “they stood on the shoulders of geniuses,” that whole thing. Like they had to acquire the knowledge for themselves, was his whole point. And so that’s why I don’t think it’s exactly the same as the calculator. It is definitely going to change things, in a similar way that the calculator did. But to me it’s just a whole new animal. And I don’t know if it’s going to be like the next internet, Eric — if you’re gonna get little devices that have AI built into it, like a Star Wars kind of thing, like a droid or something that follows you around — all that would be kind of cool, not gonna lie. But whether it’s something that you’ll access through the internet, something that’s built into your TV, that part I don’t know. But I do know that there’s a reason why all of these apps and all these companies are investing so much — not just energy, but time and money into it. Because they’re recognizing. “OK, this really has the potential to change things.” But if used well, and used safely, to change people’s lives for the better.

Eric Cross (00:29:41):

So I definitely hear that you both agree with the statement that if AI ChatGPT was used in the classroom, it could be a force for good. And literacy development. And I wanna shift gears a bit and then come back to the AI. So with that said — and we’re gonna get into some best practices in a minute — in Science Connections right now in this season, we’re making the case for how science can do more in classrooms and in schools. And so I’m I’m curious about what both of you think about the role in science fostering a better future when it comes to AI and education. And this season we’re really talking a lot about literacy. You know, in schools, so often it’s taught in a siloed way. And Donnie, you’re doing multi-subject. Jen, you’re single-subject: English. And we’ve really been trying to make this case for how science can actually support literacy, and these skills that students are trying to develop. So we’re going a little old-school, kind of diving into your content specialty, but maybe even pre-AI, or maybe AI has a component in this. But Don, maybe we’ll start with you. How has science been a way that has been helpful for your own literacy instruction? I know you do a lot of science, because I see your Google Earth stuff and the thing you did with the solar systems back in the day. And I think —.

Donnie Piercey (00:30:54):

Oh my gosh! You remember my <laugh> … wow.

Eric Cross (00:30:58):

That was amazing!

Donnie Piercey (00:31:00):

We haven’t done that since the pandemic. But I had my students go out, and using Google Earth, we built a scale model. Each of the students partnered up and they planned out on Google Earth a scale model of the solar system. They picked an object from around their house and we talked about like, “Don’t pick something bigger than a beach ball, or else, you know, your Neptune’s gonna end up like 10 miles away.” But you know, they just picked like a small ball, like a basketball, soccer ball, something like that. Or football, for international friends. And then we calculated the size of every other planet. And then on Google Earth, using their front lawn as where the sun was, then we went and we calculated where other planets would be, and then we actually drove to those locations and like held up the objects that would represent Neptune, Jupiter, Saturn, and all that. But it was a lot of fun.

Eric Cross (00:31:59):

And is that still accessible? ‘Cause I know you have some websites that you put resources out there.

Donnie Piercey (00:32:03):

Yeah. Yeah, I can … I wanna say on my Resources page — Resources.MrPiercey.com — I’ve got a link on there to a couple of student examples that I can share. And if not, when we get off this call, I’m gonna go on and put them on there <laugh> so people can find it. I’ll even throw on there just the assignment itself. So if you wanted to copy that and do that with your students, you could.

Eric Cross (00:32:27):

Donnie, the reason why I brought that up is because I saw that you had posted that or shared it a long time ago, and I just thought it was the coolest thing that you could totally do with middle-school students or high-school students. Jen, when I became a teacher, you said, “We’re all teachers of literacy.”

Jennifer Roberts (00:32:43):

<laugh> Yeah. I think we forgot to tell them that I was one of your professors.

Eric Cross (00:32:47):

Yes. <Jennifer laughs> One of the people who’ve definitely influenced and shaped my teaching. And that statement has never left my mind: that we’re all teachers of literacy. And I want to ask you, at the high-school level, how can science educators, or how can science — how have you seen it, or how does it, support literacy, when it’s done right?

Jennifer Roberts (00:33:09):

Like I said, I think we’re all teachers of literacy, but I think literacy is bigger than just reading and writing. I don’t think someone is literate if they can’t talk somewhat knowledgeably about what’s happening with climate change. I don’t think someone’s literate if they don’t know what’s going on in the world. And I think so much of what’s going on in the world has to do with science. We’re doing that all the time. If I could teach English just by giving kids articles about science, things to read, that would make my day. Right? We would never read another piece of fiction again. It would all be, you know, what’s happening to the ice sheet in Greenland. My students thrive on reading non-fiction. And then whenever that non-fiction touches on science is even more interesting. And whenever I can get them writing about data, particularly their own data that they collected, I think that’s building those science literacy skills as well. So I think science and English blend together very, very well. I think the literacy aspects of that are fantastic. There are more subject-specific vocabulary words, advanced vocabulary words, in science than any other discipline. And I don’t see why those shouldn’t come up in English as well. You know, my seniors will do a unit at the end of the year on the new space race. Unless I replace it with a unit about generative AI, which I’m seriously considering doing, ’cause I think they really need to learn about bias in AI algorithms and things like that. And I would like to have them read a whole bunch about that stuff. And I wanna give them the open letter that all those CEOs signed that said that AI research should slow down, and make them part of that live conversation about what’s happening in that field. So science comes into that. You know, when we read Into the Wild, we start talking about a whole bunch of scientific concepts. And when it rains in Southern California, we pull up weather maps and look at radar and talk about that and how that works.

Donnie Piercey (00:34:59):

That’s like once every 10 years, Jen? <Laugh>

Jennifer Roberts (00:35:02):

Well, actually, this year it rained a lot. It rained a lot in San Diego. Which is actually very high-interest for them. ‘Cause they wanna know, is it gonna be raining at lunchtime?

Eric Cross (00:35:12):

Jen, you said something … you have your students writing about data?

Jennifer Roberts (00:35:16):

Oh yeah.

Eric Cross (00:35:17):

Can you tell me more about that?

Jennifer Roberts (00:35:19):

So, this is something we’ve done with the ninth grade team for a long time now, is writing about their own data. So it started with a unit about stereotypes and stereotype threat. And they would collect data individually and then they would enter that data into a Google form and then we would give them the spreadsheet of the aggregate data from the whole ninth grade. And then we morphed that unit into one about academic honesty, and they filled out a survey at the beginning of the unit about their feelings about academic honesty and about experiences with academic honesty and cheating and homework and things like that. And then we would do the unit. We’d do all the readings in the unit. And they’d have these “aha” moments about things that were happening at other schools. And then at the end of the unit, we would give them back their own aggregate data and ask them to write about whether or not academic honesty was an issue at our school. And then to support that answer with evidence from their own dataset. So they had that spreadsheet to comb through and figure out, you know, where am I gonna stand on this? We give them the multiple-choice questions we gave them as the graphs, in Google Slides, so that they could write about them and talk about them, too. So yeah, getting kids to write about data. And the the sentence frames we gave them were sentence frames out of, They Say, I Say, from the chapter on writing about science. And <laugh> as they write this stuff, they’re like, “I feel so smart writing this way.” And I’m like, “I know, ’cause you’re writing about big important topics!” Right? And writing about their own data come to think of it is another great way to make an assignment both very personal to them, but also make it ChatGPT-proof, you know, if you’re looking for something that kids can’t just hand to the robot, the robot doesn’t have that data set.

Eric Cross (00:37:08):

Absolutely. And Donnie, at the elementary level, do you, do you make connections between science and literacy? In your class? You talked about with math, definitely with the solar system, but now, I’m curious, what are your newer projects? What have you been working on lately?

Jennifer Roberts (00:37:23):

What’s up now, Donnie?

Eric Cross (00:37:24):

Yeah, what are you doing?

Donnie Piercey (00:37:25):

Oh, man. Well, let me think. I’m just trying to think of some fun projects that we’ve done this year. Science that we can tie in Literacy and also some student creation. Just recently we had a … so I’ve wanted to expose my students to famous scientists that weren’t just white dudes from Europe. So for this year, what I did — and I actually used AI for this — I went into ChatGPT and I asked for 64 famous scientists and it listed them all off. And then I asked it, like, how many of these were white? And I think it said like 61 of them. You know, it had like Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and a couple of other … I didn’t know who they were. So I’m like, “All right, so we need to make this more diverse and make this more equitable.” ‘Cause you know, with the student population in my classroom, try to find equal representation to make sure they can see themselves in some of these scientists. So, eventually got it narrowed down to where I had about 64 scientists. Half are women, half are men from all continents except Antarctica. I assigned these scientists to my students. Some got two; some got three. And their assignment was to go and one, do some individual research on this person, find out what they were famous for, what they were most well-known for, turn it actually into a persuasive piece, where I said, “Hey, you’re gonna have one slide.” And I’ll tell you why I gave him one slide in a minute. On that one slide, you’ve gotta convince the person who sees it that this scientist is the most important scientist since the dawn of creation. I said, “You could use images, text — I don’t care if they were famous for something that you didn’t even understand what it was. It’s a persuasive piece. You’re 10. Go all out. Add gifs, do that whole thing.

Eric Cross (00:39:21):

This is awesome.

Jennifer Roberts (00:39:21):

I wanna do this project.

Donnie Piercey (00:39:23):

And if you picked up on the number 64, and I did this in March, so what we did was throughout the weeks of March Madness of the women’s and men’s NCAA tournament, whenever a game was going on, we had another round of voting. I just paired ’em up. I was gonna like seed them, like 1 to 64 — that’s just way too much work for me <laugh>. So I just kind of did random kind of thing. But all the students had to do — they just saw the slides side-by-side, and the only question they had was, “Based on what you see here, who is the most important scientist? This person or this person?” And it eventually came down to Carl Sagan going up against Marie Curie.

Eric Cross (00:40:04):

OK, that’s a good matchup.

Donnie Piercey (00:40:06):

Yeah, well, the Marie Curie slide, they just liked the radium piece. So they added like some green glowing gifs. And I said, “Guys, it doesn’t always grow glow green.” But whatever. Anyway, eventually Carl Sagan, in case you wanted to know, according to the 10-year-olds in my classroom, is the most important scientist in the history of the world. So I don’t know if I agree with that per se — I think maybe Newton or somebody else might have had something else to say about it — but fun assignment. It was a unique way to expose my students to a bunch of ideas. I remember the student that I assigned Newton, the only thing that that she knew about Isaac Newton was “Didn’t he get hit in the head with an apple?” And I said, “Well, not exactly, I think you might have read or maybe seen too many like old-school cartoons or whatever.” But she ended up doing some research. She’s like, “Oh, I’ve heard of that before! That equal and opposite reaction thing.” Didn’t know what it meant. I had another student that just got really … you know, if you’ve ever been on one of those YouTube kicks where it’s just, you go like nine levels deep onto like, “What does this theorem mean?” Student sits in back of my classroom, I walked by one day and he’s just watching something on like the fifth dimension and what it might be. And I said, “Oh, your scientist got you started on that.” So definitely was a lot of fun. Unique way to combine reading, writing, but also expose my students to some ideas. And we’re definitely gonna do it again. I’ve actually done this assignment before. I picked 64 random elements on the periodic table. But their only slide that they have to make is “What’s your element? What is it used for? And then, why is this the most important element since the dawn of creation?” <Laugh> And, you know, there’s always that student that gets hydrogen. They’re just like “Sweet!” Right? They get excited about that one. <laugh>

Eric Cross (00:41:59):

Explosions.

Donnie Piercey (00:42:00):

Yeah. But then, for that kid who likes a challenge, or that student with the “gifted” label, you give them, like, einsteinium or palladium. Some of the more challenging ones. And they go all out with this. I didn’t use AI for that one, but it was kind of fun, and I figured it’d be neat to share an idea that another teacher could try.

Eric Cross (00:42:20):

Well you probably have at least two teachers right now that are gonna go and try that. And we’re both looking at you. So.

Donnie Piercey (00:42:24):

Go for it.

Eric Cross (00:42:25):

Thanks for that idea. I’m imagining my students coming in with jerseys with “neon.”

Donnie Piercey (00:42:29):

Oh yeah. <laugh>

Eric Cross (00:42:30):

“Neon” on it. Just all ’80s out.

Donnie Piercey (00:42:33):

The game behind it, too, is you tell kids — again, this is just so the 10-year-olds in my class don’t get their feelings hurt — but I say, “Hey, and if your element gets knocked out, you just have to start cheering for whoever beats you in the tournament.” So by the end, you kind of got half the class cheering for one and half the class cheering for whatever.

Jennifer Roberts (00:42:53):

So the only thing I got outta that whole story that I’ve got for you is, as a child I met Carl Sagan. That’s all I got.

Donnie Piercey (00:43:02):

For real?

Jennifer Roberts (00:43:02):

For real.

Donnie Piercey (00:43:03):

So did he talk with that cadence and tone?

Jennifer Roberts (00:43:06):

Yes.

Donnie Piercey (00:43:06):

Like in real life? Wow.

Jennifer Roberts (00:43:07):

Yes. My father was one of the cinematographers on the original Cosmos. And I got to go to the set a few times.

Donnie Piercey (00:43:14):

That’s incredible!

Jennifer Roberts (00:43:15):

I did not appreciate what I was seeing as a child. But as an adult, I’m like, “That was cool. I was there.”

Donnie Piercey (00:43:20):

“You can see my shadow off in the distance.”

Jennifer Roberts (00:43:23):

I mean, maybe that’s part of why I’ve always had an interest in science. I’ve always had fantastic science teachers. Every science teacher I ever had was amazing.

Donnie Piercey (00:43:31):

I credit mine to Mr. Wizard. I don’t know if you ever watched Mr. Wizard and Beakman’s World?

Eric Cross (00:43:35):

I remember Mr. Wizard. Yep. Yep. I definitely remember Mr. Wizard, Beakman’s World, all those. That was on Nickelodeon back in the day. I had to get up early to watch that one. But there’s a YouTube video—

Donnie Piercey (00:43:44):

Six am!

Eric Cross (00:43:44):

<laugh> It was! It was super-early! But there was one, Don, I don’t know if you’ve seen this on YouTube, but it said “Mr. Wizard Is Mean,” and it’s just clips of when he’s—

Donnie Piercey (00:43:56):

Yelling at kids!

Eric Cross (00:43:56):

Chastising. Or being really direct. It’s just one after another.

Donnie Piercey (00:44:02):

He always asked ’em a question and if the kid, you know, didn’t answer it right, he’d be like, “Well, you’re not right, but you’re wrong.” You know, whatever. <Laugh>

Eric Cross (00:44:14):

I have to make sure I’m not subconsciously saying Mr. Wizard quotes when I’m talking in the classroom, when things are happening. But yeah, that video’s hilarious. So I just want to bring us back to AI, and ask this question: Do you think science has a special role to play when it comes to teaching kids about AI responsibly? Does science have a special role in that?

Jennifer Roberts (00:44:36):

I think the responsible piece of AI I wanna teach my students about is the part about the bias in the algorithms and the bias in the training. And I want them to understand how it works, well enough to make informed decisions about how it impacts their lives.

Donnie Piercey (00:44:56):

Hmm.

Jennifer Roberts (00:44:57):

Because I do have concerns about a tool that was trained on the internet. And the answers it gives you is the average of the internet. And do we trust the internet? And the answer from kids is always, “Well sorta, no.” <Laugh> So I want them to understand the social science behind that.

Donnie Piercey (00:45:18):

Yeah. And just along that same point, having the students recognize that just because, you know, you copy-and-paste a question in, the answer it spits out might not always be correct. So, teaching them that just like you would with a source that you find about a topic that you’re researching, you’ve gotta fact-check.

Jennifer Roberts (00:45:44):

It’s just like being a good scientist. A good scientist wouldn’t always accept a single result or the first result. You know, you would look at multiple angles. You would try things different ways. Last week I took the article my seniors were reading about victim compensation after 9-11, and in front of them, I gave ChatGPT, I said, “Are you familiar with this article by Amanda Ripley? And ChatGPT came back and said, “Oh yes, this was written in the Atlantic in 2020 and it’s about these things, blah, blah blah.” And my students looked at that and went, “That’s not the article we read.” And I said, “I know. It got it wrong. That’s amazing!” Yeah. And I was so happy that it got it wrong! ‘Cause I wanted them to see that happen.

Donnie Piercey (00:46:21):

And I guess one of the big science questions there, or one of the big science components there, is that idea of inquiry. Right? It’s almost like you have to teach students how to ask those deep questions about what AI spits out.

Eric Cross (00:46:35):

All of those tips are great. And it leads me to this last question I want to ask. New teachers that are out there — it actually doesn’t even matter; new teachers, experienced teachers, all of us are kind of new at different levels of this race. We’re all kind of starting it together. I mean, it hit mainstream. We’re all getting exposed to it. You all really dive into it. When tech comes out, I know you two really like, “OK, how can we use this to transform education and do awesome things for kids?”

Donnie Piercey (00:47:04):

Usually, when new tech comes out, “How can this make my life easier?” is usually the question. Yeah.

Jennifer Roberts (00:47:09):

“How can I save myself time with this?” Yes.

Donnie Piercey (00:47:11):

“How can this result in me watching more TV and you know, less grading,” sometimes.

Eric Cross (00:47:16):

And I start there like you, but then I end up more time that I fill with another project. And I need to learn how to stop doing that. I’m like, “Oh! I got more free time! … to go take on this other task.”

Jennifer Roberts (00:47:28):

Oh, all of my tech adoption is driven by “how can I work less?”

Eric Cross (00:47:32):

So you’re you’re talking to a new teacher, teacher’s getting exposed to this, they’re starting the school year or they’re just getting their feet wet with it. What advice would you give them about AI, incorporated into content or even just best practices? Where you’re at right now in your own journey, and someone’s asking you about it —what would you share with ’em? And Jen, I want to start with you.

Jennifer Roberts (00:47:53):

So, the first thing I did is I was in the middle of grading, you know, 62 essays from my seniors about Into the Wild, when ChatGPT became a thing last November. And I wanted to see what would happen. So the first thing I did was take the prompt that I had given my students and gave it to ChatGPT, ’cause I had just graded a whole bunch of those essays and my brain was very attuned to what my rubric was doing and what I was expecting as the outcome. So I could take what ChatGPT gave me as that quote unquote “essay” and evaluate it critically. And I was ready to do that. So my first advice is take something you’re already asking students to do and ask ChatGPT to do the same thing. So that as you look at the student results, you can compare that to what ChatGPTgives you. If what you’re finding is that ChatGPT can generate something that would earn a decent grade from you, you might need to change that assignment. And it doesn’t need to be a big change, but it might need a tweak or something, so that it, it does rely on the student voice, the students to do something more personal. I’m finding very helpful in my classroom is having my kids do projects where they are recording themselves on — I like Flip. So they’re writing a scene together and they’re having to record the scene together. And I’m emphasizing more of the speaking roles than the writing roles necessarily. So yes, first, take something you’re already doing, paste in to ChatGPT, see what the results are, see how that fits with what your students are doing, and then do that for every assignment you give and just sort of see what comes out of that, and see which assignments are failing and which assignments are working. ‘Cause that’s gonna give you a sense, when you do see one of those results from your students, you’ll be able to recognize it. But it’ll also help you tweak your assignments and decide, “How can I make this a little more original or a little bit more authentic for my students?” And if the robot, if the AI, can’t generate a response, what could the AI do that would be helpful to your students? Would be my next question. So can you use the AI to help them generate an outline? Can you use the AI to help them generate a list of steps to help them get started? And when you’re comfortable enough doing that by yourself, then don’t be afraid to open it in front of your class. If it’s not blocked at your school site, which I hope it’s not. Because I think the advantage goes to kids who have access to this in the long run, or at least see what it is and know what it is. Right? Because if a kid graduates from school without knowing that AI exists, they’re not gonna be prepared for what they face out in the world. So give them a chance to see you using it. Model effectively using it. I have a blog post about that. I just wrote it. LitAndTech.com. You can check that out. “Introducing 9th graders to ChatGPT.” How it went, right? There’s a chart there you can have. It’s my very first draft of this, but it seems to be very popular. So, you know, show students how it can be used as their mentor. If I can’t come read your paragraph because I have 36 kids in my classroom and I cannot stop and read everybody’s first paragraph, can you, if you want to, give your first paragraph to ChatGPT and ask for advice? And will that advice be helpful to you? So showing students how it can be used responsibly is, I think, something every teacher should be doing right now. And don’t hold back just because you’re afraid you’re gonna be teaching them what this is. They know what this is. Right?

Donnie Piercey (00:51:13):

They know what it is.

Jennifer Roberts (00:51:13):

Especially if you teach high school. They know what it is. I’ve had parents thank me for showing them how to use it responsibly. You know, this can actually be a really useful tool, but if you’re trying to make it do your work for you, it will probably fail you. If you’re trying to use it to help you do your work, it will probably be helpful. Sort of the way I’m breaking it down for them at this point. You want the great metaphor? The great metaphor is if you build a robot and send it to the top of a mountain, did you climb that mountain? No. If you build a robot and ask it to help you get to the top of the mountain, and you and the robot go together, did you climb that mountain? Yes.

Eric Cross (00:51:53):

I like that. I’m thinking through this. I’m processing that now.

Donnie Piercey (00:51:57):

Me too.

Eric Cross (00:51:59):

Yeah. I just imagine a robot holding my hand climbing Mount Everest and I’m like, “Yeah, I did it.”

Donnie Piercey (00:52:04):

If I got a robot though, like I would have to dress it like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2. Like I would just have to.

Eric Cross (00:52:10):

Of course.

Donnie Piercey (00:52:10):

Of course.

Eric Cross (00:52:13):

Donnie, same question. Advice. Teachers getting immersed into it. Tips. What would you say?

Donnie Piercey (00:52:20):

So, I would definitely agree with everything that Jen said. Just, if anything else, to familiarize yourself with it. Almost like pretend like it’s a student in your classroom and it’s answering questions, just so that way you can see what it can do. And you’re kind of training yourself, like, “Oh, well, if I ever need examples, exemplars.” If you’re in a writing piece and you don’t wanna sit there and write out four different types of student responses — you know, advanced writer, beginning writer, whatever — great way to to do that is you just—

Jennifer Roberts (00:52:48):

Oh yeah. We did that.

Donnie Piercey (00:52:48):

—copy the prompt in and give a beautifully written piece that a fifth grader would be impressed with. Boom. It’ll do it for you. In my classroom, the way that I approach it is I kinda look at AI as almost like this butler that I don’t have to pay. That if I need it to do something for me, it’s just bookmarked. I can click it. And I mean, sometimes I just talk to it like it’s a person. And it’s almost like, in the chat window, I’m just rambling at it, what I’m trying to do. And it’s almost like I’m talking to a coworker, and I’m trying to hedge out some ideas for a lesson. Simple example: For a science lesson, if you’re trying to come up with … let’s say you’re a fifth-grade — or, sorry, I teach fifth grade. Say you’re a seventh-grade science teacher. And you’re trying to teach the students in your class about Newton’s third law of motion. You know, every action [has an ] equal and opposite reaction. Look around your room. See what you have. Maybe look around and you’re like, “All right, I got a whiteboard, microscope, I’ve got magnets, a cylinder. …” And you just copy all this stuff into ChatGPT. Say, like, “Hey, I have all of these items. Cotton balls, peanut butter, whatever.” And say, “I’m trying to teach students Newton’s third law of motion. Give me some ideas of some ways I could teach it using some of these materials.” And it’ll do it! It’ll give you like five to 10 ideas!

Jennifer Roberts (00:54:15):

And then tell it what your students are into. Like, my students are really into basketball. Can you work that into this lesson?

Donnie Piercey (00:54:21):

Yeah! They’re into the Avengers! Hey, find some way to tie Spider-Man into this. You know, that was a pun that didn’t go so well. But, you know <laugh> figure out some way that you could incorporate this and it’ll do it. And Eric, like you said, it won’t be perfect. Right? But if anything else, if you’re a starting teacher and you’re trying to brainstorm ideas — try it.

Eric Cross (00:54:44):

And Donnie, as you were saying that, I was thinking — first, I imagined Spider-Man shooting cotton balls with peanut butter all over them — and then my mind went to having students have these items, like you were saying. And then they create labs, working alongside AI. To do inquiry. To create a lab about something, and then going and performing and collecting data. OK, that’s — now I wanna go do that tomorrow!

Donnie Piercey (00:55:10):

Listen, it is so easy to do. If you have an extra computer in your classroom. … We were talking about Jarvis and Iron Man and Tony Stark earlier. Make a new chat in ChatGPT. Tell it, “I want you to pretend that you are Tony Stark. Only answer questions as if you are Tony Stark.” Or “Pretend you’re Jarvis.” Whatever. “Stay in character the whole time. I’m going to have sixth grade students come up to you and ask you questions about science or forces of nature, and only answer questions like you’re Iron Man.” And guess what? You keep that station in your classroom. Students are working on a project — you know, in elementary school, a lot of times we’ll have that, “ask three before me” — you’re supposed to ask three friends before you go and bug the teacher. Well, maybe one of those “three before me” can be that little computer station, where they go up and ask Tony Stark a question, and then it answers them as Jarvis or Iron Man. I mean, we’re really just scratching the surface with all this AI stuff. And as more and more companies and more and more creatives are gonna start to realize everything that it can do, we’re gonna start to see it more and more. And hopefully we as teachers can really figure out how to use this tool to, of course, help students, but also help them be creative and explore and learn on their own.

Eric Cross (00:56:35):

That’s amazing. And just both of you are just dropping gems right now. And I wanna wrap up by saying — and I’ve said this before on earlier podcasts I’ve done — but at this phase in my life, the people that I’m the biggest fans of are teachers. And it’s true. I don’t mean that in a cliche way. When I watch celebrities and things like that, when I watch professional sports, that doesn’t fill me the way it used to when I was a kid. At this point, as a professional, I get inspired by other educators who are just doing awesome things. And when I think about educators who are doing that, you two are on that list of people that make me better. And when I get better, I can do better things for my kids. And so, one, I want to thank you for staying in the classroom and continue to support students. They’re so lucky to have you both. The second thing I wanted to say is, Jen, I wanna start with you. Where can people — and I know we said at the beginning — but where can people find the stuff that you put out? You got blogs, your social, your book.

Jennifer Roberts (00:57:28):

I got lots of social. Twitter, I’m JenRoberts1 on Twitter. And then my blog is LitAndTech.com. And then I’m on lots of the new social too, the Mastodons, the Spoutables, the Posts — those kinds of things — as just Jen Roberts, because I got in early and I got my real name without a 1. And there was some other one I’m on recently that I’ve forgotten about. But there’s lots of ’em. They’re fun. And I’m Jen Roberts. You can find me there.

Donnie Piercey (00:57:56):

And I’m SergeantPepperD on AOL, if anyone’s interested.

Eric Cross (00:58:00):

If you wanna hit Donnie up on AIM. <Laugh>

Donnie Piercey (00:58:03):

SergeantPepperD.

Jennifer Roberts (00:58:04):

You know, speaking of rock stars and people who do amazing things, I did write a blog post about using ChatGPT in the classroom, but I hear Donnie wrote a whole book.

Eric Cross (00:58:13):

Oh yeah. So, Donnie! Donnie, that’s a great segue. Thanks Jen. Donnie, how do people find out more? And can you tell us about this book you wrote, that’s coming out in the summer?

Donnie Piercey (00:58:22):

Yeah, so the book I wrote is called 50 Strategies for Integrating AI Into the Classroom. It’s published by Teacher Created Materials. They reached out to me. They had seen some of the stuff that I was doing, not just with ChatGPT, but also some image-generating AI stuff. You know, I got featured on Good Morning America, which was kind of cool. And they saw that and they said, ‘Hey, that looks really neat.” Reached out to me and asked me to write a book. And the idea behind the book, that launches this summer, it’s just 50 ideas, 50 prompts, different things that, as a classroom teacher, that you can do. So, you know, I think there’s so many AI books that are out there now. A lot of them are big ideas, which I think are important. Definitely important discussions that need to be, have around, the ethics of AI. What’s the role that AI should play in the classroom. But I just wanted to write a book, kind of like the discussion that, that Jen and I were just having, which is like, “Can we just share a whole bunch of ideas, different things that we could try with our students?” So definitely check it out. And I appreciate you giving me a shout-out too. That was cool, Eric. Thank you.

Eric Cross (00:59:35):

Of course. Definitely. And Donnie, your Twitter is again. …

Donnie Piercey (00:59:39):

Oh, @MrPiercey, M R P I E R C E Y.

Eric Cross (00:59:44):

Follow Donnie. Follow Jen. Tons of stuff on there. Both of you, thank you so much. For your time, for talking about students and how we can take care of them, science, literacy, AI. I hope we can talk about this again. I feel like even if in just six months, we might be saying different things. In a year, the landscape might completely change. And that makes it really fun. But thank you both for being on the show.

Jennifer Roberts (01:00:04):

Thank you for having us, Eric.

Donnie Piercey (01:00:05):

Thank you so much, Eric. We appreciate it, bud.

Eric Cross (01:00:10):

Thanks so much for listening to my conversation with Jen Roberts and Donnie Piercey. Jen Roberts is a veteran English teacher at San Diego’s Point Loma High School and author of the book Power Up: Making the Shift to 1:1 Teaching and Learning. You can keep up with her at LitAndTech.com. And Donnie Piercey is a fifth-grade teacher from Lexington, Kentucky. He hosts the podcast Teachers Passing Notes. Stay up-to-date with him at Resources.MrPiercey.com. And let us know what you think of this episode in our Facebook discussion group, Science Connections: The Community. Make sure you don’t miss any new episodes of Science Connections by subscribing to the show, wherever you get podcasts. And as always, we’d really appreciate it if you can leave us a review. It’ll help more people and AI robots find the show. You can find more information on all of Amplify’s shows on our podcast hub, Amplify.com/hub. Thanks again for listening.

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What Jennifer Roberts says about science

“If I’m not teaching my students how to use this, then they’re not going to turn into the adults we need them to be… If we’re not at least trying to think about what our future world is going to look like, then we’re not serving our students well.”

– Jennifer Roberts

High School English Teacher

Meet the guests

Jen Roberts is a Nationally Board Certified high school English teacher with 25+ years of experience teaching Social Science and English Language Arts in grades 7-12. She has had 1:1 laptops for her students since 2008 and is the co-author of Power Up: Making the Shift to 1:1 Teaching and Learning. A Google for Education Certified Innovator since 2011, Jen was named the CUE Outstanding Educator in 2022. Her interests include literacy instruction, standards based grading, and leveraging Google tools to make her teaching more efficient and effective.

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Donnie Piercey, the 2021 Kentucky Teacher of the Year, is a fifth-grade teacher in Lexington, Kentucky.  With a passion for utilizing technology to promote student inquiry, learning, and engagement, he has been teaching since 2007. In addition to being in the classroom, he runs a podcast, Teachers Passing Notes that is produced by the Peabody Award winning GZMShows, and holds several recognitions, including a National Geographic Fellowship to Antarctica in 2018. His most recent work in Artificial Intelligence has not gone unnoticed, earning him multiple appearances on Good Morning America, the Associated Press, and PBS. His upcoming book, “50 Strategies for Integrating AI in the Classroom” published by Teacher Created Materials, is written for educators looking for practical classroom approaches to using AI. All told, Donnie has been invited to keynote and present at schools in thirty-three states and on five continents.

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About Science Connections

Welcome to Science Connections! Science is changing before our eyes, now more than ever. So…how do we help kids figure that out? We will bring on educators, scientists, and more to discuss the importance of high-quality science instruction. In this episode, hear from our host Eric Cross about his work engaging students as a K-8 science teacher. 

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Explore our digital program to review content from all grades, K–5. Watch our quick walkthrough video for helpful navigation tips. To log in, click the orange “Review now” button below, select “Log in with Amplify” and use the following login credentials:

Username: t.nycadmsample-01@tryamplify.net

Password: AmplifyNumber1

Review now

To log in as a student, use the following credentials (you must first log out if you have already logged in as a teacher):

Username: s.nycadmsample-01@tryamplify.net

Password: AmplifyNumber1

Illustration of the New York math digital learning platform, featuring a laptop displaying a math game and vibrant posters of classroom scenes with diverse students.
Two open educational workbooks with activities focused on New York math problems related to picnics, displayed on a neutral background.

About the program

To learn more about Amplify Desmos Math New York, including pedagogical philosophy, origins, implementation examples, and independent, nationally-recognized reviews, download the following documents:

Standards

Once you’ve logged in to your reviewer account, download our program scope and sequence and a document correlating Amplify Desmos Math New York to the New York State Next Generation Math Learning Standards.

Grades K–5 scope and sequence

Grades K–5 standards correlation

The program is well aligned with the expectations outlined in the New York City Department of Education Definition of Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education and the New York State Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework. Download the CR-SE alignment.

The program is also well aligned with the research-informed math practices outlined in the New York City Public Schools Shifts in Mathematics. Download the program’s alignment to the Shifts in Mathematics.

Educational software interface featuring a New York math problem about measuring platform heights using a 9-inch tube, illustrated with a playful, colorful design.
Three educational book covers for "Amplify Desmos Math New York Grade 3," including Teacher Edition, Student Supplement, and Assessment Resources, all featuring illustrated children and a large letter A—perfect for amplify desmos math new york classrooms.

Personalized Learning

Amplify Desmos Math includes digital, adaptive practice that provides the personalized support a student needs to access grade-level math every day. Personalized Learning activities target a skill or concept aligned to the day’s core lesson, with each student receiving personalized scaffolds based on what they already know. This technology complements daily learning and provides another layer of support to the in-lesson differentiation and instructional guidance provided to teachers. Try out a sample Boost Personalized Learning activity.

The Fluency Practice of Amplify Desmos Math uses an evidence-based approach to memory retention—spaced repetition—for the basic operations. Students around the world have answered more than 120 million multiplication questions within our application. Try it now! 

Help

Support is always within reach. Our team is dedicated to supporting you throughout your review and can be reached at any time by emailing or calling us directly.

  • Live chat: Click the orange icon while logged in to get immediate help.
  • Phone: Call our toll-free number: (888)-960-0380.
  • Email: Send an email to help@amplify.com. In the message body, please include your name and question. Provide as much detail as possible, so we can more quickly help you find a solution.
Two women smiling while working together at a computer on New York math in a bright office setting.

Core STEM programs: Strengthen sessions

Professional development sets teachers and leaders up for success, whether they are new to or experienced with a program. Each Strengthen session promotes a deeper understanding of the program through targeted instructional practices.

Explore STEM Strengthen sessions by program below.

Professional Learning Partner Guide Certified Provider

Amplify professional development has been vetted by Rivet Education’s team through a rigorous three-step process and is listed in the Professional Learning Partner Guide.

Contact us
Teacher attentively watching two children build with blocks at a colorful classroom table.

About Strengthen sessions

Support Amplify implementation with sessions that target specific instructional practices for teachers and leaders in year one and beyond. When you’re ready to schedule your Strengthen session, contact us. An Amplify expert will support you in selecting the session that best fits your needs and that will help you push student results forward.

Each package includes one Strengthen session. Additional sessions can be added as enhancements.

Amplify Math

Amplify Math is a core math curriculum that serves 100% of students in accessing grade-level math every day. The program delivers engaging grade-level math lessons; flexible, social problem-solving experiences both online and off ; and insights, data, and reporting that drive performance.

Explore the Amplify Math Strengthen sessions (for grade bands 6–Algebra 1) for Begin packages and beyond. Click the session title or scroll down to learn more about each session.

Begin packages

  On-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid
on-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 10 package
(10 hr.)		 Hybrid
virtual package
(15 hr.)		 Virtual package
(7 hr.)
One session per package On-site
3 hr. sessions		 On-site
3 hr. sessions		 Virtual
1 hr. sessions		 Virtual
3 hr. sessions		 Virtual
1 hr. sessions
Enhancing planning A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Enhancing practice
 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Enhancing observations for leaders A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Unit-level planning
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Lesson-level planning
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Increasing engagement with instructional routines     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.

Begin: Enhancing planning for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Prepare to teach Amplify Math lessons effectively, by engaging in collaborative backward planning with experts. Work alongside our facilitators to understand how to target key concepts and make successful instructional decisions across a unit, and leave with a completed unit plan for your class.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Enhancing practice for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

See the Launch, Monitor, Connect problem-based learning model in action, and practice integrating these practices into your facilitation of lesson activities. Leave with guidelines for using the Launch, Monitor, Connect model that you can implement during your next lesson.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Enhancing observations for leaders

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Learn to use our non-evaluative classroom look-for tool for Amplify Math to promote the use of instructional resources, focus on instructional delivery, and monitor instruction. Leave with an action plan for collecting and analyzing observation data to support teachers in their implementation of Amplify Math.

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Unit-level planning

Virtual, 1 hour

Dive into unit planning as you learn the story of how your upcoming unit is tied to other units and grade levels, and discover the big ideas you will explore alongside your students in Amplify Math.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Lesson-level planning

Virtual, 1 hour

Dive into lesson-level planning as you learn how to create a road map that guides student learning, makes connections across lessons, and measures student understanding of the learning goals in Amplify Math.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Increasing engagement with instructional routines

Virtual, 1 hour

Explore how to use Instructional Routines such as Notice and Wonder to support and engage students as they make sense of new contexts and mathematical problems in Amplify Math.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice packages

  On-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 15,
on-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 13 package
(13 hr.)		 Virtual package
(9 hr.)
One session per package On-site
3 hr. sessions		 On-site
3 hr. sessions		 Virtual
1 hr. sessions		 Virtual
1 hr. sessions
Enhancing planning for teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Enhancing practice for teachers
 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Enhancing observations for leaders A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Using differentiation supports for teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.    A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. 
Using data to drive instruction for teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Addressing prerequisite skills for teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Orchestrating math discussions for teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Building language with math routines for teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Unit-level planning for teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Lesson-level planning for teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Increasing engagement with Instructional Routines for teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  

Practice: Enhancing planning for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Prepare to effectively teach Amplify Math lessons by engaging in collaborative backward planning with experts. Work alongside our facilitators to understand how to target key concepts and make effective instructional decisions across a unit, and leave with a completed unit plan for your class.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Enhancing practice for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

See the Launch, Monitor, Connect problem-based learning model in action, and practice integrating these practices into your facilitation of lesson activities. Leave with guidelines for using the Launch, Monitor, Connect model that you can implement during your next lesson.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Enhancing observations for leaders

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Learn to use our non-evaluative classroom look-for tool for Amplify Math to promote the use of instructional resources, focus on instructional delivery, and monitor instruction. Leave with an action plan for collecting and analyzing observation data to support teachers in their implementation of Amplify Math.

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Using differentiation supports for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Learn how to leverage embedded differentiated supports in Amplify Math to ensure that all students can be successful. Walk away with a plan for supporting students in your classroom including English Language Learners (ELLs), students with disabilities, students who may need extra support, and advanced students.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Using data to drive instruction for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Grow your proficiency in data analysis.Turn student data gathered within Amplify Math into differentiated instruction targeting specific skills. Walk away ready to use the data provided in the curriculum to align embedded support to your students’ unique needs.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Addressing prerequisite skills for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Explore Amplify Math’s just-in-time approach to addressing prerequisite skills. Leave with a deeper understanding of how to use embedded curriculum resources to identify and support prerequisite skills essential for your next unit.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Orchestrating math discussions for teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Learn strategies for leading discussions that promote more math talk among all students in your classroom. Walk away with strategies and Amplify Math curriculum tools you can bring back to your classroom to enhance discussion in your next lesson.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Building language with math routines for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Explore how Math Language Routines support students as they make sense of new contexts and mathematical problems in Amplify Math. Leave with strategies for using these routines to support students in learning mathematical practices, content, and language in your upcoming lessons.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Unit-level planning for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Dive into unit planning as you learn the story of how your upcoming unit is tied to other
units and grade levels, and discover the big ideas you’ll explore alongside your students in Amplify Math.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Lesson-level planning for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Dive into lesson-level planning as you learn how to create a roadmap for a lesson that guides student learning, makes connections across lessons, and measures student understanding of the learning goals in Amplify Math.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Increasing engagement with Instructional Routines for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Explore how to leverage Instructional Routines such as Notice and Wonder to support students as they make sense of new contexts and mathematical problems in Amplify Math.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Amplify Desmos Math

Amplify Desmos Math is a new core K–12 program from Amplify and Desmos Classroom —available in English and Spanish—that applies a problem-based approach to develop deep conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application. Using technology inspired by students’ natural curiosity, Amplify Desmos Math connects the classroom and fosters real collaboration, discourse, and perseverance in problem-solving. Captivating activities, powerful teaching tools, and lots of support enable students to develop math proficiency that lasts a lifetime.

Explore the Amplify Desmos Math Strengthen sessions (for grades PreK–Algebra 2) for Begin packages and beyond. Click the session title or scroll down to learn more about each session.

Begin packages

Strengthen sessions

  On-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 15,
on-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 10 package
(10 hr.)		 Hybrid 15, virtual package
(15 hr.)		 Virtual package
(7 hr.)
One session per package On-site,
3 hr.		 On-site,
3 hr.		 Virtual,
1 hr.		 Virtual,
3 hr.		 Virtual,
1 hr.
Enhancing planning for K–5 teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Enhancing planning for 6–A1 teachers
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Enhancing practice for K–5 teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Enhancing practice for 6–A1 teachers
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Desmos Math to Amplify Desmos Math 6–A1 transition training for teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.

New session

Begin: Enhancing planning for K–5 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Dive into planning for Amplify Desmos Math, both big picture and day-to-day. Practice using lesson and unit planning protocols that will help you build a deep understanding of the math content you’ll be teaching and the planning resources available to you in the curriculum. Walk away with practical strategies for planning, even when you may not have much time.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

New session

Begin: Enhancing planning for 6–A1 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Dive into both big-picture and day-to-day planning for Amplify Desmos Math. Practice using lesson and unit planning protocols that will help you build a deep understanding of the math content you’ll be teaching and the planning resources available to you in the curriculum. Walk away with practical strategies for planning, even when you may not have much time.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

New session

Begin: Enhancing practice for K–5 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Dig into Amplify Desmos Math’s Launch, Monitor, Connect framework to level-up the student discourse in your math class. Explore in-the-moment differentiation support to help you orchestrate discussion and make the most out of key opportunities for conversation and collaboration.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

New session

Begin: Enhancing practice for 6–A1 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Dig into Amplify Desmos Math’s Launch, Monitor, Connect framework to level up the student discourse in your math classroom. Learn strategies for leveraging the tools in the Teacher Dashboard to orchestrate discussion, and practice planning moves to make the most out of key discussion moments.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

New session

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Desmos Math to Amplify Desmos Math 6–A1 transition training for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Participants will get an overview of the similarities and differences between Desmos Math and Amplify Desmos Math, including becoming familiar with changes in materials, the digital platform, and key lesson, assessment, and reporting components.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice packages

Strengthen sessions

  On-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 15,
on-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 13 package
(13 hr.)		 Virtual package
(9 hr.)
One session per package On-site,
3 hr.		 Virtual,
3 hr.		 Virtual,
1 hr.		 Virtual,
3 hr.
Enhancing planning for
K–5 teachers		 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Enhancing planning for
6–A1 teachers
 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Enhancing practice for
K–5 teachers		 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Enhancing practice for
6–A1 teachers
 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Strengthen Focus: Teaching a digital lesson for K–5 teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Strengthen Focus: Snapshots in the Teacher Dashboard for 6–A1 teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  

New session

Practice: Enhancing planning for K–5 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Dive into both big-picture and day-to-day planning for Amplify Desmos Math. Practice using lesson and unit planning protocols that will help you build a deep understanding of the math content you’ll be teaching and the planning resources available to you in the curriculum. Walk away with practical strategies for planning, even when you may not have much time.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

New session

Practice: Enhancing planning for 6–A1 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Dive into both big-picture and day-to-day planning for Amplify Desmos Math. Practice using lesson and unit planning protocols that will help you build a deep understanding of the math content you’ll be teaching and the planning resources available to you in the curriculum. Walk away with practical strategies for planning, even when you may not have much time.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

New session

Practice: Enhancing practice for K–5 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Dig into Amplify Desmos Math’s Launch, Monitor, Connect framework to level-up the student discourse in your math class. Explore in-the-moment differentiation support to help you orchestrate discussion and make the most out of key opportunities for conversation and collaboration.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

New session

Practice: Enhancing practice for 6–A1 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Dig into Amplify Desmos Math’s Launch, Monitor, Connect framework to level up the student discourse in your math classroom. Learn strategies for leveraging the tools in the Teacher Dashboard to orchestrate discussion, and practice planning moves to make the most out of key discussion moments.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

New session

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Teaching a digital lesson for K–5 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Get ready to facilitate digital lessons with your students. Explore what’s possible with the Teacher Dashboard and plan to make the most of these exciting instructional moments.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

New session

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Snapshots in the Teacher Dashboard for 6–A1 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Explore how to use the Snapshots tool in the Teacher Dashboard to create a collaborative classroom that invites and celebrates student thinking. Leave with planning tips and tricks that will get you ready to use Snapshots during your busy math classes.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Amplify Science

Amplify Science is a K–8 science curriculum that blends hands-on investigations, literacy-rich activities, and interactive digital tools to empower students to think, read, write, and argue like real scientists and engineers. 

Explore the Amplify Science sessions (for grade bands K–5 and 6–8) for year one packages and beyond. Select the session title or scroll to learn more about each session.

Begin packages

Strengthen sessions

  On-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 15,
on-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 10 package
(10 hr.)		 Hybrid 15, virtual package
(15 hr.)		 Virtual package
(7 hr.)
One session per package On-site,
3 hr.		 Virtual,
3 hr.		 Virtual,
1 hr.		 Virtual,
3 hr.		 Virtual,
1 hr.
Enhancing planning
(K–5 or 6–8)		 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Enhancing practice
(K–5 or 6–8)
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Enhancing observations for leaders
(K–8)		 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Planning an Amplify Science lesson
(K–8) 
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Supporting diverse learners: Exploring the resources
(K–8)
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Supporting diverse learners with embedded supports: Teacher modeling and student discourse
(K–8) 
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.

Begin: Enhancing planning for teachers
(grades K–5 or 6–8)

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Learn how to use a planning protocol to internalize an upcoming Amplify Science unit. Leave with a plan to support students engaging in three-dimensional learning while also meeting the diverse needs of students in your classroom.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–5 or 6–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Enhancing practice for teachers
(grades K–5 or 6–8)

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Learn how Amplify Science supports phenomenon-based learning. Experience a sequence of model instruction from the curriculum, and walk away with a plan for how you can enhance the curriculum through your teaching practice to build a powerful culture of “figuring out” in your science classroom.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–5 or 6–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Enhancing observations for leaders (grades K–8)

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Learn to use the non-evaluative classroom walkthrough tool for Amplify Science to promote the use of instructional resources, focus on instructional delivery, and monitor instruction. Leave with an action plan for collecting and analyzing observation data to support teachers in their implementation of Amplify Science.

Audience: Leaders grades K–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Planning an Amplify Science lesson

Virtual, 1 hour

Develop structure and routines for planning Amplify Science lessons and leave prepared for an upcoming lesson.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Supporting diverse learners: Exploring the resources (grades K–8)

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to use lesson-specific differentiation briefs, embedded assessments, and activity-specific teacher support notes to maximize instruction for diverse learners with Amplify Science.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Supporting diverse learners with embedded supports: Teacher modeling and student discourse (grades K–8)

Virtual, 1 hour

Explore ways to leverage and build upon two key instructional elements in Amplify Science, and plan how you’ll use these supports to engage diverse learners in your next lesson.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice packages

Strengthen sessions

  On-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 15,
on-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 13 package
(13 hr.)		 Virtual package
(9 hr.)
One session per package On-site,
3 hr.		 Virtual,
3 hr.		 Virtual,
1 hr.		 Virtual,
3 hr.
Enhancing planning
(K–5 or 6–8)		 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Enhancing practice
(K–5 or 6–8)
 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Enhancing observations for leaders
(K–8)		 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Supporting all learners with complex texts
(K–5 or 6–8)
 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Supporting English learners (K–5 or 6–8)
 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Writing in science (K–5 or 6–8) A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Assessment system (K–5 or 6–8)
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Engineering Internships (6–8)
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Science Seminar (6–8)
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Planning an Amplify Science lesson (K–8)
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Supporting diverse learners: Exploring the resources (K–8)
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Supporting diverse learners: Teacher modeling and student discourse (K–8)
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Analyzing student work (K–8)
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Supporting diverse learners: Multimodal learning and multiple at-bats (K–8)
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Grading with Amplify Science (K–8)
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Enhancing the digital experience (K–5)
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Planning with the Coherence Flowchart (K–8)
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  

Practice: Enhancing planning for teachers
(grades K–5 or 6–8)

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Learn how to use a planning protocol to internalize an upcoming Amplify Science unit. Walk away with a plan to support students engaging in three-dimensional learning while also meeting the diverse needs of students in your classroom.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–5 or 6–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Enhancing practice for teachers
(grades K–5 or 6–8)

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Learn how Amplify Science supports phenomenon-based learning. Experience a sequence of model instruction from the curriculum, and walk away with a plan for how you can enhance the curriculum through your teaching practice to build a powerful culture of “figuring out” in your science classroom.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–5 or 6–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Enhancing observations for leaders
(grades K–5 or 6–8)

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Learn to use the non-evaluative classroom walkthrough tool for Amplify Science to promote the use of instructional resources, focus on instructional delivery, and monitor instruction. Leave with an action plan for collecting and analyzing observation data to support teachers in their implementation of Amplify Science.

Audience: Leaders grades K–5 or 6–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Supporting all learners with complex texts (grades K–5 or 6–8)

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Collaborate to solve common reading challenges alongside other educators. Learn strategies to support students in grades K–5 or 6–8 in accessing complex texts in Amplify Science units by engaging in a model reading sequence. Leave with a plan for incorporating effective strategies into your upcoming Amplify Science reading lesson.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–5 or 6–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Supporting English learners (grades K–5 or 6–8)

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Explore strategies and engage in model activities to support multilingual/English learners in grades K–5 or 6–8 in developing their abilities to do, talk, read, write, visualize, and construct arguments in Amplify Science. Leave with strategies to support a deeper understanding of the critical role that language and literacy play in developing scientific understanding.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–5 or 6–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Writing in science (grades K–5 or 6–8)

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Develop an understanding of how the Amplify Science writing approach supports students in grades K–5 or 6–8 in engaging in science practices, making sense of science ideas, and growing as writers. Leave with a plan for supporting student writing in your next unit.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–5 or 6–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Assessment system (grades K–5 or 6–8)

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Available: Fall 2024

Analyze a sample formative assessment, deepen your understanding of Amplify Science unit learning progressions, and participate in discussions to understand the relationships between different types of assessments and your unit’s learning goals. Walk away with strategies for collecting, analyzing, and responding to student assessment data.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades of K–5 or 6–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Engineering Internships (grades 6–8)

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Plan for the first Amplify Science Engineering Internship course of your grade level (6–8) by exploring the Futura workspace and digital tools students will use during the Internship experience. Leave with an understanding of how students will apply science concept knowledge to construct design solutions. This session will feature one of the following Engineering Internships based on your need: Metabolism, Plate Motion, or Force and Motion unit.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades 6–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Science Seminar (grades 6–8)

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Experience a Science Seminar sequence of a sample Amplify Science grade 6–8 unit from the student perspective to gain an understanding of how students apply science concepts to engage in argumentation about a phenomenon. Leave with a plan for teaching a Science Seminar unit in your own classroom.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades 6–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Planning an Amplify Science lesson (grades K–8)

Virtual, 1 hour

Develop a structure for planning Amplify Science lessons and leave prepared for an upcoming lesson.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Supporting diverse learners: Exploring the resources (grades K–8)

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to use lesson-specific differentiation briefs, embedded assessments, and activity-specific teacher support notes to supplement instruction for diverse learners with Amplify Science.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Supporting diverse learners: Teacher modeling and student discourse (grades K–8)

Virtual, 1 hour

Explore ways to leverage and build upon two key instructional elements in Amplify Science and plan for ways to use these supports to engage diverse learners in your next lesson.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Analyzing student work (grades K–8)

Virtual, 1 hour

Engage with a protocol to analyze real student work and plan for instructional next steps in Amplify Science. (You are required to bring student formative assessment samples to this session.)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Supporting diverse learners: Multimodal learning and multiple at-bats (grades K–8)

Virtual, 3 hours

Learn strategies to develop an understanding of how Amplify Science’s multimodal approach supports diverse learners.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Grading with Amplify Science (grades K–8)

Virtual, 1 hour

Develop an understanding of how to use assessment resources in Amplify Science to grade students three dimensionally and use practices that align with district/school guidelines.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Enhancing the digital experience (grades K–5)

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to go further with Amplify Science digital experience tools to enhance teaching and learning.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–5 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Planning with the Coherence Flowchart (grades K–8)

Virtual, 1 hour

Practice using the Coherence Flowchart resource to plan an upcoming Amplify Science unit.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Get in touch with a PD expert

We’re here to provide answers and guidance as you explore your PD journey. Fill out the form to connect with us and discover how Amplify PD can enhance your educational journey.

Professional development for assessment and intervention programs

Amplify professional development (PD) provides learning experiences that intentionally develop the knowledge and skills you need for effective and self-sustaining implementation.

Learn how to administer and score your assessment and develop a deeper understanding of reporting and instruction by investing in professional development.

Professional Learning Partner Guide Certified Provider

Amplify professional development has been vetted by Rivet Education’s team through a rigorous three-step process and is listed in the Professional Learning Partner Guide.

Contact us
A teacher talks to a student at a desk; two other students, a boy and a girl, are shown smiling and sitting at desks in separate portraits.

About Amplify PD

Change is more likely to stick and get results if you take a systemic approach. Partner with us to do just that by developing a learning plan that will drive your program implementation, enrich your instructional practices, and increase student impact.

Amplify’s professional development is designed to ensure successful, sustained implementation of our programs. Sessions are strategically bundled to provide continuous support, adapting to your K–8 educators’ evolving needs throughout the year.

Four circular icons in a row showing a lightbulb, pencil, whiteboard, and podium, connected by arrows in a cycle, representing stages of a process.

Prepare
Begin
Practice
Advance

Program-agnostic sessions will set up educators for success in areas such as the Science of Reading and/or problem-based approaches to math.

Program-aligned packages will support those who are new to Amplify’s programs.

Program-aligned packages will support those who have experience using Amplify’s programs.

Offerings will support advanced implementation, build capacity for instructional leaders, certify in-house trainers to deliver Launch sessions, and more.

Our packages include:

  • Launch sessions: Propel your teachers into the new school year by introducing them to their Amplify program, laying a strong foundation for effective implementation.
  • Strengthen sessions: Enhance implementation with mid-year sessions that target specific instructional practices, providing the support needed to enhance program efficacy.
  • Coach sessions: Provide tailored guidance and support for educators and leaders to address specific needs, refining and advancing their instructional practices.

About Amplify assessment and intervention programs

Amplify’s high-quality programs make it easier for K–8 educators to teach inspiring, impactful lessons that celebrate and develop the brilliance of their students. Equipped with tools that provide robust scaffolding and differentiated instruction, assessment, and intervention, educators gain real-time insights and can provide personalized, actionable plans that support every learner.

Learn how to get the most out of your assessment and intervention program(s) through Amplify’s PD.

Assessment

  • mCLASS® DIBELS® 8th Edition (grades K–8)
  • mCLASS Lectura (grades K–6)
  • mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition and mCLASS Lectura biliteracy
  • mCLASS Math (grades K–8)

Intervention

  • mCLASS Intervention

We provide PD sessions for all Amplify programs. Contact your account executive to discuss the extended catalog of PD session options or request a quote.

mCLASS Assessments

We’ve created professional development offerings that will help you meet your unique needs this school year. Explore the Begin and Practice packages available for mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition (K–8), mCLASS Lectura (K–6), and/or mCLASS Math (K–8) by selecting the session titles to learn more.

Please note that mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition and mCLASS Lectura biliteracy sessions are currently unavailable for the Hybrid 4 and Virtual 4 packages.

Begin packages for mCLASS Literacy

Assessment programs

  On-site package
(9 hours)		 Hybrid 9 package
(9 hours)		 Hybrid 4 package
(4 hours)		 Virtual 9 package
(9 hours)		 Virtual 4 package
(4 hours)
  One Launch and Strengthen session per package
Launch sessions
  On-site
6 hr.		 On-site or virtual 3 hr. On-site
3 hr.		 Virtual
6 hr.
(2 half-days)		 Virtual
3 hr.
Administration and instruction essentials for K–8 teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Administration and scoring training for K–8 teachers
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Administration and reporting training for K–8 leaders     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
      Virtual
1 hr.		   Virtual
1 hr.
NEW: mCLASS additional assessment measures training for K–3 teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
NEW: mCLASS Español assessment measures training for K–3 teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
NEW: mCLASS/mCLASS Español additional assessment measures training for K–3 teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Strengthen sessions
  On-site
3 hr.		 Virtual 
3 hr.		 Virtual
1 hr.		 Virtual 
3 hr.		 Virtual 
1 hr.
Creating a data-driven classroom for K–8 teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Building a data-driven culture for K–8 leaders A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Assessing with fidelity for K–8 teachers
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Reporting and instruction basics for K–8 teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Goal setting and growth outcomes for K–8 teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Progress monitoring for K–8 teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Reporting basics for K–8 leaders
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.

*Assessment Strengthen sessions should be scheduled after the most recent benchmark window has closed for participants to work with their own data.

Add-on
  On-site or virtual,
3 hr.		 On-site,
6 hr.		 Self-paced,
online course
Coach session for individual teachers, grade-level teams, PLCs, and/or instructional leaders A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition/Lectura: Administration and instruction essentials training for teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition: Calibration training for teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition: Transition training for DDS teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.

Begin: Launch: Administration and instruction essentials for K–8 teachers


On-site or virtual, 6 hours

Dive into the essentials of your mCLASS assessment program. Learn how to administer and score the assessment(s) and leave ready to leverage mCLASS reports and lessons to accelerate data-driven student outcomes.

Session options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition (K–8), mCLASS Lectura (K–6), and/or mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition/Lectura

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The mCLASS Lectura session is facilitated in English or Spanish.

Begin: Launch: Administration and scoring training for K–8 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Learn how to administer and score your mCLASS assessment(s) and leave ready to collect data using standardized guidelines.

Session options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition (K–8), mCLASS Lectura (K–6)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The mCLASS Lectura session is facilitated in English or Spanish.

Begin: Launch: Administration and reporting training for K–8 leaders

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Prepare to implement your assessment program(s) at your school site(s). Determine systems-level actions that will ensure assessment fidelity and leave ready to leverage key admin reports to support data-informed decisions.

Session options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition (K–8), mCLASS Lectura (K–6), and/or mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition/Lectura

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The mCLASS Lectura session is facilitated in English only.

Available July 2026

Begin: Launch: mCLASS additional assessment measures training for K–3 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Participants will dive into the essentials of mCLASS Spelling, RAN, Vocabulary, and/or Oral Language and leave ready to administer the assessment to collect data using standardized guidelines.

Session options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition (K–3)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Available July 2026

Begin: Launch: mCLASS Español assessment measures training for K–3 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Participants will dive into the essentials of mCLASS Spelling Español, Vocabulary Español, and/or Oral Language Español and leave ready to administer the assessment to collect data using standardized guidelines.

Session options: mCLASS Lectura (K–3)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The mCLASS Lectura session is facilitated in English.

Available July 2026

Begin: Launch: mCLASS/mCLASS Español additional assessment measures training for K–3 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Participants will dive into the essentials of mCLASS Spelling/Spelling Español, RAN, Vocabulary/Vocabulary Español, and/or Oral Language/Oral Language Español and leave ready to administer the assessment to collect data using standardized guidelines.

Session options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition (K–3) and mCLASS Lectura (K–3)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The mCLASS Lectura session is facilitated in English or Spanish.

Begin: Strengthen: Creating a data-driven classroom for K–8 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Dive deep into mCLASS reports and instructional recommendations to drive stronger student outcomes in your classroom. You will leave ready to leverage mCLASS progress monitoring and grouping tools to support a robust MTSS program.

Session options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition (K–8), mCLASS Lectura (K–6), and/or mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition/Lectura

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The mCLASS Lectura session is facilitated in English or Spanish.

Begin: Strengthen: Building a data-driven culture for K–8 leaders

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Cultivate a schoolwide culture of data-driven practices. Use mCLASS reports to drill into key school-level data and leave with a systems-level action plan to drive stronger student and teacher outcomes.

Session options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition (K–8), mCLASS Lectura (K–6), and/or mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition/Lectura

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The mCLASS Lectura session is facilitated in English only.

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Assessing with fidelity for K–8 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Fortify your assessment administration with trainer-led practice targeted to your unique needs.

Session options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition (K–8), mCLASS Lectura (K–6), and/or mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition/Lectura

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The mCLASS Lectura session is facilitated in English or Spanish.

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Reporting and instruction basics for K–8 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to use mCLASS classroom reporting, instructional tools, and resources to accelerate data-driven student outcomes.

Session options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition (K–8), mCLASS Lectura (K–6), and/or mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition/Lectura

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The mCLASS Lectura session is facilitated in English or Spanish.

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Goal setting and growth outcomes for K–8 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to use mCLASS Zones of Growth (Zonas de crecimiento for mCLASS Lectura) reports to set meaningful, ambitious, and attainable student goals that drive student progress and growth.

Session options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition (K–8), mCLASS Lectura (K–6), and/or mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition/Lectura

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The mCLASS Lectura session is facilitated in English or Spanish.

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Progress monitoring for K–8 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Implement mCLASS progress monitoring and MTSS best practices to track student progress and accelerate growth.

Session options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition (K–8), mCLASS Lectura (K–6), and/or mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition/Lectura

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The mCLASS Lectura session is facilitated in English or Spanish.

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Reporting basics for K–8 leaders

Examine your school-level mCLASS benchmark assessment data to identify key levers for improving student outcomes.

Session options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition (K–8), mCLASS Lectura (K–6), and/or mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition/Lectura

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The mCLASS Lectura session is facilitated in English only.

Coach session

On-site, 6 hours or virtual, 3 hours

Coach sessions focus on building internal school and district capacity and leadership excellence to accelerate data-driven student outcomes for teachers using mCLASS. Coaching is customized to meet a school or district’s needs and can include observations, modeling, real-time coaching, and/or co-planning.

Audience: Individual teachers, grade-level teams, PLCs, and/or instructional leaders (maximum 30 participants)

mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition/Lectura: Administration and instruction essentials for teachers

Online course, self-paced

Dive into the essentials of your mCLASS assessment program through this on-demand course. Learn how to administer and score the assessment and leave ready to leverage mCLASS reports and lessons to accelerate data-driven student outcomes.

Upon finishing the course, participants can download a certificate of completion. This subscription includes an individual seat to the course, which takes approximately 8 hours to complete. Participants will be able to access and revisit the course as needed for up to one year.

Course options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition, mCLASS Lectura

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (individual seat)

Available July 2026

mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition: Calibration training course for teachers

Online course, self-paced

Ensure accuracy and reliability of mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition test administration through this on-demand course. Review how to administer and score each teacher-administered measure, then calibrate your scoring through scoring mastery checks.

Upon finishing the course, participants can download a certificate of completion. This subscription includes an individual seat to the course, which takes approximately 1–3 hours to complete, depending on learner needs. Participants will be able to access and revisit the course as needed for up to one year.

Course options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (individual seat)

mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition: Transition training course for DDS teachers

Online course, self-paced

Prepare to administer and score the DIBELS 8th Edition assessment in the mCLASS platform through this on-demand course. Learn the essentials of your mCLASS assessment program and leave ready to leverage mCLASS reports and lessons to accelerate data-driven student outcomes.

Upon finishing the course, participants can download a certificate of completion. This subscription includes an individual seat to the course, which takes approximately 8 hours to complete. Participants will be able to access and revisit the course as needed for up to one year.

Course options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (individual seat)

Begin packages for mCLASS Math 2nd Edition

Assessment programs

  On-site package
(6 hours)		 Hybrid 6 package
(6 hours)		 Hybrid 4 package
(4 hours)		 Virtual 6 package
(6 hours)		 Virtual 4 package
(4 hours)
  One Launch and Strengthen session per package
Launch sessions
  On-site
3 hr.		 On-site
6 hr.		 On-site
3 hr.		 Virtual
3 hr.
 Virtual
3 hr.
mCLASS Math 2nd Edition: Program overview for K–5 or 6–8 teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
NEW: mCLASS Math 2nd Edition: Program overview for K–8 leaders A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Strengthen sessions
  On-site
3 hr.		 Virtual 
3 hr.		 Virtual
1 hr.		 Virtual 
3 hr.		 Virtual 
1 hr.
mCLASS Math 2nd Edition: Student thinking and instructional next steps for K–5 or 6–8 teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
mCLASS Math 2nd Edition: Leveraging assessment data to strengthen mathematical explanations for K–5 teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
mCLASS Math and Boost Math: Understanding and using data to plan intervention for K–5 or 6–8 teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Add-on
mCLASS Math 2nd Edition: Program overview and instructional next steps course for K–5 teachers

Self-paced online course
mCLASS Math 2nd Edition: Program overview and instructional next steps course for 6–8 teachers

Self-paced online course

New

Begin: mCLASS Math: Program overview for K–5 or 6–8 teachers

Available for grades 6–8 teachers July 2026

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Dive into the essentials of your mCLASS Math assessment program. Learn how these assessments both highlight students’ strengths and help identify what’s next through an asset-based approach. Leave ready to administer assessments and understand reporting.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

New

Begin: mCLASS Math: Program overview for K–5 or 6–8 leaders

Available for grades K–5 and grades 6–8 leaders July 2026

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Prepare to implement your mCLASS Math assessment program at your school site(s). Determine systems-level actions that will ensure successful assessment administration and leave ready to leverage key admin reports to support data-informed decisions.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

New

Begin: mCLASS Math: Student thinking and instructional next steps for grades K–5 teachers

Available for grades 6–8 teachers Oct. 2026

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Explore how mCLASS Math helps determine what students know in relation to grade-level content, and how to use data to inform instructional next steps that support, strengthen, and stretch student thinking. Dig into your own student data and leave with actionable next steps that connect directly to the ways your students are thinking about mathematics.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

New

Begin: mCLASS Math + Boost Math: Understanding and using data to plan intervention for grades K–5 or 6–8 teachers

Available for grades K–5 teachers July 2026 and grades 6–8 teachers Oct. 2026

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Explore how Boost Math uses mCLASS Math data to inform intervention recommendations and monitor student progress. Dig into your student data, explore relevant instructional resources, and leave with actionable next steps for intervention.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

New

Begin: Strengthen Focus: mCLASS Math: Leveraging assessment data to strengthen mathematical explanations for grades K–5 or 6–8 teachers

Available for grades K–5 teachers July 2026 and grades 6–8 teachers Oct. 2026

Virtual, 1 hour

Dig into mCLASS Math to reveal what students understand about mathematical concepts and give them the tools to become more clear and confident communicators in math class.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Available July 2026

Begin: mCLASS Math 2nd Edition: Program overview and instructional next steps for grades K–5 teachers

Online course, self-paced

Through this self-paced, on-demand online course, participants will dive into the essentials of mCLASS Math K–5 and leave ready to administer the assessment, understand reporting, and take instructional next steps based on the data.

Upon finishing the course, participants can download a certificate of completion. This subscription includes an individual seat to the course, which takes approximately six hours to complete. Participants will be able to access and revisit the course as needed for up to one year.

Course options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (individual seat)

Available July 2026

Begin: mCLASS Math 2nd Edition: Program overview and instructional next steps for grades 6–8 teachers

Online course, self-paced

Through this self-paced, on-demand online course, participants will dive into the essentials of mCLASS Math 6–8 and leave ready to administer the assessment, understand reporting, and take instructional next steps based on the data.

Upon finishing the course, participants can download a certificate of completion. This subscription includes an individual seat to the course, which takes approximately six hours to complete. Participants will be able to access and revisit the course as needed for up to one year.

Course options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (individual seat)

Practice packages for mCLASS Literacy

  On-site package
(6 hours)		 Virtual 6 package
(6 hours)		 Virtual 4 package
(4 hours)		 Virtual 2 package
(2 hours)
Two Strengthen sessions per package
Strengthen session titles*
  On-site
3 hr.		 Virtual
3 hr.		 Virtual
3 hr. and 1 hr.		 Virtual
1 hr.
Creating a data-driven classroom for K–8 teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Building a data-driven culture for K–8 leaders A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Assessing with fidelity for K–8 teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Reporting and instruction basics for K–8 teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Progress monitoring for K–8 teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Goal setting and growth outcomes for K–8 teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Reporting basics for K–8 leaders      A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
NEW: mCLASS DIBELS 8 additional assessment measures training for K–8 teachers       A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
NEW: mCLASS Español assessment measures training for K–8 teachers       A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
NEW: mCLASS DIBELS 8 and mCLASS Lectura additional assessment measures training for K–8 teachers       A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.

*Assessment Strengthen sessions should be scheduled after the most recent benchmark window has closed for participants to work with their own data.

Add-on
  On-site or virtual, 3 hr. On-site, 6 hr. Self-paced, online course
Coach session for individual teachers, grade-level teams, PLCs, and/or instructional leaders A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition and Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition: Data-driven instruction for K–5 teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.    
mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition and mCLASS Lectura: Administration and instruction essentials training for teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition: Calibration training for teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition: Transition training for DDS teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.

Practice: Creating a data-driven classroom for K–8 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Dive deep into mCLASS reports and instructional recommendations to drive stronger student outcomes in your classroom. You will leave ready to leverage mCLASS progress monitoring and grouping tools to support a robust MTSS program.

Session options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition (K–8), mCLASS Lectura (K–6), and/or mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition/Lectura

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The mCLASS Lectura session is facilitated in English or Spanish.

Practice: Building a data-driven culture for K–8 leaders

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Cultivate a schoolwide culture of data-driven practices. Use mCLASS reports to drill into key school-level data and leave with a systems-level action plan to drive stronger student and teacher outcomes.

Session options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition (K–8), mCLASS Lectura (K–6), and/or mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition/Lectura

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The mCLASS Lectura session is facilitated in English only.

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Assessing with fidelity for K–8 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Fortify your mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition assessment administration with trainer-led practice targeted to your unique needs.

Session options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition (K–8), mCLASS Lectura (K–6), and/or mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition/Lectura

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The mCLASS Lectura session is facilitated in English or Spanish.

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Reporting and instruction basics for K–8 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to use mCLASS classroom reporting, instructional tools, and resources to accelerate data-driven student outcomes.

Session options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition (K–8), mCLASS Lectura (K–6), and/or mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition/Lectura

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The mCLASS Lectura session is facilitated in English or Spanish.

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Progress monitoring for K–8 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Implement mCLASS progress monitoring and MTSS best practices to track student progress and accelerate growth.

Session options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition (K–8), mCLASS Lectura (K–6), and/or mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition/Lectura

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The mCLASS Lectura session is facilitated in English or Spanish.

Practice: Goal setting and growth outcomes for K–8 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to use mCLASS Zones of Growth (Zonas de crecimiento for mCLASS Lectura) reports to set meaningful, ambitious, and attainable student goals that drive student progress and growth.

Session options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition (K–8), mCLASS Lectura (K–6), and/or mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition/Lectura

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The mCLASS Lectura session is facilitated in English or Spanish.

Practice: Reporting basics for K–8 leaders

Virtual, 1 hour

Examine your school-level mCLASS benchmark assessment data to identify key levers for improving student outcomes.

Session options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition (K–8), mCLASS Lectura (K–6), and/or mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition/Lectura

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The mCLASS Lectura session is facilitated in English.

Available July 2026

Practice: Strengthen Focus: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition additional assessment measures training for K–8 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Participants will dive into the essentials of mCLASS Spelling, RAN, Vocabulary, and/or Oral Language and leave ready to administer the assessment to collect data using standardized guidelines.

Session options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition (K–8)

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Available July 2026

Practice: Strengthen Focus: mCLASS Español assessment measures training for K–8 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Participants will dive into the essentials of mCLASS Spelling Español, Vocabulary Español, and/or Oral Language Español and leave ready to administer the assessment to collect data using standardized guidelines.

Session options: mCLASS Lectura (K–6)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The mCLASS Lectura session is facilitated in English.

Available July 2026

Practice: Strengthen Focus: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition and mCLASS Lectura additional assessment measures training for K–8 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Participants will dive into the essentials of mCLASS Spelling/Spelling Español, RAN, Vocabulary/Vocabulary Español, and/or Oral Language/Oral Language Español and leave ready to administer the assessment to collect data using standardized guidelines.

Session options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition (K–8) and mCLASS Lectura (K–6)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Language: The mCLASS Lectura session is facilitated in English or Spanish.

Add on: Coach session

On-site, 6 hours or virtual, 3 hours

Coach sessions focus on building internal school and district capacity and leadership excellence to accelerate data-driven student outcomes for teachers using mCLASS. Coaching is customized to meet a school or district’s needs and can include observations, modeling, real-time coaching, and/or co-planning.

Audience: Individual teachers, grade-level teams, PLCs, and/or instructional leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Available October 2026

Add on: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition and Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition: Data-driven instruction for K–5 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Dive deep into mCLASS reports and instructional recommendations to drive instructional decisions in Amplify CKLA and stronger student outcomes in your classroom. You will leave ready to leverage mCLASS progress monitoring and grouping tools to support a robust Multi-Tiered System of Supports program with Amplify CKLA as your core instruction.

Course options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition and Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition

Audience: K–2 or 3–5 teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Add on: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition and mCLASS Lectura: Administration and instruction essentials for teachers

Online course, self-paced

Dive into the essentials of your mCLASS assessment program through this on-demand course. Learn how to administer and score the assessment and leave ready to leverage mCLASS reports and lessons to accelerate data-driven student outcomes.

Upon finishing the course, participants can download a certificate of completion. This subscription includes an individual seat to the course, which takes approximately eight hours to complete. Participants will be able to access and revisit the course as needed for up to one year.

Course options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition, mCLASS Lectura

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (individual seat)

Available July 2026

Add on: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition: Calibration training course for teachers

Online course, self-paced

Ensure accuracy and reliability of mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition test administration through this on-demand course. Review how to administer and score each teacher-administered measure, then calibrate your scoring through scoring mastery checks.

Upon finishing the course, participants can download a certificate of completion. This subscription includes an individual seat to the course, which takes approximately 1–3 hours to complete, depending on learner needs. Participants will be able to access and revisit the course as needed for up to one year.

Course options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (individual seat)

Available July 2026

Add on: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition: Transition training course for DDS teachers

Online course, self-paced

Prepare to administer and score the DIBELS 8th Edition assessment in the mCLASS platform through this on-demand course. Learn the essentials of your mCLASS assessment program and leave ready to leverage mCLASS reports and lessons to accelerate data-driven student outcomes.

Upon finishing the course, participants can download a certificate of completion. This subscription includes an individual seat to the course, which takes approximately eight hours to complete. Participants will be able to access and revisit the course as needed for up to one year.

Course options: mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (individual seat)

Amplify intervention PD sessions

Each intervention program offers Launch and Coach sessions for up to 30 participants per program for year one and beyond. Our interactive sessions are available on-site or virtually, empowering teachers and leaders anywhere with the tools and skills they need to inspire all students to think deeply, creatively, and for themselves.

mCLASS Intervention

mCLASS Intervention is a staff-led Tier 2 and Tier 3 reading intervention program that does the heavy lifting of data analysis and lesson sequencing, freeing up teachers to teach the reading skills each student needs. View the table and select the session title to learn more about each mCLASS Intervention PD session.

  On-site or virtual sessions
6 hr.
 Self-paced course
Launch sessions
Initial training for K–6 interventionists and intervention coordinators A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Initial training for K–6 interventionists and intervention coordinators   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. 

Coach sessions

  On-site sessions
6 hr.
 On-site or virtual sessions
3 hr.
Coach session
  
Coach session
  

Launch

Propel your teachers into the new school year with sessions that introduce them to their Amplify program(s) and support a strong implementation.

Initial training for K–6 interventionists and intervention coordinators

On-site or virtual, 6 hours

In part 1 of this training, interventionists and intervention coordinators will prepare to deliver mCLASS Intervention lessons and learn how to administer the diagnostic and progress monitoring measures. In part 2, intervention coordinators will learn the essentials of coordinating mCLASS Intervention and leave ready to implement the program at their school site.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff, intervention coordinators (maximum 30 participants)

Initial training course for K–6 interventionists and intervention coordinators

Online course, self-paced

Prepare to deliver mCLASS Intervention lessons and learn how to administer the diagnostic and progress monitoring measures through this on-demand course. Intervention coordinators will additionally learn the essentials of coordinating mCLASS Intervention to support implementation at their school site.

Upon finishing the course, participants can download a certificate of completion. This subscription includes an individual seat to the course, which takes approximately three hours to complete. Participants will be able to access and revisit the course as needed for up to one year.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (individual seat)

Coach

Support teachers and leaders with learning experiences tailored to meet their specific needs.

Coach session

On-site, 6 hours

Coach sessions focus on building internal school and district capacity and leadership excellence to accelerate data-driven student outcomes for teachers using mCLASS Intervention. Coaching is customized to meet a school or district’s needs and can include observations, modeling, real-time coaching, and/or co-planning.

Audience: Individual teachers, grade-level teams, PLCs, and/or instructional leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Coach session

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Coach sessions focus on building internal school and district capacity and leadership excellence to accelerate data-driven student outcomes for teachers using mCLASS Intervention. Coaching is customized to meet a school or district’s needs and can include observations, modeling, real-time coaching, and/or co-planning.

Audience: Individual teachers, grade-level teams, PLCs, and/or instructional leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Additional assessment and intervention programs

Additional sessions and online courses are also available for other mCLASS programs (Paper DIBELS 8th Edition and mCLASS Intervention Universal).

To learn more about enhancing your Amplify experience by purchasing other mCLASS programs and/or accompanying PD sessions, please contact your account executive.

Contact us

Welcome!

As the 2021-2022 school year continues to pose new challenges, you’re likely thinking about making your classroom responsive to student needs due to the covid-19 pandemic.

Got additional questions? Use Zoom to attend office hours with Nadya Awadallah, the DOE’s Elementary Science Lead on Fridays from 12-1pm.

Meeting ID: 835 9458 3142

Passcode: 263518

NYC Newsletters

Educator Spotlight Submission

Calling all NYC DOE educators! Do you know an educator who has gone above and beyond? Would you like to highlight your teaching experience for others? Submit nominations here to see them featured as a spotlight in a future edition of our monthly newsletter and on our Instagram pages!

Introduction

This page includes planning, implementation, and professional learning resources for NYC schools using Amplify Science. Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the categories in the navigation bar on the left side of the page so that you’ll be able to easily find what you need.

Most New York City educators come here looking for specific information, but if you’re new to Amplify Science, we recommend you read through the program guide to learn a little about the program. 

New to Amplify? – Start HERE!

Teachers and Administrators 

Step 1: Review the Amplify Science Navigation Essentials K-5 Video 

Step 2: Review your Scope and sequence/course structure calendar

Step 3: Review the Unpacking the Kit Videos listed below to understand what’s in your unit 1 kit

Step 4: Access your unique log in information to log-in to the Amplify Science Curriculum outlined below under Login support

Step 5: Log into the platform and access our Program Hub.  Select Using this site for self study for a complete suite of training videos and resources for an initial orientation video series

Step 6: Log into the curriculum and begin studying the Unit Map and Teacher’s Guide resources and begin planning your first lesson. Print out the NYC Program Guide for essential program information.

Step 7: Administrator’s ONLY – Review the K-5 Admin Orientation presentation for an overview on the program. Review materials under Admin Resources. 

NOTE: Should you need any additional guidance on how to get started with prep (or anything else!), please feel free to get in touch with our pedagogical support team. They are available Monday-Friday from 7AM-7PM EST. You can reach them via the chat icon in the lower right- hand corner of your screen when logged in, through email (help@amplify.com), or via phone (800-823-1969).

Getting started resources

NYC Resource Site overview – quick links

Technology requirements

Login support

Materials

  • Materials lists – lists of kit contents by unit
    K | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
  • Spanish materials lists – lists of Spanish print kit contents by unit
    K | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
  • Kit-level packing detail (chart) – high-level information regarding kits including dimensions, weights, etc. 

Unpacking your first Amplify Science classroom kit

All Amplify Science units coming with kits that include hands-on and print materials. The number of boxes (sometimes referred to as “tubs”) varies depending on the unit.

21-22 Login Update

The temporary login credentials for fall ’21 have been deactivated. 

Please make sure you check out the Getting started resources > Login support below for instructions around teacher and the NYC shared student logins.

If there are any issues, please confirm with your STARS programmer that your classes are finalized and then contact the Amplify Help Desk at help@amplify.com or at 1-800-823-1969.

Planning and implementation resources

Use our NYC Field Trip List to plan an engaging field trip for your students!

Use the resources below to plan out your year and ensure you are teaching each standard to mastery.

NYC DOE Supplemental Guiding Documents: Curriculum Gaps

Admin resources

Remote and hybrid learning resources

In response to the shifts towards remote learning, Amplify has created resources for using our programs remotely. Please visit our Program Hub accessible via your Teacher Platform for all of our hybrid and remote learning supports which includes guidance for teachers and parents/guardians.

Additionally, please see below where you’ll find the recordings from our recently held webinars on our remote learning resources and some best practices for implementing Amplify Science in a distance learning setting.

Resource guides

  1. K-8 Remote and hybrid learning guide

On-demand remote learning videos

Professional Learning Opportunities

Interested in attending training? Check out and sign up for this year’s PL offerings here!

All 2021-2022 PL session materials will be uploaded below under Professional learning resources.

Amplify Science Back-to-School Recorded Webinars – Amplify held a series of national office hours throughout the summer and fall to share information about our new resources to support remote and hybrid learning– including recommendations about what to prioritize from your curriculum and essential refresher topics, such as how to navigate your program and find the best planning resources. Feel free to watch all recorded sessions at your convenience.

21-22 Professional learning resources

Fall 2021 materials:

Summer 2021 materials:

Fall 2021 materials:

Summer 2021 materials:

Fall 2021 materials:

Summer 2021 materials:

Fall 2021 materials:

Summer 2021 materials:

Fall 2021 materials:

Summer 2021 materials:

Fall 2021 materials:

Summer 2021 materials:

20-21 Professional learning resources

Winter 2021 materials:

Fall 2020 materials:

Summer 2020 materials:

Winter 2021 materials:

Fall 2020 materials:

Summer 2020 materials:

Winter 2021 materials:

Fall 2020 materials:

Summer 2020 materials:

  • K-5 New Teacher Orientation with Participant Notebook
  • Grades 2-3 Utilizing Program Assessments Effectively Webinar
  • Reaching All Learners for Grades 2-3 Webinar
  • Grade 2 Returning Teacher Remote Learning: Guided Planning Workshop Webinar

Spring 2021 materials:

  • Unit 4: Focusing on Evidence of Learning for New Teachers Webinar

Winter 2021 materials:

Fall 2020 materials:

Summer 2020 materials:

  • Grade 3 New Teacher Orientation Webinar with Participant Notebook
  • Grades 2-3 Utilizing Program Assessments Effectively Webinar
  • Reaching All Learners for Grades 2-3 Webinar
  • Grade 3 Returning Teacher Remote Learning: Guided Planning Workshop Webinar

Winter 2021 materials:

Fall 2020 materials:

Summer 2020 materials:

  • Grade 4 New Teacher Orientation Webinar with Participant Notebook
  • Grades 4-5 Utilizing Program Assessments Effectively Webinar
  • Reaching All Learners for Grades 4-5 Webinar
  • Grade 4 Returning Teacher Remote Learning: Guided Planning Workshop Webinar

Winter 2021 materials:

Fall 2020 materials:

Summer 2020 materials:

  • Grade 5 New Teacher Orientation Webinar with Participant Notebook
  • Grades 4-5 Utilizing Program Assessments Effectively Webinar
  • Reaching All Learners for Grades 4-5 Webinar
  • Grade 5 Returning Teacher Remote Learning: Guided Planning Workshop Webinar

19-20 Professional learning resources

Summer 2019 materials:

Fall 2019 materials:

Spring 2020 materials:

  • Reaching ALL Learners: Utilizing Program Assessments Effectively in Grades K & 1 – Participant Notebook

Summer 2019 materials:

Fall 2019 materials:

Spring 2020 materials:

  • Reaching ALL Learners: Utilizing Program Assessments Effectively in Grades K & 1 – Participant Notebook

Summer 2019 materials:

Fall 2019 materials:

Spring 2020 materials:

  • Reaching ALL Learners: Utilizing Program Assessments Effectively in Grades 2 & 3 – Participant Notebook

Summer 2019 materials:

Fall 2019 materials:

Spring 2020 materials:

  • Reaching ALL Learners: Utilizing Program Assessments Effectively in Grades 2 & 3 – Participant Notebook

Summer 2019 materials:

Fall 2019 materials:

Summer 2019 materials:

Fall 2019 materials;

Caregiver Resources

Caregiver letters – information about Next Generation Science Standards by grade level

K | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Caregiver Hub

Questions

Amplify Science K–5 FAQs

For general questions about the Amplify program (navigation, pedagogy, login), please reach out:

Email – scihelp@amplify.com
Phone – call toll-free at (800) 823-1969, Monday to Friday 7 a.m.–7 p.m. ET

Amplify Chat – click the Amplify Chat icon within the individual teacher account

Amplify Desmos Math New York

Amplify Desmos Math New York supports teachers in building students’ lifelong math proficiency. The program:

  • Supports social classrooms, invites mathematical creativity, and evokes wonder, creating a welcoming learning space where students are empowered to see themselves and their classmates as having brilliant mathematical ideas.
  • Provides math teachers with clear step-by-step moves to build systematically from students’ prior knowledge to grade-level learning. 
  • Connects students to each other’s thinking and to an understanding that they can use math to make sense of the world.
  • Enables access to grade-level understanding for every student, every day.

Math that motivates

Picture a classroom where students are so engaged in a math lesson that they protest when the teacher pauses their work on a problem. A classroom is buzzing with the sounds of natural curiosity. This is what we regularly see with Amplify Desmos Math. This is math that motivates.

Three colorful educational posters showing different math concepts being taught in classrooms across New York, each with a distinct age group and activity setting.

Review program samplers (Grades K–5)

Experience the beautiful, easy-to-use print components that add to the power of Desmos Classroom technology and instruction by downloading the print samplers below. The samplers include print pages from Amplify Desmos Math New York lessons.

Grade 1

Grade 3

Grade 5

Review program samplers (Grades 6–8)

Experience the beautiful, easy-to-use print components that add to the power of Desmos Classroom technology and instruction by downloading the print samplers below. The samplers include print pages from Amplify Desmos Math New York lessons.

Grades 6–8
Mini-Lesson sampler

Grade 6
Teacher Edition sampler
Student Edition sampler
Assessment Guide sampler

Grade 7
Teacher Edition sampler
Student Edition sampler
Assessment Guide sampler

Grade 8
Teacher Edition sampler
Student Edition sampler
Assessment Guide sampler

A set of six colorful educational book covers titled "Amplify Desmos Math New York," each featuring stylized math-themed illustrations and different pastel accent colors.

Experience Amplify Desmos Math New York

Explore our digital program to review content from grades K–8. Watch our quick walkthrough videos for helpful navigation tips: Grades K–5 and Grades 6–8.

To log in, click the orange “Review now” button below, select “Log in with Amplify” and use the following login credentials:
Username: t1.ny-state-adm@demo.tryamplify.net
Password: Amplify1-ny-state-adm

Review now
Illustration of the New York math digital learning platform, featuring a laptop displaying a math game and vibrant posters of classroom scenes with diverse students.
Educational software interface featuring a New York math problem about measuring platform heights using a 9-inch tube, illustrated with a playful, colorful design.


Standards

Once you’ve logged in to your reviewer account, download the documents correlating Amplify Desmos Math New York to the New York State Next Generation Math Learning Standards.

Personalized learning

Amplify Desmos Math includes digital, adaptive practice that provides the personalized support a student needs to access grade-level math every day. Boost Personalized Learning activities target a skill or concept aligned to the day’s core lesson, with each student receiving personalized scaffolds based on what they already know. This technology complements daily learning and provides another layer of support to the in-lesson differentiation and instructional guidance provided to teachers. Try out free Boost Personalized Learning activities.

The Fluency Practice of Amplify Desmos Math uses an evidence-based approach to memory retention—spaced repetition—for the basic operations. Students around the world have answered more than 120 million multiplication questions within our application. Try it now! 

Educational software on a laptop screen showing a student activity to complete a bar graph by categorizing dragonflies, designed for the New York math curriculum.
Two women smiling while working together at a computer on New York math in a bright office setting.

Help

Support is always within reach. Our team is dedicated to supporting you throughout your review and can be reached by email or phone 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET.

  • Live chat: Once logged into the program, click the orange icon to get immediate help.
  • Phone: Call our toll-free number: (888) 960-0380.
  • Email: Send an email to help@amplify.com. In the message body, please include your name and question. Provide as much detail as possible, so we can more quickly help you find a solution.

Amplify Tutor Fingerprinting

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Students take on the role of a scientist or engineer every day.

Amplify Science is a blended curriculum developed to align with the New York City PK–8 Science Scope and Sequence that meets the New York State Science Learning Standards.

Amplify Science for grades K–8 has been rated all-green by EdReports.

Read the review on EdReports.

Check out the New York City Resource Site for supporting resources designed for the New York City Department of Education Amplify Science adoption for grades K–8.

An illustration of a whale with jellyfish and turtles from Amplify Science

Begin your review

Grades K-5
Grades 6-8

What sets Amplify Science apart?

  • Aligned to the New York City PK–8 Science Scope and Sequence, and meets New York State Science Learning Standards.
  • State-of-the-art, highly-engaging curriculum that invites students to take on the role of a scientist or engineer in every unit to solve relevant real-world problems.
  • Flexible, truly blended program that combines comprehensive print components and compelling online content with hands-on learning in every unit.
  • Robust teacher support for ease of use by a wide range of teachers in diverse classroom contexts, with carefully crafted lessons, standards alignment, differentiation strategies, and ELL supports throughout the program.
  • Embedded assessments throughout the program, including both formative and summative assessments for every grade level.
  • Authored by the industry-leading science curriculum team at U.C. Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science, who have 50 years of experience in K–12 science education and who will continue to enhance and update the program for years to come. To learn more about how the Lawrence Hall of Science collected research, designed the curriculum, and field tested the program with teachers, download our research base document.

The Amplify Science approach

The scope and sequence of the program is designed to show that scientific concepts are interconnected and multifaceted. Each unit focuses on a specific learning goal in the form of an overarching unit question. Rather than following linear steps in an experiment, the program leaves room for students to make connections across concepts and make their own discoveries. In this way, Amplify Science replicates the realities and ambiguities of scientific research and thinking.

Each course in Amplify Science K–5 consists of 3–4 units, with each unit containing 22 lessons. Each lesson in grades K and 1 is written for a 45-minute session, while lessons in grades 2–5 are written for 60-minute sessions. Teachers can always expand or contract the timing to fit their needs.

Each course in Amplify Science 6–8 consists of 7-9 units, with each core unit containing 19 lessons, each launch unit containing 11 lessons, and each engineering internship containing 10 lessons. Each lesson in grades 6–8 is written for a 45-minute session. Teachers can always expand or contract the timing to fit their needs..

Download the K–5 unit sequence

Download the 6–8 unit sequence

Components overview

Amplify Science blends physical materials with a suite of digital tools, presenting students with the resources they need to investigate real-world problems, and empowering and supporting teachers as they lead instruction and gain insight into student growth and progress.

Grades K–5

  • Student Investigation Notebooks (K–2) for every unit allow students to interact with content while taking notes, answering questions, and conducting investigations. Review a sample from the Grade 2 Plant and Animal Relationships unit.
  • Student Books enhance science topics and allow students to practice reading within the science content area.
  • Instructional materials for teachers. The Amplify Science curriculum website hosts all lesson content, media, digital simulations, and more, and is the primary tool “open” for teachers during class time. Print Teacher’s Guides are included. You can view complete unit samples by accessing the curriculum at the bottom of this page.
  • Robust digital simulations and digital applications, developed exclusively for the Amplify Science program. Supported devices include: iPad 3+, Chromebook, Windows PC, and MacBook.
  • Unit Kits for each unit in the program including consumable and nonconsumable hands-on materials, printed classroom display materials, and the students books.
  • Embedded formative and summative assessments are meant to support and guide student instruction.
  • Pacing guides have been developed for teachers to support the implementation of the program.

Grades 6–8

  • New York City Student Editions enhance science topics and allow students to practice reading within the science content area.
  • Special “NYC Companion Lessons” directly target the additional standards in NYSSLS not found in the NGSS.
  • Instructional materials for teachers. The Amplify Science curriculum website hosts all lesson content, media, digital simulations, and more, and is the primary tool “open” for teachers during class time. Print Teacher’s Guides are included. You can view complete unit samples by accessing the curriculum at the bottom of this page.
  • Robust digital simulations and digital applications, developed exclusively for the Amplify Science program. Supported devices include: iPad 3+, Chromebook, Windows PC, and MacBook.
  • Unit Kits for each unit in the program including consumable and nonconsumable hands-on materials and printed classroom display materials for 5 uses of a class of 40 students.
  • Embedded formative and summative assessments are meant to support and guide student instruction.
  • Pacing guides have been developed for teachers to support the implementation of the program.

Review grades K–5

Amplify Science K-5 is an elementary science curriculum that provides teachers with the tools and practices necessary to meet the expectations of the NYSED P–12 Science Learning Standards. The program also aligns to the new NYCDOE PK–8 Science Scope and Sequence. Learn more about Amplify Science K-5 by reviewing the following::

Click the orange button below to access the digital Teacher’s Guide and begin your review.

Review now
Request sample

Review grades 6–8

Amplify Science 6–8 New York City Edition is a new blended curriculum developed to align to 100 percent of the New York City PK–8 Science Scope and Sequence 2018 that meets 100 percent of the New York State Science Learning Standards. Learn more about Amplify Science 6-8 New York City Edition by reviewing the following:

Click the orange button below to access the digital Teacher’s Guide and begin your review.

Review now
Request sample

Watch an overview

Watch curriculum experts walk through the Amplify Science K–5 and 6–8 programs and share information on how you can start to make the shifts to the NGSS with a literacy-rich approach to science instruction.

Watch now (K-5)
Watch now (6-8)

Ready to order?

When you are ready to place an order for Amplify Science, please reference the ordering checklist on the Core Curriculum Ordering Guide, and then head to:

S2-02: Developing your own teaching style: Tips from a veteran teacher.

Poster for "Science Connections" podcast with an image of Marilyn Dieppa, featuring a logo of an atom and text promoting season 2, episode 2 about veteran teaching styles.

In this episode, Eric Cross sits down with veteran educator and former Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) Middle School Science Teacher of the Year, Marilyn Dieppa. During the show, Marilyn shares tips for new teachers, ways to inspire students, and how she utilizes her journalism background to develop literacy skills within her science classroom. She also shares her experiences developing a robotics academy, and the VEX IQ World’s Competition. Explore more from Science Connections by visiting our main page.

Download Transcript

Marilyn Dieppa (00:01):
I think my favorite thing is their success. Whether it’s robotics, whether it’s in the classroom, that they pass a test for the first time, those are my moments of success. And that’s what makes me happy.

Eric Cross (00:15):
Marilyn Dieppa is a veteran middle-school science educator at Miami-Dade County public schools. Dieppa launched her school’s STEM Academy in 2016 and developed professional development through the STEM Transformation Institute of Florida International University. Dieppa’s coached numerous new teachers and was the 2018 Miami-Dade County public schools’ middle-school Science Teacher of the Year. In this episode, we discussed her transition from a career in journalism to the science classroom and the value of personal and professional support systems for teacher longevity. And now, please enjoy my conversation with Marilyn Dieppa.

Marilyn Dieppa (00:52):
Nice to meet you, Eric.

Eric Cross (00:53):
Nice to meet you too. Thank you for being willing to come on the podcast.

Marilyn Dieppa (00:58):
Not a problem.

Eric Cross (00:59):
So you’re out in, you’re out in Florida. In Dade County. I’m out here in San Diego. So I’m like literally on the other side of the country. Have you—were you born and raised in Florida?

Marilyn Dieppa (01:09):
I’ve been here for 40 years, so I’ve been here most of my life. Yeah. I’m Puerto Rican, but I was, you know, my young childhood, I was in New Jersey. And then when I was 15, I came down.

Eric Cross (01:23):
I looked at like your—some of your accolades, which are really impressive. The things that you’ve done for students with robotics, and all the education, or, kind of like teacher enrichment, a lot of mentoring and coaching that you do now.

Marilyn Dieppa (01:35):
I am part of leadership team for the district. I do a lot of training. I work on curriculum. I help with pacing guides to make sure that everything is based on what the state wants, what the district wants. I have done a lot for the district in the last, probably 20 years.

Eric Cross (01:52):
What got you into teaching initially? What was your…like, why middle school science? We’re like a unique group.

Marilyn Dieppa (01:57):
This is the second career choice for me. So I’ve only been doing this for 24 years. I was a journalism major and then I got married and then I had my child and I wanted to do something. My thing was that I wanted to go to Iraq. I wanted to cover the news. I have a minor in Middle Eastern culture. so there was a lot of things that were in my mind when I was young, pre-married. and after, you know, you have children, priorities kind of change. So I totally changed, pretty much had to start from scratch, with my degree, because nothing kind of transferred over from journalism to teaching. So before I actually did that, I started subbing just to see if I liked it. And I fell in love with teaching right away. And that’s how I got into it. So my degree is really in elementary.

Eric Cross (02:45):
Now, when you were subbing, you were doing elementary school.

Marilyn Dieppa (02:47):
Yes. Pretty much elementary.

Eric Cross (02:48):
How did you go from there to like, middle-school science?

Marilyn Dieppa (02:50):
My thing was writing, not necessarily math and science. But I ended up with my cooperating teacher, my CT, she was a math and science teacher. So I was put with her, and who knew that I liked science and I liked math? So I ended up with that and I infused a lot of labs. So in elementary you tend to—I think teachers are a little bit afraid of the labs, so I infused a lot of literature with my labs. I infused all my—I did it like a whole-group type thing, everything I did with my labs, I incorporated the math. I incorporated the science. I incorporated, you know, the reading with it. And from there, I just—you know, they ended up putting me in a lot of leadership roles with science. And then my principal was opening up the school where I’m at now, my former principal. And she, you know, she took me with her. And so her dissertation was in looping, on how following your students, did that really make a difference in test scores? So I was part of her like test study, and I had students that I followed for two years in a row. And she would look at data and that was part of her dissertation. So that really made a difference. So I ended up moving with my students and my first group of middle-school students, I had them for four years.

Eric Cross (04:10):
Oh, wow.

Marilyn Dieppa (04:10):
And that was—those were my children. I, like, boohooed when they left. And I ended up, you know, literally following them from fourth grade all the way to more than four years. Because it was all the way until they left eighth grade.

Eric Cross (04:21):
What did you think of that model of looping with students?

Marilyn Dieppa (04:24):
I think it’s a great model, depending on the kids that you have. I love, you know, the school that I’m at. I’m very blessed, because it’s a great school. It’s really a wonderful school. I’ve had really good relationships with students. They always come back, and they always come back when they wanna tell me that they’re in something in science, right? They’re an engineer or they’re a nurse, or they’re, you know, doctors at this point. So I’ve seen a little bit of everything with my students. And it’s very rewarding.

Eric Cross (04:52):
That’s super-exciting, right? When they come back and they’re either telling you about their college major or what career they’re in. And I like to recruit them at that point and ask them to come talk to my students. Because Google photos gives you unlimited storage, if you have a teacher account, I actually have photos of students from like 10 years ago.

Marilyn Dieppa (05:09):
Oh, wow.

Eric Cross (05:10):
And I’ll put their middle school picture next to their—and then their current picture.

Marilyn Dieppa (05:14):
Oh, that’s awesome. I’ve never done that.

Eric Cross (05:17):
Yeah. You could see, like, they could see the younger version of them.

Marilyn Dieppa (05:19):
And it’s funny because even with the STEM Academy, which I have now, I have the same group of kids for three years. So I’ve had already few groups that have gone by, and those kids come back to me, they come back to our competitions, they help out, you know, they’re very integrated with the robotics. So I’m getting those students back as well. So I’ve maintained that relationship with them as well.

Eric Cross (05:46):
How do you develop your own classroom management style? How did you figure out where your—where you fit and what works for you? What was your process like for that?

Marilyn Dieppa (05:55):
You know what I think, just by teaching, teaching them to respect. And one thing that I’ve developed that—I don’t scream in my classroom; I just talk to the kids. I have very good one-on-one communication with them. I show them respect. I treat them as an equal.

Eric Cross (06:12):
And what grade are you teaching currently?

Marilyn Dieppa (06:14):
Eighth grade. So I do science. I teach high school science. I teach comprehensive, which is like our regular students. I have kids who are inclusion. I have kids that are ESL. So I teach all, you know, dynamics of students. And then I have the academy, which is something separate. But I infuse a lot of physics and of course that they need in order for them to be competitive.

Eric Cross (06:38):
So tell me about that. What is the STEM Academy?

Marilyn Dieppa (06:40):
It is an enrichment program. So it is an advanced enrichment program, because they do follow like the math enrichment. so they have to be really good at math in order for them to be accepted into the program. So, one day we got like a grant, and we got a little robot, the VEX. I don’t know if you’re familiar with VEX. I know it’s big in California. So I was told, “Here, this is for you. See what you can do with it.” So I started with an after-school club, the following year. It kind of hit off. We went to our first little competition. The kids did really well. And then the following year, they told me, “Hey, we need an academy, make it happen.” So it’s not like I had a curriculum. I kind of do my own thing. But we do a lot of different types of things. Our big portion is the VEX, but I also do sec me, we do Future City. We do a whole bunch of competitions within the district. You know, Math Bowl. So I get my kids prepared for anything that really has to do competitive-based. I do that with those students.

Eric Cross (07:38):
What age range or which grade range?

Marilyn Dieppa (07:40):
Sixth to eighth. We have kids who stay the three years and then we have kids that after, you know, sometimes it’s more the parents that want them to be part of the engineering. but sometimes we lose kids after the first year and you know, that’s fine because we wanna really have kids who really wanna be there and are, you know, committed to it. Because there’s a lot of commitments to that program.

Eric Cross (08:01):
Those types of programs, there’s so many like outside-of-the-classroom things that you need to take care of. If you’re going to competitions, and weekends, and all those types of things. Is there a team of teachers that are doing this or is it just you?

Marilyn Dieppa (08:10):
Team of one! .

Eric Cross (08:11):
A team of one! Right? Like, yeah. And how long have you been running this yourself?

Marilyn Dieppa (08:16):
This is probably like my sixth year.

Eric Cross (08:19):
OK.

Marilyn Dieppa (08:20):
So we’ve been very successful. That program is totally inquiry. It’s totally on them. I don’t know how to use a little, you know, remote control. I don’t know how to do anything. I’m there for troubleshoot and to make sure that they’re on task, but they have been very successful because I do put everything on them. And I go, “It’s not my robot. This is your robot.” So they build everything

Eric Cross (08:40):
And that seems to be the theme, especially with, a lot of times, with science teachers. And encouraging them to say, “You don’t have to be the expert in everything.” Teachers tend to be more like risk-taking and innovative when they’re willing to like, not have to be—I don’t have to know everything in order to do something.

Marilyn Dieppa (08:54):
Exactly. So we’ve been very successful. Very proud of my students because you know, we’ve, gone to Worlds twice. We’ve qualified three times in the six years. Actually, I had two teams that went last year.

Eric Cross (09:07):
What is, what is Worlds? That sounds like a big deal.

Marilyn Dieppa (09:10):
It’s a huge thing. And it’s teams from all over the world. You can actually look it up online. It’s—from this year, there were teams, although they said China was not gonna be in there, there were actually some teams from China. There were teams from New Zealand. There were teams from South Africa, the UK, a lot of teams from, from Europe. And then there are teams from here. We are the host country. We’ve been the host country for a while. But it’s amazing. The first time we went, the first team that we were paired up with was a Russian team. So, you know, there was Google Translate and the kids—and it’s, they didn’t need to know the same language because they communicated with the robots. So it was really amazing. They work collaboratively. So it’s not like a battle box. So they work two teams together and whatever, they both get together, they both earn the same points. So it teaches leadership, and there’s so much more to it than just a robot. They have to know how to communicate, because they do get interviewed. They do online challenges. It’s so many things. It’s just—I think it’s one of the best things that our district has really invested in, because these kids are so into it, and they love it so much. For the last year and this year I have the same kids that are in the robotics. I’m also gonna be teaching them physical science. So I have to teach them that separation between what we’re doing in our science classes versus what they’re doing in the class. So there has to be a separation. So they see one side of me in this class where it’s very laid back. It’s very chill. No, no, you, you guys do it. There’s no sitting down. It’s like organized chaos, I call it all the time. But then in the classroom, it has to be a little bit more organized.

Eric Cross (10:53):
Is that something that, as far as getting the parts—like people do, like, GoFundMes and donations and Donors Choose. Can you—

Marilyn Dieppa (11:00):
We get grant money, grant money from the town of Miami Lakes, the town that I work in. So the town actually sponsors us. Without them, we could not do that. It is a very expensive activity to do. If you go online and you look up the prices, you’ll be, “Oh my gosh, goodness, it’s very expensive.” You know? But the smiles on their faces when they come back and they have those little certificates, it means nothing, you know, it’s a little piece of paper. But that, to me, to them, it means the world.

Eric Cross (11:27):
Well, teachers, if you’re looking for ways to get that stuff funded, be fearless on behalf of asking for free things for your kids. Find a local business that somewhat connects to even robotics and say, “Hey, look, I’ve got 50 kids that really want to get after it. And we need X amount of dollars so we can buy those robotics kits. We’ll put your banner up somewhere. We’ll do all these other things. But come support our students. Come to the competition. Donate whatever you can for our students.” And many organizations will say, will say yes. Many just aren’t asked.

Marilyn Dieppa (11:57):
Right. And a lot of towns do have, like, education advisory boards. You wanna reach out to those people. ‘Cause those are the communities where they have money set aside in order to assist things like this.

Eric Cross (12:09):
Do you notice any carryover between the students that do get involved with these extracurriculars into the regular science classroom?

Marilyn Dieppa (12:16):
For sure. They’re more, they’re more disciplined. They tend to care more about the sciences because they see that link in the science. I mean, my kids are talking about gear ratios. They’re talking about, you know, mass accelerations. They had—they infuse all these things. And when they see it in the science class, they’re making that connection, which is really wonderful.

Eric Cross (12:41):
It seems like there’s a high level of engagement because this is an authentic thing. It’s almost, this should be science.

Marilyn Dieppa (12:46):
Yes. And not only that, the writing skills that have to be interpreted because part of the program is that they, they don’t necessarily have to have it, but in order for them to go far and make it to Worlds, they have to have an engineering notebook. So our strength sometimes is not the robot, but the engineering notebook.

Eric Cross (13:02):
his is where the journalism major shines.

Marilyn Dieppa (13:05):
Yes. And I go, “Guys, this is your Ikea manual. You have to explain what you’re doing, what pieces you’re using, what’s going right.” You know, and then they have to interpret and see what didn’t work. How can they fix it? So there’s so much problem-solving. It’s real life, it’s what they’re doing there. More so than sitting and learning rote, you know, vocabulary or whatever the case might be, ’cause they’re actually applying what they’re learning.

Eric Cross (13:31):
Yeah. And that’s, that’s so critical, the communication piece. Because seems like now in society, more than ever, even just being able to communicate something with bad science is convincing to people. Versus if you have great science, but you can’t communicate it, you’re not gonna be able to get it out into the public. It’s so great to see a program that exactly brings together this literacy aspect, in addition to kind of this content and skills aspect of doing the science.

Marilyn Dieppa (13:57):
And that’s what really, you know, since I started, that’s pretty much what I’ve done. My strength, believe it or not, when I was growing up, was not the science. I think I didn’t really have a really good science background. But I remember reflecting and saying, “I don’t want my students to feel like I felt when I was a child.” I wanna make sure that I give them everything, you know, give them the hands-on experience. I think I had one teacher when I was growing up and I still remember him. He was my second-grade teacher and he was just so amazing with the science. And it was just like the only really good experience I had. And I think that always stayed in the back of my mind. And when I started teaching and I go, “I wanna give these kids these experiences.” You know, sometimes I see kids in eighth grade and I go, how sad! They see water boiling and they’re just, like, in a lab room. And they’re just like, in awe, because there’s water boiling. And I go, “You guys haven’t seen water boil before?” And he goes, “No, no, no, not like this!” And I go, oh wow.

Eric Cross (14:58):
Even if it’s simple, everyday phenomena, everyday things that people deal with in a science classroom, or when you’re a teacher in that setting, it’s just—it just hits different, right? Like you, you know, you drop dye into water and watch it diffuse. And it’s like, whoa! Because they’re looking at it through that different lens. And that’s why one of the reasons why—I’m super-biased, but as science teachers, we get to do the coolest stuff.

Marilyn Dieppa (15:21):
Yeah, we do.

Eric Cross (15:22):
We just do. It’s so much fun. And basically anything that happens, that’s cool, like in, innovation and things like that, we can figure out ways to incorporate into our classroom. Now, as a coach and as a mentor, you’ve had multiple student teachers in your classroom. And we have, you know, huge need for new teachers. I teach teachers who are getting their CR, getting their credential. And the landscape of education is, is constantly shifting. You’ve watched it shift over the years. What are your biggest tips that you give to new teachers?

Marilyn Dieppa (15:49):
Well, I just had an intern last semester. I’ve had a few interns where, you know, not only are they doing this, but they’re also learning robotics too. So they’re really getting aspect in how to incorporate that. You don’t have to have everything separate. You can include everything together. But I think, I think it just comes from the foundation where they’re not exposed. Even me, when I went to college, I don’t remember doing so many labs as I should have. And I think it’s just a fear of them trying new things and failing. And I go, you know what? I, sometimes my first class is my guinea pig class, because I always change my labs. I don’t like to do the same thing over and over again. If I see something online, I go, “Oh wow. You know what, I’m gonna try it.” And I go, “Hey guys, this is the first time; we’re gonna do this together.” And it’s really—it’s just for them not to be fearful. And I think especially for science teachers or like even elementary, to give the kids the foundation that they need, they’re afraid. They’re afraid of failing and not trying something new, and say, “Hey, it’s OK. There’s other ways of doing this.” You know? So I always say, “My first class is always my guinea pig class, ’cause that’s the class I’m gonna try this on.” And then, you know, when you have to tweak, reflect, then we do that.

Eric Cross (17:06):
What are some of the things that you’ve seen or encouragements that you give to teachers who are teaching, kind of, in this kind of newer landscape, where as teachers, you become more than just a science teacher. I mean, you’re a mentor. You’re an encourager. Sometimes you’re a counselor for students. And then there, there are things that happen externally that impact teachers as well. It’s a tough job.

Marilyn Dieppa (17:24):
So I always say, you know, when you have a child, we have to be very aware of what’s happening with our children. Especially after these two years of the pandemic. That was kind of crazy. Last year was a really tough year, I think, for most educators that were back in the classroom. But I always tell ’em, you have to be really aware of what’s going on with these kids outside. When you see somebody who’s not doing anything and then you have the parents are there supporting. There’s something going—I mean, there has to be something going on. Kids are not just going to be so, so defiant. You’re gonna have very few that will be like that. But most of them it’s just gotta see and read those kids and see what’s going on, and don’t be afraid to—and I always say, I’m not there to really be your friend, but I’m there to help you. And you gotta tell ’em, you know, if you need to talk, come talk to me. Have an open-door policy with those kids.

Eric Cross (18:16):
What’s been your favorite part of the job? Something you really enjoy about the job? Especially having been teaching for as long as you have.

Marilyn Dieppa (18:23):
I think my favorite thing is their success. Whether they have struggled all the year and they’ve had that one piece of success or they don’t realize what they got out of middle school until they get to high school and they come back to you and they tell you it’s, you know, seeing my kids, whether it’s robotics, whether it’s in the classroom, that they pass a test for the first time, those are my moments of success. And that’s what makes me happy.

Eric Cross (18:52):
So you get those ahas, you get those wins, those turnarounds. And it’s like, “Ah, this keeps me going. This is so good!” But there’s something that I say to myself when I do get challenges in the classroom is teaching seventh grade, I say, “They’re 12. They’re 13. They’ve been on earth for 13 years. And for the first five or six, like, you know, they’re just kind of coming online at that point. And they’re going through all these changes.” And it grounds me in the fact that ’cause sometimes the things that you experience can be really, really challenging kind of interpersonally. And I remind myself, “Well, it’s like—you’re not 28 years old. Like, you’re, 12 and 13, and you need me to not be Mr. Cross, the science teacher. You need me to be, you know, Mr. Cross, the mentor, or Mr. Cross, the coach.” Like you were saying, open door. Keeping that open door, keeping that relationship. Because so much of what we’re doing is like life coaching in addition—and that connects to their success in the classroom. There’s a direct relationship.

Marilyn Dieppa (19:45):
Yes, yes, yes, absolutely.

Eric Cross (19:46):
Now what gets you back each fall? Because at the end, you know, every school year it’s like, “That was a tough one!” Especially with the last couple years. Right? So what’s been something, what gets you back in the classroom every fall, so that you’re ready for your students?

Marilyn Dieppa (20:02):
I think the support I get at home. I have a husband who is the most supportive person ever. He always tells me, “Your kids are grown up.” You know, my kids are adults now. “Enjoy these kids, what they’re doing. You don’t know how much they need you.” So he does tell me that. He goes, “And don’t complain! You love it!” And also my administration, they back me up. And that’s what I think what keeps you coming back. I love my administration. Whatever I ask for, they don’t tell me no. They tell me I’m crazy, but they don’t tell me no. You know, we have these huge competitions once a year at our school, administration has to be involved ’cause they have to be there, and they go, “We do this because we love you! But you know, you’re crazy!”

Eric Cross (20:48):
It’s interesting, ’cause both of these things, they involve human connection. And one is your support system at home, which is incredibly valuable. Shout out to your husband; I don’t know if he’s around. And then the culture, like, feeling supported. Teachers, you know—and it’s not just in education, but people, I’ve experienced—will work harder, longer, be more committed, when they have that intangible. When they feel like they’re connected to something bigger than them. Or on a team, not in a silo. And one person can really create or break whether that happens. And just like us in the classroom as a teacher, right? Like, “What makes you like this teacher’s class?” “Well, I feel connected. I feel safe. I feel it’s fun. It’s the culture!” I like to end with asking this question and you kind of alluded to an answer earlier, but who is one, or it could be multiple teachers, that you’ve had in your own life as a kid growing up or young person in kindergarten through 12th grade, could even be college, that has inspired you? Or made a difference in your life one way or another? Like, who pops out? I feel like we all have somebody.

Marilyn Dieppa (21:58):
One was my second grade teacher, as I mentioned before. Mr. Fernandez, never forget him. And my other teacher was my high school teacher, Mr. Velazquez. It was in New Jersey as well. And he was the one that really got me into the love of writing. He was my Spanish teacher, actually. He wasn’t even, you know—he was like an elective teacher. But he just made me believe like, “Wow, you’re like a really good writer!” To me, those two gentlemen really stood out. Very fond memories of being in school and really enjoying what I was doing.

Eric Cross (22:33):
There are so many teachers that we all have been impacted by. And many of us now who are teachers, we sit in that same seat. We fill those same shoes. And going back to what you had said earlier, one of the most rewarding things is when those kids come back to you. And I’m thinking about all the work that you’ve done, all the students you’ve poured into, all the competitions you’ve done. The ones that have come back to you are a small fragment of the ones that you’ve impacted.

Marilyn Dieppa (22:59):
Mm-hmm, yeah.

Eric Cross (23:00):
‘Cause we think about our own story, right? Like you’ve gone on and paid dividends for that one teacher in second grade. You know, Mr. Fernandez or Mr. Velasquez like, they went and they just gave you exposure to something or helped you fall in love with something. And you went on this trajectory. And if we could see the timeline of, like, this teacher created Marilyn, and Marilyn went and did this, and then what do all those students do? And that, I don’t know, there’s so many jobs that are gonna be hard work and that are gonna be challenging and stressful. But that is the thing that I think fills me when I listen to your story. I just think about like all the students throughout Florida that you have—you probably will never hear from, but have gone on to do amazing things or become great people who would go back and talk about you and say you were an inspiration for them. Marilyn, thank you for taking the time out to be on the podcast and for not only teaching students, but inspiring and coaching younger teachers and new teachers. It’s so critical. And for being willing to spend so much of your time beyond the classroom to create these opportunities for students to do this awesome, fun, engaging science, and go to Worlds. I wish you a great school year.

Marilyn Dieppa (24:11):
Thank you. You too.

Eric Cross (24:12):
We hope you make it to Worlds again and crush, in a competitive, collaborative type of environment. We’ll be checking out—I’m sure other teachers will check out Vex Robotics. Thanks for being on the podcast.

Marilyn Dieppa (24:23):
Thank you. You too, Eric.

Eric Cross (24:26):
Thanks so much for listening. Now we want to hear more about you. Do you have any educators who inspire you? You can nominate them as a future guest on Science Connections by emailing STEM@amplify.com. That’s S T E M at amplifycom.wpengine.com. Make sure to click subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. And join our Facebook group, Science Connections: The Community. Until next time.

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What Marilyn Dieppa says about science

“I think as science teachers, we’re afraid of failing and not trying something new, and I say, ‘Hey, it’s okay!’ You have to tweak, reflect.”

– Marilyn Dieppa

STEM Academy Coach/Teacher, 2018 Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) Middle School Science Teacher of the Year

Meet the guest

Marilyn Dieppa is a long-time educator and STEM Academy coach at Miami Dade County Public Schools. Currently in her 24th year, Marilyn teaches 8th grade science and coaches the STEM Academy at Bob Graham Education Center. She launched the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Academy during the 2016-2017 school year, and the teams compete in VEX IQ World’s Competition representing both the district and the state. She has been the middle school department chairperson since 2003, attends the district department meetings and Instructional Capacity-building Academy (ICAD), and trains her science department.

Dieppa holds a bachelor of science in Elementary Education and a master of science in reading education. She is also a Nationally Board-Certified Teacher in Science.

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About Science Connections

Welcome to Science Connections! Science is changing before our eyes, now more than ever. So…how do we help kids figure that out? We will bring on educators, scientists, and more to discuss the importance of high-quality science instruction. In this episode, hear from our host Eric Cross about his work engaging students as a K-8 science teacher. Listen here!

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Amplify Desmos Math for New York

Amplify Desmos Math New York helps teachers center student thinking and unlock students’ true potential.

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Amplify Desmos Math New York is based on Illustrative Mathematics® IM K–12™ and expands on Desmos Math 6–8 (which received all-green ratings from EdReports) with beautiful print resources, and robust practice, differentiation supports, assessment and reporting. Read the review on EdReports.

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Experience the beautiful, easy-to-use print components that add to the power of Desmos Classroom technology and instruction by downloading the print samplers below. The samplers include print pages from two full Amplify Desmos Math New York lessons.

Grades 6–8
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Grade 8
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A Desmos Math textbook and a computer screen showing a Desmos Math digital activity about pizza ingredients.

Standards alignment

Once you’ve logged in to your reviewer account, download our documents correlating Amplify Desmos Math New York to the New York State Next Generation Math Learning Standards. Within each document, you’ll find direct links to lessons and activities where each individual standard is addressed.

Grade 6 correlation
Grade 7 correlation
Grade 8 correlation

The program is also aligned with the expectations outlined in the New York City Department of Education Definition of Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education and the New York State Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework. Download the CR-SE alignment.

About the program

To learn more about Amplify Desmos Math New York, including pedagogical philosophy, origins, implementation examples, and independent, nationally-recognized reviews, download the following documents:

Curriculum overview and background
Examples of implementation
Implementation considerations
Independent curriculum reviews
Professional learning plan

A classroom dashboard displays student names and their progress in activities, with checkmarks indicating completed tasks and circles showing ongoing or incomplete tasks.
A laptop displays a math activity about shapes and weights, in front of two illustrated Amplify Desmos Math teacher edition books.

Support

Support is always within reach. Our team is dedicated to supporting you throughout your review and can be reached at any time by emailing or calling us directly.

  • Live chat: Click the orange icon while logged in to get immediate help.
  • Phone: Call our toll-free number: (800) 823-1969.
  • Email: Send an email to help@amplify.com. In the message body, please include your name and question. Provide as much detail as possible, so we can more quickly help you find a solution.

Exciting updates are coming for Boost Reading!

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Plan your professional development

We’re excited to partner with you on your Amplify journey. Flexible professional development pathways have been designed to meet your needs.

Illustration of a rocket labeled "Launch" for beginning of the year, and a woman lifting a dumbbell labeled "Strengthen" for mid-year or end of year program implementation steps.

Recommended Professional Development Plan

Our team has curated a recommended professional learning path from initial launch to continuous support. Use the Professional Development Planning Guide below to discuss the plan that best meets your school or district needs with your Account Executive.

View the Professional Development Planning Guide

Sessions overview

Recommended sessions are highlighted below.
Title Duration Modality
Elementary school sessions
Initial training (online course) Self-paced (approximately 3 hours) Online course
Initial training 2 hours Onsite/Remote
Initial training, 2 sessions in 1 day 2 2-hour sessions Onsite/Remote
Initial training, 3 sessions in 1 day 3 2-hour sessions Onsite/Remote
Initial training (add-on session) 2 hours, scheduled consecutively with another Amplify training Onsite
Initial training: Train the Trainer 2½ hours Onsite/Remote
mCLASS® Initial training with Boost Reading Texas overview This Boost Reading Texas session occurs during the last hour of a 1-day mCLASS initial training. Onsite/Remote
Teacher dashboard reporting and analysis (online course) Self-paced (approximately 3 hours) Online course
Teacher dashboard reporting and analysis 2 hours Onsite/Remote
Comprehensive implementation PD package 2 2-hour sessions, scheduled separately Remote
Administrator reporting  2 hours Onsite/Remote
Middle school sessions
Initial training  2 hours Onsite/Remote
Initial training, 2 sessions in 1 day 2 2-hour sessions Onsite/Remote
Initial training, 3 sessions in 1 day 3 2-hour sessions Onsite/Remote
Initial training: Train the Trainer 2½ hours Onsite/Remote
Deeper dive 1 hour Remote
Elementary and middle school sessions
Initial training package 2 2-hour sessions Remote

Elementary school sessions

Initial training (online course)

Self-paced

Our self-paced, on-demand online course contains approximately three hours of training. Teachers in grades K-5 who are new to Boost Reading Texas will learn how to implement the program by learning about the structure of the program, the student experience, data reporting, and implementation setup.

As this is a self-paced, on-demand online course, participants will be able to access the course anytime, move as quickly or slowly as needed through different sections, and revisit the course up to one year as a refresher in the future.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome)
Modality: Online course

Initial training

2 hours

Teachers in grades K-5 who are new to Boost Reading Texas will prepare to implement the program in their classrooms by learning about the student experience, data reporting, and implementation setup.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Initial training

2 sessions in one day

Teachers in grades K-5 who are new to Boost Reading Texas will prepare to implement the program in their classrooms by learning about the student experience, data reporting, and implementation setup. Two training sessions will be scheduled consecutively in one day to accommodate a larger number of teachers (up to 60 teachers, with 30 participants per session.)

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Initial training

3 sessions in one day

Teachers in grades K-5 who are new to Boost Reading Texas will prepare to implement the program in their classrooms by learning about the student experience, data reporting, and implementation setup. Three training sessions will be scheduled consecutively in one day to accommodate a larger number of teachers (up to 90 teachers, with 30 participants per session).

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Initial training (add-on session)

2 hours

Scheduled consecutively with another Amplify training.

Teachers in grades K-5 who are new to Boost Reading Texas will prepare to implement the program in their classrooms by learning about the student experience, data reporting, and implementation setup.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite

Initial training: Train the Trainer

2½ hours

Educators in grades K-5 who are new to Boost Reading Texas will prepare to implement the program in their classrooms by learning about the student experience, data reporting, and implementation setup. As this is a Train the Trainer session, participants will have increased time to deepen their knowledge and receive greater hands-on support from an Amplify facilitator. Participants will also receive annotated session materials in order to turnkey the session to colleagues.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

mCLASS initial training with Boost Reading overview

6 hours

This training includes both mCLASS® and Boost Reading training. The first five hours are mCLASS Texas initial training, where educators will learn how to administer the mCLASS assessment. The last hour is a Boost Reading Texas overview, where educators will receive an overview of Boost Reading Texas and how it connects with their mCLASS data in grades K-5. This Boost Reading Texas session occurs during a one-day mCLASS Texas initial training.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Teacher dashboard reporting and analysis (online course)

Self-paced

Our self-paced, on-demand online course contains approximately three hours of training. After teachers in grades K-5 have used Boost Reading Texas for at least six weeks, they will learn how to analyze data on the Teacher dashboard and use that data to identify small groups and target instruction.

As this is a self-paced, on-demand online course, participants will be able to access the course anytime, move as quickly or slowly as needed through different sections, and revisit the course up to one year as a refresher in the future.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome)
Modality: Online course

Teacher dashboard reporting and analysis training

2 hours

Delivered after teachers in grades K-5 have used Boost Reading Texas for at least six weeks, this training will help teachers analyze the data on their teacher dashboard and use that data to identify small groups and target instruction.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Comprehensive implementation PD package

2 2-hour sessions

This package is intended for schools and/or districts that want the highest level of support in launching Boost Reading Texas! The first session is an initial training session and prepares teachers in grades K-5 to implement the program in their classrooms by learning about the student experience, data reporting, and implementation setup. The second session is the Boost Reading Teacher dashboard session and is delivered after at least six weeks of usage. This session will support K-5 teachers in analyzing the data on their teacher dashboard and using that data to identify small groups and target instruction.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Remote

Administrator reporting

2 hours

This training supports K-5 administrators in accessing and leveraging Boost Reading Texas reports.

Audience: Administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Middle school sessions

Initial training

2 hours

Teachers in grades 6-8 who are new to Boost Reading Texas will prepare to implement the program in their classrooms by learning about the student experience, data reporting, and implementation setup.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Initial training

2 sessions in one day

Teachers in grades 6-8 who are new to Boost Reading Texas will prepare to implement the program in their classrooms by learning about the student experience, data reporting, and implementation setup. Two training sessions will be scheduled consecutively in one day to accommodate a larger number of teachers (up to 60 teachers, with 30 participants per session.)

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants per session
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Initial training

3 sessions in one day

Teachers in grades 6-8 who are new to Boost Reading Texas will prepare to implement the program in their classrooms by learning about the student experience, data reporting, and implementation setup. Three training sessions will be scheduled consecutively in one day to accommodate a larger number of teachers (up to 90 teachers, with 30 participants per session.)

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants per session
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Initial training: Train the Trainer

2½ hours

Educators in grades 6-8 who are new to Boost Reading will prepare to implement the program in their classrooms by learning about the student experience, data reporting, and implementation setup.

As this is a Train the Trainer session, participants will have increased time to deepen their knowledge and receive greater hands-on support from an Amplify facilitator. Participants will also receive annotated session materials in order to turnkey the session to colleagues.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Initial training

3 sessions in one day

Teachers in grades 6-8 who are new to Boost Reading Texas will prepare to implement the program in their classrooms by learning about the student experience, data reporting, and implementation setup. Three training sessions will be scheduled consecutively in one day to accommodate a larger number of teachers (up to 90 teachers, with 30 participants per session.)

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants per session
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Deeper dive

1 hour

This training supports educators in grades 6-8 in understanding how Boost Reading Texas was designed to benefit students and how to leverage data to inform instructional next steps.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Remote

Elementary and middle school sessions

Initial training package

2 2-hour sessions

This package consists of two 2-hour remote sessions and is intended to support schools or districts launching Boost Reading Texas in grades K–8. One session will be geared toward K–5 teachers, and the other session will be geared toward 6–8 teachers. In each session, teachers who are new to Boost Reading Texas will prepare to implement their respective program (either elementary or middle school) in their classrooms by learning about the student experience, data reporting, and implementation setup.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Remote

Pricing

We offer the following pricing for training sessions and packages:

Session typePricing
Online course$49 per individual seat
1-hour remote session$500
2-hour remote session$750
2 sessions in 1 day, remote$1,200
3 sessions in 1 day, remote$1,500
2-hour onsite session$2,200
2 sessions in 1 day, onsite$2,800
3 sessions in 1 day, onsite$3,200
2-hour add-on to onsite training$1,200
2 ½-hour Train the Trainer session, remote$950
2 ½-hour Train the Trainer session, onsite$2,400
1-day mCLASS initial training with Boost Reading Texas overview, remote$1,200
1-day mCLASS initial training with Boost Reading Texas overview, onsite$3,200
Comprehensive implementation PD package$1,500
Elementary and middle school initial training package$750

Please note that the prices are general ranges and may be subject to change.

Contact

Amplify welcomes the opportunity to partner with schools and districts to design professional development plans and answer your questions.

If you would like to order any of our professional development services, please contact your local Amplify sales representative or call (800) 823-1969.

Welcome to Amplify Desmos Math California!

California educators, welcome to math that motivates. Introducing Amplify Desmos Math California, a new, curiosity-driven TK–12 program that builds lifelong math proficiency. Each lesson poses problems that invite a variety of approaches before guiding students to synthesize their understanding of the learning goals. Students encounter math problems they are eager to solve; teachers spend more time where it’s most impactful: creating a collaborative classroom of learners.

Scroll to learn more about the program and explore sample materials.

About the program

Amplify Desmos Math California is a TK–12 core math program designed to meet the CA Math Framework and the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. Offered in English and Spanish, Amplify Desmos Math California thoughtfully combines conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application through a structured approach to problem-based learning. Through engaging activities, Amplify Desmos Math California invites curiosity and math discourse into the classroom to create lifelong math proficiency.

Please scroll to learn more about the K–8 program and explore sample materials. (TK and high school materials are in development and will be available soon.)

A powerful math suite

Amplify Desmos Math California combines the best of assessment, problem-based core lessons, personalized practice, and intervention into a coherent and engaging experience for both students and teachers.

Laptop displaying a math problem interface with student assessment reports in the background.

Assessment

mCLASS benchmark assessments, along with daily formative checks, measure not only what students know, but also how they think. The asset-based assessment system provides teachers with targeted, actionable insights, linked to core instruction and intervention resources. Unit- and lesson-level core assessments give teachers data at their fingertips to guide and differentiate instruction. In grades 3–8, core assessments and performance tasks are designed to prepare students for success on the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) testing.

Core instruction

Amplify Desmos Math California core lessons pair problems students are eager to solve with clear instructional moves for teachers. Each lesson is designed to tell a story by posing problems that invite a variety of approaches before guiding students to synthesize their understanding of the learning goals. With built-in differentiation and Multilingual / English Learner support, Amplify Desmos Math California will allow every student to find success in the math classroom.

An educational game screen with a worm on a log and numbered blocks. Adjacent is a worksheet titled "Finding the Missing Pair" with instructions and incomplete equations.
A digital educational screen showing a math problem about converting meters to centimeters. It involves a diving toy sinking 5 meters into a pool. Text prompts users to input the conversion.

Personalized learning

Boost Personalized Learning activities help students access grade-level math through engaging, independent digital practice. Responsive Feedback adjusts to students’ work, providing item-level adaptivity to further support their learning.

Intervention

Integrated resources like Mini-Lessons, Fluency Practice, and Math Adventures provide targeted intervention on a specific concept or skill connected to the daily lesson. Extensions are also available to stretch students’ understanding.

Two pages of a math workbook displaying exercises on determining coordinates after rotation. The pages include diagrams, tables, and practice problems.
Network diagram with interconnected nodes labeled: Measure and Compare Objects, Represent Data, Dollars and Cents, Problem Solving with Measure, Skip Counting to 100, Number Strategies, Squares in an Array, Seeing Fraction in Shapes.

Big Ideas

The CA Mathematics Framework encourages a shift from power standards to thinking about math as a series of connected Big Ideas. Each Amplify Desmos Math California lesson supports one or more Big Ideas and the connections between Big Ideas. The grade-level diagram changes through the course based on the math concepts being addressed.

Focus, coherence, and rigor

Each lesson highlights why the content being covered is important, how students will engage with the mathematics, and what students will do with the learning. Our lesson opener helps teachers understand the most important concepts of the lesson, and includes the Drivers of Investigation (DI), Content Connections (CC), and Standards for Mathematical Practice (SMP) that drive learning in each lesson.

An educational slide on addition story problems, detailing goals for solving problems, language goals, and strategies using equal expressions, tens and ones, and number sense.
A screen titled "Match the Score" with a 2D target graph showing various scores. Instructions request four ordered pairs to total 400. Four pairs are listed: (4, 2), (7, 4), (7, 6), (10, 6). A "Try again" button is shown.

Built-in authentic tasks

Mathematics is not learning in isolation. Students are connected to each other’s thinking and can use math to understand the world. With accessible invitations to authentic tasks, all students can experience mathematical success. Amplify Desmos Math California provides these authentic invitations in a variety of ways:

Each unit begins with an “Explore” lesson, which allows students to engage with authentic exploration in low-floor, high-ceiling tasks. These tasks are designed in such a way that all students can access the basic mathematical concepts, but they also offer possibilities for advanced exploration and problem-solving for those ready for more complex work, promoting an inclusive and differentiated learning environment.

Our innovative course-level investigations are designed to facilitate multipart exploration. Students grapple with Big Ideas, diving deep into key concepts that encourage comprehensive understanding. Data science is infused into the approach, equipping students with a strong foundation in interpreting and applying data-driven solutions. The Environmental Principles and Concepts (EP&Cs) are also a focus of our investigations, enabling students to understand and appreciate the coherence and interrelationship of Earth’s environmental systems.

A focus on multilingual and English learners

Children sitting at desks in a classroom with a large illustrated caterpillar on the wall. Beside them are printed educational materials labeled “Amplify Desmos Math” and “Ying’s Aquarium Story.”.

In building Amplify Desmos Math California, we partnered with the English Learner Success Forum (ELSF) to provide guidance on our multilingual/English learner support for teachers. ELSF is a national nonprofit organization that advocates for high-quality instructional materials that are inclusive of multilingual learners. ELSF’s guiding documents reflect research-based instructional strategies that are critical to curriculum design and were created by researchers, linguists, and practitioners from across the country. ELSF reviewed our materials and provided directional guidance and feedback to ensure that the program fully supports multilingual/English learners.

A component of our K–5 curriculum is the engaging unit stories that interweave mathematics with real-life situations and relatable narratives. These unit stories are specifically crafted to inspire curiosity and foster a deep connection between the learner and the math concepts being explored. This unique approach not only makes learning fun and interesting, but also allows our young learners to see themselves in the math.

To help students grow their domain-specific and academic vocabulary, Amplify Desmos Math California provides embedded vocabulary routines, such as prompting teachers to use a Frayer Model. These routines allow students to make connections to new language and offer repeated opportunities to develop and refine language.

Amplify Desmos Math California recognizes the diverse language needs of our students and is designed to be inclusive. Each lesson in the program features a parallel language activity, designed to be available to all students, in the form of teacher guidance and student activities. The activities in the Math Language Development Resource has leveled ELD (Emerging, Expanding, Bridging) differentiation to support all levels of Multilingual and English Learners. This approach ensures that all students, regardless of their language skills, can participate fully, grasp the material, and excel in their mathematical journey.

Uploaded digital glossary for languages other than Spanish. Up to nine languages of translations will be provided for.

Amplify Desmos Math California will include support resources for Spanish-speaking students across TK–Algebra 1/Integrated I beginning in the 20262027 school year.

A computer displays an educational activity about measuring platform heights. A notebook page is layered behind it, with a colorful hamster-themed illustration.

K–5 sample materials

Click the links in the drop-down sections below to explore sample materials from each grade. 

For helpful navigation tips and more program information, download the Amplify Desmos Math Program Guide.

You can also watch a product expert walk through a lesson and the available program components.

Screenshot of a kindergarten curriculum outline featuring units like Math in Our World, Numbers 1-10, Positions and Shapes, Understanding Addition, Making 10, and Shapes All Around Us. This comprehensive program utilizes New York Math standards to build foundational skills.
Program structure

Get to know the content and structure of Kindergarten Amplify Desmos Math California.

Cover of Amplify Desmos Math Grade K Teacher Edition featuring three children playing with math-related objects and a group of rabbits sitting nearby, aligning with the engaging curriculum seen in New York math classrooms.
Teacher Edition pages

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Unit 1: Counting and Comparing Objects.

Digital educational activity showing a blue backpack illustration with dots, a task to match dots on cards, and printed sheet featuring a similar dot-matching exercise.
Digital experience

Explore our digital experience! Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math California has student print materials and digital recommendations.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Student Edition Kindergarten," featuring an illustration of three children playing with math-related toys. A group of small white animals, possibly hamsters, play nearby. The scene brilliantly captures the joy of New York math exploration for young learners.
Student Edition pages

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Grade K Centers Resources" featuring a large, stylized red and pink "C" on a light pink background with simple geometric designs. This distinctive cover complements New York math curriculums with its engaging visual elements.
Centers Resources

Engaging, hands-on games for students to play collaboratively to strengthen their understanding of key skills and concepts.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Grade K." The title is displayed with a geometric "I" illustration in the center. Subtitle reads "Intervention and Extension Resources" on a pink and white background, ideal for New York math standards.
Intervention and Extension Resources

Additional resources to reinforce and extend key concepts, including Mini-Lessons and Extensions.

Illustration of a bear choosing a path with more mushrooms. Activity book page titled "A Furry Feast" with groups of objects to compare quantities.

In this lesson, students apply their understanding of how to compare groups of images as they determine which group has more or fewer and then compare their strategies by guiding a bear through a path that has more mushrooms than the other.

A clear plastic box contains various math manipulatives, including counting cubes, geometric shapes, rulers, and dice, displayed outside the box.
Hands-on manipulative kit

An optional add-on to your Amplify Desmos Math California program, the manipulative kit provides hands-on learning tools designed to simplify and illustrate complex mathematical concepts.

Grade 1 math curriculum overview displaying six units with instructional and assessment days: counting, addition, subtraction, numbers to 10, comparing numbers, measuring length, and geometry—aligned with the New York Math standards.
Program structure

Get to know the content and structure of Grade 1 Amplify Desmos Math California.

Children interact with math activities on a large tablet while observing fish illustrations. The text reads "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 1 Teacher Edition, aligned with New York Math standards.
Teacher Edition pages

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Unit 1: Story Problems in Maui.

A digital educational activity showing a math problem about leaves on a kalo plant with a related worksheet on plant growth.
Digital experience

Explore our digital experience! Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math California has student print materials and digital recommendations.

Illustration of three children engaged in math activities from the "Amplify Desmos Math: Student Edition 1" textbook. One child holds a number card, while the others manipulate counters and images, experiencing an exciting approach inspired by New York math techniques.
Student Edition pages

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful.

Centers Resources

Engaging, hands-on games for students to play collaboratively to strengthen their understanding of key skills and concepts.

Intervention and Extension Resources

Additional resources to reinforce and extend key concepts, including Mini-Lessons and Extensions.

Interactive math activity for kids featuring a frog and number line for subtraction problems, asking to find differences to locate bugs.

In this lesson, students find differences when subtracting 1 and 2 from the same number by helping a frog reach a lily pad where it can eat a bug.

A clear plastic box contains various math manipulatives, including counting cubes, geometric shapes, rulers, and dice, displayed outside the box.
Hands-on manipulative kit

An optional add-on to your Amplify Desmos Math California program, the manipulative kit provides hands-on learning tools designed to simplify and illustrate complex mathematical concepts.

A curriculum overview for Grade 2 in New York Math displaying 8 units, including topics like comparisons, addition, subtraction, and geometric shapes, with details on the number of instructional and assessment days. This plan integrates resources from Amplify Desmos Math to enrich learning experiences.
Program structure

Get to know the content and structure of Grade 2 Amplify Desmos Math California.

Cover of the "Amplify Desmos Math" Grade 2 Teacher Edition, showcasing children measuring with rulers and a poster displaying a mathematical equation, set against whimsical scenery with a colorful dragon. Perfect for New York math classrooms.
Teacher Edition pages

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Unit 1: Adding and Subtracting.

Two digital worksheets about Theo's aquarium with tasks to estimate animal quantities using draggable graphs and illustrations of fish, frogs, and shrimps.
Digital experience

Explore our digital experience! Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math California has student print materials and digital recommendations.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Student Edition 2" showing three children performing a New York math activity with blocks and measurements.
Student Edition pages

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful.

Cover of an educational book titled "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 2 Centers Resources" featuring a green "C" on a light green background, perfect for enhancing New York math education.
Centers Resources

Engaging, hands-on games for students to play collaboratively to strengthen their understanding of key skills and concepts.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 2: Intervention and Extension Resources" featuring a green numeral 1 on a light green background, aligning with the New York math standards.
Intervention and Extension Resources

Additional resources to reinforce and extend key concepts, including Mini-Lessons and Extensions.

Educational activity on a screen showing a worm and blocks with numbers. Another page shows an activity titled "Finding the Missing Pair," with numbered options and a video prompt.

Students continue to develop fluency by finding the number that makes 10 by helping a millipede reach its favorite food – a clump of leaves!

A clear plastic box contains various math manipulatives, including counting cubes, geometric shapes, rulers, and dice, displayed outside the box.
Hands-on manipulative kit

An optional add-on to your Amplify Desmos Math California program, the manipulative kit provides hands-on learning tools designed to simplify and illustrate complex mathematical concepts.

An educational curriculum outline for Grade 3 with seven units covering various mathematics topics, including multiplication, shapes, fractions, and measurement. Suggested instructional days are provided. The New York Math approach ensures a thorough understanding of each concept.
Program structure

Get to know the content and structure of Grade 3 Amplify Desmos Math California.

Cover of a "Grade 3 Amplify Desmos Math Teacher Edition" book, featuring a cutaway building with diverse students and a teacher working on New York math problems and organizing materials.
Teacher Edition pages

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Unit 1: Concepts of Area Measurement.

Math activity screenshot showing a problem to calculate the area of an unpainted wall space with given side lengths in a room diagram.
Digital experience

Explore our digital experience! Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math California has student print materials and digital recommendations.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Student Edition 3" showcasing illustrated children engaged in various mathematical activities inside a glass house structure, reflecting the dynamic energy of New York math.
Student Edition pages

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful.

Cover of the Amplify Desmos Math Grade 3 Centers Resources book, featuring a 3D letter "C" in blue and white on a minimalistic background, perfect for aligning with New York math standards.
Centers Resources

Engaging, hands-on games for students to play collaboratively to strengthen their understanding of key skills and concepts.

Cover of an "Amplify Cover of the "Amplify Desmos Math" Grade 3 book featuring intervention and extension resources, with a blue geometric "I" on a light blue background, aligning with New York Math standards.
Intervention and Extension Resources

Additional resources to reinforce and extend key concepts, including Mini-Lessons and Extensions.

Activity sheets showing a bar graph and a table for counting animal stickers: 7 rabbits, 5 raccoons, and 2 foxes. Includes instructions for arranging data points on a graph.

Students compare data represented on bar graphs with different scales by using animal stickers to create scaled bar graphs.

A clear plastic box contains various math manipulatives, including counting cubes, geometric shapes, rulers, and dice, displayed outside the box.
Hands-on manipulative kit

An optional add-on to your Amplify Desmos Math California program, the manipulative kit provides hands-on learning tools designed to simplify and illustrate complex mathematical concepts.

A course outline for Algebra 1 with 8 units, each detailing the number of instructional and optional days. The total suggested instructional days are 144 and 28 optional days, aligning with New York Math standards.
Program structure

Get to know the content and structure of Grade 4 Amplify Desmos Math California.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Teacher Edition Grade 4" showing children learning New York Math outdoors, using large mathematical tools and numbers, with one child in a wheelchair.
Teacher Edition pages

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Unit 1: Size and Location of Fractions.

Screenshot of a digital math activity showing a fraction number line task with a log-cutting visual and an instruction page titled "Locating Fractions.
Digital experience

Explore our digital experience! Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math California has student print materials and digital recommendations.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math, Student Edition, Grade 4," showcasing students collaborating on math problems involving shapes and numbers against a vibrant backdrop that blends cityscapes and natural scenery, capturing the essence of New York math learning.
Student Edition pages

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful.

Cover of the "Amplify Desmos Math" Grade 4 Centers Resources book, featuring a large, stylized blue letter "C" on a light blue background. This essential resource for New York math educators ensures engaging and effective instruction.
Centers Resources

Engaging, hands-on games for students to play collaboratively to strengthen their understanding of key skills and concepts.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math, Grade 4: Intervention and Extension Resources," featuring a geometric illustration and a blue and orange color scheme inspired by New York math standards.
Intervention and Extension Resources

Additional resources to reinforce and extend key concepts, including Mini-Lessons and Extensions.

An educational activity displays a drag-and-drop task to determine platform heights using tube lengths, showing a room scene and instructions on a digital interface.

Students choose tube lengths to connect to platform heights for hamster homes, identifying possible heights using what they know about multiples.

A clear plastic box contains various math manipulatives, including counting cubes, geometric shapes, rulers, and dice, displayed outside the box.
Hands-on manipulative kit

An optional add-on to your Amplify Desmos Math California program, the manipulative kit provides hands-on learning tools designed to simplify and illustrate complex mathematical concepts.

A Grade 5 curriculum scope and sequence chart with units covering volume, fractions, multiplication, shapes, place value, and measurement. Each unit lists instructional and assessment days to amplify Desmos Math activities.
Program structure

Get to know the content and structure of Grade 5 Amplify Desmos Math California.

Illustration of three students engaging with various math activities outdoors and around large blocks. Text at the top reads "Amplify Desmos Math, Grade 5, Teacher Edition" - a perfect resource for New York math educators.
Teacher Edition pages

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Unit 1: Fractions as Quotients.

Activity worksheet and digital screen showing a panda on a cliff, with instructions about placing a missing bamboo shoot to help it reach the leaf.
Digital experience

Explore our digital experience! Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math California has student print materials and digital recommendations.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Student Edition, Grade 5" featuring students engaged in various mathematical activities outside, such as block building, measuring, and gardening—a perfect resource aligning with New York math standards.
Student Edition pages

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful.

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Centers Resources

Engaging, hands-on games for students to play collaboratively to strengthen their understanding of key skills and concepts.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 5: Intervention and Extension Resources," featuring a large, stylized number five in purple against a light purple background with minimal geometric patterns, ideal for New York math curriculum support.
Intervention and Extension Resources

Additional resources to reinforce and extend key concepts, including Mini-Lessons and Extensions.

Screen showing a student activity about decomposing a figure into prisms, with a drag-and-drop exercise and an adjacent worksheet labeled "Seeing Prisms.

Students decompose a figure into rectangular prisms and determine the volume of the figure by adding the volumes of the individual prisms.

A clear plastic box contains various math manipulatives, including counting cubes, geometric shapes, rulers, and dice, displayed outside the box.
Hands-on manipulative kit

An optional add-on to your Amplify Desmos Math California program, the manipulative kit provides hands-on learning tools designed to simplify and illustrate complex mathematical concepts.

6–A1 sample materials

Click the links in the drop-down sections below to explore sample materials from each grade. 

For helpful navigation tips and more program information, download the Amplify Desmos Math Program Guide.

You can also watch a product expert walk through a lesson and the available program components.

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An educational document titled "Scope and Sequence" for Grade 6 math, designed in collaboration with Amplify Desmos Math, outlining six units with instructional and optional days for topics such as fractions, integers, and expressions.
Program structure

Get to know the content and structure of Grade 6 Amplify Desmos Math California.

Cover of the Grade 6 Amplify Desmos Math Teacher Edition, showcasing students engaging in various mathematical activities around a balance scale with variables, inspired by New York math educational standards.
Teacher Edition pages

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from three sub-units on this site: Unit 1, Sub-Unit 1: Area; Unit 3, Sub-Unit 1: Units and Measurement; and Unit 6, Sub-Unit 1: Solving Equations.

A digital activity showing two model trains on a track with a question about speed. A printed page on the right is titled "Model Trains" with warm-up instructions.
Digital experience

Explore our digital experience! Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math California has student print materials and digital recommendations.

Cover of “Amplify Desmos Math, Student Edition, Grade 6” featuring an illustration of children engaging in various New York math-related activities outdoors.
Student Edition pages

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful.

Cover image of "Amplify Desmos Math" for Grade 6, featuring a 3D pink letter "I" and the text "Intervention and Extension Resources." This New York math edition supports students with comprehensive resources.
Intervention and Extension Resources

Additional resources to reinforce and extend key concepts, including Mini-Lessons and Extensions.

A digital illustration of math balancing scales featuring boxes and a fox, alongside a worksheet displaying similar content and activities for learning math concepts.

Students use equations and tape diagrams to represent seesaw situations and to determine unknown animal weights, helping them make connections between diagrams that represent equations of the form `x+p=q` or `px=q`.

A clear plastic storage box filled with educational math manipulatives, including colorful blocks, shapes, measuring tools, and counting cubes displayed outside the box.
Hands-on manipulative kit

An optional add-on to your Amplify Desmos Math California program, the manipulative kit provides hands-on learning tools designed to simplify and illustrate complex mathematical concepts.

A Grade 7 math curriculum outline, featuring units on scale drawings, proportional relationships, measuring circles, rational numbers, operations, equations, angles, area, and probability with sequencing and days allocated. Perfectly aligned with Amplify Desmos Math for New York Math standards.
Program structure

Get to know the content and structure of Grade 7 Amplify Desmos Math California.

Cover image of "Amplify Desmos Math Teacher Edition Grade 7" featuring an illustration of students engaging in math-related activities with geometric shapes and construction elements against a New York cityscape background.
Teacher Edition pages

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from three sub-units on this site: Unit 1, Sub-Unit 1: Scaled Copies; Unit 4, Sub-Unit 1: Percentages as Proportional Relationships; and Unit 6, Sub-Unit 1: Equations and Tape Diagrams.

Activity page showing a grid for shape creation with an area of 8 square centimeters. Includes shape options and instructions on rotation. A booklet page displays area challenges and warm-up tasks.
Digital experience

Explore our digital experience! Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math California has student print materials and digital recommendations.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math, Student Edition, Grade 7" showing students engaged in math activities against a cityscape reminiscent of New York, with purple geometric structures and a crane in the background.
Student Edition pages

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Grade 7 – Intervention and Extension Resources" featuring a stylized 3D "I" on a light purple background, ideal for both New York math and national curricula.
Intervention and Extension Resources

Additional resources to reinforce and extend key concepts, including Mini-Lessons and Extensions.

Screenshot of an educational website showing a math activity featuring a sheep named Shira. There is a graph and a worksheet on inequalities displayed.

Students solve inequalities with positive and negative coefficients to solve a variety of challenges featuring a fictional sheep who eats grass according to an inequality.

A clear plastic storage box filled with educational math manipulatives, including colorful blocks, shapes, measuring tools, and counting cubes displayed outside the box.
Hands-on manipulative kit

An optional add-on to your Amplify Desmos Math California program, the manipulative kit provides hands-on learning tools designed to simplify and illustrate complex mathematical concepts.

Grade 8 math curriculum chart featuring 9 units, such as Rigid Transformations and Congruence, with Suggested Instructional days. Each unit outlines instructional days, assessment days, and optional days—complemented by insights from Amplify Desmos Math to enhance your New York math learning experience.
Program structure

Get to know the content and structure of Grade 7 Amplify Desmos Math California.

Illustration of children engaging in learning activities outdoors near a large slide. The title "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 8 Teacher Edition" is shown at the top, highlighting its relevance to New York math curriculum standards.
Teacher Edition pages

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from three sub-units on this site: Unit 1, Sub-Unit 1: Rigid Transformations; Unit 3, Sub-Unit 2: Linear Relationships; and Unit 6, Sub-Unit 2: Analyzing Numerical Data.

Image of a digital math activity titled "Line Capture #2" featuring a grid, equations, and instructions. A paper worksheet with graphs and a "Line Zapper" title is displayed alongside.
Digital experience

Explore our digital experience! Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math California has student print materials and digital recommendations.

Cover of the "Amplify Desmos Math" Student Edition for Grade 8, featuring students engaging in various mathematical activities in a stylized outdoor New York setting.
Student Edition pages

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 8: Intervention and Extension Resources" featuring a stylized "I" on a gray background, tailored for New York math standards.
Intervention and Extension Resources

Additional resources to reinforce and extend key concepts, including Mini-Lessons and Extensions.

An educational worksheet on robots, featuring a graph with red, purple, and blue robot icons, and instructions for a warm-up activity.

Students connect points on a scatter plot with individuals in a population and rows of data in a table. The analysis of scatter plots continues with data about the eye distances and heights of robots.

A clear plastic storage box filled with educational math manipulatives, including colorful blocks, shapes, measuring tools, and counting cubes displayed outside the box.
Hands-on manipulative kit

An optional add-on to your Amplify Desmos Math California program, the manipulative kit provides hands-on learning tools designed to simplify and illustrate complex mathematical concepts.

A course outline for Algebra 1 with 8 units, each detailing the number of instructional and optional days. The total suggested instructional days are 144 and 28 optional days, aligning with New York Math standards.
Program structure

Get to know the content and structure of Algebra 1 Amplify Desmos Math California.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Algebra 1, Teacher Edition" featuring diverse characters engaged in mathematical activities, with a graph and a bridge in the background, illustrating the vibrant energy of New York math.
Teacher Edition pages

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from two complete sub-units on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Units 1–2: One-Variable Equations and Multi-Variable Equations.

A digital educational interface shows a graph with data points and textual instructions comparing year and breeding pairs. Adjacent is a page discussing penguin populations with charts and illustrations.
Digital experience

Explore our digital experience! Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math California has student print materials and digital recommendations.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math" Student Edition A1, featuring an illustration of diverse characters engaging in New York math activities against a backdrop of graphs and mathematical concepts.
Student Edition pages

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful.

A digital math activity screen showing block arrangements and a worksheet page titled "Shelley the Snail" with related graphics.

Students represent the solutions of a situation using a table, a graph, and multiple forms of an equation to identify multiple combinations of blocks that can help Shelley the Snail cross a gap.

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For questions, samples, or more information, please contact your local Amplify Account Executive:

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Request additional samples.

Ready to learn more? Connect with an Amplify Desmos Math California expert to request additional program samples.

S3-05: Thinking is power

A graphic with the text "Science Connections" and "Amplify" features colorful circles and curved lines on a dark gray background.

Join us as we sit down with Melanie Trecek-King, college professor and creator of Thinking is Power, to explore how much of an asset science can truly be in developing the skills students need to navigate the real world. You’ll learn about “fooling” students and the importance of developing critical thinking, information literacy, and science literacy in the classroom. We’ll also share real strategies and lesson examples that help build these essential skills and engage students in learning.

And don’t forget to grab your Science Connections study guide to track your learning and find additional resources!

We hope you enjoy this episode and explore more from Science Connections by visiting our main page!

DOWNLOAD TRANSCRIPT

Melanie Trecek-King (00:00):

We say knowledge is power, but it’s not enough to know things. And there’s too much to know. So being able to think and not fall for someone’s bunk is my goal for my students.

Eric Cross (00:12):

Welcome to Science Connections. I’m your host, Eric Cross. On this third season, we’ve been talking about science’s underdog status. And just this past March at the NSTA conference in Atlanta, I had the chance to speak with science educators from around the country about this very topic.

Hermia Simanu (00:28):

Right now, there’s only two teachers in our high school teaching science.

Shane Dongilli (00:32):

I have 45 minutes once a week with each class. The focus is reading and math.

Alexis Tharpe (00:38):

Oftentimes science gets put by the wayside. And you know, I love math and I love my language arts, but I also think science needs to place be placed on that high pedestal as well.

Askia Little (00:46):

In fifth grade, oh, they teach science, because that’s the only grade that it’s tested.

Eric Cross (00:50):

That was Hermia Simanu from American Samoa. Her team flew for three days to make it to the conference. You also heard from Shane Dongilli from North Carolina, Alexis Tharpe from Virginia, and Askia Little from Texas. All of these teachers were excited to be at the conference and had a lot to say about the state of science education in their local schools. Throughout this season, we’ve been trying to make the case for science, showing how science can be utilized more effectively in the classroom. We’ve explored the evidence showing that science supports literacy instruction. We’ve talked about science and the responsible use of technology like AI. My hope is that all of you listeners out there can use some of this evidence to feel empowered to make the case for science in your own communities. And on this episode, we’re going to examine how science can help develop what might be the most important skill that we try to develop in our students: Good thinking. On this episode, I’m joined by a biologist who actually advocated for eliminating the Intro to Bio course at her college. Instead, Professor Trecek-King created a new course focused on critical thinking, information literacy, and science literacy skills. In this conversation, we discuss why the science classroom is such a good environment for helping students become better thinkers. Now, I don’t think that you can make a much stronger argument for science than using it to develop the skills that Melanie describes in this conversation. So, without further ado, I’m thrilled to bring you this conversation with Melanie Trecek-King, Associate Professor of Biology at Massasoit Community College, and creator of Thinking Is Power. Here’s Melanie.

Eric Cross (02:29):

Well, Melanie, thank you for joining us on the show. It’s so good to have you.

Melanie Trecek-King (02:34):

I am so happy to be here.

Eric Cross (02:35):

Now, I went to your session at NSTA in Chicago … I think it was two years ago. A couple years ago. And I was listening to your session, and as I was listening to you, I started Reverse Engineering in my mind what you were doing with your college students. I started reverse engineering the K–8. I was like, “This is amazing.” Where has what you’ve been doing been hiding? We need this not just in the college, higher ed. We need this all the way up and down. Because I hadn’t seen it before. So I think a good place for us to start is gonna be like the story of how and why you as a biologist wound up making the case to actually eliminate the Intro to Biology course at your college. So can you start off and tell us a little bit about that story?

Melanie Trecek-King (03:20):

Sure. So I started teaching at a community college in Massachusetts. And I absolutely love teaching at a community college. And I was teaching the courses that people who don’t wanna be scientists when they grow up have to take to fulfill their science requirement. And that course was Intro Bio. And I tried every way I could figure out to make that class be useful,] relevant to students. I mean, the thing is, our world is based on science and you have to understand science to be a good consumer of information, to make good decisions. And I’m a biologist, so it pains me to say this, but you know, somewhere in the middle of teaching students about the stages of mitosis and protein synthesis, I thought, “Is this really — like, if I have one semester that’s gonna be the last chance that someone’s gonna get a science education, is this really what they need?” And I just decided, “No.” So, to my college’s credit, they were very supportive. I went to them and said, “You know, I think we should assess the non-majors courses. Like, why do we teach non-majors science?” And we all agreed, well, it was for science literacy. OK, great. Do our existing non-majors courses do that? And so we evaluated each of the courses. I made a case that Intro Bio was not doing it. And so we actually replaced it with a course that I call Science for Life. And the whole course is designed to teach science literacy, critical thinking, and information literacy skills.

Eric Cross (04:48):

And so you did this while you were looking at mitosis. And you’re looking at students who may or may not be science majors. And then kind of asking that question. I know every educator asks this, and whether or not it’s welcomed or supported is a different question: “Is what I’m teaching actually gonna be relevant and useful later on down the road for this group of students?” And you actually got to run with it and then create this course, this new course. So, what were the skills that you were hoping to achieve with the new course you developed, and and why were those skills so important?

Melanie Trecek-King (05:21):

Well, if I just go back for a second to what you said, ’cause it, really hit me: I remember the actual moment — it had been building up to that point, but the actual moment that it hit me — I was teaching students the stages of mitosis. And I was applying it to cancer, because the thought is that if we use issues that are relevant to students to teach concepts, that it will be more meaningful to them. They’ll learn it better; they’ll be able to apply it. And they just looked absolutely deflated. They didn’t wanna be there. And I had this moment where I thought, “You know, if, if these students ever have cancer somewhere in their lives, is what I taught them going to be something that they remember? Is it going to be useful to them?” And quite frankly, like, no. <Laugh> They’re not gonna remember proto-oncogenes. And quite frankly, is that really what they need to know at that moment? What they need to know is, “What does this mean? Who is a reliable source of information here? If these treatments are recommended, what is the evidence for them? What are the cost-benefit analyses? Where do I go to find reliable information?” And in that space, cancer in particular, we have this whole field of — I wanna say charlatans, ’cause they may not actually be lying, but they’re pedaling false cures, false hopes. And people need that kind of hope, and so in their time of need, they’re more likely to fall for that kind of thing. Which leads me to the skills that I teach students. I call them this tree of skills. And the order is important. I start — and there’s a lot of overlap to be fair — but critical thinking, and then information literacy, and science literacy. The idea is that students carry in their pockets access to basically all of human’s knowledge at this moment in time. And if they needed to access it, they could. The question is, do they know what they’re looking for? Are they aware of their own biases that are leading them to certain sources, or certain false hopes? Are there certain things that are making them more vulnerable to the people that might prey on them? Are they able to use that information to make good decisions? There’s a great Carl Sagan quote, and it’s something like, “If we teach people only the findings of science, no matter how useful or even inspiring they may be, without communicating the method, then how is anyone to be able to tell the difference between science and pseudoscience?” So yes, the process of science is a process of critical thinking. However, we do tend to present science most of the time. Like, here’s what science has learned. And to be fair, those things that we’ve learned from science are really useful and inspiring. But if we don’t teach the process, so you’ve got somebody now who let’s say has been diagnosed with cancer and is on their phone and they’re scrolling through social media and everything looks the same. And of course the algorithms learn who you are. Next thing you know, there’s all of these like pseudo-treatments popping up. It all looks the same. Somebody who says that acupuncture can be used to cure cancer can feel the same, from someone who doesn’t understand the process of science, as a medical fact. And so the process is the process of critical thinking. My class everything is open note. The quizzes are open note. The exams — and I say open note, they’re also open online, because I know for the rest of their life they’re gonna have resources available to them; I want them to be good consumers with that information, which to me requires metacognition and critical thinking and information literacy and all those skills that I’m trying to teach them.

Eric Cross (08:58):

You’re basically taking what … we’ve taught science for so long. And more recently, it’s changed to more focusing on skills. At least in K through 12. But a lot of it was just memorization of a ton of different things that now we can pull up our phone, go on the internet. You can pull up a lot of those facts. But those facts don’t necessarily translate to actual real-world skills. When I listen to… I kind of make this analogy sometimes: students say … it’s funny, I have 12-year-olds that say this. They go, “How come they don’t teach us how to do our taxes?” And you know they’re regurgitating what they hear from adults, right? “Teach us real-world skills!” And I was like, really, if we taught you right now how to do your taxes, how many of you would really be like, “Oh, this is an awesome lesson! We’re really engaged!” But their point is that “I wanna learn something that I could actually use later on, that’s that I’m gonna carry on.” And in your course, you’re talking about these skills that actually can apply. Like you said, if I had cancer and I’m looking at different types of medical procedures, do I have the skills to really be able to evaluate and make informed decisions on that? And that’s, that’s not something that I’ve seen explicitly taught really anywhere. And I hadn’t heard anybody talk about it, really, until I heard your session, where you’ve kind of unpacked this, and over the last couple of years, have created some programs or resources for educators, where they can take this into their classroom. So what were some of those skills, again? What were were some of the skills that you thought, “I wanna make sure that my students can walk out and they know how to do this and apply it to maybe several different fields”?

Melanie Trecek-King (10:35):

Oh, that’s a really good question. Because the whole thing was a process for me. Like, when I finally let go of Intro Bio, I was so glad to see that class go, by the way. ‘Cause I just felt like I was beating a dead horse. So when I let go of it, I thought, “What do they need instead?” And for me, what I realized was I was trying to make the class I would’ve wanted to take. I realized the things that I personally didn’t know, that my own education maybe let me down a bit. But things that I thought were important. So then I took all of those, synthesized them, tried to figure out the best order. The class is currently in its third iteration. And I hope every iteration is an improvement. But I’m thinking about the students that I taught before the pandemic. It was Intro Bio. Up to just maybe the couple years before the pandemic, and during the pandemic, we had a new virus and we had a new vaccine and we had new treatments. There was hydroxychloroquine and there was ivermectin and then there’s masks. Are masks effective? Well, you know, in what circumstances? What kind of mask? There are all of these questions. And that whole thing was we saw science playing out in real time.

Eric Cross (11:50):

Absolutely.

Melanie Trecek-King (11:51):

And so were my students able to follow that? And then what happened in that process is that science became politicized. And in a time where things are uncertain and we need answers, ’cause it’s scary, people want certainty and science doesn’t tend to provide that. Especially when it’s just starting out. And then when it becomes politicized, people decide that they’re going to — it’s not necessarily a conscious decision — but they retreat into what people in their camps are saying or their groups are saying. Which actually leads me to one of the more important parts of information literacy skills in there, which is most of our knowledge is shared. We tend to have overinflated senses of what we individually know. And studies actually show that with Google, if you have access to Google, you think you’re smarter than if you don’t have access to Google. But we all have access to knowledge in our communities, and that’s one of the reasons humans are so successful, is that we can each specialize in different things and share our expertise and become greater than the sum of our parts. The problem with that, of course, is that we forget what we don’t know, and we assume that we know what the community knows. And so recognizing the limits of your own knowledge and how different communities produce knowledge, like the different epistemic processes that communities use to come to knowledge. When it comes down to it, an important part of knowing is knowing who to trust, right? Knowing where the source of knowledge lives. And in order to do that, you have to understand the processes that they’re using to come to that knowledge and the limits of your own knowledge. And then how to find who has that knowledge so that you can use that to make better decisions.

Eric Cross (13:38):

So, when I hear what you’re doing with your college students, and I think about what I’m doing in the classroom, in the middle school, we are really focusing on literacy as skills. Reading, writing, speaking, listening. And then when I think of the next step of the journey, your information literacy and the literacy you’re teaching is really the application of those things in the real world. And the examples that you gave are very critical examples. Evaluating claims about Covid. Making informed decisions about a medical procedure that you might need. And we all get that applied to us. We’re scrolling through social media and somehow social media is listening. It’s figuring out exactly what I’m doing, because all of a sudden the ads are telling me … how did you know I was alking about KitchenAid mixers now? I just said KitchenAid mixers and it’s gonna show up in my feed! But <laugh> I take that in the same way from the same place that I take in maybe an oncologist. So it’s it’s coming through the same channels. So now I kind of wanna pivot. So we’ve talked about what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, the connection between “am I really teaching the skills that my students need in the science class? Is it really critical thinking explicitly or is it just kind of implied?” Now I wanna ask you how you do it. What’s the annotated, abbreviated kind of syllabus of your course?

Melanie Trecek-King (15:03):

So the course is called Science for Life. And the premise behind it is the kinds of skills and understanding of the process of science that they would need to make good decisions to be empowered in a world based on science. And so the very first lecture, I say, “OK, I’m gonna tell you a story and I just want you to listen to the story. And at the end I’m gonna ask you why I told the story.” And the story that I tell them is some of the history of the witchcraft trials in Europe. And I start with the Malleus Maleficarum, or the Hammer of Witches, from the Pope, and about how people would accuse witches of causing birth defects or storms or crops dying. And, the best evidence that they had to absolutely know somebody was a witch was if somebody accused them, and then if they were accused, if they confessed. OK? But the problem is, to get them to confess, they would torture them. Roasting over coals, or splitting until somebody broke. And so I tell my students, “OK, this was absolute proof that someone was guilty of witchcraft. I don’t know about you; I would confess to anything, right? Make it stop!” So this is where I get to ask students, “Why would I ask you this? Why would I tell you this story? And traumatize you on the very first day of lecture?” And they see the reasoning, right? They thought they had evidence. The question was, is that good evidence? And so, you know, I’m getting students to have a basic understanding of epistemology, right? Without calling it that, or without going into all of the philosophical background of epistemology. Apply this to your own reasoning. What are you wrong about? Well, you probably wouldn’t know. OK, how would you know if you were wrong? Like what kinds of things do you feel that you’re so right about? How good is your evidence for that? So what I want them to do is internalize the thinking about thinking, and analyzing how they come to conclusions, and proportioning how strongly they believe. Their confidence in how right they are. So I think starting with that kind of misinformation, and getting students to internalize that process is important. But I think the example is really useful, because most of my students don’t believe in witchcraft. Right? So it’s not an issue that would immediately threaten them in some way. So when, when a belief is tied to identity or how we see ourselves or is really important to us, then it’s very difficult to be objective about that belief. And so by starting with witchcraft, it’s not triggering. I get them to think about thinking and practice that muscle so that when we get to those more important issues, they have the skills they need to evaluate them.

Eric Cross (17:55):

So would it be fair to say that your Science for Life class is really applied scientific thinking for the real world?

Melanie Trecek-King (18:01):

Absolutely. That’s the idea. I mean, science is too good to keep to ourselves, right? And it’s everywhere. So how can you understand the world through a scientific lens?

Eric Cross (18:10):

What are the nuts and bolts of how you teach your students these strategies? What do you do? What are some strategies and techniques that we can maybe share with listeners? And then where I want to go after that is I wanna ask you, how early do you think this can be started? So lemme start off first with, what do you do?

Melanie Trecek-King (18:28):

So I use three different strategies. One is, I provide students with a toolkit. And the toolkit is one that I created and it is like my one toolkit to rule them all. It is trying to apply critical thinking and science reasoning all together in one place. So that if students are met with a claim, they’ve got the toolkit with an acronym. They can now start and have somewhere to go. In that if I gave you a claim and said, “Just critically think through this claim,” I mean, that’s a mighty task. But if you have a structured toolkit, then it’s hopefully a systemic way that’s helpful. The toolkit is summarized by FLOATER. I have published it on Skeptical Inquirer. It’s free. So it’s Falsifiability, Logical, Objectivity, Alternative Explanations, Tentative Conclusions, Evidence, and Reproducibility. So I provide students with a toolkit. The next thing I do is I use a lot of misinformation in class. Back to what Carl Sagan says: What I heard was we should use pseudoscience to teach students the difference between a pseudo-scientific process and a scientific process. So, I use science denial, conspiracy theories, and give my students a lot of opportunities to practice evaluating claims with the toolkit. And the other thing I do is, I use inoculation activities. So inoculation theory is based on William McGuire’s original research in the ’60s, which is basically like a vaccine analogy. Where you can inject a small amount of a virus or bacterium into the body, so that it creates an immune response, so that it can learn the real thing. And so in the real world, it can fight it off. Inoculation theory does the same thing, but with misinformation. So, what we can do is, in controlled environments, expose students to little bits of misinformation so that they can recognize it in the real world. There’s different kinds of inoculation, but I’m a big fan of what’s called active and technique-based inoculation. So technique-based means that students are learning not the facts of misinformation, not factually why this thing is wrong, but about the technique used to deceive. So maybe the use of fake experts. Or maybe the use of anecdotes. Or the use of logical fallacies. The other part of that is active, which is where students create the misinformation. So for example, my students, just now, we finished covering pseudoscience. And I teach students the characteristics of pseudoscience. And basically we have fun with it. Where they pretend to be grifters and they sell a pseudoscience product. And so they have to make an ad like they’d see on social media, using the different techniques. And the point there is that it’s supposed to be funny, right? And lighthearted. But in a real way, by using the techniques used to sell something like pseudoscience, it’s opening their eyes. You can’t unsee how every alternative product has, “it’s an all-natural and used for centuries and millions use it and look at this person who says, ‘Wow, it worked for me!’ And it’s certified by some society that doesn’t exist, but this doctor behind it says that it’s really great!” I mean, it’s all the same stuff. So they create the misinformation using their own techniques.

Eric Cross (22:02):

That’s one of my favorite things that you’ve talked about, and I want to dive in that a little bit more. But when you’re teaching the toolkit, FLOATER, what does that look like in the classroom, when you’re actually breaking all of those things down? What does it look like as you’re walking your students through this, and you’re kind of coaching them on all of those different things? ‘Cause I feel like some things might be like, “Oh yeah, I got that.” And then some of them might be, “Oh, what is that?”

Melanie Trecek-King (22:24):

Yeah, it takes me probably a good solid lecture to get through the basis of the toolkit. But then over the rest of the semester, I’ll spend more time going into different parts, different rules, a bit more in-depth. So, for example, logical fallacies and objectivity. So the rule of objectivity basically states that you need to be honest with yourself. I’m gonna quote Feynman here, so: “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.” We don’t tend to think that we can be fooled. But of course we can. So actually, if you wanna talk about it, I start class by fooling my students.

Eric Cross (23:03):

Wait, what do you do? What do you do for that?

Melanie Trecek-King (23:05):

Oh, so this is really fun. Day 1 of class, after the syllabus, I tell my … so you’re in my class now, Eric. “So I have a friend, and she’s a psychic. She’s an astrologer and she’s pretty good at what she does. I mean, she’s got books and she’s been on TV and stuff. She knows I teach this course about skepticism. And so she’s agreed to test how effective she is by providing personality assessments to students in class. So if you wanna participate, what I need from you is your birthday, your full name, answer a few questions. Like, if your house was on fire and you could take one thing, what would it be? Or if you could get paid for anything to do anything for a living, what would it be? Um, there’s a third one. Oh! If you could have any superpower, what would it be?” So the next class, it’s usually over a weekend. The next class I say, “OK, I’ve got your personality assessments back, but remember, we wanna test how effective she is. So in order to do that, I need you to read your profile as quietly as possible. And then I’m gonna have you rate her accuracy on a scale of 1 to 5. OK? So close your eyes; rate her.” Over the years doing this, it’s about a 4.3 to 4.5 out of 5. They think she’s pretty accurate. OK? “So now, if you feel comfortable, get with a person next to you. And I want you to talk about what parts of the personality assessment really spoke to you and, and why, and why you thought she was accurate or not.” And it takes them 5, 10 minutes before they realize they all got the same one. So, this is not my original experiment. It was first done by Bertram Forer in … I think it was the ’50s. And it’s done in psychology classrooms. James Randi made it famous. But the personality assessment itself is full of what are called Barnum statements. So, named after P.T. Barnum. These are statements that are very generic. So, “You have a need to be liked and admired by people. You are often quiet and reserved, but there are times where you can be the life of the party.”

Eric Cross (25:13):

How do you know this about me, by the way? This is a — I feel like you know me right now.

Melanie Trecek-King (25:17):

“There are times where you’ve wondered whether you’ve done the right thing.”

Eric Cross (25:19):

This is getting weird.

Melanie Trecek-King (25:21):

I’m just on fire, right? So these are Barnum statements. They’re the basis of personality assessment.

Eric Cross (25:29):

Mel, can I pause you right there? You said Barnum. Is that the same Barnum, like Barnum & Bailey Circus?

Melanie Trecek-King (25:34):

Yeah. P.T. Barnum, who didn’t actually say “There’s a sucker born every minute,” but we attribute him with that kind of ethos. These statements though, if you read a horoscope or even like personality indicators, like the MBTI, it is basically pseudo-scientific. And it ends up with lots of these Barnum statements. They produce what’s called the Barnum Effect, which is, “Wow, that’s so me! How did you know me?” I could even do more. Like, you have a box of photos in your house that need to be sorted. Or unused prescriptions. And these can apply to nearly everyone, but they produce this effect where we go, “Wow, that is so me!” Right? So by fooling them this way, I get to … well, so the next thing is, “Yes, I lied to you. And I’d like to tell you I won’t do that again. But I’m not going to, ’cause I might. So be on your guard.” But I did it for free. And why did I do it? “I did it because I could tell you ‘I could fool you,’ but you wouldn’t necessarily believe me. So I fooled you, so that you would learn what it feels like to be fooled.” It’s not fun. But we’re gonna make a joke outta this. And students are almost never upset about this ’cause it’s a fun process and they’re all fooled. And again, the point is, I didn’t disprove psychic powers. I didn’t just disprove psychics with this exercise. But I did show you how easy it was to fake. So if somebody is gonna tell you that they can know these things about you through some way, hopefully the evidence they provide should be stronger than something that’s easily faked. Right? Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. If you claim to be able to read my personality based on my birthdate, then I need more than something that you can be taught to do in 15 minutes. So, I fool them to convince them that they could be fooled.

Eric Cross (27:27):

You’re giving them a practice scenario for thinking. And I was thinking about basketball. I grew up playing basketball. And my coach would have our own team be the defenders of the next team we were gonna play, so that we can be prepared for the defense. We were gonna see. Now, when I’m thinking about education, and what you just said reminded me of this, it’s like we’re often just teaching offense. We’re always teaching the plays. We’re always teaching what to do. But we rarely teach defense. What happens when someone comes towards you and, and they challenge you or they come at you with claims? How do we evaluate this? And I think in pockets we do it. We do claim-evidence-reasoning. We present claims and evidence and reasoning. But we don’t always have practice defending them. And I think there’s great resources. There’s Argumentation Toolkit and there’s all these awesome resources that do this. But does that fit? You’re kind of having them practice defense?

Melanie Trecek-King (28:26):

Yeah. You know, that’s brilliant. I never considered that analogy. But, yeah, in the real world, you don’t just get to always try to score all the time. Someone’s gonna challenge you and give you a claim that maybe you haven’t heard before. So how do you think through it?

Eric Cross (28:41):

Yeah. And you become better. So now I’m thinking about how early could we start doing this? For one, I love the idea of lying to your students, because I do that. And it’s just such a fun scenario. How early could we start implementing these strategies or these ideas or these toolkits? In your mind, what do you imagine? How early could we start this with young people?

Melanie Trecek-King (29:07):

Yeah. I’m so glad you asked that question, ’cause honestly, by the time they get to me, it’s almost too late. And I don’t wanna say it’s too late, ’cause it’s never too late. But, oh, we need to start so much earlier! That example that I gave about the selling pseudoscience argument? I have a wonderful colleague, Bertha Vasquez, who’s a middle school teacher in Miami and the director of TIES at CFI. She did this with her middle school students. And quite frankly, their examples were just as good, or in some cases better, than my college students. And they had so much fun with it, too. And she just said that, you know, <laugh>, they actually are more savvy with the kinds of things that they see online than we — I don’t wanna say give them credit for. But almost that we want to believe. My students give me examples of things that are from corners of the internet that I didn’t know existed. And quite frankly, that’s probably a good thing for my own mental health. But students are on there too, like middle school students, and we need to prepare them for the kinds of things that they see in the wild.

Eric Cross (30:13):

So in middle school, definitely. Now, you’ve also done some work in high school as well, right? In Oklahoma? Did you do some. …?

Melanie Trecek-King (30:17):

Yeah.

Eric Cross (30:18):

…some work with high schoolers? What was that like? Did you see any impact there?

Melanie Trecek-King (30:21):

So I didn’t actually do it in Oklahoma. I have taught the course … actually, you were talking about younger kids. I’ve taught the course to high schoolers in my area that are parts of dual enrollment. And they absolutely ate up the curriculum. And they were wonderful, wonderful students. And it was completely appropriate for … they were juniors, actually. But the course has also been taught in Oklahoma, through a dual enrollment program as well. And it was a small sample size. But we have pre-post testing that showed that it improved their critical thinking, their acceptance of science. But anecdotally the head of the program there said that in his years doing this, he’d never seen a course that helped them improve in their other courses so well. So, I felt very rewarded by hearing this. But apparently their critical thinking skills and information literacy skills helped them succeed in their other courses that they were taking. And I love that the students were transferring those skills to other classes. That’s the whole point.

Eric Cross (31:23):

And that’s a big … I think that what you just said is really the core, especially of what we’ve been talking about this season: What you’re talking about and what you’re teaching can transfer and supports literacy. And this is an example of science doing that across all other content areas. So I think that that’s huge, that that was said. What do people say about this course? I know I went on your website, and I looked at some of the comments that some folks were saying, and I know it’s just a snippet, but what do you hear from the education world about this? Because I don’t see it in many places. I see it kind of embedded, sprinkled into different content areas. But you’re actually teaching it explicitly. Do you tend to find positive feedback, overwhelmingly? Or do you get pushback on on some of this? What’s it been like for you?

Melanie Trecek-King (32:16):

I think the biggest pushback — and it’s good pushback, and I would agree entirely — is with inoculation activities, you do need to be careful to, when you debrief students, you wanna tell them why you did what you did and to use their powers for good and not for fooling other people. And I think importantly, for not putting misinformation out into the wild without having context around it. So if you do these kinds of inoculation activities, like if you have your students create pseudoscience ads, don’t just let them put them on social media. Obviously, you can’t control everything that they’re doing. But explain to them why you wouldn’t wanna do that. As far as everything else, I’ve heard really great feedback. You’re referencing my website. So, when I put together the course, I was trying to find resources for students to read. Textbooks are ridiculously expensive and I couldn’t find anything that I really wanted students to buy. So I just started writing, and I put it on my site. I have a site that’s basically the core of the curriculum. More in progress. And then I’ve got some of the topics that we explore and those are all assigned readings. My students are captive, in that I know they want a grade, and for four months they have to sit with me for the entire semester, in that I’ve specifically ordered the content in a way that would be most conducive to them learning these things. On the internet, though, and on social media, ’cause I post on there as well, people come in from all kinds of entry points, and so the goal would be to have them start at the beginning and go to the end. But people … I’m pleasantly surprised that there is an audience for critical thinking and science literacy content out there. And so that really warms my heart. But I am doing more and more for educators. And so I have a section for educators. I put content on there. I put assignments, the assignments that we’ve talked about and more, are on there. And the educators that I’ve had use it have just been really wonderful. Like, I hear great things. If I might, the biggest issue that I’m having is actually reaching educators. I’ve gone to — I met you at NSCA, actually, that was only last summer.

Eric Cross (34:30):

Oh, wow. Wow.

Melanie Trecek-King (34:32):

Right?

Eric Cross (34:32):

Yeah, you’re right. It wasn’t even a year.

Melanie Trecek-King (34:35):

Yeah, I think it was like July last year. So, um, you’ve been to the conferences. And I just went to the last one as well. But I have yet to figure out a way to really get in front of enough educators to share the content. So if anybody’s listening and is interested in learning more, please let me know! <Laugh>

Eric Cross (34:52):

Yes. And we talked about your website, but I didn’t say what the website was. So it’s ThinkingIsPower.com.

Melanie Trecek-King (34:57):

Yes.

Eric Cross (34:58):

And on there, there’s tons of resources. There is the toolkit. And it’s all free.

Melanie Trecek-King (35:06):

Yes.

Eric Cross (35:07):

And there’s a dope t-shirt on there that I just bought today, that Melanie’s actually wearing right now. It says, “Be curious, be skeptical, and be humble.” And I love that. Because I think one of the things that we can’t forget about teaching people how to think and critically evaluating information, sometimes those conversations can become very dehumanizing. And what I mean by that is it sometimes can become, like, intellectual sport, where we forget that there’s a human being on the other other side. And we lose that empathy and compassion. We can kind of see that. It just becomes this intellectual jousting and arguing. And one of the things I know about you, and when you talk about this or you talk about the work that you do, and even the shirt that you’re wearing, there’s this, “be humble.” There’s this human that is never lost in this. And you said it, too: When you’re teaching your students and you’re equipping them with all of these intellectual skills and all of these tools, to use it for good. So to maintain your humanity, to maintain your character, and then to use it to edify and lift people up, not to go out and do harm. That balance, I think, is so, so important. So it’s something that I really appreciate about you and how you teach.

Melanie Trecek-King (36:19):

I appreciate those kind words. Actually—

Eric Cross (36:21):

Oh, of course!

Melanie Trecek-King (36:22):

—and if I might, I sometimes see people using critical thinking like a weapon. It’s like, “I have learned fallacies and I’m just gonna use the tools of critical thinking to tell you why you’re stupid, or why you’re wrong, and why my position is right!” But real critical thinking involves applying those same standards to your own thought processes. And even something like argumentation: the goal of our argumentation is not to BE right; it’s to GET it right. And so we’re on the same team. If we’re arguing about something, if the idea is in scientific argumentation we’re trying to find the truth, which one of us is making a better argument based on the evidence? Can your perspective help me see my own blind spots and vice versa? And the more different perspectives that we have, the more able we are to find whatever reality is. But we are in this together. And so, yeah, I think … I’m glad to hear that that’s coming through. But if you don’t have the kind of humility that says, “You know, I could be wrong,” then you’re never gonna change your mind anyway. So having the humility to say, I’m wrong. <Laugh>

Eric Cross (37:33):

Yeah. You end up just seeing people just defend turf, as opposed to support “look for truth.” And I know for me, my own education journey, I end up with more questions than answers anyways. So I go in trying to find an answer for something and I end up with 10 more questions. And I go, “OK, this is kind of how it is.” You go down this rabbit hole and you just end up with all these different questions. And it forces the humility, because you’re like, “I don’t know! I think this is what it could be, but it could also be these other answers or explanations. So this is just where I’m at, based on what we know right now, at this present time, which might shift.”

Melanie Trecek-King (38:07):

And that sounds reasonable. Yes. Which might shift. Yes.

Eric Cross (38:11):

And especially for us as life-science biology teachers, our content is something that definitely shifts. I know some of the things I teach now are not things that I learned when I was even in middle school. Just because things evolve. They change. We learn, we get new data. That’s just the way it is.

Melanie Trecek-King (38:24):

<Sighs> And Pluto is no longer a planet.

Eric Cross (38:26):

I know. Rest in — well, no, Pluto’s still there. Yeah. It’s no longer a planet. But that was one part of my kindergarten memorizations <laugh> is Pluto being in there.

Melanie Trecek-King (38:36):

Gotta change your mind.

Eric Cross (38:38):

I know. Any words of advice for science educators out there who want to focus more on honing these critical thinking skills and strategies with their own students, but they don’t know where to start? Where would you point them? Or what advice would you give them?

Melanie Trecek-King (38:52):

I think start with what you want the students to know. And not necessarily the FACTS that you want students to know, but start with the skills that you want them to know. And then really be honest with your process. When I designed Science for Life, I started with, “these are the skills that I want students to know.” And everything was in service of that. So this sort of backwards design, I think, helped me follow a path that was more likely to be useful, if that makes any sense. But it really required doing it all over again. So don’t be afraid to question the things that you’re currently doing, even if that’s all you’ve been taught or all you know.

Eric Cross (39:41):

What I’m hearing is, don’t be afraid to question your own assumptions about what you’re doing. And don’t be afraid to adapt or change or modify. Kinda, pivot. Be flexible.

Melanie Trecek-King (39:51):

Yes, be flexible and pivot. And this is where I’m in a different position than middle school and high school educators. Because I have complete freedom over what I teach in my class.

Eric Cross (40:01):

Sure.

Melanie Trecek-King (40:01):

At the end of the semester, I always joke with non-majors that there’s nothing they have to know, which actually gives me a lot of flexibility, because I could teach ’em a lot of different things. So if there are things that you have to teach students, obviously that’s one thing. But I personally think that the way that we’ve been teaching science needs a refresher. A rethinking. And so I would say, “If you want your students to learn science literacy, honestly ask, what does that mean to you? And what would that look like to get to that point?” For me, though, it was also keeping in mind that maybe I didn’t already know the best way to do that.

Eric Cross (40:43):

One of the things you mentioned earlier is trying to reach out to educators. And I know that when we work together, it’s a force multiplier. And what you’re doing is developing skills. And there’s these skills that are happening right now in academia that you’re doing. And then how do we transfer that into middle and high school. Or, I’m sorry, middle and elementary school, high school. We need to get more people into this conversation to kind of brainstorm and figure that out. We have a Facebook group, Science Connections: The Community, where we have educators that gather. That can be one place we start the conversation. And again, I know on your website you’ve been super active on social media; you’ve grown your presence on Twitter and all these different places, engaging with folks. Which is awesome. ‘Cause I know I see your posts and I’m saving the things that you’re posting and I’m thinking of ways that I can do it in my classroom. I’m gonna take that product. By the way, is that on your website, the lesson that you do with the product?

Melanie Trecek-King (41:43):

No, actually. So the article, “How to Sell Pseudoscience” is … I know Bertha Vasquez wrote up a version of it.

Eric Cross (41:50):

Maybe we can grab that. ‘Cause we might be able to put that into the show notes for folks, because she’s a middle school educator. If there’s already something that’s been done for teachers like us, we’re like, “Yeah, let me get that and let me remix it and make it my own!” if there’s already a exemplar out there.

Melanie Trecek-King (42:04):

Yeah, she’s done it. And so I will absolutely share that with you.

Eric Cross (42:08):

So, all season long, we’ve been talking about science as the underdog. We kind of framed it, you know, science oftentimes takes a back seat to math and English. It’s kinda the first thing to go. Or the first area where time can get cut. Because of what gets tested gets focused on, oftentimes. And then in addition to that, when you’re a multi-subject teacher, elementary science isn’t just one thing — it’s every field. You know, you’re a biologist, which is different than a geologist. And when you’re teaching every subject, that’s a lot. And you might not have had a science class for years. And the realities that we’re seeing over and over with different researchers and practitioners is that science could actually enhance literacy, and building those skills. And I think you really talked about it with the critical thinking skills. Those can transfer. Or the administrator that said, “This is one of the only courses I’ve seen where it transfers to other areas.” Could you share maybe with our listeners, just any advice for advocating for science in their own world?

Melanie Trecek-King (43:13):

Wow, I’m not sure I’m qualified to answer that question! One of the things that comes to mind though — because I was listening to your last episode and educators … I honestly didn’t realize how little time they had for science. And how often science was then the first to go, to allow room for other subjects. But science overlaps with a lot of other issues. And so I feel like there could be a way to bring in science when teaching these other subjects. So, for example, argumentation and logical fallacies are easy to apply to reading and writing. Information literacy, and being able to find good information online, teaching students how to laterally read, to be able to check a source, or how to use Google effectively, to put in neutral search terms to find sources, or teaching students how to recognize the characteristics of conspiratorial thinking: All of these things can overlap with so many other subjects. So the scientist in me is a little biased towards science being important enough to do this. But try to bring it into the other subjects. It doesn’t have to be completely separate.

Eric Cross (44:43):

So integrating science into other things. And I … big believer. And a hundred percent agree with you. Now I’m gonna ask a question that kinda like takes us backwards. You shared an app with me when we first met that I thought was really cool. And I know it’s a friend or colleague of yours. But as a middle school teacher, I thought it was great, because it was something that my students could download and practice some of the skills that you’re talking about. Would you talk a little bit about the cranky uncle? Is it the Cranky Uncle app?

Melanie Trecek-King (45:17):

Cranky Uncle.

Eric Cross (45:18):

Could you share a little bit about that?

Melanie Trecek-King (45:20):

Yeah. Cranky Uncle is awesome. So, Cranky Uncle is the brainchild of John Cook, who is the founder of Skeptical Science and the author of the 97% Consensus study on climate change. Cranky Uncle … so he’s also a cartoonist. And Cranky Uncle is a cartoon game where … I don’t even have to explain who Cranky Uncle is to my students. Everybody inherently gets the, the character, right? So he’s like the guy at Thanksgiving that you don’t wanna talk to because he denies climate change and he’s just really cranky. But Cranky Uncle uses the techniques of science denial, which are summarized by the acronym FLICC: So it’s Fake experts, Logical fallacies, Impossible expectations, Cherry-picking, and Conspiratorial thinking. So he uses those techniques. Again, this is technique-based inoculation. So they recognize the techniques in the game, and you earn cranky points. And as you make Cranky crankier and crankier because you’re recognizing his techniques, you learn the techniques of science denial, and level up and open up other techniques. This is another one of those examples where climate change has a lot of science behind it, right? And if you wanted to get to the science behind climate change for any particular issue … so let’s say it’s cold today, so I’m gonna say there’s no climate change. OK? If I’m gonna unpack that at a factual level, and with science, we could be here for a while. But if I told you, “That’s like saying, ‘I just ate a sandwich so there’s no global hunger.’” OK? So that’s a parallel argument. Humorous. Love to use this kind of argumentation, ’cause it makes for some … I mean, it’s funny, but you get the point. It’s an anecdote. And anecdotes aren’t good evidence. So just like that, you could teach the technique of using an anecdotal fallacy for climate-change denial. So, I have my students play this game. You could do it when you’re studying argumentation. You could do it for science denial. I use an inoculation extension with that, where I have my students pretend that … um, actually, back up for a second. So I teach a class on critical thinking. And at the end of semesters I would get emails from students on, well, they’re failing the class, but they really shouldn’t, for all of these reasons. And reading these emails, I’m like, “If you think that’s a good argument, you clearly didn’t learn what I was hoping you would learn.” So I now have my students, early in the semester, after they play Cranky, pretend that it is the end of the semester and you’re failing the class and you’re failing because you didn’t do the work. Use at least four of the fallacies from class to argue for why you should pass. So they have to put it on a discussion forum, and they’ll say things like, “Well, if you fail me, then I won’t get into graduate school and then people will die and it will all be your fault.” Or, “My dog died, and so I was really sad.” Or, um, “You’re just a terrible teacher. And you’re short. So I don’t like you.” Or that kind of thing. So, oh, they love to attack my character. It’s really funny. But it’s supposed to be funny. And the point is, the students are using those arguments, they’re using the fallacies, to argue for something. And so by creating that misinformation themselves, they learn how those fallacies work. But taken together, I mean, everything that we just talked about there, Cranky Uncle, and the fallacy assignment, or whatever iteration you want that to be in, that doesn’t have to be in a purely science unit. Right? That could be sociology. It could be argumentation. It could be English.

Eric Cross (49:01):

Absolutely. That could be totally a prompt in an English class. And practiced in there. And then this could be an interdisciplinary thing, going back and forth between English and and science. Just having these discussions and looking at it from different angles. And you’re practicing the skills in two different contexts. So you get into argumentation. And then that app, I know I had fun with it. And the questions on there definitely resonate with people in my own family. I’m like, “I feel like I’m talking to exactly somebody that I’m related to right now.” <Laugh> Melanie, anything else that you wanna share, or discuss or highlight, before we wrap up?

Melanie Trecek-King (49:39):

So we could talk about lateral reading, if you like. ‘Cause I know a lot of educators use the crap test.

Eric Cross (49:45):

Please, please, please talk about that.

Melanie Trecek-King (49:47):

So, when evaluating sources, a lot of educators teach what’s called the CRAP test. And I wish I remembered what it stood for. But basically what you do, a lot of us have been taught when you go to a website, to figure out if it’s reliable, you wanna go to the about page. Read the mission; see who they are; maybe read some of the content; evaluate the language. So is it inflammatory? Are they making logical arguments? Are the links to reputable sources as well? And the problem is that if a site wants to mislead you, they’re not going to tell you that it’s a bunk site, right? They’re just gonna do a good job of misleading you. And so, what you wanna do instead … the CRAP test basically is an evaluation of a site. And that’s what’s called vertical reading. So you’re looking through a site to determine if it’s reliable. Uh, I think his name’s Sam Wineberg at Stanford, proposed something called lateral reading. Where, instead of on the site, what you wanna do is literally open a new tab and into the search engine type the source. You could do the claim, too. And then something like Reliability or FactCheck or whatever it’s that you’re checking, and then see what other reputable sites have to say about it. So, in their study, actually, they did a really interesting study where they compared professional fact checkers to PhD historians to Stanford undergrads. And they evaluated — I wish you could … um, there’s two pediatrician organizations. One’s like the American Association of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Pediatricians, something like that. They’re very similar sounding. So you give them to students. I do this with my students as well, the same study. So I give my students those two websites. And I say, “Which one of these is more reliable?” And they do exactly what most of us do, which is spend time on the site looking around. And most of the time, if not nearly all the time, they come to the wrong conclusion. And so then I tell them what lateral reading is: “OK, instead of looking through the site, open a new tab, search the organization and reliability.” Something like that. And it takes probably 30 seconds before they realize one of them has been dubbed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group. As opposed to the other one, which is like a hundred year old huge pediatrician organization that produces their own journals and so on. But nearly all my students are fooled. And in the study, none of the fact checkers were fooled. I’m gonna get the number right. It’s something like 50% of the historians and 20% of the Stanford undergraduates got the correct answer. And they spent a lot more time on it. So it’s a great way to teach students how to use the power of the internet to evaluate sources much more quickly and, effectively. And yes, use Wikipedia, right? Wikipedia is not a final answer, but Wikipedia is actually pretty accurate. So if Wikipedia is the first place you stop, then yes, go there, see what Wikipedia says, and then follow some of their sources.

Eric Cross (52:47):

What popped in my head was like, Yelp reviews for websites. That almost sounds like what it was. It’s like when I search for a product, I don’t go and read the product description marketing. ‘Cause that’s all designed to sell me on something. But I’ll go and look in Reliability, if it’s like a car, or just other sites to cross-reference. And that sounds like what you were talking about is like cross-referencing. Seeing what FactChecker [sic] said about this site, versus seeing what a site says about itself.

Melanie Trecek-King (53:14):

Well, that’s a great analogy. Because if I wanted to know if a product was effective, what the manufacturer says about the product, clearly there’s a strong chance of bias. Right? They’re going to be on their best, um, put their best foot forward. Versus, what do independent reviewers say about this product?

Eric Cross (53:35):

Yep. And I am known to research something to death. And I get something called “paralysis by analysis.”

Melanie Trecek-King (53:42):

Ohhhh, yeah.

Eric Cross (53:44):

And it’s so bad that even if I’m trying to buy, like, towels, I need to find the best-bang-for-the-buck towel. I have to defer some of these decisions out, because I’m on the internet for three hours now. I’ll be a pseudo-expert in towels, and thread count, and all of that stuff. But yeah, that maybe that’s just the science person.

Melanie Trecek-King (54:03):

I mean, I feel your pain. I do the same thing. <Laugh> It’s annoying. Like, it’s just towels. What does it really matter? But yeah.

Eric Cross (54:10):

Coffee! It doesn’t matter what it is. I just need to go, “OK, I have to use these powers for good. Otherwise I’m gonna be researching forever.”

Melanie Trecek-King (54:16):

I wanna say one other thing. So, again, this is a college class and I have a lot of freedom. But one of the driving philosophies behind the class is a wonderful quote in a book, Schick and Vaughn, How to Think about Weird Things. And they said, “The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your decisions, and the quality of your decisions is determined by the quality of your thinking.” And I know my students want a grade. But I’m really trying to teach them how to be empowered through better thinking. That’s where the name “Thinking is Power” came from. I mean, we say “Knowledge is Power,” but it’s not enough to know things. And there’s too much to know. So being able to think and be empowered to have your own agency and not fall for someone’s bunk is my goal for my students.

Eric Cross (55:07):

And doing that is gonna help them through the rest of their lives. Not be swindled, not be taken advantage of, be able to make better decisions. There’s so many benefits to building that skill. And I know your students have definitely grown and benefited. I’m sure you’ve heard, long after you’ve taught them, heard back from them and how they’ve applied that course to their lives. Melanie, thank you so much for being here. For a few things. One, for providing and filling this space where there’s such a need. Again, the critical thinking resources, the tools that you used, are so, so important. If we ever lived in a time where they were critical, it was really what we experienced during the pandemic in the last few years. We watched people’s information literacy and science literacy play out in real time. And we literally saw life-and-death decisions being made based off those skills. That highlighted, I think how important this is. And then, taking the time to generate resources for educators like myself, that we can take and adapt and put into our classroom and start teaching our students. ‘Cause like you said, by the time they get to you, they’re, they’re so far downstream or so far in a system that, depending on the teachers that they’ve had and the education system they’ve been in, may or may not have even touched on these things. They might have learned a lot of facts, but they may not have built their muscle to be able to critically analyze and interpret the world around them. And you’ve just — even the last year, it hasn’t even been a year since we talked the first time — I’ve watched your resources continue to grow, and you share them. And so I, on behalf of those of us in K–12, thank you. And thank you for being here.

Melanie Trecek-King (56:49):

Oh, well, thank you so much for this opportunity. Thank you for everything that you do, reaching out to other educators and for giving me a platform to hopefully reach other educators.

Eric Cross (57:00):

Thanks so much for listening to my conversation with Melanie Trecek-King, Associate Professor of Biology at Massasoit Community College and creator of Thinking Is Power. Make sure you don’t miss any new episodes of Science Connections by subscribing to the show, wherever you get podcasts. And while you’re there, we’d really appreciate it if you can leave us a review. It’ll help more listeners to find the show. You can find more information on all of Amplify shows at our podcast hub, Amplify.com/Hub. Thanks again for listening.

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What Melanie Trecek-King says about science

“Students carry in their pocket access to basically all of humanity’s knowledge at this moment in time. The question is: do they know what they’re looking for?”

– Melanie Trecek-King

Associate Professor of Biology at Massasoit Community College and creator of Thinking is Power

Meet the guest

Melanie Trecek-King is the creator of Thinking is Power, an online resource that provides critical thinking education to the general public. She is currently an associate professor of biology at Massasoit Community College, where she teaches a general-education science course designed to equip students with empowering critical thinking, information literacy, and science literacy skills. An active speaker and consultant, Trecek-King loves to share her “teach skills, not facts” approach with other science educators, and help schools and organizations meet their goals through better thinking. Trecek-King is also the education director for the Mental Immunity Project and CIRCE (Cognitive Immunology Research Collaborative), which aim to advance and apply the science of mental immunity to inoculate minds against misinformation.

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About Science Connections

Welcome to Science Connections! Science is changing before our eyes, now more than ever. So…how do we help kids figure that out? We will bring on educators, scientists, and more to discuss the importance of high-quality science instruction. In this episode, hear from our host Eric Cross about his work engaging students as a K-8 science teacher. 

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In the final episode of the season, Eric sits down with his friend and professional development facilitator, Jessica Kesler. Jessica describes her passion for sharing free, high-quality, empathy-centered professional development for K12 educators. Jessica also shares her experience jumping into leadership positions while teaching in Philadelphia. Eric also chats with Jessica about how students often lean on teachers for more than delivering content. Explore more from Science Connections by visiting our main page.

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Jessica Kesler (00:01):

One student at a time, isn’t gonna bring a million students through the door. But if we focus on their teachers, then they can implement it in their classroom and have this multiplicative effect that can continue on and help us to reach those millions of kids and helping them be prepared for future careers.

Eric Cross (00:19):

Welcome to science connections. I’m your host. Eric Cross. My guest today is Jessica Kessler. Jessica’s director of professional learning at TGR foundation, which is a tiger woods charity. There she creates and leads free stem, professional learning opportunities for educators across the country. Prior to working at TGR, Jessica worked as an elementary, middle and high school science teacher while fulfilling several leadership roles, including science department, chair and principal intern. In this episode, Jessica shares some of her classroom experiences while working in Philadelphia, where she was in classrooms, where her students needed her to be more than just her content. She also addresses how designing professional learning with empathy for teachers in mind creates better experiences for teachers. And now please enjoy my discussion with Jessica Kessler. So let’s, let’s start off with St. Joseph’s chemistry college to the classroom, like your origin story. What led you to ultimately get into the classroom and being successful, even just looking at, at your kinda like your resume or your CV of all of the things that you’ve done. You definitely weren’t idle, but start off with chem. Yeah. Like where did that passion come from?

Jessica Kesler (01:27):

Yeah. So when I was younger, I just had this burning passion to help people. Right. And when you’re young and you think about helping people, you think about doctors, doctors help people. Right. So I had this idea that I wanna be a surgeon. I wanna be a black surgeon. I wanna be a young girl, female Charles drew, and I just wanna go out there and do it. And so my mom is actually an alum of St Joe’s. So I spent a lot of time on campus cuz as she was getting her mini master’s degrees I will visit campus with her often. And so when I applied, I had the scholarships, had everything and I went in ready to be bio ready to be a surgeon. I took my first bio class and I was like, yes, let’s talk about the human body. And let’s get into dissections and sections. And they were like, okay, so a plant so has this. And I was like, Ooh <laugh> I was like, this is not what I was expecting at all. It just felt so detached from the trajectory that I wanted to take. And it just did not feed that passion of helping people in the immediate moment.

Eric Cross (02:31):

Did it, did it feel too abstract?

Jessica Kesler (02:33):

It felt abstract. It felt boring. Okay. And one thing I didn’t want was to be like stuck, bored. Like if I’m not being stimulated in a good way, mm-hmm <affirmative> then it’s not gonna last, but I love science. So I switched over to chemistry cuz I’m like this chemistry is exciting. I’m mixing things together. I’m producing new things. I’m doing extractions. I’m being introduced to machinery that I haven’t seen before. I’m loving it. I’m doing a math. The math is awesome. And so I switched over to chem and I started doing research in the summers and things like that. My research was around water quality in Philadelphia and looking at different natural water sources and comparing them and all those great things. But I was in a lab and the lab had no windows and I was stuck talking to this atomic absorption specter every day.

Jessica Kesler (03:24):

And I hit that, that wall again, where it was like, is this the rest of my life? Like talking to these machines and not having windows and not being able to interact with people. What is this? This can’t be life. And so I was seeking out some new opportunities that said, Hey, I need more money. First of all. So I’m like, I call the financial aid office like every week, like, Hey, what’s out today. What new scholarships do you have? I’m applying for everything. Like it was my goal to not have to pay for much of my education. And so I was talking to them and they’re like, Hey, you’re in science. There’s this awesome opportunity called a noise scholarship where they’ll pay for your last year and your master’s degree. If you go into education mm-hmm <affirmative> and I sat on it and I was like, this makes so much sense to me.

Jessica Kesler (04:12):

I was like, I’ve been literally tutoring my peers and teaching in churches and all this other kind of stuff. My whole life. It makes so much sense. How come nobody ever said this before? <Laugh> and so I applied for the noise scholarship, got in and started, you know, mm-hmm, <affirmative> doing practicums in the classroom as I went through my last year as a chemistry major and my first year for my masters and it just felt so right. And I was like, I can do this. And of course there were a lot of people who told me, no, Josh, you can’t do that. Like these kids will eat you alive. And I’m like I don’t think so. <Laugh> but, but that’s give it a go. And I stepped into the classroom and it, it just felt like, felt like it was always meant to be there.

Eric Cross (04:57):

So you were able to, you were able to make that connection between, I mean, if you’re, if you’re studying chemistry and bio and going into stem, I mean, there’s, there’s an aptitude there, but then you realize that this there’s a road that you could take that leads you into a room with no windows. And you’re just hanging out with machines all day

Jessica Kesler (05:14):

And I’m not helping people. Right. Right. And that was, my passion was like, I’m not helping people sitting in this room. I need to be a person that’s outside telling people about what happens in the room. Right. And how they can get involved and like what’s going on in here. Like that’s, that’s where I can be useful.

Eric Cross (05:28):

When you were, you were in Philly when you were teaching, what were you teaching when you were there?

Jessica Kesler (05:33):

So I started off teaching eighth grade science first job in north Philadelphia, teaching eighth grade science and just a, a funding tangent that first day a student called me a B

Eric Cross (05:44):

Trial by fire

Jessica Kesler (05:45):

Trial by fire called me out in front of like the whole floor. We were outside doing line drills and just was like, I hate you miss Kusa your B. And I was like, oh, this is it. This is it. This is where you stand your ground and you take it or you, you bail out <laugh> and you go back into the lab mm-hmm <affirmative>. And of course at the end of that, that traumatic experience between all the kids, like two months later, she wanted me to adopt her. So like everything comes full circles. Right.

Eric Cross (06:10):

That’s how it is. Right.

Jessica Kesler (06:11):

But I started teaching eighth grade science. There’s not a lot of science teachers at that level who actually have a science background. Most of them have elementary school background. So I’m the only scientist walking into the science classroom and saying, this is how science actually works. And so I ended up taking a lot of onus of science while I was there. Ended up building out the K through eight curriculum for science. I ended up doing like a science strategic plan to submit to the district. I ended up leading out our first couple stem nights and like really leading the stem department and kind of our science department. And this was as like a second, third year teacher <laugh> know, but nobody else had the science mm-hmm, <affirmative> the way that I had the science and the education. So it really opened up a door for me to be able to, to run full steam with all those things.

Eric Cross (07:04):

So MI was it primarily middle school during those, those years that you were there?

Jessica Kesler (07:07):

So there, I started with middle school and I did that purposefully because I was still young and I wanted there to be a good age gap between me and the students. And then I moved up to high school and taught high school chemistry, also taught a couple other different subjects while I was at that school. But primarily high school chemistry. Then I actually took a big leap down and I said, okay. I was going for my second master’s degree in educational leadership. And I was going for my principal cert. And I said, if I’m gonna be a principal of a school, then I need to understand all the levels of education and how they operate, cuz they operate really differently. So I said, I started in middle school, went to high school. I don’t have elementary school experience. In fact, I’d spent a day in a kindergarten classroom and I was like this never again, but I was like, I need to go back down there and I need to figure out how this system works because you know, I never know where I’m gonna land as far as principalship.

Jessica Kesler (08:01):

So I went and taught fourth grade.

Eric Cross (08:03):

How was that experience?

Jessica Kesler (08:05):

So imagine me going from teaching high school, seniors and juniors Uhhuh and like they’re self-sufficient and you know, they’re independent, they’re driving to school and all these things. And then I immediately drop down and go into fourth grade where these kids are crying every five seconds. They still have like a lot of bodily fluids, like there’s noses running and things. And like <laugh>, I was like a fish outta water. I was like, what is this? What’s going on down here. But those kids pour out so much love. And they, you, you become another parent to them. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> your high schoolers know who their parents are. They kind of are finding their place in society, but the little ones, they only know big people as parents, small people as equal. So they see you as another parent. So it taught me a lot about, you know, patience and breaking information down, even smaller. I had to figure out new and inventive ways to teach science and bring it down so far that they would be able to grab onto it and achieve it. And it was a challenge, but at the end it paid off, we were running, we were hitting like great markers for all of our PSSA goals that year. I mean, we were really knocking it out the park

Eric Cross (09:17):

And this backstory leads into how we met and adds to the picture as to why I really want to have you on, because your involvement with TGR, which is where I want to go next for the folks listening. I bet a lot of them have no idea what it’s about, just like I did. And now me learning about TGR foundation and meeting you I would love to make sure that everyone knows about it and what they offer.

Jessica Kesler (09:39):

Absolutely. So TGR foundation, a tiger woods charity was founded by tiger woods and his father with a mission to really introduced them education to students in low income minority populations and prepare them for success in their world and their future careers moving forward. And so was founded in 1996 and went through several changes in iterations since 1996. But eventually opened up its first learning lab, which is in Anaheim, California. And through the learning lab, they opened up these satellite sites. So they basically partner with schools to provide after school education and robotics and wearable electronics and things like that. And they would partner with schools to teach these courses after school, they would pay the teacher, pay for the materials and stuff like that to provide more opportunity for students in different areas. And so that’s how I was introduced to the foundation because while I was teaching high school my good friend and previous manager, Jason Porter shout out to JP Jason Porter used to lead the tiger woods foundation when it was the tiger woods foundation.

Jessica Kesler (10:52):

He used to lead the afterschool program. And when I joined that high school, he said, Jess, you got all this great content, knowledge, all this great enthusiasm, and we wanna get more women into this robotics. We wanna get them engaged in this process of, of stuff. And you will be a great role model to start bringing in more of our female students. And I was like, great, sign me up. And that’s where I started working with the TGR foundation, right after school programs, getting my students into robotics, competitions and clubs, doing different challenges and design challenges. And then after some time, a few years, they actually needed someone to come to the DC area and support the development of professional learning and partnerships here in DC, as they were continuing to expand. And really it came out of the idea that tiger gave this big mission to the organization that he wanted to reach millions of kids.

Jessica Kesler (11:48):

He said millions and everybody said, what millions, what M <laugh>. So the foundation was like, okay, well we can’t reach millions by just tackling one student at a time, right? Not one student at a time, isn’t gonna bring a million people or students through the door. But if we focus on their teachers, mm-hmm <affirmative>, then those teachers not only spend most of their day with these students and learn the basics of their skills with these students. But each one of those teachers has 30 to 150 200 students that they see every day. And that’s how we multiply this effect. So we train the teachers on all the stem competencies and the pedagogical tools and strategies to implement the stem that we’re doing in our learning labs. And then they can implement it in our classroom and have this multiplicative effect that can continue on and help us to reach those millions of kids and helping them be prepared for future careers.

Eric Cross (12:44):

And so D divide the effort, multiply the effects. Exactly. And then when I was exposed to it, this was over zoom. Now, how long has it been going on? Has it always been virtualized or did you do the, were you all doing this before? We all went online

Jessica Kesler (12:57):

Before the pandemic man, the glory days, right before pandemic, it feels like I’m talking about prehistoric times, right? Like back in the dinosaur, like era, like, I don’t know, pre we actually did these workshops in a person. So we would invite people to come to DC, invite teachers in Philadelphia to do a Philly one. We were in New Mexico. We were in Florida. We were, I mean, we were everywhere and this would be a extremely hands on engaging workshops. So not only do we focus on this is the theory and the philosophy behind the pedagogy, but we would also focus on like creating a student experience for the teacher, having the teacher flip into student mode and put on that student hat and actually go through sample lessons, model lessons and activities as the student so that they can feel it. So you can feel if, if you feel confused, your students are gonna feel confused.

Jessica Kesler (13:52):

If you feel like this is challenging, you, your students are gonna feel the challenge. If you are, don’t understand the instructions, your students will understand the instructions. So it gives us a different perspective and it puts us in their shoes. So we can better empathize with them and create more responsive lesson planning. So we flipped them into that student role for that purpose. When COVID hit, we went virtual, but virtual allowed us to reach teachers that we probably would’ve never hit. So it was kind of that blessing and disguise, right? It was like we didn’t keep people as long cuz obviously virtually you’re not, you don’t wanna stare at a screen for eight hours. So we cut it down. We revised it a little bit, but we kept the hands on philosophy and feel of it going by, you know, using materials that they could find at home really modeling what education could look like.

Jessica Kesler (14:41):

Mm-Hmm <affirmative> if you used your Z zoom room to capacity, or if you had these materials and resources or rethought your lesson plans and structures. So we went virtual and not only were we able to hit so many more thirst that first year thirsty educators ready to get, dive into it, ready for some comradery with fellow educators. But we were also able to expand our international network. We were able to get so many international educators through our global work that it was, it was beyond what we had when we were in person. So it really had this skyrocketing effect.

Eric Cross (15:20):

There’s professional learning pathways and then virtual stem studio. Is that right for professional development for like teachers who are listening, are those the two kind of main prongs?

Jessica Kesler (15:30):

Yeah. So a stem studio is basically just one, right? And a pathway is a collection. So we now offer four stem studios, four separate stem studios. The first one is on inquiry mindset. You attended that one area. And it’s really about for teachers who are changing their perspective on what the classroom should look and feel like, especially administrators too. It’s about developing that inquiry mindset. So you understand and you feel, and you practice and you learn the tools that are necessary for inquiry to happen in your classroom. We never promote overhauling your classroom. We’re just saying, add a little bit here and there and see how it impacts your students. The second one is on making inquiry, visible, making inquiry visible is all about making students thinking visible in the moment. What are tools and strategies that you use so that students can illuminate their thinking for themselves, but for you and their peers as well and how we benefit from that.

Jessica Kesler (16:28):

So not only do the students get to see their own thinking as they progress and you get to tell the story of how their minds have evolved, but you, as the teacher get to see, oh, this is where everyone is making the mistake, or this is how this misconception came about. Or this is where I need to target for my next lesson. So it makes you more responsive in the moment. And then the third and fourth one where we’re actually launching for a small group this summer, it won’t be available to the masses until maybe a year or two down the line. We have one small group that we’re just going to test it out with. The third one is about developing your inquiry environment. So thinking not just about your physical space, but thinking about your intellectual space too. So what are the things that you can embed into your physical space and develop in a student’s intellectual space that will help you create a holistic inquiry environment?

Eric Cross (17:22):

So this is this inquiry space, not just physical, but then also the intellectual environment

Jessica Kesler (17:26):

Intellectual. Exactly. And it focuses in on the design process and how we design spaces. Because as a teacher, we take a lot of background in the background onus of de creating these spaces. If you take someone out of an old habit or space and tell them, oh, we are gonna change in your minds and teach inquiry, but put them back in the same environment, they’re gonna be conflicted, right? Their bodies wanna do one thing, their minds wanna do another thing. And they don’t know how to bridge the gap between the two. So this is a really illuminating, like how do you change all the spaces? How do you design a flow in space in your classroom and in your students thinking that allows them to be productive in that inquiry environment. It’s really good stuff

Eric Cross (18:11):

Who creates these experiences for teachers.

Jessica Kesler (18:14):

We do. So me and my teammate, Holly, Dard shout out HD. Holly Dard, we really put our brains together and developed these. So it’s a really a team effort because like Jason Porter, Eric even David Tong when he was with us, really collectively thought about what it is that we wanted educators to experience. And then Holly and I do a lot of the grunt work, but then we really collectively put it all together and make it what it is. So I have a heavy hand and a lot of that. And in fact, inquiry four is all about the entrepreneurial mindset. So oftentimes educators don’t consider themselves entrepreneurs, but if you take a look at what an entrepreneur is and what they do on a regular basis, educators are entrepreneurs, but we are missing an opportunity to use our entrepreneurialship in the classroom to drive for stem competencies in inquiry based practices. And so in, in stem studio, four, we really focus in on how the educator is the entrepreneur of their classroom, but also uses entrepreneurial techniques to tackle issues in their schools, districts, and spheres of influence. So it’s really taking the educator to the next level of their teaching practice through entrepreneurship. This is some deep stuff.

Eric Cross (19:37):

It is, well, this entrepreneurial mindset is, is something that I’ve heard before. And I definitely see the link between even the term teacherpreneur beyond just selling lessons on teachers, pay teachers. <Laugh> it’s way bigger than that,

Jessica Kesler (19:52):

Where entrepreneurs actually in the classroom, not just because we do things on the side to make money. Exactly.

Eric Cross (19:57):

A lot of teachers hear that. They’re like, yeah, I got, you know, I got, got a few jobs going on. Exactly. Yeah. And, and I think one thing we, I should have said this earlier, and I’ll, I’ll say the intro, but these are all free.

Jessica Kesler (20:07):

This is largely sponsored by do OD stem as well. So we have a partnership with D O D stem and they have been driving forth the department of defenses, strategic stem plan for years. And as a part of that, they give us funding in order to provide these opportunities for educators for free. So literally educators don’t have to come with anything. And we are giving you not only the content of our, our lessons and our instruction, but we’re also going give you a chance to earn a free micro credential. So people are spending 12 plus hours with us in a workshop which sounds like a lot of time, but it’s over a series of time and days. But we wanna give you something that means something after that, we wanna give you a micro credential to add to your resume, to show your administrator, to show that you have achieved the next level in your professional learning career.

Jessica Kesler (20:59):

Right? And if you finish the pathway, which is all for, then we give you our TGR foundation certificate that says that you’ve completed so much professional learning in these areas that you are basically a warrior of inquiry that you are ready to go out and really lay inquiry out in new creative ways, not in your CLA just in your classroom, but everywhere you go in your district, in your school. And on top of that, we just offer so many other great free partnership incentives like discovery, education, experience licenses. We’re doing raffles this summer. We’re giving out free a free meal voucher so that you can get some lunch. One of these days we’re offering $50 gift cards so that people can get school supplies. So anything you do with us, and you’re like, man, I really wish I could have this so that I can do that in my classroom. We wanna break down all the barriers that prevent teachers from doing this stuff in their classroom, actively engaging in this stuff. And we give you a free copy of the books that we reference. Again, trying to break down the barriers,

Eric Cross (22:00):

What are some of the things that you’ve noticed kind of being on both sides of science teaching in the classroom, and then in training trends with teachers, things like moments that have been great or, or challenges that you’re noticing teachers experiencing, especially maybe changes in differences from a, from, you know, an outsider’s perspective. Seeing what teachers are experiencing are like, since you’ve been doing PDs for folks.

Jessica Kesler (22:22):

Yeah. So it’s actually really interesting being on both sides of the fence. You know, what I always noticed is that teachers are eager, but they’re tired. They’re wanting to learn, but they can’t take advantage of every opportunity to learn. And especially during COVID time, if you take a look at even all the professional learning that’s happening across the world right now, attendance is going down because teachers are so burnt out this hybrid space, this either we’re in person, but we’re still wearing masks and still social distancing and all this other stuff, or I’m still virtual or I’m virtual some days and I’m in person other days, it’s just wearing our teachers out. And I think we notice that as we see a large numbers of friends and family just start to retire, right? Like people are just like, I don’t know if I can adapt to another change in education.

Jessica Kesler (23:14):

Like education goes through these waves of big changes and it’s hard for everybody to adapt to, but for those who are willing to stick it out and those who are able to stick it out and, and still have that energy and enthusiasm to learn, they come in so hungry for more resources, so hungry to learn more and they still have their why at the top of their minds, as they think about why they do this it’s for the kids it’s to drive this mission is to get more kids excited about this. And they just come in so passionate. So once they come in, once we can get them to come in they stick with us for a really long time. They’re like, what else do you have? What else do you have? What else do you have? But we hear, still hear the common threads of like, do I have time for this?

Jessica Kesler (23:58):

Do I have the funding for this? Do I have the energy for this? Do, will my students understand this? And we are constantly facing that challenge of trying to address those things by, but keeping the excitement going, like we know you don’t have enough time. We’re gonna call it out from the start. I know you don’t have enough time to try to do 29 extra things. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. But my advice is always, but do one thing at a time, start with something small, asking your students a few questions rather than lecturing to them. Doesn’t take a whole lot of extra time, but it gives you so much extra insight. So let’s not work, you know, harder, let’s work smarter. Let’s embed this into our, our work together. And I always say that we’re not asking you to add to your plate. You know, it’s not Thanksgiving where you just pile, keep piling on a plate.

Jessica Kesler (24:47):

It’s it’s a time where you organize the plate. It’s allowing inquiry to restructure your plate so that everything has its place and its time mm-hmm <affirmative> do you wanna leave room so that the educator feels comfortable trying some new initiative? That’s why we encourage admin. We have librarians attend elementary school teachers, administrators, we, and we encourage it because everyone can support the classroom. And if administrators are more in touch with these new practices and tools and strategies, then they can help facilitate the learning. As the teachers are trying new things and coaching them in specific areas. So we really opened the door for some studios, for any and all who are gonna participate in that child’s education, because us all rallying around them as that three-legged stool helps to create that environment and helps support the teacher. The teachers need support, and we’re trying to do our part by providing the resources and the tools, but they need everyone else to.

Eric Cross (25:42):

We don’t always think about it as a way to support, to get support in our classrooms for ourselves. But I agree with you by, by educating vertically up the chain, you know, vice principal, principal, whoever it is, mm-hmm <affirmative> superintendent getting them on boarding and, and educating them to see what’s ex expected. We’ll open up doors and more freedoms for you because now you just have this vertical alignment of folks kind of on the same wave length. Exactly.

Jessica Kesler (26:07):

Yep. And that’s why we love districts. Anaheim union school district is actually one of our partners this year, where they have invited their teachers to participate in the whole pathway because they know how important it is that we practice these tools and strategies. And they want as many educators in the same space going through this at the same time as possible so that we can support each other through it. And so that we don’t feel like islands, oftentimes as educators, we feel like islands we’re in our classroom day in and day out. And we don’t feel like there’s anybody else who’s doing the same things we’re doing and supporting the work that we’re doing. So when we get administrators who support it, it’s magical. It can be magical.

Eric Cross (26:47):

What are some opportunities that are coming up if somebody’s listening and they, they wanna sign up for something, are there things coming up this month or next month or in the summer that they can participate in?

Jessica Kesler (26:55):

Yeah, for sure. So we’ve been doing our monthly workshops. And if you go to our website, so if you actually go to TGR foundation.org and slash stem studio you’ll actually see our summer events already posted, already live for everybody to start engaging in. And again, everything is free. So registration is open and available for everybody to participate. We are offering that first inquiry stem studio inquiry mindset twice the week of June 21st and the week of June 28th, two opportunities for educators to join us for inquiry mindset for the first one. And then also in July, we’re offering the second one making inquiry visible, and that’s the week of July 12th. So again, all free stuff, raffle prizes are available for those who register early and get in there and reserve their seat. It is limited seating. And so, yeah, a bunch of opportunities coming up this summer and guess what all you have to do is sign up and then you get all these free things coming your way. You get to look forward to all this exciting stuff. So TGR foundation.org/studio.

Eric Cross (28:01):

And if folks wanna follow you in your career, your journey.

Jessica Kesler (28:05):

Yeah. I’m on Twitter and LinkedIn, for sure. And it’s Jessica Kessler, K E S L E R one S

Eric Cross (28:12):

I wanna honor your time. And as we close, you’ve been an educator of impact in, in your own classroom. And I know you’re still teaching actively now, and you’ve also made an impact on me and other educators through your professional development. And, and the last question I’d like to end with is who’s the most memorable teacher or learning experience that you had during K eight. When you think about you, your time in school, who was a memorable teacher or a moment that kind of stands out to you and what was it that they did that made them memorable?

Jessica Kesler (28:44):

It was that one teacher who brought me my first T I, 84. You remember when a new calculators came out, I had a teacher give me one amazing, but I think in high school, there was really a turn about where I had miss Caroline and Mr. Canello math and Spanish teacher. So two opposite wings of the, the education spectrum there. But most of all, they listened. They listened to me. I felt seen with those teachers, they supported me. They listened to me, they saw my potential. And they just rallied around me and continued to support me thereafter. Even afterwards, I continued to reach out to those educators. And I think that’s what drives me to be that force for, for my students. And I remember my most memorable heart touching education experience was probably, I had a high school student get interviewed by the newspaper.

Jessica Kesler (29:38):

And they were like, oh, what’s your favorite classes? And what’s your favorite this, and what’s your favorite of that? And he was like, well, I love chemistry, which is what I was teaching. It was like, and I love my after school robotics team. I was leading and I love this and this and this. And he basically listed all the stuff that I was doing that I was teaching and that I was leading in the school. And I was like this one student, literally out of all the classes and experiences he’s experiencing is really just calling out everything that I’m doing. And I feel like it’s because he felt seen, he felt heard. He was like, this person is listening to me. And no matter what space we’re in this teacher is, is there for me. And so I try to be that wherever I go, <laugh>,

Eric Cross (30:16):

It’s amazing how making someone feel seen and, and making them feel important and heard, and, and being present for them. All of a sudden opens up their interests into the subjects that you’re teaching. Thank you for, for making time for serving our kids for serving teachers during a hard time, and for making PD one, being part of an organization that made it free and serve teachers, but also making PD fun and enthusiastic. I think that was one of the things in addition to the empathy that you led with, but also your enthusiasm and passion was something that really resonated with me. And it made our time together. Feel like something that was, was making me a better teacher for my kids. And so, thanks for making time for us tonight. Oh,

Jessica Kesler (30:53):

Bless face.

Eric Cross (30:57):

Thanks so much for joining me and Jessica today. If you have any great lessons or ways that you connect with students, please email us@stemamplifycom.wpengine.com. That’s S TM amplifycom.wpengine.com. And please remember to support the podcast by clicking subscribe, wherever you listen to podcasts, you can also hear more about the podcast in our Facebook group, science connections, the community until next time.

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What Jessica Kesler says about science

“One student at a time isn’t gonna bring a million students through the door. But if we focus on their teachers, then they can reach those millions of kids and help them be prepared for future careers. ”

– Jessica Kesler

Director of Professional Learning, TGR Foundation

Meet the guest

In the final episode of the season, Eric sits down with his friend and professional development facilitator, Jessica Kesler. Jessica describes her passion for sharing free, high-quality, empathy-centered professional development for K12 educators. Jessica also shares her experience jumping into leadership positions while teaching in Philadelphia. Eric also chats with Jessica about how students often lean on teachers for more than delivering content.

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About Science Connections

Welcome to Science Connections! Science is changing before our eyes, now more than ever. So…how do we help kids figure that out? We will bring on educators, scientists, and more to discuss the importance of high-quality science instruction. In this episode, hear from our host Eric Cross about his work engaging students as a K-8 science teacher. Listen here!

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Watch the recording: Supporting Student-To-Student Discourse in Science (And Bey…

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Weaving Literacy Instruction Into the Science Classroom to Accelerate Learning

Core STEM programs: Strengthen sessions

Professional development sets teachers and leaders up for success, whether they are new to or experienced with a program. Each Strengthen session promotes a deeper understanding of the program through targeted instructional practices.

Explore STEM Strengthen sessions by program below.

Professional Learning Partner Guide Certified Provider

Amplify professional development has been vetted by Rivet Education’s team through a rigorous three-step process and is listed in the Professional Learning Partner Guide.

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About Strengthen sessions

Target specific instructional practices with Strengthen sessions designed for teachers and leaders in year one and beyond.

Ready to schedule? Contact us and an Amplify expert will help identify the session(s) that best support your students’ success.

Each package includes one Strengthen session. Additional sessions can be added as enhancements.

Amplify Math

Amplify Math is a core math curriculum that serves 100% of students in accessing grade-level math every day. The program delivers engaging grade-level math lessons; flexible, social problem-solving experiences both online and off, and insights, data, and reporting that drive performance.

Explore the Amplify Math Strengthen sessions (for grade bands 6–Algebra 1 and Geometry–Algebra 2) for Begin packages and beyond. Click the session title or scroll down to learn more about each session.

Begin packages

  On-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid
on-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 10 package
(10 hr.)		 Hybrid
virtual package
(15 hr.)		 Virtual package
(7 hr.)
One Strengthen session per package On-site
3 hr. sessions		 On-site
3 hr. sessions		 Virtual
1 hr. sessions		 Virtual
3 hr. sessions		 Virtual
1 hr. sessions
Enhancing planning for 6–A1 teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Enhancing practice for 6–A1 teachers
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Enhancing observations for leaders A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Unit-level planning for 6–A1 teachers
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Lesson-level planning for 6–A1 teachers
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Increasing engagement with instructional routines for 6–A1 teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.

Begin: Enhancing planning for grade 6–A1 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Prepare to teach Amplify Math lessons effectively by engaging in collaborative backward planning with experts. Work alongside our facilitators to understand how to target key concepts and make successful instructional decisions across a unit, and leave with a completed unit plan for your class.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Enhancing practice for grade 6–A1 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

See the Launch, Monitor, Connect problem-based learning model in action, and practice integrating these practices into your facilitation of lesson activities. Leave with guidelines for using the Launch, Monitor, Connect model that you can implement during your next lesson.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Enhancing observations for leaders

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Learn to use our non-evaluative classroom look-for tool for Amplify Math to promote the use of instructional resources, focus on instructional delivery, and monitor instruction. Leave with an action plan for collecting and analyzing observation data to support teachers in their implementation of Amplify Math.

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Unit-level planning for grade 6–A1 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Dive into unit planning as you learn the story of how your upcoming unit is tied to other units and grade levels, and discover the big ideas you will explore alongside your students in Amplify Math.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Lesson-level planning for grade 6–A1 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Dive into lesson-level planning as you learn how to create a road map that guides student learning, makes connections across lessons, and measures student understanding of the learning goals in Amplify Math.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Increasing engagement with Instructional Routines for grade 6–A1 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Explore how to use Instructional Routines such as Notice and Wonder to support and engage students as they make sense of new contexts and mathematical problems in Amplify Math.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice packages

  On-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 15,
on-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 13 package
(13 hr.)		 Virtual package
(9 hr.)
One Strengthen session per package On-site
3 hr. sessions		 On-site
3 hr. sessions		 Virtual
1 hr. sessions		 Virtual
3 hr. session
Enhancing planning for 6–A1 teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Enhancing practice for 6–A1 teachers
 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Enhancing observations for leaders A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Using differentiation supports for 6–A1 teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.    A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. 
Using data to drive instruction for 6–A1 teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Addressing prerequisite skills for 6–A1 teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Orchestrating math discussions for 6–A1 teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Building language with math routines for 6–A1 teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Unit-level planning for 6–A1 teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Lesson-level planning for 6–A1 teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Increasing engagement with Instructional Routines for 6–A1 teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  

Practice: Enhancing planning for grade 6–A1 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Prepare to effectively teach Amplify Math lessons by engaging in collaborative backward planning with experts. Work alongside our facilitators to understand how to target key concepts and make effective instructional decisions across a unit, and leave with a completed unit plan for your class.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Enhancing practice for grade 6–A1 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

See the Launch, Monitor, Connect problem-based learning model in action, and practice integrating these practices into your facilitation of lesson activities. Leave with guidelines for using the Launch, Monitor, Connect model that you can implement during your next lesson.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Enhancing observations for leaders

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Learn to use our non-evaluative classroom look-for tool for Amplify Math to promote the use of instructional resources, focus on instructional delivery, and monitor instruction. Leave with an action plan for collecting and analyzing observation data to support teachers in their implementation of Amplify Math.

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Using differentiation supports for grade 6–A1 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Learn how to leverage embedded differentiated supports in Amplify Math to ensure that all students can be successful. Walk away with a plan for supporting students in your classroom including multilingual/English learners (ML/ELs), students with disabilities, students who may need extra support, and advanced students.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Using data to drive instruction for grade 6–A1 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Grow your proficiency in data analysis. Turn student data gathered within Amplify Math into differentiated instruction targeting specific skills. Walk away ready to use the data provided in the curriculum to align embedded support to your students’ unique needs.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Addressing prerequisite skills for grade 6–A1 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Explore Amplify Math’s just-in-time approach to addressing prerequisite skills. Leave with a deeper understanding of how to use embedded curriculum resources to identify and support prerequisite skills essential for your next unit.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Orchestrating math discussions for grade 6–A1 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Learn strategies for leading discussions that promote more math talk among all students in your classroom. Walk away with strategies and Amplify Math curriculum tools you can bring back to your classroom to enhance discussion in your next lesson.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Building language with math routines for grade 6–A1 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Explore how Math Language Routines support students as they make sense of new contexts and mathematical problems in Amplify Math. Leave with strategies for using these routines to support students in learning mathematical practices, content, and language in your upcoming lessons.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Unit-level planning for grade 6–A1 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Dive into unit planning as you learn the story of how your upcoming unit is tied to other units and grade levels, and discover the big ideas you’ll explore alongside your students in Amplify Math.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Lesson-level planning for grade 6–A1 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Dive into lesson-level planning as you learn how to create a roadmap for a lesson that guides student learning, makes connections across lessons, and measures student understanding of the learning goals in Amplify Math.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Increasing engagement with Instructional Routines for grade 6–A1 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Explore how to leverage Instructional Routines such as Notice and Wonder to support students as they make sense of new contexts and mathematical problems in Amplify Math.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Amplify Desmos Math

Amplify Desmos Math is a core K–12 program—available in English and Spanish—that applies a problem-based approach to develop deep conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application. Using technology inspired by students’ natural curiosity, Amplify Desmos Math connects the classroom and fosters real collaboration, discourse, and perseverance in problem-solving. Captivating activities, powerful teaching tools, and lots of support enable students to develop math proficiency that lasts a lifetime.

Explore the Amplify Desmos Math Strengthen sessions (for grades K–5, 6–A1, and high school) for Begin packages and beyond. Click the session title or scroll down to learn more about each session.

Begin packages

Strengthen sessions

  On-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 15,
on-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 10 package
(10 hr.)		 Hybrid 15, virtual package
(15 hr.)		 Virtual package
(7 hr.)
One Strengthen session per package On-site,
3 hr.		 On-site,
3 hr.		 Virtual,
1 hr.		 Virtual,
3 hr.		 Virtual,
1 hr.
Enhancing planning for
K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers		 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Enhancing practice for
K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers		 A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Enhancing observations for K–5, 6–A1 leaders, or high school leaders A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Supporting all learners: Differentiation in Amplify Desmos Math for K–5 or 6–A1 teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Unit-level planning for
K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers		     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.

Begin: Amplify Desmos Math: Enhancing planning for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Dive into planning for Amplify Desmos Math, both big picture and day-to-day. Practice using lesson- and unit-planning protocols that will help you build a deep understanding of the math content you’ll be teaching and the planning resources available to you in the curriculum. Walk away with practical strategies for planning, even when you may not have much time.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Amplify Desmos Math: Enhancing practice for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Dig into Amplify Desmos Math’s Launch, Monitor, Connect framework to level-up the student discourse in your math class. Explore in-the-moment differentiation support to help you orchestrate discussion and make the most out of key opportunities for conversation and collaboration.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

New session

Begin: Strengthen: Supporting all learners: Differentiation in Amplify Desmos Math for K–5 or 6–A1 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Learn how to use the differentiation supports in Amplify Desmos Math to effectively support all learners, both in the moment during a lesson and beyond the lesson. Leave with a plan for implementing resources to support, strengthen, and stretch students’ thinking.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

New session

Begin: Amplify Desmos Math: Enhancing observations for K–5, 6–A1, or high school leaders

High school sessions are available October 2026.

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Elevate your program knowledge to support teachers with effective Amplify Desmos Math implementation. Leave prepared to identify key instructional elements in a problem-based math lesson, analyze data, and conduct effective classroom observations.

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

New session

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Amplify Desmos Math: Unit-level planning for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Dive into unit-level planning to learn the story of your upcoming unit, and discover the big ideas you will explore alongside your students in Amplify Desmos Math.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice packages

Strengthen sessions

  On-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 15,
on-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 13 package
(13 hr.)		 Virtual package
(9 hr.)
One Strengthen session per package On-site,
3 hr.		 Virtual,
3 hr.		 Virtual,
1 hr.		 Virtual,
3 hr.
Amplify Desmos Math: Enhancing planning for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Amplify Desmos Math: Enhancing practice for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Amplify Desmos Math: Enhancing observations for K–5, 6–A, or high school leaders A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Amplify Desmos Math: Supporting all learners: Differentiation in Amplify Desmos Math for K–5 or 6–A1 teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Amplify Desmos Math: Supporting and facilitating meaningful discussions for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Amplify Desmos Math: Assessment in action: Analyzing data, reports, and planning next steps for K–5 or 6–A1 teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Amplify Desmos Math: Unit-level planning for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Amplify Desmos Math: Teaching a lesson with digital student screens for K–5 teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Amplify Desmos Math: Snapshots in the Teacher Dashboard for
6–A1 teachers		     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Amplify Desmos Math: Increasing engagement with instructional routines for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  

Practice: Amplify Desmos Math: Enhancing planning for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Dive into both big-picture and day-to-day planning for Amplify Desmos Math. Practice using lesson- and unit-planning protocols that will help you build a deep understanding of the math content you’ll be teaching and the planning resources available to you in the curriculum. Walk away with practical strategies for planning, even when you may not have much time.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Amplify Desmos Math: Enhancing practice for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Dig into Amplify Desmos Math’s Launch, Monitor, Connect framework to level up the student discourse in your math class. Explore in-the-moment differentiation support to help you orchestrate discussion and make the most out of key opportunities for conversation and collaboration.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

New session

Practice: Amplify Desmos Math: Enhancing observations for K–5, 6–A1, or high school leaders

High school sessions are available October 2026.

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Elevate your program knowledge to support teachers with effective Amplify Desmos Math implementation. Leave prepared to identify key instructional elements in a problem-based math lesson, analyze data, and conduct effective classroom observations.

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

New session

Practice: Amplify Desmos Math: Supporting all learners: Differentiation in Amplify Desmos Math for K–5 or 6–A1 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Learn how to use the differentiation supports in Amplify Desmos Math to effectively support all learners, both in the moment during a lesson and beyond the lesson. Leave with a plan for implementing resources to support, strengthen, and stretch students’ thinking.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Available October 2026

Practice: Amplify Desmos Math: Supporting and facilitating meaningful discussions for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Explore how to transform your mathematics classroom into a social and collaborative environment where students deepen their understanding by sharing their mathematical thinking. Learn more about how Amplify Desmos Math provides support for these meaningful mathematical conversations.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Available October 2026

Practice: Amplify Desmos Math: Assessment in action: Analyzing data, reports, and planning next steps for K–5 or 6–A1 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Deepen your understanding of the different types of assessments in Amplify Desmos Math and how they provide evidence of student learning. Analyze sample student work to calibrate on assessment scoring, interpret student thinking, and make a plan for instructional next steps.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

New session

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Amplify Desmos Math: Unit-level planning for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Dive into unit-level planning to learn the story of your upcoming unit, and discover the big ideas you will explore alongside your students in Amplify Desmos Math.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Amplify Desmos Math: Teaching a lesson with digital student screens for K–5 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Get ready to facilitate lessons with digital student screens. Explore what’s possible with the Teacher Dashboard and plan to make the most of these exciting instructional moments.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Amplify Desmos Math: Snapshots in the Teacher Dashboard for 6–A1 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Explore how to use the Snapshots tool in the Teacher Dashboard to create a collaborative classroom that invites and celebrates student thinking. Leave with planning tips and tricks that will get you ready to use Snapshots during your busy math classes.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Available October 2026

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Amplify Desmos Math: Increasing engagement with instructional routines for K–5, 6–A1, or high school teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Explore how to use the instructional routines in Amplify Desmos Math to support and engage students as they make sense of new contexts, develop mathematical language, and solve problems.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Amplify Science

Amplify Science is a K–8 science curriculum that blends hands-on investigations, literacy-rich activities, and interactive digital tools to empower students to think, read, write, and argue like real scientists and engineers. 

Explore the Amplify Science sessions (for grade bands K–5 and 6–8) for year-one packages and beyond. Select the session title or scroll to learn more about each session.

Begin packages

Strengthen sessions

  On-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 15,
on-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 10 package
(10 hr.)		 Hybrid 15, virtual package
(15 hr.)		 Virtual package
(7 hr.)
One Strengthen session per package On-site,
3 hr.		 Virtual,
3 hr.		 Virtual,
1 hr.		 Virtual,
3 hr.		 Virtual,
1 hr.
Amplify Science: Enhancing planning for K–5 or 6–8 teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Amplify Science: Enhancing practice
for K–5 or 6–8 teachers
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Amplify Science: Enhancing observations for K–8 leaders A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Amplify Science: Planning an Amplify Science lesson for K–8 teachers
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Amplify Science: Supporting all learners: Exploring the resources for K–8 teachers
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Amplify Science: Supporting all learners: Teacher modeling and student discourse
for K–8 teachers
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Begin: Amplify Science: Enhancing planning for K–5 or 6–8 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Learn how to use a planning protocol to internalize an upcoming Amplify Science unit. Leave with a plan to support students engaging in three-dimensional learning while also meeting the needs of all students in your classroom.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–5 or 6–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Amplify Science: Enhancing practice for K–5 or 6–8 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Learn how Amplify Science supports phenomenon-based learning. Experience a sequence of model instruction from the curriculum, and walk away with a plan for how you can enhance the curriculum through your teaching practice to build a powerful culture of figuring out in your science classroom.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–5 or 6–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Amplify Science: Enhancing observations for K–8 leaders

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Learn to use the non-evaluative classroom look-for tool for Amplify Science to promote the use of instructional materials, focus on instructional delivery, and monitor instruction. Leave with an action plan for collecting and analyzing observation data to support teachers in their implementation of Amplify Science.

Audience: Leaders grades K–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Amplify Science: Planning an Amplify Science lesson for K–8 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Develop structure and routines for planning Amplify Science lessons and leave prepared for an upcoming lesson.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Amplify Science: Supporting all learners: Exploring the resources for K–8 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to use lesson-specific differentiation briefs, embedded assessments, and activity-specific teacher support notes to maximize instruction for all learners with Amplify Science.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Begin: Strengthen Focus: Amplify Science: Supporting all learners: Teacher modeling and student discourse for K–8 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Explore ways to leverage and build upon two key instructional elements in Amplify Science, and plan how you’ll use these supports to engage all learners in your next lesson.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice packages

Strengthen sessions

  On-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 15,
on-site package
(15 hr.)		 Hybrid 13 package
(13 hr.)		 Virtual package
(9 hr.)
One Strengthen session per package On-site,
3 hr.		 Virtual,
3 hr.		 Virtual,
1 hr.		 Virtual,
3 hr.
Amplify Science: Enhancing planning for K–5 or 6–8 teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Amplify Science: Enhancing practice for K–5 or 6–8 teachers
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Amplify Science: Enhancing observations for K–8 leaders A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Amplify Science: Supporting all learners with complex texts for K–5 or 6–8 teachers
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Amplify Science: Supporting multilingual/English learners for K–5 or 6–8 teachers
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Amplify Science: Writing in science for K–5 or 6–8 teachers A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Amplify Science: Assessment system for K–5 or 6–8 teachers
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Amplify Science: Engineering Internships for 6–8 teachers
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Amplify Science: Science Seminar for 6–8 teachers
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Amplify Science: Planning an Amplify Science lesson for K–8 teachers
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Amplify Science: Supporting all learners: Exploring the resources for K–8 teachers
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Amplify Science: Supporting all learners: Teacher modeling and student discourse for K–8 teachers
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Amplify Science: Analyzing student work for K–8 teachers
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Amplify Science: Supporting all learners: Multimodal learning and multiple at-bats for K–8 teachers
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Amplify Science: Grading with Amplify Science for K–8 teachers
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Amplify Science: Enhancing the digital experience for K–5 teachers
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Amplify Science: Planning with the Coherence Flowchart for K–8 teachers
     A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  

Practice: Amplify Science: Enhancing planning for K–5 or 6–8 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Learn how to use a planning protocol to internalize an upcoming Amplify Science unit. Walk away with a plan to support students engaging in three-dimensional learning while also meeting the all needs of students in your classroom.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–5 or 6–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Amplify Science: Enhancing practice for K–5 or 6–8 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Learn how Amplify Science supports phenomenon-based learning. Experience a sequence of model instruction from the curriculum, and walk away with a plan for how you can enhance the curriculum through your teaching practice to build a powerful culture of “figuring out” in your science classroom.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–5 or 6–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Amplify Science: Enhancing observations for K–5 or 6–8 leaders

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Learn to use the non-evaluative classroom look-for tool for Amplify Science to promote the use of instructional materials, focus on instructional delivery, and monitor instruction. Leave with an action plan for collecting and analyzing observation data to support teachers in their implementation of Amplify Science.

Audience: Leaders grades K–5 or 6–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Amplify Science: Supporting all learners with complex texts for K–5 or 6–8 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Collaborate to solve common reading challenges alongside other educators. Learn strategies to support students in grades K–5 or 6–8 in accessing complex texts in Amplify Science units by engaging in a model-reading sequence. Leave with a plan for incorporating effective strategies into your upcoming Amplify Science reading lesson.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–5 or 6–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Amplify Science: Supporting multilingual/English learners for K–5 or 6–8 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Explore strategies and engage in model activities to support multilingual/English learners in grades K–5 or 6–8 in developing their abilities to do, talk, read, write, visualize, and construct arguments in Amplify Science. Leave with strategies to support a deeper understanding of the critical role that language and literacy play in developing scientific understanding.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–5 or 6–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Amplify Science: Writing in science for K–5 or 6–8 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Develop an understanding of how the Amplify Science writing approach supports students in grades K–5 or 6–8 in engaging in science practices, making sense of science ideas, and growing as writers. Leave with a plan for supporting student writing in your next unit.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–5 or 6–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Amplify Science: Assessment system for K–5 or 6–8 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Analyze a sample formative assessment, deepen your understanding of learning progressions in each Amplify Science unit, and participate in discussions to understand the relationships between different types of assessments and your unit’s learning goals. Walk away with strategies for collecting, analyzing, and responding to student assessment data.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades of K–5 or 6–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Amplify Science: Engineering Internships for 6–8 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Plan for the first Amplify Science Engineering Internship course of your grade level (6–8) by exploring the Futura workspace and digital tools students will use during the internship experience. Leave with an understanding of how students will apply science concept knowledge to construct design solutions. This session will feature one of the following Engineering Internships based on your need: Metabolism, Plate Motion, or Force and Motion.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades 6–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Amplify Science: Science Seminar for 6–8 teachers

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

Experience a Science Seminar sequence of a sample unit from Amplify Science grade 6–8 from the student perspective! Gain an understanding of how students apply science concepts to engage in argumentation about a phenomenon, and leave with a plan for teaching a Science Seminar unit in your own classroom.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades 6–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Amplify Science: Planning an Amplify Science lesson for K–8 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Develop a structure for planning Amplify Science lessons and leave prepared for an upcoming lesson.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Amplify Science: Supporting all learners: Exploring the resources for K–8 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to use lesson-specific differentiation briefs, embedded assessments, and activity-specific teacher support notes to supplement instruction for all learners with Amplify Science.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Amplify Science: Supporting all learners: Teacher modeling and student discourse for K–8 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Explore ways to leverage and build upon two key instructional elements in Amplify Science and plan for ways to use these supports to engage all learners in your next lesson.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Amplify Science: Analyzing student work for K–8 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Engage with a protocol to analyze real student work and plan for instructional next steps in Amplify Science. (You are required to bring student formative assessment samples to this session.)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Amplify Science: Supporting all learners: Multimodal learning and multiple at-bats for K–8 teachers

Virtual, 3 hours

Learn strategies to develop an understanding of how Amplify Science’s multimodal approach supports all learners.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Amplify Science: Grading with Amplify Science for K–8 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Develop an understanding of how to use assessment resources in Amplify Science to grade students three-dimensionally and use practices that align with district/school guidelines.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Amplify Science: Enhancing the digital experience for K–5 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to go further with Amplify Science digital experience tools to enhance teaching and learning.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–5 (maximum 30 participants)

Practice: Strengthen Focus: Amplify Science: Planning with the Coherence Flowchart for K–8 teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Practice using the Coherence Flowchart resource to plan an upcoming Amplify Science unit.

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff grades K–8 (maximum 30 participants)

Get in touch with a PD expert.

Professional development for core programs

Amplify professional development provides learning experiences that intentionally develop the knowledge and skills you need for effective and self-sustaining implementation.

Learn and apply impactful instructional techniques and develop a deeper understanding of your Amplify program(s) by investing in professional development.

Amplify professional development has been vetted by Rivet Education’s team through a rigorous three-step process and is listed in the Professional Learning Partner Guide.

Contact us
A man writes at a desk; adjacent images include a math graph with weights labeled 5 and 8, and an open book with stars above it.

About Amplify core programs

Amplify’s programs help you teach inspiring lessons that develop student brilliance through robust scaffolding and differentiated instruction.

Literacy

  • Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) 2nd Edition and 3rd Edition
  • Amplify Caminos 1st and 3rd Edition
  • Amplify ELA 2nd Edition

STEM

  • Amplify Math
  • Amplify Desmos Math* (for Grades PreK–5, 6–Algebra 1, or high school)
  • Amplify Science (for Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Contact your account executive for extended PD catalog options or quotes.

*Amplify Desmos Math is our new K–12 program (English and Spanish) using a problem-based approach for deep conceptual understanding. Contact us for available packages.

About Amplify professional development (PD)

Take a systemic approach to drive lasting change. Partner with us to create a learning plan that enhances implementation, instruction, and student impact.

At each phase of your journey, packages include different types of learning experiences strategically bundled for multiple touchpoints throughout the year.

Four circular icons in a row showing a lightbulb, pencil, whiteboard, and podium, connected by arrows in a cycle, representing stages of a process.
Prepare
 Begin
 Practice
 Advance


Shift literacy and math instruction and deepen understanding of research-based practices to support new program implementation.


Build the foundational knowledge and skills necessary to begin teaching with your Amplify program(s).


Refine instructional skills, expand knowledge of your Amplify program(s), and explore more advanced instructional strategies.


Deepen understanding of content and pedagogy and build-in house capacity to support a robust, sustainable implementation.

Click to learn more:

Review this page to learn more about the Begin and Practice packages.

 

Click to learn more:

Session types within packages

LAUNCH STRENGTHEN COACH
Beginning of the year
 Mid-year, end of the year Mid-year, end of the year
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Two people sit at a table reviewing documents together against a yellow background. An icon of a barbell is displayed in the top left corner.
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Introduce programs and support implementation Target specific instructional practices

Explore the Strengthen sessions for your:

 Tailored learning for specific needs
Core literacy programs Core STEM programs

Begin packages

You’re ready to shift to evidence-based practices in your first year with Amplify programs. Let us support your educators with professional development that builds new skills and knowledge.

Choose from flexible on-site, hybrid, or virtual packages which include:

  • One Launch session to introduce Amplify programs and support strong implementation.
  • One Strengthen session to deepen understanding of the program.
  • One Coach session to elevate instructional practice and meet specific needs.
  • Suggested add-ons are available.

Each package supports up to 30 participants in similar grade bands.

On-site 15 package

Three people stand in front of a whiteboard with colorful sticky notes, discussing content on a tablet. A graphic indicates "Begin: On-site package" and "15 hours.

Participate in 15 hours of program-aligned professional development across three sessions for up to 30 participants. Build understanding of research-based practices and develop knowledge through curated Launch, Strengthen, and Coach sessions.

Begin: On-site 15 package
Session type Modality/duration What’s included
Launch (1) On-site, 6-hr. Initial training for teachers
Strengthen (1) On-site, 3-hr. Program-specific Strengthen session (selected based on your needs) for Core Literacy and STEM programs.
Coach (1) On-site, 6-hr. Coach session
Suggested enhancements
Launch add-on On-site or virtual, 3-hr. Program overview for leaders
Launch add-on Virtual, 1 hr. Amplify CKLA Grade 3–5 Skills supplement training for teachers

Begin: Launch: Initial training for teachers

Amplify Caminos 3rd Edition, Amplify CKLA/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy, and Amplify Desmos Math high school sessions are available July 2026.

On-site, 6 hours

Initial training sessions are designed for educators who are new to our program. In our initial training session, educators are oriented to the key components of their program(s), including learning how to navigate, teach, and monitor student progress, while exploring content and program resources. Participants will leave the session with the foundational knowledge and skills necessary to begin teaching with the program.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd and 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st and 3rd Edition), Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy, Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy, Amplify ELA 2nd Edition, Amplify Math (Grades 6–A1), Amplify Desmos Math (Grades PreK–5, 6–A1, or high school), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Launch add-on

Suggested enhancement: Program overview for leaders

Amplify Caminos 3rd Edition sessions are available July 2026.

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

The program overview for leaders session supports district and school-level instructional leaders in effectively coordinating the implementation of the program. Leaders will learn the foundational elements of the program, build an understanding of the key teacher and student practices to look for in classrooms, and develop an implementation plan.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd and 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st and 3rd Edition), Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy, Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy, Amplify ELA 2nd Edition, Amplify Math (Grades 6–A1), Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5, 6–A1, or high school), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Available July 2026

Suggested enhancement: Launch add-on: Amplify CKLA Grade 3–5 Skills supplement training for teachers

Grades 4 and 5 available July 2026

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to implement Amplify CKLA Grades 3–5 Skills in the classroom. Learn the foundational elements of Amplify CKLA Grades 3–5 Skills, including becoming familiar with materials and key lesson components.

Note:

  • Grade 3 Skills is included in the purchase of Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition, while Grade 4 Skills and Grade 5 Skills can be added on.
  • Grades 3–5 Skills are included with the purchase of Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition.

Session options: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition (Grades 3–5) or Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition (Grades 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Strengthen: Program-specific sessions

Strengthen your Amplify implementation with program-specific sessions that support personalized learning and practice in your classroom.

To explore the core Strengthen sessions, select your program:

Literacy Strengthen sessions STEM Strengthen sessions

Amplify will partner closely with you to select the appropriate session(s) that will deepen educators’ understanding of Amplify program(s) and equip them with the tools they need to improve students’ learning outcomes. Each package includes one Strengthen session. Additional sessions can be added as Enhancements.

Coach: Customized support

Amplify Caminos 3rd Edition, Amplify CKLA/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy, and Amplify Desmos Math high school sessions are available July 2026.

On-site, 6 hours

Coaching sessions focus on building internal school and district capacity and leadership excellence. Coaching is customized to meet a school or district’s needs and can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd and 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st and 3rd Edition), Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy, Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy, Amplify ELA 2nd Edition, Amplify Math (Grades 6–A1), Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5, 6–A1, or high school), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Individual teachers, grade-level teams, PLCs,
and/or instructional leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Hybrid 15 on-site package

Two women smiling and looking at a computer screen in an office setting; text reads "Begin: Hybrid package" and "15 hours.

Participate in 15 hours of program-aligned professional development across three sessions for up to 30 participants. Build understanding of research-based practices and develop knowledge through curated Launch, Strengthen, and Coach sessions.

Begin: Hybrid 15 on-site package
Session type Modality/duration What’s included
Launch (1) On-site, 6-hr. Initial training for teachers
Strengthen (1) Virtual, 3-hr. Program-specific Strengthen session (selected based on your needs) for Core Literacy and STEM programs.
Coach (1) On-site, 6-hr. Coach session
Suggested enhancements
Launch add-on On-site or virtual, 3-hr. Program overview for leaders
Launch add-on Virtual, 1 hr. Amplify CKLA Grade 3–5 Skills supplement training for teachers

Begin: Launch: Initial training for teachers

Amplify Caminos 3rd Edition, Amplify CKLA/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy, and Amplify Desmos Math high school sessions are available July 2026.

On-site, 6 hours

Initial training sessions are designed for educators who are new users. In our initial training session, educators are oriented to the key components of the program, including learning how to navigate, teach, and monitor student progress, while exploring content and program resources. Participants will leave the session with the foundational knowledge and skills necessary to begin teaching with the program.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd and 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st and 3rd Edition), Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy, Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy, Amplify ELA 2nd Edition, Amplify Math (Grades 6–A1), Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5, 6–A1, or high school), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Launch add-on

Suggested enhancement: Program overview for leaders

Amplify Caminos 3rd Edition sessions are available July 2026.

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

The program overview for leaders session supports district and school-level instructional leaders in effectively coordinating the implementation of the program. Leaders will learn the foundational elements of the program, build an understanding of the key teacher and student practices to look for in classrooms, and develop an implementation plan.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st and 3rd Edition), Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy, Amplify ELA 2nd Edition, Amplify Math (Grades 6–A1), Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5 or 6–A1), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Launch add-on

Suggested enhancement: Amplify CKLA Grade 3–5 Skills supplement training for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to implement Amplify CKLA Grades 3–5 Skills in the classroom. Learn the foundational elements of Amplify CKLA Grades 3–5 Skills, including becoming familiar with materials and key lesson components.

Notes:

  • Grade 3 Skills is included in the purchase of Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition, while Grade 4 Skills and Grade 5 Skills can be added on.
  • Grades 3–5 Skills are included with the purchase of Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition.

Session options: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition (Grades 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Strengthen: Program-specific sessions

Strengthen your Amplify implementation with program-specific sessions that support personalized learning and practice in your classroom.

To explore the available core Strengthen sessions, select your program:

Literacy Strengthen sessions STEM Strengthen sessions

Amplify will closely partner with you to select the appropriate session(s) that will deepen educators’ understanding of Amplify program(s) and equip them with the tools they need to improve students’ learning outcomes. Each package includes one Strengthen session. Additional sessions can be added as Enhancements.

Coach session: Customized support

Amplify Caminos 3rd Edition, Amplify CKLA/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy, and Amplify Desmos Math high school sessions are available July 2026.

On-site, 6 hours

Coaching sessions focus on building internal school and district capacity and leadership excellence. Coaching is customized to meet a school or district’s needs and can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd and 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st Edition), Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy, Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy, Amplify ELA 2nd Edition, Amplify Math (Grades 6–A1), Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5, 6–A1, or high school), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Individual teachers, grade-level teams, PLCs, and/or instructional leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Hybrid 10 package

Two women smile while looking at a computer monitor in an office. A graphic overlay reads “Begin: Hybrid package” and “10 hours,” with icons for power, fitness, and communication.

Participate in 10 hours of program-aligned professional development across three sessions for up to 30 participants. Build understanding of research-based practices and develop knowledge through curated Launch, Strengthen, and Coach sessions.

Begin: Hybrid 10 package
Session type Modality/duration What’s included
Launch (1) On-site, 3-hr. Program overview for teachers
Strengthen (1) Virtual, 1-hr. Program-specific Strengthen Focus session (selected based on your needs) for Core Literacy and STEM programs.
Coach (1) On-site, 6-hr. Coach session
Suggested enhancements
Launch add-on On-site or virtual,
3-hr.		 Program overview for leaders
Launch add-on Virtual, 1 hr. Amplify CKLA Grade 3–5 Skills supplement training for teachers

Begin: Launch: Program overview for teachers

Amplify Caminos 3rd Edition, Amplify CKLA/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy, and Amplify Desmos Math high school sessions are available July 2026.

On-site, 3 hours

Program overview sessions provide a basic introduction for educators who are new users of the program. In a program overview session, educators learn how to get started with the key features and materials of the program.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd and 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st Edition), Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy, Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy, Amplify ELA 2nd Edition, Amplify Math (Grades 6–A1), Amplify Desmos Math (Grades PreK–5, 6–A1, or high school), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Launch add-on

Suggested enhancement: Program overview for leaders

Amplify Caminos 3rd Edition sessions are available July 2026.

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

The program overview for leaders session supports district and school-level instructional leaders in effectively supporting the implementation of the program. Leaders will learn the foundational elements of the program, build an understanding of the key teacher and student practices to look for in classrooms, and develop an implementation plan.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd and 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st Edition), Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy, Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy (Grades PreK–5), Amplify ELA 2nd Edition (Grades 6–8), Amplify Math (Grades 6–A1), Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5, 6–A1, or high school), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Launch add-on

Suggested enhancement: Amplify CKLA Grade 3–5 Skills supplement training for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to implement Amplify CKLA Grades 3–5 Skills in the classroom. Learn the foundational elements of Amplify CKLA Grades 3–5 Skills, including becoming familiar with materials and key lesson components.

Note:

  • Grade 3 Skills is included in the purchase of Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition, while Grade 4 Skills and Grade 5 Skills can be added on.
  • Grades 3–5 Skills are included with the purchase of Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition.

Session options: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition (Grades 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Strengthen: Program-specific sessions

Strengthen your Amplify implementation with program-specific sessions that support personalized learning and practice in your classroom.

To explore the available core Strengthen sessions, select your program:

Literacy Strengthen sessions STEM Strengthen sessions

Amplify will closely partner with you to select the appropriate session(s) that will deepen educators’ understanding of your Amplify program(s) and equip them with the tools they need to improve students’ learning outcomes. Each package includes one Strengthen session. Additional sessions can be added as Enhancements.

Coach session: Customized support

Amplify Caminos 3rd Edition, Amplify CKLA/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy, and Amplify Desmos Math high school sessions are available July 2026.

On-site, 6 hours

Coaching sessions focus on building internal school and district capacity and leadership excellence. Coaching is customized to meet a school or district’s needs and can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd and 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st and 3rd Edition), Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy, Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy, Amplify ELA 2nd Edition, Amplify Math (Grades 6–A1), Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5, 6–A1, or high school), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Individual teachers, grade-level teams, PLCs,
and/or instructional leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Hybrid 15 virtual package

A person points at a laptop screen displaying an online training module. Icons and text indicate the start of a virtual package with a duration of 15 hours.

Participate in 15 hours of program-aligned professional development across three sessions for up to 30 participants. Build understanding of research-based practices and develop knowledge through curated Launch, Strengthen, and Coach sessions.

Begin: Hybrid 15 virtual package
Session type Modality/duration What’s included
Launch (1) Virtual, 6-hr.
(2 half-days)		 Initial training for teachers
Strengthen (1) Virtual, 3-hr. Program-specific Strengthen session (selected based on your needs) for Core Literacy and STEM programs.
Coach (1) On-site, 6-hr. Coach session
Suggested enhancements
Launch add-on On-site or virtual, 3-hr. Program overview for leaders
Launch add-on Virtual, 1 hr. Amplify CKLA Grade 3–5 Skills supplement training for teachers

Begin: Launch: Initial training for teachers

Amplify Caminos 3rd Edition, Amplify CKLA/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy, and Amplify Desmos Math high school sessions are available July 2026.

Virtual, 6 hours (2 half-days)

Initial training sessions are designed for educators who are new to our program. In our initial training session, educators are oriented to the key components of their program(s), including learning how to navigate, teach, and monitor student progress, while exploring content and program resources. Participants will leave the session with the foundational knowledge and skills necessary to begin teaching with the program.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd and 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st and 3rd Edition), Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy, Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy, Amplify ELA 2nd Edition, Amplify Math (Grades 6–A1), Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5, 6–A1, or high school), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Launch add-on

Suggested enhancement: Program overview for leaders

Amplify Caminos 3rd Edition sessions are available July 2026.

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

The program overview for leaders session supports district and school-level instructional leaders in effectively supporting the implementation of the program. Leaders will learn the foundational elements of the program, build an understanding of the key teacher and student practices to look for in classrooms, and develop an implementation plan.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd and 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st Edition), Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy, Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy, Amplify ELA 2nd Edition, Amplify Math (Grades 6–A1), Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5, 6–A1, or high school), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Launch add-on

Suggested enhancement: Amplify CKLA Grade 3–5 Skills supplement training for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to implement Amplify CKLA Grades 3–5 Skills in the classroom. Learn the foundational elements of Amplify CKLA Grades 3–5 Skills, including becoming familiar with materials and key lesson components.

Note:

  • Grade 3 Skills is included in the purchase of Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition, while Grade 4 Skills and Grade 5 Skills can be added on.
  • Grades 3–5 Skills are included with the purchase of Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition.

Session options: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition (Grades 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Strengthen: Program-specific sessions

Strengthen your Amplify implementation with program-specific sessions that support personalized learning and practice in your classroom.

To explore the available core Strengthen sessions, select your program:

Literacy Strengthen sessions STEM Strengthen sessions

Amplify will closely partner with you to select the appropriate session(s) that will deepen educators’ understanding of Amplify program(s) and equip them with the tools they need to improve students’ learning outcomes. Each package includes one Strengthen session. Additional sessions can be added as Enhancements.

Coach session: Customized support

Amplify Caminos 3rd Edition, Amplify CKLA/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy, and Amplify Desmos Math high school sessions are available July 2026.

On-site, 6 hours

Coaching sessions focus on building internal school and district capacity and leadership excellence. Coaching is customized to meet a school or district’s needs and can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd and 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st and 3rd Edition), Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy, Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy, Amplify ELA 2nd Edition, Amplify Math (Grades 6–A1), Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5, 6–A1, or high school), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Individual teachers, grade-level teams, PLCs, and/or instructional leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Virtual 7 package

A person points at a laptop screen displaying an educational webpage; icons and text indicate the start of a virtual package lasting 7 hours.

Participate in 7 hours of program-aligned professional development across three sessions for up to 30 participants. Build understanding of research-based practices and develop knowledge through curated Launch, Strengthen, and Coach sessions.

Begin: Virtual 7 package
Session type Modality/duration What’s included
Launch (1) Virtual, 3-hr. Program overview for teachers
Strengthen (1) Virtual, 1-hr. Program-specific Strengthen Focus session (selected based on your needs) for Core Literacy and STEM programs.
Coach (1) Virtual, 3-hr. Coach session
Suggested enhancements
Launch add-on On-site or virtual, 3-hr. Program overview for leaders
Launch add-on Virtual, 1 hr. Amplify CKLA Grade 3–5 Skills supplement training for teachers

Begin: Launch: Program overview for teachers

Amplify Caminos 3rd Edition, Amplify CKLA/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy, and Amplify Desmos Math high school sessions are available July 2026.

Virtual, 3 hours

Program overview sessions provide a basic introduction for educators who are new users of the program. In a program overview session, educators learn how to get started with the key features and materials of the program.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd and 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st and 3rd Edition), Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy, Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy, Amplify ELA 2nd Edition, Amplify Math (Grades 6–A1), Amplify Desmos Math (Grades PreK, K–5, 6–A1, or high school), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Launch add-on

Suggested enhancement: Launch add-on: Program overview for leaders

Amplify Caminos 3rd Edition sessions are available July 2026.

On-site or virtual, 3 hours

The program overview for leaders session supports district and school-level instructional leaders in effectively coordinating the implementation of the program. Leaders will learn the foundational elements of the program, build an understanding of the key teacher and student practices to look for in classrooms, and develop an implementation plan.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd and 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st and 3rd Edition), Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy, Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy, Amplify ELA 2nd Edition, Amplify Math (Grades 6–A1), Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5, 6–A1, or high school), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Launch add-on

Suggested enhancement: Amplify CKLA Grade 3–5 Skills supplement training for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to implement Amplify CKLA Grades 3–5 Skills in the classroom. Learn the foundational elements of Amplify CKLA Grades 3–5 Skills, including becoming familiar with materials and key lesson components.

Note:

  • Grade 3 Skills is included in the purchase of Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition, while Grade 4 Skills and Grade 5 Skills can be added on.
  • Grades 3–5 Skills are included with the purchase of Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition.

Session options: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition (Grades 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Strengthen: Program-specific sessions

Strengthen your Amplify implementation with program-specific sessions that support personalized learning and practice in your classroom.

To explore the available core Strengthen sessions, select your program:

Literacy Strengthen sessions STEM Strengthen sessions

Amplify will closely partner with you to select the appropriate session(s) that will deepen educators’ understanding of your Amplify program(s) and equip them with the tools they need to improve students’ learning outcomes. Each package includes one Strengthen session. Additional sessions can be added as Enhancements.

Coach session: Customized support

Amplify Caminos 3rd Edition, Amplify CKLA/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy, and Amplify Desmos Math high school sessions are available July 2026.

Virtual, 3 hours

Coaching sessions focus on building internal school and district capacity and leadership excellence. Coaching is customized to meet a school or district’s needs and can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd and 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st and 3rd Edition), Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy, Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy, Amplify ELA 2nd Edition, Amplify Math (Grades 6–A1), Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5, 6–A1, or high school), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Individual teachers, grade-level teams, PLCs,
and/or instructional leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Practice packages

You’re familiar with Amplify programs and ready to deepen your knowledge and implementation. Let us support your educators with professional development that emphasizes continuous improvement and enhanced understanding.

Choose from flexible on-site, hybrid, or virtual packages:

  • One Strengthen session to deepen understanding of the program, expand practice, and drive student outcomes
  • Two Coach sessions to elevate instructional practice and meet specific needs

Each package supports up to 30 participants in similar grade bands.

On-site 15 package

Three people discuss work while looking at a tablet in front of a whiteboard with colorful sticky notes. A "Practice: On-site package" label and "15 hours" badge are displayed.

Participate in 15 hours of program-aligned professional development across three sessions for up to 30 participants. Build understanding of research-based practices and develop knowledge through curated Strengthen and Coach sessions.

Practice: On-site 15 package
Session type Modality/duration What’s included
Strengthen (1) On-site, 3-hr. Program-specific Strengthen session (selected based on your needs) for Core Literacy and STEM programs.
Coach (2) On-site, 6-hr. Coach session
Suggested enhancements
Launch substitution Virtual, 1-hr. NEW: Amplify Caminos 1st–3rd Ed. transition training for teachers
Launch substitution Virtual, 1-hr. NEW: Amplify CKLA 2nd Ed/Caminos 1st Ed to Amplify CKLA 3rd Ed/Caminos 3rd Ed transition training for teachers
Launch add-on Virtual, 1-hr. Amplify CKLA 3–5 Skills supplement training for teachers
Launch substitution
 Virtual, 1-hr. Amplify CKLA 2nd–3rd Edition transition training for teachers
Launch add-on Virtual, 1-hr. Language Studio for CKLA 3rd Edition session

Strengthen: Program-specific sessions

Strengthen your Amplify implementation with program-specific sessions that support personalized learning and practice in your classroom.

To explore the available core Strengthen sessions, select your program:

Literacy Strengthen sessions STEM Strengthen sessions

Amplify will closely partner with you to select the appropriate session(s) that will deepen educators’ understanding of Amplify program(s) and equip them with the tools they need to improve students’ learning outcomes. Each package includes one Strengthen session. Additional sessions can be added as Enhancements.

Coach session: Customized support

Amplify CKLA, Amplify Caminos 3rd Edition, and Amplify Desmos Math K–5 and 6–A1 are available July 2026.

On-site, 6 hours

Coaching sessions focus on building internal school and district capacity and leadership excellence. Coaching is customized to meet a school or district’s needs and can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd and 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st and 3rd Edition), Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy, Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition biliteracy, Amplify ELA 2nd Edition, Amplify Math (Grades 6–A1), Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5, 6–A1, or high school), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Individual teachers, grade-level teams, PLCs, and/or instructional leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Available July 2026

Suggested enhancement: Launch substitution: Amplify Caminos 1st and 3rd Edition transition training for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Participants will get an overview of the similarities and differences between Amplify Caminos 1st and 3rd Editions, including becoming familiar with changes in materials; the digital platform; and key lesson, assessment, and reporting components.

Session options: Amplify Caminos 1st Edition (Grades K–2 or 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Available July 2026

Suggested enhancement: Launch substitution: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition to Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition transition training for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Participants will get an overview of the similarities and differences between Amplify Caminos 1st and 3rd Editions, including becoming familiar with changes in materials; the digital platform; and key lesson, assessment, and reporting components.

Session options: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Amplify Caminos 1st Edition (Grades K–2 or 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Launch add-on

Suggested enhancement: Amplify CKLA Grade 3–5 Skills supplement training for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to implement Amplify CKLA Grades 3–5 Skills in the classroom. Learn the foundational elements of Amplify CKLA Grades 3–5 Skills, including becoming familiar with materials and key lesson components.

Note:

  • Grade 3 Skills is included in the purchase of Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition, while Grade 4 Skills and Grade 5 Skills can be added on.
  • Grades 3–5 Skills are included with the purchase of Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition.

Session options: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition (Grades 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Launch substitution

Suggested enhancement: Launch substitution: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition to 3rd Edition transition training for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Ideal substitution for CKLA 2nd Edition Launch sessions
Participants will get an overview of the similarities and differences between Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition and Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition, including becoming familiar with changes in materials; the digital platform; and key lesson, assessment, and reporting components.

Session options: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition (Grades K–2 or 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Launch add-on

Suggested enhancement: Launch add-on: Language Studio companion training for teachers

On-site and virtual, 3 hour

Ideal add-on for Amplify CKLA (2nd Edition or 3rd Edition) Launch sessions
Participants will be able to summarize the key features of Language Studio. During this session they will connect key segments of Language Studio to ELD instructional best practices, identify the segments of Language Studio, and plan and practice a Language Studio lesson.

Session options: Amplify CKLA 2nd or 3rd Edition (Grades K–2 or 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Hybrid 15 package

Two women look at a computer screen and smile in an office setting. Text reads "Practice: Hybrid package" and "15 hours" with icons on the left side.

Participate in 15 hours of program-aligned professional development across three sessions for up to 30 participants. Build understanding of research-based practices and develop knowledge through curated Strengthen and Coach sessions.

Practice: Hybrid 15 package
Session type Modality/duration What’s included
Strengthen (1) Virtual, 3-hr. Program-specific Strengthen session (selected based on your needs) for Core Literacy and STEM programs.
Coach (2) On-site, 6-hr. Coach session
Suggested enhancements
Launch substitution Virtual, 1-hr. NEW: Amplify Caminos 1st and 3rd Ed. transition training for teachers
Launch substitution Virtual, 1-hr. NEW: Amplify CKLA 2nd Ed./Caminos 1st Ed. to Amplify CKLA 3rd Ed./Caminos 3rd Ed. transition training for teachers
Launch add-on Virtual, 1-hr. Amplify CKLA Grade 3–5 Skills supplement training for teachers
Launch substitution Virtual, 1-hr. Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition to 3rd Edition transition training for teachers
Launch add-on Virtual, 1-hr. Language Studio for CKLA 3rd Edition session

Strengthen: Program-specific sessions

Strengthen your Amplify implementation with program-specific sessions that support personalized learning and practice in your classroom.

To explore the available core Strengthen sessions, select your program:

Literacy Strengthen sessions STEM Strengthen sessions

Amplify will closely partner with you to select the appropriate session(s) that will deepen educators’ understanding of your Amplify program(s) and equip them with the tools they need to improve students’ learning outcomes. Each package includes one Strengthen session. Additional sessions can be added as Enhancements.

Coach session: Customized support

Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition and Amplify Desmos Math K–5 and 6–A1 sessions are available July 2026.

On-site, 6 hours

Coaching sessions focus on building internal school and district capacity and leadership excellence. Coaching is customized to meet a school or district’s needs and can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd and 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st Edition), Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy, Amplify ELA 2nd Edition, Amplify Math (Grades 6–A1), Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5, 6–A1, or high school), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Individual teachers, grade-level teams, PLCs,
and/or instructional leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Available July 2026

Suggested enhancement: Launch substitution: Amplify Caminos 1st and 3rd Edition transition training for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Participants will get an overview of the similarities and differences between Amplify Caminos 1st and 3rd Editions, including becoming familiar with changes in materials; the digital platform; and key lesson, assessment, and reporting components.

Session options: Amplify Caminos 1st Edition (Grades K–2 or 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Available July 2026

Suggested enhancement: Launch substitution: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition to Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition transition training for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Participants will get an overview of the similarities and differences between Amplify Caminos 1st and 3rd Editions, including becoming familiar with changes in materials; the digital platform; and key lesson, assessment, and reporting components.

Session options: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Amplify Caminos 1st Edition (Grades K–2 or 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Launch add-on

Suggested enhancement: Amplify CKLA Grade 3–5 Skills supplement training for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to implement Amplify CKLA Grades 3–5 Skills in the classroom. Learn the foundational elements of Amplify CKLA Grades 3–5 Skills, including becoming familiar with materials and key lesson components.

Note:

  • Grade 3 Skills is included in the purchase of Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition, while Grade 4 Skills and Grade 5 Skills can be added on.
  • Grades 3–5 Skills are included with the purchase of Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition.

Session options: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition (Grades 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Launch substitution

Suggested enhancement: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition to 3rd Edition transition training for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Ideal substitution for CKLA 2nd Edition Launch sessions
Participants will get an overview of the similarities and differences between Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition and Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition, including becoming familiar with changes in materials; the digital platform; and key lesson, assessment, and reporting components.

Session options: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition (Grades 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Launch add-on

Suggested enhancement: Launch add-on: Language Studio companion training for teachers

On-site and virtual, 3 hours

Ideal add-on for Amplify CKLA (2nd Edition or 3rd Edition) Launch sessions
Participants will be able to summarize the key features of Language Studio. During this session they will connect key segments of Language Studio to ELD instructional best practices, identify the segments of Language Studio, and plan and practice a Language Studio lesson.

Session options: Amplify CKLA 2nd or 3rd Edition (Grades K–2 or 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Hybrid 13 package

Two women work together at a computer in an office, smiling, with a graphic indicating "Practice: Hybrid package" and "13 hours.

Participate in 13 hours of program-aligned professional development across three sessions for up to 30 participants. Build understanding of research-based practices and develop knowledge through curated Strengthen and Coach sessions.

Practice: Hybrid 13 package
Session type Modality/duration What’s included
Strengthen (1) Virtual, 1-hr. Program-specific Strengthen Focus session (selected based on your needs) for Core Literacy and STEM programs.
Coach (2) On-site, 6-hr. Coach session
Suggested enhancements
Launch substitution Virtual, 1-hr. NEW: Amplify Caminos 1st and 3rd Ed. transition training for teachers
Launch substitution Virtual, 1-hr. NEW: Amplify CKLA 2nd Ed./Caminos 1st Ed. to Amplify CKLA 3rd Ed./Caminos 3rd Ed. transition training for teachers
Launch add-on Virtual, 1-hr. Amplify CKLA Grade 3–5 Skills supplement training for teachers
Launch substitution Virtual, 1-hr. Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition to 3rd Edition transition training for teachers

Strengthen: Program-specific sessions

Strengthen your Amplify implementation with program-specific sessions that support personalized learning and practice in your classroom.

To explore the available core Strengthen sessions, select your program:

Literacy Strengthen sessions STEM Strengthen sessions

Amplify will closely partner with you to select the appropriate session(s) that will deepen educators’ understanding of Amplify program(s) and equip them with the tools they need to improve students’ learning outcomes. Each package includes one Strengthen session. Additional sessions can be added as Enhancements.

Coach session: Customized support

Amplify CKLA; Amplify Caminos 3rd Edition; and Amplify Desmos Math K–5, 6–A1, and high school are available July 2026.

On-site, 6 hours

Coaching sessions focus on building internal school and district capacity and leadership excellence. Coaching is customized to meet a school or district’s needs and can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd and 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st Edition), Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy, Amplify ELA 2nd Edition, Amplify Math (Grades 6–A1), Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5, 6–A1, or high school), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Individual teachers, grade-level teams, PLCs, and/or instructional leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Available July 2026

Suggested enhancement: Launch substitution: Amplify Caminos 1st and 3rd Edition transition training for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Participants will get an overview of the similarities and differences between Amplify Caminos 1st and 3rd Editions, including becoming familiar with changes in materials; the digital platform; and key lesson, assessment, and reporting components.

Session options: Amplify Caminos 1st Edition (Grades K–2 or 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Available July 2026

Suggested enhancement: Launch substitution: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition to Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition transition training for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Participants will get an overview of the similarities and differences between Amplify Caminos 1st 3rd Editions, including becoming familiar with changes in materials; the digital platform; and key lesson, assessment, and reporting components.

Session options: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Amplify Caminos 1st Edition (Grades K–2 or 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Launch add-on

Suggested enhancement: Amplify CKLA Grade 3–5 Skills supplement training for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to implement Amplify CKLA Grades 3–5 Skills in the classroom. Learn the foundational elements of Amplify CKLA Grades 3–5 Skills, including becoming familiar with materials and key lesson components.

Note:

  • Grade 3 Skills is included in the purchase of Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition, while Grade 4 Skills and Grade 5 Skills can be added on.
  • Grades 3–5 Skills are included with the purchase of Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition.

Session options: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition (Grades 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Launch substitution

Suggested enhancement: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition to 3rd Edition transition training for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Ideal substitution for CKLA 2nd Edition Launch sessions
Participants will get an overview of the similarities and differences between Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition and Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition, including becoming familiar with changes in materials; the digital platform; and key lesson, assessment, and reporting components.

Session options: Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition (Grades 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Virtual 9 package

A person points at a laptop screen displaying an educational program. Text indicates "Practice: Virtual package" and "9 hours" of activity. Icons for learning and fitness are shown on the side.

Participate in 9 hours of program-aligned professional development across three sessions for up to 30 participants. Build understanding of research-based practices and develop knowledge through curated Strengthen and Coach sessions.

Practice: Virtual 9 package
Session type Modality/duration What’s included
Strengthen (1) Virtual, 3-hr. Program-specific Strengthen session (selected based on your needs) for Core Literacy and STEM programs.
Coach (2) Virtual, 3-hr. Coach session
Suggested enhancements
Launch substitution Virtual, 1-hr. NEW: Amplify Caminos 1st and 3rd Ed. transition training for teachers
Launch substitution Virtual, 1-hr. NEW: Amplify CKLA 2nd Ed./Caminos 1st Ed. to Amplify CKLA 3rd Ed./Caminos 3rd Ed. transition training for teachers
Launch add-on Virtual, 1-hr. Amplify CKLA Grade 3–5 Skills supplement training for teachers
Launch substitution Virtual, 1-hr. Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition to 3rd Edition transition training for teachers

Strengthen: Program-specific sessions

Strengthen your Amplify implementation with program-specific sessions that support personalized learning and practice in your classroom.

To explore the available core Strengthen sessions, select your program:

Literacy Strengthen sessions STEM Strengthen sessions

Amplify will closely partner with you to select the appropriate session(s) that will deepen educators’ understanding of your Amplify program(s) and equip them with the tools they need to improve students’ learning outcomes. Each package includes one Strengthen session. Additional sessions can be added as Enhancements.

Coach session: Customized support

Amplify CKLA; Amplify Caminos 3rd Edition; and Amplify Desmos Math K–5, 6–A1, and high school are available July 2026.

On-site, 6 hours

Coaching sessions focus on building internal school and district capacity and leadership excellence. Coaching is customized to meet a school or district’s needs and can include model lessons, observations, walk-throughs, and/or co-planning.

Session options: Amplify CKLA (2nd and 3rd Edition), Amplify Caminos (1st Edition), Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition biliteracy, Amplify ELA 2nd Edition, Amplify Math (Grades 6–A1), Amplify Desmos Math (Grades K–5, 6–A1, or high school), Amplify Science (Grades K–5 or 6–8)

Audience: Individual teachers, grade-level teams, PLCs, and/or instructional leaders (maximum 30 participants)

Available July 2026

Suggested enhancement: Launch substitution: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition to Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition transition training for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Participants will get an overview of the similarities and differences between Amplify Caminos 1st and 3rd Editions, including becoming familiar with changes in materials; the digital platform; and key lesson, assessment, and reporting components.

Session options: Amplify Caminos 1st Edition (Grades K–2 or 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Available July 2026

Suggested enhancement: Launch substitution: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Caminos 1st Edition to Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition/Caminos 3rd Edition transition training for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Participants will get an overview of the similarities and differences between Amplify Caminos 1st and 3rd Editions, including becoming familiar with changes in materials; the digital platform; and key lesson, assessment, and reporting components.

Session options: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition/Amplify Caminos 1st Edition (Grades K–2 or 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Launch add-on

Suggested enhancement: Amplify CKLA Grade 3–5 Skills supplement training for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to implement Amplify CKLA Grades 3–5 Skills in the classroom. Learn the foundational elements of Amplify CKLA Grades 3–5 Skills, including becoming familiar with materials and key lesson components.

Note:

  • Grade 3 Skills is included in the purchase of Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition, while Grade 4 Skills and Grade 5 Skills can be added on.
  • Grades 3–5 Skills are included with the purchase of Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition.

Session options: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition (Grades 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Launch substitution

Suggested enhancement: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition to 3rd Edition transition training for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Ideal substitution for Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition Launch sessions
Participants will get an overview of the similarities and differences between Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition and Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition, including becoming familiar with changes in materials; the digital platform; and key lesson, assessment, and reporting components.

Session options: Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition (Grades 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Enhancement options

Want to extend learning for teachers and leaders? Have a unique need that you’d like to address? Seeking more targeted coaching options? Our package enhancements allow you to tailor your PD experience to meet the needs of your staff, whether they’re new or returning to the program.

Enhancements can be purchased for all teachers/leaders or a subset of educators.

General enhancement offerings

Session name On-site,
6-hr.		 On-site,
3-hr.		 Virtual,
6-hr.
(2 half days)		 Virtual,
3-hr. 		 Virtual,
1-hr.
Leadership Launch session       A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Leadership Strengthen session A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Launch (Practice) session for teachers and leaders   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Strengthen session for teachers and leaders   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Coach session for teachers and leaders A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background. A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Amplify CKLA Grade 3–5 Skills supplement training for teachers         A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.
Launch add-on: Language Studio companion training for K–2 or 3–5 teachers   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.   A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.  
Launch substitution: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition to 3rd Edition transition         A large, light peach-colored checkmark on a transparent background.

Launch add-on

Suggested enhancement: Launch add-on: Amplify CKLA Grade 3–5 Skills supplement training for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Learn how to implement Amplify CKLA Grades 3–5 Skills in the classroom. Learn the foundational elements of Amplify CKLA Grades 3–5 Skills, including becoming familiar with materials and key lesson components.

Note:

  • Grade 3 Skills is included in the purchase of Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition, while Grade 4 Skills and Grade 5 Skills can be added on.
  • Grades 3–5 Skills are included with the purchase of Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition.

Session options: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition (Grades 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Launch add-on

Suggested enhancement: Language Studio companion training for teachers

On-site and virtual, 3 hours

Ideal add-on for Amplify CKLA (2nd or 3rd Edition) Launch sessions

Participants will be able to summarize the key features of Language Studio. During this session, they will connect key segments of Language Studio to ELD instructional best practices, identify the segments of Language Studio, and plan and practice a Language Studio lesson.

Session options: Amplify CKLA 2nd or 3rd Edition (Grades K–2 or 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Launch substitution

Suggested enhancement: Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition to 3rd Edition transition training for teachers

Virtual, 1 hour

Ideal substitution for CKLA 2nd Edition Launch sessions
Participants will get an overview of the similarities and differences between Amplify CKLA 2nd Edition and Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition, including becoming familiar with changes in materials; the digital platform; and key lesson, assessment, and reporting components.

Session options: Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition (Grades 3–5)

Audience: Teachers, instructional staff (maximum 30 participants)

Biliteracy packages

Biliteracy packages for Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos

We also offer several of the core Amplify CKLA sessions for our biliteracy and Spanish immersion programs. These specialized sessions support educators teaching with both Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos programs, facilitated in English, Spanish, or both languages as appropriate.

Contact your account executive for extended PD catalog options or quotes.

Companion programs

Additional sessions are available for Amplify CKLA’s companion programs (Writing Studio and Language Studio).

Get in touch with a PD expert.

Amplify Science Resources for NYC (6-8)

This page has been archived. For the latest information, please visit the NYC Resource Site.

Welcome!

As the 2021-2022 school year kicks into full gear, you’re likely thinking about making your classroom responsive to student needs due to the covid-19 pandemic.

Got additional questions? Use Zoom to attend office hours with Adaliz Gonzalez, the DOE’s Middle School Science Lead on Thursdays from 3-4pm.

Meeting ID: 852 2280 0969

Passcode: 528986

A powerful partnership

Amplify Science was developed by the science education experts at UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science and the digital learning team at Amplify.

The word "Amplify" is written in large, orange letters with a period at the end on a light background.
The logo for The Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California, Berkeley, features blue text on a light background and is recognized by educators using Amplify Science for middle school science programs.

NYC Newsletters

Educator Spotlight Submission

Calling all NYC DOE educators! Do you know an educator who has gone above and beyond? Would you like to highlight your teaching experience for others? Submit nominations here to see them featured as a spotlight in a future edition of our monthly newsletter and on our Instagram pages!

Introduction

This page includes planning, implementation, and professional learning resources for NYC schools using Amplify Science. Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the categories in the navigation bar on the left side of the page, so that you’ll be able to easily find what you need.

Most New York City educators come here looking for specific information, but if you’re new to Amplify Science, we recommend you read through the program guide to learn a little about the program. 

New to Amplify? – Start HERE!

Teachers and Administrators 

Step 1: Review the Amplify Science Overview Video.

Step 2: Review the NYC Scope and sequence for 21-22 school year.

Step 3: Review the Unpacking the Kit Videos listed below to understand what’s in your unit 1 kit.

Step 4: Access your unique Log-in information to log-in to the Amplify Science Curriculum outlined below under Login support

Step 5: Log into the platform and access our Program Hub.  Select Using this site for self study for a complete suite of training videos and resources for an initial orientation video series.

Step 6: Log into the curriculum and begin studying the Unit Map and Teacher’s Guide resources and begin planning your first lesson. Print out the NYC Program Guide for essential program information.

Step 7: Administrator’s ONLY – Review the new administrator orientation presentation for an overview of the program. Review other materials under Admin Resources. 

NOTE: Should you need any additional guidance on how to get started with prep (or anything else!), please feel free to get in touch with our pedagogical support team. They are available Monday-Friday from 7AM-7PM EST. You can reach them via the chat icon in the lower right- hand corner of your screen when logged in, through email (help@amplify.com), or via phone (800-823-1969).

Getting started resources

Login Support

Materials

Unpacking your first Amplify Science classroom kit

21-22 Login Update

The temporary login credentials for fall ’21 have been deactivated. 

Please make sure you check out the Getting started resources > Login Support below for instructions around teacher and student logins. If there are any issues, please confirm with your STARS programmer that your classes are assigned correctly and then contact our Amplify Help Desk at help@amplify.com or at 1-800-823-1969 for further assistance.

Implementation resources

21-22 NYC Scope and Sequence and Pacing Guide

Use our NYC Field Trip List to plan an engaging field trip for your students!

NYC Companion Lesson Guides 

The format of the NYC Companion Lessons is similar to other Amplify Science lessons. Some companion lessons are designed to require more than a single class period to teach, so each lesson includes pacing suggestions. Science Background sections support teachers with the science content introduced in the lessons. For students’ written work, possible student responses are included at the end of each lesson guide.

The Lesson Guides are available in the last section of each unit’s print Teacher’s Guide and can be downloaded from the tables in the downloads section below.

NYC Companion Lesson Copymasters
Each NYC Companion Lesson has an accompanying Copymaster (for creating student sheets) that can be copied and distributed to students or used as a visual reference. The NYC Companion Lessons require students to have physical copies of the student sheets. The copymasters are available to download as printable PDF files from the tables in the downloads section below.

Grade 6 Lesson guides and Copymasters

  • Companion lesson: Insert after Lesson 2.2
  • Time frame: 60 minutes (can spread across multiple class periods)
  • NYSP–12SLS: PE: MS-PS3-6, DCI: PS3.B
  • Links (click to download):
  • Companion lesson: Insert after Lesson 3.3
  • Time frame: Two 45-minute class periods
  • NYSP–12SLS: PE: MS-PS2-3, MS-PS2-5, DCI: PS2.B
  • Links (click to download):
  • Companion lesson: Insert after Lesson 3.3 and after Investigating Non-Touching Forces
  • Time frame: 60 minutes (first and second reads can be spread across two class periods)
  • NYSP–12SLS: PE: MS-PS2-5, MS-PS2-3, DCI: PS2.B
  • Links (click to download):
  • Companion lesson: Insert after Lesson 2.5
  • Time frame: 105 minutes (can be spread across multiple class periods)
  • NYSP–12SLS: PE: MS-PS1-6, DCI: PS1.B
  • Links (click to download):
  • Companion lesson: Insert after Lesson 3.4
  • Time frame: 60 minutes (first and second reads can be spread across two class periods)
  • NYSP–12SLS: PE: MS-LS2-5, DCI: LS2.C, LS4.D
  • Links (click to download):
  • Companion lesson: Insert after Lesson 1.3
  • Time frame: 60 minutes (first and second reads can be spread across two class periods)
  • NYSP–12SLS: PE: MS-ESS2-4, DCI: ESS2.C
  • Links (click to download):
  • Companion lesson: Insert after Lesson 3.3*
  • Time frame: 90 minutes (can be spread across multiple class periods)
  • NYSP–12SLS: PE: MS-PS1-7, MS-ESS2-6, DCI: PS1.A, ESS2.C
  • Links (click to download):

*Note: The homework assignment for Ocean, Atmosphere, and Climate Lesson 3.3 (reading the article “Deep Ocean Currents: Driven by Density”) should be assigned after the Investigating Deep Ocean Currents companion lesson rather than after Lesson 3.3.

Grade 7 Lesson Guides and Copymasters

  • Companion lesson: Insert after Lesson 3.2
  • Time frame: 60 minutes (first and second reads can be spread across two class periods)
  • NYSP–12SLS: PE: MS-LS1-3, DCI: PS3.D, LS1.A
  • Links (click to download):
  • Companion lesson: Insert after Lesson 3.3 or later
  • Time frame: Three 45-minute class periods, each several days apart
  • NYSP–12SLS: PE: MS-LS1-8, DCI: LS1.D
  • Links (click to download):
  • Companion lesson: Insert after Lesson 3.5
  • Time frame: 60 minutes (first and second reads can be spread across two class periods)
  • NYSP–12SLS: PE: MS-LS1-6, MS-LS1-7, DCI: LS1.C, PS3.D
  • Links (click to download):
  • Companion lesson: Insert after Lesson 2.2
  • Time frame: 60 minutes (first and second reads can be spread across two class periods)
  • NYSP–12SLS: PE: MS-PS1-4, DCI: PS3.A
  • Links (click to download):
  • Companion lesson: Insert after Lesson 1.3
  • Time frame: 60 minutes
  • NYSP–12SLS: PE: MS-PS1-7, DCI: PS1.A
  • Links (click to download):
  • Companion lesson: Insert after Lesson 2.3, 2.4, or 2.5
  • Time frame: Two 45-minute class periods
  • NYSP–PE: MS-PS1-8, MS-PS1-2 DCI: PS1.A, PS1.B
  • Links (click to download):

Grade 8 Lesson Guides and Copymaster

  • Companion lesson: Insert after Lesson 2.2
  • Time frame: 90 minutes (can be spread across multiple class periods)
  • NYSP–12SLS: PE: MS-PS3-2, MS-PS3-5
  • Links (click to download):

NYC Companion Kits

Materials needed to teach Amplify Science lessons are provided in a kit for each unit. While some materials used in the NYC Companion Lessons are also found in a unit’s kit, materials specific to the companion lessons are provided in NYC Companion Kits. The contents of each kit and any additional materials needed to teach the companion lessons are listed in the PDFs provided below. Please select your grade to view or download the list.

NYC Student Editions (print)
The NYC Student Editions are durable student references that compile all reading material required for a grade level, including the articles students read for NYC Companion Lessons. Students reading in the Student Edition should annotate the text directly with sticky notes to achieve the full benefits of Active Reading. The Active Reading approach was designed as an interactive process in which students highlight and annotate digital or hard copies of articles directly. Printable versions of the articles are available in the downloads section below.

It is recommended that NYC teachers insert this additional lesson between Lessons 3.1 and 3.2 in order to have students complete a reading assignment in class along with an additional Sim activity.

  • Lesson: Earth, Moon and Sun: Modeling Seasons
  • Lesson Placement: Insert between Lessons 3.1 and 3.2*
  • Links (click to download):

*If teaching this Modeling Seasons lesson, do not assign reading “The Endless Summer of the Arctic Tern” article for homework in Lesson 3.1. However, students should still model a lunar eclipse with the Modeling Tool for homework, as they will be revisiting and revising this model in Lesson 3.3.

NYC Investigation Notebooks (for teacher download)

* includes NYC Companion Lesson Copymaster(s)

* includes NYC Companion Lesson Copymaster(s)

  • Geology on Mars
  • Earth, Moon, and Sun
  • Force and Motion
  • Engineering Internship: Force and Motion
  • Magnetic Fields*
  • Light Waves
  • Traits and Reproduction
  • Natural Selection
  • Evolutionary History

* includes NYC Companion Lesson Copymaster(s)

Admin resources

Remote and hybrid learning resources

In response to the shifts towards remote learning, Amplify has created resources for using our programs remotely. Please visit our Program Hub accessible via your Teacher Platform for all of our hybrid and remote learning supports which includes guidance for teachers and parents/guardians.

Additionally, please see below where you’ll find the recordings from our recently held webinars on our remote learning resources and some best practices for implementing Amplify Science in a distance learning setting.

Resource guides

Professional learning opportunities

Interested in attending training? Check out and sign up for this year’s PL offerings here!

Election Day 21-22 PL

Grade 6 Guided Planning Presentation and Webinar

Grade 7 Guided Planning Presentation and Webinar

Grade 8 Guided Planning Presentation and Webinar

Grades 6-8 Unpacking Phenomena Presentation and Webinar

All 2020-2021 PL session materials can be found below under Professional learning resources.

Amplify Science Back-to-School Recorded Webinars – Amplify held a series of national office hours throughout the summer and fall to share information about our new resources to support remote and hybrid learning– including recommendations about what to prioritize from your curriculum and essential refresher topics, such as how to navigate your program and find the best planning resources. Feel free to watch all recorded sessions at your convenience.

Archived Professional Learning Resources

Winter 2022

Spring 2021

Winter 2021

Fall 2020

Summer 2020

Summer 2019- Harnessing Human Energy and Thermal Energy

Fall 2019- Population and Resources with Participant Notebook

Winter 2022

Spring 2021

Winter 2021

Fall 2020

  • Grade 7: Progress Builds & Embedded Assessments Webinar
  • Grade 7: Amplify Science Remote & Hybrid Resources Webinar

Summer 2020

Summer 2019 – Microbiome and Metabolism

Fall 2019 – Phase Change with Participant Notebook

Winter 2022

Spring 2021

Winter 2021

Fall 2020

  • Grade 8: Progress Builds & Embedded Assessments Webinar
  • Grade 8: Amplify Science Remote & Hybrid Resources Webinar

Summer 2020

Summer 2019 –  Geology on Mars and Earth, Moon, Sun

Fall 2019 – Force and Motion with Participant Notebook

Caregiver resources

Caregiver Hub

Questions

For general questions about the Amplify program (navigation, pedagogy, login), please reach out:

Email – scihelp@amplify.com
Phone – call toll-free at (800) 823-1969, Monday to Friday, 7 a.m.–7 p.m.  ET

Amplify Chat – click the Amplify Chat icon within the individual teacher account

Plan your professional development

We’re excited to partner with you on your Amplify journey. Flexible professional development pathways have been designed to meet your needs.

Illustration of three educational phases: a teacher launches a rocket, another reads a book, and four individuals discuss in a meeting setting.

Recommended Professional Development Plan

Our team has curated a recommended professional learning path from initial launch to continuous support. Use the Professional Development Planning Guide below to discuss the plan that best meets your school or district needs with your Account Executive.

View the Professional Development Planning Guide

Sessions overview

Recommended sessions are highlighted below.
AudienceTitleDurationModality
mCLASS Texas Edition Launch
All mCLASS Texas Edition customersInitial training2 half days or self-pacedRemote/Online course
New mCLASS Texas Edition customersInitial training1 dayOnsite
Initial training: Train the Trainer1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote
New mCLASS Texas Edition customers with limited time for PDmCLASS program overview, English measures onlyHalf dayOnsite/Remote
mCLASS program overview, Spanish measures onlyHalf dayOnsite/Remote
Experienced mCLASS Texas Edition customersRefresher trainingHalf dayOnsite/Remote
mCLASS Texas Edition and Amplify Reading Launch
New mCLASS Texas Edition and Amplify Reading customersInitial training with Amplify Reading overview1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote
Initial training with Amplify Reading overview: Train the Trainer1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote
mCLASS Texas Edition and TRC Launch
New mCLASS Texas Edition and TRC customersInitial training with TRC overview1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote
Initial training with TRC overview: Train the Trainer1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote
Experienced mCLASS Texas Edition customersTRC initial trainingHalf dayOnsite/Remote
TRC initial training: Train the TrainerHalf dayOnsite/Remote
mCLASS Express Launch
New mCLASS Express customersInitial trainingHalf dayOnsite/Remote
Initial trainingSelf-pacedOnline course
mCLASS Texas Edition Strengthen
All mCLASS Texas Edition customers with limited time for PDUnderstanding your classroom dataHalf dayOnsite/Remote
All mCLASS Texas Edition customersClassroom data analysis and instructional planning1 day Onsite
All mCLASS Texas Edition customersClassroom data analysis and instructional planning 2 half daysRemote
Classroom data analysis and instructional planning: Train the Trainer1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote
Classroom data analysis and instructional planningSelf-pacedOnline
All mCLASS Texas Edition customersData-driven leadership practices1 day onsiteOnsite
All mCLASS Texas Edition customersData-driven leadership practices 2 half daysRemote
Data-driven leadership practices: Train the Trainer1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote
Data-driven leadership practicesSelf-pacedOnline
Understanding your school or district dataHalf dayOnsite/Remote
Strengthening consultation session1-hour sessionRemote
All mCLASS Texas Edition customersStrengthening consultation session package3 1-hour sessionsRemote
mCLASS Texas Edition Coach
All mCLASS Texas Edition customersCoaching session1 dayOnsite
All mCLASS Texas Edition customersCoaching sessionHalf dayOnsite/Remote

Launch

mCLASS Texas Edition

Initial training

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

This PD prepares participants to implement the assessment, collect reliable data using standardized guidelines, and use the targeted lessons available on mCLASS to drive differentiated instruction.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Initial training: Train the Trainer

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

This PD prepares participants to implement the assessment, collect reliable data using standardized guidelines, and use the targeted lessons available on mCLASS to drive differentiated instruction. Participants receive annotated session materials to turnkey the session to colleagues.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

mCLASS program overview, English measures only

Half day (3 hours)

This PD prepares participants to implement the English measures of the mCLASS Texas assessment and collect reliable data using standardized guidelines. Only English measures are covered in this half-day training.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

mCLASS program overview, Spanish measures only

Half day (3 hours)

This PD prepares participants to implement the Spanish measures of the mCLASS Texas assessment and collect reliable data using standardized guidelines. Only Spanish measures are covered in this half-day training.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Refresher training

Half day (3 hours)

The half-day refresher training is designed for teachers and instructional leaders who are experienced with any version of DIBELS® and/or Acadience Reading and are invested in successfully implementing mCLASS Texas Edition. This session will help educators focus on what’s new to the assessment and understand mCLASS Texas Edition’s potential to impact all students through improved measures, stronger insight into students’ instructional needs, and bolstered skills-focused lessons to support instructional planning. Upon completion of this session, participants will be prepared to implement the new assessment, collect reliable data using standardized guidelines, and use the targeted lessons available on mCLASS Texas Edition to drive differentiated instruction as part of their regular classroom practice.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

mCLASS Texas Edition and Amplify Reading

Initial training with Amplify Reading overview

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

Take the first step in launching mCLASS Texas Edition and Amplify Reading! The initial training will help educators understand how mCLASS Texas Edition assesses the basic early literacy skills that are crucial for reading development, gain hands-on experience administering and scoring the assessment using standardized guidelines, and access the Instruction page in order to find skills-focused lessons that will support instructional planning. A high-level overview of how to get started with Amplify Reading will also be provided at the end of the training along with supplementary, on-demand resources. Upon completion of this session, participants will be prepared to implement the new assessment, collect reliable data using standardized guidelines, use the targeted lessons available on mCLASS Texas Edition to drive differentiated instruction as part of their regular classroom practice, and understand key Amplify Reading features.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Initial training with Amplify Reading overview: Train the Trainer

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

Take the first step in launching mCLASS Texas Edition and Amplify Reading! The initial training will help educators understand how mCLASS Texas Edition assesses the basic early literacy skills that are crucial for reading development, gain hands-on experience administering and scoring the assessment using standardized guidelines, and access the Instruction page in order to find skills-focused lessons that will support instructional planning. A high-level overview of how to get started with Amplify Reading will also be provided at the end of the training along with supplementary, on-demand resources. Upon completion of this session, participants will be prepared to implement the new assessment, collect reliable data using standardized guidelines, use the targeted lessons available on mCLASS Texas Edition to drive differentiated instruction as part of their regular classroom practice, and understand key Amplify Reading features. Participants receive annotated session materials to turnkey the session to colleagues.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

mCLASS Texas Edition and TRC

Initial training with TRC overview

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

Take the first step in launching mCLASS Texas Edition and Amplify Reading! The initial training will help educators understand how mCLASS Texas Edition assesses the basic early literacy skills that are crucial for reading development, gain hands-on experience administering and scoring the assessment using standardized guidelines, and access the Instruction page in order to find skills-focused lessons that will support instructional planning. A high-level overview of how to get started with Amplify Reading will also be provided at the end of the training along with supplementary, on-demand resources. Upon completion of this session, participants will be prepared to implement the new assessment, collect reliable data using standardized guidelines, use the targeted lessons available on mCLASS Texas Edition to drive differentiated instruction as part of their regular classroom practice, and understand key Amplify Reading features.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Initial training with TRC overview: Train the Trainer

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

Take the first step in launching mCLASS Texas Edition and TRC! The initial training will help educators understand how mCLASS Texas Edition assesses the basic early literacy skills that are crucial for reading development, gain hands-on experience administering and scoring the assessment using standardized guidelines, and access the Instruction page in order to find skills-focused lessons that will support instructional planning. A high-level overview of how to get started with TRC will also be provided at the end of the training along with supplementary, on-demand resources. Upon completion of this session, participants will be prepared to implement the new assessment, collect reliable data using standardized guidelines, use the targeted lessons available on mCLASS Texas Edition to drive differentiated instruction as part of their regular classroom practice, and understand key TRC features. Participants receive annotated session materials to turnkey the session to colleagues.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

TRC initial training

Half day (3 hours)

Take the first step in launching TRC! The half-day initial training will help educators understand how TRC assesses the basic early literacy skills that are crucial for reading development, gain hands-on experience administering and scoring the assessment using standardized guidelines, and access the Instruction page in order to find skills-focused lessons that will support instructional planning.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Remote

TRC initial training: Train the Trainer

Half day (3 hours)

Take the first step in launching TRC! The half-day initial training will help educators understand how TRC assesses the basic early literacy skills that are crucial for reading development, gain hands-on experience administering and scoring the assessment using standardized guidelines, and access the Instruction page in order to find skills-focused lessons that will support instructional planning. Participants receive annotated session materials to turnkey the session to colleagues.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Remote

mCLASS Express

Initial training

Half day (3 hours)

Take the first step in launching mCLASS Express! The half-day initial training will help educators understand how mCLASS Express’ voice-recognition scoring generates immediate instructional recommendations for students reading below grade level. Educators will also learn how to utilize the teacher portal to assign assessments, review and correct scoring, track student growth over time, and leverage the program’s activities to create an action plan for a single classroom or across classes/grades.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Remote

Initial training

Self-paced

Take the first step in launching mCLASS Express! The two-hour initial training will help educators understand how mCLASS Express’ voice-recognition scoring generates immediate instructional recommendations for students reading below grade level. Educators will also learn how to utilize the teacher portal to assign assessments, review and correct scoring, track student growth over time, and leverage the program’s activities to create an action plan for a single classroom or across classes/grades. As this is a self-paced, on-demand online course, participants will be able to access the course anytime, move as quickly or as slowly as needed through different sections, and revisit the course for up to one year as a refresher in the future.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome)
Modality: Remote

Strengthen

Understanding your classroom data

Half day (3 hours)

This PD prepares participants to understand their students’ data by utilizing the reports available on mCLASS. This session should be scheduled after the most recent benchmark window has closed so that participants can work with their own data.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Classroom data analysis and instructional planning

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

This PD prepares participants to deeply understand their students’ data and create actionable instructional plans by utilizing the reports and skills-focused lesson plans available on mCLASS.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

*This session should be scheduled after the most recent benchmark window has closed so that participants can work with their own data.

Classroom data analysis and instructional planning: Train the Trainer

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

This PD prepares participants to deeply understand their students’ data and create actionable instructional plans by utilizing the reports and skills-focused lesson plans available on mCLASS. Participants receive annotated session materials to turnkey the session to colleagues.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

*This session should be scheduled after the most recent benchmark window has closed so that participants can work with their own data.

Classroom data analysis and instructional planning

Self-paced

This PD is an individual seat to our self-paced, on-demand online course that contains approximately 6 hours of training. Participants will learn how to deeply understand their students’ data and create actionable instructional plans by utilizing the reports and skills-focused lesson plans available on mCLASS. Participants will access and revisit the course anytime for up to one year as a refresher. Note: The online course focuses on the English measures only.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome)
Modality: Online

Understanding your school or district data

Half day (3 hours)

This PD prepares participants to use their data in making schoolwide decisions. This session should be scheduled after the most recent benchmark window has closed so that participants can work with their own data.

Audience: Administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Data-driven leadership practices

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

This PD prepares participants to use their data in making schoolwide decisions and build a schoolwide culture of data-driven instruction. This session should be scheduled after the most recent benchmark window has closed so that participants can work with their own data.

Audience: Administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Data-driven leadership practices: Train the Trainer

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

This PD prepares participants to use their data in making schoolwide decisions and build a schoolwide culture of data-driven instruction. This session should be scheduled after the most recent benchmark window has closed so that participants can work with their own data. Participants receive annotated session materials to turnkey the session to colleagues.

Audience: Administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Data driven leadership practices

Self-paced

This PD is an individual seat to our self-paced, on-demand online course that contains approximately 6 hours of training. Participants will learn how to use their data in making schoolwide decisions and build a schoolwide culture of data-driven instruction. Participants will access and revisit the course anytime for up to one year as a refresher. Note: The online course focuses on the English measures only.

Audience: Administrators
Modality: Online

Strengthening consultation session

60 minutes

This 60-minute session will focus on a specific topic that will deepen educators’ understanding of mCLASS and equip them in driving towards stronger student outcomes. An Amplify facilitator will align with the school or district’s leadership team in advance on the topic from a menu of options that will best meet educators’ unique needs. Topics include progress monitoring, zones of growth, and a data walkthrough for leaders.

Audience: Teachers and/or administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Remote

Strengthening consultation session package

3 hours

This package consists of three 60-minute sessions that can be delivered on the same day or on different days. Each session will focus on a specific topic that will deepen educators’ understanding of mCLASS and equip them in driving towards stronger student outcomes. An Amplify facilitator will align with the school or district’s leadership team in advance on the topics that will best meet educators’ unique needs. Topics include progress monitoring, zones of growth, and a data walkthrough for leaders.

Audience: Teachers and/or administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Remote

Coach

Coaching session

1 day onsite (6 hours)

This PD will deepen educators’ understanding of how to utilize mCLASS in order to accelerate data-driven student outcomes. An Amplify facilitator will visit one or two school sites for one day and work with teachers and/or leaders. Prior to the visit, the Amplify facilitator will align with each school’s leadership team on their needs and customize the visit schedule accordingly.

Audience: Teachers and/or administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Coaching session

Half day (3 hours)

This PD is up to 3 hours of training and will deepen educators’ understanding of how to utilize mCLASS in order to accelerate data-driven student outcomes. An Amplify facilitator will visit one school site for a half-day and work with teachers and/or leaders. Prior to the visit, the Amplify facilitator will align with each school’s leadership team on their needs and customize the visit schedule accordingly.

Audience: Teachers and/or administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Remote

Pricing

We offer the following pricing for training sessions and packages:

Session typePricing
1-day onsite session$3,200
1-day onsite session: Train the Trainer$3,500
2 half-day remote sessions$1,500
2 half-day remote sessions: Train the Trainer$2,000
Half-day onsite session$2,500
Half-day remote session$750
2-hour self-paced online course$20 per individual seat
6-hour self-paced online course$49 per individual seat

Please note that the prices are general ranges and may be subject to change.

Contact

Amplify welcomes the opportunity to partner with schools and districts to design professional development plans and answer your questions.

If you would like to order any of our professional development services, please contact your local Amplify sales representative or call (800) 823-1969.

Hello, Alaska teachers and leaders!

The Alaska Department of Education and Early Development (DEED) has selected Amplify’s mCLASS® DIBELS® 8th Edition as the statewide literacy screener to help with the early identification of students with required additional reading support.  mCLASS is a foundational literacy assessment based on the Science of Reading.

As the approved screening tool for the AK Reads Act, mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition should be administered three times each school year. Together, Amplify and DEED will strategically and confidently support teachers and families to help students improve their reading skills with mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition.

Log in to access your mCLASS program and hundreds of resources at learning.amplify.com.

Want advice and answers from the Amplify team?

Search here
Three classroom scenes: A teacher watches as a young girl writes on a whiteboard; children sit at desks drawing and writing, with teachers assisting them.

Introduction to mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition

mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition is an English universal screener and progress monitoring reading assessment tool. It measures foundational literacy skills, creates instant groups, and includes targeted teacher-led instructional plans.

Get started with mCLASS

The power to know every student

Precise one-minute measures based on predictive data allow mCLASS to provide individualized instruction.

Deep insights

Intuitive reporting for teachers and administrators supports data-driven decisions to achieve student growth.

Immediate support for at-risk students

Universal and dyslexia screening in one validated assessment tool identifies your at-risk students at the earliest levels.

Rigorous, teacher-led intervention

Receive the analytical tools and resources needed to deliver targeted, staff-led intervention to students.

Don’t miss out!

What’s new:

  • Download the 2025-26 EOY checklist, and be prepared to administer the end-of-year benchmark assessments.
  • New mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition professional development sessions are now available! Register below for available sessions.
  • Click here to learn more about the Alaska mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition Calibration Module. Anyone administering mCLASS assessments must complete the Alaska mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition Calibration Module with a passing score.
  • Each participating district will receive mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition Assessment kits. One kit, per grade, K-3 will be shipped. Materials can also be downloaded for free. If you would like to purchase additional kits, please email Kristen Rockstrah or Alicia O’Neil.

Technical onboarding

Visit our Technical Onboarding hub for information and resources to help guide you through setting up digital access to your Amplify products.

Enrolling with multiple Amplify programs?

For additional support in enrolling when using multiple Amplify programs, contact support.

Professional learning

There are many exciting learning opportunities available for Alaska teachers and leaders. Access session recordings, training resources, and more.

For more information, please reach out to your Amplify PD representative:

Erin Replogle
Professional Development Strategist, Literacy
ereplogle@amplify.com

About mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition initial training

Districts have been registering for district-specific initial training. If you’re unable to make your district’s scheduled session, you can register for another district’s training.  Seats are limited in these sessions, so please sign up early if you are interested in attending.

In addition, anyone administering mCLASS assessments must complete the Alaska mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition Calibration Module with a passing score.

Initial training

Initial mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition training

New to mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition? This session will prepare educators to administer the mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition measures and help them use this data to enhance their classroom instruction.

April 1st & April 8th: 1 pm – 4 pm
April 6th: 8:30 am – 3:30 pm
April 11th: 8:30 am – 3:30 pm
April 15th: 8:30 am – 3:30 pm

Assessing with fidelity for teachers—1 hour

Already trained in mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition but want to brush up on your administration practices? Join us for this 1-hour session to review assessment administration information and practice assessing students on PSF or NWF.

New sessions coming soon!

Strengthening

Creating a data-driven classroom for teachers—3 hours

This three-hour training session is geared toward teachers who have completed at least one mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition benchmark administration and are ready to begin analyzing student data to make instructional decisions.

New sessions coming soon!

Progress monitoring to drive student outcomes for teachers—1 hour

This one-hour training session is geared toward teachers who have completed at least one mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition benchmark administration and are ready to implement mCLASS progress monitoring and MTSS best practices to track student progress and accelerate growth.

New sessions coming soon!

Data conversations

Understanding and communicating mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition results with stakeholders—1 hour

This session is designed to extend educators’ understanding of norm-referenced and criterion-referenced assessments, how they apply to their student’s mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition results, and how to facilitate and support parent communication.

New sessions coming soon!

Instructional leaders

mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition data walkthrough for leaders—1 hour

Cultivate a school-wide culture of data-driven practices. Use mCLASS reports to drill into key school-level data and leave with a systems-level action plan to drive stronger student and teacher outcomes.

New sessions coming soon!

mCLASS DIBELS 8 Reporting Basics for Leaders – 1 hour

Examine your school-level mCLASS benchmark assessment data to identify key levers for improving student outcomes

New sessions coming soon!

Professional development opportunities are added frequently.

*Please note that sessions require a minimum number of participants. Sessions that do not have sufficient registration may be canceled. Please encourage your colleagues and administrators to promote sessions you believe would be helpful to fellow educators.

Coming soon!

Explore the complete Professional Development Library and the Amplify Webinar Library.

View the mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition Benchmark Scoring:

Learn about additional Assessment Measures (RAN, Spelling, Vocabulary, Oral Language).

Access help articles, videos, and tutorials to support your mCLASS onboarding and implementation.

Benchmark and reporting

Table showing which Alaska mCLASS reading measures are assessed at each grade level, from kindergarten to grade 5, with checkmarks indicating assessed skills per grade.

Beginning-of-year (BOY): August 18, 2025—September 26, 2025
Middle-of-year (MOY): December 1, 2025–January 26, 2026
End-of-year (EOY): April 30, 2026–May 15, 2026

If you need to change your benchmark window, please contact support.

We at Amplify and the team at the University of Oregon are here to provide continued guidance and support around collecting and using mCLASS data.

mCLASS can be administered in many ways, including remotely. This site will give guidance on the options to best support your students in any learning environment.

A student wearing headphones looks at a laptop screen and uses the touchpad while seated at a desk in a classroom.

mCLASS gives you detailed insight into your students’ reading development across foundational literacy skills, empowering educators with instructional recommendations specific to each student’s unique needs.

Access the mCLASS Reporting Guide to find a wealth of valuable reporting information that mCLASS provides for everyone, from classroom teachers and literacy specialists to principals and district leaders, as well as parents and guardians at home.

mCLASS Reporting Guide

In addition to the Reporting Guide, please view the following help and tutorial resources.

A measure should be invalidated, or deleted, when an interruption or mistake occurs that undermines the validity of the score. Examples include the following:

  • The wrong student was assessed.
  • There were interruptions, such as from intercom announcements or fire drills.
  • There were scoring errors that cannot easily be corrected.
Screenshot of an mCLASS dashboard showing class reading summary data, with student performance categorized by color-coded benchmark levels.

Explore more programs.

A flowchart showing five steps: mCLASS Assessment, Amplify CKLA, Boost Reading, mCLASS Intervention, and Science of Reading professional development.

We are the gold standard in early literacy. Our proven early literacy suite of assessment, instruction, and intervention is more powerful than ever. Unlock the power of our full literacy suite with programs designed to enable every student to build robust foundational skills and grow at all reading levels. Learn more about our related programs.

Get started with mCLASS
A woman and a young girl sit together at a table while the woman points at an iPad screen. They appear to be engaging in a learning activity.

mCLASS Intervention

Follow a research-based, targeted skills progression and use mCLASS benchmark and progress monitoring data to create groups and daily lesson plans for 10-day cycles.

Learn more

Two boys sitting at desks in a classroom talk to each other, with a paper cutout of a light bulb placed between them on the desk.

Amplify CKLA

Built on the Science of Reading, Amplify CKLA features an explicit, systematic approach that leverages multisensory instruction and provides instruction for students from all walks of life.

Learn more

Students learning Boost Reading lesson

Boost Reading

Delivers adaptive instruction, practice, and intervention support through highly engaging games and activities, freeing educators up to work with small groups.

Learn more

Students in a classroom focus on reading and writing tasks. An orange badge with the text "Built on the Science of Reading" is displayed.

Science of Reading

Discover how the Science of Reading is for everyone! All students—from multilingual/English learners to middle schoolers to your most confident young readers—benefit from the research-based, proven literacy instruction indicated by the Science of Reading.

Learn more

Need more help?

Log in at learning.amplify.com, and click the gray chat button in the bottom right corner to chat live with our support team.

Our Help Center contains searchable articles and resources to answer many of your questions.

Contact us at (877)-810-4919 for dedicated account support.

If you need additional support, please contact our support team.

Amplify Desmos Math for NYC Public Schools

Welcome! This site contains supporting resources for New York City Public Schools Amplify Desmos Math implementation.

What’s new?

  • Gearing up for the 2026-2027 School Year: Check out our Getting Started section on this page for support — including login support, materials lists, program overviews and more!
  • Check out the new Admin Reports views coming in SY 2026-2027 for district and school leaders! Click here to learn more.
  • Have a question about Amplify Desmos Math? This FAQ doc answers top questions about access, implementation, and features.
  • Need help? Check here for who can help! Our dedicated phone number, just for NYC, has team members ready to help! 1-888-960-0380
amplify math middle schoolers in classroom

About the program

Amplify Desmos Math New York is a core K-12 mathematics curriculum designed specifically for NYC Public Schools. It combines problem-based learning with Desmos Classroom technology to build conceptual understanding and align directly with the New York State Next Generation Mathematics Learning Standards. With beautiful print resources, and robust practice, differentiation supports, assessment and reporting, Amplify Desmos Math has received all-green ratings from EdReports. Read the review on EdReports.

Amplify Desmos Math is built on four core tenets:

  • Math can motivate students.
  • A structured approach to problem-based learning can best tend to all aspects of rigor.
  • Student thinking is valuable and visible.
  • Students can catch up while keeping up with grade-level math.

Getting started

A teacher in a red shirt helps a student with a laptop in a classroom. The image includes yellow graphic elements like a plus and multiplication sign.
A computer screen displays an educational interface showing a warm-up activity where a snail must cross a gap using blocks, with instructions and measurement indicated.

Powerful digital lessons

Amplify Desmos Math lessons are powerful in their ability to elicit student thinking and spark interesting, productive discussions. The lessons pose problems that invite a variety of approaches with their dynamic and interactive learning experiences on devices, as well as experiences on paper that are flexible, creative, and engaging.

Screenshot of an educational interface showing a turtle race with lanes labeled 1 to 4, a play button, timer, and a table for writing equations for each lane.

Engaging student experience

Relevant content and interactive math tools create an intuitive and engaging student experience. Plus, working together in real time allows students to see that communicating their ideas and learning from each other are important parts of math class.

A digital activity interface showing hexagonal mosaics, a "Scale Factor = 3" label, and students' text responses about scaling and color patterns in the mosaic shapes.

Visibility into student thinking

Imagine having more visibility into your students’ mathematical thinking. Now imagine that students have access to this same information. With our collaborative lesson interface and teacher dashboard, students have awareness their own thinking and that of their peers—exposing them to a wider variety of approaches to solving the same problem.

A computer screen displays a math lesson about baking pizzas at 600°F, showing four uncooked pizzas and student response boxes below the question.

Ready-to-teach lessons

Each grade level includes 150 ready-to-teach lessons, complete with slides, step-by-step teaching notes, suggested student and teacher responses, tips for incorporating instructional routines, support for developing mathematical language, and links to useful resources. Teachers can manage what slides students see, controlling the pace of the lesson to suit the needs of the class.

Planning for instruction

Amplify Desmos Math is customized specifically to meet the New York State Next Generation Math Learning Standards. Within each document below, you’ll find direct links to lessons and activities where each individual standard is addressed.

The program is also aligned with the expectations outlined in the New York City Department of Education Definition of Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education and the New York State Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework. 

Scope and sequence

Ready to plan for the 2026-27 school year? These pacing guides (coming soon!) are designed to provide structure, not rigid mandates and resources for NYC.     

Multilingual learner supports

Implementation resources

A digital screen displays a rocket graphing activity, and an open textbook shows diagrams, charts, and text on building quadratics in factored form.

Lesson Sampler

Amplify Desmos Math delivers the instructional power of student-centered learning packaged in a lesson format that’s teacher-friendly and manageable.

With easy-to-follow instructional support, implementing a problem-based program becomes more effective and enjoyable for both you and your students. Paired with the Desmos Classroom digital experience, math class is suddenly fun and dynamic, with plenty of opportunities for students to talk through their reasoning, work with their peers, and gain new understanding.

Three children and several penguins stand around a large thermometer on an icy landscape with mountains in the background. The cover is labeled "Grade 6 Sample lesson.

Grade 6 Lesson Sampler

learn more

Three people stand next to a large thermometer in a snowy landscape with mountains and penguins; cover page reads "Grade 7 Sample lesson" for Amplify Desmos Math.

Grade 7 Lesson Sampler

learn more

Three people and several penguins stand on ice near a large thermometer, with snowy mountains in the background. The thermometer shows temperatures from -30°C to 50°C.

Grade 8 Lesson Sampler

learn more

Additional features

Universal design

Every student is brilliant, and every student has brilliant mathematical ideas worth sharing and cultivating. Incorporating principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) into lessons brings students’ brilliance to the forefront. UDL is a research-based framework designed to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

A feedback form with two questions, "How well did you understand the math in this lesson?" and "How did you feel about learning math in this lesson?" with corresponding emoji options for responses, perfectly complements the New York Math curriculum.

Diversity and representation

Helping students develop strong, healthy, and flexible math identities is a cornerstone of our program. Throughout the curriculum, students are taught that they themselves are mathematicians, that today’s math has been shaped by a diverse range of mathematicians who deserve to be celebrated, and that learning is never finished.

Illustration of a laptop displaying various colorful icons and graphics representing diverse professions and historical figures on its screen, emphasizing illustrative mathematics and desmos math concepts through its displayed content.

Assessments

Less exciting, but essential for learning: assessments. Amplify Desmos Math features a robust variety of formative and summative assessments, including readiness checks, exit tickets, quizzes, end-of-unit tests, and benchmarks aligned with New York State Next Generation Mathematics Learning Standards.

A laptop screen displays a math question with a scatter plot about staff and wait times; a worksheet with a similar graph is shown in the background.

Reporting

Not only do our reports reveal progress toward standard mastery, but they also include details on how students performed against the standard in the past and how many encounters are yet to come. This feature alone helps teachers prioritize instruction and intervene with additional resources when necessary.

A digital dashboard displays student names and their performance levels in a grid, with a score distribution summary for assessment items shown in an overlay—ideal for tracking progress within the core curriculum or Desmos Math programs.

NYC webinar series

Figuring out how to implement a problem-based learning approach to mathematics can be fun—and challenging. Rest assured that you won’t be alone on this journey; Amplify will be by your side every step of the way. Our back-to-school math webinar series for K–8 administrators and teachers:

  • Introduces the new NYC Solves initiative.
  • Establishes the foundation for all educators to effectively understand and implement the NYCPS Shifts in Mathematics in their classrooms.
  • Provides an overview of Amplify Desmos Math, the pre-approved NYCPS curriculum chosen to ensure that every school can successfully implement these math shifts and is supported with high-level, tailored professional development and coaching throughout the process.

Please see the specific webinars and the recordings below to learn more!

Two Amplify Desmos Math teacher edition books are shown next to a laptop displaying a digital math activity with shapes and a prompt about ordering by lightest weight.

On-demand webinar 1

Would you like to learn more about the NYCPS Shifts in Mathematics and enhance your understanding of each of the five shifts?

Explore how the NYCPS math shifts are transforming mathematics education from a procedural approach to a more engaging, discoverable, and connected learning experience.

Listen to the Understanding the NYCPS Shifts in Mathematics session recording.

On-demand webinar 2

Let’s unpack the why, what, and how to unlock every student’s mathematical mind and build math proficiency for life! In this webinar, we discuss the power of teaching our children to be skilled mathematicians through a structured approach to problem-solving.

Listen to the Unlocking Mathematical Minds: A Structured Approach to Problem-Based Learning session recording.

On-demand webinar 3

For some educators, transitioning to problem-based learning might seem daunting. There’s often concern that the open-ended nature of the approach could derail students from achieving mathematical goals. However, by finding the right balance between open-ended opportunities and structured classroom activities, teachers can encourage students to share their thinking while meeting key learning targets. Uncover simple shifts that educators can implement to foster the perfect balance of open-ended student thinking and focus on mathematical instructional goals.

Listen to the Making the Shift to Problem-Based Learning session recording.

On-demand webinar 4

Amplify Desmos Math New York K–A1 is math that motivates! During this session recording, you’ll experience a grade 6 lesson that captures the essence of NYC Solves.

Listen to the Learn More and Experience Amplify Desmos Math LIVE, an NYCPS-Approved Math Curriculum session recording.

A computer screen displaying an educational platform with various course thumbnails including science and art topics.

Looking for help?

Support is always within reach. Our team is dedicated to supporting you throughout your review. You can be reached at any time by emailing or calling us directly.

  • Support pathways for NYC Core Orders
  • Chat: Click the orange icon while logged in to get immediate help.
  • Support Portal: Fill out this form, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
  • Phone: Call our toll-free NYC Support number: (888) 960-0380.
  • Email: Send an email to AmplifyNYC@amplify.com.

S4 – 01. Joyful math teaching with Kanchan Kant

Podcast cover for "Math Teacher Lounge," Season 4, Episode 1, titled "Joyful math teaching," featuring Kanchan Kant, described as a math educator and transformative leader.

This season on the Math Teacher Lounge podcast, we follow the theme “joyful math” and uncover its meaning.

In this episode, Kanchan Kant joins Bethany Lockhart Johnson and Dan Meyer to discuss the key, early investment she makes at the start of the school year to ensure her math teaching will be joyful for herself and for her students for the rest of the year.

Explore more from Math Teacher Lounge by visiting our main page.

Download Transcript

Dan Meyer (00:00):
Okay, we are recording. Hey folks. Welcome back to Math Teacher Lounge. (laugh)

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:06):
Hardly off to a rocking start.

Dan Meyer (00:06):
Yeah. Yeah. <laugh> Did you like my energy there? Hey folks. Welcome back to Math Teacher Lounge. It’s a new season with your host Dan Meyer. And…

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:15):
I’m Bethany, Lockhart Johnson. How’s your summer Dan?

Dan Meyer (00:22):
Summer for me feels really hectic as we prepare, here at Amplify, for the new school year, and everyone’s starting these new math programs. So I’ve been feeling quite amped up, like usual in the summer. But also, my kids started big kid school. So I’ve been seeing the educational system from the role of a parent and all the anxieties and I worry, will I be my kids’ teacher’s most annoying parent <laugh> … So what kind of math curriculum you using? Oh, have you heard of core counting? Can I lead a math center? What’s this worksheet about? I’m really worried my kids are just overall gonna hate my vibe when I come around their classes. Uh, <laugh> so lots going on with me.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:06):
It’s already happening for me and I have a toddler.

Dan Meyer (01:10):
<laugh> There we go. Anyway, that’s what I’m up to. That’s how I’m feeling. I’m curious how you’re doing. We haven’t chatted in a while. We’re excited about the podcast, but it’s been a bit, you know? Bethany got a break from me and my antics over the summer. So, how are we finding you here, as we ramp up to the new season?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:24):
Uhhhh. Well, let me just tell you, I have a toddler. That’s kind of all I need to say. Except that’s not all I will say. Of course, I’ll say more. I am exploring, I’m dipping my toe into the extracurricular toddler activities; the music classes of the toddler world, the creative movement of the toddler world. And yeah, I have lots of opinions and lots of things to say about the teachers. And I’m like, Ugh, I can’t wait to be room mom. And just like…<laugh>

Dan Meyer (01:55):
Just let it rip, you know?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:57):
I have opinions on everything and just hope I don’t get kicked out of the class.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (02:05):
It’s been an eventfully recharging summer and we are ready for this new season. And in fact, we’re so ready that we decided that we were gonna mix up this season. Just a, just a tiny bit. Shall I explain Dan?

Dan Meyer (02:21):
Yeah. Let’s do it.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (02:22):
So we have loved all the different topics that we have explored in the Math Teacher Lounge world, but we kind of feel like we need to do some more deep dives. So for this season and the foreseeable seasons …

Dan Meyer (02:38):
We’ll see how it goes.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (02:38):
Let’s stick with this season. For this season. We’re going to be exploring a singular theme.

Dan Meyer (02:46):
We’re not bouncing around. Yep. We’re not bouncing around from a guest to guest going on whatever shiny thing in the river bed catches our eye. We’re gonna take one theme and see where it goes. What we working with here this season?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (02:57):
This season, we are going to be exploring the idea of joyful math, joyful math. And Dan, the question I have for you is, is the term joyful math one that you use on the regular?

Dan Meyer (03:10):
No, it definitely is not. I think that joy and math are very rarely, you know, connected in the popular mind. Number one, and number two, you know, I’m kind of an ornery fellow, so that’s not my natural kind of description of math. But we decided that it feels like an important one at the moment, because a lot of math teaching–a lot of teaching in general, math teaching in particular–math teaching is often not a joyful discipline for students, where, you know, I’ve done some research where you look at what people type into Google. And I looked at like, what they…why am I bad at X? And I looked at that for where X is math, where it’s science, where it’s reading, where it’s history. And it was just wild to see how many more hits there are out there on the Internet for “why am I bad at math?” People don’t really associate math with joy, but also we’re looking at joyful math in terms of joyful math teaching. Math teaching, teaching in general, is a tough field at the moment with a lot of teachers leaving teaching. And those who remain are having a lot of soul searching and thinking about, why am I here and how do I sustain this work? And in an environment that seems hostile to my interests or my talents, or work-life balance. And so that’ll be the theme that we’re gonna kind of uncover over the course of our season, talking to various interesting guests, including one today about, yeah, joyful math teaching and joyful math.

Dan Meyer (04:43):
And to help us think about what joyful math teaching looks like, we figured we’d first look at what UN-joyful math teaching looks like. It happens to be the case that we’ve been in a pandemic as you might be aware, and teaching has been challenging. And the NEA, our National Education Association, surveyed its member teachers and asked them the following question … Gave a list of issues that school employees have experienced and asked, for each one indicate how serious of a problem this is for you. This is a survey where more than half of members said they are more likely to leave or retire sooner than planned because of the pandemic. And this is almost double the numbers from July, 2020. It’s really hard to keep track of teacher departures and unfilled vacancies across states. So I don’t wanna like blow this up out of proportion, but it does indicate some real challenges in teaching. So Bethany, I was curious, what do you think like at the top of the list, like what kinds of factors, issues facing educators would you imagine there are?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (05:48):
So if I’m to understand you correctly, these are reasons someone is not actively experiencing joy in the profession of teaching. Like why would they leave?

Dan Meyer (05:58):
Exactly.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (05:59):
Well, the number one thing that came to mind for me, well, okay. Wait, wait, one other caveat I need to ask about, you said specifically pandemic-related or just in general, because if it’s pandemic-related, then I think, well, there’s health issues, right? That people are concerned about, but in general, the thing that came to mind was a lack of support from administration districts, lack of funding, and overcrowding in classrooms. Like, you know, I saw somebody had 40 students in their classroom. So those are the two things that I can imagine like top on someone’s list that would make them experience less than a joyful day.

Dan Meyer (06:44):
Yeah. There’s a bunch of you’re kind of identifying here. So number seven on the list is lack of respect from parents and the public, which is like 76% of teachers call that out as serious for them. Others that you kind of circled around in terms of resources go like, not enough planning or unstructured time in the job kind of ties into resources. Yeah. But there’s others that are on the list that I’m curious, you wanna take on the swing at it, given what I’ve said here,

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (07:15):
I feel like too much being asked of them, like being asked to wear too many hats, like they’re being asked to not only teach their class, but also cover all the vacancies and supervise recess and, you know, make a delicious, nutritious lunch. That’s what came to mind. Am am I close?

Dan Meyer (07:33):
Yeah. Number four on the list, unfilled job openings leading to more work for remaining staff. People covering, you know, not just the kind of external to teaching work like you’re describing, but also just taking on like losing your prep period, to take on a class that has been unfilled for all kinds of reasons. Yeah.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (07:54):
Yeah. I’ve only gotten the fourth. Give me one clue, one clue about …

Dan Meyer (07:59):
So, I mean like, so number one is general stress from the coronavirus pandemic, you know, which I feel like …

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (08:06):
I mentioned that.

Dan Meyer (08:07):
I’ll give you that one. Yep, yep, sure. And then number two, close behind, is feeling burned out, which I think ties into what you’re describing as well. I’m giving Bethany credit on that one. The third one is very different from the ones you’ve been describing. I think I cannot in good faith give you even partial credit for this one. I’ll just say it. Student…

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (08:28):
Wait! Dan, this is not how you give clues.

Dan Meyer (08:31):
Here’s a clue. It’s student absences due to COVID19. It’s really hard to deal student absences. That’s your clue.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (08:40):
That wasn’t a clue that you told me.

Dan Meyer (08:43):
Yeah, let’s see. I think that’s largely it. There’s also pay is too low, is on the list; student behavioral issues, on the list. And I think that about covers it. So all of that, that basket of items has led to more than half of teachers in this survey, saying that they’re more likely to leave or retire from education sooner than planned. And I don’t know. I think we all know teachers who have bailed.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (09:08):
I’ve never played a board game with you, Dan, but if we ever play a board game, we’re gonna work on your clue giving, ’cause I want to keep guessing. And you just told me.

Dan Meyer (09:22):
Yeah. Yeah.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (09:22):
In all seriousness, the <laugh>. In all seriousness, I think yes, the stress of the pandemic and students being absent, what some folks are calling unfinished learning, all of those pieces do play into it. But a lot of those things that you’re mentioning on the list are things that are not unique to the pandemic, right? Like those are things that I feel like there is some modicum of control that we could have over shifting the way the culture of the teaching profession is going so that we could create a more joyful experience for educators, administrators, and students.

Dan Meyer (10:03):
Yeah. Good call out. That’s exactly right. We could tax the people who are not in the classrooms more and increase the pay to classroom teachers. You know, there we go.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (10:11):
Oh. Bingo. Why didn’t we ask you sooner Dan, for your wisdom.

Dan Meyer (10:15):
Yeah. I’m … solved by Dan. Yeah, good point though. So I read that and yeah, I think that there’s been some … people have critiqued the NEA for being very alarmist about teacher departures as the year has ramped up. It has not been quite the flood of departing teachers as was predicted and thank heavens for that, but we should still be very bummed if teachers are unhappy and wanting to leave and feel like they can’t leave. That is definitely not good. So we were really excited to bring to the table, someone who is just a very joyful teacher and one in a very intentional way. Someone who has a lot of discipline in how she approaches the job and the students in it and tries to create a joyful environment for herself, Kanchan Kant. Kanchan is a math and computer science teacher at Newton North High School in Newton, Massachusetts. She’s been sharing her love for math with her students for the past four years, while also being instrumental in setting the culture and ethos of the math department at her school in her role as the assistant department head. We welcome you on the show Kanchan to help us understand joy and math teaching. Thanks for being here.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (11:29):
Welcome!

Kanchan Kant (11:30):
Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (11:33):
One of my friends, her son was asked as his first math homework assignment to write out his math bio. And I loved that idea because we got to hear a little bit about your bio from like a broader perspective. But if we were to ask about your math bio, I will speak for myself to say like, automatically certain images flash into my mind, right? To think about my relationship, my evolving relationship with math. But I’m so curious if I was to ask you, what’s your math bio? How did you become the person, mathematically speaking, that you are today? Would you mind sharing a bit about that?

Kanchan Kant (12:10):
Of course I would love to. So I was born and raised in India and I belong to a family which considers mathematics to be extremely important to succeed in life. My father used to have me add and subtract license plates since I was four years old, when we were out and about. I loved math in school, it just made like complete sense to me. It was logical and you know, it was my favorite subject. I loved it all through high school. I had a confidence speed breaker in undergrad. When in my second semester I almost failed the engineering math course that I took. That was the first time math felt like too much and not like my best friend, which it was supposed to be. So it was a while before I could summon the courage to take on another math course in college.

Kanchan Kant (12:56):
But once I did that, it was like old times. I realized I had to persevere through the challenging bits. And once I did that, it started to make sense again. And through my journey, as an educator speaking to people from various backgrounds and like coming to the United States, I realized that math is challenging for everyone at one time or another. For some people that is elementary school. And for some others, it is college or even later. Either way does not mean that you are not a math person. When I was in college, I felt I was not a math person. Whereas my sister, my very own sister said the same thing about math in middle school. Both of us use math every day. And we are definitely, definitely math people. So for me to be a math person is to persevere, to approach problem-solving in a logical manner, and to find the joy in the process ,as well as the answer.

Dan Meyer (13:47):
That’s wonderful. Yeah. A lot of people, have a moment where they feel like almost betrayed by what they thought was a close friend of theirs, with math, where it’s like, wait, I thought we were tight. You know, I thought we were cool. You and me. And there’s that moment. And I wonder if that’s been a useful moment for you to, you know, bring back now and then as a teacher with students who might feel that even, you know, in high school or in a secondary school as a kid.

Kanchan Kant (14:15):
Absolutely. Like when I talk to students and tell them, yes, I had difficulty in math too. It has not always been easy for men and there are still things I struggle with sometimes, then it’s like more modeling for them that you have to persevere, you should persevere. And once you do that, it makes sense and you can feel successful. So, almost every year I end up sharing the story with my students.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (14:38):
There’s so much value in that, right? That you are sharing that vulnerability with students. And to say your relationship with mathematics has not been, you know, smooth sailing the whole way through. There were times when you had to work harder than others.

Dan Meyer (14:55):
Yeah. Really fun to hear about you and your father as well. I tried to ask my five-year-old to do some skip counting the other day, like, okay, cool, you’re hot stuff. You can count, you know, up by ones, but what about by twos? And the moment really fell flat. And I watched myself becoming the kind of parent who is whose enthusiasm for math is one day resented by his children. I feel a lot of, yeah, I felt your anxiety Kanchan, with math itself. And now I feel anxiety as like someone who loves math and loves to teach math and may one day alienate the people closest to him. <laugh>

Kanchan Kant (15:31):
I don’t like that future. I have a three-month-old. I do not like this future of mine. If I have to go through what you’re going through. Uh, oh, <laugh>

Dan Meyer (15:38):
You got this. So Kanchan, you’re going back to the classroom coming up here at the time of this recording. It’s a few weeks out. And we’re thinking about like the kind of ways that math teachers sustain a disposition that is joyful. How are you feeling right now, as far as going back to class after this summer? Are you feeling excited, anxious, some combo, tell us about it.

Kanchan Kant (16:01):
I would say combo, but more excited than anxious. I was on maternity leave, as I mentioned, before the school year ended, and I missed the students dearly. Like, my students are what gives me hope in the darkest times. They are thoughtful. They’re empathetic. They’re so eager to learn. And very soon into my teaching career, I realized that if I take the time to get to know my students and make them feel safe and seen in my class, teaching them math would be so much easier and so much more fun. So I’m a little worried about this being like fourth year into the pandemic, but let’s see. Last year I felt the students were finding it difficult to interact with and work with their classmates because they had not been doing it for so long. So I’m hoping this year would go a little better and I’m really looking forward to working with them and building community and see how it goes.

Dan Meyer (16:53):
So if I’m understanding you correctly, you are feeling very well recharged here. You had basically an extended summer with this maternity leave, basically just like a lot of rest and relaxation over the last, like several months. Um, if I get you here. So anyway, I’m glad for that for you. And, yeah. I also hear you on the difficulties of teaching post pandemic or mid pandemic. Anyway, thanks for sharing that.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (17:19):
What I love is I hear you being so intentional, like thinking about those relationships and thinking about that community that you want to build, you know? How do you hope that you’re gonna cultivate joy in your teaching this year? I mean like, are there certain routines or disciplines that you specifically call forth or that you think other teachers should think about?

Kanchan Kant (17:41):
So at the start of every school year, I dedicate like about three to four weeks to set up the classroom culture, both social and academic. I call my classroom a learning community. We start with community circles, we do icebreaker activities, group building and all those kinds of things. But most importantly, we do a lot of collective problem solving. So I try to present students with problems, which can be solved using multiple strategies and have multiple entry points, basically they are low floor, high ceiling problems. These could be stretch problems that they have seen before, like concepts that they already know or logical puzzles, or just wrapping their heads around different problems. Then I have students share their strategies. The more strategies they have on the board, the more successful I think the problem was. Every year, inevitably, students come up with strategies that I’ve never ever seen before for the same problems that I do.

Kanchan Kant (18:35):
And so I have students come up to the board, they would share their strategies. If they’re not ready for that, they would walk me through their strategies. And I would write their name on the board with different colored markers and everything. Basically to give them choice and agency. It also shows them that the process of doing the problem is so much more important than just getting the right answer and that it is okay to make mistakes in our learning community. I use a lot of vertical whiteboards, some concepts and problems align so well with the vertical surfaces, especially when students can explore together, learn from each other. So I do a lot of that. As for routines, I would say consistency is the key. I consistently reinforce that I want to hear multiple strategies, that it is okay to make mistakes. I am willing to learn from you as much as you’re willing to learn from me. So all like that consistency in culture more than the routines, is I feel important to bring that joy.

Dan Meyer (19:29):
That’s super interesting. Thanks for that. So I’ve heard, I hear two common objections or two common concerns to using rich tasks or doing problem solving. And I think I heard like answers to those two common reservations within what you described there, but I wonder if we can kind of bring it to the surface. And so one of the reservations is around the time that those problems take and another is that teachers often feel like, well, I might be surprised, you know, I might not know what to do with what a student does. And I thought I was hearing like some very interesting answers to both of those kinds of reservations from you, but would you just surface those up if you have some.

Kanchan Kant (20:09):
So in terms of time, I feel if I spend the time at the beginning of the year, setting up that community and doing those problems, it makes learning the math and learning the concepts much more faster throughout the rest of the year. And even when I am trying, like, even throughout the year, if we are doing a warm up problem, as I call it, which has multiple strategies, that’s gonna clarify so many more concepts when we talk about those five, 10 strategies of doing the same problem, then going through multiple problems to clarify those concepts. So for me, it actually saves time instead of taking more time.

Dan Meyer (20:43):
Hmm. That’s super interesting. It’s an investment I’m hearing from you that, yeah, you might not be hitting the curriculum quite as hard early on, but that all of a sudden you’re in the spring and it’s like, oh wow, we’ve been moving so much faster through territory that has been more challenging. What would you say to you know, comfort concerned educators or to address the concern that I don’t know what I’ll do with these five, 10 different strategies. You say, I always see strategies that I’ve never anticipated. Like, it’s a good thing, you know, like you’re happy about that. I think that’s a very intimidating thing for lots of educators. What would you say to that?

Kanchan Kant (21:19):
I think like, for me, it’s a good kind of discomfort. That means like a student is teaching me something, which is actually doing two things. One modeling for them that I’m willing to learn and that I don’t know everything. And two, also telling them that they’re mathematicians. They know what they’re doing. They’re not just receivers of math, they’re actually creating it. So for me, that is very, very important.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (21:43):
I love that so much. When you think about your students and you’re about to start this new school year, how do you hope your students will experience math in your classroom?

Kanchan Kant (21:53):
So I hope my students can see the beauty and joy of math. They can see that math is a way to see the world and not as something we have to do to get through school. So my hope for my classroom is that we can learn to problem-solve and persevere through problems and learn from each other and not just get through the curriculum. Because like, I think math is a wonderful way to learn these skills, which are so important when you get out of high school. Most importantly, I just wanna make sure that my students see themselves as mathematicians. And like one of the things that like I have to share with you that, because one of my highlights for the year has to be the Desmos art project. I do it every year for the past three years, I think since I’ve started teaching sophomores. And I do it as a unit assessment for functions and my students design something that is meaningful to them, using all the different kinds of functions and colors and shading and everything that you can think of in Desmos.

Kanchan Kant (22:49):
Thank you so much for that though. It is such a cool way for me to see them do that. Like I have seen such amazing creations. One of my students once made a scaled working model of a solar system wherein the planets were rotating at relative speed. The Saturn had rings and they were like asteroids and everything. And then it was beautifully done. Then there was another one who did a very, very detailed whale scenery, her reasoning. I wanna be a Marine biologist and I wanna study whales. So this is what is meaningful to me. So like that one project is just a culmination of everything that I want students to see in math and in my classroom. And like I do more of those kinds of things, but that is one thing that it’s one of the highlights of my year.

Dan Meyer (23:32):
That’s awesome. I love hearing that. Yeah. Shout out to the team at Desmos Studio for building and continuing to develop a tool list that so good for art and animation, even, in addition to some mathematics with a more computational kind. Yeah, that’s really exciting. What’s interesting to me is that you teach high school, and I think that like students at that age have a very well-defined sense of what math is and who they are as mathematicians. And then along you come, you know, and like offer this really interesting disruption, you know, in their sophomore year of high school that like, oh, this can be totally different, this relationship who I am. And that’s just really exciting. I imagine it’s a very surprising year. I would imagine that first month, I would imagine is a very surprising month for a lot of your sophomores.

Kanchan Kant (24:20):
Yeah, it is. I mean, that’s why I take that time to build that community because then that sets the tone and the relationship that we’re gonna have for the rest of the year. Students get to know how to work with each other. They get to know each other, that whole piece is like super important because of that.

Dan Meyer (24:35):
Yeah. That’s awesome. So here’s the thing, like we’re exploring these ideas about joyful math teaching and what it will take to cultivate restore, reclaim joy in math, teaching this next year. And you’ve offered us these really interesting ideas some, some very, you know, philosophical and some technical about how you spend time in ways that lead to joy in the spring for you and your students. Love that. We don’t want to as hosts, as researchers, investigators of this joyful math teaching idea, we don’t wanna say it’s all up to teachers to change their mindset, to do different technical practices, and that will lead to joy. We also wanna be really attentive to the environment that surrounds you, the people who are around to support you, the policy makers, the social structures that influence your joy in very significant ways. So what we would love to know from you is, how are you supported by the greater educational community in keeping your joy in your work? I’m thinking, especially about administrators, you know, front office, staff, parents, even, can you name a few ways for those sorts of people who listen to this podcast, how they can cultivate a math teacher’s joy this coming year?

Kanchan Kant (25:54):
I would say trust. I think more than anything, educators want administrators, parents, the greater educational community, to trust them to be professionals and experts in what they do. That does not mean that we don’t want to learn, that we don’t want feedback, that we don’t wanna get better. It just means that we keep the wellbeing of our students as our top priority. And we would like to be trusted to do just that. Also just keeping in mind that whether we like it or not, we are still adjusting to the new normal while recovering from the worst of the pandemic times. A lot of us are recovering from trauma, a lot of our students are recovering from trauma, and we need time and space for our social and emotional wellbeing.

Dan Meyer (26:35):
Yeah. I’m really curious, Kanchan, you’ve done a lot of work in your area with your grading team and in thinking about equitable and biased resistant instruction. I’m curious how you see those efforts lining up with creating joyful math learning conditions for all students, not just students from a dominant culture of math doing, let’s say.

Kanchan Kant (26:55):
For me, creating an equitable environment in a classroom is most important because once you have that, that’s when you have the relationships, that’s when you have the culture, that’s when all students actually thrive. So to that end, our school and our department has been doing a lot of work around grading practices. We actually assess how we grade students, where the bias is, what we can do to make them more bias resistant. Should we move to mastery based grading? Like that’s something I’ve been experimenting with for the past two years. Through the pandemic, I started doing mastery based grading so that my students can get more opportunities to show that they have learned the content. And so like just little things which help bridge the opportunity gap. I would say another project that our school undertakes is called the calculus project wherein we have students in Black, Latinx, and low income families sign up for that and are recommended for that. And then we do summer classes and yearlong support to preview the material for next year, not as a remedial class, but to actually set students up for success in AP classes for the coming year. So we have the community buildup. We have the courses we have like math support. It’s a very beautiful thing actually. And I’ve been working with that program for four years now. So yeah, so those are my ways of creating more equity in our school.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (28:19):
That’s so beautiful and I deeply, deeply wish you had been my high school math teacher. And I have to say that the theme that I kind of keep hearing is this intentionality. How you are so intentional about your work, not just with what your students are learning, but how they’re learning it, how they are engaging with this subject and how they are building their own relationship. You talked a little bit about your relationship over the years with mathematics, but how are your students building that relationship? And so I’m just very appreciative of you sharing that with us and with our listeners. And we are so excited to have learned a little bit about, like, I feel like I got a little mini peek into your classroom.

Kanchan Kant (29:03):
Thank you.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (29:04):
And can I say that if you are listening to this prior to October at NCTM Los Angeles, you will get to hear Kanchan Kant speak at Shadow Con. Can I give that away, Dan? Is that, is that …

Dan Meyer (29:23):
You can drop that. Yeah, It’s pretty top secret.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (29:26):
Can I drop it?

Dan Meyer (29:27):
Yeah. Do it. Yeah.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (29:28):
Dan and I will be in the audience cheering you on. It’s been a joy to learn with and from you, and we are so excited to just, you know, kind of keep marinating on some of these ideas about how we can continue to be intentional about creating joyful math spaces for our students. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Kanchan Kant (29:49):
Thank you so much. It was a real pleasure.

Dan Meyer (29:57):
So Bethany, I loved hearing Kanchan talk about both her, just her joyful personality, but how she cultivates joy through craft and technique through, you know, through the various ways she interacts with students in intentional ways, that those make the job more joyful for her. And I thought it was really interesting to hear her talk about how autonomy is the thing that she needs most in her job environment to feel like she can be joyful in her work. In that context, I saw … something on Twitter popped up for me in my, you know, my many Twitter wanderings. This is a segment we might call, Dan finds something on Twitter and shares it with Bethany. Which we’ll tighten that up a little bit, but I’m sending this over to you right now, and I’d love to know as you check this out, what you’re seeing and what you’re thinking and we’ll chat about how it relates to our interview here in a moment.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (30:47):
All right. I’m ready, send it over. It’s opening. So this appears to be a document by the way, outlining, maybe it’s a district, maybe it’s administration, they’re outlining expectation type and expectation guidelines. Hmm. Okay. And these are lesson plan expectations. Expectation type. Timeliness. Plans are due no later than 6 p.m.. Friday prior to the week of instruction. Comprehensive, all activities for the week for all subjects taught should be included and complete by due date and time. Plans should have at minimum, the following, see template for detail. Okay. So then it goes through the things that the plans need to have, the topic title, target, the objective, the activities, the sequence, the display agendas to be displayed backward design. Okay. So basically <laugh>, we were just talking about, overwhelm. And when I see this document, listeners, have you ever received something from your administrator or anyone, let’s take it more broadly, that is requesting something of you that would take so much time to complete and be so out of touch with your lived reality that it really genuinely sucks the joy out of the experience.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (32:25):
So the first thing that I see that this document, and again, the goal of whichever district’s plan this is, is that these expectations will lead–now, mind you, I am a fan of like, you know, looking ahead, I’m not a like, oh, hey, what am I gonna teach in five minutes? No, but the idea that then it lays out all of the things in such detail that you’re gonna be teaching feels like one of those pacing guides where, oh, move on to the next page, whether or not your students have any sort of sense making whatsoever. So my first thought is, oh, sad. I have to stay here. I’ll be there past 6 p.m. But I’m gonna be there trying to make the plans for the next week based on what I think my students have learned. Hmm it’s sounds like a little bit of a bummer. Dan, what did you think when you saw this and did I do a fair description of what it is?

Dan Meyer (33:25):
No, it’s, it’s a tough one to describe, ’cause it’s basically a wall of text and commands from an administrator who like, I just have to imagine has just like acres and acres of teachers trying to beat down their door to teach at this school, if this is how you’re gonna treat your teachers. I mean just, yeah. The idea of having a week… I’m with you, you don’t wanna just like, just jump in by the seat of your pants, but the idea of having a full week of lessons for every section you teach, every prep you teach, planned and submitted with every minute, basically morseled out to different goals. It says down here, you gotta like, for all of these, download a CSV of grades and whatnot and attach those. It’s the sort of thing, like you said, there are some edicts that you get from administration where you just have to laugh or just like, you have definitely missed like what I am willing to do here. It’s so far beyond. Yeah. I can’t imagine it. And it just felt like, yeah, it was a great way to get teachers like Kanchan to feel like a real lack of autonomy. Like it’s this would not work. I don’t think.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (34:33):
And it’s not even like willing to do. Like, let’s say you’re even willing to produce it. Let’s say that me, the rule follower is like, okay. I’m gonna attempt to meet these demands. One, most teachers were just, you know, they probably would put baloney down there anyway. Not saying that I would, but I’m saying like, it’s clearly just a hoop that they’re having to jump through and two…

Dan Meyer (35:04):
Yeah. Compliance, right?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (35:05):
Yeah. Compliance, compliance. There you go. And two, yeah, it feels like it’s about control and not trusting the teacher. And I love that. Kanchan said that trust is what she needs. Right? You’re hiring me. Yes. I still have lots to learn, but you’re trusting me and you’re creating an environment where I can continue to learn from and with my students. And if I was being asked to submit this tome every Friday before six, that is predicting, what does it say, anticipating the steps necessary for student mastery? You know, I kind of feel like maybe it’s like that one or two teachers where maybe they feel like, oh, I don’t trust that teacher or that teacher isn’t doing a good job, whatever. We better do this for all of the teachers, but then it’s not gonna change the practices of that one teacher and all the other teachers are gonna be resentful.

Dan Meyer (36:00):
Like if there was like feedback that came back to you on, you know, on lesson plans or there was some like something that was very constructive or productive, like maybe that would be different, but it really just feels like these are gonna go into a digital drawer somewhere and not be looked at, at all.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (36:15):
Yes. The digital drawer. Like I’m gonna send you this report and then nothing is going to happen with it. Except that four hours of my time. Well, you wouldn’t do it, but <laugh>…

Dan Meyer (36:29):
You’ve worn me down. You’ve worn me down. I’m now putty in your hands and more compliant for the next thing. And I also just wanna shout out the administrator today, who I emailed asking about like a teacher participating in a project and this administrator said, I have a standing policy not to email teachers over summer break, which you know, as administrators out there doing just the good work, you know, trusting teachers, watching out for them, trying to be a force multiplier for teachers, making the road wider, the way easier for teachers. So shout out to y’all doing the out there. Really appreciate that.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (37:04):
Okay. Wait, wait. About that email thing, quick question. Did you ever check your email over the summer?

Dan Meyer (37:11):
Uh, yeah. That’s one way in which I was the, you know, I just love email, you know? Oh. Someone wanted to reach out. Oh, oh, Banana Republic wants to tell me about new clothes that are on offer. <laugh> I mean like, it’s just, I love those personal emails. So yeah, I did check my email over the summer.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (37:26):
Somebody emailed me recently and they emailed me at like two in the morning. And because I currently have a toddler, I received the email at four in the morning because you know, the best thing to help myself fall back asleep is to hop on my phone, right? Like I’m already up trying to get my toddler back to sleep. I might as well start scrolling. Anyway, so the person had this little thing at the bottom of their email and it said, I have, something to the effect of, I have really like wonky work hours. I may be sending this outside of the like more standard nine to five. But please don’t feel pressure in any way to respond outside of your time. Would you appreciate that, seeing that or does it make you feel like you should respond? ‘Cause I almost responded at four in the morning, and maybe that says something about …

Dan Meyer (38:15):
They’re telling you not to respond.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (38:16):
I know it was helpful.

Dan Meyer (38:18):
It says don’t, but you’re like, what if they’re saying that because they really expect me to respond and this is one of many ways that you and I are different. I’m always happy to see that.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (38:29):
Do you respond? I’ve texted you in the evening because you know I have some wonky hours. Do you respond to things, like where’s your boundary there? Or when you were in the classroom, where was your boundary there? Did parents have your phone number?

Dan Meyer (38:43):
No. I gave kids my cell phone number for a couple years and it was a wobbly experiment. But parents will email, you know, back and forth with you. And I think the best thing to like … I love just like adding some friction, some latency into the kind of the chain, you know, like I hate going like back and forth, like da, da, da, da, and then like respond and then da, da da respond. And it just like goes back and forth. So just like just sitting back for an hour or two hours, you know, not responding, just let someone cool down, calm down. Email just gets you more email. That’s like if you send an email, you are just making it more likely to get more email. It’s a, you know, it’s a problem.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (39:20):
Are you one of the zero people?

Dan Meyer (39:23):
My inbox is at zero. Most days before work.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (39:26):
You’re joking!

Dan Meyer (39:28):
I end work every day with inbox, at zero.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (39:31):
You’re joking!

Dan Meyer (39:32):
That’s just, you know.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (39:33):
Who are you?

Dan Meyer (39:34):
You know, you should take my life coaching, Bethany. I’ll give you a discount since we’re math teacher, lunch pals. But, um yeah. I can help.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (39:44):
Thank you for qualifying where our pal-dom lives. I wouldn’t even tell you how many are in my inbox. Point is, if you are actively starting the school year, we celebrate you and we are here and over the next few months, we’re gonna be diving into joyful math and that definition’s gonna keep evolving. But I wanna say something that is making me feel a little joyful, Dan. You ready?

Dan Meyer (40:15):
Tell me.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (40:16):
You and I, in person, at NCTM, the National Council for Teachers and Mathematics. It’s coming up and we are going to be recording Math Teacher Lounge, live. Live, in person! And I hear there’s gonna be like a t-shirt cannon and there’s gonna be, you know, like musicians marching through the aisles or something.

Dan Meyer (40:46):
A marching band?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (40:46):
A marching band!

Dan Meyer (40:46):
Trained animals. Yeah.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (40:48):
But the point is, I’m so excited, Dan. And you know, when I see you, I might just, it’s been so long since I’ve seen you, Dan. I’d love to give you a big old embrace.

Dan Meyer (41:04):
You might just, you might just cry. Yeah. Yeah. It’ll be great. Yeah. It’s gonna be awesome for you folks to see me and Bethany have a real awkward first hug since the pandemic. And, uh, but it’s gonna be a blast to hang with us in person. We’ll have some special guests, probably, some interesting segments. You folks should stop on by at NCTM, if you’re gonna be there. Highly recommended.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (41:29):
Now, we will be broadcasting that episode. You’re gonna get to hear … we’re gonna record it live. It’s gonna happen. In the meantime, you can find us at MTLshow on Twitter, or you can find us in our Facebook group, Math Teacher Lounge. We can’t wait to hear from you. And we’d love to hear what makes math joyful for you? Where can we add a little bit more joy to you this, this season? So thrilled to be back. Thanks for listening.

Stay connected!

Join our community and get new episodes every other Tuesday!

We’ll also share new and exciting free resources for your classroom every month.

What Kanchan Kant says about math

“Creating an equitable environment in the classroom is most important because once you have that, that’s when you have the relationships, and that’s when all students actually thrive.”

– Kanchan Kant

Meet the guest

As a math and computer science teacher at Newton North High School, Newton, MA, Kanchan has been sharing her love for math with her students for the past four years. Kanchan is instrumental in setting the culture and ethos of the mathematics department at her school in her role as the Assistant Department Head. Kanchan also leads the Math Department Grading Team and has been instrumental in making grading policies which are more equitable and bias resistant. In her new role as a Transformative Leaders of Massachusetts Fellow in collaboration with Springpoint and Barr Foundation, Kanchan looks forward to making equity and joy of learning the foundation of many more classrooms.

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About Math Teacher Lounge: The podcast

Math Teacher Lounge is a biweekly podcast created specifically for K–12 math educators. In each episode co-hosts Bethany Lockhart Johnson (@lockhartedu) and Dan Meyer (@ddmeyer) chat with guests, taking a deep dive into the math and educational topics you care about.

Join the Math Teacher Lounge Facebook group to continue the conversation, view exclusive content, interact with fellow educators, participate in giveaways, and more!

You might also like:

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Free professional development cours…

Three on-demand professional learning courses for math teachers.  Earn your cert…

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Mathigon: the mathematical playgrou…

Math games and manipulatives for online and remote learning.

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Desmos Classroom Grades 3–12

Join Desmos Classroom to gain access to free classroom lessons, lesson-building…

Save the date

You’re invited: New Fellows Orientation 2026

Get ready for an unforgettable New Fellows Orientation event in Jacksonville, Florida! Come join our community of math enthusiasts (Yes, that’s you!) on an exciting journey of professional learning, jam-packed with collaboration, thoughtful mentorship, and new friends.

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About the event

This interactive retreat for new Amplify Classroom Fellows will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Jacksonville, Florida, July 14–16.

During the New Fellows Orientation, you will:

  • Engage in professional learning experiences led by Amplify Classroom experts.
  • Explore new features of and enhancements to Amplify Desmos Math.
  • Get early access to our best ideas and technology.
  • Share how you’re supporting students with and without technology.
  • Collaborate with other Amplify Classroom Fellows to create a resource to share with other teachers.
  • Receive a certificate of attendance.
  • Leave with new perspectives and goals for the upcoming school year.

Logistics:

Please plan to arrive by 12 p.m. ET on Tuesday, July 14, as we will kick off with lunch.

Participants will be provided lunch and dinner on July 14 and all meals on July 15. There are no scheduled activities on Thursday, July 16, and attendees may depart at their convenience.

Amplify will cover hotel and food costs. Travel costs to and from New Fellows Orientation are the responsibility of each attendee.

Amplify Desmos Math for NYC

Welcome! This site contains supporting resources for the New York City Department of Education Amplify Desmos Math adoption for grade 6–A1.

What’s new?

  • Prepare for 2025–26! Get everything you need to teach Amplify Demos Math with this checklist.
  • Use this guide to learn about the materials included through Core Curriculum purchases.
  • Need help? Check here for who can help! Our dedicated phone number, just for NYC, has team members ready to help! 1-888-960-0380
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About the program

Amplify Desmos Math New York is based on Illustrative Mathematics® IM K–12™ and expands on Desmos Math 6–8 (which received all-green ratings from EdReports) with beautiful print resources, and robust practice, differentiation supports, assessment and reporting. Read the review on EdReports.

Amplify Desmos Math provides:

  • Engaging, discourse-rich math lessons that are easier to teach.
  • Flexible, collaborative problem-solving experiences both online and off.
  • Real-time insights that make student thinking more transparent.

Program highlights to know about

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Desmos Classroom digital lessons

Digital lessons should be powerful in their ability to surface student thinking and spark interesting and productive discussions. We’ve joined forces with Desmos Classroom to bring this vision to life with a complete library of interactive, collaborative lessons.

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Engaging student experience

Relevant content and interactive math tools create an intuitive and engaging student experience. Plus, working together in real time allows students to see that communicating their ideas and learning from each other are important parts of math class.

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Visibility into student thinking

Imagine having more visibility into your students’ mathematical thinking. Now imagine that students have access to this same information. With our collaborative lesson interface and teacher dashboard, students have awareness their own thinking and that of their peers—exposing them to a wider variety of approaches to solving the same problem.

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Ready-to-teach lessons

Each grade level includes 150 ready-to-teach lessons, complete with slides, step-by-step teaching notes, suggested student and teacher responses, tips for incorporating instructional routines, support for developing mathematical language, and links to useful resources. Teachers can manage what slides students see, controlling the pace of the lesson to suit the needs of the class.

Planning for instruction

Amplify Desmos Math is customized specifically to meet the New York State Next Generation Math Learning Standards. Within each document below, you’ll find direct links to lessons and activities where each individual standard is addressed.

The program is also aligned with the expectations outlined in the New York City Department of Education Definition of Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education and the New York State Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework. Download the CR-SE alignment.

Amplify Desmos Math Scope and Sequence

Amplify Desmos Math Accelerated Scope and Sequence

Ready to plan for the 2025-26 school year? These pacing guides are designed to provide structure, not rigid mandates and resources for NYC.     

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Experience Amplify Desmos Math New York

Explore our digital program to review content from all grades, 6–A1. Watch our quick walkthrough video for helpful navigation tips.

Try out Amplify Desmos Math by following these steps.


Printable login instructions:

Additional support:

Print Materials List:

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Lesson Sampler

Amplify Desmos Math delivers the instructional power of student-centered learning packaged in a lesson format that’s teacher-friendly and manageable.

With easy-to-follow instructional support, implementing a problem-based program becomes more effective and enjoyable for both you and your students. Paired with the Desmos Classroom digital experience, math class is suddenly fun and dynamic, with plenty of opportunities for students to talk through their reasoning, work with their peers, and gain new understanding.

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Grade 6 Lesson Sampler

learn more

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Grade 7 Lesson Sampler

learn more

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Grade 8 Lesson Sampler

learn more

Additional features

Universal design

Every student is brilliant, and every student has brilliant mathematical ideas worth sharing and cultivating. Incorporating principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) into lessons brings students’ brilliance to the forefront. UDL is a research-based framework designed to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

A feedback form with two questions, "How well did you understand the math in this lesson?" and "How did you feel about learning math in this lesson?" with corresponding emoji options for responses, perfectly complements the New York Math curriculum.

Diversity and representation

Helping students develop strong, healthy, and flexible math identities is a cornerstone of our program. Throughout the curriculum, students are taught that they themselves are mathematicians, that today’s math has been shaped by a diverse range of mathematicians who deserve to be celebrated, and that learning is never finished.

Illustration of a laptop displaying various colorful icons and graphics representing diverse professions and historical figures on its screen, emphasizing illustrative mathematics and desmos math concepts through its displayed content.

Assessments

Less exciting, but essential for learning: assessments. Amplify Desmos Math features a robust variety of formative and summative assessments, including readiness checks, exit tickets, quizzes, end-of-unit tests, and benchmarks aligned with New York State Next Generation Mathematics Learning Standards.

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Reporting

Not only do our reports reveal progress toward standard mastery, but they also include details on how students performed against the standard in the past and how many encounters are yet to come. This feature alone helps teachers prioritize instruction and intervene with additional resources when necessary.

A computer screen displays a New York math skills tracking interface, highlighting standard 6.EE.C.9, with progress indicators and a class average score of 74% shown in a yellow pie chart.

NYC webinar series

Figuring out how to implement a problem-based learning approach to mathematics can be fun—and challenging. Rest assured that you won’t be alone on this journey; Amplify will be by your side every step of the way. Our back-to-school math webinar series for K–8 administrators and teachers:

  • Introduces the new NYC Solves initiative.
  • Establishes the foundation for all educators to effectively understand and implement the NYCPS Shifts in Mathematics in their classrooms.
  • Provides an overview of Amplify Desmos Math, the pre-approved NYCPS curriculum chosen to ensure that every school can successfully implement these math shifts and is supported with high-level, tailored professional development and coaching throughout the process.

Please see the specific webinars and the recordings below to learn more!

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On-demand webinar 1

Would you like to learn more about the NYCPS Shifts in Mathematics and enhance your understanding of each of the five shifts?

Explore how the NYCPS math shifts are transforming mathematics education from a procedural approach to a more engaging, discoverable, and connected learning experience.

Listen to the Understanding the NYCPS Shifts in Mathematics session recording.

On-demand webinar 2

Let’s unpack the why, what, and how to unlock every student’s mathematical mind and build math proficiency for life! In this webinar, we discuss the power of teaching our children to be skilled mathematicians through a structured approach to problem-solving.

Listen to the Unlocking Mathematical Minds: A Structured Approach to Problem-Based Learning session recording.

On-demand webinar 3

For some educators, transitioning to problem-based learning might seem daunting. There’s often concern that the open-ended nature of the approach could derail students from achieving mathematical goals. However, by finding the right balance between open-ended opportunities and structured classroom activities, teachers can encourage students to share their thinking while meeting key learning targets. Uncover simple shifts that educators can implement to foster the perfect balance of open-ended student thinking and focus on mathematical instructional goals.

Listen to the Making the Shift to Problem-Based Learning session recording.

On-demand webinar 4

Amplify Desmos Math New York K–A1 is math that motivates! During this session recording, you’ll experience a grade 6 lesson that captures the essence of NYC Solves.

Listen to the Learn More and Experience Amplify Desmos Math LIVE, an NYCPS-Approved Math Curriculum session recording.

Looking for help?

Support is always within reach. Our team is dedicated to supporting you throughout your review. You can be reached at any time by emailing or calling us directly.

  • Support pathways for NYC Core Orders
  • Chat: Click the orange icon while logged in to get immediate help.
  • Support Portal: Fill out this form, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
  • Phone: Call our toll-free NYC Support number: (888) 960-0380.
  • Email: Send an email to AmplifyNYC@amplify.com.
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S5-01. Investigating math anxiety in the classroom

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Season 5 is here! This season, we’ll be talking all about math anxiety: what it is, what causes it, and what we can do to prevent or ease this anxiety in the math classroom. To launch this very important theme, we sat down with Dr. Gerardo Ramirez, associate professor of educational psychology at Ball State University.
 
As someone who’s been studying math anxiety for more than a decade, he had some interesting research and advice to share on why math anxiety affects so many students (and adults), and tips for how to start reducing it.
 
Listen now and don’t forget to grab your MTL study guide to track your learning and make the most of this episode!
 
Enjoy this episode and explore more from Math Teacher Lounge by visiting our main page.

Download Transcript

Dan Meyer (00:01):
Hey, folks. Welcome back to Math Teacher Lounge. I’m one of your hosts, Dan Meyer.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:05):
And I am your other host. I’m Bethany Lockhart Johnson. Season five! Hello!

Dan Meyer (00:11):
Bethany, how are you doing? How have you been spending the long break between our recording sessions?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:16):
As much as I loved sharing content from previous seasons, I am so thrilled that we’re back for season five. I have been, you know, chasing a toddler. I think he’s already tired of me saying, “Ooh, can we count that?” He’s like [sighs] “One two, one two.” Like, he’s done already.

Dan Meyer (00:36):
Too much counting. Yeah, I worry about that so much, that my love of mathematics might be perceived by my kids as smothering. Yeah, I worry about the same. We shared with you folks some bangers of reruns, in my humble opinion. Some great guests. But, we’ve been excited—me and Bethany—to hop back on the mics, on the ones and twos, and explore some new ideas together.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:01):
Well, I loved our season talking about joy in mathematics. And personally I could…like, we could turn this whole podcast into joy in mathematics. However, we’re kind of going a different route. Because if you ask folks why they don’t feel joy in mathematics, a lot of times at the root of that is some really intense math anxiety. So this whole season, we’re going to be delving into math anxiety. Exploring what it is, who has it, why do we think it happens, what do we think we can do about it, and how can we navigate through it, so that we can experience that joy in math? These are questions that we’re gonna explore over the course of the season. Dan Meyer, how do you feel about that?

Dan Meyer (01:49):
It feels big and it feels personal. I mean, as we shared in our math stories back from season…whatever it was, math anxiety was a huge part.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:59):
It was last season, Dan.

Dan Meyer (02:00):
Last…? I mean, who can remember? Big part of your journey. I’ve had some very punctuated but intense moments of anxiety in math class. And socially, we have built math up to be this incredibly powerful thing. You know, restricting movement on economic ladders, preventing people from getting into careers they want. Whether or not they have much to do with math class, math anxiety is a really large part of educational but also social life. And yeah, I’m really excited to explore it with you. We’re bringing on some really excellent guests. Some researchers, yes. But not just researchers! Also people who practice in the field and know firsthand what it looks like to resolve issues of anxiety with students.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (02:45):
Yeah, you’re right, Dan. My math story contained quite a bit of math anxiety, so I am particularly invested in this season. I mean, I still navigate math anxiety. And, you know, many of us do, and let’s talk about it. And let’s—I love that you reminded me. We’re gonna have a lot of great researchers all throughout the season, and a lot of times folks feel like the research happening, there’s sometimes a gap between researchers and what’s actually happening in the classroom. Not in all cases, but a lot of times. Right? And I remember a lot of conversation about the latest research when I was in grad school, but unless you’re actively studying something, sometimes we don’t know what’s happening. Right? We’re really focused on what’s happening right in front of us in our classroom. So let’s take some of that research; let’s break it down; let’s talk to some of the folks who are thinking about this for the bulk of their day, right?

Dan Meyer (03:41):
Yep. So we got our first guest coming up in a moment here.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (03:45):
So to kick off this season, we’re starting episode one by talking to Dr. Gerardo Ramirez, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at Ball State University. And he’s been researching math anxiety for more than a decade. He’s worked with so many amazing folks in the field. He’s worked with students, he’s worked with teachers, with educators…I’m just so excited to talk to him. If you look up math anxiety, you see his name as one of the folks who is really thinking about this at so many different angles, and we get to talk to him. So enjoy our conversation with Dr. Gerardo Ramirez.

Dan Meyer (04:29):
We are so excited to have Dr. Gerardo Ramirez on the show with us. Dr. Ramirez is an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at Ball State University. Thanks so much for joining us.

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (04:40):
Yeah, thank you for inviting me to talk about math anxiety.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (04:43):
So with your interview, Dr. Ramirez, we are actually launching the season. We’re gonna be talking about all different aspects of math anxiety, and it feels pretty perfect that you are first guest of the season, because of the sheer breadth of research and conversations you’ve had about math anxiety. Could you start us off kind of telling us a story of how did you get interested in studying math anxiety? Or why, you know, why did you dive into this topic that, you know, I think a lot of folks might…like, if you’re on a plane, and you say, “Oh, I study math anxiety,” what kind of reaction are you gonna get?

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (05:24):
Oh, sure. Yeah. I think most people are actually very interested because they all have their own story about feeling anxious about math, or just being anxious about evaluation situations that involve math. And, yeah, they wanna share those stories. People feel quite comfortable talking about their anxiety about math, for some reason. But for me, I started off, when I was in undergrad, I was studying to take the GRE quiz. I was hoping to go into a psych program. But I wasn’t exactly sure what direction yet. As I took some of the practice tests, there’s some situations in which I was very nervous about taking the practice test. And I just noticed that I did really poorly on some of these exams. And so I became very interested in issues like choking under pressure, which means when you underperform relative to what you expected to perform. And so, as I was researching these issues, I started to come across this whole field of math anxiety. And I saw that while there are some people who choke under pressure during tests, there are other people who just have a strong general fear of mathematics.

Dan Meyer (06:29):
That’s really helpful. I can imagine you’re doing a lot of free psychology sessions, free therapy for people on airplanes when they bring to you their own stories of math. So let’s thank you for your service in that sense. I’m super-curious. So Bethany and I have both taught math. We both have seen firsthand what it looks like when a student is anxious in math class, though maybe we don’t have kind of the clinical language to describe it. And I’m curious, from a clinical sense, how do we define math anxiety?

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (06:57):
Sure. So first off, math anxiety is not something that you would find in the DSM, for instance. But we generally define that as a fear or apprehension to situations that involve math. So it doesn’t have to necessarily be educational situations. It could be someone asks you a math-related question during a party, or you have to calculate the tip at a restaurant, for instance. It doesn’t have to be about schooling situations, although that’s obviously where it seems to matter a lot for many people. So it is basically a fear or apprehension to situations that involve math. And I think distinguishing the term “fear” from “anxiety” is really important here. A lot of times people use those terms interchangeably, and the term “fear” is obviously within our definition of math anxiety. But oftentimes what differentiates anxiety from fear is that, anxiety is—think of it like a recipe. Anxiety is fear plus a little bit of unknown. OK? So if, for instance, if you hated snakes, and they threw a snake at you, you’d be in intense fear. Whereas if you hated snakes and they said, “There is a snake in the room, but I’m not gonna tell you where,” that’s gonna cause anxiety. And so the reason why we call it math anxiety is because a lot of times people experience this fear for a possible unknown future that involves math or possible unknown evaluations that people might have about your competence, because of math. And so for a lot of kids, they feel anxious about how they’re gonna do on a test or whether they’re gonna be able to pass a class or whether they’ll be able to understand what you’re saying in your lessons, for instance. And so the anxiety component really gets at fear of something that’s unknown, but related to mathematics situations.

Dan Meyer (08:47):
Math is somewhere in the ceiling right now. Perhaps I might be surprised with a math situation!

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (08:52):
Yeah. yep.

Dan Meyer (08:52):
So I have this tendency to assume that every other subject that we teach has it better and easier than math does. It’s not true. I know this is not true. But I’m kind of curious here. Is math anxiety, like, part of a general just set of anxiety around schooling itself? Like, is there a reading anxiety, a writing anxiety, and does that all just flow from the same kind of fount of anxiety around schooling or situations about learning? And what makes math special in this regard? If it is its own special anxiety, for instance?

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (09:27):
There are different…so some people obviously suffer from generalized anxiety. Right? And so they would, you know, feel anxious both for evaluative and non-evaluative situations. But in the research that we’ve done and that other people have done, there are differences between things like reading anxiety, math anxiety; I’ve also studied spatial and creativity anxiety. A lot of times what we’re trying to do in these studies is we measure all of the above, and we try to show that, look, math anxiety predicts math situations above and beyond these other things. So yeah, we definitely distinguish those things. And so what’s special about math is that, well, I think the symbolic nature is a big part of it. The abstract symbolic nature is just not as tangible to students. They can’t touch it. And so it doesn’t allow ’em to use their full cognitive faculties to play with it, as you might see, for instance, in science. Or it doesn’t allow people to relate math to their own interests the way you might see, for instance, in English. So maybe I hate reading novels, but I’m interested in zombies and you give me a book on zombies, well, ok, great, you’ve connected my personal assets to the topic. Whereas with math, either that’s harder to do or instructors don’t do such a good job of setting that connection up.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (10:46):
Also, I think, you know, I’ve heard of students being really anxious, let’s say, during a reading session, when teachers used to do—hopefully they’re still not doing it—the popcorn reading, where you just randomly call on a student to read out a sentence. Right? But you don’t really hear students or adults talking about, “Oh, no, no, no, I don’t read; I don’t mess with reading.” You know? Whereas with math, you do hear, “Oh, I’m not a math person. Oh no, no, no, don’t ask me any math questions.” And that is such a distinction.

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (11:18):
Yeah. And I think a lot of that’s because it’s just so common. As an adult, to be nervous about reading is kind of an uncommon thing. So people feel a stigma around admitting that. But math is something that everyone feels like they’re inadequate in. And so there’s a lot of comfort in telling you how they’re just one of the many people who don’t like math. And that, you know, can have a lot of different consequences and outcomes. I think on the one hand, I think for a lot of kids it becomes a normalized message that if you fear math, that’s OK, join the club. Right? But we have to be careful about that, ’cause a lot of math anxiety researchers will oftentimes say, part of what leads to math anxiety is adults normalizing that it’s OK to be scared of math. So I think a lot of times adults, teachers, for instance, math teachers, they’ll tell kids, “You know, if you’re scared, that’s OK.” And so a lot of the math anxiety community says, “No, no, no, you’re not supposed to do that.” But my recent view is different. I view that as a form of validation. Because math is hard. And so telling kids, “Hey, look, it’s actually easy if you just try,” I don’t think that’s true. It’s actually just hard. And I think even if it was easy, to the kid, it feels hard! And I think something that’s not really well-studied right now in our field is the value of validating people’s math negative math experiences. We don’t want to validate that, ’cause we think that we’re gonna reinforce that. But actually, I think the opposite. I think when you validate people’s negative math experiences, it helps ’em to feel that they can handle it. They can start to take control over their own emotions.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (12:52):
I love that. And I, I actually, I think that’s so powerful, what you’re talking about, that validation. I taught kindergarten, and I vividly remember being in a parent-teacher conference and that parent saying, “Oh, I wasn’t a math person either,” right? Or, you know, their language and their experience with their own math schooling, their anxiety about math was actually impacting their students’ experience of math. Or the conversation that, when I would go to talk about a math assessment, let’s say, you could see the parent actually tensing up. And there was this moment of validation, that I felt like we needed to make space for that in the conversation with the parents, right?

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (13:38):
Yeah.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (13:38):
Like, this is a real thing. And we are working on teaching students that math is something that gets to—your experience with math gets to look all sorts of different ways. And it’s OK if we, you know, make a mistake, or if we kind of only get this part, but we’ve really got that part. Or let’s talk about it; let’s write about it. So I really feel like that that validation is something that’s so missing. And instead of the validation, like you said, you see folks being like, “Oh yeah, me neither. I’m not a math person either.” Right?

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (14:10):
Yeah. I think…part of the reason why people are comfortable sharing this because they’re looking for validation also. When they say, “Oh, I’m not a math person,” you know, I think they’re hoping that, you’ll say like, “Yeah, me neither,” or “Of course not, ’cause math is terrible.” Right? They’re looking for validation, not to reinforce their perspective, but to feel that it’s OK not to be a math person. And I think that’s one of the techniques that I’m trying to work on in my research right now, is to provide evidence that actually people will work harder when you validate their math experience. You don’t have to tell them a positive story per se. If your current story is “Math is hard and I’m very, very anxious; I’m scared,” then we can just validate that and help you work through that. And it actually will strengthen our relationships. Because if you’re a student and you’re struggling with math and I tell you, “Yeah, it’s hard; it’s OK to struggle with math,” that makes you feel seen. And that’s gonna lead you to want to ask me more for help, because I’m someone who understands you. And that’s a great, you know, remediation opportunity.

Dan Meyer (15:14):
A common thread that I think I’m seeing here in several answers is that math sometimes asks students to disassociate part of themselves. Where success in math oftentimes means working from an a level of abstraction with symbols, like you said, that can feel alien. Like, who am I here? And in the same way, I love that you’re proposing we validate and reassociate people with a very deeply felt part of themselves that is anxious about mathematics.

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (15:44):
Yeah. I mean, I think that’s what validation’s supposed to do, right? So a lot of us, when we feel these strong emotions, we wonder, “Is this even a real thing? Are other people feeling this? Is there something wrong with me?” So we feel the emotions, but we can’t actually deal with them, because we wonder if they’re legitimate. And so when someone says, like, “Yeah, this is hard,” it crystallizes that emotion. And once something is made real, you can actually choose how you want to deal with it. Some kids are gonna deal with it by staying anxious. But some people are gonna choose to deal with it by saying, “Well, there’s nothing I can do about it now; I have to take this math test, so I’m just gonna think positive.” And that’s great. If the kid can end up saying that to themselves, that’s much more effective than me telling the kid, “Hey, you just gotta think positive. You’re gonna start the test anyway.” And so we want the kid to make meaning of their experience, and the way we do that is by crystallizing their emotions through validation.

Dan Meyer (16:36):
Yeah. I love that. And so what you’re proposing there, I think, sounds like, a solution, like a post-talk solution after students are feeling anxiety.

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (16:43):
Yes.

Dan Meyer (16:43):
To validate and empathize.

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (16:45):
Yes.

Dan Meyer (16:45):
And over the course of our season, we hope to explore a lot about solutions to math anxiety that are preventative, that reduce the odds of anxiety arising, through instruction and curriculum, before it arises. And I’m just wondering if you’ve seen anything that would hint at either specific or general words of wisdom you wanna share with the educators, about not just addressing it after the fact, but preventing math anxiety before it arises?

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (17:14):
To be honest, at this point, I haven’t seen enough evidence for me to recommend anything concretely as an intervention for math anxiety, or an intervention to prevent its development. All I can really do here is rely a lot on the more broad cognitive-behavioral research on anxiety, which says that one of the ways we prevent people from developing anxiety is by helping them to make more positive appraisals of challenge situations. So a lot of times, when kids are challenged, they don’t know how to interpret that. “What does it mean that I’m struggling with this thing?” And so that’s where I think a lot of teachers can help students’ interpretations of that. ‘Cause if you leave kids to their own devices, they’re gonna think, “I’m struggling because I’m stupid. I’m struggling because I’m not good enough. I’m struggling because my dad is right; I’m gonna be a failure.” You know? They’re going to impose an interpretation to a challenge situation regardless. And so, as teachers, one thing we can do is we can help shape that interpretation and say, “What does it mean to struggle with math? People will say it means you’re stupid. That’s one interpretation. What’s another one? It means that your brain is working really hard to think through something. That’s another interpretation. What’s better? What do you think is more helpful?” And then, helping students to see how interpretations matter to how you ultimately feel about something. And that’s a very metacognitive way of thinking about things. So yeah, I would say that one way to prevent it is to help students to take more positive interpretations of their experience. But another way, and I think a more successful way, I think, is to give students early experiences where they feel efficacious dealing with math. One of the ways you do that, for instance, is by obviously making sure that the students understand the material—but that’s obvious; people are trying to do that. One of my favorite recommendations is to keep reassigning assignments, the same exact assignment, for, say, three weeks, back-to-back. So if in week one you do the homework assignment, you do OK, you don’t do so great, when week two you do it, you give the exact same assignment, and now the student can see like, “Wow, OK, this was much easier.” And then, week three, you give the exact same assignment; now the kid’s feeling really confident. And the reason why that’s great is because it helps kids to see that they’re growing in confidence. A lot of times kids don’t get to see that because we’re constantly throwing new assessments at them. And so they’re never seeing that growth. All they’re seeing is a new challenge, a new challenge, a new challenge. So I think we need to set up situations where they can feel that they’re growing, when we keep the assessment static. That can be a formative assessment, for instance—doesn’t have to be a summative assessment.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (19:55):
That feels so powerful and it feels like it really connects to that validation piece, right? We are actually helping to create a culture in our math classroom where we might struggle with something, but we keep revisiting it. And it’s not so much to reach mastery, but as Dr. Megan Franke — we talked to her about this partial understanding and about pulling on those threads of things that you do understand, so that you can build your confidence…build, not just confidence, but build your…I guess, kind of get your footing, right? You’re saying, “Well, I do understand this. I see how this works.” And if I’m revisiting an assignment, I feel like that would give me permission to like, “Hey, I don’t have to have this figured out on the first pass. You know?

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (20:44):
Yes, yes. Yeah. I mean, I’m gonna give you a silly analogy, but I think it works. You know, a lot of times people will have nightmares, right? And they’ll keep having the same nightmare over and over again, right? And so one reason that we suspect this happens is because they haven’t worked through whatever that nightmare’s supposed to be about. So if, say, I’m scared of driving, I may be having the same dream about driving and crashing over and over. And we keep having these nightmares. And I think math anxiety is kind of like a waking nightmare, where you keep rehashing something because you haven’t had the chance to finally address that dragon. You know? And so if someone was having a lot of fear over driving, then one behavioral approach would be, you know, to work with a therapist to actually get behind the wheel and maybe drive around the same track over and over until you feel comfortable at that, and then the nightmares stop. Well, the same thing is true, I think, about math, math and math anxiety, is that you wanna give people these opportunities to feel confident by going back to that original experience that caused them to feel anxious, and saying, “This one assignment that we did in week three that really freaked you out, let’s try it again now in week five. How was that?” “Yeah, it wasn’t so bad. It was still kind of annoying.” “OK, we’ll we’ll come back to it.” “Now it’s week seven. Now let’s go back to that assignment. How is it now?” “That’s actually…it wasn’t that terrible.” And that gives people the opportunity to reflect on how they’ve grown past that nightmare.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (22:05):
I have to say, Dan talked about you being like a therapist. I’m like, wait, “How did you know, Dr. Ramirez? I did have this recurring dream! I did! And I had to face it. No, but I had such intense math anxiety in high school and it was debilitating. And the biggest thing for me, I thought I was the only one. I thought there was something wrong with me. I thought, “Why can’t I figure this out?” There wasn’t a conversation about “Here are some tools,” or “Here are some, some, some…”. Like, “This is OK, for you to feel scared about this or overwhelmed!”

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (22:41):
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (22:42):
You know, I think often when we talk about how widespread math anxiety is, I think a lot of folks automatically jump to high schoolers or college students avoiding math courses. But we see this in really young kids.

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (22:56):
Yeah. So people are…people are just constantly making meaning of themselves, regardless of the age range. And that’s true even with young kids; they are trying to figure out who they are. Right? And so one of the things you see oftentimes with young kids is you ask ’em, “What are you good at?” And they say, “Everything!” And that’s their attempt to, you know, make meaning of themselves. But sometimes they’re not good at everything. Sometimes they actually struggle in math. And I think even early on, they have to make meaning of that. They say, “Well, I’m good at everything except math.” And how do you make sense of that? Well, why not math? “Oh, because math is terrible. It’s not for everybody. You know, it’s not something that I like.” And so, yeah, in a lot of the studies that we did early on, we basically went into these first-grade classrooms with the purpose of trying to assess whether we can actually show variability in kids’ math anxiety, even early on. In other other words, do kids even report feeling anxious about math situations? Or do they tell us that they’re great at everything? And what we found was that in fact, a good chunk of kids are, again, perfectly willing to tell you that “No, certain situations involving math make me very anxious.” Counting or addition, or doing a problem on the board. And the way we do that is by—I think there are probably more sophisticated ways that can be done, but this is the best we have at this point—is we go in there and we ask them, we show them a bunch of smiley faces and anxious faces. And we say, “I want you to tell me how you feel about these different situations that involve math.” And so we say, “If you feel kind of nervous, I want you to point to this face. If you feel very nervous, point to this face.” And we basically will read to them situations. We’ll say, “How would you feel if your teacher asked you to open up your new math textbook and you saw all the numbers inside of it?” And they’ll point to the really nervous face. So right now, those are some of the more reliable assessments for math anxiety among young kids. And that work showed us that even young kids are self-reporting math anxiety.

Dan Meyer (24:51):

Obviously this is worth our study, because we would hope people would not feel anxious in general, and especially if we have a mandated…kids are mandated to be in math classes for their entire childhood. So I see the need for this study, these studies. I’m curious: What are the consequences, though? Like what, what correlates with math anxiety? What are other reasons why we should care about math anxiety and work to remediate it?

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (25:16):
Oh, sure. So it correlates with their actual math performance. It can correlate when they choose to do homework. Right? So a lot of times, the parents report having to fight with their kids over math homework a lot. And you also oftentimes see a lot of frustration over mathematics specifically. And so it can, you know, not only affect their academic ongoing outcomes, like math tests and math assignments, but it can also affect their relationship with their parents. So if every time you come home, your dad’s screaming at you because you haven’t done your math homework, and when he asks you to solve the problem in front of them, you don’t remember, ’cause you were checked out, ’cause you’re so stressed out, that’s gonna cause a really negative experience. You know, a lot of times people grow up and they still remember their dad screaming at them over the math homework. You know, it’ll affect your relationship with your teacher. So if you’re making me feel incompetent, if you’re stressing me out, you’re not the kind of person I wanna come to for help. So it can predict relational outcomes as well as academic outcomes. And down the line, of course, when it affects students’ opportunities to get into things like AP classes, it affects students standardized test performance and their choice of colleges, as well as scholarship opportunities.

Dan Meyer (26:29):
Once you show that it correlates to performance, then that opens up a whole range of other correlations that are pretty important, it sounds like. Whether that’s career options or, you know, post-secondary education and the like.

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (26:40):
Yeah. And a lot of times, when people are choosing a career at college, a lot of times students will make a decision specifically based on what career has less math requirements or less math courses. So I think this finding needs to be verified further. But, there’s some studies showing that, for instance, elementary ed teachers, one factor that feeds into the decision to go into elementary ed is the math requirements are very low in elementary ed. So that can…obviously it’s not what we wanna hear, because these are our first formal math teachers, right? For our kids.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (27:16):
It feels so powerful, the impact that math anxiety can have, not only while you’re in, let’s say, elementary school, high middle school, high school, but then the impacts beyond that in terms of your career. And I shared this last season, when we talked about our personal math story, but I know when I was navigating the deepest part of my math anxiety, I really felt like, maybe this is a reason I can’t be an elementary school teacher. Because I was so worried that I wouldn’t be able…not that I wouldn’t understand the math for fourth grade, fifth grade, but that there was something about my ability to teach it or understand it or develop a love and passion for it that I wouldn’t be able to do. And I really had to reclaim it in my own way. But, you know, something that I think is so powerful about your research is just the applicability — not only to the field of mathematics, but folks’ everyday lives. And the way that you have talked in the past about math being a gatekeeper…I have a family member who, brilliant American Sign Language interpreter. I mean, amazing. Like a dance with her fingers. I could just watch it all day. And she actually didn’t complete the program because she couldn’t complete the math requirements. And I remember talking to her about like, “Well, have you gone to the free tutoring? Have you gone to, you know, this or that?” But it was a paralyzing fear, you know? So Dr. Ramirez, what do you wish educators understood about math anxiety? Or the research about math anxiety? Or maybe even the general public at large, what do you wish folks understood about math anxiety?

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (28:58):
Oh, I think that a lot of students, they struggle with math. And I think we wanna normalize that struggle as much as possible. We want to create a culture where it’s OK to do math slow; it’s ok to take your time. And I know that’s not possible with a lot of these requirements that a lot of math teachers have to do. But I think if we want to prevent math anxiety, we have to create opportunities to tell better stories. So that’s ultimately what I tell people is, why do people develop math anxiety? Because they had experiences that challenged their competency and they told a negative story. And so making space to reflect in math classrooms about what does it mean to go slow in math, or what does it mean to make mistakes, and then helping kids to tell better stories, I think it’s really the best thing we can do as math educators. ‘Cause you know, your job is not to be a therapist ultimately. You know, there’s only so much math teachers can do. But I think one of the most powerful things we can create is setting up students’ experiences where they feel confident, and they can tell better stories, so they can have better dreams about math.

Dan Meyer (30:06):
Really appreciate this introduction to math anxiety. It’s been a fantastic kickoff to our season. Dr. Ramirez, thank you so much for joining us.

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (30:14):
Sure. Thank you.

Dan Meyer (30:16):
Thank you folks so much for listening to that conversation with Dr. Gerardo Ramirez, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at Ball State University.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (30:25):
Dan, OK, if not for your frantic signaling, I would’ve probably asked another 20 questions. I need to know what you thought .

Dan Meyer (30:34):
I found it interesting at all points. And especially I think I started to understand a little bit better where the anxiety comes from for some students. I got a little bit here, which is that I think math, more than other disciplines, involves alienation. Check that word. You like that? Alienation? I’m into it. I’m feeling it. It’s like…to get good at math, to be successful in math, you gotta, as a kid, lose your attachment to the world you understand. And I mean, “got to” as in like, “you are asked to” — many times, unfortunately, by curriculum and instruction. Which is to say, you’re turning things you can hold onto into numerals. Right? You’re turning the world and its patterns that you can see and touch into Xs and Ys. And I just don’t know that other disciplines deal with that as much. Maybe I’m wrong and just guilty of, you know, “grass is always greener” syndrome here. But I think that’s an experience that kids have in math. And I thought that Dr. Ramirez got at that when he’s talking about the need to validate a student’s experience of anxiety. Like, in treating anxiety, sometimes we alienate people further by just like saying, “Oh, no, no, no, it’s just like, you need to, you know, drill yourself more, practice more,” and kind of invalidate that. So this feeling of alienation, I think permeates a lot of math instruction. I’m looking forward to learning more about that with our future episodes

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (32:00):
Alienation. That’s interesting. I definitely felt, I definitely felt isolated and alone many times in my math journey, when I was having my…you know, in high school, when I was feeling like, “Clearly everyone can look at tan, sign, cosign, and that means something to them.” Right? I think it’s really interesting, because I’m thinking about the other disciplines; I’m running through them, and I’m like, even in science, which can seem abstract, so oftentimes there’s these experiments that accompany these concepts, where you’re like, “Look at this concept made real in front of you.” Right? . And so yeah, that’s really interesting.

Dan Meyer (32:39):
You’re always one step away from blowing something up! Or, you know, dissecting something that’s tangible to you.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (32:46):
Yeah. That’s really interesting. I did really love how he brought up the abstract. And how, I think, even validating it…he talked so much about validation. Which to me was like, YES. If somebody just said, “Hey, it’s not only possible to have math anxiety, but it also doesn’t mean that you don’t belong here.” If somebody had said that, it would’ve literally changed the trajectory, you know? And I wonder what those conversations could look like in our classrooms, where teachers celebrate that. Like, WHOA, this is a new way to think of this. This is a new way. Asking how many, or what do you notice for this image, through a mathematical lens, or looking…we talked to Alison Hintz and Antony Smith, like mathematizing books, like looking through these lenses — it’s an invitation to step into this other world, right? But there’s not only one way to do it. And I think oftentimes it’s like that anxiety of “Am I gonna say the right thing?” or “Am I gonna notice the right thing?” Right? How do we create that space more, where there’s so many possibilities and we want kiddos to notice what they notice, right?

Dan Meyer (33:54):
You gotta become a certain kind of person to be successful in math class. I feel like is part of the implied deal. Where you’ve gotta—like how you said—say a certain thing or think about a certain thing a certain kind of way. You’re trying to become someone who is not necessarily you. Which I think is fundamentally an experience of alienation, separating you from important parts of yourself.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (34:19):
I will never, ever dive into mathematics on the scale and level that you have with your PhD. You understand math in a way that my brain just…I won’t get there, right? And yet I’m allowed to call myself a mathematician, with all of my deep dives in elementary math and my love of early numeracy and thinking about how we start thinking about counting and numbers. Right? It’s like, if we make more space for what mathematicians can look like, and what is your personal relationship with math…I mean, that to me feels really exciting. ‘Cause I think we both have something to offer each other.

Dan Meyer (35:03):
I think I have never found early math more interesting than when I talk to early math educators. And learn just like all the different ways that students come to understand a concept that I had thought was simple. Like addition of whole numbers. Whoa! There’s a lot of ways kids do that work, and their brains think those thoughts. And, yeah. That’s a good word there you’re offering us and our listeners.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (35:27):
Yeah. Yeah. I’m really excited about this season. I think there’s — again, there’s no way we’re gonna cover all facets of math anxiety. But I think having the chance to explore it over the course of a season is going to be really fascinating. And really, I hope, destigmatize it and open up the conversation for our listeners. And, you know, if you listeners…we wanna know what you thought of this episode. Do you have any particular questions? Do you have questions related to math anxiety? Questions related to this episode? We are in development for this season, so we’re gonna do our best to get those questions answered. You can keep in touch with us in our Facebook discussion group, Math Teacher Lounge Community, and on Twitter at MTLshow.

Dan Meyer (36:14):
Next time, we’re gonna go deeper into the causes and consequences of math anxiety.

Dr. Erin Maloney (36:20):
It’s not just the case that people who are bad at math are anxious about it. It’s actually that the anxiety itself can cause you to do worse in math. And that for me is really exciting, ’cause it means that if we can change your mindset, then we can really set you on a path with several more options available to you.

Dan Meyer (36:41):
Til next time folks,

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (36:41):
Bye.

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What Dr. Gerardo Ramirez says about math

“A lot of students struggle with math, and we want to normalize that struggle as much as possible. We have to find opportunities to tell better stories and reflect on our experiences.”

– Dr. Gerardo Ramirez

Associate Professor of Educational Psychology, Ball State University

Meet the guest

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, where he studied the  role of teachers and parents in shaping the math attitudes of their students, as well as reappraisal techniques to help students cope with anxiety during testing situations.

Dr. Ramirez is currently an associate professor at Ball State, where he examines the role of frustration, empathy, and cultural capital in shaping students’ success and persistence.

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About Math Teacher Lounge

Math Teacher Lounge is a biweekly podcast created specifically for K–12 math educators. In each episode co-hosts Bethany Lockhart Johnson (@lockhartedu) and Dan Meyer (@ddmeyer) chat with guests, taking a deep dive into the math and educational topics you care about.

Join the Math Teacher Lounge Facebook group to continue the conversation, view exclusive content, interact with fellow educators, participate in giveaways, and more!

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Download Transcript

Presenter (00:00):
Ladies and gentlemen, from Math Teacher Lounge, we have Bethany Lockhart Johnson and Dan Meyer! <cheering>

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:08):
Doesn’t go well that the door was locked. Like, I could not get in! <Laugh>

Dan Meyer (00:12):
Yeah. Gotcha. All right. We’re gonna sit a little bit. Let’s see how that works—

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:16):
Hi!

Dan Meyer (00:16):
Yeah. I think we’ll stand up? Or whaddaya think, sit…?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:19):
Should we stand? Hi.

Dan Meyer (00:22):
Hello. Great to see you folks. Yeah, I can hear you.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:25):
Can you hear me? That’s—I know YOU can me. Can you hear me OK? OK! We’re here. Hello. Thank you for like, lining up and coming out and being here. Thank you!

Dan Meyer (00:35):
Means so much to me that you could be here for me, on my show, with Bethany Lockhart Johnson, my co-host. <Audience laughs>

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:40):
The hour has just started.

Dan Meyer (00:42):
We’re just getting going. Yeah. If you folks have heard the podcast, you don’t know how much gets cut out. And it’s like, mostly me just having, you know, anxious nerves and saying something silly and then we cut it out and we can’t do that here today. So it should be real fun for all of us, I think. Yeah.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:55):
It’s not true. It’s mostly dancing. “Bethany, can you stop talking? Bethany?” Cause it’s mostly—

Dan Meyer (00:59):
“It’s my turn. It’s my turn! Bethany <laugh>! I haven’t been heard for a while.”

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:02):
Dan. We’re at an in-person conference.

Dan Meyer (01:05):
In-person BIG conference, I would say. I’d say a big conference. Yeah.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:08):
And have you been to the Amplify booth?

Dan Meyer (01:11):
I have! Have these people? There’s a claw machine with free socks.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:16):
Yeah. You’re saving me socks, right? That’s what you’re saying. <Laugh> I mean, it’s exciting. How has your conference been so far?

Dan Meyer (01:21):
So far it’s been a blast. I feel fed. I feel like the community’s been awesome. How are you feeling about it?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:29):
OK. Let’s talk about me for just a second.

Dan Meyer (01:31):
Yeah. Talk about you.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:31):
Last night, Dan, was the very first night that I was away from my toddler. <Audience: Aw!>

Dan Meyer (01:38):
Big commitment being here. Thank you.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:40):
I got super-emotional walking back to the hotel after dinner, and then I got in my room, <laugh> I put on pajamas, and I turned on music. I slept so good!

Dan Meyer (01:50):
Yeah. <Audience laughs> Give it up for no kids! <Audience laughs> Hey!

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:55):
I love him so much. But I slept all the way through the night. Oh, by the way, I ordered room service in the morning.

Dan Meyer (02:01):
On Amplify.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (02:01):
That bill’s coming. But it’s been a great conference and I’m so delighted to be here in person and to get to share energy…and hopefully that’s all we’re sharing today. Y’all got your tests, right? Yep. Sharing energy and community today. Because we know it’s been hard. Hardness. Hard.

Dan Meyer (02:25):
Yeah.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (02:26):
Years. Hard. And to be in person, I know conferences reinvigorate me and I go back into my educational spaces feeling revitalized with new connections and new ideas to try. So yeah, I’ve been excited to be here. And thank you all for being here.

Dan Meyer (02:40):
Yep. I don’t care if I get six different strains of Covid here. I’m just thrilled to be here. <Audience laughs> I don’t know if you’ve had the same feeling, though, Bethany, you folks…I’m a little bit confused to some degree about what we’re doing. I just wanna be really transparent. This is my sarcastic voice but I’m being sincere here. It kind of feels like we’re in a little bit of a time capsule. Like we all got in a time capsule in 2019 and, you know, you open it back up and it’s like, OK, so we’re still, you know, talking about X, Y, or Z protocol for establishing classroom routines or whatever. And I’m like, OK! Like, I loved that in 2019! But I do admit, I’m still trying to figure out a little bit like, what are we doing now? What’s our relationship to the world out there? Things are very different. I have had some great sessions that I’ve enjoyed. I’m also like, still waiting for a session to draw a little blood. Do you know what I mean? Like there’s been sessions…no? OK. You’ve been in these sessions where it’s like, “Oh, ow.” Like, and you look down and there’s and there’s blood there. It’s like, I thought I knew what we were up to. Like, I thought I knew what teaching was and how we relate to the world. I dunno, like in any Danny Martin session in 2019, “Take a Knee” was one, where I was like, “Oh, OK. Like, I’m not as hot as I think I am here. Like, I’m part of a system.” That kind of thing for me draws blood. And I haven’t been in one of those yet. Been some great sessions. I’m a little hopeful that today we draw a little blood and think about what we’re doing here, is my hope here, if that’s OK. So Bethany’s gonna moderate that impulse and she’ll be the fun one and I’ll be the blood-drawing one.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (04:05):
No, I don’t…that metaphor doesn’t speak to me personally. But what I will say is, I get what you’re saying about really wanting to be in that room where there’s like this synergy happening. No promises about that today other than—

Dan Meyer (04:18):
I promise. <Audience laughs> Go on.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (04:20):
Other than I get what you’re saying. I’ll find my own metaphor that does not involve bloodshed, but.

Dan Meyer (04:25):
Sure. There’s a lot of ways we we could go about this today. And the one that I’m excited about is, you know, we could like, you know, analyze some results from students, and talk about what went into that. Look at classroom video. Lots of possibilities. But here’s what we’re up to today. Hope you’re into it. Which is, we are here in the heart of the entertainment industry. You know, Tinseltown! Um, the Big Apple! Uh…

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (04:47):
No!

Dan Meyer (04:47):
Come on. What do you got here? Um…

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (04:51):
It was daytime at night. Like the lights were so bright.

Dan Meyer (04:54):
The City of Lights.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (04:55):
There was a movie premiere outside my hotel room, which I was not invited to, unfortunately. But so what are we doing today?

Dan Meyer (05:01):
So here’s what we’re doing. We are gonna settle, once and for all, a question you have not asked yourself yet, perhaps, but will want to know the answer to in a moment. Which is: Who is the best teacher in all of film or television? OK? We’re gonna do that. It’ll be fun. But I hope that in debating this a little bit with a special guest we’ll bring up in a moment, that we will start to uncover some truths about what makes good teaching. How that’s different from teaching as we see it in movies and tv. Why middle-class America wants teachers to look a certain way in movies and tv. What all that means. And it’ll be awesome. I think. I’m hopeful it’ll be awesome. So what we did here is we’ve invited eight people. Eight folks you people may have known. You’ve been in their sessions today, in this conference, perhaps. And asked them: Who’s your fave? Like, we might have our favorites, but we wanted to democratize it a bit. So asked some cool people who you folks like, who are very smart and thoughtful about teaching: Who’s your favorite teacher?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (05:58):
A few of whom are in this room. Thank you for your submission.

Dan Meyer (06:00):
Thank so much. Yeah. We’ll see what happens here. <laugh>

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (06:03):
As they shrink down.

Dan Meyer (06:03):
Yeah. Might draw some blood that I don’t mean to right now. We’ll see. OK.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (06:06):
That metaphor, what IS that??

Dan Meyer (06:07):
Yeah. Yeah. I love it. I’m still going with it. <laugh> And you folks will be a huge part of this. THE part of this, really. So what will happen is I’ll share with you our first nominees. A few of us will make a case for our favorites, or least favorites, as the case may be sometimes. And then by applause, by acclamation, you folks will decide who wins and advances to the next round. Start with eight, move to four. You folks know math.You know where this goes. OK.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (06:34):
No, keep going. Keep going.

Dan Meyer (06:36):
Two, then one.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (06:36):
Yeah. Got it.

Dan Meyer (06:37):
Then a half of it. No?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (06:38):
He had to school me on the making of brackets. But we got it. Yeah.

Dan Meyer (06:41):
How brackets work.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (06:41):
But we got it. March Madness, what?

Dan Meyer (06:44):
Yeah, in order to do this right, we had to bring up—all the folks that you’ll see are also former Math Teacher Lounge guests, or like, just fan favorites. And we’re also bringing up a former Math Teacher Lounge guest to help us decide this and debate this in a respectful manner.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (06:59):
New dad.

Dan Meyer (07:00):
New dad.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (07:01):
You see where my brain’s still at? I miss him. <Laughs>

Dan Meyer (07:03):
Friend from San Diego. Really cool teacher.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (07:06):
Incredible teacher.

Dan Meyer (07:06):
Works at Desmos and Amplify. And I just want you to welcome up your friend and mine. Chris Nho!

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (07:11):
Chris Nho!

Dan Meyer (07:13):
Come up, Chris. Let’s go, buddy. We didn’t talk about it, but did you want to do the cornball stuff too?

Chris Nho (07:22):
Wow. Would I love to do—

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (07:23):
And then the door could be locked! And then you have to wait and like, just—

Chris Nho (07:27):
Yeah, I’ll skip that part.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (07:28):
Hi. Welcome. You’re here. We’re here in person.

Chris Nho (07:30):
Very glad to be here. Thank you all for having me.

Dan Meyer (07:33):
Tell me who you are.

Chris Nho (07:34):
My name is Chris Nho. I live in San Diego. I’m a new dad. A three month old, just had. Yeah, she’s actually here at the conference with us in the hotel room. And I promise you she is not by herself. She is with…come on. I was like, “Hey, just gimme one hour. I’ll be right back. I have to do very important work.” But yeah, I think I got invited here because I have opinions and I’m willing to draw…some…blood.

Dan Meyer (08:02):
There we go! Two outta three! We’re good on the metaphor now.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (08:06):
We’re so glad you’re here. If you haven’t listened to the episode where Chris and Molly and some other public math folks share their ideas and ideas of how to take math out into the world, please listen, because we had a blast.

Dan Meyer (08:19):
Inspiring work. Really inspiring work. Very cool. Cool. OK. Right on. OK.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (08:23):
Let’s do this!

Dan Meyer (08:24):
Let’s get started here. Yeah! <Audience cheers> Yeah. And we might ask you who your favorite teacher is, who’s missing from our list of eight? We might have forgotten some people. Anyway. All right. So here’s our first two. Our first two are nominated by way of, let’s see, um, Mandy Jansen is a professor at the University of Delaware. Got some awesome talks here this week, a Shadow Con talk last night. She’ll be nominating one. And also, um, Lani Horn is a professor at Vanderbilt, also extremely cool, prolific author and speaker, just all-around great human and friend of teachers everywhere. And she’ll nominate another in this bracket, which is the Northeastern Comedy bracket, Northeastern comedy bracket.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (09:06):
It just worked out that way.

Dan Meyer (09:07):
Yeah. Here it is. Here is Tina Fey in Mean Girls.

Tina Fey in Mean Girls (09:12):
“OK. Everybody close your eyes. All right. I want you to raise your hand if you have ever had a girl say something bad about you behind your back. Open your eyes. Now close your eyes again. And this time I want you to raise your hand if you have ever said anything about a friend behind her back. Open up. It’s been some girl-on-girl crime here.”

Lani Horn (09:52):
I am nominating Sharon Norbury from Mean Girls as the best movie math teacher. She is an awesome teacher who is always there for her kids. She always sees the best in them. She shows that she can forgive even some pretty bad behavior, if she sees that kids are trying. She’s a strong feminist who makes sure that smart girls don’t dumb themselves down just to impress boys.

Tina Fey in Mean Girls (10:22):
“Katie, I know that having a boyfriend may seem like the most important thing in the world right now, but you don’t have to dumb yourself down to get guys to like you.”

Lani Horn (10:30):
She’s also super hard-working. She works three jobs. She’s always there for the kids. She plays piano in the talent show and takes them to Mathlete competitions. And she’s also socially aware. And when things go really badly among the girls, she does some pretty creative things to try to get them to be kinder to each other.

Dan Meyer (10:54):
OK. That’s one.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (10:55):
Helen Case.

Dan Meyer (10:57):
All right. Settle down. Settle down. Settle down. All right.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (10:59):
Piano too!

Dan Meyer (11:00):
Bethany’s already trying to bias people here. All right. Chill out. Hold on. So next one is Mandy Jansen with Jack Black from School of Rock. Uh-oh. Uh-oh.

Jack Black in School of Rock (11:09):
“What was your name?”

Kid in School of Rock (11:10):
“Katie.”

Jack Black in School of Rock (11:11):
“Katie. What was that thing you were playing today? The big thing.”

Kid in School of Rock (11:14):
“Cello.”

Jack Black in School of Rock (11:15):
“OK. This is a bass guitar and it’s the exact same thing, but instead of playing like this, you tip it on the side. Chellooooo! You’ve got a bass! <Laugh> Try it on.”

Mandy Jansen (11:25):
And I’m nominating for best teacher in a film Jack Black as Dewey Finn playing Mr. Ned Schneebly in the film School of Rock. So why this portrayal? First of all, playing a longterm sub. Those are so hard to find right now. <Audience laughs> Really hard. And then he teaches using class projects. That’s brilliant. Integrated learning. And then love this. He gives students roles and tasks that are differentiated and align to the specific strengths that each student has.

Kid 2 in School of Rock (12:05):
“I can also play clarinet, you know!”

Jack Black in School of Rock (12:06):
“I’ll find something for you when we get back from lunch. I’ll assign the rest of you killer positions.”

Mandy Jansen (12:13):
And the film culminates in a performance of a collaborative song that they all wrote and performed together. And the students experience that collaboration and teamwork and creating something beautiful is much more important than winning first place. And finally, one of the songs that the character sings in the film is “Math is a Wonderful Thing.” Can’t beat that.

Dan Meyer (12:40):
All right. That’s tough. That’s tough. So here’s the deal. What we have right now is just a quick minute—so Bethany, you ranked, we all ranked our own faves here outta the list of eight. And Bethany put Jack Black in School of Rock a bit higher than Tina Fey in Mean Girls.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (12:54):
Missed the piano part though.

Dan Meyer (12:55):
And Chris, vice versa here. So Bethany, would you start us off and just make a quick case here for Jack Black versus Tina Fey?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (13:01):
OK. So here’s what I’m thinking. There’s been rumor that maybe they’re putting less than credentialed people into classrooms to fill teaching gaps. I mean, just rumor. And so here’s this guy who is a rocker. He is not a substitute. He has no teaching training. And yet he goes in there and it turns out that he has the ability to see students’ potential and to recognize their unique abilities. And like Mandy said, he really tapped into, like, he saw them and said, “No, more is possible for you than what you think is possible.” And there’s like real sub anxiety. When you walk in, you can either be like, happy there’s a sub, but I was usually really nervous. Right? And he goes in and he makes that classroom into a home.

Dan Meyer (13:53):
Wow.

Chris Nho (13:54):
Wow.

Dan Meyer (13:56):
Chris, speak on it. Tina Fey needs you. Chris.

Chris Nho (13:59):
Tina Fey. Here we go. I’m gonna argue here that—when was that movie made?

Dan Meyer (14:03):
T is for terrific. I is for Interesting.

Chris Nho (14:06):
Decades ago. And I’m gonna argue that Tina Fey was very progressive for her time. OK, let’s talk about social emotional learning. Hello. <Audience laughs> Love that. Right? Stand up if, I mean, she’s getting people to talk about their emotions. And there’s a curriculum. But let’s just pause, because that’s not what’s really happening in the classroom right now. So social emotional learning, I think she’s, she’s got that a lot. And then number two, you know, if you remember the plot of Mean Girls a little bit, she gets her name written in that Burn Book. Like she sees what they say about her. Restorative justice. Let’s go. <Audience laughs>.

Dan Meyer (14:38):
Whom amongst us. Yes.

Chris Nho (14:40):
You write Mr. Nho in the Burn Book?? Well, your grade book is gonna look like a Burn Book! OK? <Audience laughs> Tina Fey, Tina Fey, she was like, “No, you know, know what? I’m actually gonna spend more time with you. You’re gonna become a mathlete.” And Lindsay Lohan discovers—she drops the most iconic line in all of math education. “The limit does not exist.” Thank you, Tina Fey, for that. For that gift.

Dan Meyer (15:04):
Bless. Bless you. Tina Fey. Wow.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (15:05):
Oh, man. Wow.

Dan Meyer (15:09):
Let’s see what the people say here. I do wanna just add one quick thing about—it’s interesting to me how often in these movies—just kind of go in a little bit, zoom out just a minute—how often it’s a teacher who has no training as a teacher. <Bethany laughs> I am kind of curious why it is. Like, those are the movies that get hot, that get made. Again, these are all kind of a mirror of the taste of the moviegoing public. You know what I’m saying? Like, these, these are not movies—I wanna believe they are made for me and for us as teachers. But they are not. There’s not enough of us to justify, you know, Jack Black’s, you know, M&M budget or whatever he’s got going on in his trailer or whatever. That needs to be for everybody in middle-class America. So what is it about middle-class America that wants to see teaching as something that anybody can do? Just like, you know, just, just run up there in your van and make it happen.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (15:54):
Magic magically manifests.

Dan Meyer (15:56):
Yeah. Manifest. Yeah. That’s just interesting to me. I just toss that out there as some red meat. Let’s see what the people say here. All right, OK, so you’re ready. Let’s get the bracket going here. The question is Tina Fey versus Jack Black. You had a moment here. Just whisper to someone real fast who you’re going for here real quick. What are you thinking here? <Crowd murmuring> All right. Crowd’s buzzing. Crowd’s buzzing. Would you folks…? All right. Bring it back. Go ahead and make some noise for Tina Fey. <Crowd cheers> OK. OK. Make some noise for Jack Black! <Crowd cheers> Judges say Tina Fey. Tina Fey moves on. All right. All right.

Chris Nho (16:44):
Stunned. I’m stunned. I’m speechless.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (16:46):
Tina Fey moves on. Wow.

Dan Meyer (16:48):
This has exceeded my expectations in terms of having some fun, but also getting deep, getting deep and real about teaching. I’m into this right here. Yeah. What’s up?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (16:54):
That’s the goal. That’s the goal. OK. You wanted blood? Oooh, this next matchup might just be where that blood comes forth! OK. Stretch. Warm up. Dan Meyer, who’s up next?

Dan Meyer (17:11):
We’ve got the animated/animatronic round here in the Southeast. And repping the two contestants here, who do we have? We have Allison Hintz, professor, author outta Washington, as one of the two nominators. And the other nominator is one of my heroes, though we’ll find out very wrong about this nomination, Jenna Laib, who’s in the crowd, and I’m trying not to make eye contact here. <Laugh> And here are the two nominations. A couple minutes each. And then we’ll chat about it. And one of us will probably die. But we’ll see how it goes.

Allison Hintz (17:50):
A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, MTL, we began learning from the Jedi Master of Teaching. With the Socratic and experiential approach. With unparalleled mindfulness, compassion, and humility. The best teacher in TV and film, Yoda is. <Audience laughs> Yoda lives the values we share as teachers and learners. He humbly comes alongside us as we construct new knowledge.

Yoda (18:29):
“You must unlearn what you have learned.”

Allison Hintz (18:32):
Yoda allows us to struggle and sees mistakes as critical to learning.

Yoda (18:39):
“The greatest teacher, failure is.”

Allison Hintz (18:43):
Yoda values curiosity and reminds us of the beauty and joy of teachers learning from children.

Yoda (18:52):
“Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is.”

Allison Hintz (18:59):
MTL! Join the Resistance! Let the force flow through you in declaring, the best teacher in TV and film, Yoda is.

Dan Meyer (19:18):
Give it up for Allison Hintz! All right! <Audience applauds>

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (19:20):
Alison! And to have that on hand too, which Is kind of perfect.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (19:26):
Just to be clear, the helmet is not a part of a Zoom background.

Dan Meyer (19:29):
You may evaluate the quality of the nomination based on the costumes of the nominator. That is acceptable. That’s acceptable.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (19:35):
That is a REAL HELMET.

Dan Meyer (19:35):
All right. The next nominator here, this one is from Jenna Laib, math coach, all-around stellar human. Here we go. This is Ms. Frizzle.

Ms. Frizzle (19:42):
“Single file, class. Our rotten field trip has only just begun.”

Jenna Laib (19:47):
And I think that the best teacher from TV or movies is Ms .Valerie Frizzle from The Magic School Bus. First and foremost, Ms. Frizzle believes in her students. She encourages them to take an active role in their learning, and also to advocate for change in their local community. For example, there’s an episode where there is a logger who’s gonna cut down a rotting log that would benefit the local ecosystem. And the students figure out a way to convince him to leave the log so that all of the animals and the plant life can benefit. She orchestrates really challenging situations for these students, and she allows them the space to ask questions and engage in problem-solving and puzzle their way out of these really, really difficult scenarios. Ms. Frizzle has unmatched pedagogy. She’s bold, she’s innovative, and she’s a major proponent of experiential learning. So these students are heading straight into a storm to learn about weather systems. <Audience laughs> These students are heading into the human body to learn about digestion and disease. They literally get baked into a cake to learn about some chemistry and reactions.

Children in The Magic School Bus (20:54):
“What’s happening?” <Audience laughs> “Why is it suddenly getting so hot?” “Maybe it’s because the floor is on fire!” <Audience laughs>

Jenna Laib (21:02):
This pedagogy is all led by her outstanding catchphrase, which is:

Ms. Frizzle (21:06):
“Take chances; make mistakes; get messy!”

Jenna Laib (21:14):
From her pedagogy to the classroom community that she creates, Ms. Frizzle is an inspiration, and that is why I think that she is the best teacher from TV or film. <Audience applauds>

Dan Meyer (21:25):
Right on! Give it up for Jenna. Give it up for Jenna. All right. I’m gonna take first pass at this. Chris knows my argument already, so I’m gonna take this here. I see some of you are feeling how I’m feeling on this one. OK, so I don’t have tons to say in favor of Yoda. I think it was all true what Allison said. I think the costume was banging. It was awesome. So there’s all that, but I have more to say against Ms. Frizzle than for Yoda.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (21:48):
No, no, no. Wait a second!

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (21:49):
Let’s let it happen. Bethany, I’ve come prepared.

Dan Meyer (21:54):
I may have made a misstep here, I realize.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (21:56):
I’ve come prepared.

Dan Meyer (21:56):
So I think Jenna is all correct. I think those clips spoke for themselves. I think that what they add up to, to me, is not “great teacher,” but more “someone who should be locked up.” <Audience laughs> Or at the very minimum, “someone who should be kept away from children.” <Audience laughs> Do not let that woman around children. I mean, check it out. Look, I don’t wanna throw down credentials. I’ve been to grad school, though. I know how this works. When your brain is stressed, you get these—all the cortisol happens. Your working memory shrinks up. You cannot learn when you’re stressed. And those kids, like whatever lesson Ms. Frizzle is teaching by sending them into an oven, I repeat, an oven <audience laughs>, like, they’re not gonna learn anything ’cause their brains are freaking out with stress and fear. OK?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (22:41):
“What’s happening??”

Dan Meyer (22:43):
“What’s happening? Am I on fire? Well…I’m learning lots, though! Sure is magical!” <Audience laughs> It’s like, “No. Get that woman out of a classroom.” That’s my opening and closing argument. Right? There’s all it is.

Chris Nho (23:01):
All right. All right. All right.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (23:02):
Chris knows.

Chris Nho (23:03):
I’ve got, I’ve got lots to say. First off, I think Dan was in charge of the editing of those video clips. So let’s let that be—you know, let the record stand. <Audience laughs>

Dan Meyer (23:11):
Where’s the lie though? Where’s the lie?

Chris Nho (23:14):
And, you know, second, I think, um—this is the guy up here saying, “I wanna see blood.” You know? And then he has a teacher who literally takes the students into a blood cell and, and you get a little scared! You get a little worried for the students, you know? So I just don’t get it, Dan. This or that. OK? I think Ms. Frizzle—so I actually went to a project-based learning school. I taught at a project-based learning school. And the best thing about it is like, your learning, it doesn’t just stay in this box of math lesson or writing lesson, history lesson. And I think with Ms. Frizzle, like you can’t help but learn things because you are getting baked in a cake. <Audience laughs> Yeah, it is a little scary. And I imagine there’s cortisol and things happening, but guess what? Probably the next episode, they go into their own brains and explore what’s happening. That kind of thing. You know?

Dan Meyer (24:07):
The kids that survived, just be clear. <Audience laughs>

Chris Nho (24:10):
Yeah. OK. Would I want Nora, my three-month-old, to be babysat by Ms. Frizzle? Maybe not. <Audience laughs> But what I have to say about Yoda is Yoda maybe wins the best tutor award. Give it up for Yoda’s Best Tutor Award.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (24:24):
Oh, yeah…

Chris Nho (24:25):
That ratio’s looking really nice. I could teach the heck outta Luke Skywalker. OK? But 20 little Luke Skywalkers running around. I’m not sure. OK?

Dan Meyer (24:34):
Luke did survive the training, though. <Audience laughs> So that’s awfully nice to say about it. All right, Great words from Chris here. I’m still not convinced. We’ll see how you’re convinced here. Would you whisper to someone where you’re leaning here? Frizzle or Yoda? <Audience buzzing>

Chris Nho (24:47):
I tried. I tried.

Dan Meyer (24:53):
All right. That’s enough of that. Let’s hear it folks. Give it up for Yoda. <Audience cheers> Give it up. Give it up. You. Give. It. Up.

Chris Nho (25:05):
Hey, next. Next.

Dan Meyer (25:06):
All right. All right, all right. <Mutters> Give it up for Ms. Frizzle. <Audience cheers louder> I dunno, it’s pretty close. Call a tie. Maybe Yoda? Yoda by nose? <Audience laughs> All right. All right. Let’s…let me see who’s it. Let’s get the people advancing here. I’ll keep on moving here.

Chris Nho (25:26):
As you’re doing that. Um, Dan ranked Ms. Frizzle last in his personal ranking. And I ranked Ms. Frizzle very high, so we knew this one would be spicy,

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (25:36):
<laugh> Spicy it was. Are you having a good time so far? <Audience cheers> So while we love seeing these images and we love seeing these video clips, at the core, what are these things about how teachers are portrayed? And how accurate is that to our real lives? I mean, besides the cake part, right? That my chemistry class did often feel like I was on fire. I was so stressed in it. Um, we’re ready?

Dan Meyer (26:05):
Yep. Great. We’re ready, we’re up here. So the next two nominees are coming to you folks from Tracy Zager, who is the editor of my book, forthcoming in 2027 at the earliest and 2032 at the latest. And also your very own Zak Champagne from Florida, here in the room. Hey, Zak. Zak, let’s see who the nominations are. I’m gonna skip past that, didn’t work out so well for me. Here it is. This is Marshall Kane from the TV show Community.

Michael K. Williams in Community (26:32):
“You two complete your case to the class and let them decide your grades.”

Joel McHale in Community (26:37):
“Professor, thank you.”

Michael K. Williams in Community (26:40):
“It’s not a favor, Mr. Winger. Man’s gotta have a code.”

Joel McHale in Community (26:44):
“Awesome.”

Zak Champagne (26:46):
This is a pitch for an underdog. This teacher didn’t stand on desks or encourage his students to follow their musical passions. In fact, this teacher was seen only in a few episodes of my favorite TV show of all time, Community, Community has set at Greendale Community College in Colorado. And in season three, we get to meet Dr. Marshall Kane, a biology professor whose story is an inspiration to anyone who just takes the time to look and listen. Dr. Marshall Kane slowly earned his PhD while in prison, serving a sentence of 25 to life. In his classroom, he inspires students to love biology, question why LEGO has become so complicated, and randomly pairs his students for group projects to ensure no one feels left out. His greatest performance comes when a group of students believe their yam project was intentionally sabotaged. Dr. Kane took this as an opportunity for some trans-disciplinary real-world learning. So yes, at community college, he felt that a middle-school mock trial was the best way to determine who killed the yam. So let’s all pick the underdog and vote for Dr. Marshall Kane. After all, man’s gotta have a code. <Audience goes “oh!” and applauds>

Dan Meyer (27:53):
Thank you, Zak.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (27:54):
I have a code.

Dan Meyer (27:56):
Next up is Tracy Zager, nominating an unusual nomination, not a single person, but an ensemble performance. A bunch of people from a movie called Searching for Bobby Fisher. Here we go.

Rapid-fire movie dialogue (28:11):
“What’s that?” “Schleimann attack.” “Schleimann attack? Where’d you learn that from, a book?” “No, my teacher taught me.” “Aw, your teacher. Well, forget it. Play like you used to, from the gut. Get your pawns rolling on the queen’s side.”

Tracy Zager (28:26):
Hey, Math Teacher Lounge. This is Tracy Zager. I’m excited to share my nominee for the best movie teacher. But I have to admit that when I first got the email, I thought, oh, who am I gonna nominate? Because most movies about teachers are highly problematic. They usually have like a saviorism thing, usually white saviors. And I just felt like I couldn’t suggest any of those. So rather than nominate a movie about a single teacher, I wanted to nominate a movie that taught me something about teaching. And that movie is a deep cut. It’s Searching for Bobby Fischer. It’s a movie about a chess prodigy. And what I love about it is that all of the different adults in the movie are in teacher roles in some way. And the student, Josh, the chess player, is a fully realized character, not an empty pail, who pulls from the strengths of each one of those adults while also dealing with their flaws and humanity. And there’s just beautiful synergy in the way he gets the best out of everybody, but also has to overcome some of the barriers that they put in front of him. So I feel like it’s a much more authentic and humbling, but also inspiring, movie about the power of teaching. So if you haven’t ever seen it, check it out. And I can’t wait to see who the other nominees are. Thanks so much.

Dan Meyer (29:53):
Right on. Thank you, Tracy. Wherever you are. <Applause> We’ll move a little quicker here. I’m curious, Bethany, you put Marshall Kane pretty high. I put Bobby Fischer pretty high. What do you have to say about Marshall Kane for us here?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (30:04):
Well, I just wanna say two things. One is that, like Zak said, he has this code of conduct that he brings in. And he stays true to it no matter what happens. If you saw him in in Community, you know that he held himself up to such high esteem, but not just himself, his students as well. And he took accountability when he felt he had done wrong, even though, well, that’s controversy. But first—oh, the other thing, rest in peace, Michael K. Williams. Oh my gosh. The actor who plays Marshall K. And the thing that I wanna say most of all about it is that he brings his whole self to the classroom. He was in prison for decades. He brings his whole self and says, “This is who I was. This is who I am today. And this is how we can work together as a community.”

Dan Meyer (30:58):
That’s big. I love your comments about code of conduct too. It makes me wish that Ms. Frizzle had a code of conduct also.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (31:05):
I knew that was coming back!

Chris Nho (31:06):
Two slides ago, Dan. That was two slides ago.

Dan Meyer (31:08):
Can’t let it go. So yeah, I love what you said there. I have no strong beef here either way. Bobby Fischer’s a movie I have loved dearly and can’t be objective about it. I love that the kid in that movie, more than any other movie here, the kid teaches the adults so much through his innocence and how he challenges them and how they’re treating him. Dig all that so much. Will not, will not begrudge anyone any vote either way here. I do begrudge many of you your vote in previous rounds. <Audience laughs> So let’s just, let’s hear. We’re not gonna ask you folks at all to chitchat. We’re gonna move on this one. So would you folks make some noise here for Marshall Kane in Community? OK. OK. And would you make some noise here for Bobby Fischer, the kid in Bobby Fischer, the ensemble? <Audience cheers, applauds>

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (31:56):
Marshall Kane.

Dan Meyer (31:57):
Marshall Kane takes it. All right. Good job, Marshall Kane! All right. Zak’s feeling good. Moving on to the final four here, Zak, right on. OK. Our last—the Northwest Division here is also the large urban district division here. We have a couple different teachers in sets of large urban schools. They’re nominated, they’re advanced by a couple people here. One is past president of NCTM, Robert Berry. And another is Fawn Nguyen, Southern California phenom. Great teacher and friend of lots of us. Um, let’s see who they nominated here. First from Robert Berry, let’s see, who is it here? Janine Teagues from Abbott Elementary.

Abbott Elementary dialogue (32:37):
“Hey, you know what? I’m probably probably gonna be Kenny’s second-grade teacher. Why don’t you just let him get a head start with me today?” “That’d be great.” “Yeah? OK. Hey, Kenny, would you like to be in my group today?” “Not really.” “That’s the spirit.”

Robert Berry (32:54):
My nomination is gonna be Quinta Brunson, the Emmy Award-winning Quinta Brunson from Abbott Elementary. Janine Teagues is the character. She exemplifies care not only from an affect way, but she also exemplifies care in the things that she does for her students. While the scenes in the show are entertaining, they do represent the challenges that teachers experience when they’re trying to meet the needs of her students. So she goes, goes all out for her students and finding resources. She accesses other people to get resources for her students. But the care shows up in the way that she is mindful of their needs. And so, for me, when I think about teachers and teaching, sometimes we can talk about pedagogy, but sometimes we also can talk about those kind of intangibles that makes a teacher a great teacher. It is apparent from her students that she cares about them, she supports them, and she goes all out 100% for her students. Janine Teagues, Quinta Brunson is, I think, is my choice of the best teacher on television because of the realism and the representation that she brings to this character of what teaching is about. <Applause>

Dan Meyer (34:28):
Right on. Right on. OK. OK. Next up, we’ve got, Fawn Nguyen is nominating Erin Gruwell from Freedom Writers. Here we go.

Hilary Swank in Freedom Writers movie (34:39):
“Look, you can either sit in your seats reading those workbooks or you can play a game. Either way, you’re in here till the bell rings. OK? This is called the Line Game. I’m gonna ask you a question. If that question applies to you, you step onto the line and then step back away for the next question. Easy, right? The first question. How many of you have the new Snoop Dog album? <kids move around> OK, back away. Next question. How many of you have seen Boys in the Hood?”

Fawn Nguyen (35:26):
We all learn about Miss G and her 150 students in the movie Freedom Writers starring Hilary Swank. All great teachers share a common set of traits. They care deeply about their students, have high expectations of them, and always believing wholeheartedly that they will succeed. Great teachers go above and beyond, not because they extraordinary—as Anne Gruwell would always refer to herself as an ordinary teacher—but because extraordinary things happen to people when we believe in them, give them hope, help them write their own story with a different ending. So what stood out for me with Miss G is the scope of her reach, the ever-expanding sphere of her humanity. The red tape she had placed on the classroom floor for the line game shows just how much we all have in common despite our differences. Her students didn’t just learn from her; they learned from one another. If you’d like to be part of this expanding sphere to give voice and hope, please check out Freedom Writers Foundation dot org.

Dan Meyer (36:38):
OK. This right here is a tough one for us. Thank you, Fawn. We collectively ranked—that’s our number one seed and number eight seed, which I hasten to say does not have to do with Erin Gruwell, a person, but the portrayal and the movie. So we don’t have like a whole lot of…there’s not a lot of defense we have to offer here of our eighth seed. And I heard like a kind of a little bit of a murmur over the crowd on Erin Gruwell. So I’m more interested than having a defense back and forth. I’d be curious what you, Bethany, think about what, like, what both movies have to say about like, what teaching is, especially teaching urban schools with black and brown kids and lower-class kids, for instance. They both have, I think, very different things to say about them. Do you have thoughts about that?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (37:19):
Well, it’s interesting because there is some overlap in the sense that the arguments that both Fawn and Robert Berry put out, they both care deeply about their students, right? We’re not gonna argue that. They care deeply. And something that I would say about Miss Teagues is there’s something about the way that she sees not only her classroom, her students, but she sees all of the students in the school as her students. And her idea of resource generation is really helping the teachers to generate resources from their community themselves, and to also realize that the students see themselves reflected in the teachers. And I think that—you know, again, this is not about the real person—but the movie portrayal, and we often see kind of this, for Freedom Writers, we often see this like, Great Last Hope whisked in and her personal sacrifices are what makes these students, these brown and black students’ transformation possible. Because of her sacrifices. Including her marriage. Including, you know, three jobs. And it’s just portrayed in a way that I think really celebrates her sacrifices rather than what the students have already brought—they already come into the room bringing so much as they are, already, without her intervention.

Dan Meyer (38:38):
I love the portrayal of the teacher as part of a community of teachers. Versus in so many of these movies, it’s the teacher as the only person who gets it, you know, oftentimes coming from outside of the world of teaching and everyone’s against them and wants ’em just to fall in line and do the thing we always do, and they’re the outlier. But in Abbott Elementary, it’s like we all rise and we fall together. And teachers are investing in each other’s success, especially with Gregory the longterm sub. We’re all rooting for his, you know, his flourishing. I love that. And yeah. That’s bigtime.

Chris Nho (39:09):
Yeah, I think one interesting thing is that Freedom Writers, when it came out, I think it was like a commercial success.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (39:17):
Oh, big time. Yeah. It was.

Chris Nho (39:18):
It probably influenced a lot of people to try teaching out. So I do wonder what it says about us, right? Like that we want teaching to fit this narrative, and we wanna be those people who could go into a classroom and <puts on “cool voice”> “Y’all listen to Snoop Dog?” and just have that question HIT. <laughter> And you know, I’ve taught in a large urban school district, and I’ve been that person and I’ve seen other people try and be that person. And I think stepping away from it a little bit, just—it’s a reflection of what people want out of teaching and what they think better education looks like.

Dan Meyer (39:57):
Yeah, yeah. This idea that, so I’m a middle-class person, let’s say, and like, there’s this idea, like, “I know what I would do if I was going into circumstances of impoverishment.” Like I have—

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (40:06):
“All they really need is…”

Dan Meyer (40:07):
…for me to give ’em some real talk and tell ’em, you know, pull their pants up or whatever, listen to Snoop Dog, that kind of thing. And that will be the key. And that’s not how it is in, you know, in Jack Black in School of Rock or Tina Fey school, which are, you know, coded as largely like upper-class or largely white schools. And in those movies, it’s interesting, like how it’s about students discovering themselves, oftentimes. And the central figures are often students. And the students need to reject an oppressive parent figure or something and find themselves. But no, in Freedom Writers, it’s like, “You need to become more like the middle-class teachers who are coming in here to give you this wisdom.” It’s just interesting. I do find it—a pet peeve of mine is when movies portray teachers as only successful if you endure, for instance, the failure of your marriage, or even in Stand and Deliver, for instance, like Jaime Escalante, they depict him having a heart attack. And, like, the job oughta be…easier. <Audience laughs>

Chris Nho (41:04):
Truth.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (41:05):
That’s the barometer for how much….

Dan Meyer (41:09):
Like, no heart attacks and no divorces related to the job, that kind of thing. I do love how in Abbott—one last thing and we’ll vote and Abbott will win <audience laughs>—is like how, like there, there is a lot of degradation in Abbott, but it’s not a divorce or a heart attack—it’s the petty indignities of asking a student, “Do you wanna hang with me?” And a student says, “Nah, not really.” And that just spoke to me like how it’s not cinematic, but teaching, successful teaching, is like a collection of developing an immunity to students saying, “You’re not hot.” <Laugh> You know? And so I love that. I do wish that there was more depiction of students in Abbott Elementary. It’s a lot of adult stuff. Whatever. Give it up for Abbott, if you would, please. Let’s just get this done here. All right. That’s plenty. That’s plenty. Not gonna ask folks about Freedom Writers. OK, let’s move on to— all right, let’s hear it for Freedom Writers! Yeah. OK, cool. We go, yep.

Chris Nho (42:05):
Plot twist!

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (42:07):
OK, let’s see our final four. Cut and paste. Real time. Real time.

Audience member (42:12):
Where’s Dolores Umbridge?

Dan Meyer (42:14):
Oh….

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (42:16):
Hey, did you hear that? He said, “Where’s Dolores Umbridge?”

Dan Meyer (42:20):
All right. OK.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (42:20):
See, we missed so many. We could…

Dan Meyer (42:21):
So coming up here, we’ve got in the Eastern Conference, Tina Fey and Ms. Frizzle. Y’all know how I feel about that one. Let’s just get this one done. OK, let’s give it up for Tina Fey. Let’s hear it. <Audience cheers> OK. All right. Yes! Let’s give it up for menace to children everywhere, the terror, the Ms. Frizzle. <Audience cheers> One more time for Tina Fey. Let’s hear it. <Audience cheers> One more time for Ms. Frizzle. Let’s hear it. <Audience cheers>

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (42:59):
Yeah. OK.

Dan Meyer (43:00):
It took ’em one round, but they made the right call in the end. <Laugh>

Chris Nho (43:04):
All it took was 10 minutes of constant Ms. Frizzle-bashing. <Laugh>

Dan Meyer (43:09):
Persevering and problem-solving, that’s my game. Yes. All right. So, do either of you want to influence the audience one way or the other?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (43:16):
That’s not how I play, Dan.

Dan Meyer (43:18):
Oh, OK. Yeah, that’s true. That’s true. You’re good. On Abbott versus Marshall Kane, should we just let ’em have it? All right. All right. Give it up For Abbott Elementary. Not bad. And for Marshall Kane. OK. OK. I hear Zak and five other people. All right, cool. <laugh> Right on. All right. We got our, we got our finals,

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (43:45):
We did it. We made it to two. And we know: We left out a lot of people. Right? And honestly, I kind of wish we could poll like everyone. I mean, think you put it on Twitter, right? Like, who would you pick? But I would say we had a pretty solid eight there. I’m excited to see who… Look at the little crown he put, you guys. Come on.

Dan Meyer (44:05):
I worked hard for you. For you. <Laugh> Yeah. I liked that it was a good bunch that had a lot of different kinds of qualities…and lack of qualities in some cases. And it allowed us that—I shouldn’t knock her while she’s down, and she IS down, it’s true. <Laugh> And I appreciate the conversation we’ve had, what they have revealed overall about teaching and what the world wants teaching to be versus what it actually is or actually should be. I appreciate that. So let’s settle this here. Give it up, if you would, for Abbott Elementary. <Audience cheers> And give it up for Tina Fey in Mean Girls. <Audience cheers>

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (44:49):
Wow.

Dan Meyer (44:51):
That was close. I almost give that to Tina Fey.

Audience member (44:55):
Yeah, we do!

Dan Meyer (44:55):
I don’t know. That was a bracket-buster for me right there. Yeah. I lost money in the office pool off that right there. Maybe let’s just find out one more time here. One more time.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (45:03):
Last time.

Dan Meyer (45:03):
Time to summon up all your conviction on one or the other here. No half-measures right now. All right.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (45:07):
Emmy Award-winning Quinta Brunson.

Dan Meyer (45:09):
Yeah, you saw Robert Berry on that, right? He was like, “Oh, I got one more card to play. Emmy Award-winning.” That’s admissible. That’s admissible. We’ll take that. All right. So…give it up for Abbott Elementary, one last time. <Audience cheers> OK. All right. All right. And give it up for Tina Fey in Mean Girls. <Audience cheers>

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (45:30):
Drumroll, please!

Chris Nho (45:33):
Best teacher is….

Dan Meyer (45:34):
Tina Fey in Mean Girls! Yeah. Not a bad pick.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (45:39):
I love it. And I think, too, I think we’re gonna have a little bit of a more reflective lens than we thought we did when we see depictions of teachers in film and television. And, you know, hopefully we’ll see some new tropes come in, right?

Dan Meyer (45:55):
Yep. Yeah. Every dollar we spend on movies with lousy teachers is just encouraging these people to make more lousy teacher movies, you know? Awesome. Thank you for being here for a live taping—

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (46:06):
Thank you for being here.

Dan Meyer (46:06):
—of our podcast, Math Teacher Lounge, in a hot room. Appreciate that. Yeah, it’s been fun for us to have you here. Um, super-important, super-important final remark: Bethany loves Oprah and Oprah occasionally, in the show—

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (46:18):
Is she coming?! Is she here?!

Dan Meyer (46:19):
Not here! Not here! Calm down. Calm down. Um, but we do have in Oprah fashion, not something—

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (46:24):
Oh. Oh, OK. Oh, that’s, that’s OK. Sorry. I got, had really excited for a second. As if the Amplify playing cards, The Amplify t-shirts being chucked at you at high speed—I did try to get a t-shirt cannon, and that was quickly ruled out <laugh>. They didn’t know about my rocket arm, right?

Dan Meyer (46:46):
Yeah, you got a cannon. <Laugh>

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (46:47):
Yeah. Oh, that’s a compliment. Oh, is that a compliment? Thank you, Dan. Thank you. Look under your seat because we have five winners. We wanna thank you for being here in person. We wanna thank the folks who are listening. We wanna thank Amplify. Oh my God. Somebody just pulled off the chair tag. You get to take that chair home with you.

Dan Meyer (47:08):
Does anybody have a prize?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (47:10):
OK, stand up if you…stand up if you…Yes! Stand up if you have one!

Dan Meyer (47:16):
Free set of classroom dry-erase boards, right here. Congratulations.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (47:22):
And for you who pulled off the chair tag, I don’t know. We gotta we gotta find something for you.

Dan Meyer (47:27):
Put that in your backpack.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (47:30):
Thank you again for being here. Thank you. Amplify. Thank you, Desmos. Thank you. Dan Meyer.

Dan Meyer (47:36):
Thank you folks. Chris, thank you buddy.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (47:38):
Chris! Chris Nho, everybody!

Dan Meyer (47:40):
We will be, we will be at—Bethany and I will be at the booth, if you wanna chit-chat and hang out, sign some stuff. Whatever. You wanna have Bethany sign you, she’ll do that. Um, come on down to the Amplify booth and we’ll—

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (47:50):
We’ll talk to you more about Ms. Frizzle.

Dan Meyer (47:52):
Fun and prizes. I will share with my real thoughts about Ms. Frizzle down there. I’d love to see you. Thanks for being here, folks.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (47:57):
Thanks for listening. Bye.

Stay connected!

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What Dan Meyer says about math teaching

“Teaching, more than other professions, is a generational profession. The kinds of joyful experiences we offer—or don’t offer—now affect the experiences students that haven’t even been born yet will have years later.”

– Dan Meyer

Meet the guests

Dan Meyer

Dan Meyer taught high school math to students who didn’t like high school math. He has advocated for better math instruction on CNN, Good Morning America, Everyday With Rachel Ray, and TED.com. He earned his doctorate from Stanford University in math education and is currently the Dean of Research at Desmos, where he explores the future of math, technology, and learning. Dan has worked with teachers internationally and in all 50 United States and was named one of Tech & Learning’s 30 Leaders of the Future.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson

Bethany Lockhart Johnson is an elementary school educator and author. Prior to serving as a multiple-subject teacher, she taught theater and dance and now loves incorporating movement and creative play into her classroom. Bethany is committed to helping students find joy in discovering their identities as mathematicians. In addition to her role as a full-time classroom teacher, Bethany is a Student Achievement Partners California Core Advocate and is active in national and local mathematics organizations. Bethany is a member of the Illustrative Mathematics Elementary Curriculum Steering Committee and serves as a consultant, creating materials to support families during distance learning.

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About Math Teacher Lounge: The podcast

Math Teacher Lounge is a biweekly podcast created specifically for K–12 math educators. In each episode co-hosts Bethany Lockhart Johnson (@lockhartedu) and Dan Meyer (@ddmeyer) chat with guests, taking a deep dive into the math and educational topics you care about.

Join the Math Teacher Lounge Facebook group to continue the conversation, view exclusive content, interact with fellow educators, participate in giveaways, and more!

You might also like:

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Free professional development cours…

Three on-demand professional learning courses for math teachers.  Earn your cert…

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Mathigon: the mathematical playgrou…

Math games and manipulatives for online and remote learning.

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Desmos Classroom Grades 3–12

Join Desmos Classroom to gain access to free classroom lessons, lesson-building…

Welcome, Central Kitsap, to Amplify Desmos Math!

Amplify Desmos Math K-5 thoughtfully combines conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application. Each lesson is designed to tell a story by posing problems that invite a variety of approaches before guiding students to synthesize their understanding of the learning goals.

Scroll to learn more about the program and explore sample materials.

About the program

We believe in math that motivates. Our structured approach to problem-based learning builds on students’ curiosity to develop lasting grade-level understandings for all students. 

The program motivates students with interesting problems they are eager to solve. Teachers can spend more time where it’s most impactful: creating a collaborative classroom of learners.

A powerful suite of math resources

Amplify Desmos Math combines the best of problem-based lessons, intervention, personalized practice, and assessments into a coherent and engaging experience for both students and teachers.  Feel free to explore our grade-level ancillary samplers to learn more about assessment and reporting, intervention, and differentiation:

Grade K Ancillary Sampler

Grade 1 Ancillary Sampler

Grade 2 Ancillary Sampler

Grade 3 Ancillary Sampler

Grade 4 Ancillary Sampler

Grade 5 Ancillary Sampler

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Assessment

mCLASS® Assessments, along with daily formative checks, measure not only what students know, but how they think. The asset-based assessment system provides teachers with targeted, actionable insights, linked to core and intervention resources. Visit our mClass Math site to learn more.

Two side-by-side math activities for children: on the left, a caterpillar-themed block challenge, and on the right, a worksheet for finding pairs that sum to 10. These exercises are fantastic ways to amplify children's engagement with math concepts.

Core instruction

Amplify Desmos Math lessons pair problems students are eager to solve with clear instructional moves for teachers. With low-floor, high-ceiling tasks every student can actively participate and be a part of the math community. Unit- and lesson-level core assessments give teachers data at their fingertips to guide and differentiate instruction.

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Differentiation

Boost Personalized Learning activities help students access grade-level math through engaging, independent digital practice. Responsive Feedback adjusts to students’ work, providing item-level adaptivity to further support their learning and offer personalized differentiation. Visit our Boost Math site to learn more. 

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Embedded intervention

Integrated resources like Mini-Lessons, Fluency Practice, and Math Adventures provide targeted intervention on a specific concept or skill connected to the daily lesson. Extensions are also available to stretch students’ understanding.

Multilingual Learners

To support multilingual/English learners, Amplify Desmos Math incorporates research-based Math Language Routines (MLRs) by providing language modality strategies like sentence frames where appropriate, both in the teacher language provided for each task and in the differentiation support section found throughout the program. For further information on math language development, please see pg. 82 of the Amplify Desmos Math Program Guide.

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Review Resources

To support your review of Amplify Desmos Math here are links to important K-5 review resources:

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K-5 sample materials

Click the links in the drop-down sections below to explore sample materials from each grade.  To see sample student responses, please click on the Teacher Edition pages and scroll to “Sample Student Work” (first one is about 30 pages in) or click on Intervention and Extension resources.   

For helpful navigation tips and more program information, download the Amplify Desmos Math Program Guide.

You can also watch a product expert walk through a lesson and the available program components.

Digital educational material showing an activity named "Hamster Homes" involving tube length and platform heights for a hamster cage. Includes a diagram with platforms measuring 9 inches.
Screenshot of a kindergarten curriculum outline featuring units like Math in Our World, Numbers 1-10, Positions and Shapes, Understanding Addition, Making 10, and Shapes All Around Us. This comprehensive program utilizes New York Math standards to build foundational skills.
Program structure

Get to know the content and structure of Kindergarten Amplify Desmos Math.

Cover of Amplify Desmos Math Grade K Teacher Edition featuring three children playing with math-related objects and a group of rabbits sitting nearby, aligning with the engaging curriculum seen in New York math classrooms.
Teacher Edition pages

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Unit 1: Counting and Comparing Objects.

Educational activity screen displaying a blue backpack with icons, dot groups on the left, and a grid background. Prompt reads, "Look inside the backpack. Then choose the group with the same number of dots." A great tool to amplify Desmos math learning in line with New York math standards.
Digital experience

Explore our digital experience! Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math has student print materials and digital recommendations.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Student Edition Kindergarten," featuring an illustration of three children playing with math-related toys. A group of small white animals, possibly hamsters, play nearby. The scene brilliantly captures the joy of New York math exploration for young learners.
Student Edition pages

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Grade K Centers Resources" featuring a large, stylized red and pink "C" on a light pink background with simple geometric designs. This distinctive cover complements New York math curriculums with its engaging visual elements.
Centers Resources

Engaging, hands-on games for students to play collaboratively to strengthen their understanding of key skills and concepts.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Grade K." The title is displayed with a geometric "I" illustration in the center. Subtitle reads "Intervention and Extension Resources" on a pink and white background, ideal for New York math standards.
Intervention and Extension Resources

Additional resources to reinforce and extend key concepts, including Mini-Lessons and Extensions.

A digital activity screen, crafted in the style of Amplify Desmos Math, shows two paths with different quantities of mushrooms. The user is prompted to choose the path with more mushrooms. A bear is on the left side of the screen.

In this lesson, students apply their understanding of how to compare groups of images as they determine which group has more or fewer and then compare their strategies by guiding a bear through a path that has more mushrooms than the other.

Grade 1 math curriculum overview displaying six units with instructional and assessment days: counting, addition, subtraction, numbers to 10, comparing numbers, measuring length, and geometry—aligned with the New York Math standards.
Program structure

Get to know the content and structure of Grade 1 Amplify Desmos Math.

Children interact with math activities on a large tablet while observing fish illustrations. The text reads "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 1 Teacher Edition, aligned with New York Math standards.
Teacher Edition pages

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Unit 1: Story Problems in Maui.

A digital math exercise, amplified by Desmos Math, showcases a story problem about adding kalo plants with three illustrations and a filled-out number sentence 3 + 4 = 7. A "Check" button is present. This tool aligns perfectly with New York math standards.
Digital experience

Explore our digital experience! Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math has student print materials and digital recommendations.

Illustration of three children engaged in math activities from the "Amplify Desmos Math: Student Edition 1" textbook. One child holds a number card, while the others manipulate counters and images, experiencing an exciting approach inspired by New York math techniques.
Student Edition pages

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Centers Resources" for Grade 1, featuring a yellow and white 3D letter "C" on a light background.
Centers Resources

Engaging, hands-on games for students to play collaboratively to strengthen their understanding of key skills and concepts.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math, Grade 1: Intervention and Extension Resources" depicting a large, blocky number one and a yellow-themed design. Ideal for enhancing New York math curriculum.
Intervention and Extension Resources

Additional resources to reinforce and extend key concepts, including Mini-Lessons and Extensions.

An educational game screen, inspired by New York math standards, shows a subtraction problem, "4 - 1," with a frog moving along numbered lily pads to reveal the answer "3.

In this lesson, students find differences when subtracting 1 and 2 from the same number by helping a frog reach a lily pad where it can eat a bug.

A curriculum overview for Grade 2 in New York Math displaying 8 units, including topics like comparisons, addition, subtraction, and geometric shapes, with details on the number of instructional and assessment days. This plan integrates resources from Amplify Desmos Math to enrich learning experiences.
Program structure

Get to know the content and structure of Grade 2 Amplify Desmos Math.

Cover of the "Amplify Desmos Math" Grade 2 Teacher Edition, showcasing children measuring with rulers and a poster displaying a mathematical equation, set against whimsical scenery with a colorful dragon. Perfect for New York math classrooms.
Teacher Edition pages

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Unit 1: Adding and Subtracting.

Activity screen displaying a task to estimate the number of animals in an aquarium, featuring a bar chart for goldfish, frogs, and shrimp. Utilizing Desmos math tools, an illustration of an aquarium with various animals is also included to amplify learning.
Digital experience

Explore our digital experience! Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math has student print materials and digital recommendations.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Student Edition 2" showing three children performing a New York math activity with blocks and measurements.
Student Edition pages

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful.

Cover of an educational book titled "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 2 Centers Resources" featuring a green "C" on a light green background, perfect for enhancing New York math education.
Centers Resources

Engaging, hands-on games for students to play collaboratively to strengthen their understanding of key skills and concepts.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 2: Intervention and Extension Resources" featuring a green numeral 1 on a light green background, aligning with the New York math standards.
Intervention and Extension Resources

Additional resources to reinforce and extend key concepts, including Mini-Lessons and Extensions.

An educational activity where users must select the block with the correct number to make a total of 10 using the given block numbers. The UI, inspired by New York math standards, features a caterpillar and two tree stumps to amplify engagement with Desmos Math tools.

Students continue to develop fluency by finding the number that makes 10 by helping a millipede reach its favorite food – a clump of leaves!

An educational curriculum outline for Grade 3 with seven units covering various mathematics topics, including multiplication, shapes, fractions, and measurement. Suggested instructional days are provided. The New York Math approach ensures a thorough understanding of each concept.
Program structure

Get to know the content and structure of Grade 3 Amplify Desmos Math.

Cover of a "Grade 3 Amplify Desmos Math Teacher Edition" book, featuring a cutaway building with diverse students and a teacher working on New York math problems and organizing materials.
Teacher Edition pages

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Unit 1: Concepts of Area Measurement.

Educational software displays a challenge to determine the area of an unpainted wall. The wall features a door and window with given dimensions, and a mouse pointer hovers near the question, amplifying the student's engagement.
Digital experience

Explore our digital experience! Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math has student print materials and digital recommendations.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Student Edition 3" showcasing illustrated children engaged in various mathematical activities inside a glass house structure, reflecting the dynamic energy of New York math.
Student Edition pages

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful.

Cover of the Amplify Desmos Math Grade 3 Centers Resources book, featuring a 3D letter "C" in blue and white on a minimalistic background, perfect for aligning with New York math standards.
Centers Resources

Engaging, hands-on games for students to play collaboratively to strengthen their understanding of key skills and concepts.

Cover of an "Amplify Cover of the "Amplify Desmos Math" Grade 3 book featuring intervention and extension resources, with a blue geometric "I" on a light blue background, aligning with New York Math standards.
Intervention and Extension Resources

Additional resources to reinforce and extend key concepts, including Mini-Lessons and Extensions.

A page titled "Activity 2" features a table showing counts of rabbits, raccoons, and foxes, an image of animal stickers, and a bar graph representing the number of each animal, designed to amplify your New York math lesson with engaging visual data.

Students compare data represented on bar graphs with different scales by using animal stickers to create scaled bar graphs.

A course outline for Algebra 1 with 8 units, each detailing the number of instructional and optional days. The total suggested instructional days are 144 and 28 optional days, aligning with New York Math standards.
Program structure

Get to know the content and structure of Grade 4 Amplify Desmos Math.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Teacher Edition Grade 4" showing children learning New York Math outdoors, using large mathematical tools and numbers, with one child in a wheelchair.
Teacher Edition pages

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Unit 1: Size and Location of Fractions.

Educational screen showing an interactive activity from Amplify Desmos Math where a user drags a point to cut a log into quarters. The progress is 2 out of 10.
Digital experience

Explore our digital experience! Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math has student print materials and digital recommendations.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math, Student Edition, Grade 4," showcasing students collaborating on math problems involving shapes and numbers against a vibrant backdrop that blends cityscapes and natural scenery, capturing the essence of New York math learning.
Student Edition pages

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful.

Cover of the "Amplify Desmos Math" Grade 4 Centers Resources book, featuring a large, stylized blue letter "C" on a light blue background. This essential resource for New York math educators ensures engaging and effective instruction.
Centers Resources

Engaging, hands-on games for students to play collaboratively to strengthen their understanding of key skills and concepts.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math, Grade 4: Intervention and Extension Resources," featuring a geometric illustration and a blue and orange color scheme inspired by New York math standards.
Intervention and Extension Resources

Additional resources to reinforce and extend key concepts, including Mini-Lessons and Extensions.

Interactive educational activity asking users to determine platform heights using a 3-inch tube. The interface, inspired by Desmos math tools, features a dragging function and feedback system with a checkbox and "Try another" option, amplifying the learning experience.

Students choose tube lengths to connect to platform heights for hamster homes, identifying possible heights using what they know about multiples.

A Grade 5 curriculum scope and sequence chart with units covering volume, fractions, multiplication, shapes, place value, and measurement. Each unit lists instructional and assessment days to amplify Desmos Math activities.
Program structure

Get to know the content and structure of Grade 5 Amplify Desmos Math.

Illustration of three students engaging with various math activities outdoors and around large blocks. Text at the top reads "Amplify Desmos Math, Grade 5, Teacher Edition" - a perfect resource for New York math educators.
Teacher Edition pages

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Unit 1: Fractions as Quotients.

A digital activity prompt showing a scenic landscape with bamboo shoots and a panda. Using Desmos math tools, the task is to estimate the length where the third bamboo shoot should be placed for the panda to reach a leaf. This exercise is designed to amplify your understanding of spatial reasoning.
Digital experience

Explore our digital experience! Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math has student print materials and digital recommendations.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Student Edition, Grade 5" featuring students engaged in various mathematical activities outside, such as block building, measuring, and gardening—a perfect resource aligning with New York math standards.
Student Edition pages

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful.

Cover image of "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 5 Centers Resources" featuring a large purple letter C on a light purple background, showcasing the innovative approach of Amplify Desmos Math that's making waves in New York math education.
Centers Resources

Engaging, hands-on games for students to play collaboratively to strengthen their understanding of key skills and concepts.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 5: Intervention and Extension Resources," featuring a large, stylized number five in purple against a light purple background with minimal geometric patterns, ideal for New York math curriculum support.
Intervention and Extension Resources

Additional resources to reinforce and extend key concepts, including Mini-Lessons and Extensions.

An interactive screen showing an activity about decomposing a figure into prisms, with a touch of Desmos Math integration. The user is asked to drag points to demonstrate the decomposition. Two prism illustrations are displayed, offering a glimpse of New York Math's approach.

Students decompose a figure into rectangular prisms and determine the volume of the figure by adding the volumes of the individual prisms.

Contact Us

If you have any questions throughout your review process or need additional samples, please don’t hesitate to contact:

Alicia O’Neil

Account Executive

425-890-6103

aoneil@amplify.com

Request additional samples

Ready to learn more? Connect with an Amplify Desmos Math expert to request additional program samples.

Amplify Desmos Math NY Pilot

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Integrating AI in the science classroom

image of Science Connections podcast and host Eric Cross

How can you create new science lesson plans, adjust assessments, and design labs using only objects kids have at home?

Just ask—ChatGPT, that is.

In this recent Science Connections webinar, Science Connections podcast host Eric Cross tackles the topic of ChatGPT for teachers, along with other specific AI tools that (when used with your existing standards-aligned curriculum) can help make teaching more efficient, targeted, and interactive.

AI for science can save teachers time, deepen student engagement, and inspire collaboration and creativity all around, says Science Connections podcast host Eric Cross.

Eric describes some of the many ways science teachers can use AI in the classroom—as both shortcut and partner. “We can use it for personalized learning,” he begins. “We can generate questions and give instant feedback. We can differentiate. We can support our students with special learning needs. And that’s just a start. The more you use it to collaborate with other educators, the more fun it becomes.”

Generative artificial intelligence 101

There are a lot of AI tools out there, but the new one is generative AI. As Eric explains, the difference is that generative AI—unlike, say, AI that gives you driving directions—creates something that didn’t exist before: text, images, music, and, yes, new science experiences for the classroom.

As with any technology, the practically infinite uses and applications of AI raise important questions about accuracy, equity, biases, and more. In this webinar, though, we focus only on AI’s practical uses for science teachers.

Generative AI relies on and responds to prompts.

You’re telling it to do something and it communicates back to you in human language. The way you craft your prompts determines your output, so the better your prompt is, the better your output.

– Eric Cross
Host, Science Connections; Adjunct Professor of Learning and Technology, University of San Diego

Let’s see what AI has produced for Eric as a science educator, and the kind of prompts he’s used to get there.

How science teachers can use AI to prepare and engage

Teachers can use generative AI to create personalized learning materials, generate more practice questions, and explain topics at any level and depth.

In this webinar, Eric focuses on the AI tools that have given him the most mileage as an educator and that he thinks can provide the most value for others.

These include:

  1. Modifying assessments when students have used all the ones that a curriculum provides. A sample prompt: “You are a science teacher creating an assessment for middle school students. I will upload an assessment. Please recreate it in a similar tone and voice as the original with a similar level of rigor.” Response: Brand-new multiple-choice and written questions on the same topics, all adhering to the same NGSS. With a little more back and forth, Eric will have the exact number, style, and focus of questions that he needs—along with an answer key.
  2. Creating relevant, accessible lab ideas. Eric prompts AI for lab and hands-on project ideas to fit exact specs: topic, grade level, desired outcome, and objects found in a typical classroom or home. Result: Hands-on activity ideas students can do at home, like exploring lung capacity with a balloon and a ruler (delivered by AI complete with full supply lists, instructions, and more).
  3. Helping students connect. To support a student who’s stuck, you might prompt the AI by saying: “I’m a fifth grader and my teacher is talking about claim evidence reasoning and I don’t really understand it. Can you explain it to me in a way that would help me? And then: “Now can you help me explain it to my mom, but in Spanish?”

Eric also uses AI to interpret graphs, collate student data, build graphic organizers, create science games, and more.

Is everything AI provides him flawless and 100% accurate? No, says Eric. “You have to vet, and it helps to have a high-quality curriculum already in place. But it gets me 80 to 90% there—and that’s pretty good.”

More to explore

Welcome, New Mexico educators!

Teaching is always challenging, often exhausting, and sometimes exhilarating. At Amplify, we want New Mexico teachers to experience more exhilaration—more great classroom moments, more great days when you’re reminded why you became a teacher. We create high-quality programs that make it easier for you to teach inspiring, impactful lessons that celebrate and develop the brilliance of your students.

Thank you for taking the time to review Amplify’s high quality programs, and thank you for what you do every day!

With great respect,

Your New Mexico Amplify team

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Two students wearing safety goggles conduct a science experiment together, pouring liquid between plastic cups over a blue tray on a classroom table.

Amplify Science

Amplify is proud to announce that Amplify Science K–8 has been fully adopted by New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED) and we’re excited to share it with you! Amplify Science empowers New Mexico students to think, read, and write like real scientists and engineers. Amplify Science K–8 received all-green ratings in EdReports’ review of national science curricula. Read the review on EdReports.

Explore Amplify Science

Amplify Desmos Math

Amplify Desmos Math is a new, curiosity-driven program for grades K–12 that builds lifelong math proficiency. Through a structured approach to problem-based learning, Amplify Desmos Math helps teachers create a collaborative math community with students at its center.

Explore Amplify Desmos Math
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A laptop displays a math subtraction activity with a frog, while two Amplify Desmos Math teacher edition books are shown in the background.

mCLASS Math

Expect more from your assessments with mCLASS® Math, a brand-new benchmarking and progress-monitoring assessment system.

Explore mCLASS Math

Amplify Tutoring

Amplify Tutoring is an ESSER and Title funded, high-impact tutoring program that complements the efforts of K–6 students, educators and families in building reading proficiency and confidence.

Explore ways to bring Amplify Tutoring to your students today!

Explore Amplify Tutoring
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Amplify CKLA PreK–5

Using a fundamentally different approach to language arts, Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts® (CKLA) is a PreK–5 program that sequences deep content knowledge with research-based foundational skills. Amplify CKLA met expectations and received all-green ratings from EdReports. Read the review on EdReports.

Explore Amplify CKLA

Amplify ELA 6–8

Amplify ELA is the only program truly designed to support middle school students at this critical developmental moment. We ensure that skills are taught, standards are covered, and the test is prepped–all while bringing texts to life and differentiating instruction. Read the review on EdReports.

Explore Amplify ELA
A girl, an Indiana teacher's inspiration, is reading "Summer of the Mariposas" with an EdReports sticker beside her, labeled "Read the Report, Review Year 2020," capturing a moment that echoes through Indiana elementary schools.
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High-Quality professional development

Amplify’s South Central professional development (PD) team provides a variety of learning experience over multiple years to incrementally develop and apply the knowledge and skills needed for effective and self-sustaining implementation. All PD is tailored and is supported by a team of former educators and leaders.

Learn more

Contact us

Support is always available. Our team is dedicated to supporting teachers and districts across New Mexico and can be reached at any time by email or phone.

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Katie Gentry-Funk

Senior Account Executive
Districts over 2,100 students
(505) 301-7382
kgentry-funk@amplify.com

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Dana Blumberg

Account Executive
Districts under 2,100 students &
Archdiocese of Santa Fe schools
(847) 528-1822
dblumberg@amplify.com

S3-03: Instructional strategies for integrating science and literacy

A graphic with the text "Science Connections" and "Amplify" features colorful circles and curved lines on a dark gray background.

We’re continuing our investigations around science and literacy with Doug Fisher, Ph.D., professor and chair of educational leadership at San Diego State University. We talk about the importance of integrating science and literacy, as well as practical guidance for teachers who want to unite the two disciplines in their own classrooms.

Listen as we discuss how science and literacy can be powerful allies and specific strategy areas to focus on when integrating the two disciplines. And don’t forget to grab your Science Connections study guide to track your learning and find additional resources!

We hope you enjoy this episode and explore more from Science Connections by visiting our main page!

DOWNLOAD TRANSCRIPT

Douglas Fisher (00:00):

It’s not that you have to become a reading specialist to integrate literacy into science. It’s how our brains work.

Eric Cross (00:10):

Welcome to Science Connections. I’m your host, Eric Cross. This season, we’re making the case for our favorite underdog, which of course is science. Each episode we’re showing how science can be better utilized in the classroom, and making the case for why it’s so important to do so. In our last episode, we examined the evidence showing that science and English instruction can support each other. And now on this episode, we want to give you some more strategies for really making that a reality in your own home or classroom or community. So to help me, I’m joined on this episode by Dr. Douglas Fisher, Professor and Chair of Educational Leadership at San Diego State University. Dr. Fisher is actually someone who has conducted literacy training at my own school, so I’m excited to be able to share some of his wisdom with all of you. Oh, and just a heads up, Dr. Fisher dropped some gems about the ways teachers can integrate literacy and science in their classrooms. So you may want to have a notepad. Ready. And now here’s my conversation with Dr. Douglas Fisher.

Eric Cross (01:12):

Well, Doug, thank you for your time and for being willing to come and talk about literacy and science. I know you’re busy, all over the place, and so I was super-excited that we were able to lock you in and talk about this. And, on this episode, we’re gonna talk about the ways that science and literacy can support each other. And one of the reasons why I’m really excited for you is because you said some really key things for me as a science teacher, when you talked about literacy and supporting students. That just resonated so deeply in me. And I was like, “I need more Doug!” Because we’re on that same frequency. And I know it’s a subject that you’ve spent a lot of time writing about. So can you tell us a little bit about how this became an area of interest or a passion for you? Just literacy, and all of the work that you’ve put into it?

Douglas Fisher (01:54):

Yeah. So I’ve wanted to be a teacher for a really long time. And I went to San Diego State as an undergraduate, and I was taking English class and we were assigned topics. You know, like, you’ll do an assignment, you’ll write a paper for this English class. And I got the topic “illiteracy,” and I was a freshman at San Diego State reading all of these things about adults who don’t read very well or not at all. And I ended up writing my very first college essay on illiteracy — at the time, you know, called illiteracy, at the time. And so I got super interested in this. And so as I moved through college and into my teaching career, literacy became a really important thing for me to think about, because it’s the gatekeeper. You know, you can be taken advantage of, if you’re not very literate. People can use vocabulary against you, if you’re not very literate. We know that people who have higher levels of literacy have better health outcomes. They have better lifespans, longer lifespans. I mean, there’s just — literacy impacts so much more than “Are you reading your fourth-grade textbook?” It really has lifelong implications.

Eric Cross (03:01):

That part that you said about being taken advantage of … I just got a flyer in the mail yesterday. It was one of these mailers that looked like it was an authentic debt-reduction type of thing, but it was really just like a marketing email. If you read the fine print at the very bottom, it had all of this jargon about “This is a paid, you know, for-profit company.” But when you look at it, it had official stamps all over it. And I could imagine if someone’s receiving that, that probably fools a lot of people. Is that kinda like what you’re talking about, like being taken advantage of?

Douglas Fisher (03:28):

Yes. I had a student turn 18, got a letter from a “credit card company” that was offering her daily compounding interest. And if you don’t know what that means — at 23 percent! — if you dunno what that means, you are gonna be a victim. Literacy really influences a lot of our life. It’s also how our brain works. We have a language-based system in our brain. We read, write, speak, listen, and view. And the things we learn, we learn through speaking, reading, writing, listening, and viewing. From what we know, we are the only species that has an external storage mechanism. Like, we have the ability to store complex information outside of our body, in the form of notes. We can type them. We can write them. And we can then go back and retrieve that information, that complex orthographic information later. And it means the same thing. We can say we have a storage system and we’ve been doing this for a really long time. Way back to, you know, hieroglyphics and messages on cave walls. And throughout the ages of humans learning, how to store information that they can re-access again later. That’s become a super-complicated system. It’s how computers operate. And we send messages to each other and we text each other and we write things down, and we’re really good at putting ideas, information out there. Now, if it’s just speaking and listening, then we can forget it. We can say, “No, you said this,” or “I said that.” But when it’s written, and it’s print literacy, you know, it’s the orthographics there, you can go back to the same message and over and over again. Now, you might change the interpretation of it, but the message is still there.

Eric Cross (05:16):

Right. And that is such a key element, at least of modern education, is this written element of it. It’s what many schools live and die by. They’re quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed by it. It’s public. They can see it. And so there’s this heavy emphasis. And why do you think science and literacy can be powerful allies together?

Douglas Fisher (05:38):

Awesome. Well, it’s hard to learn science if you’re not literate.

Eric Cross (05:42):

This is true.

Douglas Fisher (05:42):

But that’s a one-way direction. And yes, science teachers and scientists do a lot of reading, writing, speaking, and listening and viewing. They use the five literacy processes all the time. When we interview scientists, they spend a lot of their time reading the work of other scientists and writing their findings, writing grant proposals, presenting at conferences, you know. So a huge part of the work of a scientist is not just at a bench conducting experiments. But even if you’re conducting experiments, you’re using your literacy processes to think about what you’re seeing in your experiment. So that’s a one-way direction. And I do think literacy has an influence on science. But since science goes the other way, it influences literacy. As you learn more and you understand more about the world, your background knowledge grows, your vocabulary grows, you become more literate in those different areas. And how you think. So if I’m learning about life science; I’m learning how the world works in a more, biologic physical world. And that knowledge helps me think about when I’m reading a novel, and there’s an appeal to some science knowledge or a concept that gets played with, you know, perhaps time-space continuums … well, if I don’t have the science knowledge of how I think the world works, it’s hard for me to understand what this author is doing. So it does go both ways. They feed each other. And the more literate we become, the more complex science information we can understand. ‘Cause our background knowledge and our vocabulary influence how much we understand about what we read. And as we access more complex science information, it starts to change the way we think about other things in our world.

Eric Cross (07:23):

There was a couple of things that you said in that, but one of the first things that kind of perked my ears is when you said grant proposals. Because I have friends that are scientists — and this is one of the things that when I was in school, they don’t talk about — but how much of their research is reliant upon getting funding —

Douglas Fisher (07:37):

Mm-hmm. <affirmative>,

Eric Cross (07:38):

— which you don’t think about if you’re becoming a chemist or a physicist or a biologist or working in the field, is that that funding, coming from the NSF or anywhere else. And sometimes students ask in class like, “Why am I writing so much? Like, I want to go into science!” Or “I wanna do this!” And this is a real-life example of how the writing could actually apply, in addition to all of the things of collecting data and conclusions and results. But that grant proposal thing just really perked my ears, yeah.

Douglas Fisher (08:01):

And if you can’t write a grant proposal, your ideas and experiments are not gonna get funded. And if you can’t write a strong proposal, that compellingly convinces your readers to fund you, you’re not gonna get funded. But then once you get the grant, you have to write publications. You have to share your work with other people. Make PowerPoint presentations and write journal articles or books or whatever. So it’s a cycle that literacy influences the things we do, including the things we do in science.

Eric Cross (08:31):

Now to get in maybe some data, if you were trying to convince someone that like this happy marriage can exist, what would be like your number one piece of evidence to support this, this back and forth of supporting each other?

Douglas Fisher (08:44):

Awesome. So the quote I’ll often say — and this is from studies from more than two decades ago now — but in general, in high school science, students are introduced to 3000 unfamiliar words, 3000. Each year! Because there are words that are used in a scientific way that are used commonly in other places. And there are discipline-specific words. So 3000 words a year in high school science. The Spanish 1 textbook only has 1500 words in it. So science teachers have double the academic-language vocabulary demand that a typical introductory world-language class has. So just the vocabulary alone should say to us, literacy is gonna be important if you’re gonna learn science. And if you don’t understand these technical words, and you don’t understand the way science uses this particular word in this particular way… . When you say the word “process,” it means something very specific In science. “Division” — cellular division is not the way we think about it in mathematics; there’s a similar concept, but cellular division is different than dividing numbers. And those are words that get used in multiple areas. Then you have all these technical terms that you have to be able to use, to understand the concepts. To share the concepts. To talk to other people. Whether you’re in, you know, fifth grade and talking science, or you’re a university professor, there’s a shared language, appropriate for our grade level, that we have shared meanings of.

Eric Cross (10:22):

And we’re essentially … what I’m hearing you say is … most of the people that are listening to this are science teachers. We’re we’re also language teachers. In a sense.

Douglas Fisher (10:29):

So my frustration is when people say, “Every teacher’s a teacher of reading.” And I don’t like that. I’ve written against that phrase. I don’t think all teachers are teachers of reading, any more than all teachers are teachers of chemistry. Or all teachers are teachers of algebra. But what I will say is the human brain learns through language. And all of us — every teacher that I’ve ever met understands that language is important in my class. If my students don’t have strong listening skills and speaking skills; reading, writing, and viewing skills; I’m gonna have a hard time getting them to learn things. If I can help them grow their speaking, listening, reading, writing, and viewing in my content area, I’m gonna do a service for my learning of my subject and also their more broad literacy development.

Eric Cross (11:16):

  1. So, at a high level, what does it look like to integrate science and literacy? We’ve done education for the last, what, hundred years?

Douglas Fisher (11:24):

Mm-hmm. <affirmative>

Eric Cross (11:25):

—kind of pretty similarly, right? Kind of siloed way. What does this look like at the 30,000-foot level? You’re a professor, department chair. Run schools. Speak everywhere. Like, when you think about this from that high level, what does it look like?

Douglas Fisher (11:39):

A high level? Every time I meet with students in a science class, you know, biology or fifth grade or whatever? They should be reading, they should be writing, they should be speaking and listening. Every class. So what print do you want them to access? And it can be a primary source document, it can be an article, it can be from a textbook. Are they reading something? Are they writing to you? Because writing is thinking. If they are writing, they are thinking. As soon as their brain goes somewhere else, they stop writing. The pen won’t move or the fingers don’t type. And then speaking and listening, of course, is the dynamic of our classes. So every day we should see some amount of reading, writing, speaking, and listening, viewing in our classes. That’s at a high level. There are some generic things that seem to work across the literacy. So, learning how to take notes. Focusing on vocabulary. Using graphic organizers. These are generic things that as educators we can use in our classes. Then there’s more specialized things. So, scientists and science teachers think differently than historians and literary critics and art critics. So scientists, if you look at the disciplinary literacy work, there’s a whole body of research where they interview and study high-end experts in their field: chemistry, physics, biology, et cetera. And there are some characteristics that were more disciplined, specific. Scientists like cause and effect relationships. They look for them when they’re reading. They like sourcing information. “Where this come from?” “What’s the history of this idea?” Scientists have a long view in terms of time. Historians have a shorter view of time. English teachers have even shorter view of time. Scientists tend to think in long periods of time. And so all of that influences how a scientist reads and how we should apprentice young people after they get past the generic “I know how to take notes. I know how to study my vocabulary. I know how to do summary writing for my teacher in my notebooks and things,” there’s some generic tools. Once we get past those, we need to be looking at specifically how do people in science use literacy.

Eric Cross (13:52):

I’ve never had my thought process of reading deconstructed just now, but we just described how scientists read. I was like, “Yeah, that’s pretty much how I read, right there.” I also like how you said how we should apprentice young people. And I feel like you as the literacy guy, you chose that word very specifically, as far as apprenticing young people. That is a view, I think, that’s really important to hold. ‘Cause that’s what we’re doing essentially … is, if we’re doing what we should be doing, we are apprenticing these young people.

Douglas Fisher (14:18):

Yes.

Eric Cross (14:18):

And helping them develop. Now, let’s imagine there’s a listener out there and they’re interested in getting better at integrating science and literacy instruction. They want to start somewhere. Before we dive in, do you have any initial words of encouragement for the person who’s like, “Everything is like a priority right now,” in their classroom or in their world?

Douglas Fisher (14:37):

Yeah. So I’ll talk about elementary for just a moment. When we’re reading informational texts in our literacy block, we should be reading information that is aligned to what kids need to learn in science and history in, in that grade level. Why are we reading things that are gonna be in conflict with what they’re gonna learn in science later that day in fourth grade, for example? So when we look at our standards, our expectations, what is it that third graders need to know in history, science, mathematics, language arts? And when we’re reading text and we’re learning to apply our reading strategies during our literacy block, why aren’t we reading topics that build our background knowledge for our science time? So we’re seeing some synergy there. We should be looking at life cycles in grades that are appropriate for life cycles and knowing there’s more to life cycles than the frog and the plant or the seed. There are all kinds of life cycles. And we call ’em life cycles for a reason. That’s a general concept. Now in science, we’re looking at this particular lifecycle right now. And so that’s a high level. If we could get more connection to the content standards during our literacy blocks, it would be very good. When we talk about the time at which we call “science” in the day, in more of the K–8 continuum, the science needs to include some primary source documents. Some real things that students are reading. Read about a scientist; read about a scientist’s discovery; read about what they discovered. So that we’re building our background knowledge. So when we go to do things, activities, labs, simulations, we have background knowledge and we understand what we’re experiencing. It can’t be like—I watched this awesome lesson on lenses and the teacher had all these different lenses in the room and the students came in and they were brand new. They don’t know anything. They were picking ’em up. They’re exploring them. They’re trying to figure out, and they’re trying to come up with theories about what this is and how it works. And then the teacher gave them a reading, a short reading, on refraction of light. And they read this thing. And the clarity that they had about what these lenses must do, well! All of a sudden they’re putting them up to the lights! They’re asking if they can go get the lights out of the storage unit! ‘Cause there’s — and they’re shining different lights through the lenses to see what happens to the light. Because that little bit of reading turned some focus on for the students. And it allowed them to take what I’m thinking about, what I’m trying to figure out, how this thing works in another direction. That’s the power of using literacy in our classes.

Eric Cross (17:20):

And what I’m hearing essentially is transfer across disciplines, across content areas, ultimately. And in an elementary school classroom, would it be fair to say, probably the teacher has more autonomy to be able to do that, since they’re teaching all the subjects? But secondary, logistically, planning and those types of things … from what you’ve seen, is it fair to say this kind of needs to be like a top-down, full vertical alignment, to teach like this?

Douglas Fisher (17:45):

I think that would be awesome to do that. But if I’m a sixth grade English Language Arts teacher and I’m working with my sixth grade science teacher, the conversation should be, “What units are you teaching?” Because I’m choosing informational text. My job is to teach them how to find central ideas. My job is to teach them how to find the details in the text. My job is to have them make a claim and support that claim with evidence. The stuff I use is generic. Yes, we do read some literature and some narratives, but we also read about 50% of the text in English around informational text. So if I can help you and accomplish my standards as well, fantastic. So let’s have this conversation and say, “Oh, this is what you’re teaching in science in the next three weeks? I’m gonna choose some texts and we’re gonna analyze ’em for central idea. We’re gonna analyze ’em for details. We’re gonna, for mood or tone or whatever that we’re teaching. And by the way, I’m building background knowledge. So when they come to you, they know some stuff about what you’re going to be teaching next.” So I don’t think it’s impossible to say teams of teachers could come together and say, “What do we believe that our students need to know and learn and be able to do? And then how do we choose things that are gonna help them accomplish exactly that?”

Eric Cross (19:01):

And that’s empowering. Because that’s one thing that we can control maybe is this East-West, peer-to-peer, different content areas. A system may not be able to change as quickly, but I can definitely go talk to my English team or math team and check in and kind of see, “Hey, where do we have overlap in that?” And I know the times that I’ve accidentally had overlap with the teams, it’s super-exciting. And the students have been more bought in! Because it’s like, we’ve done something on the human microbiome and we’ve talked about genetics and all these different things, and then when they read The Giver, or they read some book about genetics, they have all this knowledge. And they’re excited. And they talk about colorblindness or they come to my class and they’re like, “Hey, we read about this!” It’s almost like they saw a magic trick, the fact that these things linked up. And the engagement has been so much higher when it’s the same content in different classes, but through different lenses. At least, that’s what I’ve seen in my years of teaching.

Douglas Fisher (19:54):

I saw a lesson on space junk that was so cool. Middle-school students learning space junk. And the history teacher had a part of it, science teacher had a part of it, English Language Arts teacher had a part of it. And these students, I mean, you watch them look up all the time, ’cause there’s space junk up there. Where’d it come from? Why is it there? What are the politics of this? How do we clean it up? I mean, it was just so interesting to watch them when the teachers came together. And the teachers met their standards in this couple-week-long space-junk exploration. Investigation was met. Politics was met. All these different things. Economy. You know, how much does it cost to clean up this problem? So there’s really cool opportunities when teachers come together and realize we can work together and improve the literacy and learning of our students.

Eric Cross (20:50):

Absolutely. So before this recording, we picked your brain a bit. And I know that there were three specific strategy areas that you wanted to touch on. And one of those — which is kind of coming back to the 3000-words language teachers — was vocabulary. So what are the opportunities that you see, as far as the way of educators to approach vocabulary? Because, you know, there’s a lot. We got a lot of it. The 3000 words.

Douglas Fisher (21:14):

Yeah. There’s a lot of it. So the worry is, we make a vocabulary list and have students look up the words in definitional kinds of things. That’s not really gonna help. Students need to be using the words. They need to be using the words in their conversations, in their writing, in how they think about your content in science. So vocabulary is a huge predictor of whether or not you understand things. Vocabulary is also a pretty good predictor if you can read on grade level. So when we think about vocabulary, there’s something called word solving. You show students a piece of text and you’re reading it, you’re sharing your thinking, and you say, “Oh, here’s a context clue!” Or “I know this prefix or suffix or root!” And in science, a lot of the words are prefixed, suffixed, or root words. We tend to add things together with a lot of prefixes and suffixes and have roots and bases in science. So we can help students think about, “Oh, what does geo- mean? We already know what geo- means here. It means the same thing in this word. Let’s apply that knowledge.” So word solving is part of it, showing students how we think about words that we might not know. The second is more direct instruction of vocabulary. As students encounter the words, we work on what it means, how we say it. We practice it a few times. The process is called orthographic mapping. It’s kind of a scientific idea here. But you have the sound and the recognition of by-the-word, by sight, and what it means. And your brain starts to automatically recognize that word in the future. So I don’t have to slow down, disrupt my fluency, and try to figure out what the word is saying. ‘Cause I’ve seen it enough. I’ve heard it pronounced enough, I’ve pronounced it enough, and I know what it means. So teachers should be saying, “What words in sixth grade science, what words in third grade science, do my students really need to know?” And I’m gonna have them encounter those words over and over. I’m gonna have them use the words. I’m gonna have them see the words. I’m gonna have them say the words. I’m gonna say the word and we’re gonna be over and over with these terms, so that students incorporate them into their normal view of, “These are the things I know about the world.” By the way, when they go to read that next thing, and they understand “geology,” you know, for sixth graders, for example, they know how to say it. They don’t stumble on it. And it activates a whole bunch of memories in their brains. “This is what geology is.” There are branches of geology, there’s physical geology, there’s all this thinking that activates as they read.

Eric Cross (23:35):

There was a practice that I participated in and am trying to incorporate — I don’t know what the name of it is. But essentially what happened was we were dissecting a flower. And the instructor had us name parts of the flower. But we got to come up with our own names for it.

Douglas Fisher (23:49):

Ah.

Eric Cross (23:50):

So, for instance, the stamen we call “the fuzzy Cheeto.” And we all used our own words and then everything was legitimized. And so we went through and learned the whole activity using our own vocab words. But then, in the end, after we presented and talked about it, then the words, the actual academic language was attached to our word. And we were able to say, “OK, the fuzzy Cheeto is the stamen,” and this, this, this, and this. But it was such an interesting practice, because it kind of legitimized all of our definitions. But we weren’t stumbling on these long Latin terms and things like that. Is there a name for that? Or. … ?

Douglas Fisher (24:29):

Yes. I don’t know the name for that. I think it’s really smart. So here’s what I would say about that, is: we don’t learn words, we learn concepts. Words are labels for our concepts. So what that teacher did for you was allow you to develop concept, a concept knowledge. “There’s a part of this plant, it goes like this, we’re gonna call it fuzzy Cheeto. Now I have this concept. And look, it occurred in all these plants. And those people called it that and that other group called it that. We called it a fuzzy Cheeto. Here’s the part of it.” And then the concept is in your brains. And the teacher said, “It’s really called stamen.” And it’s an instant transfer, because you already had the concept. What we often see is students are trying to learn a really hard academic word and the concept for the word at the same time. And so it slows down the whole process. And there’s higher levels of forgetting. Because human beings, we don’t learn words; we learn concepts. If you don’t have the concept, if I gave you a word out of the blue that you’ve never seen, never heard, and a week from now I asked you to remember it, you probably would not, because it didn’t register. It wasn’t part of your schema. You didn’t have a way to organize the information. You don’t have a concept. So that teacher? It’s a great idea. Got you to develop concept knowledge. And then said, “Here’s a real label for it: What some other people called it when they had the chance to come up with their own names.”

Eric Cross (25:50):

Shout out to my teacher, who was—

Douglas Fisher (25:51):

Right.

Eric Cross (25:52):

It was learned then. It was a great practice. And the fact that you’re right, like, I just mean from my own personal experience, I agree that learning concepts versus complicated words. And it’s interesting that you said higher levels of forgetfulness, you know. And you often hear that complaint about it: “Students forget! Students forget!” But this complex topic and this complex word that’s new to me, and I have to remember both of those things.

Douglas Fisher (26:12):

That’s right.

Eric Cross (26:13):

And the other neat thing that it did, is it actually honored the background and like the founts of knowledge of all the different groups in the classroom. You just said something about “this group called it this and this group called it this,” and so by letting different groups share all of those names, now we’re starting to build these kind of interesting connections. That’s at least what I remember experiencing. And so this, even this practice of this approach is very layered, beyond just kind of generating new knowledge of things. So I appreciate that aspect of it. Now another area that you mentioned was complex text.

Douglas Fisher (26:41):

Yeah.

Eric Cross (26:42):

And how we can get students into complex text. So what can we do there?

Douglas Fisher (26:46):

I think science is an ideal place to get students reading things that are hard for them. And I do believe that some parts of school should be a struggle. Not all day, every day. But there should be doses of struggle, which are good for our brains. And these complex pieces of texts that don’t give up their meanings easily allow students to go back and reread the text and maybe mark the text and talk to peers about the text and answer questions with their groups. And the whole point of complex text is to say, “We persevere through it. We may not understand it fully on our first read. But we go back and we might underline, we might highlight. We might write some margin notes. Our teacher might say, ‘What did this author mean here?’ And we go back and look at that part and we take it apart. What do we think about that? And we talk to each other. It’s showing that when we read things, we work to understand. We work through our thinking, often in the presence of other people. And our understanding grows as we go into the text over and over and over again.” So I said geology earlier. There’s about a two-page article on “what is geology” that sixth graders often read. And some kids find it super boring. It’s a once-read, “OK, geology, I don’t really understand it. There’s a bunch of words in here that I don’t understand.” But if you go back to it a few times and you start taking apart, “What are the branches of geology? Oh, I’m gonna go reread that.” How are these two branches related to each other?” “What are the subtypes of each branch of geology?” “How do geologists do their work?” You start asking questions where students are going back into the text. You spend a little bit of time. Now, the introduction to geology, the students know so much more. So whatever you do next— video experiments, whatever—they have a frame of reference, because of that deep, complex read. It’s probably better than simply telling them, “Here’s the information.”

Eric Cross (28:45):

Right. And I even feel like as an educator, when I reflect on my own learning in the classroom, and then looking at it through the perspective of an educator <laugh>, you find this difference between how you were taught and then what the data says good teaching is.

Douglas Fisher (28:59):

Mm-hmm. <affirmative> mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

Eric Cross (29:00):

It’s so easy to slide back into how you were taught!

Douglas Fisher (29:02):

Yeah.

Eric Cross (29:02):

Even though, you know, you mentally assent to, “This is the best way. This is the data shows.” And you find yourself kind of sliding back at times.

Douglas Fisher (29:10):

Yep. And there’s good evidence to support what you just said, that most people teach the way they experienced school. And it is very hard to change that. And people have studied this. And it’s very hard to change that. Because it worked for us. And we have an n of 1, and it worked for us. Now, remember, there were a whole bunch of other kids in the class that it may not have worked for. And we chose to be in school the rest of our lives, and some of your peers did not choose to be in school the rest of their lives. In fact, some of them hated school and found no redeeming qualities of their experience. So just because it worked for us in a case of one, n of 1, doesn’t mean it worked for all of the kids, or even the majority of them.

Eric Cross (29:57):

Very well said. It’s that, what is that, the survivor bias? Survivorship bias? Where you were the one that made it. But you don’t think about all the other folks. ‘Cause we’re thinking about ourselves.

Douglas Fisher (30:05):

That’s right.

Eric Cross (30:06):

Great case for empathy too, is thinking about the people left and right. Because my friends are like, “I hated science.” And I say, “Who hurt you? Like, what did they do? It’s so amazing, so much fun!”

Douglas Fisher (30:16):

“What happened to you? Science is the coolest. Right? It’s so amazing!”

Eric Cross (30:21):

But I also had a unique experience in seventh grade with my teacher who did some of these things, and made it accessible for so many of us, in opening opportunities that I wouldn’t have had otherwise. But you’re absolutely right. That was my story. That wasn’t the story of everybody that was around me. And I think that’s really important. Now, I know this is also a big one for you, but I wanna talk about writing. What are the opportunities that you see in terms of writing specifically?

Douglas Fisher (30:51):

So would love it if science teachers had short and longer writing tasks in the science time. Of course, you can integrate some of the science writing, the longer ones, in the English language arts time, especially if you’re the elementary teacher and you can have control of the whole day. But I said this earlier; I’ll say it again. Writing is thinking. While you are writing, there’s nothing else you can do but think about what you are writing. Your brain cannot do something else. So if a science teacher wants to know, do their students really understand the concepts? Have them write. Now some of the shorter ones, I like something called “given word” or “generative sentences”: “I’m gonna give you a word: CELL. C-e-l-l. We’re in science. I want you to write the word ‘cell,’ c-e-l-l, in the third position of a sentence. So it’s gonna go word, word, cell, and then more words.” You could also say, “I want the sentence longer than seven words,” or whatever. But the key is, I’m telling you where I want the word. You will know instantly if your students have a sense of what the word “cell” means in the context of science. If they write “my cell phone,” they don’t get it. If they write about spreadsheet cells or jail cells or whatever, they didn’t get it. But if they talk to you about plant cells and animal cells and the components of those cells, and then once they have that sentence down, you can say to them, “Now write three or four more sentences that connect to that sentence.” It’s super simple. So whatever concepts you’re teaching, put ’em in a specific position. Now you don’t have to only put it in the third position. You can say the first position, the fifth position, the fourth position. But it forces them to think about what they know about the word and then how to construct a sentence for you. That’s a very simple way to get some writing from your students that helps you think about what they understand. Other kinds of writing, you can have quick writes, you can have exit-slip writes. There’s something in the research space called the muddiest part, where halfway through the lesson you have them write so far what has been the least understood or the most confusing part of this lesson. And they do a quick write, right there, at the muddiest part. And as a teacher, you flip through these and you start to say, “Oh, these are the points that are confusing to my students.” So if 80% of them all have the same thing, I gotta reteach that. If these five got, “This is the muddiest part,” If these five thought, “This is the muddiest part,” these seven, “I thought this was the muddiest part,” what do I need to do? Because it’s gonna be hard to move forward if this is their area of confusion. There are also all kinds of writing prompts that have a little bit longer. My favorite one is RAFT. What’s your Role? Who’s your Audience? What’s the Format? And what’s the Topic we’re writing about? Super flexible writing prompt. When you teach something, we don’t want students to only think they write to their teacher. So your role is an atom. You are writing to the other atoms. What do you wanna write about? What’s the topic? What’s the format of it? Is it a love letter? Is it a text message? Is it … so we, we mix it up with students in saying, how do they show some knowledge through a prompt that we give them? And then of course, longer pieces as they get older. More opinion pieces through fifth grade. More claims and arguments starting in sixth grade. So that they’re starting to see, “I have to use the evidence from things I’ve learned, read, listened to, watched, and construct something: an opinion, an argument where I back it up with reasons or evidence.” And those longer pieces, you know, less frequently. The shorter pieces, pretty regularly. So the teacher sees the thinking of the students.

Eric Cross (34:29):

When you were speaking about these really creative writing prompts, there were specific students coming into mind, that were coming into mind … they’re, they’re great science students, but they also have this really strong artsy side drawing, creative writing, and things like that. And when you said something about atoms talking to each other, it elicited, in my brain, certain students that would really love this aspect of creativity in the sciences. And it’s not how we’re typically trained as science teachers, to kind of incorporate this, like you said. A book of props. But I’m imagining, like, as a science teacher, if I took this, this would be a great way to reach more students to be able to show what they know, in a way that might resonate with their own intrinsic “Oh, I get to write creatively!” So I was kind of writing furiously as you were sharing all that information there.

Douglas Fisher (35:12):

So here, I’ll give you another example for elementary people. Again, with RAFT. There’s a book called Water Dance. It’s a pretty popular book for elementary teachers. It’s really about the life cycle of water. For example, you are a single drop of water. You are writing to the land. The format is a letter. And you’re explaining your journey. Now, if they can do this, they’re essentially explaining to you the cycle of water. But you got it in a way that people are now, “Oh, I’m a drop of water. So it’s me. My perspective. Where do I go from? Where do I start?” Because you can start anywhere in the cycle, right? My drop could have started in the clouds. My drop could have started in the ground. My drop could have started in the lake. But it has to show you the journey. So there are many ways of showing you the right answers.

Eric Cross (36:02):

And that’s using the RAFT protocol.

Douglas Fisher (36:04):

That’s RAFT: Role, Audience, Format, Topic. It’s been around 20 or 30 years.

Eric Cross (36:09):

You just gave the name to something a teacher shared in our podcast community, Science Connections: The Community, on Facebook. Teacher shared a Google slide deck and on it were just three slides. And the role that the student had to have is they had to show, then tell, the story of a journey of a piece of salmon being eaten, a piece of starch from pasta being eaten, and then an air molecule in a child’s bedroom. And they had to give the path of travel and the experience from the mouth and then breaking down into protein and all those kinds of things. And this teacher shared it and I wish I knew the teacher’s name because I wanna give ’em credit, but they shared it. And so I used it with my students and then had ’em read aloud their stories and dramatize it. And they were so into it!

Douglas Fisher (36:49):

So cool.

Eric Cross (36:50):

But through it, I was able to see that they understood different parts of the body. They understood cell respiration. The whole thing. And it was fun! To watch them get so into this creative writing. And now I know the name of it. That’s been 30 years they were using RAFT. So you just talked a bit about complex texts and writing. And before we go, I wanted to circle back to something that you said, because I think it’s important, and if you could elaborate on it a little bit, about the value of struggle. Can you talk more about that?

Douglas Fisher (37:21):

Sure. I do believe in a lot of the U.S. we’re in an anti-struggle era of education. And it predates Covid. I think it made it worse during Covid. We front load too much. We pre-teach too much. We reduce struggle. We quote, “over-differentiate” for students. And there’s value in struggle. The phrase, “productive struggle” — if you haven’t heard it, Google productive struggle — it’s an interesting concept, that we actually learn more when we engage in this productive struggle. Now, productive struggle originally came from the math world, and it was this idea that it’s worth struggling through things to learn from it, that you’re likely to get it wrong, and then there was productive success. And there are times when we want students to experience success and we make sure we put things in place for productive success. But there are times where we want them to struggle through a concept. ‘Cause it feels pretty amazing when you get on the other side, when you know you struggled and you get to the other side. If you think about the things, listeners, think about the things in your life where you struggled through it and you are most proud of what you accomplished. I want students to have that. I don’t wanna eliminate scaffolding, eliminate differentiation. But I do want some regular doses of struggle. So if you look at the scaffolding, we have a couple choices. We have front-end scaffolds, distributed scaffolds, and back-end scaffolds. Right now we mostly use front-end scaffolds: We pre-teach, we tell students words in advance, that kind of stuff. But what if we refrained from only using front-end scaffolds, and we use more distributed scaffolds, when they encounter. So there’s a difference between “just in case” and “just in time” support for students. So we tend to plan on the “in advance, here are all the things we’re gonna do to remove the struggle before students encounter the struggle.” What if instead we said, “Let them encounter some struggle. Here’s the supports we’re gonna provide. We’re gonna watch; we’re gonna remove those scaffolds, and allow them to have an experience of success, where they realize, ‘I did it. I got it.’” Every science teacher I’ve ever worked with, when they do an experiment or a lab or simulation, they are looking for productive struggle. They don’t tell the answers in advance. They don’t tell if the answers are right. That’s your data. What does your data tell you? I mean, this is what you do. But then the other part of your day when you move into, like, reading, you don’t do that. You fall into the trap of removing struggle. And so allow them to grapple with ideas. Allow them to wonder what words mean. Allow them to say, “I’m not getting this, teacher! It’s really frustrating!” And you say, “Yeah, this is really hard. This is why we’re doing it at school. ‘Cause it’s really hard. If it was easy, I’d have you do it at home. But we’re doing it here, ’cause it’s really hard and it’s OK not to get it at first.” And create a place where errors are seen as opportunities to learn, and struggling through ideas and clarifying your own thinking and arguing with other people to reach an agreement or reach a place where we agree to disagree is part of the power of learning.

Eric Cross (40:38):

There’s a teacher, who I took this from. My master teacher when I was student teaching. And she said that there’s no such thing as failure in science, just data. And I took that same mantra. And I resonate with what you said about how science teachers, all of us, hold onto that productive struggle, because it’s part of being a scientist. It’s part of the experiments. That genuine “aha” moment. Or it didn’t work out? That’s great! That’s totally fine! Let’s write about it and let’s take photos and let’s publish it and let’s be scientists. That’s totally true. As we wrap up, Dr. Fisher, is there any final message that you have to listeners about bringing science and literacy together? I know you speak everywhere, but for everyone that’s listening, if you can put out your encouragement or message or suggestion … you’ve given so many great tips and practical applications. But, any final thoughts on the subject?

Douglas Fisher (41:32):

I think many science teachers are intimidated because they think they have to be reading teachers. And there’s a knowledge base to reading. And some teachers are reading teachers and science teachers, and I don’t wanna dismiss that. But it’s not that you have to become a reading specialist to integrate literacy into science. It’s how our brains work. And so as you think about the way in which you are learning and the ways in which you want your students to learn, what role does language play? What role does speaking, listening, reading, writing, viewing, play in your class? And then provide opportunities for students to do those five things each time you meet with them.

Eric Cross (42:12):

Dr. Fisher, thank you so much for being here and for your encouragement, and sharing your wisdom and experience. And then personally serving my city, here in San Diego, and my students, when they make it to your high school and ultimately the alma mater of San Diego State University.

Douglas Fisher (42:30):

That’s right.

Eric Cross (42:31):

Yeah. We really, really appreciate you in serving all kids and lifting the bar and making things more equitable for all students. And encouraging teachers. So thank you.

Douglas Fisher (42:39):

Thank you very much.

Eric Cross (42:42):

Thanks so much for listening to my conversation with Dr. Douglas Fisher, Professor and Chair of Educational Leadership at San Diego State University. Check out the show notes for links to some of Doug’s work, including the book he co-authored titled Reading and Writing in Science: Tools to Develop Disciplinary Literacy. Please remember to subscribe to Science Connections so that you can catch every episode in this exciting third season. And while you’re there, we’d really appreciate it if you can leave us a review. It’ll help more listeners to find the show. Also, if you haven’t already, please be sure to join our Facebook group, Science Connections: The Community. Next time on the show, we’re going to continue exploring the happy marriage between science and literacy instruction.

Speaker  (43:26):

I had this moment of realization I felt a few months ago: I’m like, if I don’t teach them how to use the AI as a tool, as a collaborator, then they’re gonna graduate into a world where they lose out to people who do know how to do that.

Eric Cross (43:39):

That’s next time on Science Connections. Thanks so much for listening.

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What Dr. Douglas Fisher says about science

“There are really cool opportunities when teachers come together and realize we can work together to improve the literacy and learning of all our students.”

– Dr. Doug Fisher

Professor and Chair of Educational Leadership, San Diego State University

Meet the guest

Douglas Fisher, Ph.D., is professor and chair of Educational Leadership at San Diego State University and a leader at Health Sciences High & Middle College having been an early intervention teacher and elementary school educator. He is the recipient of an International Reading Association William S. Grey citation of merit, an Exemplary Leader award from the Conference on English Leadership of NCTE, as well as a Christa McAuliffe award for excellence in teacher education. He has published numerous articles on reading and literacy, differentiated instruction, and curriculum design as well as books, such as The Restorative Practices Playbook, PLC+: Better Decisions and Greater Impact by Design, Building Equity, and Better Learning Through Structured Teaching.

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About Science Connections

Welcome to Science Connections! Science is changing before our eyes, now more than ever. So…how do we help kids figure that out? We will bring on educators, scientists, and more to discuss the importance of high-quality science instruction. In this episode, hear from our host Eric Cross about his work engaging students as a K-8 science teacher. 

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S3-01: Science as the underdog, and the research behind it

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Get ready for season 3 of Science Connections: The Podcast!

In our first episode, we unpack the research around our season theme of science as the underdog with Horizon Research, Inc. Vice President Eric R. Banilower and  Senior Researcher Courtney Plumley. Eric and Courtney dive into the research they’ve found and their experiences as former educators to show how science is often overlooked in K–12 classrooms. We discuss how the science classroom compares to other subjects in terms of time and resources, how schools are a reflection of society, and what’s needed to change science and its impact on a larger scale.

We hope you enjoy this episode and explore more from Science Connections by visiting our main page!

DOWNLOAD TRANSCRIPT

Courtney Plumley (00:00):

We asked teachers how much science, professional development, they’ve had in the last three years, and nearly half of elementary teachers said none.

Eric Cross (00:10):

Welcome to Science Connections. I’m your host, Eric Cross. I am super-excited to be kicking off the third season with the show. This entire season will be exploring the theme of science as the underdog. And we’re gonna make the case for science, by showing how and why it can be used more effectively. In the coming episodes, we’re gonna talk about how science can be better integrated into other content areas like literacy and math, and explore some of the benefits that you might not be thinking about good science instruction. But first, science as the underdog. I bet some of you out there feel like science is the underdog in your community at school. I know I have at times. To kick off this season, I’m gonna talk to two people who really studied this question by looking at the state of science instruction across the US. Eric Banilower is Vice President of Horizon Research and Courtney Plumley is Senior Researcher at Horizon Research. Eric was the principal investigator and Courtney an author of the latest in a series of studies called “The National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education.” We’re gonna dive into the findings of their most recent report to see what the data’s showing us. Please enjoy my discussion with Eric Banilower and Courtney Plumley. Courtney, hello. And thank you so much for joining us.

Courtney Plumley (01:25):

Hi Eric. It’s nice to be here.

Eric Cross (01:26):

And Eric, welcome.

Eric R. Banilower (01:27):

We’re thrilled to be here, so thank you for having us.

Eric Cross (01:30):

I was reading through the report. Four hundred…a very thorough report, 471 pages, I think, as I got it?

Eric R. Banilower (01:37):

And that’s only one of the many reports from that study.

Eric Cross (01:40):

Yeah. You all have done your work, so I’m really excited to to talk to you about this. And on this season of the show, we’re exploring the theme of science as the underdog. And I think a lot of our listeners, we feel like science is an underdog either in their school or in their district. But you’ve actually done some research on this, in a 2018 study, “The National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education.” So I wanna talk about this report. But first I was hoping you can kind of set the stage. How did you come to work on this report, and then, big picture, what were you hoping to find out?

Eric R. Banilower (02:10):

So the 2018 study that you just mentioned was actually the sixth iteration of a series of studies dating back to 1977. And we collect data every decade or so—you know, plus or minus a few years. And really, what we’re trying to do is get a snapshot of what the science and math education system looks like in in the nation. So my role grew. I started working at Horizon in about 1998, after teaching high school for five years in California. And then going to graduate school. And right about that time, the company was doing the 2000 iteration of the survey. And I worked on it with the team here at Horizon. And then we did it again in 2012. And I had a much more prominent role in that study, and became the kind of leader of the study. And in 2018, the most recent version, we just did it again. So the goal of this study is really to kind of examine key aspects of the K–12 STEM education system. And the main audience of the work has traditionally been policy makers, researchers, and practitioners who work at the federal, state, and district level.

Eric Cross (03:30):

So this study, you took kind of a sample size, but it’s reflective of trends that we tend to see across the nation as a whole. Would that be fair to say?

Eric R. Banilower (03:38):

Yes, definitely it is. It is a random sample of schools in the country. So we start with a list of all the public and private schools in the nation, and then do a random sample of those schools, and then work really, really hard to recruit schools to agree to be in the study. And that has gotten harder every time we’ve done the study, for many understandable reasons. And then once we have schools on board, we sample teachers within schools. So we don’t even survey every teacher in a school. It’s really a sub-sample. So that we can make inferences about the nation as a whole.

Eric Cross (04:14):

Makes sense. And so Courtney, what did you find out about the time spent on science instruction in US schools?

Courtney Plumley (04:22):

So, I’m gonna talk about elementary teachers to begin with.

Eric Cross (04:26):

Because that was your past life, right?

Courtney Plumley (04:28):

I am a former elementary teacher, yeah. So that’s kind of where my head is. And that’s relatable for me. Right? So we asked teachers, like, how many days of the week or weeks of the year that they teach elementary school. And fewer than 20% teach science every day of the school year. They kind of do one or two things, for the most part. They teach a couple days a week or they teach every day of the week, but only for, like, maybe six weeks, and then they swap with social studies and they kind of do that across the school year. Which is really different from, like, math, right? We also asked elementary teachers, how often do they teach math, and it’s every day of the year. Then we also asked them how many minutes they teach when they’re teaching, and we kind of did the math to figure out, all right, if they taught science every day of the school year, how many minutes would it be in a single day, so that we could make a more comparable comparison with math and ELA. If you were to work it out, how many minutes of science an elementary teacher teaches across the year, and break it down to per day, it’s like 18 minutes for the lower elementary grades, 27 for the upper elementary grades. Which is not a lot. But it’s pretty much an hour a day in math, and 80 plus minutes in ELA. So, a lot less. And then, you know, when I was teaching, the first thing to go was always science, right? If there was an assembly, if there was early release or whatever, that was the first thing to go. So those numbers might even be higher. Just because they aren’t factoring that kind of thing in, too.

Eric Cross (06:05):

So, now I’m curious. That is something that I’ve seen just anecdotally, science being the first thing to go. I feel like I’ve seen that almost…it’s almost become a meme, that I’ve heard that so often. Just in your experience, why do you think that is that huge disparity between the two?

Courtney Plumley (06:26):

Well, I mean, when I was teaching, I was teaching third grade. I had an end-of-grade test in math and ELA for my kids. I didn’t have one in science. So the administration said, “Hey, if you’re gonna drop something, drop something that’s not tested.”

Eric Cross (06:41):

Simple as that. And Eric, you, past life: physics teacher. High school. What did you see? ‘Cause our listeners run the gamut from elementary all the way up to high school. What did you see, as far as relative science instruction in the secondary level?

Eric R. Banilower (07:00):

Sure. You know, secondary is just a whole different situation than elementary. Rght? Because you have departmentalization. I taught science. I didn’t have to teach other subjects. And students had periods, and they still do, sorry, they still have periods, even though it’s been a long time since I taught. And you know, they rotate from one class to another. So all the classes were essentially the same length. So, you know, when I was teaching, it was about 50-minute periods. So in terms of minutes of a class or minutes on a subject, it’s not really different. But what is different is what students are required to take in order to graduate high school. One of the things we asked schools about in this study was how many years of a subject do students have to take in order to graduate? And what we saw was in mathematics, over half the schools in the nation require students to take four years of mathematics to graduate. OK? And the vast majority of the rest, about 44%, require three years in science. Most schools require three years. Very few require four years. And many, or a fair number, still only require two years to graduate. So the expectation of what students are taking is lower in science than it is in mathematics.

Eric Cross (08:20):

So you were seeing the same trend in secondary, essentially.

Eric R. Banilower (08:24):

Yes.

Eric Cross (08:24):

The amount of time devoted to the instruction of science…we’re kind of seeing it mirrored just across K–12 across the board.

Eric R. Banilower (08:33):

That’s correct.

Eric Cross (08:34):

And that’s across the country. ‘Cause the sample size represents teachers from Alaska, Hawaii, the South, SoCal, everywhere. So what’s been the reaction to that number? Like 18 to 20 minutes is…I mean, it’s, it’s half of my lunch at our school. What’s been the reaction to that number since this data has been published?

Eric R. Banilower (08:58):

I don’t know, Courtney, if you want to take that…

Courtney Plumley (09:00):

It’s a lot of what you just did. Like, what??? Like, how is it possible to teach all the things you need to teach in such a little amount of time?

Eric R. Banilower (09:08):

What’s really kind of surprising to me, though — though now that I’ve worked on three iterations of the study, it no longer surprises me, but it did at first — is that these numbers really aren’t changing since we’ve started doing this study. You know, people thought maybe with No Child Left Behind and the increase in accountability, time on science might actually go down, because there was more testing in math and English Language Arts. It didn’t happen. It was pretty much constant, that this has been kind of the state of science education for a long time.

Eric Cross (09:44):

So Eric, if I’m hearing you right: The past studies, we’re not seeing an increase or a decline. This has been this way for how many years, roughly, would you say? Since it’s been studied?

Eric R. Banilower (09:54):

You know, I’d have to go back to the 1977 report to get the numbers, but I’m gonna say since then, it has not changed much, if at all.

Eric Cross (10:03):

So this has kind of been entrenched. This has been the norm for almost for the career of a teacher, almost generationally. We’re looking at anyone who’s been in the highest levels of leadership to someone just entering the classroom, this has been the way it’s always been. This is kind of for many people what they’ve only known.

Eric R. Banilower (10:20):

Right.

Eric Cross (10:21):

Kind of become the norm.

Courtney Plumley (10:21):

We didn’t even have science when I was in elementary school. We had science on a cart that came by, you know, every other week.

Eric Cross (10:28):

Was that like a food truck, but like the science version of it? It shows up and does quick science and takes off?

Courtney Plumley (10:35):

And New York was, I mean — we always watched Voyage of the Mimi. I don’t know if you ever watched that. But that’s what we watched every single time the Science on the Cart came. So it’s like a marine biology show. Ben Affleck was on it when he was a kid.

Eric Cross (10:48):

<laugh> Really? For me it was, Mr. Wizard. For some of my students, even now, Bill Nye. You know, the Bill Nye show or something would come on. So what happens when you look at less wealthy districts? Is there a relationship between community resources and science instruction, or is it pretty much equal no matter what the district resources are, the school’s resources are? Did you see any data there?

Eric R. Banilower (11:12):

Yes. We actually did a lot of disaggregating the data by community type, student demographics in the schools, to look to see whether there were areas of inequities across the country. And, you know, one of the factors we looked at was kind of a measure of socioeconomic status. You know, wealth in the community. By looking at percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. And interestingly, in terms of time on science instruction, there is actually not a relationship between income level and how much time is spent at the elementary level on science, which actually surprised us.

Eric Cross (11:54):

Because you might have expected it to be the other way now. And granted, it’s 18 to 20 minutes, there isn’t much more to shave off off of that. But were there other differences, like when you compared those communities? Maybe it wasn’t the amount of science instruction, but was there anything else, like teacher preparedness, resources? Were there anything else that you did see discrepancies in? Or was it equal across the board?

Eric R. Banilower (12:13):

No, unfortunately there, there have been, and still are, a number of areas where community resources are related to pretty substantial differences in educational opportunities that students have. So, you know, we’re talking about the high school science requirements. One of the things that we saw was that high schools in less wealthy communities tend to offer less rigorous science courses than high schools in better-off-financially communities. So they may not be AP courses or second year advanced courses to the same extent that there are in the wealthier communities. That’s one big difference that we saw. Another one was what you were just saying about, sort of, the teachers who teach in these communities. You know, I think that for many years people have had a feeling that the best teachers go to the better off schools because it’s easier to teach there. Well, we see that the schools with the most poverty, they tend to have the newer teachers, who are just starting their career. They tend to have teachers who are less well prepared to teach their subject. And there’s a host of other differences we found. And you know, you mentioned the report being 400 pages. This other report that looks at these differences is also quite long, and, you know, identified a number of areas where there are these disparities in the system.

Eric Cross (13:43):

Well, we appreciate you synthesizing this for us, because this is super-important. And you’ve fleshed out a lot of things. And the fact that it’s driven by data, we as science teachers, we as scientists, being objective, really, really value that. Because this is actually validating a lot of the things that our listeners and myself, we experience anecdotally. But you don’t have a lot of things to network you. And sometimes, when you see this, you wonder if it’s just you, or is are other people experiencing this? And so as you start talking about this data, realizing, oh wow, this is not something in isolation. This is systemic. This is something that’s impacted. And then Eric, what you said about schools that were lower-income, that were under-resourced, and didn’t offer those advanced classes, what are some of the impacts of that, maybe downstream, of doing that? Not having those AP classes? I just kind of wanted to put that out there and ask you.

Eric R. Banilower (14:31):

You know, this is a really…this is a current debate right now, about what the goals of schooling K–12 should be. You know, are all kids meant to go to college? Should there be alternative paths? And you know, I know when I was teaching, I would have students say, “Why do I need to know this? I’m not gonna go into science. I’m not gonna study physics. Why do I need to take this?” And, you know, the answer I used to give them was, “You never know where your life is gonna end up and what opportunities you’ll have. And by having these educational experiences, you have more opportunities available to you. Whether or not you choose to go down those paths, you have opportunities. And when you don’t take this kind of coursework, you know, even if you don’t want to go to college, you limit your potential careers. Because so many careers nowadays require some technical knowledge, some knowledge of science, even if it’s not explicitly a science job. It is embedded in our society now. We are a technological and science-based society.”

Eric Cross (15:37):

It reminds me of something that I’ve told my students, that if you become a scientist, that’s awesome. I love that. But if you don’t, and you want to be a dancer or an actor or a lawyer or anything that may not be directly related to STEM, I want you to choose it because it was a choice, and not a lack of options. So as long as you’re choosing not to go in STEM, and you don’t make that decision because you can’t, or because you weren’t given the opportunity. So that’s how I’ve always had this mindset as a teacher. And I’ve explained it to my students. So if you say, “Cross, you know what I want to do, I wanna be an awesome chef,” which, you know, low-key that’s science, right? <laugh> Molecular gastronomy, we know that. But like, you be the best chef. But as long as you’re being a chef because you choose that, and you’re like, “I love science, but I don’t wanna go that direction,” we’re good.

Eric R. Banilower (16:26):

Right. And if you think about, a lot of social justice issues with pollution and climate change, and you look at which communities are more affected by some of these larger environmental problems and challenges, it tends to be the lower socioeconomic communities, the more poverty-stricken communities have worse water, have worse air quality. And so if, if people from these communities are going to make informed decisions about who they’re gonna vote for, about what policies they’re gonna support, those are science topics that you have to have some understanding in order to make informed decisions in your life.

Eric Cross (17:09):

Courtney, you were one of the Swiss Army Knife teachers. This is how I perceive it for elementary. You had to teach everything. And shout out to all of my elementary school teachers that have to be mathematicians and grammar whizzes and scientists and PE instructors and social emotional, all of those different things. you also looked at teacher preparedness. How did teachers feel about teaching science compared to other subjects like language arts and math? Did you see anything there?

Courtney Plumley (17:39):

We did, we did. And I’m glad you said, “How did they feel about it?” Because one thing that, you know, in a survey you can’t really do is capture how someone actually…how good someone actually…the quality of someone’s instruction. But you can ask them how prepared they feel. And you can even ask them like stats, like, “What did you major in in college?” You know. But you really are going on based on what what they say. So we ask them how prepared they feel to teach all the core subjects. And two-thirds of elementary teachers felt very well prepared to teach reading. They felt very well prepared to teach math. But when it comes to science, it’s less than a third felt very well prepared. And you know, like you said, when you’re teaching elementary school, you’re teaching all the subjects. But also in science, there’s usually four main instructional units in a school year. And they’re all from different science disciplines. So not only are you going on, like, “Maybe in college took a lot of bio classes, but I didn’t take any physics classes, and now I have to teach physics to my kids and I have no experience there.” So, you know, we also ask them how well-prepared they felt in these different disciplines. And the numbers are even smaller, you know. Fewer than a quarter felt very well-prepared in life science. And like 13% felt very well-prepared in physical science. So there’s definitely a big difference between how much teachers feel prepared for ELA and math versus science.

Eric Cross (19:08):

And just from a human perspective, when we don’t feel prepared for something, we’re not really gonna probably lean into it as much as we are into our strengths. Like, that’s just kind of how we are across the board.

Courtney Plumley (19:18):

Yeah.

Eric Cross (19:18):

I’m even like that with my own chores in the house. Or when I have things I need to get done, and I might not be as good at doing those things—it’s gonna be a heavy cognitive load; I’m gonna have to do some background research—I tend to find other areas to excel in. Like, I’m gonna be productive in this other area. I’m gonna really crush it here. But this other thing gets put to the back burner.

Courtney Plumley (19:36):

Totally. And the same reason I might skip science today, <laugh> ’cause it’s scary.

Eric Cross (19:41):

Yeah, exactly. But I love this book. <Laugh> Or we could do this math, and let’s really, really dive deep into it. Now, did you also look at professional development and instructional resources that are being provided?

Courtney Plumley (19:53):

We did.

Eric Cross (19:54):

And on the whole, how was the amount—and I’m seeing a trend here, so I’m kind of feeling like I know where this might go—but I wanted to ask it, did the amount of professional development and resources for science, was there much of a difference between that and other subjects?

Eric R. Banilower (20:10):

Well, I’ll start on this, and Courtney, feel free to jump in. You know, one of the things that we asked was how much kind of discretionary funding do schools devote to science and how much to mathematics? So, for consumables or equipment and supplies or computer software for teachers to use in the classroom. And it’s hard to compare, I think, across subjects because the demands for this kind of supplies, et cetera, is very different, I think, in science than it is in mathematics. Right? We have a lot of, you know, equipment for doing investigations, consumable supplies in science. And those things need to be replenished on a regular basis. It turns out, when we look at the data for school discretionary spending on this kind of stuff, the median school spends less than $2 per student at the elementary level on science, compared to over $6 for mathematics. At the high school level, it’s kind of reversed. Schools spend more money on high school science than they do on high school math. but even still, at the high school, it’s less than $7 per student. Which is not a lot of money being devoted to thinking about all the materials, supplies, chemicals, et cetera, that you need to teach science well, at the high school level. More disturbing is the fact that, you know, we were talking about inequities before, schools that serve less well-off communities spend less than schools that serve wealthier communities, by quite a big amount.

Eric Cross (21:46):

So essentially the per-student thing just kind of popped out to me: So, like, an expensive Starbucks drink is what we’re spending on science per student.

Eric R. Banilower (21:57):

At the high school level. Yes.

Eric Cross (21:58):

At the high school level. And I get those catalogs in the mail, from all of those big science companies. You can’t get much for seven bucks. At least, nothing high-level. And I know I do a lot of 99-cent store science. I go down the street, go to the 99-cent store. Thankfully we could do a lot of awesome science with just, you know, cheap things. But a lot of the higher level experiences, they’re pricey. But the experiences are so rich! And $7 at the high school level is nothing. It’s not much at all.

Eric R. Banilower (22:28):

Yeah. It is definitely, you know, kind of shocking to think about what we’re investing in our children’s future.

Eric Cross (22:37):

Now, just to put you both on the spot, ’cause I feel like that we’ve identified some…we’re seeing a trend here, we’re seeing a pattern. We’re talking about, you know, being science teachers. There’s a pattern going on here. Do you think it’s fair to characterize science as the underdog?

Courtney Plumley (22:52):

I think in elementary school, it is a fair statement. Because, like we said before, I mean they’re gonna preference math and ELA almost all the time. I mean, the other thing you’d asked a little bit ago was about professional development, too. And we do have some data on that. And we ask teachers, you know, how much science professional development they’ve had in the last three years. And nearly half of elementary teachers said none. And I know I didn’t have any science professional development. If I was gonna pick from among the catalog, I was picking one that I needed more, like math. Math and ELA. I keep making that statement, but just over and over, it’s the truth.

Eric Cross (23:31):

And going back to what you said earlier, because that’s where the accountability was, right? And that kind of came top-down.

Courtney Plumley (23:38):

Yes.

Eric Cross (23:38):

And influenced everything else.

Eric R. Banilower (23:40):

Yeah. Now, really interesting thing that we did, a year or so ago, ’cause someone asked us, you know, “Hey, could you look at this?” is we compared elementary science instructional time among states where science counted towards accountability versus states where science doesn’t count towards accountability. And at the upper elementary grades, more time was spent on science in schools in states where they had science accountability. Now I’m not arguing for adding science to accountability systems. But that’s a pretty telling piece of data.

Eric Cross (24:19):

What gets measured gets done.

Eric R. Banilower (24:20):

Yeah.

Eric Cross (24:20):

Or what was getting evaluated was getting done. And that raises, that opens up a myriad of other questions about testing, and what that reveals, and all of those different things. But at the end of the day, what you’re finding is that the things that were getting tested were the things that were getting the priority.

Eric R. Banilower (24:36):

That’s right.

Eric Cross (24:37):

How did we get to this point? And Eric, you said it goes back at least to ’77, but we look at society and we’re…I wanna say we’re post-pandemic, but we’re we’re not. but we’re trying to, we’re trying to get past that. But we’re looking at…we had innovations in biology, we have innovations right now in green energy and electric cars and all of these things that are STEM-based. We know that these are things that have moved humanity forward. And we look at the pipeline of people who are in STEM and we, we see the disparities and things like that. Why was science given less of a priority? I’m just curious. Maybe, Courtney, we could start with you, if you have any ideas. Or Eric. Either one. But how did we get here?

Eric R. Banilower (25:22):

<laugh> I think Courtney wants me to take that one. I’m older so I’ve seen more <laugh>. So, you know, I have the gray hair. She doesn’t. I think it’s complicated. And I know this sounds cliche, but but schools are a reflection of society, right? And, and so science education, you know, if you think back when Sputnik was launched, there became this great demand in America to improve and produce more scientists and engineers in response to this Cold War threat. Right? And then in the ’80s there was rising, oh, the gathering storm was an economic argument that we needed to increase science and math, you know, education and people going into those fields in order to compete economically against the global competitors. And I think that America has always produced a fair number, a large number, of high-quality scientists and engineers, you know. And we still lead the world in many ways. But where we’ve identified as a problem is who has those opportunities to go into those fields. You know, it used to be a very select, a very male-dominated, white male-dominated field. Right? And other people didn’t have the opportunity, or they were shown the way out pretty early. And we, I think, have come to realize as a country that, you know, the, the greater the diversity of thought that we can get into these discussions, the more innovative we can be and the more productive as a society we can be. And so I think we’ve had this shift in the country to, instead of thinking about just the quality for the select few, but to be thinking about the quality for everyone. And so that makes it seem like some of these challenges are greater than they used to be. And I think they’re different challenges, right? We’ve evolved as a society and I think schools have evolved.

Eric Cross (27:40):

There is a conversation I was in on a plane with a person who was a materials manager for a company that made the adhesive for sandpaper. And we were flying…I was flying to Denmark and he was flying to some other Scandinavian country. And we were just talking about it. And he came from another industry, and somehow the conversation led to science. I don’t know how that happened. But somehow I just started talking about science and I asked him about, Eric, kind of what you said about the US kind of leading the way in science innovation versus the rest of the world. And I asked him why. And he said one of the reasons why is because the heterogeneous thought. The different groups of people that are coming to a problem actually create more innovative and novel solutions. Versus when it’s more homogeneous. And everyone’s either culturally or just for whatever reason, kind of thinks a certain way. While they might have a more efficient way, the variety of solutions are not as varied and not as novel. I was reminded of that story based on what you just said. So it’s really interesting. So it seems to be that it benefits if we have more heterogeneous groups, more folks who are contributing to STEM, because that’s gonna be solving the next problem more efficiently. Or I guess maybe in my head it seems like the next we need…we do really well when we have a dragon to slay. I mean, it seems like we come together when that’s the case, right? Like, I dunno.

Eric R. Banilower (29:06):

No, I think that’s…I think that’s accurate.

Eric Cross (29:09):

Later on the season of the podcast, we’re gonna explore ways to better integrate science with other subjects like literacy and math. Were you able to study at all any more integrated approaches to science instruction? Does any of your research support that approach?

Courtney Plumley (29:25):

Not on the national survey, we didn’t study that. And it’s something that we’ve talked about before, because it’s difficult to get teachers to…we were talking about instructional time. It’s hard for teachers to put a number on it when they’re integrating, because, you know, it’s not like I have my science block from 3 to 3:30 anymore. Now it’s kind of scattered about. But it’s something that has been in the ether. We’ve been looking at it in a couple of projects. So there’s some evidence that it can be effective, especially for getting more, you know…the idea is you can get more time for science if you are integrating with other subjects. But one thing to kind of caution is like, students need to have opportunities to learn each discipline when they’re doing integrated instruction. So you don’t wanna just have, like, math in your science. Kids already know to just, like, support it. Then it’s hard to take time from math to put it into science when they’re not actually learning anything new. That’s the easy thing to do, though, is say, “Oh, my kids already know how to measure. We did that in a previous unit. So now we’ll we’ll do it as part of our science instruction.” So it’s a lot of work to make it so they’re learning something new, mathematics and science, at the same time. And it’s not really something that we think that teachers should be having to do on their own, with all the other things that teachers have to do. The last thing they need to do is be creating their own, you know, curriculum. Something that’s already…you know, it’s not straightforward. So we’ve been talking about it, we think it’s really something that instructional materials maybe need to be focusing on instead of teachers having to do that on their own,

Eric Cross (31:01):

Teachers would implement it, but asking them to create it is a whole different thing, and it’s a huge ask.

Courtney Plumley (31:08):

Yes.

Eric Cross (31:08):

Yeah. And, did I hear you right? So the ideal situation would’ve been the students learning a newer math concept, but embedded in a science kind of context? Or was that the better way? Versus, “I’m gonna take a math concept they already know and then just put it into the science setting?”

Courtney Plumley (31:26):

Well, if the idea is that you can get more science time if you’re, you know, integrating things, so you can maybe take time away from a specific math block by putting it with science, or whatever, then if the math is something that the kids already know, now you’re just taking away. I think that that has to be new in both cases, in order to justify having more time.

Eric Cross (31:49):

Right. Eric, in the secondary level, any thoughts on that? On integrating these disciplines together?

Eric R. Banilower (31:56):

I think, you know, just like at the elementary level, it can be challenging to do it well. When I taught, I taught my last couple years in a kind of school-within-a-school kind of situation, where our goal was to try to integrate science, mathematics, and language arts. And it’s hard to do that in a meaningful way. And we did not have curriculum materials given to us to help us do this. We were trying to figure out how to do this on our own, while we were teaching 200 kids a day in our subjects. Right? And five preparations. And you know, it’s a big ask of any teacher. And there are teachers who thrive on this and are great at this. And, you know, that’s one thing I wanna, make clear: our data is about the system, and we are former teachers. Almost everyone who works at Horizon is a former teacher. We have the greatest respect for teachers and what they do. And what our data is showing is are kind of like areas where the system isn’t providing teachers and their students the opportunities to do great things. I think at the high school level, there has been this idea of project-based learning where students are bringing together different skills, different ideas from across disciplines. And I think there’s, again, a lot of potential in doing that. But trying to develop those experiences so that they are doing service to the different subjects, so students are learning what they’re supposed to learn in English Language Arts, that they’re learning, important mathematics, and that this is in a science context, where they are getting to do and understand what science is and how science, as a discipline, operates…that’s just a really hard thing to develop.

Eric Cross (33:53):

So what I’m hearing—and I really appreciate the nuance in this, because it’s not a simple “Yes. Integrated is better,”—I’m hearing “Yes. Quality control.” “Yes. It needs to be written not by teachers; they’re the practitioners.” It’s “Yes. And,” not just simply binary. Which…it’s so easy to wanna chunk things and say yes or no on things. But this one seems a much more nuanced approach. And in a future episode, you mentioned project-based learning, we’re gonna try and talk to people who have thoughts on this. And I really appreciate that you talked about project-based learning, because also, how do you evaluate that? How do you evaluate whether or not it is high quality? Is this is something I see? You know, high-quality standards, highest quality science teaching, highly qualified teachers. It’s something that I see often. Now, based on all your research, this is kind of the 30,000-foot view. What advice might you have for people who are thinking about changing the way science is taught in this country? Which hasn’t changed since 1977, at least since we’ve been measuring it. Any advice for people who do want to act? Another way to ask, it might be, if you were given a magic wand, <laugh>, you have all power, what might you do if you can control the entire vertical system?

Eric R. Banilower (35:07):

Yeah, so a clarification, I do think science instruction has changed. It has evolved. I think there’s a lot of really good things going on in different pockets of the country. One of the challenges is bringing those good ideas and good practices to scale. Right? There are approximately 1.2 million teachers of science K–12 in this country. That’s a lot of people. And about 80% of those are elementary teachers who are responsible for teaching other subjects as well. So my thinking is often about, “How do we take what we know and that we’ve learned through decades of research is effective, and impact a large number of teachers, and therefore a large number of students?” And you know, Courtney I think has hinted at this already. And you’ve mentioned it too, Eric, is that teaching is a profession, right? And it’s a craft. But in no other profession do practitioners have the expectation that they’re developing their own tools and methods for their work. I know when I was in my teacher preparation program, and it’s still extremely common, one of the assignments perspective teachers are given is to develop a unit and develop a lesson, right? You don’t have doctors being asked to develop new treatments and new tests to use. Their job is to get to know their patient, assess what’s going on, and then using research-based methods to develop a plan of action, right? And I think that analogy works really well in education and is a way that we could have a scalable approach for kind of raising the floor across the country for the quality of science education. Giving teachers research-based materials, high-quality instructional materials, that they can then use and adapt to meet the needs of their students, would allow them to focus on getting to know their students, seeing what their strengths are, seeing where they have room for growth, and using the materials they’re given to help those students progress. And I think that is definitely a way where we could have a big impact at a large scale.

Eric Cross (37:39):

Courtney, same question: Magic wand, all power. You can change systems from the elementary perspective. What would you do? I’m assuming part of it’s gonna be changing that 18 to 20 minute time. But even for that to happen, what would you do? What would you change?

Courtney Plumley (37:57):

Well, I don’t know. Like, for it to change, I don’t know the answer to that. But yes, increasing the time would be great. And like Eric was saying, giving teachers— ’cause again, I’m coming in, not enough probably background in science—and then, you know, when I was, when I was teaching, we had one set of textbooks for the entire grade. Six classes, right? Like, share them. But third graders aren’t gonna read textbooks anyway, right? So instead I’m going to the teacher store. I’m pulling things off the shelf. And like, “OK, yeah, sure, I’ll use this.” And nowadays, teachers are going to Teachers Pay Teachers or whatever. Because I didn’t have anything good to use. So like Eric is saying, if I had instructional materials that were good instructional materials that were gonna teach my kids, that they were gonna be engaged, that they weren’t sitting and listening to science, but they were doing science, you know, and I had professional development to actually help me do it? That’s what I think we need to have. And I mean, I know there are some people out there that are working on that, but it’s not a lot. I mean, if you look at Ed Reports, they rate how well-aligned science curriculum are to standards. And there are two right now that have Ed Reports green lights. There’s Amplify and there’s OpenSciEd. You know, so there’s not much out there for teachers to use. And, so it’s hard. It’s hard. Where am I gonna go and get this stuff if it doesn’t exist? And so I’m making it up by myself. Which we already said is not the best use of teachers’ time, when they’ve got so many other demands on their time.

Eric Cross (39:27):

Eric and Courtney, listening to both of your responses, it created a visual in my mind. And Eric, I loved your analogy of…I started thinking of a chef, a welder, and a farmer. And I thought about the chef saying like, “You’re a great chef! Now, can you go farm, and make your own food, so that you can cook it?” Or the welder who has to make his own welding tools and go smelting. You know, making the different rods. I’m not a welder. But you know, all those different parts. Or the farmer who has to build his own tractor and innovate all that stuff. You’re absolutely right, the way you articulated that. And then Courtney, you essentially said, “Give them the tools and then teach them how to use it so they can go and actually be effective with it, because you’re in front of kids doing so many different things.” There’s only so much time in the day, and teachers want to do these things; they want to, but you end up having to triage when you’re asked to. Going back to Eric’s analogy, if you’re in the ER, but you’re also creating the vaccines and you’re also doing the research on which types of vaccines are gonna be the most effective, that’s, that’s a lot to ask. And so, I appreciate both your responses on that. Now, last question, what are you both working on now? This report came out in 2018. What’s, what’s next on the horizon? Actually literally, that’s no pun intended. <laugh> What’s next? <laugh> What’s next for, for you both? What are you working on?

Eric R. Banilower (40:42):

Well, you know, we would love to do another national survey, in a few years. We have to get funding to do it. And you know, that’s always something that takes effort and isn’t a guarantee. We’ve written grants to do these studies in the past, and there’s also the dealing with the reality of the situation. I think a lot of schools, still coming off the tail end of dealing with Covid, are overwhelmed. And we’ve had a hard time, I mentioned before, recruiting schools, and it gets harder every time, just ’cause they have so much on their plate. And I couldn’t see going to a school now and saying, “Hey, one more thing. Do you mind?” So I think we have to kind of wait a little bit for things to settle down before we can do another one of these studies. It just doesn’t seem feasible right now. But we’d love to in the not-too-distant future. Other than that, Courtney and I actually work on some projects together and some projects not together. One of the things that we’re working on together is a study of a fifth grade science curriculum that was developed by Okhee Lee at NYU and her colleagues, that is both aligned with the NGSS and purposely designed to support multilingual learners in developing both their science knowledge and skills as well as their language skills. And we’ve been working with the crew at NYU to study this curriculum and try to figure out, how well it’s working and under what circumstances. So that’s been a really interesting project that’s going on right now.

Courtney Plumley (42:26):

I recently worked on a report with the Carnegie Corporation in New York that actually I think, compliments what we’ve been talking about a lot. It’s about the status of K–12 education in the US—or science education in the US! <Laugh>—and so as part of that report we interviewed like 50 science education experts across the country. We surveyed teachers, people in the university settings, researchers, and everything to kind of get a little bit more update of the state of science education right now. And so a lot of the things we’ve been talking about, we still are talking about with the people in this report four years later. So, work in progress. <Laugh>

Eric Cross (43:09):

And again, going back to 1977, based on what Eric was saying earlier, we’re looking at these large systems, these systemic changes don’t happen overnight.

Eric R. Banilower (43:20):

That’s right.

Eric Cross (43:21):

It’s very slow-moving.

Eric R. Banilower (43:22):

That’s right. I would say there is progress. I think we’ve learned a lot. We are getting better. Are we there yet? No, we’re not happy with where we are. But I think, you know, I think it’s important to be hopeful about the direction things are going in.

Eric Cross (43:37):

Well-said. I agree. Courtney. Eric, thank you so much for unpacking that report that speaks to, that validates what so many teachers across the country are experiencing. And thank you for your advocacy for high-quality science education and your passion for supporting teachers and being that voice from a data-driven perspective of what teachers experience and then advocating for solutions for them. It’s super-encouraging for me, and I know it’s gonna be really encouraging for a lot of our listeners. So thank you.

Eric R. Banilower (44:10):

Thank you for having us.

Courtney Plumley (44:12):

Yeah. Thank you, Eric.

Eric Cross (44:15):

Thanks so much for listening to my conversation with Eric Banilower, Vice President of Horizon Research, and Courtney Plumley, Senior Researcher at Horizon Research. For much more, check out the show notes for a link to the 2018 National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education. And please remember to subscribe to Science Connections wherever you get podcasts, so that you’re not missing any of the upcoming episodes in Season three. Next time on the show, we’re gonna start laying out the road map for using science more effectively. And we’ll start by looking at the how and the why of integrating literacy instruction.

Susan Gomez Zwiep (44:49):

When we look at Science First and build language development around it, the experience tends to be more authentic and organic.

Eric Cross (44:58):

That’s next time on Science Connections: The Podcast. Thanks so much for listening.

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What Eric R. Banilower says about science

“Our data is showing us places where the system needs to provide teachers and their students the opportunities to do great things.”

– Eric R. Banilower

Vice President of Horizon Research, Inc.

Meet the guests

Eric R. Banilower is a Vice President at Horizon Research, Inc. (HRI), and has worked in education for over 30 years. Eric was previously a high school physics and physical science teacher before he joined HRI in 1997, where he has worked on a number of research and evaluation projects. Most recently, he has been the Principal Investigator of the 2012 and 2018 iterations of the National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education, a nationally representative survey focusing on the status of the K–12 STEM education system.

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Courtney Plumley is a Senior Researcher at Horizon Research, Inc. She began her career in education as an elementary school teacher before starting at HRI in 2009. In her time at HRI she has worked on many K-12 STEM research and evaluation projects. Most recently, Ms. Plumley has worked with Carnegie Corporation of New York on mapping the landscape of K-12 science education in the US and is managing the field test for the OpenSciEd elementary materials.

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A laptop screen displays the “Science Connections: The Community” private group page, with science-themed icons decorating the background and edges.

About Science Connections

Welcome to Science Connections! Science is changing before our eyes, now more than ever. So…how do we help kids figure that out? We will bring on educators, scientists, and more to discuss the importance of high-quality science instruction. In this episode, hear from our host Eric Cross about his work engaging students as a K-8 science teacher. 

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S3 – 04. Ideas to build math fluency with Valerie Henry, Graham Fletcher, and Tracy Zager

Promotional image for "Math Teacher Lounge" Season 3, Episode 4 titled "Ideas to Build Math Fluency," featuring Valerie Henry, Tracy J. Zager, and Graham Fletcher.

Fluency in math can oftentimes be associated with negative experiences with its development— timed worksheets, for example. Bethany and Dan are joined by three guests to better understand fluency and how to make its approach fun. Dr. Val Henry shares her three-part definition of fluency and her five principles for developing it. Additionally, Tracy Zager and Graham Fletcher join Bethany and Dan to better understand fluency through a lens of equity and using multimedia as a tool.

Explore more from Math Teacher Lounge by visiting our main page. 

Download Transcript

Dan Meyer (00:03)

Hey folks. Welcome back. This is Math Teacher Lounge, and I am one of your hosts, Dan Meyer.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:07):

And I’m your other host, Bethany Lockhart Johnson. Hi, Dan.

Dan Meyer (00:11):

Hey, great to see you. We have a big one this week to chat about and some fantastic guests. We are chatting about fluency, which is the sort of word and concept that I feel like people have very, very non-neutral associations with it. A lot of them are very negative, for a lot of people.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:26):

I saw you frown a little. What’s up with that, Dan? You kind of, like, shrank.

Dan Meyer (00:30):

I have strong feelings about it. You know, there’s lots of ways that people go about helping people become fluent in mathematics. And a lot of them are harmful for students, and ineffective. And it got me thinking about fluency as it exists outside of the world of mathematics, where we have a lot of very clear images of it. We’re getting fluent in things all the time. Like, as humans. Human development is the story of fluency. And I just was wondering….Bethany, would you describe yourself as fluent at something outside of the world of mathematics? What is that? How’d you get fluent at it? What was the process?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:05):

Hmm, I think I’m a pretty fluent reader. I read all the time. I’m a happier person if I’ve read that day. I once saw this poster in a classroom; it said “10 Ways to Become a Better Reader: Read, Read, Read, Read, Read…you know, 10 times. Get it? Reading? You get better at reading by reading! So I would say reading. And it’s been kind of cool—I have a one-year-old who, it’s been really exciting slash overwhelmingly anxiety-producing to see him get very fluent with walking slash running, ’cause he’s getting faster every day. And it’s kind of fun. When I think of what’s something somebody’s trying to get fluent with…walking! He’s trying to be more fluid. He’s practicing transitions. He doesn’t wanna hold my hand while he traverses rocky terrain. He’s getting better at it. He’s practicing. What about you? What’s something…?

Dan Meyer (02:08):

I think about driving a lot. I’m a very fluent driver and I think a lot about when I was first a driver, you know? And how l have my hands on 10 and 2, vice grip, and do not talk to me; do not ask me anything; don’t ask me my NAME. I need to focus so hard. And then a year later, you know, I’m driving with one hand, smash the turn signal, take a sip off of whatever, change the CD. And then it’s no big deal.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (02:38):

Wait, did you pass the first time? Your test?

Dan Meyer (02:40):

Yeah, I don’t like to brag about it. <laugh> But I do all the time. <laugh> But I got a hundred on my driving test. I don’t care who knows it. And I hope it’s everybody. But I guess all of this is just to say there are areas of life where fluency feels natural, with the case of walking. There’s areas of life where fluency feels motivating, with like driving—I wanna be able to switch the CD out or whatever. And there’s areas where fluency feels terrifying and hard to come by, like mathematics, sometimes. So we have a set of guests here. Our first guest will help us figure out what do we mean by fluency? And what’s the research say about what fluency is and how students develop it in mathematics? And then our other guests will help us think about what it looks like in practice in the classroom. What are some novel, new ways to work on fluency? So first up we have Val Henry, Dr. Val Henry.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (03:32):

So we knew we needed help with the fluency definition, because when we think about it, it’s kind of big, right? And we wanted to look at what research about fluency really says. So we called on Valerie Henry. Val is a nationally board-certified teacher, taught middle school for 17 years, and since 2002 has worked with undergraduates graduates, credential candidates as a lecturer at the University of California, Irvine, one of my alma maters. So after doing her dissertation on addition and subtraction fluency in first grade, Val created a project to study ways to build addition and subtraction and multiplication and division fluency while also developing number sense in algebraic thinking. And the pilot grew and grew over the last 18 years into a powerful daily mini-lesson approach to facts fluency called FactsWise. And when we thought of fluency, the first person I thought of was Val. Welcome, Val Henry, to the Lounge! I’m so excited to have you here. Welcome.

Valerie Henry (04:36):

Thanks, Bethany. And thanks to you, Dan. It’s great to be here today.

Dan Meyer (04:41):

Great to have you; help yourself to whatever you find in the fridge. The names that people write down on those things in the bags are just recommendations. It’s potluck-style here. I’m curious, Val, if you’re, like, on an airplane, someone asks you what you do, and you say you study fluency…what is the layperson’s definition of what does it mean to be fluent in mathematics? And if you can give a brief tour through what the research says about what works and what doesn’t that would really help us orient our conversation here.

Valerie Henry (05:12):

The first thing I have to do when I talk to somebody on a plane is define the idea of fluency. And I often use an example of tying your shoelaces. Because that works with first graders as well as adults. This idea that when we first start trying to put our shoes on and get those shoelaces tied, somebody tries to, first of all, just do it for us. But then of course maybe tries to teach us the bunny-ears approach. And we struggle and struggle as little kids and eventually either the bunny-ears approach or something else starts to work for us. But we still have to pay attention to it. We have to think hard and it’s not easy. And then over time we get to the point where we basically don’t even think about it. When I tie my shoes in the morning. I’m not thinking about right-over-left and left-over-right and all of those things. I just do it. And so that’s a good, easy example of becoming fluent with something. I think what we’re talking about today though, is the basics, the adding and subtracting that we hope kids are going to have mastered maybe by second grade, and the multiplication and division facts that we wanna maybe have mastered by third, maybe fourth grade. So now what does that mean to become fluent with those basics? I have a three-part definition that seems to match up really nicely with the common core approach to fluency. Which is, first of all, we want the answers to be correct. And then second, we want the answers to be easy to know. And so what does that mean? Well, to me, it means without needing to count,

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (07:12):

You mean without having to kind of muscle through it? Or say more about you mean.

Valerie Henry (07:16):

Well, I guess what I mean is that when you watch a young child try and solve something even as simple as two plus three, they might put up two fingers and then go 3, 4, 5 with three more fingers winding up on their hand, one or the other of their hands. While they’re doing that, they don’t really have a sense of whether even their answer is right or not, quite often. Especially when you get to the larger adding and subtracting problems, you can see a lot of errors happening as they’re trying to count. And it’s taking up cognitive energy to do that counting process, especially as you get to the larger quantities. So my definition of fluency now is “getting it right without needing to do that hard work like counting.” Now, some people might say, well, we just want them to have ’em memorized. But in my research, I’ve learned that a lot of very fluid adults don’t always have every fact memorized. In fact, if you ask a room full of adults, what’s seven plus nine, you might learn that they can all get it correct quickly, quickly…but they don’t all have it memorized. And so when you ask them, “How did you get that?” Many of them will say, “Well, I just gave one from the 7 to the 9 and I know that 10 plus 6 is 16.”

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (08:53):

That’s such an important distinction. My brain literally just did that actually!

Valerie Henry (08:58):

<laugh> Right? <laugh> But you’re fluid with it, because it doesn’t take you much cognitive energy at all.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (09:05):

Right.

Valerie Henry (09:07):

So now we have “correct without needing to put that cognitive energy,” which usually means that you’re counting. And then the third thing is “relatively quickly,” so that you’re not spending 15 seconds trying to figure it out. Even that part-whole strategy approach can be done really quickly, almost instantaneously. Or it can take a long time. So if a student can get the answer correct within, you know, three or four seconds— is I’m pretty generous—I figure that they’re pretty darn fluent with that fact. So that’s my three-part definition of these basics, fluency.

Dan Meyer (09:55):

I love the distinction between getting it correct and getting it quick. It’s possible to be quick with wrong answers. It’s possible to be like, “Those are separate components there.” And I echo Bethany’s appreciation for this third option in between knowing it instantaneously through memorization and muscling through it. But there’s like a continuum there of how much energy it took you to come up with it that all feels extremely helpful.

Valerie Henry (10:21):

And you know, one of the things that I’ve noticed is that when kids are pressured to come up with those instantaneous answers, they often default to guessing and get it wrong.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (10:30):

Mm, yeah.

Valerie Henry (10:30):

So that’s one of the things that I’ve learned is that as we’re trying to help students develop fluency, it’s important to start with building their conceptual understanding of what it means to do, you know, 3 times 9 and what the correct answer is, maybe using manipulatives or representations of some sort. Not skip-counting! I really have found that skip-counting just perpetuates itself in many students’ minds and that they never stop skip-counting, which means they’re putting in not very much mental energy if it’s 2 times 3 but a ton of mental energy if it’s 7 times 8. Because frankly, it’s really hard to skip count by sevens. And by eights.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (11:18):

I can get to 14 and then I’m like, wait, wait, what was next? Right? No, no, no…21! What do you feel are some misconceptions that maybe teachers, maybe parents have about fluency in math?

Valerie Henry (11:30):

I think maybe one of the first ones is that if students count or skip-count, their answers repetitively over and over and over and over, that they’re bound to memorize them. And the study that I did back in 2004, I actually had a school that had decided that they were going to do time tests with their students every day, all year. And that undoubtedly by the end of the year, those students would be fluent.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (12:06):

And to clarify by time test, you mean like, sit down, pencil, paper, ready, go, worksheet kind of thing.

Valerie Henry (12:15):

Yes.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (12:16):

Some of us might remember quite vividly.

Valerie Henry (12:18):

<laugh> Very vividly. And you know, you have to get it done within a certain amount of time. So they made it fun for the students. Apparently the students enjoyed it. I was a little leery about that, but in the end, when I went and checked on the students and I did one-on-one assessments with half of the students in every class that were randomly selected so that I could get a sense of where they were with their fluency—and these were first graders—they basically had nothing memorized. They were simply counting as fast as they possibly could. And, you know, mostly getting the right answers. But they had not memorized. So that’s one of the myths, I think, is that repetitive practice of counting gets you to memorization.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (13:10):

If I put it in front of you enough times, you’ll become fluent.

Valerie Henry (13:14):

Right, right. Now these students didn’t really get any instruction, any help learning these. They just simply tested over and over and over. So that’s another thing that I think is a misconception. It’s that if we test students, but don’t really teach them fluency, then they’re going to become fluent. If we just test them every Friday or that kind of thing. And that they’ll learn them at home. But really what that means is a few lucky kids who have parents who have the time and the energy and the background to know how to help will take that job on at home. Not that many students are really that fortunate.

Dan Meyer (14:01):

It’s almost like the traditional approach, or the approach you’re describing, confuses process and product. It says, “Well, the product is that eventually fluent students will be able to do something like this, see these problems and answer them, answer them quickly,” and says, “Well, that must be the process then as well; let’s give them that products a whole lot.” But as I hear you describe fluency with bunny ears on shoelaces, there’s these images and approaches and techniques that require a very active teacher presence to support the development of it. That’s just kind of interesting to me.

Valerie Henry (14:35):

My initial project, the pilot project that I tried, was to simply ask teachers to follow five key principles. And the first one was to do something in the classroom every day for—I told them, even if you’ve only got five or 10 minutes, work on fluency for five or 10 minutes a day, and let’s see what happens. So that was one key element was just to teach it and to give students opportunities to get what the research calls for when you’re trying to memorize, which is actually immediate feedback. When I talk about immediate feedback with my student teachers, I say, “I’m talking about within one or two seconds of trying a problem, and then sort of immediately knowing, getting feedback of whether you got the answer right or not so that your brain can kind of gain that confidence. ‘Oh, not only did I come up with an answer, but somebody’s telling me it’s the correct answer.’”

Dan Meyer (15:38):

There’s a lot of apps now in the digital world that offer students questions about arithmetic or other kinds of mathematical concepts and give immediate feedback of a sort: the feedback of “You’re right; you’re wrong” sort. Is that effective fluency development, in your view?

Valerie Henry (15:57):

I haven’t heard and I haven’t seen them being super-effective. The ways I think about this are “Immediate feedback isn’t the only thing we need.” Probably one of the biggest things that we need is for students to develop strategies. And this is one of the other things I’ve learned from international research, from countries that do have students who become very fluent very early, is that they don’t shoot straight for memorization, but they go through this process of taking students from doing some counting and then quickly moving them to trying to use logic. So, “Hey, you really are confident that 2 + 2 is 4; so now let’s use that to think about 2 + 3.” Actually, as an algebra teacher, I would much rather have students that have a combination of memorization and these strategies, than students who’ve only memorized. Isn’t that interesting that my most successful algebra students were good strategy thinkers. Not just good memorizers.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (17:09):

So you mentioned there were five that kind of helped root this idea in like, “What can teachers do? What is the best thing that teachers can do to support with fact fluency?” So, everyday was key.

Valerie Henry (17:22):

Then the next principle that I really focus on is switching immediately to the connected subtractions so that students—

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (17:33):

Not waiting until you’ve gotten all the way through addition. But making “Ooh!”

Valerie Henry (17:38):

Totally. And I didn’t do that the first year. And when we looked at the results of the assessments at the end of the year, we realized that our students were so much weaker in subtraction than addition. So the following pilot year, we tried this other approach of doing subtraction right after the students had developed some fluency with that small chunk of addition. And we got such better subtraction results.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (18:11):

What are the other principles?

Valerie Henry (18:13):

The biggest one is to use these strategies. So the strategies makes the third. And then the fourth I would say is to go from concrete to representational to abstract.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (18:27):

Don’t put away those manipulatives. Don’t put away those tools.

Valerie Henry (18:31):

Oh, so important to come back to them for multiplication and division. And my fifth principle is to wait on assessment. To use it as true assessment, but not race to start testing before students have had a chance to go through this three-phase process. Which is conceptual understanding with manipulatives; building strategies, usually with representations; and then working on building some speed until it’s just that natural fluency.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (19:07):

I wanna say thank you so much for offering your really learned perspective, because you have not only done the research, but seen it in action and seen how shifting our notions of fluency and what fluency can be and what a powerful foundation it can be for all mathematicians. Really, that shift is so powerful. And I appreciate you sharing it with our listeners and with us. So we’re so excited that we got to talk with you today, Val—

Dan Meyer (19:35):

Thank you, Dr. Henry.

Valerie Henry (19:37):

You’re welcome!

Dan Meyer (19:41):

With us now we have Graham Fletcher and Tracy Zager, a couple of people who understand fluency at a very deep and classroom level. I wanna introduce them and get their perspective on what we’re trying to solve here with fluency. So Graham Fletcher has served in education in a lot of different roles: as a classroom teacher, math coach, math specialist, and he’s continually seeking new and innovative ways to support students and teachers in their development of conceptual understanding in elementary math. He’s the author, along with Tracy, of Building Fact Fluency, a fluency kit we’ll talk about, and openly shares so much of his wisdom and resources at gfletchy.com. Tracy Johnson Zager is a district math coach who loves to get teachers hooked on listening to kids’ mathematical ideas. She is a co-author of this toolkit, Building Fact Fluency, and the author of Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You’d Had: Ideas and Strategies from Vibrant Classrooms. Tracy also edits professional books for teachers at Stenhouse Publishers, including, yours truly. Thank you for all that insight, Tracy, and support on the book.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (20:49):

Dan and I were talking at the beginning of the episode about things we feel like, “Hey, I’m fluent in that. I’m fluent in that.”

Dan Meyer (20:55):

Just very curious: What’s something you would like to get fluent in outside of the world of mathematics, let’s say?

Tracy Zager (21:00):

I’ll say understanding the teenage brain, as the parent of a 13-year-old and 15-year-old. That’s the main thing I’m working on becoming fluent in!

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (21:10):

Ooh!

Dan Meyer (21:13):

A language fluency, perhaps. All right, Graham. How about you?

Graham Fletcher (21:16):

For me typing, it’s always been an Achilles heel of mine. So voice-to-text has been my friend. But it’s also been my nemesis in much of my texting here and working virtually over the last couple years. So yeah, typing.

Dan Meyer (21:33):

Do you folks have some way of helping us understand the difference in how fluency is handled by instructors and by learners?

Tracy Zager (21:40):

I would say that the lay meaning of fluency is definitely a little different than what we mean in the math education realm. When we’re talking about math fact fluency, which is just one type of fluency. So you gotta think about procedural fluency and computational fluency; there are lots of types of fluency in math. And Graham and I had the luxury of really focusing in specifically on math fact fluency. We’re looking at kind of a subset of the procedural fluency. So the words you hear in all the citations are accurate, efficient, and flexible. There’s this combination of kids get the right answer in a reasonable amount of time and with a reasonable amount of work and they can match their strategy or their approach to the situation. That’s where that flexibility comes in. And there’s like lots more I wanna say about that about sort of…I think one issue that comes up around fluency is that people are in a little bit of a rush. So they tend to think of the fluency as this automaticity or recall of known facts without having to think about it. And that is part of the end goal, but that’s not the journey to fluency. So this is one of the things that Graham and I thought about a lot was the path to fluency. The goal here it’s that student in middle school who’s learning something new doesn’t have to expend any effort to gather that fact. And they might do it because they’ve done it so many different ways that they’ve got it, and now they just know it, or they might be like my friend who’s a mathematician who still, if you say, “Six times 8,” she thinks in her head, “Twelve, 24, 48…” and she does this double-double-double associative property strategy. And it’s so efficient, you would never know. And that’s totally great. That’s fine. That’s not slowing her down. That’s not providing a drag in the middle of a more complex problem or new learning. So we’re really focused on having elementary school students be able to enter the middle and high school standards without having that pull out of the new thinking.

Graham Fletcher (23:53):

And as I think about that, I think about how so many students will memorize their facts, but then they haven’t memorized them with understanding. So that when they move into middle school and they move into high school, it’s almost like new knowledge and new understanding that’s applied from a stand-alone skill.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (24:10):

So something that felt really unique to me, Graham, as I was diving into the toolkit, is your use of images, Tracy, Graham, is the way that you use images to help students notice and wonder to start making sense of these quantities and the decomposition of numbers using images. Can you talk a little bit about how images played a part in the way that you think about this building a fact fluency?

Graham Fletcher (24:41):

What I realized is so many times when we approach math with just naked numbers with so many of our elementary students, the numbers aren’t visible. The quantities. They can’t see them; they can’t move them. They’re just those squiggly figures that we were talking about earlier on. So how is it that we make the quantities visible, to where students feel as if they can grab an apple and move it around? Because a lot of times we start with the naked numbers and then if kids don’t get the naked numbers, then we kind of backfill it. But what would happen if we start with the images? And then from there, these rich, flourishing mathematical conversations develop from the images. And I think that was the premise and the goal of the toolkit.

Tracy Zager (25:22):

When you look at how fact fluency has traditionally been taught, it’s all naked numbers. And sometimes we wrote ’em sideways. Like, that’s it. That was our variety of task type. Right? Sometimes it’s vertical; sometimes it’s horizontal. And that was it. And I’ve just known way too many kids who couldn’t find a hook to hang their hat on with that. It didn’t connect to anything. And so part of why I knew Graham was the perfect person for this project was his strength in multimedia photography, art, video. And so we started from this idea of contexts that for each lesson string in the toolkit, there’s some kind of context. An everyday object, arranged in some kind of a way that reveals mathematical structure and invites students to notice the properties. So we start with images of everyday objects: tennis balls, paint pots…um, help me out; here are a million of them. Crayons—

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (26:18):

Crayons, markers.

Tracy Zager (26:18):

Shoes, right? Sushi, origami paper, all kinds of things in the different toolkits. So there’s a series of images or a three-act task or both around those everyday objects, and then story problems grounded in that context. And then there are images with mathematical tools that bring out different ideas, but relate in some way to the image talks. And we do all of that before we get to the naked number talk. Which we do, and by the time you get to the number talk, it’s pretty quick, ’cause they’ve been reasoning about cups of lemonade. And now when you give them the actual numerals, they’re all over it.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (27:03):

I have to say too, as somebody who—particularly in middle school—navigated math anxiety, we recently talked with Allison Hintz and Anthony Smith about their amazing book Mathematizing Children’s Literature.

Tracy Zager (27:14):

Yay!

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (27:14):

And I was explaining, like, if I sat down at the beginning of a math class and my teacher opened a picture book and said, “We’re gonna start here,” I felt my whole body relax. And if we start with this image, if we start with just looking at an image and making sense of an image, I feel like that could be such a powerful touchstone for all the work you do from there.

Tracy Zager (27:41):

That’s core. That’s a core design principle, is that invitational access. There are no barriers to entry. There’s nothing to decode. There’s nothing formal. We’ve been learning from Dan for years about this, right? Of starting with the informal and then eventually layering in the formal. I was in a class in Maine where they were doing an image talk and it’s these boxes of pencils. It’s a stack of boxes of pencils and they’re open and you can see there are 10 pencils in each box. And so there are five boxes of pencils each with 10 pencils in it. And then the next image is 10 boxes of pencils and each box is half full. So now it’s 10 boxes each with five. And the kids are talking and talking and then the third image, I think there are seven boxes each with 10 pencils in it. And she said, “What do you think the next picture’s gonna be?” And this girl said, “You just never know with these people!” <laugh> I dunno!”

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (28:37):

That’s kinda true. Knowing you both, it’s kinda true.

Tracy Zager (28:42):

Like if it’s seven boxes with 10 in it, one kid said, I think it’s gonna be 14 boxes of five. And other kids are like, I think it’s gonna be 10 boxes with seven. And they start talking about which of those there are and the relationships between—

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (28:58):

But they’re making sense of numbers!

Tracy Zager (28:59):

Totally. So all the kids felt invited. They can offer something up. They’re noticing and wondering about that image. They’re talking about it in whatever informal language or home language that they speak. And that was core to us. That was a huge priority, because honestly, one of the motivations to talk about fluency is that it’s always been this gatekeeper. It has served to keep kids out of meaningful math. Particularly kids from marginalized or historically excluded communities. So they’re back at the round table, doing Mad Minutes, while the more advantaged kids are getting to do rich problem solving. And so, we thought, what if we could teach fact fluency through rich problem solving that everybody could access? That was like square one for us.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (29:45):

That’s huge.

Dan Meyer (29:46):

That’s great to hear. What’s been helpful for me is to understand that students who are automatic, that’s just kind of what’s on the surface of things. And that below that might be some really robust kind of foundation or scaffolding that bleeds to a larger building being built, or it might be just really rickety and not offer a sturdy place to build farther up. It’s been really exciting to hear that. I wonder if you’d comment for a moment about, in the digital age and—I’m at Desmos and our sponsors are Amplify and we all work in the digital world quite a bit. There are a lot of what report to be solutions to the fluency issue, to developing fluency in the digital world. Just lots and lots of them. Some that are quite well used, others that are just like X, Y, or Z app on the market. You can find something. Do you have perspectives on these kinds of digital fluency building apps? Like, what about them works or doesn’t work? Let us know. Graham, how about you? And then Tracy, I’d love to hear your thoughts too.

Graham Fletcher (30:47):

Yeah, I think that’s a great question, ’cause there’s a lot of shiny bells and whistles out there right now that can really excite a lot of teachers. But I always come back to what works for me as a classroom teacher is probably gonna work in a digital world as well. So what are the things that I love and honor most about being in front of students, and how can I capture that in that virtual world? I think one of the things that really helps students make connections is coherence. I think coherence, especially when you leave students for—you don’t get to talk with them after the lesson is done—so I think about how we can purposefully sequence things through a day-to-day basis. I think coherence is something that gets really lost when we talk about fluency, especially with whether it be digital or whether it be print, because what ends up happening is we say, “OK, we have all these strategies we need to teach,” and it becomes a checklist. So how is it that we can just provide students the opportunity to play around in a space, whether it be digital or in person, but in a meaningful way that allows them the time and the space and that area to breathe and think, but be coherent. And connecting those lessons along the way. And I think coherence is one thing that a lot of the times it’s harder to—when we’re in the weeds, it’s so hard and difficult to zoom back out and say, “Do all these lessons connect? How do they intentionally connect? And how do they purposefully connect?” And without coherence, everything’s kind of broken down into that granular level. So when looking at—I think about Desmos and I think about the Toolkit and I think about how Tracy and I talked a lot about, “Well, this, does it connect with the context problem, does it connect with the image talk, or the lessons? Like, how does it all connect and how are we providing students an opportunity to make connections between the day-to-day instruction and lessons that we tackle?”

Tracy Zager (32:44):

I’m reminded of a conversation that Dan, you and I had a long time ago, in Portland, Maine, in a bar. I’ll just be honest. <laugh> And we were talking about how, in the earlier days of Desmos, you were stressed out by what you saw, which was kids one-on-one, on a device, in a silent room. And you were like, no, this is not it. This is not what technology is here to serve. We can do so many things better using technology appropriately, but we can’t lose talk and we can’t lose relationships and we can’t lose formative assessment and teachers listening to kids and kids listening to each other and helping each other understand their thinking. Right? So when I think about the tech that’s out there for fact fluency, most of it is gonna violate all rules I have around time testing. So that a whole bunch of it, I would just toss on that premise. They’re really no different than flashcards. It’s just flashcards set in junkyard heaps. Or, you know, underground caverns. Or with a volcano or whatever. It’s the same thing. There are some lovely visuals—I’m thinking of Berkeley Everett’s Math Flips. Those are really pretty. Mathigon has some really nice stuff that’s digital. And I think that those resources invite you to kind of ponder and notice things and talk about them. All the tools that we design in the toolkit are designed to get people talking to each other, and give teachers opportunities to pull alongside kids and listen in and understand where they are. For example, our games, we didn’t design the games to be played digitally, even though you could, and people did during COVID, because we want kids on the rug, next to each other, on their knees; I’ve seen kids like across tables. I was in a school recently where a kid was like, “I hope you believe in God, ’cause you’re going…!” You know what I mean? <laugh>. Like they’re all pumped up.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (34:41):

They’re invested!

Tracy Zager (34:45):

They’re psyching each other up and down and they’re interacting and it’s social and the teacher’s walking around and she’s listening to the games. And they don’t actually need any bells and whistles. They need dice and they need counters and they need this game that is actually a game. In all of our conversations, games have to actually be games. Games cannot be “roll and record.” Games have to involve strategy. They have to be fun. So in designing those games, we didn’t feel like it brought any advantage to make that a digital platform. But things that did bring advantages digitally, like the ability to project these beautiful images or to use short video in the classroom, that really was a value-add that enabled us to do something different in math class than we had done before, and to get kids talking in a different way than they ever had before. When I think about fluency, historically, if you say like, “OK, it’s time to practice our math facts,” you hear a lot of groans. And when I see a Building Fact Fluency classroom and I say, “OK, it’s BFF time!” There’s like a “YEAAAAHHH!” You know? And so that’s what we’re after.

Graham Fletcher (35:47):

It’s all about kids, really, for us. And I think at the heart of it, we made all the decisions with teachers and kids at the forefront of it.

Tracy Zager (35:55):

I know of high schoolers who are newcomers, who have experienced very little formal education, and speak in other languages, are using it as high schoolers, because it involves language and math and all the deep work in the properties and it’s accessible, but it’s also not at all condescending or patronizing. Like we designed it to be appropriate for older kids. So that’s just something that I think we’re both really proud of. One thing we thought a lot about, especially in the multiplication-division kit is how a classroom teacher could use it and a coordinating educator in EL, Title, special education, intervention could also use it because there’s so much in it, that students could get to be experts, if they got extra time in it, using something that’s related and would give them additional practice. So they could play a game a little bit earlier than the rest of the classes. And they could come in already knowing about that game, or they could do a related task. We have all these optional tasks that no classroom teacher would ever have time to teach it all. So the special educator could use it and have kids doing a Same and Different or a True/False, or some of the optional games. And then the work in both special education and general education could connect.

Dan Meyer (37:20):

I just wanna say that this is an area that for so many students, as you’ve said, Tracy, it presents a barrier for their inclusion in mathematics. It’s a very emotionally fraught area of mathematics. And we really appreciate the wisdom you brought here. And just the care you’ve brought to the product itself. Your knowledge of teaching, knowledge of math, and yeah, especially a love for students feels like it’s really infused throughout Building Fact Fluency. If our listeners want to know more outside of this podcast, outside of the product itself, where can they find your words, your voice? Where you folks at these days? Tell ’em, Graham would you?

Graham Fletcher (37:57):

You can find us at Stenhouse, Building Fact Fluency. And then Tracy and I, currently playing around, sharing ideas a lot on Twitter, under the hashtag #BuildingFactFluency. That’s kind of where we can all come together and share ideas. And then also on the Facebook community, where there’s lots of teachers sharing ideas.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (38:19):

If you were to ask our listeners like, “Hey, if you wanna keep thinking about this, here’s something you could try or here’s something you could go do,” what could be a challenge that we could share that could help us continue this conversation?

Graham Fletcher (38:35):

Online you can actually download a full lesson string. And a lesson string is a series of activities and resources that are purposefully connected. You can pick one or two of those from the Stenhouse web site, Building Fact Fluency. You can try the game. You can try one of those strategy-based games. You can try an image talk and just see how it goes. And just share and reflect back, whether on Twitter or on Facebook. But it’s kind of there, if you wanna give it a whirl. And as Tracy was sharing, even if you’re a middle-school teacher or a high-school teacher, we really tried to think about those middle-school and high-school students keeping it grade level-agnostic. Just so every student has those opportunities for those mathematical conversations. So download a lesson string and give it a whirl, and we’d love to hear how it goes.

Dan Meyer (39:25):

Bethany and I will be working the same challenge with people in our life.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (39:29):

Yes.

Dan Meyer (39:29):

Enjoying some fact fluency with people in our homes, perhaps. We’ll see. And we’ll be sharing the results in the Math Teacher Lounge Facebook group. Graham and Tracy, thanks so much for being here. It was such a treat to chat with you both.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (39:42):

I love learning with you and just helping to shift this idea of fluency into something that can be accessible and powerful and positive.

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What Valerie Henry says about math

“A lot of very fluent adults don’t always have every fact memorized. ”

– Val Henry

Meet the guests

Valerie Henry has been a math educator since 1986. She taught middle school math for 17 years and has worked as a lecturer at University of California Irvine since 2002. After doing her 2004 dissertation research on addition/subtraction fluency in first grade, Valerie created FactsWise, a daily mini-lesson approach that simultaneously develops  fluency,  number sense, and algebraic thinking. Additionally, she has provided curriculum and math professional development for K-12 teachers throughout her career, working with individual schools, districts, county offices of education, Illustrative Mathematics, the SBAC Digital Library, and the UCI Math Project.

Graham Fletcher has served in education as a classroom teacher, a math coach, and currently as a math specialist. He is continually seeking new and innovative ways to support students and teachers in their development of conceptual understanding in elementary mathematics. He is the author of Building Fact Fluency and openly shares many of his resources at gfletchy.com. Follow him on Twitter.

Tracy Johnston Zager is a district math coach who loves to get teachers hooked on listening to kids’ mathematical ideas. She is a co-author of the Building Fact Fluency toolkits and the author of Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You’d Had: Ideas and Strategies from Vibrant Classrooms. Tracy also edits professional books by teachers, for teachers at Stenhouse Publishers. Follow her on Facebook.

A collage of three headshots: an older woman with glasses, a man with a beard in a blue shirt, and a woman with dark hair smiling in front of greenery.
A graphic with the text "Math Teacher Lounge with Bethany Lockhart Johnson and Dan Meyer" on colored overlapping circles.

About Math Teacher Lounge: The podcast

Math Teacher Lounge is a biweekly podcast created specifically for K–12 math educators. In each episode co-hosts Bethany Lockhart Johnson (@lockhartedu) and Dan Meyer (@ddmeyer) chat with guests, taking a deep dive into the math and educational topics you care about.

Join the Math Teacher Lounge Facebook group to continue the conversation, view exclusive content, interact with fellow educators, participate in giveaways, and more!

You might also like:

A video call screen showing a math problem on the left with a play button overlay, and two participants on the right in individual video boxes. "MATH TEACHER LOUNGE" text is at the bottom.

Free professional development cours…

Three on-demand professional learning courses for math teachers.  Earn your cert…

Mathigon logo featuring colorful geometric shapes on a dark background.

Mathigon: the mathematical playgrou…

Math games and manipulatives for online and remote learning.

Illustration of a stomp rocket launch next to a graph showing height over time for three rocket trajectories: red, black, and gray parabolas.

Desmos Classroom Grades 3–12

Join Desmos Classroom to gain access to free classroom lessons, lesson-building…

Welcome, Ellensburg, to Amplify Desmos Math!

Amplify Desmos Math K-5 thoughtfully combines conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application. Each lesson is designed to tell a story by posing problems that invite a variety of approaches before guiding students to synthesize their understanding of the learning goals.

Scroll to learn more about the program and explore sample materials.

About the program

We believe in math that motivates. Our structured approach to problem-based learning builds on students’ curiosity to develop lasting grade-level understandings for all students. 

The program motivates students with interesting problems they are eager to solve. Teachers can spend more time where it’s most impactful: creating a collaborative classroom of learners.

A powerful suite of math resources

Amplify Desmos Math combines the best of problem-based lessons, intervention, personalized practice, and assessments into a coherent and engaging experience for both students and teachers.  Feel free to explore our grade-level ancillary samplers to learn more about assessment and reporting, intervention, and differentiation:

Grade K Ancillary Sampler

Grade 1 Ancillary Sampler

Grade 2 Ancillary Sampler

Grade 3 Ancillary Sampler

Grade 4 Ancillary Sampler

Grade 5 Ancillary Sampler

A laptop displays a math problem with illustrated students and a virtual keyboard. Behind it, a chart shows percentages for a Math 2 Beginning-of-Year Screener assessment.

Assessment

mCLASS® Assessments, along with daily formative checks, measure not only what students know, but how they think. The asset-based assessment system provides teachers with targeted, actionable insights, linked to core and intervention resources. Visit our mClass Math site to learn more.

Two side-by-side math activities for children: on the left, a caterpillar-themed block challenge, and on the right, a worksheet for finding pairs that sum to 10. These exercises are fantastic ways to amplify children's engagement with math concepts.

Core instruction

Amplify Desmos Math lessons pair problems students are eager to solve with clear instructional moves for teachers. With low-floor, high-ceiling tasks every student can actively participate and be a part of the math community. Unit- and lesson-level core assessments give teachers data at their fingertips to guide and differentiate instruction.

A math lesson screen shows a toy sinking 5 meters into a pool. A textbox asks how many centimeters that is, with space for an answer and a "Try again" button. An avatar explains the question, using Desmos math tools to amplify understanding.

Differentiation

Personalized Learning activities help students access grade-level math through engaging, independent digital practice. Responsive Feedback adjusts to students’ work, providing item-level adaptivity to further support their learning and offer personalized differentiation. Visit our Boost Math site to learn more. 

Two pages from a New York math textbook on determining coordinates after a rotation. Includes sections on modeled review, guided practice, and teacher's notes, with diagrams and examples that amplify the learning experience.

Embedded intervention

Integrated resources like Mini-Lessons, Fluency Practice, and Math Adventures provide targeted intervention on a specific concept or skill connected to the daily lesson. Extensions are also available to stretch students’ understanding.

Multilingual Learners

To support multilingual/English learners, Amplify Desmos Math incorporates research-based Math Language Routines (MLRs) by providing language modality strategies like sentence frames where appropriate, both in the teacher language provided for each task and in the differentiation support section found throughout the program. For further information on math language development, please see pg. 82 of the Amplify Desmos Math Program Guide.

Una profesora con un polo rojo ayuda a una estudiante con cabello largo y rizado que está leyendo un libro en su escritorio en un salón de clases. En la pared detrás de ellos se exhiben carteles con temas educativos.

Review Resources

To support your review of Amplify Desmos Math here are links to important K-5 review resources:

Two women in an office setting are smiling while looking at a tablet. Various educational icons surround the image.

K-5 sample materials

Click the links in the drop-down sections below to explore sample materials from each grade.  To see sample student responses, please click on the Teacher Edition pages and scroll to “Sample Student Work” (first one is about 30 pages in) or click on Intervention and Extension resources.   

For helpful navigation tips and more program information, download the Amplify Desmos Math Program Guide.

You can also watch a product expert walk through a lesson and the available program components.

Digital educational material showing an activity named "Hamster Homes" involving tube length and platform heights for a hamster cage. Includes a diagram with platforms measuring 9 inches.
Screenshot of a kindergarten curriculum outline featuring units like Math in Our World, Numbers 1-10, Positions and Shapes, Understanding Addition, Making 10, and Shapes All Around Us. This comprehensive program utilizes New York Math standards to build foundational skills.
Program structure

Get to know the content and structure of Kindergarten Amplify Desmos Math.

Cover of Amplify Desmos Math Grade K Teacher Edition featuring three children playing with math-related objects and a group of rabbits sitting nearby, aligning with the engaging curriculum seen in New York math classrooms.
Teacher Edition pages

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Unit 1: Counting and Comparing Objects.

Educational activity screen displaying a blue backpack with icons, dot groups on the left, and a grid background. Prompt reads, "Look inside the backpack. Then choose the group with the same number of dots." A great tool to amplify Desmos math learning in line with New York math standards.
Digital experience

Explore our digital experience! Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math has student print materials and digital recommendations.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Student Edition Kindergarten," featuring an illustration of three children playing with math-related toys. A group of small white animals, possibly hamsters, play nearby. The scene brilliantly captures the joy of New York math exploration for young learners.
Student Edition pages

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Grade K Centers Resources" featuring a large, stylized red and pink "C" on a light pink background with simple geometric designs. This distinctive cover complements New York math curriculums with its engaging visual elements.
Centers Resources

Engaging, hands-on games for students to play collaboratively to strengthen their understanding of key skills and concepts.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Grade K." The title is displayed with a geometric "I" illustration in the center. Subtitle reads "Intervention and Extension Resources" on a pink and white background, ideal for New York math standards.
Intervention and Extension Resources

Additional resources to reinforce and extend key concepts, including Mini-Lessons and Extensions.

A digital activity screen, crafted in the style of Amplify Desmos Math, shows two paths with different quantities of mushrooms. The user is prompted to choose the path with more mushrooms. A bear is on the left side of the screen.

In this lesson, students apply their understanding of how to compare groups of images as they determine which group has more or fewer and then compare their strategies by guiding a bear through a path that has more mushrooms than the other.

Grade 1 math curriculum overview displaying six units with instructional and assessment days: counting, addition, subtraction, numbers to 10, comparing numbers, measuring length, and geometry—aligned with the New York Math standards.
Program structure

Get to know the content and structure of Grade 1 Amplify Desmos Math.

Children interact with math activities on a large tablet while observing fish illustrations. The text reads "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 1 Teacher Edition, aligned with New York Math standards.
Teacher Edition pages

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Unit 1: Story Problems in Maui.

A digital math exercise, amplified by Desmos Math, showcases a story problem about adding kalo plants with three illustrations and a filled-out number sentence 3 + 4 = 7. A "Check" button is present. This tool aligns perfectly with New York math standards.
Digital experience

Explore our digital experience! Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math has student print materials and digital recommendations.

Illustration of three children engaged in math activities from the "Amplify Desmos Math: Student Edition 1" textbook. One child holds a number card, while the others manipulate counters and images, experiencing an exciting approach inspired by New York math techniques.
Student Edition pages

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Centers Resources" for Grade 1, featuring a yellow and white 3D letter "C" on a light background.
Centers Resources

Engaging, hands-on games for students to play collaboratively to strengthen their understanding of key skills and concepts.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math, Grade 1: Intervention and Extension Resources" depicting a large, blocky number one and a yellow-themed design. Ideal for enhancing New York math curriculum.
Intervention and Extension Resources

Additional resources to reinforce and extend key concepts, including Mini-Lessons and Extensions.

An educational game screen, inspired by New York math standards, shows a subtraction problem, "4 - 1," with a frog moving along numbered lily pads to reveal the answer "3.

In this lesson, students find differences when subtracting 1 and 2 from the same number by helping a frog reach a lily pad where it can eat a bug.

A curriculum overview for Grade 2 in New York Math displaying 8 units, including topics like comparisons, addition, subtraction, and geometric shapes, with details on the number of instructional and assessment days. This plan integrates resources from Amplify Desmos Math to enrich learning experiences.
Program structure

Get to know the content and structure of Grade 2 Amplify Desmos Math.

Cover of the "Amplify Desmos Math" Grade 2 Teacher Edition, showcasing children measuring with rulers and a poster displaying a mathematical equation, set against whimsical scenery with a colorful dragon. Perfect for New York math classrooms.
Teacher Edition pages

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Unit 1: Adding and Subtracting.

Activity screen displaying a task to estimate the number of animals in an aquarium, featuring a bar chart for goldfish, frogs, and shrimp. Utilizing Desmos math tools, an illustration of an aquarium with various animals is also included to amplify learning.
Digital experience

Explore our digital experience! Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math has student print materials and digital recommendations.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Student Edition 2" showing three children performing a New York math activity with blocks and measurements.
Student Edition pages

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful.

Cover of an educational book titled "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 2 Centers Resources" featuring a green "C" on a light green background, perfect for enhancing New York math education.
Centers Resources

Engaging, hands-on games for students to play collaboratively to strengthen their understanding of key skills and concepts.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 2: Intervention and Extension Resources" featuring a green numeral 1 on a light green background, aligning with the New York math standards.
Intervention and Extension Resources

Additional resources to reinforce and extend key concepts, including Mini-Lessons and Extensions.

An educational activity where users must select the block with the correct number to make a total of 10 using the given block numbers. The UI, inspired by New York math standards, features a caterpillar and two tree stumps to amplify engagement with Desmos Math tools.

In this lesson, students find differences when subtracting 1 and 2 from the same number by helping a frog reach a lily pad where it can eat a bug.

An educational curriculum outline for Grade 3 with seven units covering various mathematics topics, including multiplication, shapes, fractions, and measurement. Suggested instructional days are provided. The New York Math approach ensures a thorough understanding of each concept.
Program structure

Get to know the content and structure of Grade 3 Amplify Desmos Math.

Cover of a "Grade 3 Amplify Desmos Math Teacher Edition" book, featuring a cutaway building with diverse students and a teacher working on New York math problems and organizing materials.
Teacher Edition pages

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Unit 1: Concepts of Area Measurement.

Educational software displays a challenge to determine the area of an unpainted wall. The wall features a door and window with given dimensions, and a mouse pointer hovers near the question, amplifying the student's engagement.
Digital experience

Explore our digital experience! Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math has student print materials and digital recommendations.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Student Edition 3" showcasing illustrated children engaged in various mathematical activities inside a glass house structure, reflecting the dynamic energy of New York math.
Student Edition pages

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful.

Cover of the Amplify Desmos Math Grade 3 Centers Resources book, featuring a 3D letter "C" in blue and white on a minimalistic background, perfect for aligning with New York math standards.
Centers Resources

Engaging, hands-on games for students to play collaboratively to strengthen their understanding of key skills and concepts.

Cover of an "Amplify Cover of the "Amplify Desmos Math" Grade 3 book featuring intervention and extension resources, with a blue geometric "I" on a light blue background, aligning with New York Math standards.
Intervention and Extension Resources

Additional resources to reinforce and extend key concepts, including Mini-Lessons and Extensions.

A page titled "Activity 2" features a table showing counts of rabbits, raccoons, and foxes, an image of animal stickers, and a bar graph representing the number of each animal, designed to amplify your New York math lesson with engaging visual data.

Students compare data represented on bar graphs with different scales by using animal stickers to create scaled bar graphs.

A course outline for Algebra 1 with 8 units, each detailing the number of instructional and optional days. The total suggested instructional days are 144 and 28 optional days, aligning with New York Math standards.
Program structure

Get to know the content and structure of Grade 4 Amplify Desmos Math.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Teacher Edition Grade 4" showing children learning New York Math outdoors, using large mathematical tools and numbers, with one child in a wheelchair.
Teacher Edition pages

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Unit 1: Size and Location of Fractions.

Educational screen showing an interactive activity from Amplify Desmos Math where a user drags a point to cut a log into quarters. The progress is 2 out of 10.
Digital experience

Explore our digital experience! Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math has student print materials and digital recommendations.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math, Student Edition, Grade 4," showcasing students collaborating on math problems involving shapes and numbers against a vibrant backdrop that blends cityscapes and natural scenery, capturing the essence of New York math learning.
Student Edition pages

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful.

Cover of the "Amplify Desmos Math" Grade 4 Centers Resources book, featuring a large, stylized blue letter "C" on a light blue background. This essential resource for New York math educators ensures engaging and effective instruction.
Centers Resources

Engaging, hands-on games for students to play collaboratively to strengthen their understanding of key skills and concepts.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math, Grade 4: Intervention and Extension Resources," featuring a geometric illustration and a blue and orange color scheme inspired by New York math standards.
Intervention and Extension Resources

Additional resources to reinforce and extend key concepts, including Mini-Lessons and Extensions.

Interactive educational activity asking users to determine platform heights using a 3-inch tube. The interface, inspired by Desmos math tools, features a dragging function and feedback system with a checkbox and "Try another" option, amplifying the learning experience.

Students choose tube lengths to connect to platform heights for hamster homes, identifying possible heights using what they know about multiples.

A Grade 5 curriculum scope and sequence chart with units covering volume, fractions, multiplication, shapes, place value, and measurement. Each unit lists instructional and assessment days to amplify Desmos Math activities.
Program structure

Get to know the content and structure of Grade 5 Amplify Desmos Math.

Illustration of three students engaging with various math activities outdoors and around large blocks. Text at the top reads "Amplify Desmos Math, Grade 5, Teacher Edition" - a perfect resource for New York math educators.
Teacher Edition pages

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Unit 1: Fractions as Quotients.

A digital activity prompt showing a scenic landscape with bamboo shoots and a panda. Using Desmos math tools, the task is to estimate the length where the third bamboo shoot should be placed for the panda to reach a leaf. This exercise is designed to amplify your understanding of spatial reasoning.
Digital experience

Explore our digital experience! Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math has student print materials and digital recommendations.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Student Edition, Grade 5" featuring students engaged in various mathematical activities outside, such as block building, measuring, and gardening—a perfect resource aligning with New York math standards.
Student Edition pages

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful.

Cover image of "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 5 Centers Resources" featuring a large purple letter C on a light purple background, showcasing the innovative approach of Amplify Desmos Math that's making waves in New York math education.
Centers Resources

Engaging, hands-on games for students to play collaboratively to strengthen their understanding of key skills and concepts.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 5: Intervention and Extension Resources," featuring a large, stylized number five in purple against a light purple background with minimal geometric patterns, ideal for New York math curriculum support.
Intervention and Extension Resources

Additional resources to reinforce and extend key concepts, including Mini-Lessons and Extensions.

An interactive screen showing an activity about decomposing a figure into prisms, with a touch of Desmos Math integration. The user is asked to drag points to demonstrate the decomposition. Two prism illustrations are displayed, offering a glimpse of New York Math's approach.

Students decompose a figure into rectangular prisms and determine the volume of the figure by adding the volumes of the individual prisms.

Contact Us

If you have any questions throughout your review process or need additional samples, please don’t hesitate to contact:

Alicia O’Neil

Account Executive

425-890-6103

aoneil@amplify.com

Request additional samples

Ready to learn more? Connect with an Amplify Desmos Math expert to request additional program samples.

Texas Public Reviewers: Welcome to Amplify Desmos Math Texas!

Thank you for taking the time to review Amplify Desmos Math Texas K–5.  This site provides the login steps and tools you need to review the program.

Watch this short introductory video to help you navigate the Amplify Desmos Math Texas K-5 platform.  Then, use the login credentials below to start your online review.

The helpful Navigation Tool-Title List with live links and other documents to guide your review can be found below as well.

Three people engage in a painting project indoors, with one holding a fraction card and others painting the walls and floor. A tree and math symbols are in the background.

Login credentials:

Login page for Amplify with options to log in via Google, Clever, Amplify, QR code, or District SSO. A "Help" button and illustrated design elements are also visible.

Step 1

Go to learning.amplify.com and select Login with Amplify.

Enter the username and password:

Username: t.txmathk5public@tryamplify.net
Password: AmplifyNumber1

Step 2

Select Amplify Desmos Math in Your Programs.

Educational dashboard showing a welcome message to "Educator K-5 Review," highlighting "Amplify Desmos Math" as a recommended program, with a paper airplane and quick links section.

Step 3

Once you’re in the program, select a grade level to explore the digital curriculum.

Navigation video

View this short introductory video to help you navigate the Amplify Desmos Math Texas K-5 platform.

Navigation Tool – Title Lists

Tip:  Be sure you’re logged into the Amplify Desmos Math Texas platform (steps above) before clicking on the links in these documents.

New content – Quality rubric 1.1a

If approved, this proposed content will be added as a Paper Resource on the Course-level tile on Amplify Desmos Math Texas and on the Caregiver Hub as an additional home resource.

New content – Quality rubric 2.1c

If approved, these two pages will be added to the front matter of the Assessment Resource teacher ancillary.

Revised Content – Kindergarten

Revised Content – Grade 1

Revised Content – Grade 2

Revised Content – Grade 3

New Content – Grade 4

New Content – Grade 5

Citations for Upper Limit TEKS in K-5 Mathematics

Proposed changes to address the upper limit TEKS breakouts can be found at the link above. The notes for each citation indicate where the new content will exist, once approved.

Components List

View the full list of components for Amplify Desmos Math Texas K-5.

Center Resources and Kits

Access a description and ISBN’s for the K-5 Center Resources and Kits.

Manipulative Kits List

View the full list of contents for each K-5 Amplify Desmos Math Texas Manipulative Kit.

Welcome Reviewers, to Amplify Desmos Math!

Amplify Desmos Math thoughtfully combines conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application. Each lesson is designed to tell a story by posing problems that invite a variety of approaches before guiding students to synthesize their understanding of the learning goals.

Scroll to learn more about the program and explore sample materials.

About the program

We believe in math that motivates. Our structured approach to problem-based learning builds on students’ curiosity to develop lasting grade-level understandings for all students. 

The program thoughtfully combines conceptual understanding, fluency, and application, motivating students with interesting problems they are eager to solve. Teachers can spend more time where it’s most impactful: creating a collaborative classroom of learners.

A powerful suite of math resources

Amplify Desmos Math combines the best of problem-based lessons, intervention, personalized practice, and assessments into a coherent and engaging experience for both students and teachers.

A digital interface displays a math screener report on the left and a math problem involving division, alongside a visual representation of students lined up on the right, integrating rich math resources from Amplify Desmos Math.

Screening and progress monitoring

mCLASS® Assessments, along with daily formative checks, measure not only what students know, but also how they think. The asset-based assessment system provides teachers with targeted, actionable insights, linked to core instruction and intervention resources.

Two side-by-side math activities for children: on the left, a caterpillar-themed block challenge, and on the right, a worksheet for finding pairs that sum to 10. These exercises are fantastic ways to amplify children's engagement with math concepts.

Core instruction

Amplify Desmos Math lessons provide a structured approach to problem-based learning, helping teachers create a collaborative math community with students at its center. Each lesson systematically builds on students’ curiosity to develop lasting grade-level understandings for all students.

Two pages from a New York math textbook on determining coordinates after a rotation. Includes sections on modeled review, guided practice, and teacher's notes, with diagrams and examples that amplify the learning experience.

Differentiation and intervention

Integrated resources like Mini-Lessons, Fluency Practice, and Math Adventures provide targeted intervention on a specific concept or skill connected to daily instruction. Extensions are also available to stretch students’ understanding.
Boost™ Personalized Learning activities help students access grade-level math through engaging, independent digital practice. Responsive Feedback™ adjusts to students’ work, providing item-level adaptivity to further support their learning.

Two pages from a New York math textbook on determining coordinates after a rotation. Includes sections on modeled review, guided practice, and teacher's notes, with diagrams and examples that amplify the learning experience.

An approach that supports teachers

Clear, step-by-step instructional moves help teachers plan and teach student-centered lessons that use student thinking to differentiate instruction and guide to grade-level understanding. They include:

  • Guidance on what to listen for and how to respond.
  • Clear learning objectives to keep learning on track for each activity and lesson.
  • Daily reinforcement activities to provide direct instruction when needed.

A structured approach to problem-based learning

Problem-based learning asks students to make sense of and think strategically about mathematically interesting problems. This approach allows students’ ideas to take
center stage, so they are active and engaged in their learning process. Teachers are able to hear and respond to student thinking in real time, guiding and differentiating instruction right in the moment.

Moving from “I do, We do, You do” to “You do, We do, I do”
Lessons begin by activating student’s prior knowledge and curiosity, inviting them to explore the math, collaborate, and refine their thinking. By focusing on developing student thinking first, teachers can better connect ideas, guide learning, and synthesize learning objectives.

Lessons that are rigorous and delightful

Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math is designed to put students at the center of their learning. Utilizing research-based best practices, students engage in meaningful work based on rich problems and real-world experiences.

Two young girls build with colorful blocks at a table while an adult woman observes and assists them in a classroom setting.

Warm-Up

Lessons begin by inviting every student to contribute to the mathematical discussion. Instructional routines are often used to build fluency, set the context, activate prior knowledge, or highlight a strategy that may be helpful in the lesson. 

Rich learning activities

Math knowledge is built through experiences and meaningful interactions. Students notice, wonder, explore, calculate, predict, measure, explain their thinking, use math to settle disputes, create challenges for their classmates, and more. Teachers serve as a guide, using a Launch, Monitor, Connect framework:

  • Launch: Teachers offer a short introduction to the problem or challenge
  • Monitor: As students work individually, in pairs, or in groups, teachers ask questions and provide support to move student thinking closer to the intended math goal.
  • Connect: Teachers connect student ideas to the Key Takeaway of the activity to help students synthesize and solidify the big ideas.

Synthesis

Teachers ensure that students end the lesson with accurate and enduring understandings of the math goal through synthesis of student ideas, explicit instruction, and reflection.

A short Show What You Know assessment allows students to show what they know about the learning goals of the lesson and reveal what they are still learning.

Differentiation and practice

Lasting understanding requires reinforcement. Every lesson offers Lesson Practice instructional recommendations to Support, Strengthen, and Stretch learning.

Two side-by-side math activities for children: on the left, a caterpillar-themed block challenge, and on the right, a worksheet for finding pairs that sum to 10. These exercises are fantastic ways to amplify children's engagement with math concepts.

Print for every lesson with engaging digital experiences

Whether in print or digital form, engaging interactions enable students and teachers to openly exchange ideas. Each lesson includes student print materials, interactive teacher Presentation Screens, and digital resources for practice and differentiation. Some lessons also use manipulatives or provide options for students to use devices individually or in pairs. Device recommendations for student use are age-appropriate, with more frequent usage in middle and high school.

Demo access

Please login to the digital platform to experience our full program as part of your review. In order to access the digital platform, you’ll need to log into using your unique login credentials below.

  • Click the orange button below to access the platform.
  • Click “Log in with Amplify.”
  • Enter the username and password:
    • Username:
    • Password:
  • View the video for helpful platform navigation tips.
Digital Access

Assessments

By starting with what students already know, Amplify Desmos Math helps build a strong foundation for success to guide and support future learning. Teachers are empowered to transform every classroom into an engaged math community that invites, values, and develops student thinking. With explicit guidance on what to look for and how to respond, teachers can effectively support students as they develop their understanding.

Open math workbook showing an End-of-Unit Assessment with multiple-choice and written response questions on fractions and equivalent values.

Program assessments

A variety of performance data in Amplify Desmos Math provides evidence of student learning while helping students bolster their skills and understanding.

Unit-Level Assessments

Our embedded unit assessments offer key insights into students’ conceptual understanding of math. These assessments provide regular, actionable information about how students are thinking about and processing math, with both auto-scoring and in-depth rubrics that help teachers anticipate and respond to students’ learning needs.

Lesson-Level Assessments

Amplify Desmos Math lessons are centered around sense-making and in-the-moment feedback. Daily moments of assessment provide valuable evidence of learning for both the teacher and student.

Learn more

Data and reporting

Amplify Desmos Math provides teachers and administrators with unified reporting and insights so that educators have visibility into what students know about grade-level math—and can plan instruction accordingly for the whole class, small groups, and individual students.

A table displays students' performance levels across various items, with a detailed score distribution for a specific assessment shown in a separate overlay. Geometric design elements accented the background, providing an engaging visual touch ideal for any math classroom using Amplify Desmos Math.

Assessment reports

Reporting functionality integrates unit assessments, lesson assessments, personalized learning, Benchmark assessments, and Progress Monitoring for a comprehensive look at student learning.

Our reports show proficiency and growth by domain, cluster, standard, and priority concept using performance data from unit assessments. Then our reports highlight areas of potential student need to allow teachers to modify their instruction and target differentiated support.

At-a-glance views of unit-level assessment results inform your instructional planning, and you can also drill down to item-level analysis.

Standards reports

Our standards report allows you to monitor proficiency at the class and individual student levels. Proficiency and growth are shown by domain, cluster, standard, and priority concepts. Areas of potential student need are highlighted to allow teachers to modify their instruction and target differentiated support.

Administrator reports

Amplify Desmos Math provides a complete picture of student, class, and district performance, allowing administrators to implement instructional and intervention plans.

  • Track student, class, and district performance with usage, completion, and assessment data.
  • Accurately group students and classes with the Benchmark and Progress Monitoring data of mCLASS Assessments and allow teachers to reliably implement and track the progress of Tier 2 and Tier 3 intervention.
  • Provide one data-driven solution that educators can rely on for high-quality math instruction.

Differentiation and intervention

Amplify Desmos Math views differentiation as an ongoing process where teachers are both reactive and proactive to student needs, ensuring that all students have clear pathways to proficiency. Through rich data and teacher support, Amplify Desmos Math uses flexible categories of intervention and enrichment that adjust daily according to student thinking.

In-the-moment differentiation supports are available for every lesson, both digitally and in the print Teacher Edition.

Learn more
A teacher sits at a table with two students, using small objects and a workbook to provide individualized instruction during a Boost Math lesson in a classroom with large windows.
A table showing differentiation teacher moves with examples of representing groups in different ways, support prompts, and a stretch question about patterns with more teams.

In-lesson differentiation

Within every lesson activity, teachers can use the suggestions in the Differentiation Teacher Moves table to provide in-the-moment instructional support while students are engaged in the work of the lesson. This table can help teachers anticipate the ways students may approach the activity, and provides prompts that they can use during the lesson to Support, Strengthen, and Stretch individual students in their thinking. Teachers are provided with clear student actions and understanding to look for, each matched with immediately usable suggestions for how to respond to the student thinking illustrated in each row of the table. In addition to using these suggestions in the moment as teachers monitor student work, teachers can review the Differentiation table in advance to help them anticipate how students are likely to approach the activity.

Differentiation: Beyond the Lesson

Teachers are provided with recommendations for resources to use with each group of students needing support, strengthening, and stretching after each lesson. Support, Strengthen, and Stretch resources include:

  • Mini-Lessons: 15-minute, small-group direct instruction lessons targeted to a specific concept or skill
  • Item Banks: Space for teachers to create practice and assessments by using filters and searching for standards, summative-style items, and more
  • Fluency Practice: Adaptive, personalized practice built out for basic operations and more
  • Centers (K–5): Lesson-embedded routines and practice for students that are vertically aligned across grade levels
  • Extensions: Lesson-embedded Teacher Moves including possible stretch questions and activities for students
  • Lesson Practice: Additional practice problems support every lesson
  • Math Adventures: Strategy-based math games where students engage with math concepts and practice skills in a fun digital environment
Two pages from a math workbook on determining coordinates after a rotation, with diagrams, problem sets, and instructional text, displayed on a yellow and gray background.
A classroom teaching guide displays strategies for discussing pre-image and image in math, goals for a parallelogram lesson, and tips for supporting multilingual learners.

Multilingual/English Learner supports

Supports for multilingual/English learners (ML/ELs) are called out at intentiSupports for multilingual/English learners (ML/ELs) are called out at intentional points within each lesson. These suggested supports are specific, targeted actions that are beneficial for ML/ELs. They often describe a modification to increase access to the task or provide support with contextual or mathematical language development that can often be helpful to all learners. ML/EL supports may also be attached to Math Language Routines.onal points within each lesson. These suggested supports are specific, targeted actions that are beneficial for ML/ELs. They often describe a modification to increase access to the task or provide support with contextual or mathematical language development that can often be helpful to all learners. ML/EL supports may also be attached to Math Language Routines.

Math Language Development

Every lesson in Amplify Desmos Math includes opportunities for all students to develop mathematical language as they experience the content. Amplify Desmos Math purposefully progresses language development from lesson to lesson and across units by supporting students in making their arguments and explanations stronger, clearer, and more precise. This systematic approach to the development of math language can be broken down into the following four categories of support:

  • Vocabulary: Units and lessons start by surfacing students’ language for new concepts, then building connections between their language and the new vocabulary for that unit.
  • Language goals: Language goals attend to the mathematics students are learning, and are written through the lens of one or more of four language modalities: reading, writing, speaking, and listening.
  • Math Language Routines: Math Language Routines are used within lessons to highlight student-developed language and ideas, cultivate conversation, support mathematical sense-making, and promote meta-cognition.
  • Multilingual/English learner supports: Supports for multilingual/English learners (ML/ELs) are called out at intentional points within each lesson.
Two girls sit at a table with open books, one making hand gestures while smiling, the other looking at her and giving a thumbs up. Behind them are shelves filled with books, capturing the lively atmosphere of a math classroom.
Digital educational material showing an activity named "Hamster Homes" involving tube length and platform heights for a hamster cage. Includes a diagram with platforms measuring 9 inches.

K-5 sample materials

Click the links in the drop-down sections below to explore sample materials from each grade. For a full program review, please login to the digital platform or request physical samples.

For helpful navigation tips and more program information, download the Amplify Desmos Math Program Guide.

You can also watch a product expert walk through a lesson and the available program components.

Cover of Amplify Desmos Math Grade K Teacher Edition featuring three children playing with math-related objects and a group of rabbits sitting nearby, aligning with the engaging curriculum seen in New York math classrooms.

Teacher Edition

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Unit 2: Counting and Comparing Images.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Student Edition Kindergarten," featuring an illustration of three children playing with math-related toys. A group of small white animals, possibly hamsters, play nearby. The scene brilliantly captures the joy of New York math exploration for young learners.

Student Edition

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Unit 2: Counting and Comparing Images.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Grade K Centers Resources" featuring a large, stylized red and pink "C" on a light pink background with simple geometric designs. This distinctive cover complements New York math curriculums with its engaging visual elements.

Ancillary sampler

Included in the ancillary sampler are examples from the program Assessment Resources, Intervention and Extension Resources, Centers Resources, Additional Practice, and Math Language Development Resources.

A digital activity screen, crafted in the style of Amplify Desmos Math, shows two paths with different quantities of mushrooms. The user is prompted to choose the path with more mushrooms. A bear is on the left side of the screen.

In this lesson, students apply their understanding of how to compare groups of images as they determine which group has more or fewer and then compare their strategies by guiding a bear through a path that has more mushrooms than the other.

Children interact with math activities on a large tablet while observing fish illustrations. The text reads "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 1 Teacher Edition, aligned with New York Math standards.

Skills Unit 2 Teacher Guide

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 1, Sub-Unit 1: Adding and Subtracting Within 10.

Illustration of three children engaged in math activities from the "Amplify Desmos Math: Student Edition 1" textbook. One child holds a number card, while the others manipulate counters and images, experiencing an exciting approach inspired by New York math techniques.

Student Edition

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 1, Sub-Unit 1: Adding and Subtracting Within 10.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Centers Resources" for Grade 1, featuring a yellow and white 3D letter "C" on a light background.

Ancillary sampler

Included in the ancillary sampler are examples from the program Assessment Resources, Intervention and Extension Resources, Centers Resources, Additional Practice, and Math Language Development Resources.

An educational game screen, inspired by New York math standards, shows a subtraction problem, "4 - 1," with a frog moving along numbered lily pads to reveal the answer "3.

In this lesson, students find differences when subtracting 1 and 2 from the same number by helping a frog reach a lily pad where it can eat a bug.

Cover of the "Amplify Desmos Math" Grade 2 Teacher Edition, showcasing children measuring with rulers and a poster displaying a mathematical equation, set against whimsical scenery with a colorful dragon. Perfect for New York math classrooms.

Teacher Edition

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 1, Sub-Unit 1: Adding and Subtracting.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Student Edition 2" showing three children performing a New York math activity with blocks and measurements.

Student Edition

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 1, Sub-Unit 1: Adding and Subtracting.

Cover of an educational book titled "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 2 Centers Resources" featuring a green "C" on a light green background, perfect for enhancing New York math education.

Ancillary sampler

Included in the ancillary sampler are examples from the program Assessment Resources, Intervention and Extension Resources, Centers Resources, Additional Practice, and Math Language Development Resources.

An educational activity where users must select the block with the correct number to make a total of 10 using the given block numbers. The UI, inspired by New York math standards, features a caterpillar and two tree stumps to amplify engagement with Desmos Math tools.

Students continue to develop fluency by finding the number that makes 10 by helping a millipede reach its favorite food – a clump of leaves!

Cover of a "Grade 3 Amplify Desmos Math Teacher Edition" book, featuring a cutaway building with diverse students and a teacher working on New York math problems and organizing materials.

Teacher Edition

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 1, Sub-Unit 3: Data on Scaled Graphs.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Student Edition 3" showcasing illustrated children engaged in various mathematical activities inside a glass house structure, reflecting the dynamic energy of New York math.

Student Edition

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 1, Sub-Unit 3: Data on Scaled Graphs.

Cover of the Amplify Desmos Math Grade 3 Centers Resources book, featuring a 3D letter "C" in blue and white on a minimalistic background, perfect for aligning with New York math standards.

Ancillary sampler

Included in the ancillary sampler are examples from the program Assessment Resources, Intervention and Extension Resources, Centers Resources, Additional Practice, and Math Language Development Resources.

A page titled "Activity 2" features a table showing counts of rabbits, raccoons, and foxes, an image of animal stickers, and a bar graph representing the number of each animal, designed to amplify your New York math lesson with engaging visual data.

Students compare data represented on bar graphs with different scales by using animal stickers to create scaled bar graphs.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Teacher Edition Grade 4" showing children learning New York Math outdoors, using large mathematical tools and numbers, with one child in a wheelchair.

Teacher Edition

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 1, Sub-Unit 2: Using Factors and Multiples.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Teacher Edition Grade 4" showing children learning New York Math outdoors, using large mathematical tools and numbers, with one child in a wheelchair.

Student Edition

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 1, Sub-Unit 2: Using Factors and Multiples.

Cover of the "Amplify Desmos Math" Grade 4 Centers Resources book, featuring a large, stylized blue letter "C" on a light blue background. This essential resource for New York math educators ensures engaging and effective instruction.

Ancillary sampler

Included in the ancillary sampler are examples from the program Assessment Resources, Intervention and Extension Resources, Centers Resources, Additional Practice, and Math Language Development Resources.

Interactive educational activity asking users to determine platform heights using a 3-inch tube. The interface, inspired by Desmos math tools, features a dragging function and feedback system with a checkbox and "Try another" option, amplifying the learning experience.

Students choose tube lengths to connect to platform heights for hamster homes, identifying possible heights using what they know about multiples.

Illustration of three students engaging with various math activities outdoors and around large blocks. Text at the top reads "Amplify Desmos Math, Grade 5, Teacher Edition" - a perfect resource for New York math educators.

Teacher Edition

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you review the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 1, Sub-Unit 3: Volume of Solid Figures.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Student Edition, Grade 5" featuring students engaged in various mathematical activities outside, such as block building, measuring, and gardening—a perfect resource aligning with New York math standards.

Student Edition

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 1, Sub-Unit 3: Volume of Solid Figures.

Cover image of "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 5 Centers Resources" featuring a large purple letter C on a light purple background, showcasing the innovative approach of Amplify Desmos Math that's making waves in New York math education.

Ancillary sampler

Included in the ancillary sampler are examples from the program Assessment Resources, Intervention and Extension Resources, Centers Resources, Additional Practice, and Math Language Development Resources.

An interactive screen showing an activity about decomposing a figure into prisms, with a touch of Desmos Math integration. The user is asked to drag points to demonstrate the decomposition. Two prism illustrations are displayed, offering a glimpse of New York Math's approach.

Students decompose a figure into rectangular prisms and determine the volume of the figure by adding the volumes of the individual prisms.

6-A1 sample materials

Click the links in the drop-down sections below to explore sample materials from each grade. For a full program review, please login to the digital platform or request physical samples. 

For helpful navigation tips and more program information, download the Amplify Desmos Math Program Guide.

You can also watch a product expert walk through a lesson and the available program components.

A laptop displays a math warm-up activity with shapes and a scale, in front of two Amplify Desmos Math teacher edition books for grades 1 and 7.
Cover of the Grade 6 Amplify Desmos Math Teacher Edition, showcasing students engaging in various mathematical activities around a balance scale with variables, inspired by New York math educational standards.

Teacher Edition

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 6, Sub-Unit 1: Solving Equations.

Cover of “Amplify Desmos Math, Student Edition, Grade 6” featuring an illustration of children engaging in various New York math-related activities outdoors.

Student Edition

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 6, Sub-Unit 1: Solving Equations.

Cover image of "Amplify Desmos Math" for Grade 6, featuring a 3D pink letter "I" and the text "Intervention and Extension Resources." This New York math edition supports students with comprehensive resources.

Ancillary sampler

Included in the ancillary sampler are examples from the program Assessment Resources, Intervention and Extension Resources, Additional Practice, and Math Language Development Resources.

A digital math activity shows foxes on a seesaw balanced with 18-pound weights. A multiple-choice question and text box ask for the weight of a fox in pounds.

Students use equations and tape diagrams to represent seesaw situations and to determine unknown animal weights, helping them make connections between diagrams that represent equations of the form `x+p=q` or `px=q`.

Cover image of "Amplify Desmos Math Teacher Edition Grade 7" featuring an illustration of students engaging in math-related activities with geometric shapes and construction elements against a New York cityscape background.

Teacher Edition

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 6, Sub-Unit 3: Inequalities.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math, Student Edition, Grade 7" showing students engaged in math activities against a cityscape reminiscent of New York, with purple geometric structures and a crane in the background.

Student Edition

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 6, Sub-Unit 3: Inequalities.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Grade 7 – Intervention and Extension Resources" featuring a stylized 3D "I" on a light purple background, ideal for both New York math and national curricula.

Ancillary sampler

Included in the ancillary sampler are examples from the program Assessment Resources, Intervention and Extension Resources, Additional Practice, and Math Language Development Resources.

A digital math activity screen shows a character above a number line and a box with the inequality "x > -10" entered. A cursor points to the "Edit my response" button.

Students solve inequalities with positive and negative coefficients to solve a variety of challenges featuring a fictional sheep who eats grass according to an inequality.

Illustration of children engaging in learning activities outdoors near a large slide. The title "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 8 Teacher Edition" is shown at the top, highlighting its relevance to New York math curriculum standards.

Teacher Edition

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 6, Sub-Unit 2: Analyzing Numerical Data.

Cover of the "Amplify Desmos Math" Student Edition for Grade 8, featuring students engaging in various mathematical activities in a stylized outdoor New York setting.

Student Edition

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from a complete sub-unit on this site: Unit 6, Sub-Unit 2: Analyzing Numerical Data.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math Grade 8: Intervention and Extension Resources" featuring a stylized "I" on a gray background, tailored for New York math standards.

Ancillary sampler

Included in the ancillary sampler are examples from the program Assessment Resources, Intervention and Extension Resources, Additional Practice, and Math Language Development Resources.

A graph plots four robot colors by height and eye distance; on the right, matching colored robots stand side by side, labeled Red, Purple, Blue, and Green.

Students connect points on a scatter plot with individuals in a population and rows of data in a table. The analysis of scatter plots continues with data about the eye distances and heights of robots.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math: Algebra 1, Teacher Edition" featuring diverse characters engaged in mathematical activities, with a graph and a bridge in the background, illustrating the vibrant energy of New York math.

Teacher Edition

Planning and instructional guidance is visual, organized, and easy-to-follow. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from two complete sub-units on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Units 1–2: One-Variable Equations and Multi-Variable Equations.

Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math" Student Edition A1, featuring an illustration of diverse characters engaging in New York math activities against a backdrop of graphs and mathematical concepts.

Student Edition

Motivate students with mathematics that is both rigorous and delightful. To help you preview the program, we have included samples from two complete sub-units on this site: Unit 2, Sub-Units 1–2: One-Variable Equations and Multi-Variable Equations.

Cover of an Amplify Desmos Math Algebra 1 ancillary sampler, featuring students interacting with graphs and mathematical models, including a rocket and a parabola.

Ancillary sampler

Included in the ancillary sampler are examples from the program Assessment Resources, Intervention and Extension Resources, Additional Practice, and Math Language Development Resources.

A math activity screen shows a cartoon snail, purple blocks, and a table comparing blocks and a math equation; a cursor hovers over the "Edit my response" button.

Students represent the solutions of a situation using a table, a graph, and multiple forms of an equation to identify multiple combinations of blocks that can help Shelley the Snail cross a gap.

What’s included

Along with compelling print materials, powerful digital resources, and more hands-on materials than any other program, Amplify Science California also includes engaging and realistic experiences, access to diverse role models, countless a-ha moments, and the inspiration and confidence to consider a future as a scientist or engineer.

Choose level

K–56–8

Year at a glance

Amplify Science California is organized around units where students explore compelling phenomena and real-world problems, develop and strengthen claims by collecting evidence and testing assumptions, and apply their learning in new contexts.

Educational curriculum chart showcasing a progression of amplify science lessons from kindergarten to grade 5, categorized by grade and subject areas like plants, animals, weather, and energy.

Units at a glance

In each Amplify Science California unit, students are asked to inhabit the role of a scientist or engineer in order to investigate a real-world problem. These problems provide relevant, 21st-century contexts through which students investigate different scientific phenomena.

An illustration from Needs of Plants and Animals unit

1

Needs of Plants and Animals

Students take on the role of scientists in order to figure out why there have been no monarch caterpillars in the community garden since vegetables were planted. They investigate how plants and animals get what they need to live and grow, and make a new plan for the community garden that provides for the needs of the monarch caterpillars in addition to producing vegetables for humans.

An illustration from the Pushes and Pulls unit

2

Pushes and Pulls

Students take on the role of pinball machine engineers as they investigate the effects of forces on the motion of an object. They conduct tests in their own prototypes (models) of a pinball machine and use what they learn to contribute to the design of a class pinball machine. Over the course of the unit, students construct a foundational understanding of why things move in different ways.

Silueta de una estructura de parque infantil contra un cielo azul con nubes y tres soles amarillos.

3

Sunlight and Weather

The principals of Woodland Elementary and Carver Elementary need student weather scientists to help them explain why Woodland’s playground is warmer than Carver’s at recess. Students gather data from models of the sun and Earth’s surface and observe their own playgrounds to figure out how sunlight causes changes in the temperatures of different surfaces. Students then use models to figure out why Woodland’s playground sometimes floods.

Illustration of sea turtles swimming among seaweed in the ocean, with a large shark in the background.

1

Animal and Plant Defenses

Students play the role of marine scientists. In their role, students apply their understanding of plant and animal defense structures to explain to aquarium visitors how a sea turtle and her offspring can defend themselves from ocean predators when they are released into the wild.

Dos manos sosteniendo un papel con un dibujo de pirámide y árbol, iluminado por una linterna, proyectando otra sombra de la imagen en la pared.

2

Light and Sound

Students take on the role of light and sound engineers for a puppet show company as they investigate cause and effect relationships to learn about the nature of light and sound. They apply what they learn to design shadow scenery and sound effects for a puppet show.

An illustration from the Spinning Earth unit

3

Spinning Earth

As sky scientists, students explain why a boy living in a place near them sees different things in the sky than his grandma does when he talks to her on the phone. Students record, organize, and analyze observations of the sun and other sky objects as they look for patterns and make sense of the cycle of daytime and nighttime.

An elephant standing next to a tree uses its trunk to pick a fruit from a branch while more fruit hangs above.

1

Plant and Animal Relationships

In their role as plant scientists, students work to figure out why there are no new chalta trees growing in the Bengal Tiger Reserve, which is part of a broadleaf forest. Students investigate what the chalta tree needs to survive, then collect and analyze qualitative and quantitative data to solve the mystery.

A hand holds a red bean on a table, while a wooden stick spreads white glue and scattered beans. Also on the table are a white cup and a yellow pen.

2

Properties of Materials

As glue engineers, students are challenged to create a glue for use at their school that meets a set of design goals. Students present an evidence-based argument for why their glue mixture will be good for their school to use.

Ilustración de una costa con acantilados, un edificio de centro recreativo con un techo rojo y un letrero, árboles de hoja perenne, una bandera azul y una playa de arena debajo.

3

Changing Landforms

The director of the Oceanside Recreation Center gets a scare when a nearby cliff collapses overnight. Research reveals that the distance between the Recreation Center’s flagpole and the edge of the cliff have changed over time. Students play the role of geologists and work to figure out why the cliff has changed over time. Based on what they learn about erosion, they advise on whether it is safe to keep the center open even though the cliff is changing.

An illustration from the Balancing Forces unit

1

Balancing Forces

People in Faraday are excited to hear that a new train service will be built for their city, but concerned when they hear that it will be a floating train. Students are challenged to figure out how a floating train works in order to explain it to the citizens of Faraday. They develop models of how the train rises, floats, and then falls back to the track, and then write an explanation of how the train works.

An illustration from the Inheritance and Traits unit

2

Inheritance and Traits

Students play the role of wildlife biologists working in Greystone National Park. They study two wolf packs and are challenged to figure out why an adopted wolf (“Wolf 44”) in one of the packs has certain traits. Students observe variation between and within different species, investigate inherited traits and those that result from the environment, and explain the origin of several of the adopted wolf’s traits.

An illustration from the Environments and Survival unit

3

Environments and Survival

In their role as biomimicry engineers, students work to figure out how the traits of grove snails affect their survival in different environments. They then explore how the traits of different organisms make them more likely or less likely to survive, collecting and interpreting data to understand how organisms’ traits affect their survival in different environments. Students then apply their understanding to a new challenge: designing effective solutions for the removal of invasive plants.

An illustration from the Weather and Climate unit

4

Weather and Climate

In their role as meteorologists, students gather evidence to decide where to build an orangutan reserve by analyzing patterns in weather data. After choosing the strongest evidence, students use data to make arguments about which of three fictional islands has weather most like that of orangutans’ existing habitats, Borneo and Sumatra. They then discern patterns in the locations of natural hazards in order to figure out which ones the Wildlife Protection Organization must prepare for.

An illustration from the Energy Conversions unit

1

Energy Conversions

Students take on the role of systems engineers for Ergstown, a fictional town that experiences frequent blackouts, and explore reasons why an electrical system can fail. Students apply what they learned as they choose new energy sources and energy converters for the town, then write arguments for why their design choices will make the town’s electrical system more reliable.

An illustration from the Vision and Light unit

2

Inheritance and Traits

As conservation biologists, students work to figure out why a population of Tokay geckos has decreased since the installation of new highway lights in the rainforest. Students use their understanding of vision, light, and information processing to figure out why an increase in light in the geckos’ habitat is affecting the population.

An illustration from the Earth's Features unit

3

Environments and Survival

Playing the role of geologists, students help the director of Desert Rocks National Park explain how and when a particular fossil formed and how it came to be in its current location. Students figure out what the environment of the park was like in the past and why it has so many visible rock layers.

An illustration from the Waves, Energy, and Information unit

4

Weather and Climate

In their role as marine scientists, students work to figure out how mother dolphins communicate with their calves. They write a series of scientific explanations with diagrams to demonstrate their growing understanding of how sound waves travel. Then they apply what they’ve learned about waves, energy, and patterns in communication to figure out how to create patterns that can communicate information over distances.

An illustration from the Patterns of Earth and Sky unit

1

Patterns of Earth and Sky

Playing the role of astronomers, students help a team of archaeologists figure out what the missing piece of a recently discovered artifact might have depicted. As they learn about the sun and other stars and the movement of Earth, students can explain what is shown on the artifact and what might be on the missing piece.

An illustration from the Modeling Matter unit

2

Modeling Matter

In their role as food scientists at a fictional company, students are introduced to the idea that all matter is made of particles too small to see, and that each different substance is made of particles (molecules) that are unique. They are then challenged to solve two problems: one requires them to separate a mixture, and the other requires them to make unmixable substances mix. Students are challenged to use the particulate model of matter to explain their work to the CEO of the company.

An illustration from the Earth System unit

3

The Earth System

The cities of East Ferris and West Ferris are located on different sides of a mountain on the fictional Ferris Island. East Ferris is having a water shortage while West Ferris is not. As water resource engineers, students learn about the Earth system to help figure out what is causing the water shortage problem and design possible solutions, including freshwater collection systems and proposals for using chemical reactions to treat wastewater.

An illustration from the Ecosystem Restoration unit

4

Ecosystem Restoration

As ecologists, students work to figure out why the organisms in a part of a Costa Rican rainforest ecosystem aren’t growing and thriving. As they solve this problem, students learn more generally how organisms in an ecosystem get the matter and energy they need to survive, and then write a series of restoration plans that include arguments about why the rainforest ecosystem is not thriving and recommend actions to restore its health.

Print & digital components

Amplify Science California includes instructional guidance and student materials in English and Spanish for a year of instruction, with lessons and activities that keep students engaged every day.

Component

FORMAT

NEW! Classroom Slides

Meet your new hands-free TG! These lesson-specific PowerPoints make delivering daily instruction a snap with embedded links to related resources and suggested teacher talk in the Notes section of each slide.

Digital

Most adopted curriculum for the NGSS California

Teacher’s Reference Guide

Available digitally and in print, this unit-specific reference guide includes scientific background knowledge, planning information and resources, color-coded 3-D Statements, detailed lesson plans, and tips for delivering instruction and differentiating learning.

Print and digital

Two digital devices displaying educational content, one a tablet showing a green-themed start page, and the other a laptop depicting various science chapters.

Hands-on materials kits

Each unit-specific kit contains consumable and nonconsumable materials for use during hands-on investigations. In each kit you will find:

  • Hands-on materials
  • 18 copies of each of the Student Books
  • Big books (grades K–1)
  • Classroom display materials
  • One Student Investigation Notebook

Kit

Amplify Science California supports 3-D learning with more materials than any other program.

NGSS Benchmark Assessments

Delivered four times per year in grades 3–5 and three times per year in grades 6–8, our benchmark assessments report on students’ facility with each of the grade-level appropriate DCIs, SEPs, CCCs, and performance expectations of the California NGSS.

And now, Amplify Science California users can choose to administer the NGSS Benchmark Assessments (grades 3–8) through their Illuminate assessment platform.

*Also available in Spanish

Digital

An open laptop displaying a website with a quiz question about geographical changes over time, featuring a series of island maps from different years.

Component

FORMAT

Student Investigation Notebooks

Available for every unit, the Student Investigation Notebooks contain instructions for activities and space for students to record data, reflect on ideas from texts and investigations, and construct explanations and arguments.

*Also available in Spanish

Print and digital

Two educational books titled "amplifyscience," one in spanish and one in english, featuring illustrations of desert canyon landscapes on the covers.

Big books (grades K–1)

Amplify Science California never asks our youngest readers to read alone. Rather, we provide scaffolded literacy experiences every step of the way. With our large-format big books, introducing and revisiting concepts though read-aloud and shared reading experiences is a breeze.

*Also available in Spanish

Print

Two hardcover books titled "maravillas rocas" and "rocky wonders" by amplify science, lying open, showing a continuous desert rock formation across both covers.

Simulations and practice tools (grades 2+)

Developed exclusively for the Amplify Science California program, these serve as venues for exploration and data collection, allowing students to explore scientific concepts that might otherwise be invisible or impossible to see with the naked eye.

*Spanish versions coming soon

Digital

A computer screen displays an educational website titled "Earth's Features" with chapters and illustrations of canyons; a printed teacher’s guide is shown beside it.

Explore more programs

Our programs are designed to support and complement one another. Learn more about our related programs.

See all programs

Winter Wrap-Up 03: Ideas to build math fluency

Promotional graphic for "Math Teacher Lounge" episode featuring Valerie Henry, Ed.D., on ideas to build math fluency, with a photo of Valerie Henry in the bottom right corner.

Join us for the third episode in our Winter Wrap-Up! In this episode from season 3 of Math Teacher Lounge: The Podcast, we sit down with Dr. Valerie Henry to talk about math fluency and what that means for students. Listen as we dig into the research, hear Val’s three-part definition of fluency, and explore her five principles for developing it.

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Dan Meyer (00:03)

Hey folks. Welcome back. This is Math Teacher Lounge, and I am one of your hosts, Dan Meyer.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:07):

And I’m your other host, Bethany Lockhart Johnson. Hi, Dan.

Dan Meyer (00:11):

Hey, great to see you. We have a big one this week to chat about and some fantastic guests. We are chatting about fluency, which is the sort of word and concept that I feel like people have very, very non-neutral associations with it. A lot of them are very negative, for a lot of people.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:26):

I saw you frown a little. What’s up with that, Dan? You kind of, like, shrank.

Dan Meyer (00:30):

I have strong feelings about it. You know, there’s lots of ways that people go about helping people become fluent in mathematics. And a lot of them are harmful for students, and ineffective. And it got me thinking about fluency as it exists outside of the world of mathematics, where we have a lot of very clear images of it. We’re getting fluent in things all the time. Like, as humans. Human development is the story of fluency. And I just was wondering….Bethany, would you describe yourself as fluent at something outside of the world of mathematics? What is that? How’d you get fluent at it? What was the process?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:05):

Hmm, I think I’m a pretty fluent reader. I read all the time. I’m a happier person if I’ve read that day. I once saw this poster in a classroom; it said “10 Ways to Become a Better Reader: Read, Read, Read, Read, Read…you know, 10 times. Get it? Reading? You get better at reading by reading! So I would say reading. And it’s been kind of cool—I have a one-year-old who, it’s been really exciting slash overwhelmingly anxiety-producing to see him get very fluent with walking slash running, ’cause he’s getting faster every day. And it’s kind of fun. When I think of what’s something somebody’s trying to get fluent with…walking! He’s trying to be more fluid. He’s practicing transitions. He doesn’t wanna hold my hand while he traverses rocky terrain. He’s getting better at it. He’s practicing. What about you? What’s something…?

Dan Meyer (02:08):

I think about driving a lot. I’m a very fluent driver and I think a lot about when I was first a driver, you know? And how l have my hands on 10 and 2, vice grip, and do not talk to me; do not ask me anything; don’t ask me my NAME. I need to focus so hard. And then a year later, you know, I’m driving with one hand, smash the turn signal, take a sip off of whatever, change the CD. And then it’s no big deal.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (02:38):

Wait, did you pass the first time? Your test?

Dan Meyer (02:40):

Yeah, I don’t like to brag about it. <laugh> But I do all the time. <laugh> But I got a hundred on my driving test. I don’t care who knows it. And I hope it’s everybody. But I guess all of this is just to say there are areas of life where fluency feels natural, with the case of walking. There’s areas of life where fluency feels motivating, with like driving—I wanna be able to switch the CD out or whatever. And there’s areas where fluency feels terrifying and hard to come by, like mathematics, sometimes. So we have a set of guests here. Our first guest will help us figure out what do we mean by fluency? And what’s the research say about what fluency is and how students develop it in mathematics? And then our other guests will help us think about what it looks like in practice in the classroom. What are some novel, new ways to work on fluency? So first up we have Val Henry, Dr. Val Henry.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (03:32):

So we knew we needed help with the fluency definition, because when we think about it, it’s kind of big, right? And we wanted to look at what research about fluency really says. So we called on Valerie Henry. Val is a nationally board-certified teacher, taught middle school for 17 years, and since 2002 has worked with undergraduates graduates, credential candidates as a lecturer at the University of California, Irvine, one of my alma maters. So after doing her dissertation on addition and subtraction fluency in first grade, Val created a project to study ways to build addition and subtraction and multiplication and division fluency while also developing number sense in algebraic thinking. And the pilot grew and grew over the last 18 years into a powerful daily mini-lesson approach to facts fluency called FactsWise. And when we thought of fluency, the first person I thought of was Val. Welcome, Val Henry, to the Lounge! I’m so excited to have you here. Welcome.

Valerie Henry (04:36):

Thanks, Bethany. And thanks to you, Dan. It’s great to be here today.

Dan Meyer (04:41):

Great to have you; help yourself to whatever you find in the fridge. The names that people write down on those things in the bags are just recommendations. It’s potluck-style here. I’m curious, Val, if you’re, like, on an airplane, someone asks you what you do, and you say you study fluency…what is the layperson’s definition of what does it mean to be fluent in mathematics? And if you can give a brief tour through what the research says about what works and what doesn’t that would really help us orient our conversation here.

Valerie Henry (05:12):

The first thing I have to do when I talk to somebody on a plane is define the idea of fluency. And I often use an example of tying your shoelaces. Because that works with first graders as well as adults. This idea that when we first start trying to put our shoes on and get those shoelaces tied, somebody tries to, first of all, just do it for us. But then of course maybe tries to teach us the bunny-ears approach. And we struggle and struggle as little kids and eventually either the bunny-ears approach or something else starts to work for us. But we still have to pay attention to it. We have to think hard and it’s not easy. And then over time we get to the point where we basically don’t even think about it. When I tie my shoes in the morning. I’m not thinking about right-over-left and left-over-right and all of those things. I just do it. And so that’s a good, easy example of becoming fluent with something. I think what we’re talking about today though, is the basics, the adding and subtracting that we hope kids are going to have mastered maybe by second grade, and the multiplication and division facts that we wanna maybe have mastered by third, maybe fourth grade. So now what does that mean to become fluent with those basics? I have a three-part definition that seems to match up really nicely with the common core approach to fluency. Which is, first of all, we want the answers to be correct. And then second, we want the answers to be easy to know. And so what does that mean? Well, to me, it means without needing to count,

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (07:12):

You mean without having to kind of muscle through it? Or say more about you mean.

Valerie Henry (07:16):

Well, I guess what I mean is that when you watch a young child try and solve something even as simple as two plus three, they might put up two fingers and then go 3, 4, 5 with three more fingers winding up on their hand, one or the other of their hands. While they’re doing that, they don’t really have a sense of whether even their answer is right or not, quite often. Especially when you get to the larger adding and subtracting problems, you can see a lot of errors happening as they’re trying to count. And it’s taking up cognitive energy to do that counting process, especially as you get to the larger quantities. So my definition of fluency now is “getting it right without needing to do that hard work like counting.” Now, some people might say, well, we just want them to have ’em memorized. But in my research, I’ve learned that a lot of very fluid adults don’t always have every fact memorized. In fact, if you ask a room full of adults, what’s seven plus nine, you might learn that they can all get it correct quickly, quickly…but they don’t all have it memorized. And so when you ask them, “How did you get that?” Many of them will say, “Well, I just gave one from the 7 to the 9 and I know that 10 plus 6 is 16.”

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (08:53):

That’s such an important distinction. My brain literally just did that actually!

Valerie Henry (08:58):

<laugh> Right? <laugh> But you’re fluid with it, because it doesn’t take you much cognitive energy at all.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (09:05):

Right.

Valerie Henry (09:07):

So now we have “correct without needing to put that cognitive energy,” which usually means that you’re counting. And then the third thing is “relatively quickly,” so that you’re not spending 15 seconds trying to figure it out. Even that part-whole strategy approach can be done really quickly, almost instantaneously. Or it can take a long time. So if a student can get the answer correct within, you know, three or four seconds— is I’m pretty generous—I figure that they’re pretty darn fluent with that fact. So that’s my three-part definition of these basics, fluency.

Dan Meyer (09:55):

I love the distinction between getting it correct and getting it quick. It’s possible to be quick with wrong answers. It’s possible to be like, “Those are separate components there.” And I echo Bethany’s appreciation for this third option in between knowing it instantaneously through memorization and muscling through it. But there’s like a continuum there of how much energy it took you to come up with it that all feels extremely helpful.

Valerie Henry (10:21):

And you know, one of the things that I’ve noticed is that when kids are pressured to come up with those instantaneous answers, they often default to guessing and get it wrong.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (10:30):

Mm, yeah.

Valerie Henry (10:30):

So that’s one of the things that I’ve learned is that as we’re trying to help students develop fluency, it’s important to start with building their conceptual understanding of what it means to do, you know, 3 times 9 and what the correct answer is, maybe using manipulatives or representations of some sort. Not skip-counting! I really have found that skip-counting just perpetuates itself in many students’ minds and that they never stop skip-counting, which means they’re putting in not very much mental energy if it’s 2 times 3 but a ton of mental energy if it’s 7 times 8. Because frankly, it’s really hard to skip count by sevens. And by eights.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (11:18):

I can get to 14 and then I’m like, wait, wait, what was next? Right? No, no, no…21! What do you feel are some misconceptions that maybe teachers, maybe parents have about fluency in math?

Valerie Henry (11:30):

I think maybe one of the first ones is that if students count or skip-count, their answers repetitively over and over and over and over, that they’re bound to memorize them. And the study that I did back in 2004, I actually had a school that had decided that they were going to do time tests with their students every day, all year. And that undoubtedly by the end of the year, those students would be fluent.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (12:06):

And to clarify by time test, you mean like, sit down, pencil, paper, ready, go, worksheet kind of thing.

Valerie Henry (12:15):

Yes.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (12:16):

Some of us might remember quite vividly.

Valerie Henry (12:18):

<laugh> Very vividly. And you know, you have to get it done within a certain amount of time. So they made it fun for the students. Apparently the students enjoyed it. I was a little leery about that, but in the end, when I went and checked on the students and I did one-on-one assessments with half of the students in every class that were randomly selected so that I could get a sense of where they were with their fluency—and these were first graders—they basically had nothing memorized. They were simply counting as fast as they possibly could. And, you know, mostly getting the right answers. But they had not memorized. So that’s one of the myths, I think, is that repetitive practice of counting gets you to memorization.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (13:10):

If I put it in front of you enough times, you’ll become fluent.

Valerie Henry (13:14):

Right, right. Now these students didn’t really get any instruction, any help learning these. They just simply tested over and over and over. So that’s another thing that I think is a misconception. It’s that if we test students, but don’t really teach them fluency, then they’re going to become fluent. If we just test them every Friday or that kind of thing. And that they’ll learn them at home. But really what that means is a few lucky kids who have parents who have the time and the energy and the background to know how to help will take that job on at home. Not that many students are really that fortunate.

Dan Meyer (14:01):

It’s almost like the traditional approach, or the approach you’re describing, confuses process and product. It says, “Well, the product is that eventually fluent students will be able to do something like this, see these problems and answer them, answer them quickly,” and says, “Well, that must be the process then as well; let’s give them that products a whole lot.” But as I hear you describe fluency with bunny ears on shoelaces, there’s these images and approaches and techniques that require a very active teacher presence to support the development of it. That’s just kind of interesting to me.

Valerie Henry (14:35):

My initial project, the pilot project that I tried, was to simply ask teachers to follow five key principles. And the first one was to do something in the classroom every day for—I told them, even if you’ve only got five or 10 minutes, work on fluency for five or 10 minutes a day, and let’s see what happens. So that was one key element was just to teach it and to give students opportunities to get what the research calls for when you’re trying to memorize, which is actually immediate feedback. When I talk about immediate feedback with my student teachers, I say, “I’m talking about within one or two seconds of trying a problem, and then sort of immediately knowing, getting feedback of whether you got the answer right or not so that your brain can kind of gain that confidence. ‘Oh, not only did I come up with an answer, but somebody’s telling me it’s the correct answer.’”

Dan Meyer (15:38):

There’s a lot of apps now in the digital world that offer students questions about arithmetic or other kinds of mathematical concepts and give immediate feedback of a sort: the feedback of “You’re right; you’re wrong” sort. Is that effective fluency development, in your view?

Valerie Henry (15:57):

I haven’t heard and I haven’t seen them being super-effective. The ways I think about this are “Immediate feedback isn’t the only thing we need.” Probably one of the biggest things that we need is for students to develop strategies. And this is one of the other things I’ve learned from international research, from countries that do have students who become very fluent very early, is that they don’t shoot straight for memorization, but they go through this process of taking students from doing some counting and then quickly moving them to trying to use logic. So, “Hey, you really are confident that 2 + 2 is 4; so now let’s use that to think about 2 + 3.” Actually, as an algebra teacher, I would much rather have students that have a combination of memorization and these strategies, than students who’ve only memorized. Isn’t that interesting that my most successful algebra students were good strategy thinkers. Not just good memorizers.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (17:09):

So you mentioned there were five that kind of helped root this idea in like, “What can teachers do? What is the best thing that teachers can do to support with fact fluency?” So, everyday was key.

Valerie Henry (17:22):

Then the next principle that I really focus on is switching immediately to the connected subtractions so that students—

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (17:33):

Not waiting until you’ve gotten all the way through addition. But making “Ooh!”

Valerie Henry (17:38):

Totally. And I didn’t do that the first year. And when we looked at the results of the assessments at the end of the year, we realized that our students were so much weaker in subtraction than addition. So the following pilot year, we tried this other approach of doing subtraction right after the students had developed some fluency with that small chunk of addition. And we got such better subtraction results.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (18:11):

What are the other principles?

Valerie Henry (18:13):

The biggest one is to use these strategies. So the strategies makes the third. And then the fourth I would say is to go from concrete to representational to abstract.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (18:27):

Don’t put away those manipulatives. Don’t put away those tools.

Valerie Henry (18:31):

Oh, so important to come back to them for multiplication and division. And my fifth principle is to wait on assessment. To use it as true assessment, but not race to start testing before students have had a chance to go through this three-phase process. Which is conceptual understanding with manipulatives; building strategies, usually with representations; and then working on building some speed until it’s just that natural fluency.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (19:07):

I wanna say thank you so much for offering your really learned perspective, because you have not only done the research, but seen it in action and seen how shifting our notions of fluency and what fluency can be and what a powerful foundation it can be for all mathematicians. Really, that shift is so powerful. And I appreciate you sharing it with our listeners and with us. So we’re so excited that we got to talk with you today, Val—

Dan Meyer (19:35):

Thank you, Dr. Henry.

Valerie Henry (19:37):

You’re welcome!

Dan Meyer (19:41):

With us now we have Graham Fletcher and Tracy Zager, a couple of people who understand fluency at a very deep and classroom level. I wanna introduce them and get their perspective on what we’re trying to solve here with fluency. So Graham Fletcher has served in education in a lot of different roles: as a classroom teacher, math coach, math specialist, and he’s continually seeking new and innovative ways to support students and teachers in their development of conceptual understanding in elementary math. He’s the author, along with Tracy, of Building Fact Fluency, a fluency kit we’ll talk about, and openly shares so much of his wisdom and resources at gfletchy.com. Tracy Johnson Zager is a district math coach who loves to get teachers hooked on listening to kids’ mathematical ideas. She is a co-author of this toolkit, Building Fact Fluency, and the author of Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You’d Had: Ideas and Strategies from Vibrant Classrooms. Tracy also edits professional books for teachers at Stenhouse Publishers, including, yours truly. Thank you for all that insight, Tracy, and support on the book.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (20:49):

Dan and I were talking at the beginning of the episode about things we feel like, “Hey, I’m fluent in that. I’m fluent in that.”

Dan Meyer (20:55):

Just very curious: What’s something you would like to get fluent in outside of the world of mathematics, let’s say?

Tracy Zager (21:00):

I’ll say understanding the teenage brain, as the parent of a 13-year-old and 15-year-old. That’s the main thing I’m working on becoming fluent in!

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (21:10):

Ooh!

Dan Meyer (21:13):

A language fluency, perhaps. All right, Graham. How about you?

Graham Fletcher (21:16):

For me typing, it’s always been an Achilles heel of mine. So voice-to-text has been my friend. But it’s also been my nemesis in much of my texting here and working virtually over the last couple years. So yeah, typing.

Dan Meyer (21:33):

Do you folks have some way of helping us understand the difference in how fluency is handled by instructors and by learners?

Tracy Zager (21:40):

I would say that the lay meaning of fluency is definitely a little different than what we mean in the math education realm. When we’re talking about math fact fluency, which is just one type of fluency. So you gotta think about procedural fluency and computational fluency; there are lots of types of fluency in math. And Graham and I had the luxury of really focusing in specifically on math fact fluency. We’re looking at kind of a subset of the procedural fluency. So the words you hear in all the citations are accurate, efficient, and flexible. There’s this combination of kids get the right answer in a reasonable amount of time and with a reasonable amount of work and they can match their strategy or their approach to the situation. That’s where that flexibility comes in. And there’s like lots more I wanna say about that about sort of…I think one issue that comes up around fluency is that people are in a little bit of a rush. So they tend to think of the fluency as this automaticity or recall of known facts without having to think about it. And that is part of the end goal, but that’s not the journey to fluency. So this is one of the things that Graham and I thought about a lot was the path to fluency. The goal here it’s that student in middle school who’s learning something new doesn’t have to expend any effort to gather that fact. And they might do it because they’ve done it so many different ways that they’ve got it, and now they just know it, or they might be like my friend who’s a mathematician who still, if you say, “Six times 8,” she thinks in her head, “Twelve, 24, 48…” and she does this double-double-double associative property strategy. And it’s so efficient, you would never know. And that’s totally great. That’s fine. That’s not slowing her down. That’s not providing a drag in the middle of a more complex problem or new learning. So we’re really focused on having elementary school students be able to enter the middle and high school standards without having that pull out of the new thinking.

Graham Fletcher (23:53):

And as I think about that, I think about how so many students will memorize their facts, but then they haven’t memorized them with understanding. So that when they move into middle school and they move into high school, it’s almost like new knowledge and new understanding that’s applied from a stand-alone skill.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (24:10):

So something that felt really unique to me, Graham, as I was diving into the toolkit, is your use of images, Tracy, Graham, is the way that you use images to help students notice and wonder to start making sense of these quantities and the decomposition of numbers using images. Can you talk a little bit about how images played a part in the way that you think about this building a fact fluency?

Graham Fletcher (24:41):

What I realized is so many times when we approach math with just naked numbers with so many of our elementary students, the numbers aren’t visible. The quantities. They can’t see them; they can’t move them. They’re just those squiggly figures that we were talking about earlier on. So how is it that we make the quantities visible, to where students feel as if they can grab an apple and move it around? Because a lot of times we start with the naked numbers and then if kids don’t get the naked numbers, then we kind of backfill it. But what would happen if we start with the images? And then from there, these rich, flourishing mathematical conversations develop from the images. And I think that was the premise and the goal of the toolkit.

Tracy Zager (25:22):

When you look at how fact fluency has traditionally been taught, it’s all naked numbers. And sometimes we wrote ’em sideways. Like, that’s it. That was our variety of task type. Right? Sometimes it’s vertical; sometimes it’s horizontal. And that was it. And I’ve just known way too many kids who couldn’t find a hook to hang their hat on with that. It didn’t connect to anything. And so part of why I knew Graham was the perfect person for this project was his strength in multimedia photography, art, video. And so we started from this idea of contexts that for each lesson string in the toolkit, there’s some kind of context. An everyday object, arranged in some kind of a way that reveals mathematical structure and invites students to notice the properties. So we start with images of everyday objects: tennis balls, paint pots…um, help me out; here are a million of them. Crayons—

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (26:18):

Crayons, markers.

Tracy Zager (26:18):

Shoes, right? Sushi, origami paper, all kinds of things in the different toolkits. So there’s a series of images or a three-act task or both around those everyday objects, and then story problems grounded in that context. And then there are images with mathematical tools that bring out different ideas, but relate in some way to the image talks. And we do all of that before we get to the naked number talk. Which we do, and by the time you get to the number talk, it’s pretty quick, ’cause they’ve been reasoning about cups of lemonade. And now when you give them the actual numerals, they’re all over it.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (27:03):

I have to say too, as somebody who—particularly in middle school—navigated math anxiety, we recently talked with Allison Hintz and Anthony Smith about their amazing book Mathematizing Children’s Literature.

Tracy Zager (27:14):

Yay!

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (27:14):

And I was explaining, like, if I sat down at the beginning of a math class and my teacher opened a picture book and said, “We’re gonna start here,” I felt my whole body relax. And if we start with this image, if we start with just looking at an image and making sense of an image, I feel like that could be such a powerful touchstone for all the work you do from there.

Tracy Zager (27:41):

That’s core. That’s a core design principle, is that invitational access. There are no barriers to entry. There’s nothing to decode. There’s nothing formal. We’ve been learning from Dan for years about this, right? Of starting with the informal and then eventually layering in the formal. I was in a class in Maine where they were doing an image talk and it’s these boxes of pencils. It’s a stack of boxes of pencils and they’re open and you can see there are 10 pencils in each box. And so there are five boxes of pencils each with 10 pencils in it. And then the next image is 10 boxes of pencils and each box is half full. So now it’s 10 boxes each with five. And the kids are talking and talking and then the third image, I think there are seven boxes each with 10 pencils in it. And she said, “What do you think the next picture’s gonna be?” And this girl said, “You just never know with these people!” <laugh> I dunno!”

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (28:37):

That’s kinda true. Knowing you both, it’s kinda true.

Tracy Zager (28:42):

Like if it’s seven boxes with 10 in it, one kid said, I think it’s gonna be 14 boxes of five. And other kids are like, I think it’s gonna be 10 boxes with seven. And they start talking about which of those there are and the relationships between—

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (28:58):

But they’re making sense of numbers!

Tracy Zager (28:59):

Totally. So all the kids felt invited. They can offer something up. They’re noticing and wondering about that image. They’re talking about it in whatever informal language or home language that they speak. And that was core to us. That was a huge priority, because honestly, one of the motivations to talk about fluency is that it’s always been this gatekeeper. It has served to keep kids out of meaningful math. Particularly kids from marginalized or historically excluded communities. So they’re back at the round table, doing Mad Minutes, while the more advantaged kids are getting to do rich problem solving. And so, we thought, what if we could teach fact fluency through rich problem solving that everybody could access? That was like square one for us.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (29:45):

That’s huge.

Dan Meyer (29:46):

That’s great to hear. What’s been helpful for me is to understand that students who are automatic, that’s just kind of what’s on the surface of things. And that below that might be some really robust kind of foundation or scaffolding that bleeds to a larger building being built, or it might be just really rickety and not offer a sturdy place to build farther up. It’s been really exciting to hear that. I wonder if you’d comment for a moment about, in the digital age and—I’m at Desmos and our sponsors are Amplify and we all work in the digital world quite a bit. There are a lot of what report to be solutions to the fluency issue, to developing fluency in the digital world. Just lots and lots of them. Some that are quite well used, others that are just like X, Y, or Z app on the market. You can find something. Do you have perspectives on these kinds of digital fluency building apps? Like, what about them works or doesn’t work? Let us know. Graham, how about you? And then Tracy, I’d love to hear your thoughts too.

Graham Fletcher (30:47):

Yeah, I think that’s a great question, ’cause there’s a lot of shiny bells and whistles out there right now that can really excite a lot of teachers. But I always come back to what works for me as a classroom teacher is probably gonna work in a digital world as well. So what are the things that I love and honor most about being in front of students, and how can I capture that in that virtual world? I think one of the things that really helps students make connections is coherence. I think coherence, especially when you leave students for—you don’t get to talk with them after the lesson is done—so I think about how we can purposefully sequence things through a day-to-day basis. I think coherence is something that gets really lost when we talk about fluency, especially with whether it be digital or whether it be print, because what ends up happening is we say, “OK, we have all these strategies we need to teach,” and it becomes a checklist. So how is it that we can just provide students the opportunity to play around in a space, whether it be digital or in person, but in a meaningful way that allows them the time and the space and that area to breathe and think, but be coherent. And connecting those lessons along the way. And I think coherence is one thing that a lot of the times it’s harder to—when we’re in the weeds, it’s so hard and difficult to zoom back out and say, “Do all these lessons connect? How do they intentionally connect? And how do they purposefully connect?” And without coherence, everything’s kind of broken down into that granular level. So when looking at—I think about Desmos and I think about the Toolkit and I think about how Tracy and I talked a lot about, “Well, this, does it connect with the context problem, does it connect with the image talk, or the lessons? Like, how does it all connect and how are we providing students an opportunity to make connections between the day-to-day instruction and lessons that we tackle?”

Tracy Zager (32:44):

I’m reminded of a conversation that Dan, you and I had a long time ago, in Portland, Maine, in a bar. I’ll just be honest. <laugh> And we were talking about how, in the earlier days of Desmos, you were stressed out by what you saw, which was kids one-on-one, on a device, in a silent room. And you were like, no, this is not it. This is not what technology is here to serve. We can do so many things better using technology appropriately, but we can’t lose talk and we can’t lose relationships and we can’t lose formative assessment and teachers listening to kids and kids listening to each other and helping each other understand their thinking. Right? So when I think about the tech that’s out there for fact fluency, most of it is gonna violate all rules I have around time testing. So that a whole bunch of it, I would just toss on that premise. They’re really no different than flashcards. It’s just flashcards set in junkyard heaps. Or, you know, underground caverns. Or with a volcano or whatever. It’s the same thing. There are some lovely visuals—I’m thinking of Berkeley Everett’s Math Flips. Those are really pretty. Mathigon has some really nice stuff that’s digital. And I think that those resources invite you to kind of ponder and notice things and talk about them. All the tools that we design in the toolkit are designed to get people talking to each other, and give teachers opportunities to pull alongside kids and listen in and understand where they are. For example, our games, we didn’t design the games to be played digitally, even though you could, and people did during COVID, because we want kids on the rug, next to each other, on their knees; I’ve seen kids like across tables. I was in a school recently where a kid was like, “I hope you believe in God, ’cause you’re going…!” You know what I mean? <laugh>. Like they’re all pumped up.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (34:41):

They’re invested!

Tracy Zager (34:45):

They’re psyching each other up and down and they’re interacting and it’s social and the teacher’s walking around and she’s listening to the games. And they don’t actually need any bells and whistles. They need dice and they need counters and they need this game that is actually a game. In all of our conversations, games have to actually be games. Games cannot be “roll and record.” Games have to involve strategy. They have to be fun. So in designing those games, we didn’t feel like it brought any advantage to make that a digital platform. But things that did bring advantages digitally, like the ability to project these beautiful images or to use short video in the classroom, that really was a value-add that enabled us to do something different in math class than we had done before, and to get kids talking in a different way than they ever had before. When I think about fluency, historically, if you say like, “OK, it’s time to practice our math facts,” you hear a lot of groans. And when I see a Building Fact Fluency classroom and I say, “OK, it’s BFF time!” There’s like a “YEAAAAHHH!” You know? And so that’s what we’re after.

Graham Fletcher (35:47):

It’s all about kids, really, for us. And I think at the heart of it, we made all the decisions with teachers and kids at the forefront of it.

Tracy Zager (35:55):

I know of high schoolers who are newcomers, who have experienced very little formal education, and speak in other languages, are using it as high schoolers, because it involves language and math and all the deep work in the properties and it’s accessible, but it’s also not at all condescending or patronizing. Like we designed it to be appropriate for older kids. So that’s just something that I think we’re both really proud of. One thing we thought a lot about, especially in the multiplication-division kit is how a classroom teacher could use it and a coordinating educator in EL, Title, special education, intervention could also use it because there’s so much in it, that students could get to be experts, if they got extra time in it, using something that’s related and would give them additional practice. So they could play a game a little bit earlier than the rest of the classes. And they could come in already knowing about that game, or they could do a related task. We have all these optional tasks that no classroom teacher would ever have time to teach it all. So the special educator could use it and have kids doing a Same and Different or a True/False, or some of the optional games. And then the work in both special education and general education could connect.

Dan Meyer (37:20):

I just wanna say that this is an area that for so many students, as you’ve said, Tracy, it presents a barrier. It’s a very emotionally fraught area of mathematics. And we really appreciate the wisdom you brought here. And just the care you’ve brought to the product itself. Your knowledge of teaching, knowledge of math, and yeah, especially a love for students feels like it’s really infused throughout Building Fact Fluency. If our listeners want to know more outside of this podcast, outside of the product itself, where can they find your words, your voice? Where you folks at these days? Tell ’em, Graham would you?

Graham Fletcher (37:57):

You can find us at Stenhouse, Building Fact Fluency. And then Tracy and I, currently playing around, sharing ideas a lot on Twitter, under the hashtag #BuildingFactFluency. That’s kind of where we can all come together and share ideas. And then also on the Facebook community, where there’s lots of teachers sharing ideas.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (38:19):

If you were to ask our listeners like, “Hey, if you wanna keep thinking about this, here’s something you could try or here’s something you could go do,” what could be a challenge that we could share that could help us continue this conversation?

Graham Fletcher (38:35):

Online you can actually download a full lesson string. And a lesson string is a series of activities and resources that are purposefully connected. You can pick one or two of those from the Stenhouse web site, Building Fact Fluency. You can try the game. You can try one of those strategy-based games. You can try an image talk and just see how it goes. And just share and reflect back, whether on Twitter or on Facebook. But it’s kind of there, if you wanna give it a whirl. And as Tracy was sharing, even if you’re a middle-school teacher or a high-school teacher, we really tried to think about those middle-school and high-school students keeping it grade level-agnostic. Just so every student has those opportunities for those mathematical conversations. So download a lesson string and give it a whirl, and we’d love to hear how it goes.

Dan Meyer (39:25):

Bethany and I will be working the same challenge with people in our life.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (39:29):

Yes.

Dan Meyer (39:29):

Enjoying some fact fluency with people in our homes, perhaps. We’ll see. And we’ll be sharing the results in the Math Teacher Lounge Facebook group. Graham and Tracy, thanks so much for being here. It was such a treat to chat with you both.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (39:42):

I love learning with you and just helping to shift this idea of fluency into something that can be accessible and powerful and positive.

Stay connected!

Join our community and get new episodes every other Tuesday!

We’ll also share new and exciting free resources for your classroom every month.

What Valerie Henry says about math

“A lot of very fluent adults don’t always have every fact memorized. ”

– Val Henry

Meet the guest

Valerie Henry has been a math educator since 1986. She taught middle school math for 17 years and has worked as a lecturer at University of California Irvine since 2002. After doing her 2004 dissertation research on addition/subtraction fluency in first grade, Valerie created FactsWise, a daily mini-lesson approach that simultaneously develops  fluency,  number sense, and algebraic thinking. Additionally, she has provided curriculum and math professional development for K-12 teachers throughout her career, working with individual schools, districts, county offices of education, Illustrative Mathematics, the SBAC Digital Library, and the UCI Math Project.

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Podcast cover for "Math Teacher Lounge" with Bethany Lockhart Johnson and Dan Meyer; bold text on orange and teal semicircle background.

About Math Teacher Lounge: The podcast

Math Teacher Lounge is a biweekly podcast created specifically for K–12 math educators. In each episode co-hosts Bethany Lockhart Johnson (@lockhartedu) and Dan Meyer (@ddmeyer) chat with guests, taking a deep dive into the math and educational topics you care about.

Join the Math Teacher Lounge Facebook group to continue the conversation, view exclusive content, interact with fellow educators, participate in giveaways, and more!

You might also like:

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Free professional development cours…

Three on-demand professional learning courses for math teachers.  Earn your cert…

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Mathigon: the mathematical playgrou…

Math games and manipulatives for online and remote learning.

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Amplify Classroom Grades 3–12

Join Amplify Classroom to gain access to free classroom lessons, lesson-building…

Families & Caregivers — Welcome to Amplify Desmos Math New York for grades K–5!

This is the initial version of the Caregiver Hub for Amplify Desmos Math New York. Para la versión en español, haga clic aquí.

Welcome to the Amplify Desmos Math New York K–5 Caregiver Hub for grades K–5. We’re so excited your student’s school has chosen our program! We designed this space to help you support your student in their math journey this year. Your hard work plays an essential role in your student’s math experience.

We hope your student enjoys using technology to explore math, working with friends to solve problems, and learning all sorts of new and interesting concepts. And we hope you love experiencing it with them!

Excited to learn together,
—The Amplify Desmos Math team

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Introducing Amplify Desmos Math

Amplify Desmos Math is a core math curriculum built for kindergarten through grade 5. We developed the program around the idea that a structured approach to problem-based learning builds on students’ curiosity to develop lasting grade-level understandings for all students. Each lesson offers opportunities to develop students’ understanding; connect their ideas; grow their skill fluency; and empower them to ask questions, explore, and make discoveries.

Amplify Desmos Math uses a student-centered approach to instruction, which has been proven to significantly increase math learning. Our mission is for your students to learn math—and to love learning math!

In every lesson, the Amplify Desmos Math curriculum poses engaging and relevant problems to solve, giving students daily opportunities to think critically, work collaboratively, and actively participate in their own learning.

Screenshot of the Amplify Desmos Math New York, K-5 section on the Desmos Classroom website displaying a list of ADM lessons for different grade levels.

About student-centered math instruction

Student-centered instruction may look different from the way students have learned math in the past, and perhaps from the way you learned math. Instead of memorizing formulas and tricks, student-centered learning focuses on giving students opportunities to figure out how math works. Research shows that students and teachers alike prefer this method, and teachers report that student-centered instruction has helped their students learn more math.

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This way of learning helps students:

  • Understand how math concepts work.
  • Remember what they learn in class and apply their knowledge to new situations.
  • Perform better on standardized tests and have more growth in their grades than their peers who learn through other methods.
  • Learn to communicate in writing and verbally, understand and challenge the opinions of others, and build confidence in solving new problems.
  • Develop key skills for success in college and the workplace, like using technology, completing projects independently and with others, and persevering through difficult problems.

What materials do students use?

Amplify Desmos Math supports blended learning with supportive print materials and a unique digital experience. All Amplify Desmos Math K–5 lessons are available in a write-in Student Edition book. Many of the lessons are designed to include hands-on activities with manipulatives. An age-appropriate number of lessons are designed for students to use digital devices like laptops or tablets. These include enhanced digital experiences that teachers can assign to students.

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Here’s what you can expect for your students from Amplify Desmos Math:

  • Lessons that drive classroom discussions so students can work toward a shared understanding and sense of community.
  • Responsive feedback that interprets student responses in context and encourages perseverance and revision.
  • Easy-to-follow lesson plans tested in classrooms across the country, with clear teaching suggestions, strategies, and Math Language Routines.
  • Practice problems to support fluency and help students review previous topics.
  • Recommended differentiation suggestions for teachers so that they can meet the needs of diverse learners.
  • Formative assessments that provide information on student understanding so that they can adjust their instruction to meet the needs of all students in their class.
  • Summative assessments that help teachers understand what students know about the math content they have been learning.
  • Daily lesson-level assessments so that teachers can frequently check for understanding.
  • A caregiver resource for each unit that includes explanations of key math concepts and problems to try with your student.

When students use devices, teachers can monitor students’ work in real time, making sure they get the exact support that they need at every part of the lesson, in and outside of class. Here is a sample of what a teacher sees on their dashboard to help them monitor thinking and support student learning.

Screenshot of a digital class attendance and activity tracker with student names and checkboxes indicating their participation in various New York math tasks.

Students are also able to access their digital work at home. Here’s an article on how to navigate the student home page.

What does a lesson look like?

Students in an Amplify Desmos Math classroom can be seen (and heard!)—asking questions, debating answers, justifying their thinking, grappling with problems, and working together and independently.

Two students, one male and one female, are sitting at a desk with a laptop, discussing a project under a "math club" sign, with speech bubble icons above them.

Here’s what a typical Amplify Desmos Math lesson includes:

  • Warm-up: A short, attention-getting problem to get students interested in the lesson.
  • Activities: 1-2 mini-activities that challenge students’ problem-solving skills.
  • Synthesis: Discussion to review and bring together the important concepts from the lesson.
  • Show What You Know and Reflection: Questions for students to show what they know from the lesson. (Note: The “Show What You Know” lesson assessment is optional for the teacher to assign in kindergarten and grade 1)
  • Centers: Student-led activity stations that reinforce the math learned during lesson activities through interactive and often game-like formats. In kindergarten and grade 1, time for Centers is built into the last 15 minutes of every lesson.

Here’s what is available after the lesson to support, strengthen, and stretch students’ learning:

  • Differentiation: Mini-lessons, Centers, extensions, personalized learning, and fluency practice.
  • Practice: Additional problems your student’s teacher may assign for classwork or homework.

How can caregivers support math learning at home?

Use our Unit Support for Caregivers

We’ve created a Caregiver Resource for every unit of the program that provides a summary of key concepts, plus a problem from the lesson practice set you can work through with your student. Within each of the grade-level links below, you’ll find a Caregiver Resource document for each unit, in both English and Spanish.

Grade 1
Unit 1: Adding, Subtracting, and Working With Data
English
Spanish

Grade 3
Unit 1: Introducing Multiplication
English
Spanish

Grade 5
Unit 1: Volume
English
Spanish

Review practice problems together

Your student’s teacher may assign practice problems at the end of each lesson for classwork or homework. If your student has already completed the practice problems for the lesson, ask your student to walk you through how they solved each problem, or talk about any parts that were challenging for them. Ask your students follow-up questions to encourage the use of math language as they explain their thinking, such as: “How do you know?,” “How can you show your thinking?,” or “How would you describe that?” If students are stuck, ask support questions such as, “What information do you know here?” or “How could you represent this problem?”

Getting stuck is okay!

Emphasize that getting stuck is part of the process and a necessary part of learning. Many students (and adults!) fear making mistakes. However, research shows that making mistakes helps your brain grow more. When your student gets stuck on a problem, encourage them to try different strategies, even if they are not sure if they are right.

Find the math in everyday life.

Relate math to daily activities at home, whether grocery shopping, preparing a meal, or planning for a trip to the store. Your student can help you figure out how many more apples there are than oranges in the grocery cart, show how to split a sandwich into fourths, or figure out how much change you’ll receive in exchange for a ten dollar bill. Encourage your student to point out ways that you use math in daily tasks.

Read the Unit Story with your student.

Each unit in Amplify Desmos Math K–5 begins with a read-aloud story to engage students and provide context for the math of the unit. Elements and characters from the Unit Story then appear in lessons throughout the rest of the unit.

Access our Featured Collection of free K–5 Lessons and Activities.

Explore our latest free K–5 content in our Desmos Classroom Featured Collection. With our free collection, you can access:

  • Digital Lessons: Engaging interactive lessons
  • Mini-Lessons: A mix of print and digital activities designed for small-group instruction
  • Math Routines: Short digital activities to kick-start instruction and encourage math discussions
  • Bite-Sized Math Moments: Digital practice activities that use Polypad virtual manipulatives, designed to be used flexibly

Click here to access the collection and sign up for a free account.

How do caregivers access the program at home?

Your student will have access to all learning, practice, and assessment materials through the Amplify platform. Students can access the digital curriculum in school and at home by following these simple instructions.

  • Click the orange Login to Amplify Desmos Math button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter your student’s username and password provided by your student’s teacher.
  • Select your student’s grade level.
Login to Amplify Desmos Math

Achieve life-changing results with the
Science of Reading—we’ll show you how.

Watching students learn to read is magic. But knowing how they get there? That’s science.

Making the shift to the Science of Reading is commendable, but it is no small feat. Our extensive experience, field-tested resources, and stories of literacy success will help you deliver the true transformation you need in your district—and see the results your students deserve.

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Exploring the Science of Writing

Discover the captivating journey of writing with our new guide, Science of Writing: A Primer. This resource delves into the history of writing, highlights the crucial link between combining reading and writing instruction, and reveals why handwriting still matters in today’s digital world. Designed to complement CKLA 3rd Edition and our other literacy tools, this primer is set to become a trusted companion, just like those before it.

Download now

MTSS Playbook

Explore our new ebook designed to help you build an evidence-based Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) tailored to diverse literacy goals. This resource provides actionable steps and essential questions to fortify your MTSS with the Science of Reading, enhancing its effectiveness and achieving better outcomes for your students.

Download the playbook
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Cover of a "Change Management Playbook" guide, featuring two women reviewing a tablet and a teacher in an orange sweater instructing a classroom—highlighting K–5 literacy instruction and effective science of reading resources.

The science of teaching reading, coupled with the art of change management

Shifting to the Science of Reading isn’t just an overnight curriculum swap—it’s a profound culture change with multiple stages and stakeholders. We’ve helped educators succeed in that shift for years, and now we’re here to guide you every step of the way. Through each stage of implementation, our Change Management Playbook will help you mobilize your practice, process, and people to make the shift that matters most.

Download the playbook

What is the Science of Reading?

Learning to read is not innate, but it can be taught—and science tells us how. The Science of Reading refers to the vast body of growing research that deconstructs how children learn to read, and the instructional practices that can get them there.

Reading fluency requires a complex combination of skills, taught explicitly and systematically. There are two main frameworks that can help us break it all down: The Simple View of Reading and Scarborough’s Rope.

Learn more
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Cover of a guide titled "Science of Reading: A New Teacher’s Guide" by Amplify, featuring a teacher with two children and educational icons.

Science of Reading starter kit for new teachers

New to the classroom? We’ve compiled a collection of resources and insights about the Science of Reading to help you acquire more knowledge and build confidence. You’ll find the tools, information, and support you need to foster successful readers and writers in your classroom this school year—and beyond.

Access your resources

The Simple View of Reading

The Simple View of Reading, formulated by Philip Gough and William Tunmer in 1986, is the theory that proficient reading requires two main components:

Flowchart illustrating skilled reading as the product of language comprehension and word recognition, grounded in the science of reading.
A diagram with intertwining orange, yellow, and blue lines converging and diverging, illustrating interconnected pathways on a black background—reflecting the dynamic flow of ideas found in Core Knowledge or Amplify CKLA curricula.

The Reading Rope

The Reading Rope, developed by Dr. Hollis Scarborough in 2001, helps us visualize the strands of specific skills and instruction that support students in decoding and comprehension.

Read more

Professional development to support your shift to the Science of Reading

Ignite literacy transformation with Amplify’s Science of Reading: The Learning Lab—an inspiring three-course series.

  • Dive into a comprehensive overview with course one, Foundations to the Science of Reading.
  • Examine assessments and their roles in course two, Advanced Topics in the Science of Reading: Assessment and Reading Difficulties.
  • Apply effective literacy instruction to your classroom in course three, Applied Structured Literacy.

Crafted to the standards of the International Dyslexia Association, this self-paced online series provides unparalleled, research-backed instruction. Explore enriching activities, curated resources, and learn from Susan Lambert, chief academic officer and host of Science of Reading: The Podcast.

The best investment you can make is in knowledge, and the returns are priceless.

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Learn more about the online courses or request a quote!

Explore the courses
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Tap into individual online course seats.

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Science of Reading: The Podcast

Tune in to hear the latest insights and trends in early reading, right from leading literacy experts and practitioners.

Listen now

Build your background knowledge of the Science of Reading.

Our Science of Reading principles and primers explain the essentials: what the Science of Reading is, how it works, and why it matters for every student.

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New Science of Reading principles placemat!

Decades of research inform the updated Science of Reading principles placemat. Use these insights as a guide for evidence-based literacy instruction—perfect for committed educators aiming to achieve real improvements in student reading outcomes.

Download principles

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Science of Reading
A Primer: Part 1

In part 1 of our definitive Science of Reading primer, we discuss literacy as a societal goal, walk you through how the brain learns to decode and comprehend text, and present the patterns that top-performing schools and districts follow to achieve early reading success.

Download primer 1

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Science of Reading
A Primer: Part 2

In part 2 of our Science of Reading primer, we establish the importance of prior knowledge for comprehension, lay out the process of micro-comprehension, and demonstrate how literacy skills build on and accelerate themselves.

Download primer 2

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“If you’re looking for a Science of Reading training, the [Science of Reading: Foundations to the Science of Reading] online course is great. It helps you build background knowledge on learning how students learn how to read, and then it goes deeper and it gives you strategies that correlate with those findings that you can implement right into your classroom.”

—Allie Appel, Instructional Coach

School District of Arcadia, WI

Why undertake this crucial change?

When we bring proven methods based on the Science of Reading into schools, we make sure kids are learning to read and help teachers and caregivers support a culture of reading. Together, we can solve the reading crisis and make literacy a reality everywhere.

You’ll change lives with literacy.

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), only 35% of fourth graders in the United States are proficient in reading. But schools using a Science of Reading approach have seen significant improvements in literacy rates. Using research-based methods, educators can help give all children the chance to become successful readers.

See the report card
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You’ll build a foundation with explicit, systematic skills instruction.

Reading skills don’t come naturally. We actually need to rewire our brains with intentional, structured literacy instruction—starting with sounds.

Learn more

You’ll improve outcomes with knowledge building.

Longitudinal research shows that knowledge building doesn’t just happen as a result of reading, but is also a vital prerequisite for and component of it. And when delivered intentionally and systematically, knowledge delivers literacy results.

Read the research
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“It’s not just about the curriculum. It’s about the science behind how people, how children, and how we as humans learn to read… It’s working. I wish I had this years ago. ”

—Javonna Mack, Lead Content Teacher

Caddo Parish Schools, Louisiana

Science of Reading & Early Literacy Resources FAQ

Amplify understands that making the shift to the Science of Reading is no small feat. Get some early literacy resources and guidance with our Science of Reading FAQ.

Learning to read is not innate. It needs to be taught intentionally and systematically—and science tells us how. The vast and growing body of research on early literacy is referred to as the Science of Reading. It draws on extensive research in cognitive science, linguistics, and neuroscience. It emphasizes the systematic teaching of foundational skills—such as phonics, phonological awareness, and decoding—in building vocabulary and comprehension. In other words, it deconstructs the processes behind how children learn to read, and provides evidence for the instructional practices and early literacy resources that can get them there.

Read more 

The Science of Reading refers to the pedagogy and practices proven by extensive research to effectively teach children how to read. It places a strong emphasis on both components of the Simple View of Reading, demonstrating that systematic and explicit instruction in phonics and and intentionally sequenced knowledge building are critical to reading success.

In a balanced literacy environment, learning happens through reading and writing immersion, where the need for explicit instruction in phonics is recognized but is not the primary focus.

The key difference between the approaches lies in their emphasis on foundational reading skills and a coherent approach to building language comprehension.

A balanced literacy approach typically includes a combination of whole language approaches (emphasizing meaning and context) and phonics instruction. Balanced literacy instruction is designed to be flexible and open to interpretation by the instructor. It may include the three-cueing system, which encourages students to rely on syntactic and semantic clues in a text to read an unfamiliar word, rather than decoding (Does it look right? Does it sound right? Does it make sense?). Balanced literacy practitioners may also use leveled reading to differentiate instruction, which can can limit vocabulary exposure, hinder in-depth comprehension skills, and further widen achievement gaps.

Balanced literacy has long been a popular approach to reading instruction, with educators appreciating its openness to variation. But advocates for the Science of Reading argue that an evidence-based approach aligned with known cognitive processes and a focus on foundational skills and language comprehension provides the most solid foundation for reading instruction—for confident and struggling readers alike.

Read more

According to our friends at The Reading League, the Science of Reading is important not because it gives us an effective way to teach reading, but because it gives us the most effective way to teach reading.

“The Science of Reading is critical because it emphasizes evidence-based instruction. Decades of scientific research on reading have consistently shown the most effective ways to teach reading. The Science of Reading incorporates this research, which includes phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.”

The Reading League also takes it to the next level: What happens when all children have access to the most effective early literacy and reading education? “We believe in a future where a collective focus on applying the Science of Reading through teacher and leader preparation, classroom application, and community engagement will elevate and transform every community, every nation, through the power of literacy.”

The Science of Reading has identified five foundational reading skills that are considered crucial for early reading development. One of those skills is phonics. In other words, the Science of Reading has established that phonics are crucial, but the Science of Reading is not the same as phonics.

Phonics instruction helps students learn how to sound out and blend letters to read words accurately. As we know from the Simple View of Reading, two fundamental skills are required for reading with comprehension:

  1. Decoding—the ability to recognize written words (via phonics)
  2. Language comprehension—understanding what words mean

And the Science of Reading also reminds us that students do not have to learn phonics or decoding before knowledge comes into the equation. “The background knowledge that children bring to a text is also a contributor to language comprehension,” says Sonia Cabell, Ph.D., associate professor at Florida State University’s School of Teacher Education, on Science of Reading: The Podcast.

The Science of Reading is an evolving field built on decades of high-quality, evidence-based research that continually integrates new insights gathered from cognitive neuroscience, psychology, and linguistics. These ongoing studies constantly refine our understanding of how the human brain processes language and learning, enabling more personalized and effective teaching strategies that can adapt to the wide-ranging learning needs of students.

Like other sciences such as medicine, astronomy, or engineering – new advancements in reading technology allow us to understand how the brain works and refine our practices. Every scientific advancement in this field of reading science deepens our comprehension of reading-related challenges like dyslexia and informs the development of evidence-based interventions. We don’t believe that the Science of Reading can be reduced to a fad or trend. Rather, it is a continually evolving, enduringly effective discipline, grounded in rigorous research and driven by the quest for better comprehension of how we read and learn.

Assessment grounded in the Science of Reading can help identify children at risk of dyslexia at the earliest possible moments, creating the widest opportunity for intervention.

People with dyslexia often experience challenges in phonological awareness. They may struggle to break down words into their component sounds and to recognize the relationships between letters and sounds. Systematic and explicit instruction in phonics and phonological awareness can help individuals with dyslexia develop necessary phonological skills. This evidence-based instruction can also help students who have difficulty with decoding.

Further, evidence-based comprehension instruction, including explicit instruction in vocabulary and comprehension strategies, can support students with dyslexia in understanding and making meaning from text.

Download our free dyslexia toolkit

The Science of Reading can be integrated with a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) to provide comprehensive and targeted reading instruction for all students. The Science of Reading aligns with a tiered model by providing evidence-based practices for instruction at each tier. An MTSS includes universal screening to identify students at risk of reading difficulties; the Science of Reading can also guide the selection of screening measures to assess specific foundational skills. Aligning the Science of Reading with an MTSS framework can also enhance instructional practices and interventions, ensure data-driven decision making, and help meet the needs of all students.

Read more

Integrating the Science of Reading and the Science of Writing strengthens our approach to teaching literacy. Reading and writing are interdependent. Understanding how sentences are built not only contributes to better reading comprehension, it also helps writers develop clear, logical text. As students grow as readers, they also grow as writers, leading to a comprehensive literacy education. Clear thinking and effective writing are crucial for expressing ideas. By fostering both skills, teachers better support students in becoming confident readers and writers, prepared for academic challenges and beyond.

One of the research-based frameworks used in the Science of Reading is the Simple View of Reading. According to the Simple View, two cognitive capacities are needed for proficient reading: (1) understanding the language (comprehension) and (2) recognizing words in print (decoding). A true Science of Reading program is designed from the start for students to build these skills, in a developmentally appropriate way.

It will also emphasize the importance of knowledge building by exposing students to a diverse array of new topics spanning history, science, and literature, organized intentionally and coherently within and across grades. Deep and intentionally sequenced knowledge domains will help build a student’s vocabulary and understanding of complex texts. And it will include instruction in  all five foundational skills: phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension.

Download our free ebook, Science of Reading: Making the Shift, which includes a checklist of what to look for in a curriculum based on the Science of Reading. Learn more from our friends at The Reading League.

Actually, we have a full literacy suite built on the Science of Reading! It includes:

  • mCLASS® assessment, powered by DIBELS® 8th Edition, a gold-standard universal and dyslexia screener, plus a progress monitoring tool, all in one.
  • Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA), which provides explicit, systematic foundational skills instruction combined with intentional knowledge building.
  • Boost Reading, a highly adaptive personalized reading program that reinforces the core curriculum and supports enrichment, remediation, and intervention for each student in your classroom.
  • mCLASS Intervention, a staff-led intervention program targeted to Tiers 2 and 3, made easy with automatic data-driven grouping and sequenced explicit, systematic skills lesson plans to support at-risk students.

Reading requires deliberate, systematic attention—and so does shifting to the Science of Reading in your school or district. It requires not only the right curriculum, but also all-new mindsets, metrics, and more. Reflecting years of experience supporting real educators, our resources will walk you through the process of change management in your community—and show you why the shift is worth it. View our Science of Reading change management playbook.

Exciting updates for Amplify CKLA

Big things are coming next school year! Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) 3rd Edition is introducing new enhancements to save you time, extend your impact, and support you in delivering the dynamic learning experiences your students deserve.

A tablet displays a CKLA children's storybook illustration, while a computer screen in the background shows an assessment report with charts and data.

Updates

Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition program improvements

For the next school year, you can expect several exciting updates to your Amplify CKLA experience, including:

  • Caregiver-facing letters that summarize student performance on each end-of-unit assessment.
  • The availability of K–2 Read-Aloud Videos to support student absences.
  • Teacher Presentation Screens assignable to students, either allowing you to share the slides as they are or turn them into digital activities with the ability to control pacing and view student work digitally.
  • Lesson screens will be downloadable and printable for offline viewing.
  • Teacher Moves that will be easier to use in Companion Mode on a second device or in another tab.
  • New resources for kindergarten, including guidance on letter naming routines and engaging digital practice games that can be assigned to students. 
  • More guidance resources including strategies for teachers to support students with varied needs; writing building block routines for each grade level; instructional guidance and feedback toolkit.
Three rectangular cards display CKLA lesson titles: "Nursery Rhymes and Fables," "Different Lands, Similar Stories," and "Greek Myths," labeled as lessons 1A, 5, and 6.

Digital assessment enhancements

We’re making digital assessments more comprehensive for the new school year, adding in open-ended questions (for Grades 2–5) and a three-point scoring rubric. These features will make them an even more powerful tool to gather data about the students in your classroom! You will also be able to download caregiver-facing letters that summarize student performance on each end-of-unit assessment. As you teach the program, digital assessments will help you understand if students are learning to comprehend text and vocabulary, as well as develop various components of comprehension.

A dashboard displays student assessment results for "CKLA Astronomy," showing score distribution by item, color-coded bars, and an itemized score table for each student.

New instructional routines videos

Modeling videos demonstrate best practices and help you implement Amplify CKLA K-2 Skills instruction with confidence. The instructional routine modeling videos and paired PDF guides will be embedded directly in the program to streamline your lesson preparation and delivery.

Amplify Classroom updates

This back-to-school season, we’re improving the overall classroom experience with platform enhancements that make lessons easier to navigate and instruction easier to manage.

  • We’re making updates to our Recently Visited section on Educator Home. You’ll see both activity and units reflected there, and have the ability to star a unit or lesson to pin it to the front of your list
  •  Presentation tools are expanding with Companion Mode, Projector Mode, and Sketch Everywhere, making it easier to facilitate lessons, annotate in real time, and manage instruction from anywhere in the room.
  • You will also have the option to use our redesigned Activity pages, which feature a left sidebar, informational tabs, and lesson screens at the top of the page. This reconfiguration allows you to immediately see each lesson and more easily access relevant resources and tools. You will be able to turn on the new design—or turn it off to return to the original design—with a toggle located on the page.
  • As of December, you are able to filter Stream by student name and see all assignments for a particular student. This includes the ability to preview student work right from the Stream to check in on student progress. You can also now assign digital activities to select students and even name the group they’ve selected for future use in the Assign feature. Named groups will be saved in the Admin Portal. You should also use the Admin Portal to create or edit groups, as well as add or remove staff or students.

AI-powered teacher tools

We’ve developed new tools to enhance your ability to connect and collaborate with families! These AI-powered tools streamline home connections by allowing you to generate your own caregiver materials. You will be able to access the three tools below in your global navigation bar to create PDFs that can be easily downloaded or printed:

  • Newsletter generator
  • Decodable passage generator
  • Caregiver letter translator
A dashboard interface displays teacher tools, featuring CKLA options for newsletters and a decodable generator, alongside a feedback button and navigation menu on the left.

New supplemental program: Language Studio for Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition

Releasing for the coming back-to-school season, Language Studio is an add-on program that uses the same structure, knowledge sequence, and Science of Reading foundation of Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition to help multilingual/English learners (ML/ELs) access core content and strengthen language skills. These lessons preview and reinforce Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition content to meet the needs of all K–5 ML/ELs.

This supplemental program is available to purchase for an extra cost.

Screenshot of a CKLA lesson plan for vocabulary building about the Middle Ages, including instructions, a timeline, and a worksheet for cutting and writing vocabulary cards.

Language Studio Teacher Guide Grade 4. Unit 2: Knights and Castles: Europe’s Middle Ages: Lesson 1

Language Studio Student Activity Book Grade 4. Unit 2: Knights and Castles: Europe’s Middle Ages: Lesson 1

New Grades 4 and 5 Skills supplements

Also available for the new school year: Grades 4 and 5 Skills instruction. Similar to Grade 3 Skills, Grades 4 and 5 Skills supplements are a flexible component for reteaching and additional practice. You can use these extra lessons to support core instruction or serve as an intervention, depending on your students’ needs. Instruction follows a familiar sequence and can be taught flexibly, in either two 15-minute sessions or one 30-minute session.

This supplemental program is available to purchase for an extra cost.

Amplify Caminos 3rd Edition

We’re thrilled to announce Amplify Caminos 3rd Edition, our Spanish language arts program and companion to Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) 3rd Edition, which creates a cohesive path to biliteracy for students in bilingual and dual language programs. Built from the ground up for Spanish, it offers everything you need to teach with clarity and purpose: foundational skills instruction, authentic texts, knowledge-rich content, and alignment with Amplify CKLA.

This program is available to purchase for an extra cost.

Noteworthy features

Free content for you to explore

You can use the Discover button to access free content from other Amplify programs, and even assign these free activities to your students via the digital platform.

Caregiver Hub

Throughout the school year, teachers can share the Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos Caregiver Hubs with students’ caregivers. These sites provide curriculum details, an overview of what caregivers can expect throughout the school year, and resources they can use with students at home.

A teacher helps a student wearing headphones use a laptop in a CKLA classroom; other students work in the background. Colorful cartoon stickers decorate the image.

Plan your professional development

We’re excited to partner with you on your Amplify journey. Flexible professional development pathways have been designed to meet your needs.

Illustration of three educational phases: a teacher launches a rocket, another reads a book, and four individuals discuss in a meeting setting.

Recommended Professional Development Plan

Our team has curated a recommended professional learning path from initial launch to continuous support. Use the Professional Development Planning Guide below to discuss the plan that best meets your school or district needs with your Account Executive.

View the Professional Development Planning Guide

mCLASS with DIBELS 8th Edition sessions overview

AudienceTitleDurationModality
Launch
New mCLASS with DIBELS 8th Edition customers with limited time for PDmCLASS with DIBELS 8th Edition program overviewHalf dayOnsite/Remote
New mCLASS with DIBELS 8th Edition customersInitial training1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote
Initial training: Train the Trainer1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote
Initial trainingSelf-pacedOnline course
Strengthen
mCLASS with DIBELS 8th Edition customers with limited time for PDUnderstanding your classroom dataHalf dayOnsite/Remote
All mCLASS with DIBELS 8th Edition customersClassroom data analysis and instructional planning1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote
Classroom data analysis and instructional planning: Train the Trainer1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote
Classroom data analysis and instructional planningSelf-pacedOnline course
All mCLASS with DIBELS 8th Edition customersUnderstanding your school or district dataHalf dayOnsite/Remote
Data-driven leadership practices 1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote
Data-driven leadership practices: Train the Trainer1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote
Data-driven leadership practicesSelf-pacedOnline course
Strengthening consultation session60 min.Remote
Strengthening consultation session package3 60-min. sessionsRemote
Coach
All mCLASS with DIBELS 8th Edition customersCoaching session1 dayOnsite
Coaching sessionHalf dayOnsite/Remote
Building readers
All mCLASS with DIBELS 8th Edition customersBuilding readers for leaders2 half daysOnsite/Remote
Building readers for teachers3 half daysOnsite/Remote

Launch

mCLASS with DIBELS 8th edition program overview

Half day (3 hours)

This PD prepares participants to implement the assessment and collect reliable data using standardized guidelines.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Initial training

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

This PD prepares participants to implement the assessment, collect reliable data using standardized guidelines, and use the targeted lessons available on mCLASS to drive differentiated instruction.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Initial training: Train the Trainer

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

This PD prepares participants to implement the assessment, collect reliable data using standardized guidelines, and use the targeted lessons available on mCLASS to drive differentiated instruction. Participants receive annotated session materials to turnkey the session to colleagues.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Initial training

Self-paced

This PD is an individual seat to our self-paced, on-demand online course that contains approximately 6 hours of training. Participants will learn how to implement the assessment, collect reliable data using standardized guidelines, and use the targeted lessons available on mCLASS to drive differentiated instruction. Participants will access and revisit the course anytime for up to one year as a refresher.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome)
Modality: Online

Strengthen

Understanding your classroom data

Half day (3 hours)

This PD prepares participants to understand their students’ data by utilizing the reports available on mCLASS. This session should be scheduled after the most recent benchmark window has closed so that participants can work with their own data.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Classroom data analysis and instructional planning

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

This PD prepares participants to deeply understand their students’ data and create actionable instructional plans by utilizing the reports and skills-focused lesson plans available on mCLASS.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

*This session should be scheduled after the most recent benchmark window has closed so that participants can work with their own data.

Classroom data analysis and instructional planning: Train the Trainer

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

This PD prepares participants to deeply understand their students’ data and create actionable instructional plans by utilizing the reports and skills-focused lesson plans available on mCLASS. Participants receive annotated session materials to turnkey the session to colleagues.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

*This session should be scheduled after the most recent benchmark window has closed so that participants can work with their own data.

Classroom data analysis and instructional planning

Online course (self-paced)

This PD is an individual seat to our self-paced, on-demand online course that contains approximately 6 hours of training. Participants will learn how to deeply understand their students’ data and create actionable instructional plans by utilizing the reports and skills-focused lesson plans available on mCLASS. Participants will access and revisit the course anytime for up to one year as a refresher.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome)
Modality: Online

Understanding your school or district data

Half day (3 hours)

This PD prepares participants to use their data in making schoolwide decisions. This session should be scheduled after the most recent benchmark window has closed so that participants can work with their own data.

Audience: Administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Data-driven leadership practices

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

This PD prepares participants to use their data in making school-wide decisions and build a schoolwide culture of data-driven instruction. This session should be scheduled after the most recent benchmark window has closed so that participants can work with their own data.

Audience: Administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Data-driven leadership practices: Train the Trainer

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

This PD prepares participants to use their data in making school-wide decisions and build a schoolwide culture of data-driven instruction. This session should be scheduled after the most recent benchmark window has closed so that participants can work with their own data. Participants receive annotated session materials to turnkey the session to colleagues.

Audience: Administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Data-driven leadership practices

Online course (self-paced)

This PD is an individual seat to our self-paced, on-demand online course that contains approximately 6 hours of training. Participants will learn how to use their data in making school-wide decisions and build a schoolwide culture of data-driven instruction. Participants will access and revisit the course anytime for up to one year as a refresher.

Audience: Administrators
Modality: Online

Strengthening consultation session

(60-min.)

This 60-minute session will focus on a specific topic that will deepen educators’ understanding of mCLASS and equip them with the tools needed to drive stronger student outcomes. An Amplify facilitator will align with the school or district leadership team in advance of the session on the topic (chosen from a menu of options) that will best meet educators’ unique needs.
Topics include:

  • Progress Monitoring
  • Zones of Growth
  • Data Walkthrough for Leaders

Audience: Teachers and/or administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Remote

Strengthening consultation session package

(3 hours)

This package consists of three 60-minute sessions that can be delivered on the same day or on different days. Each session will focus on a specific topic that will deepen educators’ understanding of mCLASS and equip them in driving towards stronger student outcomes. An Amplify facilitator will align with the school or district’s leadership team in advance on the topics that will best meet educators’ unique needs.
Topics include:

  • Progress Monitoring
  • Zones of Growth
  • Data Walkthrough for Leaders

Audience: Teachers and/or administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Remote

Coach

Coaching session

1 day (6 hours)

This PD will deepen educators’ understanding of how to utilize mCLASS in order to accelerate data-driven student outcomes. An Amplify facilitator will visit one or two school sites for one day and work with teachers and/or leaders. Prior to the visit, the Amplify facilitator will align with each school’s leadership team on their needs and customize the visit schedule accordingly.

Audience: Teachers and/or administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite

Coaching session

Half day (3 hours)

This PD is up to 3 hours of training and will deepen educators’ understanding of how to utilize mCLASS in order to accelerate data-driven student outcomes. An Amplify facilitator will visit one school site for a half-day and work with teachers and/or leaders. Prior to the visit, the Amplify facilitator will align with each school’s leadership team on their needs and customize the visit schedule accordingly.

Audience: Teachers and/or administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Building readers

Building readers for leaders

2 half days (6 hours)

This training session is split into 2 half-day sessions (3 hours each). The same participants should attend both sessions in order to receive all content, which includes learning the Science of Reading and how to align this theory with schoolwide instruction. Part 2 should be scheduled two to three weeks after Part 1.

Audience: Administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite

Building readers for teachers

3 half days (9 hours)

This training series is split into three half-day sessions (3 hours each). The same participants should attend all sessions in order to receive all content, which includes learning the Science of Reading and how to align this theory with classroom instruction. Part 2 should be scheduled two to three weeks after Part 1, and Part 3 should be scheduled two to three weeks after Part 2.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

mCLASS with DIBELS 8th Edition and TRC sessions overview

AudienceTitleDurationModality
Launch
New mCLASS with DIBELS 8th Edition and TRC customersInitial training1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote
Initial training: Train the Trainer1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote
Initial trainingSelf-pacedOnline course
Strengthen
All mCLASS with DIBELS 8th Edition and TRC customersClassroom data analysis and instructional planning1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote
Data-driven leadership practices1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote
Coach
All mCLASS with DIBELS 8th Edition and TRC customersCoaching session1 dayOnsite
Coaching sessionHalf dayOnsite/Remote

Launch

Initial training

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

This PD prepares participants to implement the assessment, collect reliable data using standardized guidelines, and use the targeted lessons available on mCLASS to drive differentiated instruction.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Initial training: Train the Trainer

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

This PD prepares participants to implement the assessment, collect reliable data using standardized guidelines, and use the targeted lessons available on mCLASS to drive differentiated instruction. Participants receive annotated session materials to turnkey the session to colleagues.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Initial training

Self-paced

This PD is an individual seat to our self-paced, on-demand online course that contains approximately 6 hours of training. Participants will learn how to implement the assessment, and collect reliable data using standardized guidelines and use the targeted lessons available on mCLASS to drive differentiated instruction. Participants will access and revisit the course anytime for up to one year as a refresher.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome)
Modality: Online

Strengthen

Classroom data analysis and instructional planning

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

This PD prepares participants to deeply understand their students’ data and create actionable instructional plans by utilizing the reports and skills-focused lesson plans available on mCLASS.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

*This session should be scheduled after the most recent benchmark window has closed so that participants can work with their own data.

Data-driven leadership practices

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

This PD prepares participants to use their data in making schoolwide decisions and build a schoolwide culture of data-driven instruction. This session should be scheduled after the most recent benchmark window has closed so that participants can work with their own data.

Audience: Administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Coach

Coaching session

1 day onsite (6 hours)

This PD will deepen educators’ understanding of how to utilize mCLASS in order to accelerate data-driven student outcomes. An Amplify facilitator will visit one or two school sites for one day and work with teachers and/or leaders. Prior to the visit, the Amplify facilitator will align with each school’s leadership team on their needs and customize the visit schedule accordingly.

Audience: Teachers and/or administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Coaching session

Half day (3 hours)

This PD is up to 3 hours of training and will deepen educators’ understanding of how to utilize mCLASS in order to accelerate data-driven student outcomes. An Amplify facilitator will visit one school site for a half-day and work with teachers and/or leaders. Prior to the visit, the Amplify facilitator will align with each school’s leadership team on their needs and customize the visit schedule accordingly.

Audience: Teachers and/or administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

mCLASS Lectura sessions overview

AudienceTitleDurationModality
Launch
New mCLASS Lectura Customers with limited time for PDmCLASS Lectura program overviewHalf dayOnsite/Remote
New mCLASS Lectura customersmCLASS Lectura initial training1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote
mCLASS Lectura initial training: Train the Trainer1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote
mCLASS Lectura Initial trainingSelf-pacedOnline course
Strengthen
All mCLASS Lectura customers with limited time for PDUnderstanding your classroom dataHalf dayOnsite/Remote
All mCLASS Lectura customersClassroom data analysis and instructional planning1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote
Classroom data analysis and instructional planning: Train the Trainer1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote
Understanding your school or district dataHalf dayOnsite/Remote
Data-driven leadership practices 1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote
Data-driven leadership practices: Train the Trainer1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote
Strengthening consultation session60 min.Remote
Coach
All mCLASS Lectura customersCoaching session1dayOnsite
Coaching sessionHalf dayOnsite/Remote

Launch

mCLASS Lectura program overview

Half day (3 hours)

This PD prepares participants to implement the assessment and collect reliable data using standardized guidelines.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

mCLASS Lectura initial training

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

This PD prepares participants to implement the assessment, collect reliable data using standardized guidelines, and use the targeted lessons available on mCLASS to drive differentiated instruction. While the assessment must be administered in Spanish, English-speaking educators educators who would like to learn about the program but will not be administering the assessment may attend.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

mCLASS Lectura initial training: Train the Trainer

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

This PD prepares participants to implement the assessment and collect reliable data using standardized guidelines. While the assessment must be administered in Spanish, English-only speaking educators who would like to learn about the program but will not be administering the assessment may attend. Participants receive annotated session materials to turnkey the session to colleagues.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

mCLASS Lectura initial training

Online course (self-paced)

This PD is an individual seat to our self-paced, on-demand online course that contains approximately 6 hours of training. Participants will learn how to implement the assessment, collect reliable data using standardized guidelines, and use the targeted lessons available on mCLASS to drive differentiated instruction. Participants will access and revisit the course anytime for up to one year as a refresher.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome)
Modality: Online

Strengthen

Understanding your classroom data

Half day (3 hours)

This PD prepares participants to understand their students’ data by utilizing the reports available on mCLASS. This session should be scheduled after the most recent benchmark window has closed so that participants can work with their own data.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Classroom data analysis and instructional planning

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

This PD prepares participants to deeply understand their students’ data and create actionable instructional plans by utilizing the reports and skills-focused lesson plans available on mCLASS.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

*This session should be scheduled after the most recent benchmark window has closed so that participants can work with their own data.

Classroom data analysis and instructional planning: Train the Trainer

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

This PD prepares participants to deeply understand their students’ data and create actionable instructional plans by utilizing the reports and skills-focused lesson plans available on mCLASS. Participants receive annotated session materials to turnkey the session to colleagues.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

*This session should be scheduled after the most recent benchmark window has closed so that participants can work with their own data.

Understanding your school or district data

Half day (3 hours)

This PD prepares participants to use their data in making schoolwide decisions. This session should be scheduled after the most recent benchmark window has closed so that participants can work with their own data.

Audience: Administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Data-driven leadership practices

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

This PD prepares participants to use their data in making school-wide decisions and build a schoolwide culture of data-driven instruction. This session should be scheduled after the most recent benchmark window has closed so that participants can work with their own data.

Audience: Administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Data-driven leadership practices: Train the Trainer

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

This PD prepares participants to use their data in making schoolwide decisions and build a schoolwide culture of data-driven instruction. This session should be scheduled after the most recent benchmark window has closed so that participants can work with their own data. Participants receive annotated session materials to turnkey the session to colleagues.

Audience: Administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Strengthening consultation session package

(3 hours)

This package consists of three 60-minute sessions that can be delivered on the same day or on different days. Each session will focus on a specific topic that will deepen educators’ understanding of mCLASS and equip them with the tools needed to drive stronger student outcomes. An Amplify facilitator will align with the school or district leadership team in advance of the session on the topic (chosen from a menu of options) that will best meet educators’ unique needs. Topics include progress monitoring, goal setting, and a data walkthrough for leaders.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Remote

Coach

Coaching session

1 day (6 hours)

This PD will deepen educators’ understanding of how to utilize mCLASS in order to accelerate data-driven student outcomes. An Amplify facilitator will visit 1–2 school sites for one day and work with teachers and/or leaders. Prior to the visit, the Amplify facilitator will align with each school’s leadership team on their needs and customize the visit schedule accordingly.

Audience: Teachers and/or administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite

Coaching session

Half day (3 hours)

This PD is up to 3 hours of training and will deepen educators’ understanding of how to utilize mCLASS in order to accelerate data-driven student outcomes. An Amplify facilitator will visit 1 school site for a half-day and work with teachers and/or leaders. Prior to the visit, the Amplify facilitator will align with each school’s leadership team on their needs and customize the visit schedule accordingly.

Audience: Teachers and/or administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

LaunchStrengthenOngoing
BOYAfter BOY or MOYAfter BOY or MOY
New customersProgram overviewUnderstanding your classroom dataCoaching session
Initial trainingUnderstanding your school or district dataBuilding readers for teachers
Strengthening consultation session/packageBuilding readers for leaders
Returning customersCoaching session (refresher content)Classroom data analysis and instructional planningCoaching session
Data-driven leadership practicesBuilding readers for teachers
Strengthening consultation session/packageBuilding readers for leaders
*Note: If you are currently delivering instruction in a hybrid or remote model, we recommend that all of the sessions above be delivered remotely.

mCLASS Express sessions overview

TitleDurationModality
Launch
Initial trainingHalf dayOnsite/Remote
Initial trainingSelf-pacedOnline course

Launch

Initial training

Half day (3 hours)

Take the first step in launching mCLASS Express! The half-day initial training will help educators understand how mCLASS Express’ voice-recognition scoring generates immediate instructional recommendations for students reading below grade level. Educators will also learn how to utilize the teacher portal to assign assessments, review and correct scoring, track student growth over time, and leverage the program’s activities to create an action plan for a single classroom or across classes/grades.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Initial training

Self-paced (2 hours)

Take the first step in launching mCLASS Express! The two-hour initial training will help educators understand how mCLASS Express’ voice-recognition scoring generates immediate instructional recommendations for students reading below grade level. Educators will also learn how to utilize the teacher portal to assign assessments, review and correct scoring, track student growth over time, and leverage the program’s activities to create an action plan for a single classroom or across classes/grades.

As this is a self-paced, on-demand online course, participants will be able to access the course anytime, move as quickly or slowly as needed through different sections, and revisit the course up to one year as a refresher in the future.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Online

mCLASS: IDEL sessions overview

TitleDurationModality
Launch
mCLASS IDEL program overviewHalf dayOnsite/Remote
Initial training1 dayOnsite/Remote
Initial training: Train the Trainer1 dayOnsite/Remote
Initial trainingSelf-pacedOnline course

Launch

mCLASS IDEL program overview

Half day (3 hours)

This PD prepares participants to implement the assessment and collect reliable data using standardized guidelines.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Initial training

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

Prepare to implement your mCLASS:IDEL assessment with fidelity! Learn about the five basic early literacy skills that are crucial for reading development, and understand how they are assessed on the mCLASS:IDEL assessment. Then, practice administering and scoring each assessment measure and receive targeted feedback from a facilitator. Upon completion of this session, participants will be on their way to collecting reliable data to support all students.

Audience: Teachers and/or administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Initial training: Train the Trainer

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

Prepare to implement your mCLASS:IDEL assessment with fidelity! Learn about the five basic early literacy skills that are crucial for reading development, and understand how they are assessed on the mCLASS:IDEL assessment. Then, practice administering and scoring each assessment measure and compare your responses to exemplars. As this is a Train the Trainer session, participants will receive annotated session materials in order to turnkey the session to colleagues.

Audience: Teachers and/or administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Initial training

Online course (self-paced)

This PD is an individual seat to our self-paced, on-demand online course that contains approximately 6 hours of training. Participants will learn how to implement the assessment, collect reliable data using standardized guidelines, and use the targeted lessons available on mCLASS to drive differentiated instruction. Participants will access and revisit the course anytime for up to one year as a refresher.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome)
Modality: Online

TRC Atlas Español

Launch

TRC Atlas Español program overview

Half day (3 hours)

This PD prepares participants to implement the assessment and collect reliable data using standardized guidelines.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

mCLASS Math sessions overview

AudienceTitleDurationModality
Launch
New mCLASS Math customers with limited time for PDmCLASS Math program overviewHalf dayOnsite/Remote
New mCLASS Math customersInitial training1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote
Initial training: Train the Trainer1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote
Strengthen
All mCLASS Math customers with limited time for PDUnderstanding your classroom dataHalf dayOnsite/Remote
All mCLASS Math customersClassroom data analysis and instructional planning1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote
Classroom data analysis and instructional planning: Train the Trainer1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote
Understanding your school or district dataHalf dayOnsite/Remote
Data-driven leadership practices1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote
Data-driven leadership practices: Train the Trainer1 day onsite or 2 half days remoteOnsite/Remote

Launch

mCLASS Math program overview

Half day (3 hours)

This PD prepares participants to implement the assessment and collect reliable data using standardized guidelines.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Initial training

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

Learn the foundational research for mCLASS Math and how it supports students’ abilities in mathematical reasoning. Understand the various assessment components and develop techniques for interviewing students and documenting their thinking. Interpret assessment results, and brainstorm suggested instructional activities. Upon completion of this session, participants will be on their way to collecting reliable data.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Initial training: Train the Trainer

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

Learn the foundational research for mCLASS Math and how it supports students’ abilities in mathematical reasoning. Understand the various assessment components, and develop techniques for interviewing students and documenting their thinking. Interpret assessment results, and brainstorm suggested instructional activities. Upon completion of this session, participants will be on their way to collecting reliable data. Participants receive annotated session materials to turnkey the session to colleagues.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Strengthen

Understanding your classroom data

Half day (3 hours)

This PD prepares participants to understand their students’ data by utilizing the reports available on mCLASS. This session should be scheduled after the most recent benchmark window has closed so that participants can work with their own data.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Classroom data analysis and instructional planning

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

This PD prepares participants to deeply understand their students’ data and create actionable instructional plans by utilizing the reports available on mCLASS.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

*This session should be scheduled after the most recent benchmark window has closed so that participants can work with their own data.

Classroom data analysis and instructional planning: Train the Trainer

1 day Onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days Remote (6 hours)

This PD prepares participants to deeply understand their students’ data and create actionable instructional plans by utilizing the reports available on mCLASS. Participants receive annotated session materials to turnkey the session to colleagues.

Audience: Teachers (administrators welcome), maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

*This session should be scheduled after the most recent benchmark window has closed so that participants can work with their own data.

Understanding your School or District Data

Half day (3 hours)

This PD prepares participants to use their data in making schoolwide decisions. This session should be scheduled after the most recent benchmark window has closed so that participants can work with their own data.

Audience: Administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Data-driven leadership practices

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

This PD prepares participants to use their data in making schoolwide decisions and build a schoolwide culture of data-driven instruction. This session should be scheduled after the most recent benchmark window has closed so that participants can work with their own data.

Audience: Administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Data-driven leadership practice: Train the Trainer

1 day onsite (6 hours) or 2 half days remote (6 hours)

This PD prepares participants to use their data in making schoolwide decisions and build a schoolwide culture of data-driven instruction. This session should be scheduled after the most recent benchmark window has closed so that participants can work with their own data. Participants receive annotated session materials to turnkey the session to colleagues.

Audience: Administrators, maximum 30 participants
Modality: Onsite/Remote

Contact

Amplify welcomes the opportunity to partner with schools and districts to design professional development plans and answer your questions.

If you would like to order any of our professional development services, please contact your local Amplify sales representative or call (800) 823-1969.

What’s included in our grades K–2 language arts curriculum

Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts® (CKLA) is a comprehensive early literacy curriculum, grounded in the Science of Reading. The K–2 curriculum sequences deep content knowledge-building with research-based foundational skills. With Amplify CKLA, you’ll have the instruction and guidance of proven, evidence-based practices to help all of your students become strong readers, writers, and thinkers.

Choose Level

K–23–5PreK

Year at a glance

The Amplify CKLA curriculum is modeled after proven research in early literacy that supports a two-strand approach to literacy instruction in the early years. With this approach, students in Grades K–2 complete one full lesson per day that builds foundational reading skills in the Skills Strand, as well as one full lesson that builds background knowledge in the Knowledge Strand. The deep content knowledge is sequenced together with research-based foundational skills in Grades K–2 so that students develop the early literacy skills necessary to help them become confident readers, as well as build the context to understand what they’re reading. 

In Grades 3–5, lessons combine skills and knowledge with increasingly complex texts, close reading, and a greater emphasis on writing. Students start to use their skills to go on their own independent reading adventures, further opening up their worlds.

Units & domains at a glance

The number of days to complete each Skills Unit and Knowledge Domain varies based on instructional purpose.

Knowledge Domain 1

Nursery Rhymes and Fables

Well-known fables introduce students to new vocabulary, build phonological awareness, and prompt discussion of character, virtues, and behavior.

Number of Lessons: 12

Knowledge Domain 2

The Five Senses

Students explore how they learn about the world using their five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.

Number of Lessons: 8

Knowledge Domain 3

Stories

Students develop an awareness of language and recurring themes in children’s literature, including classic stories, trickster tales, and fiction from other cultures.

Number of Lessons: 10

Knowledge Domain 4

Plants

Read-aloud texts introduce students to basic knowledge of ecology, parts of plants, how plants grow, and the interdependence of all living things.

Number of Lessons: 11

Knowledge Domain 5

Farms

Students identify several farm animals and crops and contrast how plants make their food with how animals get their food.

Number of Lessons: 9

Knowledge Domain 6

Native Americans

Students explore cultures of three Native American groups, as well as how conditions in different geographical regions influence their ways of life.

Number of Lessons: 8

Knowledge Domain 7

Kings and Queens

Students listen to read-aloud texts, both fiction and nonfiction, about kings, queens, and royal families, which build students’ understanding of royal customs.

Number of Lessons: 8

Knowledge Domain 8

Seasons and Weather

This is an introduction to weather and the seasons, where students learn that regions of Earth experience different characteristic weather patterns throughout the year.

Number of Lessons: 8

Knowledge Domain 9

Columbus and the Pilgrims

A look at the first contact between Europe and the Americas and some of its results.

Number of Lessons: 9

Knowledge Domain 10

Colonial Towns and Townspeople

Students are introduced to the early history of the United States as they explore what life was like for people in colonial times.

Number of Lessons: 10

Knowledge Domain 11

Taking Care of the Earth

Students are introduced to the importance of environmental awareness and conservation as they become familiar with the earth’s natural resources.

Number of Lessons: 10

Knowledge Domain 12

Presidents and American Symbols

Students learn about the legacies of five famous presidents, several national symbols, the branches of government, the role of the president, and elections.

Number of Lessons: 9

Skills Unit 1

Students build phonological awareness through environmental noises, words within sentences, and sounds within words. They learn basic strokes used to form letters.

Skills Unit 2

Students learn how to blend syllables together to form multisyllabic words. They orally produce two- and three-sound words by blending sounds.

Skills Unit 3

Students learn eight new sounds and practice blending them into words. They learn how to write letters that represent the new sounds.

Skills Unit 4

With oral language games, chaining exercises, and shared reading, students practice blending eight new sounds into words and writing the sound-letter correspondences.

Skills Unit 5

Eight new sounds are introduced, including a spelling alternative for /k/. Students continue to practice previously learned sound-letter correspondences.

Skills Unit 6

Students are introduced to consonant clusters, letter names, and rhyming words. Students begin to read text independently using decodable Student Readers.

Skills Unit 7

Students learn about various digraphs. Students practice blending and segmenting the sounds through phonemic awareness and phonics activities, chaining exercises, and reading.

Skills Unit 8

This unit introduces students to double-letter spellings for consonant sounds, as well as seven new high-frequency Tricky Words.

Skills Unit 9

Students practice writing uppercase letters and learn 17 new Tricky Words. Students answer comprehension questions about stories in the Student Reader.

Skills Unit 10

Students learn the basic code spelling for the five long vowel sounds. Students are administered a cumulative end-of-year assessment.

Knowledge Domain 1

Fables and Stories

Students are introduced to fables and stories, increase vocabulary and reading comprehension skills, and become familiar with the key elements of a story.

Number of Lessons: 10

Knowledge Domain 2

The Human Body

Students are introduced to the systems of the human body, care of the body, germs and disease, vaccines, and keys to good health.

Number of Lessons: 10

Knowledge Domain 3

Different Lands, Similar Stories

Students encounter cultures from around the world as they explore the ways in which folktales from different lands treat similar themes or characters.

Number of Lessons: 9

Knowledge Domain 4

Early World Civilizations

Students explore Mesopotamia and Egypt and learn about the importance of rivers, farming, writing, laws, art, and beliefs.

Number of Lessons: 16

Knowledge Domain 5

Early American Civilizations

Students compare and contrast key features of the early civilizations of the Maya, Aztec, and Inca, and explore the development of cities.

Number of Lessons: 11

Knowledge Domain 6

Astronomy

In this introduction to the solar system, students learn about Earth in relation to the moon, other planets, the sun, and the stars.

Number of Lessons: 9

Knowledge Domain 7

The History of the Earth

Students learn about the geographical features of Earth’s surface, the layers of the earth, rocks and minerals, volcanoes, geysers, fossils, and dinosaurs.

Number of Lessons: 8

Knowledge Domain 8

Animals and Habitats

Students focus on the interconnectedness of living things as they learn what a habitat is and explore specific types of habitats.

Number of Lessons: 9

Knowledge Domain 9

Fairy Tales

Students learn about the Brothers Grimm, identify common elements of fairy tales, make interpretations, and compare and contrast different tales.

Number of Lessons: 9

Knowledge Domain 10

A New Nation: American Independence

Students are introduced to important historical figures and events in the story of how the 13 colonies became an independent nation.

Number of Lessons: 12

Knowledge Domain 11

Frontier Explorers

Students are introduced to exploration of the American West, its key figures, and how colonists spread westward, including their interactions with native peoples.

Number of Lessons: 11

Skills Unit 1

Unit 1 provides a review of the sounds/spellings taught in the CKLA Kindergarten curriculum. Teachers administer the beginning-of-year assessment.

Skills Unit 2

Students read and write words with long vowel spellings and learn new Tricky Words. The unit also includes grammar lessons on nouns.

Skills Unit 3

Work continues on vowel sounds and their spellings. Grammar focus is on verbs and verb tense. Formal instruction in the writing process begins.

Skills Unit 4

Students work with /r/-controlled vowel sounds. Students practice segmenting two-syllable words. Adjectives are introduced as students practice descriptive writing.

Skills Unit 5

Students work with spelling alternatives for sounds. Students also learn to identify sentence types. They plan, draft, and edit opinion letters.

Skills Unit 6

Students continue to work with several spelling alternatives for sounds. Students review nouns and pronouns. They plan, draft, and edit personal narratives.

Skills Unit 7

Students focus on spelling alternatives for sounds. Students plan, draft, and edit an informative/explanatory text. Students are administered an end-of-year assessment.

Knowledge Domain 1

Fairy Tales and Tall Tales

Students consider characteristic elements of fairy tales and tall tales and consider problems faced by the characters and lessons each story conveys.

Number of Lessons: 8

Knowledge Domain 2

Early Asian Civilizations

Students are introduced to Asia, specifically India and China. In addition, students are introduced to related folktales and poetry.

Number of Lessons: 14

Knowledge Domain 3

Ancient Greek Civilization

Students explore the civilization of ancient Greece, which lives on in many ways—in our language, government, art, architecture, the Olympics, and more.

Number of Lessons: 12

Knowledge Domain 4

Greek Myths

Building on the Ancient Greek Civilization domain, students explore common characteristics and story elements of several well-known Greek myths and mythical characters.

Number of Lessons: 10

Knowledge Domain 5

The War of 1812

Students are introduced to major figures and events in the War of 1812, sometimes called America’s “second war for independence.”

Number of Lessons: 8

Knowledge Domain 6

Cycles in Nature

Students are introduced to natural cycles that make life on Earth possible, such as seasonal cycles, life cycles, and the water cycle.

Number of Lessons: 9

Knowledge Domain 7

Westward Expansion

Students are introduced to an important period in the history of the United States—the time of westward expansion during the 1800s.

Number of Lessons: 9

Knowledge Domain 8

Insects

Students learn about the helpful and harmful characteristics of insects, insect life cycles, and social insects such as bees and ants.

Number of Lessons: 8

Knowledge Domain 9

The U.S. Civil War

Students learn about the controversy between the North and the South over slavery and about key historical figures during that time.

Number of Lessons: 11

Knowledge Domain 10

Human Body: Building Blocks and Nutrition

Students learn about the human body, including body systems, good nutrition, keys to good health, and the advances in microbiology made by Anton van Leeuwenhoek.

Number of Lessons: 9

Knowledge Domain 11

Immigration

Students explore the idea of e pluribus unum and the importance of immigration in the history of the United States.

Number of Lessons: 10

Women in early 20th-century clothing march with signs for voting rights and justice in front of a yellow bus labeled "Cleveland Ave.," making history that can inspire lessons in a K–2 language arts curriculum.

Knowledge Domain 12

Fighting for a Cause

Students explore the connection between ideas and actions, and see how people can do extraordinary things to change the dominant ideas and actions of an entire nation.

Number of Lessons: 9

Un contorno simplificado de un gato saltando para atrapar una mariposa, sobre un fondo verde con varias ilustraciones relacionadas con gatos y palabras como "saltar" y "leche".

Skills Unit 1

Sound-spellings with an emphasis on consonant sounds, one- and two-syllable words, and Tricky Words are reviewed. The beginning-of-year assessment is administered.

Ilustración de un animal verde sobre un fondo verde con varios objetos delineados como una cama, un conejo, una nube y sonidos fonéticos.

Skills Unit 2

The unit focus is on various sound-spellings and words with one- and two-syllables. Students begin the writing process, writing narratives and opinions.

Fondo verde con el contorno blanco de un birrete de graduación en el centro, rodeado de varios garabatos educativos y relacionados con logros, como un trofeo, una cinta y una portería de fútbol.

Skills Unit 3

Practice with spelling alternatives continues. Grammar focuses on capitalization, quotation marks, ending punctuation, and common and proper nouns. Students write personal narratives.

Ilustración de un paisaje urbano con varios símbolos que incluyen un tren subterráneo, una panadería, la Estatua de la Libertad y carteles que dicen "ahora contratando" y "ciudad/ee" sobre un fondo verde.

Skills Unit 4

Students practice a range of spelling alternatives. Students practice persuasive writing as part of a friendly letter. Students learn more about nouns and verbs.

Skills Unit 5

Students practice chunking sounds as they read multisyllabic words. Grammar work includes adjectives, subjects, and predicates. Writing includes rewriting a story ending.

Skills Unit 6

Students review advanced phonics and grammar skills. Students are introduced to expository/report writing. Students take an end-of-year assessment.

Program components

The program includes instructional guidance and student materials for a year of instruction, with lessons and activities that keep students engaged every day.

Component

FORMAT

Knowledge Strand Teacher Guide

Knowledge Strand Teacher Guides contain Amplify CKLA’s cross-curricular read-alouds and application activities, all of which are standards-based to build mastery of content knowledge and literacy skills. There is one Teacher Guide per Knowledge Domain.

Print or digital

Knowledge classroom materials

Amplify CKLA includes oversized Flip Books and smaller Image Cards that bring each topic to life through vivid visuals.

Print or digital

Skills Strand Teacher Guide

Amplify CKLA Skills Strand Teacher Guides include comprehensive research-based instruction in phonological and phonemic awareness, phonics, print concepts, the alphabetic principle, grammar, writing mechanics, comprehension, spelling, and other critical foundational literacy skills.

Print or digital

Hands-on Skills ancillaries

Dynamic classroom materials include student Chaining Folders, Small and Large Letter Cards, Spelling Cards, Sound Cards, Big Books, Vowel and Consonant Code Flip Books, Code Charts, and more.

Print or digital

Assessment and Remediation Guide

The unit-by-unit Assessment and Remediation Guide provides thousands of pages of activities for reteaching, differentiation, and additional practice.

Print or digital

Digital experience

The Amplify CKLA digital experience delivers ready-made, customizable, slides-based lesson presentations to enhance instruction and save time. Everything needed to plan and present high-quality, engaging early literacy instruction is in one convenient place.

Digital

Component

FORMAT

Knowledge Strand Activity Books

Knowledge Strand Activity Books provide students with the opportunity to deepen world and word knowledge by responding to text in a diversity of ways.

Print

Skills Strand Student Reader

Unique decodable Student Readers provide direct practice with just-learned sound-spelling patterns, using compelling stories and characters to integrate phonics and comprehension.

Print

Skills Strand Activity book

Skills Strand Activity Books support the program’s connected approach to reading and writing, providing ample opportunities to respond to text while building core skills.

Print

Digital experience

The Amplify CKLA digital experience delivers ready-made, customizable, slides-based lesson presentations to enhance instruction and save time. Everything needed to plan and present high-quality, engaging early literacy instruction is in one convenient place.

Digital

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The one-stop solution for New Jersey’s literacy mandates

New Jersey now requires universal literacy screening and parent notifications. To meet these mandates, NJDOE’s Student Literacy Working Group fully recommends mCLASSⓇ DIBELSⓇ 8th Edition as the trusted solution to help schools.

Some of the requirements of the New Jersey Department of Education’s Senate Bill 2644 include: 

  • Mandatory screenings: Schools must conduct literacy screenings for all K–3 students at least twice annually to assess reading proficiency levels.
  • Parental notification: Within 30 days of the screening period’s end, schools are required to inform parents or guardians of the results, including comparisons to grade-level norms and available intervention supports.

mCLASS offers New Jersey all of the following, plus many more additional features to support students and teachers:

  • Universal screening
  • Dyslexia screening
  • Instant data analysis and reporting
  • Parental notification letter

Request a demo from your dedicated New Jersey team!

A simple line drawing of the state of New Jersey outline with the text "New Jersey" faintly in the background.

What is mCLASS?

mCLASS, the only digital provider of DIBELS 8th edition assessments, provides universal screening, dyslexia screening, and progress monitoring to assess your students’ reading proficiency levels and determine what skills they need to develop.

You’ll observe students as they form sounds or read words and text. Then, mCLASS instantly scores and analyzes student response patterns to provide you with diagnostic data and instructional focus for each student and group.

With mCLASS, you’ll have everything you need to support every type of learner in your classroom, including advanced learners, multilingual learners, and students with signs of dyslexia.

Learn more about mCLASS.

Table displaying student reading assessment data by skill area and benchmark status, based on universal screening, with percentages and student counts for each category across the year.

About the program

mCLASS offers teacher-administered assessment, intervention, and personalized instruction for grades K–6. Know exactly how to monitor and support every student in your classroom with features like:

  • Precise one-minute measures based on over three decades of predictive data.
  • Universal screening and dyslexia screening in one tool.
  • Instruction that highlights observed patterns and recommends activities.
  • Robust reports for teachers, specialists, administrators, and parents.

Learn more about mCLASS.

Support for your Spanish-speaking students.

By combining mCLASS Lectura and mCLASS® DIBELS 8th Edition, you’ll be able to understand where your Spanish-speaking students are in their English and Spanish literacy paths.

Learn more about mCLASS Lectura.

A laptop displays a table comparing English and Spanish reading assessment scores across categories, with benchmarks and below benchmark results highlighted.

NEW! mCLASS Math

Expect more from your assessments with mCLASS Math, a brand-new benchmarking and progress-monitoring assessment system.

Explore mCLASS® Math. 

A tablet screen displays a mCLASS Math dashboard showing kindergarten students’ names with colored status dots under BOY, MOY, and EOY columns.

Looking for high-quality instructional materials for literacy?

Amplify CKLA 3rd edition is built on a decade of research focusing on background knowledge, foundational skills, and writing. Pair CKLA with mCLASS to align for a powerful early literacy suite.

Learn more about CKLA 3rd edition.

An astronaut floats in space near the Moon, with a speech bubble displaying
mclass request a demo

Request a demo

If you’d like a demo, complete this form and your dedicated New Jersey team will be in touch.

What’s new in Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition

Experience the next chapter in the Science of Reading with Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition.

In this edition, you’ll enjoy an enhanced knowledge-building sequence, more differentiation to reach all learners, digital assessments and reports, and enriched writing instruction grounded in the Science of Writing, the research behind how kids learn to write.

Program Guide

Enhanced knowledge-building sequence

We’ve added new units and updated existing ones to include a broader range of people, perspectives, and high-quality texts. New Choice Units even enable districts to select topics that best reflect their community’s values while maintaining standards coverage.

New units include:

  • Geography in K–1
  • Poetry units now starting in Grades 2–3
  • Novel Study Units in Grades 3–5
  • Oceans in Grade 5
  • Research Units in every grade!
See units and connections

Instruction based on the Science of Writing

Our writing instruction is fully integrated and grounded in the Science of Writing, the research behind how kids learn to write effectively. Systematic daily lessons align with the Simple View of Writing and make it easier to help students develop writing proficiency—without additional programs.

See the Simple View of Writing
Two children focus on their studies while writing at their desks in a classroom, benefiting from teacher resources aligned with the CKLA curriculum.

K–2 writing

The Skills Strand covers all text types, and every Knowledge Strand unit now has high-impact writing activities, including sentence combining, sentence expanding, and pre-writing exercises like graphic organizers.

3–5 writing

Writing instruction remains explicit and systematic in Grades 3–5, with added high-impact writing activities to deepen learning.

Check out our Grade 1 Culminating Research Unit description and trade books

More authentic, diverse texts

A variety of texts—from complex read-alouds and decodable chapter books to trade books and content-rich readers—connect to learning goals. Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition also features new Culminating Research and Novel Study Units!

See Research Unit trade books

Culminating Research Units

Each grade now includes a core Culminating Research Unit featuring carefully selected trade books. These units build critical thinking and research skills, from selecting topics to presenting findings.

Novel Study Units

Novel Study Units are part of district-level Choice Units in Grades 3–5. Districts can select one novel per grade, from classic or contemporary options, choosing the book that best reflects their community’s goals and values while still covering all required standards.

Easy-to-use materials, pacing for real classrooms

Running out of instructional time? We understand! Our streamlined units now cover all standards within 165 days, leaving more time for enrichment and remediation.

Education chart displaying two strands: Knowledge (K-2) with 10 units per grade and 16 instructional days per unit, and Integrated (3-5) with 9 units per grade and 18 instructional days per unit. The CKLA curriculum provides comprehensive teacher resources for multilingual learners.

All-in-one digital platform

Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition is part of a digital platform that enables seamless integration across all Amplify programs.

The platform includes familiar tools like lesson slides—now Presentation Screens—along with new features such as skill-building games, assessments, and detailed reports. 

Digital assessments

Auto-scored K–2 Knowledge and 3–5 End-of-Unit assessments deliver immediate insights to enable quick, data-driven decisions.

Standards-based reports

Detailed reports highlight strengths and growth opportunities at individual, group, and class levels, all aligned to standards.

Embedded support to reach all learners

We’ve worked with experts and practitioners to enhance our differentiation strategies, making content more accessible to all students—including multilingual/English learners. Improved iconography helps you quickly find in-the-moment support, ensuring these strategies are seamlessly integrated.

See our new approach to ML/EL support in our Teacher Guides
Lesson overview from a third-grade teacher guide, featuring activities on short and long vowels, including phonics and reading. The CKLA curriculum supports personalized learning for multilingual learners. The background showcases a deer image and phonetic symbols.

Grades 3–5 foundational skills instruction

Recognizing the ongoing need for foundational skills instruction beyond Grade 2, we’ve introduced Grades 3–5 Skills to reinforce and build on the K–2 Skills Strand. Use it to support core lessons or serve as an intervention, depending on your students’ needs. 

The instruction follows a familiar sequence and offers flexibility: It can be taught in two 15-minute sessions or one 30-minute session. 

Grades 3–5 Skills resources are included in core classroom kits, although the instruction isn’t required for Grades 3–5 standards coverage.

Bold new look and feel

With modernized covers, full-color interiors, and enhanced iconography, Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition materials are not only visually appealing, but also easier to navigate.

Three educational book covers displayed; one on astronomy featuring an astronaut, one titled 'Skills 1' for multilingual learners, and another on jazz music showcasing musicians. Surrounding elements include a microphone, pencil, and musical notes. Ideal teacher resources to complement Amplify CKLA curriculum.

S2-06: Making time for science in the K–5 classroom

Promotional graphic for "Science Connections" podcast, Season 2 Episode 6, featuring Lauran Woolley discussing making time for science in K–5 classrooms.

In this episode,  Eric Cross sits down with TikTok star and podcast host Lauran Woolley about her experience teaching science content within her K–5 classroom. Lauran shares how she’s learned how to make time for science, and what most K–5 teachers experience when creating their own science curriculum. Lauran also talks about her rise in popularity on TikTok, her podcast, Teachers Off Duty, and establishing strong relationships with her 5th grade students. Explore more from Science Connections by visiting our main page.

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Lauran Woolley (00:00):

I wanna make sure that they’re ready for the real world, and I wanna make sure that they’re able to apply these things that I’m teaching them in their life, not on a multiple choice test.

Eric Cross (00:11):

Welcome to Science Connections. I’m your host Eric Cross. My guest today is Lauren Woolley. Lauren is a full-time fifth grade teacher in Leetonia, Ohio, who has amassed a following of 5.5 million subscribers on TikTok and over 1 million followers on YouTube. She’s also co-host of the podcast, Teachers Off Duty. Lauren has combined her teaching vocation and her talent for entertaining to connect with her students and encourage teachers across the world using her own unique style of edutainment. My most vivid memory from our discussion was her sincerity and openness about her experiences. It quickly became obvious to me that her personal transparency was a characteristic that she has remained grounded in despite her social media success. And now, please enjoy my discussion with Lauren Woolley.

Eric Cross (00:53):

You’re currently teaching fifth grade?

Lauran Woolley (00:55):

Yes.

Eric Cross (00:55):

What is it like to teach all content areas? ‘Cause I’m a middle school science teacher.

Lauran Woolley (00:59):

I didn’t always teach all content areas. First I started in second grade, so I used to teach like primary. I taught that for about three years. And I only really got my 4-5 endorsement because it was told to me that it would make me more marketable as a teacher. So I got it <laugh>. I was like, I’m never gonna use that. And then, my second year teaching, my class had low numbers and they collapsed my second grade classroom, split up my students, and then moved me to fifth grade in January. I had to take over a fifth grade class with all content areas in the middle of a school year. And it was really hard. It was like probably one of the most challenging things I’ve ever had to do teaching. When I got my job at my current school, it was only language arts, social studies.

Lauran Woolley (01:46):

So we only have two fifth grade classes. My other teacher would teach math, science. I taught language arts, social studies, and then the timeframes weren’t matching up. Like, I didn’t have enough time in my schedule for all the things we had to do in our curriculum. And she had like a little bit too much time. We realized as a district that it would be better for our fifth grade classes to just be self-contained. And last year was the first year I taught all five subjects. And I liked the variety of teaching everything because when I taught just language arts, social studies, I just felt like I was repeating myself twice a day. <laugh>. It was kind of boring for me. So like, I like doing all of it. <laugh>.

Eric Cross (02:24):

Yeah. With all of your talents and like your background and what I’ve seen, I could totally see why having all the different content areas would like make sense. Are you using a set curriculum? How do you come up with what to teach? Do you do it with teams? Like who comes up with that?

Lauran Woolley (02:36):

Uh, me, myself and I.

Eric Cross (02:38):

Well done.

Lauran Woolley (02:39):

My school, for literacy we’re using literacy collaborative. Then for math, we just adopted bridges, which I love and it’s very hands-on, very like student-led. For science, we had nothing. And I am not a science, or was not a science teacher at the time when I took over. So I panicked a bit and I was like, “Hey, can we have some kind of science curriculum? ‘Cause I got nothing.” And it’s not hard to look at the state standards and figure out what you need to teach them, but having no resources to go off of is extremely difficult. And luckily I have an older brother, he’s like three years older than me and he’s also a teacher. He actually is a science teacher. ‘Cause that first year that I was teaching all subjects, I was like, “Hey Ryan, can you just like send me all of your Google Drive files for science <laugh>?

Lauran Woolley (03:33):

And he’s like, “Yeah, sure.” So he kind of was like a mentor for like the first year that I taught science. And this year being my second full year teaching science, I feel much more confident. I’m still using his resources. We don’t have a dedicated curriculum at my school. So that’s like one thing I’ve been fighting my school on. And not that they don’t wanna get us one, but like they were focused on getting the math curriculum last year. And then I was told, okay, this year will be science because in my state, fifth grade is a tested area for science and we have no curriculum.

Eric Cross (04:04):

Ryan, keep doing what you’re doing big bro. Second, thank you to every teacher who’s had a Google Drive folder full of curriculum that you graciously shared to a new teacher or someone else that they could have.

Lauran Woolley (04:18):

Can we just say like, can schools, like schools, please get your teacher’s science curriculums.

Eric Cross (04:24):

No, absolutely right. And there is this way of thinking that, especially as a science teacher, it’s something that is dear to my heart, but we do want to develop these math and English skills that’s important and we need that for science. But we’ve always taught so siloed for so long, but that’s not the way that we learn and that’s not the way life works. Something that intrigued me about what you said, and I think a lot of people can relate to it, and I know I can because that was me, is you created your own content or your science content. Like you’re kind of piecing that together from what Ryan had shared with you. How do you make time for that with all of the other things that you’re doing and pressures of state testing and things like that. Like how do you weave that into your teaching?

Lauran Woolley (05:02):

So we have like things that are non-negotiable in our schedules. Like we have to have so many minutes of this, so many minutes of that, so many minutes of whatever else. Well, the first year, I was self-contained. I was like, okay, my main goal, because science is a tested area, I wanna make sure that I get in science every single day, 90% of the time I’m able to get anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes of science every day. But this year it was my goal to make sure that I was getting science done and like we were doing meaningful lessons. And last year I didn’t do this, but this year I’m doing a Christmas center for STEM. So I got it off of Teachers Pay Teachers. I’m sorry, I can’t remember who it was made by, but it’s called Jingle All the Way and it’s like building Santa’s new sleigh. And so like the kids have an activity where they have popsicle sticks, straws, a plastic cup and then like tape. And they have to build a new sleigh for Santa and see how many pennies their sleigh can hold. Like talk about a sleigh being lightweight but also strong and like what would make it strong and different things like that. So I’ve been trying to incorporate a lot more STEM activities. And then something I really like to use for experiment days, I call them lab days, is Gizmo. Have you heard of Gizmo?

Eric Cross (06:15):

Yeah. The simulations.

Lauran Woolley (06:16):

Yeah. My brother showed me that too and he was using it in his class. I mean there’s so many different ones that they have that align with the standards and they have like student lab sheets that go with them and teacher guides and stuff. I’ve just been trying to like up my game a little bit more this year, because last year I was like struggling to get all of the standards in before state testing came around because, can we agree, state testing should not be as early as it is? Our state test happens in like March and we have two months of school left. So like, we better be done with standards by February so we could review, because otherwise we’re kind of outta luck because we run outta time.

Eric Cross (06:59):

Yes. That and there’s all kinds of other things that state testing brings with it that we could spend a lot of time probably critiquing and talking about like as far as what’s ideal for kids and what’s the best way to measure and assess learning. That is one question I wanna ask you though, because I know with your work on TikTok and Instagram and YouTube, you must be connected to a pretty vast teacher network and maybe you have like, kinda like more of an inner circle of people, but you must come across so many different perspectives and get into great discussions. Is there <laugh>, is there anything that kind of stands out to you as far as if you were in charge of what we’re doing? Because that’s kind of the system that we all live in and we kind of are trying to internally change it, but it’s been that way for a long time and we just kind of have to work within it until we can make changes. But if you were to, I dunno from an elementary school perspective, change or modify the way kids are learning, what would you do if you had Monarch ability?

Lauran Woolley (07:54):

Okay, I got three main things I’m thinking in my head. Okay, first things first, we got Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Okay. If kids are coming to school hungry, if they’re coming to school and don’t have, you know, fresh clothing to put on, if they’re coming to school and they have issues at home that they are dealing with, that they are not okay with, the learning is not happening. That’s secondary. They don’t, it doesn’t matter to them. It doesn’t matter to me because what’s most important is that child as a human being and whether or not they’re okay. If I had unlimited resources, I would love to be able to build like a little mini village inside a school and have like a clothing store that kids could grab stuff from. Or like a, you know how I know how school have like closets and food pantries, but like a real place they could get some new clothes, not like hand-me-down clothes, like a store they could go and grab some food if they needed food for their homes or whatever. We have like an onsite counselor but not like a school counselor, like a therapist-type counselor for like mental health. Having some kind of like health clinic, not just like a school nurse because, let’s be real, our school nurses see everything <laugh> and they do not get enough credit, but like to have like a little like urgent care clinic, like basically a small town <laugh> inside a school that like kids would have all of the resources that they need met. Like that would be my number one thing that I would love to do. I have taught in, you know, I’ve only taught in two different schools, but like I’ve seen a lot of things and the number one thing that keeps coming back is just like home lives and mental health and having someone to talk to.

Lauran Woolley (09:41):

And I think our kids don’t have enough of that. Second of all, would be obviously state testing. Because I mean, it’s good to see like where our kids are at. I don’t think it should be used punitively and I don’t think that it should be putting as much pressure on teachers and students the way that it is. It’s not effective that way at all. Let teachers do their jobs without us having to, like, ’cause honestly, who’s not gonna say that they’re not trying to set their students up to do the best on that test. Our evaluation depends on it. I’m gonna make sure my students are prepared for it. I’m gonna teach all the standards, but like, I shouldn’t have to be teaching so that they could do well on a test. I wanna make sure that they’re ready for the real world and I wanna make sure that they’re able to apply these things that I’m teaching them in their life, not on a multiple choice test. Third of all, <laugh>.

Eric Cross (10:33):

This, this is great. And I think a lot of teachers will listen and be like, “That’s what I’m talking about right there.” Keep going. You’re on three.

Lauran Woolley (10:40):

That would be two teachers in every classroom. Either two teachers in each room or like a teacher and a paraprofessional in each room, because there’s not even an argument that teachers are more effective when they have help.

Eric Cross (10:54):

I would even carry the math on further and say that it’s a force multiplier, like exponentially, that it’s not just, it’s not just like a one plus one equals two teachers. It’s almost like you can almost have like three or four just because of the energy and the synergy that can be created between the two. And you can push off of each other, encourage one another and both support different types of students. So I agree a hundred percent. I think that if you had two teachers that were in sync and planning together and talking about kids all of the time, you would be able to go deeper with students. You’d be able to find out those things that you talked about in Maslow’s because sometimes we don’t find out about it until a parent-teacher conference or kids left our classroom. I wish I would’ve known that. The student was without these things in the very beginning.

Lauran Woolley (11:41):

Absolutely. Mm-hmm.

Eric Cross (11:42):

So when do you start in the school and do we go on LinkedIn to sign up and apply or is it like a lottery system? Like, ’cause you know, I was gonna get a lot of attention.

Lauran Woolley (11:52):

I would love to Oprah Winfrey this and like build my own school <laugh>.

Eric Cross (11:56):

We gotta get those followers up. We gotta build up the sponsorships. We gotta get you up to a hundred million.

Lauran Woolley (12:01):

Listen, if all of my followers across all my platforms donated like $2, we could have $12 million to build a school. <laugh>.

Eric Cross (12:10):

Think about like, DonorsChoose, right? People do that. And I know there’s mixed feelings about it because we need stuff in our classroom. I’m just gonna say that. All right. So, whether I have to ask for it on a website or whatever, but people want to give directly to kids, or people who need it. And I think when there’s opportunities like that, that are visible, people are more likely to want to.

Lauran Woolley (12:29):

In reality, should other people have to fund education in classrooms? No. That’s literally what your taxes are for. A government-funded classroom versus a teacher-funded classroom are two different things. And we know that. But if teachers are asking for things or asking for donations on Amazon or on DonorsChoose, just know in your heart that that teacher has probably already shelled out a lot of their own cash to do that. It’s not that they’re, you know, asking for handouts or anything like that. They’re trying to give their students the best that they can and that’s the thought process behind it. And until we get changes in our education system or changes in legislature that will allow us to do that or will allow classroom budgets, I mean, our hands are tied. Like there’s only so much teachers can do. I’m very fortunate to teach in a district that sees the value in spending money on their teachers and students. And, like my school, like I said, they just shelled out thousands of dollars on a new math curriculum. They bought school supplies. Literally every teacher made their school supply list this year. And then the district went in and paid for every single student’s school supplies in the entire district.

Eric Cross (13:49):

Can we get a shout out to your district real quick?

Lauran Woolley (13:51):

Uh, yeah. I mean, shout out Leetonia schools like, I mean, you guys are awesome and I’ll shout that from the rooftops. I love where I teach. Like I really do think that they value our students and they care about our students and our admin is great. We got a new superintendent a couple years ago. He’s been doing a phenomenal job and I really love it and I’m glad I teach there.

Eric Cross (14:12):

When you move out of the classroom, you know, in any position of leadership, you do have the microscope or magnifying glass on you and a lot of times it’s critical. And not unjustifiably so, I mean, there’s a lot of things that can be critiqued. However, what we don’t always hear is the success stories or where it’s working for teachers and why. And we need leaders to be able to talk to each other and find, “Hey, it’s working in your district? Oh, I just heard, I just heard this district get shot out. I’m gonna go reach out to those people. Hey, what are you doing?” Because we connect with each other, but I think when you go like a level up, that kind of getting up the top of the mountain, the, the connection sometimes can become more difficult for people. There’s not a lot of, I don’t know, maybe there are, but admin influencers.

Lauran Woolley (14:54):

Oh yeah, there definitely are. And I’ve met some really incredible ones. I’m on a committee at my school, it’s called NNPS, it’s the National Network of Partnership Schools. It was started out of Ohio State University. Essentially it is a committee in the school that’s dedicated to bringing together the community and businesses and partnering with people to make our school as strong as it can be. We started last year and we did a bear breakfast, ’cause our mascot is a bear. And we had Christmas things and we had the choir caroling, and we had pancake breakfast for everybody and it was completely free. It was just really nice to see everybody come together. And it feels like the culture changes when people work together and come together for the betterment of the school and for the students. And I think what’s challenging is that so many people have such a negative experience from their schooling that they’re hesitant to get involved in their kids’ schooling. I urge any parents out there, any guardians out there that are, you know, in that mindset where you’re like, I didn’t like my teachers in school, or I had this, this, this and happened to me at school. Give it a chance to know that things have changed and things are changing.

Eric Cross (16:11):

I definitely agree with you about parent engagement and getting involved and sometimes parents, they just don’t know that they should. But wow, your voice is so powerful, especially at board meetings and things like that. Getting stakeholders involved, creating community, which it sounds like your school did a great job or your district did a great job of. The last question I wanna ask you, and it’s kind of going back to who your influencer was, is you now are in a position where your impact exceeds more than, you know. You’re planting so many seeds you’re sharing, and you’ll hear maybe a few, or I’m sure you’ll hear the things that kind of come back to you, but that’s only a fraction. But I wanted to ask you, like, as you think back on your career as an educator or when you were in school K through five or K through 12, is there anyone who stands out to you or who was maybe your influencer or teacher who made a big difference that was memorable? And if so, who was it and what was it about them or what did they do?

Lauran Woolley (17:01):

So I had a lot of teachers that I really had good relationships with and I loved school growing up. But one always stood out in particular, and that was my ninth grade English teacher and her name is Andrea Reid. She was the first person who really told me that I was talented at something and that I could succeed in something because she was the English teacher. She was also a coach of the speech and debate team at my high school. Just one day after school. She was like, “Hey, like you should come to speech tryouts.” So I went to tryouts, like I did it not thinking like I cared if I made it or didn’t, and then I made the team. And honestly, I feel like speech was the starting point of all of it. I competed in speech and debate for four years of high school and she was my coach.

Lauran Woolley (17:49):

I always have horrible nervousness with public speaking, even though I do it a lot. And she would always give me like the best hype speeches and the best confidence boosters. And I feel like speech started my love of acting and started my love of like, you know, comedy and stuff like that. And so therefore TikTok happened and I don’t think any of this would’ve happened had it not been for her and her opening that door for me and telling me, “Hey, you would be good at this. You should try it.” We’re still friends to this day, 15 years later, and she is like an older sister to me and I love it.

Eric Cross (18:26):

That’s amazing. Andrea Reed, that’s her name.

Lauran Woolley (18:28):

Andrea, yep.

Eric Cross (18:29):

Andrea. Andrea Reid. Ms. Reid, thank you, for inspiring Lauran and <laugh> because of your impact, now it’s impacting so many others and as teachers, like, we don’t even, we don’t know, but it’s so humbling to know that like the words that we say to people have that impact and power. It’s so, it’s, it’s so inspiring to me. One of the things that resonate with you so much is your transparency. Like in your depth. Like even as just listening to you talk, you normalize and humanize so many things that we experience and I’m sure that’s what a lot of the people that watch you connect with. You show your life, your family, your house, all these things that are happening. And I was just looking through the comments and there’s just so many people that are warmed. Not just your students, but like so many teachers. So thank you for doing what you’re doing and I wish you tremendous success. Thank you for your time.

Lauran Woolley (19:17):

No, thank you so much for having me. This was awesome. I just wish everybody a great school year and I hope that we all make it through winter break. <laugh>.

Eric Cross (19:27):

Thanks so much for listening to this season of Science Connections. I love learning about science educators just like you. You can nominate educators that inspire you to become a future guest on Science Connections by emailing STEM@amplify.com. That’s S T E M at amplifycom.wpengine.com. Make sure to click subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and tune in for a brand new season of Science Connections coming soon.

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What Lauran Woolley says about science

“I want to make sure they’re ready for the real world and I want to make sure they’re ready to apply these things I’m teaching them in their life, not just on a multiple choice test.”

– Lauran Woolley

5th Grade Teacher, Northeast Ohio

Meet the guest

Lauran Woolley is a fifth grade teacher in Northeast Ohio. She has loved being able to combine her love of education and entertainment into one career. Her goal is not only to humanize educators to both families and students, but to create a safe space for her students on the internet. She has had the privilege of collaborating with educators around the world to shed a light on this amazing career. You can listen and watch the Teachers Off Duty podcast here!

A woman with long dark hair smiles at the camera, wearing a black top and lanyard, with a colorful blurred background.

About Science Connections

Welcome to Science Connections! Science is changing before our eyes, now more than ever. So…how do we help kids figure that out? We will bring on educators, scientists, and more to discuss the importance of high-quality science instruction. In this episode, hear from our host Eric Cross about his work engaging students as a K-8 science teacher. 

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S3 – 03. Math professional learning experiences with Elham Kazemi

Podcast episode poster for "Math Teacher Lounge" featuring Elham Kazemi, a Mathematics Education Professor at the University of Washington.

How do we continue to grow and be more reflective about our own teaching? In this episode, Bethany Lockhart Johnson and Dan Meyer chat with Elham Kazemi to explore how to look at teaching as a collaborative experiment. Moving more toward analyzing student thinking and how that contributes to teaching itself, leaves more space for one’s own understanding of math to grow throughout your career. When one revises their teaching based on the data we’re collecting from students and peers, this allows us to be both teachers and learners forever.

Explore more from Math Teacher Lounge by visiting our main page.

Download Transcript

Dan Meyer (00:04):
Hey folks, welcome to math teacher lounge. My name is Dan Meyer

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:07):
And I’m Bethany, Lockhart Johnson.

Dan Meyer (00:09):
And this is the teacher learning week. We’re thinking this week about how we grow as teachers. And to start with, I just wanted to ask Bethany, uh, first Bethany, how are you doing? And second <laugh>. Um, what is, what, what has been your like most favorite and least favorite, most effective least effective professional learning experience when you were a classroom teacher?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:30):
I think for me, most effective was definitely when I could use it right away. Right. Whatever we were talking about, whatever we were learning, like I got to go put it into practice. Sure. Uh, I, I remember we did something where we designed a lesson and then we went and taught it like one person taught it and the rest of the people watched. And then we kind of like got to workshop it, which that was like a one off the fact that we got to go out of our classroom and go observe somebody teaching. It was gold. It was gold. Um, so that was probably the most effective, because there was so much opportunity for reflection and least effective was something that felt like just completely unconnected to, you know, kind of either so theoretical that it wasn’t like touching on what we were navigating right there in the classroom. I don’t know. What about you? What can you think of times that, are you gonna say times you led a PD? Those were the most effective?

Dan Meyer (01:26):
Yeah. My favorite ones are my sessions, of course. But if I had to throw those out for a second, um, yeah, I, I like, I want, I want both, I want it all. I want the, um, the big ideas that take a long time to settle in that also have like small bits that can carve off and use relatively quickly to test my understanding of the ID is, yeah. I’ve had some, some PD where I’m like, this is very relevant to tomorrow. And I also don’t care. Like for instance, like how to use the CD, the, the, like the, the software, you know, on the, on my curriculum, for instance, it’s like, okay, yeah, this is just a little, little too practical. You know what I’m saying? I want some bigger ideas to chew on. Um, I would also say like, I love my favorite PD by a long was writing up thoughts about how the day went and putting that on the internet in a public place that we used to call a blog and where people would come along, cuz there was like 10 blogs and like, tell me like that’s no good.

Dan Meyer (02:16):
Like the thing that you like is not a thing you should like, here’s the thing you should like instead, or try instead, or just this weird community that sprung up, you know, when I was, uh, starting to teach relatively new teacher and uh, I feel like I grew a lot

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (02:28):
Go back to this idea blog. If people would call you, they’d call you on the phone. What, what

Dan Meyer (02:32):
Was they would fax me? They, it would be a fact. So

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (02:35):
Fax,

Dan Meyer (02:36):
I got it. Fax a comment. Yeah. Got it. So, uh, that’s, that’s Bethany and I, and we’re super excited to have people who have a bit broader of a perspective, a bit more of the land than what, what the two of us, um, think about with our own professional learning experiences.

Dan Meyer (02:52):
We’ve invited on an expert. We hope will help us understand alternate ways to do professional learning as teachers to grow as teachers besides, you know, all of us getting into the same room once every, every, uh, few months together, Elm Cosmi is a professor of mathematics education at the university of Washington, Elm studies, how strong professional communities develop in schools and how schools can be organized. So teachers learn from and what their students, this work is informed by equity oriented research on thinking, uh, on children’s mathematical thinking and classroom practice. She is co-author with Allison hints of intentional talk, which focuses on leading productive discussions in mathematics. And she edited coral counting and counting collections with Megan Frankie and Angela tau, which focuses on the importance of counting from preschool to fifth grade. Looking forward to a great chat with Elham, welcome Elham to the show.

Elham Kazemi (03:43):
Thanks for having me, my favorite topic ever to talk with you both about,

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (03:47):
I think something that I just deeply, deeply respected admire is that I feel like you are constantly sharing about how you are learning. You’re continue to learn, continue to, to try out new ideas and you do a very good job of like highlighting things that you’ve learned, whether that’s sharing it through a tweet or sharing it amongst colleagues or peers. And I, I just really appreciate that because I feel like being in the mathematics community with you, I feel like I grow by, I just like paying attention to like, Hey, she’s a learner, she’s done all these amazing things and thinks in these amazing ways and has shifted my thinking in such amazing ways. But she’s saying, Hey, I I’m still learning. So yeah. Hi, thank you. Thank you for your, I don’t know. We’re just glad to have you here.

Elham Kazemi (04:41):
Thanks. I do feel like the perpetual student, like I’ve never left school and I wonder like one day maybe I will, when I grow older, when I grow up, will I ever leave school? Maybe not.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (04:52):
<laugh>

Dan Meyer (04:53):
Great. Let’s dig in. Yeah. So please tell us you partnered with a school for some professional learning that wasn’t the sort where you would go in and offer brilliant ideas and then leave. But rather it, it seemed like it was more of a job embedded sort, the sort of thing that might have a life of its own after, you know, after the, the grant ends or the program ends. Can you describe what it was you did and what the effect was?

Elham Kazemi (05:15):
I think I wanna first say that everything that I have done and experimented with as really the result of working with fabulous people, teachers, coaches, principals, other, um, colleagues and peers in the field who are constantly trying to work on what good teaching looks like and how you learn to do it. And mostly because we care about kids and we care about what students experience in the classroom. And we want kids to love school, to have school, be a place where they’re known, they’re loved, um, that they look forward to being in every day. And I think there’s that, um, the why that, that, um, per that makes you want to learn is really about the students and being, doing things in service of them. Because when, uh, as one of my colleagues said, when children thrive, teachers thrive. So what does it mean for us to thrive?

Elham Kazemi (06:06):
If we are focused on our kids’ experiences in schools, what we did at this, this particular school and a group of schools is kind of tap into a, all that curiosity and drive that teachers have to do a good job and to use their imaginations well, and to engage the actual ideas that children have in their classroom together, not separately, not like get a great idea and be inspired by it and then go figure it out by yourself, but be inspired by ideas and then try to figure them out together. Because, um, as you both know, very talented teachers, uh, who also have been inspired to change your classroom teaching. Once you figure something out or as you’re figuring it out, there’s all kinds of intricacies. Like I remember when I first learned about three act tasks, I thought what a brilliant idea, but it’s not so simple to try to enact the brilliance of it because you can simplify it too much or you can get stuck and not really know how do you move from one act to the next, or what’s the point of the third act?

Elham Kazemi (07:12):
Do you just like reveal the answer and that’s it. And then you move on. Um, how do you even do design the tasks to begin with all of those things, raise questions and working on them together, uh, and carving up that space and time to work on them together is sorely missing in schools. And so that’s what we were able to do with the schools that I parted and it is find the time and then design the structures so that teachers could, um, <affirmative> think about their teaching together and then also be in the classroom together with kids. So the kids see that we are also learning to be responsive to them. That’s the point. So we have to work stuff out when kids are present, which is the part that usually trips a lot of people up.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (07:55):
Well, that to me is I think the part that shifted my teaching and continues to is this, it is a culture shift to tell your students, to invite your students into your learning, to tell them I’m, I’m learning too. It was an invitation to, to be vulnerable in a way that I think sometimes teachers are very afraid to be vulnerable. Uh, if they don’t know what the student response is gonna be, or they don’t know, they don’t wanna seem like they don’t know the answers or they don’t know how to figure out a problem. I think that’s a real shift in the, in the culture for, for compared to maybe what we, we experienced growing up.

Dan Meyer (08:33):
I hated not knowing the answer to a math problem. I admitting I, I was uncertain with the mathematics, but to admit that I am like a, a work in aggress as a teacher, feels like an extra admission, an extra layer of humility, which is, I don’t know, it’s a really special thing that you were up to with that school. I’d love to hear like about specific structures that you worked with to help make that transition feel, you know, more natural, more welcoming, more productive.

Elham Kazemi (08:58):
So, I mean, you probably have experienced common planning time, right? This is a thing that often happens for us teachers. I think that common planning time looks a lot sometimes like, uh, what are we gonna do on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday? Okay. What do we need? What are the materials we need? Who is gonna do that? Will you write this? And that’s what kind of common planning time, and then it’s over. And then you might see each other at lunch and say, well, how did that go? And you’ll talk a little bit about it, but common planning time and learning labs, which is sort of what the, what we call the, the PD that we designed means. Okay. So let’s take three act task. We, we write a little bit about it. We’ve seen a couple, but okay. What would it really mean to plan this particular one?

Elham Kazemi (09:42):
So common planning time is thinking like, how are we gonna launch that first act? What are we actually gonna say? What do we think the kids are gonna say? Why would we say it that way? What if they say something else? Um, and then, okay, so what does it actually sounds like to transition from act one, to act two? What might we say, what would happen with this particular task and actually getting into the details of how you imagine, like, what, what you would do when you were actually planning the specifics of a particular lesson, but leaving it loose enough that you’re not trying to make it perfect. And I think that’s the trick. So, so that you are not so invested, that goes in that particular way or that you fail. If it doesn’t go that way. Um, but that you have something you wanna learn together and trying out this three act task with a particular group of kids so that when you go into the classroom, first of all, you’ve all thought through the full R of the lesson.

Elham Kazemi (10:40):
And you’re curious enough about what’s gonna happen at particular points that you’ve left room for uncertainty and the taking of some risks. So then when you go together into a classroom and kids start to say things that you didn’t anticipate you or, or they start to do something that you’re so jazzed about, that you didn’t anticipate that you’re like, this is the thing we should pursue more. You give each other permission to do that. You’re like, whoa, wait, did you hear what so? And so said, I think we should follow that road and see where it takes us, or, huh. Okay, hold on. And that’s what we call teacher timeouts, where you actually confer briefly and you tell the kids, this is a super special day. We’ve tried to design something. We’re very curious how you are gonna react to it. So we’re gonna try it out. And along the way, we might pause to get your ideas or for us to make some decisions and steer the ship in a, in a new directions and see what happens. So we’re gonna be sitting closely to you among you. Um, and you get to be our teachers today while we teach. That’s how it’s framed.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (11:46):
Like, what were you seeing in professional development or in that wasn’t happening amongst teachers? Like where, where are the gaps? Because it feels like so much of your work. You’ve just looked in such nuanced ways at how teachers can continue to grow and be more reflective of their own teaching. And I’m just kind of curious where that came from or where you’re seeing the landscape.

Elham Kazemi (12:10):
Yeah, that’s a good question. Well, I, oh, everything I know about, children’s thinking to Megan Frankie and the beautiful body of work called CGI, but, um, one of the things that we noticed, there’s so many great CGI workshops, and even like all the seminars and conference presentations and amazing things that you can design to have engaging work time for teach in, in professional development, outside of their classroom, people get super jazzed, you know, they get, um, uh, they have meaningful experiences, but to contextualize that back into their classrooms with their own students is like where, where often I would see like, wait, the same group of teachers I just saw in my classroom or in either in math methods or in this PD seminar, or even myself, like noticing, like I have seen and thought about stuff a lot. But when I went to go do it with a particular group of kids, holy moly was that so hard. And I saw all kinds of new complexities that I didn’t anticipate. And if I were just left to my own devices, I might very easily say, whew, this seems a little too hard.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (13:21):
Right,

Elham Kazemi (13:22):
Right. And that’s the thing that I always hated. I was like, oh, if only we had, or you, or if you watched somebody do a demo lesson and you saw something that was like, kind of cool that you wish you had done afterwards. I often this happened in reflections. I wish we had, because we weren’t allowed to interrupt each other during teaching. Cuz somehow that would be rude or that would undermine the teacher’s authority. But that’s only the way we frame it. If we say actually we’re all capable people. So a question we ask ourselves during instruction doesn’t mean you don’t know what you’re doing. It means actually we’re thinking together then the interruptions aren’t about undermining authority. They’re about thinking together.

Dan Meyer (14:04):
There’s a performative aspect to a lot of teaching. Like the like teaching feels like a performance and you don’t, the movie’s playing or there’s a play that’s going on. It feels like inappropriate to interrupt that in any way. Cause the performance is going and I, I love what this that’s. I love what this idea does to kind of, to redefine teaching is not a performance, but this, this co-constructed thing. Or if it’s a performance, it’s a performance, the stars, all of us, like we’re all a part of the cast and always a it’s always the dress rehearsal.

Elham Kazemi (14:30):
<laugh> it is like the dress rehearsal. Although some of my brilliant colleagues with backgrounds in drama and theater, Sarah Kavanaugh and Holly GU and Elizabeth dure, they actually were at a meeting together. And they talked about how this like breaks the fourth wall, you know, mm-hmm, <affirmative> like, which is out of theater, um, where the performer speaks to the audience, you know, I know you’re there and I have something to say to you. Yep. And I was like, well, we should, why can’t we do that in teaching? So we actually wrote a little paper, um, that’s called breaking the fourth wall as a way. That’s so cool as a metaphor for understanding and reframing what these interruptions could meet. Cuz we often get people when we about this for academic audience who say like, aren’t you using the children and what are the children gonna do while you just pause? Are they supposed to freeze? And uh, you know, while you talk about them, but it’s not really that it’s like, Hey students, we’re here because of you. So shouldn’t, we try to involve you and are decision making. To some extent, it’s not like we don’t know what we’re doing, but we’re doing things because we wanna advance your learning.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (15:40):
I mean, I still remember the first time I did a teacher time out and it, it was, I, it was breaking the four, it was this like, okay, you’re gonna see what happens, kids like, look at my, my tap dances stopped. And you’re you mean like, you know, whoa, wait a second. And I think it is about how you frame it. Right? It’s a celebration of their thinking and you, you use the term ambitious teaching and it, to me that is such a joyful way to think about it.

Elham Kazemi (16:06):
It is risky. And you would never say anything to shame any student, no. Or to shame your colleagues. Clearly it’s not a about that kind of discussion. Right. And they’re so brief. They’re like, it, it seconds. It’s not like you’re wasting time. You’re actually trying to understand what’s happening here. And I’ve just had so many instances where something goes on. Um, like we were doing a growing patterns task in a classroom and the student built the fourth term and they built stuff that did not follow the pattern. And I was so confused. I, I just didn’t understand like what was going on. And one of the kids said, well, if you, if you did follow the pattern, that’s not her words. But you know, she’s like, well, if we built it this way, that would be too obvious. Because if you just, if you saw that and you’re like, oh, that lesson failed.

Elham Kazemi (16:59):
Now we, our kids don’t understand what patterns are. We did it. Like, we gotta pause here and we gotta say, and we’re like, well, what do you mean? Can you say more about that? And basically what they said is that, um, well, first of all, they’re, they’re right. A pattern could change at any time, but it’s like, it would be more interesting if they, they knew how many cubes it would take for the fourth term that it would be nine, but they’re like, Hey, let’s rearrange that nine in some cool new ways. <laugh> cause that’s more interesting. It was like more interesting to them if, if they didn’t keep the pattern. So like, you kind of had to wrestle with that in the moment <affirmative> with them. And that’s how they can actually be partners with you in the teacher, timeout.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (17:40):
Right. That’s making it about them and their learning. It’s not about that. It’s not about your performance and like looking all shiny and, and I’ve got it all together and I know exactly how this lesson’s gonna go. It that’s so interesting.

Elham Kazemi (17:53):
And sometimes you pause and like some cuz somebody else who’s watching is noticing something about what the kids are doing. And while you’re, if you’re happen to be the person who’s upfront at the time leading, you’ve got so many things going on in your head that some times the person who’s just been sitting on the rug with the kids mm-hmm <affirmative> has noticed something. And they’re like, can I ask something right now? And that’s a great teacher timeout too. Mm. Because they’re interrupting you cuz they’re like, I think I, I wanna see what kids will say. If we ask this question next and those moments have been like amazing because someone has noticed something that another person hasn’t in the room and it’s been very helpful to illuminate how kids are processing something or what two ideas they could connect. That would be really powerful based on what we were hoping to learn that day or do with the kids that day.

Dan Meyer (18:47):
It’s like you have a bonus brain attached to you there in the room. Sounds really powerful. I wonder a couple about the student experience of this. I’m imagine if I was a student in the room and I heard the two teachers like kind of pause, take this time out and like talk about how interesting my thinking was like behind my back a little bit, like trying to strategize about something interesting. I had said, I just imagine I would, I would feel very good about like, that would be a very positive experience for me. Um, but I’m just curious, can you speak to how students reacted when they’re,

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (19:16):
You mean, if you had been a student in the class and you saw two teachers conferring about your work?

Dan Meyer (19:21):
Yeah. Yeah. Like I, my classmates had of thing that was like, it, it kind of like was so novel that it stymied the teachers and then they like had to pause and like talk about what are we doing? Oh, I don’t know. I can imagine that’d be like know a fun feeling. Maybe I just tell more about me than about the kids, but

Elham Kazemi (19:35):
<laugh> it points to like, how would you go about starting to do this work? Right. Because one is you do, you do have to tell kids, Hey, I’m here with so and so and so, and so, and so, and so it might be just two of you. It might be five of you. It might be more and you know how we’ve been working on X thing in class? Well, today we wanted to try this new thing and, but we’re not sure how it’s gonna go and we need, we need your feedback. Right. So here’s something that might happen. We might pause you, you, I mean, you really do directly tell the kids to do that. And then we’re gonna ask you how it felt and we’re gonna share those feelings with one another. So you do that, you do a little exit card or you,

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (20:19):
How, what felt the pause or how,

Elham Kazemi (20:22):
How, yeah. How did it feel that, how did this lesson go or how did a lesson, how did it feel when you heard, you know, ALM and Dan talk to each other, doing this lesson and they might say, Hey, it’s cool. It’s fun. Kids have definitely chimed in, in like, if we ask a question like, should we do this next or this, somebody will pipe in and say, do that, you know, do this thing. Instead. If, if you kind of pipe in to say, can I ask a question? They just turn to you and look at you and answer your question. Right. So, and we always thank them and we just like pump it up. Right? Like this is so cool because this is all about you. And usually when you say today, you’re gonna be our teachers, especially the little kids. They like get all giggly. Totally.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (21:02):
Right.

Elham Kazemi (21:04):
Love it.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (21:05):
You know, you, you were sharing about this really unique situation, which I wish it wasn’t as unique where you had the whole school involved, but how did that happen? And what if you don’t have the whole school involved? What if it’s just me in my grade level, who’s like, I kind of wanna try this, but what

Elham Kazemi (21:22):
<laugh>, I think you could start with your, a peer in your school or a colleague in your school. Yeah. I mean, it’s a little seed, right. And it’s a little seed and then you could make it grow. I also believe in starting small and growing, cuz you do have to invite people into a different way of thinking about what it means to learn together. So you need to experience it, um, in order to believe it.

Dan Meyer (21:49):
Yeah. It feels like we would not want to write off any student as like, oh, they just don’t wanna learn. I think a lot of, a lot of us just like don’t buy that, that there’s other reasons why people need that. A teacher shouldn’t like shouldn’t, that’s not true of students that they have been told they can’t learn or there’s various circumstances the same. I, I suppose the same as like should be true is true of teachers. Like no teacher doesn’t want to learn more about teaching is at least a helpful Axiom to use, to approach the work of teacher growth. And so maybe they, yeah, maybe I feel like I’m the only person in my school who wants to do this, but perhaps that’s not actually true. Perhaps it’s just a matter of creating an imagination or the right kind of enticement or I don’t know what, um, but to start small and grow from there makes a lot of sense.

Elham Kazemi (22:32):
I feel now, like it would be weird and a lot harder for me to invite someone to just come in and watch me teach and sit quietly in the back when I don’t know anything about what they’re thinking and wait until afterwards to get their opinion.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (22:46):
Oh yes.

Elham Kazemi (22:47):
I would be much more willing to co-plan with someone so that we were both on the same page about what we were trying to do and then when you’re in the classroom with me. So that’s the other thing that’s important cuz I don’t think you can just be in the classroom together and I, you know, interrupt each other’s teachers, if you haven’t planned together, cuz you do have to have some common understanding of what are we trying to do here? Oh the

Dan Meyer (23:10):
Intent here.

Elham Kazemi (23:11):
Yeah. So I would definitely say don’t just show up in each other’s classroom and start interrupting each other. <laugh> if you don’t know what the heck is going on. Yeah.

Dan Meyer (23:21):
Yeah. I, I know that’s directed at one person on this call in particular. I hear that.

Elham Kazemi (23:25):
I know who we’re talking about, but you know, I would be way more intimidating for me if I was trying to do a three act task and Dan just came to watch me do it <laugh> and he hadn’t planned with me. He didn’t know why I selected that task. I had no opportunity to talk to him. Then it would be, Hey Dan, would you just like do this with me? Let’s think through this. Why would you do this then? What, what have you normally done? Oh, okay. Why have you done that? Right. And then to like, okay, let’s try it together. Um, and then, and then along the way, if I have questions, you’re there with me. So sometimes there is someone more experience like if right. And sometimes you’re both just like, I just don’t have that much experience with this. I’m learning this for the first time.

Elham Kazemi (24:04):
Right. And the beauty of the math ed community, whether it’s on Twitter or is that we’re kind of pretty accessible to each other. Right. So if I read something and I have a question about it, you bet I’m gonna reach out to the author <laugh> and say, I’ve been thinking about your work and this is what’s been coming up for us. Can you? So like, it definitely happened with hands down conversations. We tried it in the learning lab and we just couldn’t figure out like that. How do you intercede, like into the hands down conversation cuz the kids are supposed to have a conversation. So we had to like give Kaia and her co-author a few specific examples so they could help our thinking so that we could try it again. Right. And make it better. And I think that is, is what it means to be learning in community is that you use the resources more broadly.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (24:52):
That’s a beautiful reminder too. And it also helps me feel a little better about all the messages I’ve sent you. Like what does this mean? Can you help me with this?

Elham Kazemi (24:59):
<laugh> I mean, that just makes you feel alive. <laugh> I think

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (25:06):
So. I think P part of the beauty of you talking about starting small is that it does give those of us who maybe aren’t seeing that those opportunities for collaboration reflected in our school culture, it gives us kind of some hope for like, wait, don’t just like, think you can’t start. I, how do you, how do you see, how do you see it growing? Or, or do you think like if you could magically <laugh> like wave your wand and, and create some shifts around, around, uh, the culture where folks are feeling isolated or maybe don’t feel like they have the needs to do this work. What could that look like?

Elham Kazemi (25:51):
Yeah. What could that look like? So time, like we need some imagination around the use of time in schools and I have seen some really amazing opportunities where teachers get to co-teach, which means that they really have to co-plan when, um, there’s a break in a regular school session and there’s like an intercession or like a, like an elective that, um, that doesn’t, I haven’t seen it happen a lot in public schools, but I have seen it happen a lot in independent schools where they’ll have like, stop, stop the presses. It’s like a drop everything and read, but it’s like a drop everything and do an R arts week. And then all the kids in the school get shuffled. So they into multiage groupings and the teachers get to plan something special for like the week. But you could start with like a day, which would at least get you to plan something together and try to teach together and be just in each other’s spaces. And I think that might be kind of an interesting way to start where you have to like mess with the schedule somehow. Cuz the schedule is the beast in schools

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (26:59):
Is kind of the first step. Like we are going to create a shared activity, a shared instructional goal, a shared like where do I start?

Elham Kazemi (27:09):
What, where do you start? I mean, there’s so many good books. We all read, start with something that grabs your imagination. That you’re like, if I got to do this in my class, I’d be so jazzed. And I think my kids would love it. Why would they love it? You know, whatever it is. There’s so many good ideas that people are instantly blogging about publishing, um, slow reveal graphs. I love those two. I have like all these things. I was like, I would love to try these out, but I, I gotta do them with somebody cuz I need a sounding board about like how, what does it mean to do it well? And what does it mean to just do it at the surface level and do it a, you know, in a kind of a crappy way. And we don’t wanna do a crappy job. We wanna do a good job, but you have to start, you have to start sometimes in an awkward, crappy way. Like, you know, and get past that stage. Cause often we try a bunch of stuff, eh, and then we drop it. But like you gotta work on it to make it really

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (27:58):
Good. And if you’ve already tried it and it didn’t go so well it’s, this could be an invitation, like, you know, it doesn’t mean give up on the idea. It means like, Hey let, let’s let’s collaborate. Let’s you know, come into my class. Let’s co plan this.

Elham Kazemi (28:10):
So I would challenge people to think about the schedule. <laugh> try to do something just a little bit different. You know, like when we do learning labs, people are like, well, how do you do that? And there’s no money for it. Actually. We just use our money in a slightly different way to make or that everybody four people get a sub, which I know right now, sub shortages is crazy, crazy, but then combine your classes or do something different. Yeah. You know, um, involve people differently somehow in your, in your school environment to get that time,

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (28:43):
Really see this as a priority. This is a, this is there’s is intense value in this time to collaborate. Yeah.

Elham Kazemi (28:51):
Yeah. There’s so many side benefits for, I think for kids and teachers when you’re able to do this.

Dan Meyer (28:58):
Yeah. You’ve heard of folks. Uh, usually our, our math teacher challenge, our lounge challenge has been, uh, pedagogical in nature or a new CU. And uh, this is a different kind of one. This is, uh, go, go be a Rabel Razr go Rouse rabble at your, uh, front office and figure out the right way to get some funding or some time or shuffle a master schedule in such a way that you have collaboration, time to plan to co-teach to interrupt one another and uh, let us know how it goes. We are super excited and super interested in all of that. Thank you, uh, Elham for being with us here today and sharing all of your wisdom about how teachers grow.

Elham Kazemi (29:36):
Thanks for reminding me. You too loved

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (29:38):
It. We’re never done learning. We’re never done learning. Nope.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (29:44):
Aha. Thank you so much for joining us in the lounge. I think all of us have sat through effective and ineffective professional learning sessions and just helping us to envision of how this can truly help PD can truly transform our classrooms. It is it’s exciting. It’s exciting. And I think we’ve all learned a lot from our conversation. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And don’t forget, you can connect with us in the lounge on Facebook at math teacher lounge or on Twitter at MTL show. Let’s keep this conversation going. Keep it going. Thanks so much for joining us. Thanks

Speaker 4 (30:20):
Everybody. <silence>.

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What Elham Kazemi says about math

“ When children thrive, teachers thrive. So what does it mean for us to thrive if we are focused on our kids’ experiences at school?”

– Elham Kazemi

Professor of Mathematics Education, University of Washington

Meet the guest

Elham Kazemi is a professor of mathematics education at the University of Washington. She studies how strong professional communities develop in schools and how schools can be organized so teachers learn from and with their students. This work is informed by equity-oriented research on organizational learning, children’s mathematical thinking, and classroom practice.  She is co-author with Allison Hintz of Intentional Talk, which focuses on leading productive discussions in mathematics. She also edited Choral Counting and Counting Collections with Megan Franke and Angela Turrou, which focuses on the importance of counting from preschool to 5th grade.

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About Math Teacher Lounge: The podcast

Math Teacher Lounge is a biweekly podcast created specifically for K–12 math educators. In each episode co-hosts Bethany Lockhart Johnson (@lockhartedu) and Dan Meyer (@ddmeyer) chat with guests, taking a deep dive into the math and educational topics you care about.

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Welcome, Florida middle school educators!

Amplify ELA Florida is the program built for Florida middle school teachers and students. We designed the program to help ensure the B.E.S.T standards are covered; the skills are taught; the test is prepped for; and your students are scaffolded and encouraged. We want you to spend your time bringing the text to life, making the classroom hum, and letting every student know you are paying attention to their growth.

Amplify ELA Florida Program Guide

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Instruction matters

Florida’s new standards have been crafted to give your students the B.E.S.T. Amplify ELA Florida’s lessons explore the most compelling aspect of a text and target the standards that best support that analysis through reading, writing, and communication. These key standards are identified as the lesson’s Spotlight benchmark.  Strategic connections are attained in the program through:

  • Florida model texts including rich literature and compelling non-fiction, taught in engaging new ways for today’s learners.
  • Benchmark stacks that build connections within lessons and across units.
  • Foundational instruction that targets key standards and multiple learning modes.
  • Writing that builds directly from reading complex text and is evaluated by Amplify’s Automated Writing Evaluation (AWE).
  • Reading with the B.E.S.T. Modules have been built to guide teachers and students as they begin to work with Florida’s new reading standards, providing an introduction to each grade-level B.E.S.T. Reading Benchmark. (Example module: Grade 6, Understanding Rhetoric)

Knowledge matters

Texts in the Amplify ELA Florida Edition curriculum cover a wide range of topics, themes, and genres with differentiated supports that ensure that all students can work through each reading and lesson. Taken as a whole, the texts show students a diverse picture of the world and help foster a lifelong love of reading. Comprehension develops as students engage with literary and informational text selections that are complex, rich, and meaningful. 

Texts were selected for Amplify ELA Florida Edition using the following criteria: 

  • Text complexity as defined by qualitative, quantitative, and reader and task measurements as required by the B.E.S.T. Standards and the Amplify Text Complexity Index
  • Balance of literary and informational texts
  • Varied representation of genres: novels, plays, poetry, biographies, and other full-length texts
  • Diverse cultures, perspectives, and authors
  • Engaging texts that extend learning and support students as they build knowledge
  • Grade-appropriate texts, with scaffolding and compelling activities to support student engagement with 100% authentic texts
  • A library with more than 700 complete books, both classic and contemporary, encompassing a wide range of genres, topics, and cultural perspectives
Collage featuring a violinist with glowing eyes, a man with a background of space, a robotic arm, a tiger on a grassy knoll, and a city skyline under a starry sky.

Curriculum matters

Amplify ELA Florida is a blended curriculum designed specifically for grades 6–8. The heart of every lesson is the text. Each grade includes six units centered on literary or informational texts, delivered in several forms of media. Your classroom will also benefit from two or three immersive, project-based experiences and a dedicated Story Writing unit.

  • Full B.E.S.T. coverage: Standards are clearly labeled in each lesson, so teachers can save time planning and get back to what they love: teaching. Also included are Benchmark Modules that support teachers’ and students’ introduction to the new standards for Florida.
  • Five levels of differentiation: Based on each student’s needs and the performance measures within Amplify ELA reports, a teacher can choose the differentiation level that’s the right fit for everyone.
  • Embedded Assessments: Teachers benefit from uninterrupted instructional time and a continuously updated picture of each student’s progress with key skills and standards.
  • Powerful feedback tools: Comprehensive tools help teachers maximize both the quantity and quality of feedback.
  • Robust reporting: Our reporting app offers information on student progress to help inform instructional decisions.

All in one place: Embedded teacher support, differentiation tools, student data, text, and other curriculum features—they’re all right there.

Materials

Amplify ELA Florida Edition is a blended curriculum that seamlessly integrates print and digital resources to be used in any learning environment. The resources are designed to facilitate instruction for planning, teaching, learning, and assessment.

Student materials

Available digitally and in print, the student materials guide middle schoolers through complex texts and writing with the following:

  • Student Edition will engage students with high-quality narrative and informational texts.
  • Digital experience will provide videos, a library of more than 700 texts, audio supports, and other online experiences that capture their attention.
A laptop displays a web page titled "read like a movie director, part 1" from amplify ela, featuring text and an eyeball image under the lesson tab.
A laptop displaying a webpage from "amplify ela" featuring the title "brain science" and various educational topics alongside an illustrated collage of diverse human figures.

Teacher materials

Available digitally and in print, the Teacher Edition contains all of the information teachers need to facilitate classroom instruction, including:

  • From detailed lesson plans.
  • Video teacher tips embedded in the lesson.
  • B.E.S.T. standards alignment and assessments including exit tickets.
  • Real-time differentiation strategies.
  • Clarify and Compare lessons.
  • Robust reporting.

Professional learning

Amplify employs a national cohort of more than 50 ELA facilitators, all of whom have experience as former classroom teachers and many of whom are former school and/or district leaders. Our professional learning team has decades of experience working with large districts across the nation. Amplify has experience supporting district launches over multiple years and has partnered with districts of all sizes nationwide. We partner deeply with districts and tailor professional learning to their unique needs.

Florida ELA Implementation

Two women are seated at a desk, smiling and working together on a project with a laptop and notebook in an office setting.

Florida Review Resources

Florida Program Guide

Literature for Florida

New York

To view this protected page, enter the password below:



New and noteworthy updates to mCLASS, mCLASS Lectura, and mCLASS Intervention!

mCLASS®, mCLASS Lectura, and mCLASS Intervention are introducing enhancements for the next school year. Explore the following improvements designed to save you time, extend your reach, and support your efforts to deliver the rigorous and riveting learning experiences your students deserve.

Updates

Enhanced mCLASS enrollment

Amplify’s enrollment improvements will provide mCLASS users with a quicker and more efficient set up this back-to-school season. These enhancements will also provide a consistent experience across your Amplify programs. Please note that our current mCLASS enrollment system will be retired, and customers who are affected have been contacted.

Additional benefits include the ability to set benchmark windows through Amplify’s Admin Portal and to create groups of students to which you can assign assessments.

More information can be found at https://start.amplify.com/24-25-mclass-enrollment/.

New mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition and mCLASS Lectura Admin Reports

We are excited to announce that changes to the Admin Reports for mCLASS are coming next school year. With these updates, you will experience a new admin reporting suite, replacing the previous Reporting and Analysis Suite (RAS), that delivers a more robust and user-friendly experience. This update includes several enhancements, including:

  • Faster performance: Spend less time waiting and more time making decisions with significantly reduced load and refresh times.
  • Improved user interface: Enjoy a cleaner, more intuitive design that makes navigation and data analysis even easier.
  • Saved filters between reports: Enjoy seamless transitions with the ability to maintain your filters across various reports.
  • National reference data analysis: Compare your school or district’s performance with the national data of all students assessed with mCLASS.
  • Enhanced assessment tracking: Complete data analysis for all students, including those with partial or no assessment results, through Benchmark Download Your Data (DYD) updates.
  • Improved student list for reports: Access better-organized student lists within the benchmark completion reports for more efficient monitoring.
  • Custom demographics in reports: Tailor your benchmark and progress monitoring DYDs using custom demographics for a more personalized analysis.
  • New monitoring capabilities: Track progress monitoring fidelity and download details about students who participate in mCLASS Intervention groups.

Former Acadience and IDEL users, please note: As a result of the transition to new Admin Reports, historical data for Acadience Reading (formerly DIBELS® Next), and IDEL will not be available next year. Please be sure to download any data from these programs for your records.

Learn how to download historical data for teachers and admin.

A dashboard displaying mCLASS Literacy Reports with benchmark performance data for DIBELS 8th Edition, filtering options, and color-coded score levels.

mCLASS Intervention updates

mCLASS Intervention’s Decode assessment will have a new look and feel, resembling the DIBELS 8th Edition measures. mCLASS Intervention will also be integrated with Amplify’s global navigation menu, giving educators quicker access to Classroom Reporting, the teacher-facing Assessment app and more.

Progress monitoring interface showing a list of words with checkboxes for correct, incorrect, and not recorded responses for a student named Sebastien Grone.

Enhancements to student-led assessments

Students and educators will notice helpful updates to the student-facing platform:

The owl animations in the student-facing mCLASS assessments will be replaced with a familiar character from the Boost Reading and Boost Lectura program, Alyx!

There will also be additional accessibility updates, including an in-app magnification tool that will allow for the size of all on-screen text to increase, and an option to turn off animations to reduce distractions.

A digital assessment screen shows "Beginning of Year Benchmark" with a start button, a cartoon avatar, and a settings menu for text size, closed captioning, and animations.

Improved navigation

This year, we’re rolling out a more user-friendly navigation experience with:

  • An accessible sidebar menu for quick access to key educator resources within sections like Content, PD Library, and Apps.
  • A new Apps menu organized by subject.
A dashboard interface showing program recommendations, each with a title, description, and “GO” button, along with illustrated icons for lightbulb, book, and people.

Free content for you to explore

Explore a growing library of free math, science, and literacy content using the Discover button. You can even assign these activities to students through the digital platform, giving them more ways than ever to explore, engage, and learn!

Screenshot showing a user navigating from the Amplify Classroom dashboard to the Discover Content library, with interface elements for browsing educational resources by subject and grade.

Noteworthy features

PD Library

You’ll find helpful professional development (PD) resources in the PD Library to ensure your mCLASS implementation runs smoothly. The PD Library can be accessed through the Programs & Apps menu in the top navigation bar when you’re logged into mCLASS.

A webpage introducing Amplify’s PD Library, with text describing its resources for educators and a video titled “Welcome educators!” on an orange background.

Demo mode in English Classroom Reporting

mCLASS English Classroom Reporting features a demo mode that guides teachers through sample classroom and student reports, highlighting realistic student data within the complete set of mCLASS instructional tools. This demo mode is especially helpful for onboarding purposes with teachers new to using mCLASS.

A demo mode dashboard for a classroom report tool, with a yellow pop-up instruction and highlighted "Benchmark" tab at the bottom.

A powerful partnership

Amplify Science was developed by the science education experts at UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science and the digital learning team at Amplify.

The word "Amplify" is written in orange bold letters with a period at the end against a white background.
The logo for The Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California, Berkeley, features blue text on a light background and is recognized by educators using Amplify Science for middle school science programs.

Back to school 2020–21 updates

Back to school 2020 is coming! Click here for more information on all of the improvements and new features we’re adding to Amplify Science for the new school year.

Program introduction

Onboarding: what to expect

Welcome to Amplify Science! To help you know what’s coming next, we created the following outline of the steps of the onboarding process. You can use it as a reference.

Administrators receive launch email

  • Share the information with teachers
  • Submit the shipping survey sent to your email

Log In

  • Go to learning.amplify.com
  • Click on Log in with Clever or Google 
  • Enter your FCPS credentials
  • Demo Account for full access to Amplify Curriculum without access to personalized class rosters:
    • Go to learning.amplify.com
    • Click on login with Amplify
    • Username: t.Fayette2020@tryamplify.net
    • Password:  AmplifyNumber1

Ensure you have received all materials and components

  • Teachers have access to a series of “Unboxing your materials kit” videos. If you’re interested in watching those, click here.

Check out the professional learning opportunities and/or access the Getting Started Resources below.

If you need assistance, please see the help resources or reach out to your Educational Partnerships Manager or PD manager at caffleck@amplify.com, pworks@amplify.com with any questions.

K–5 resources

To ensure your first day using Amplify Science in the classroom is as seamless and smooth as possible, we recommend reviewing the following checklist before the first day of school.

A graphic with the text "Pre-launch checklist for teachers" and an orange "Download PDF" button below. An icon of a checklist with a down arrow is on the left.

What’s coming to my school?

Each unit of Amplify Science comes with a hands-on materials kit. Each hands-on materials kit arrives in one to three boxes and contains:

  • Consumable materials for two uses of 25 or 36 students (depending on school purchase)
  • Non-consumable materials
  • Classroom wall materials
  • Premium print materials (card sorts, vocabulary rings, etc.).
  • 18 copies of each Student Book (5 titles each unit, K–1 will receive 5 big books per unit)
  • A blackline master of the Student Investigation Notebook

You can find complete materials lists for each unit in the following PDF. This information is also available in the digital Teacher’s Guide within the program.

Button for downloading a PDF of a K-5 materials list. An icon of a document with a downward arrow is on the left.

Onboarding videos

Our team has created a series of short videos to help get you started with Amplify Science:

What’s online?

Planning strategies

How to log in and navigate

NGSS introduction

Planning guides

As you prepare to plan for a unit, download our planning guides to help walk you through the most important resources to locate in either the print or digital Teacher’s Guide to help you plan:

    Additional resources

    If you’re interested in learning more about each unit’s anchor phenomena, the Student Books in each unit, and more program features, download the resources below:

      Families and caregivers, welcome to Amplify Desmos Math K–5!

      Welcome to the Amplify Desmos Math K–5 Caregiver Hub. We hope your student enjoys exploring math, working with friends to solve problems, and learning new and interesting concepts. And we hope you enjoy the math journey with them! Below are some suggestions and resources for how you can support their learning at home.

      Learn more about Amplify Desmos Math.

      Para la versión en español, haga clic aquí.

      Three children are engaging in a math activity with a grid and orange markers. One child holds a "9-3" card. The background includes beach elements and abstract math symbols.

      Caregiver Unit Resources

      For every unit of the program, we’ve created a Caregiver Resource that provides a summary of key concepts, plus a problem from the lesson practice set you can work through with your student. You’ll find a Caregiver Resource for each unit, in both English and Spanish.

      Unit 1: Math in Our World

      Unit 2: Numbers 1–10

      Unit 3: Flat Shapes All Around Us

      Unit 4: Understanding Addition and Subtraction

      Unit 5: Make and Break Apart Numbers Within 10

      Unit 6: Numbers 0–20

      Unit 7: Solid Shapes All Around Us

      Unit 1: Adding, Subtracting, and Working With Data

      Unit 2: Addition and Subtraction Story Problems

      Unit 3: Adding and Subtracting Within 20

      Unit 4: Numbers to 99

      Unit 5: Adding Within 100

      Unit 6: Measuring Lengths of Up to 120 Length Units

      Unit 7: Geometry and Time

      Unit 1: Working With Data and Solving Comparison Problems

      Unit 2: Adding and Subtracting Within 100

      Unit 3: Measuring Length

      Unit 4: Addition and Subtraction on the Number Line

      Unit 5: Numbers to 1,000

      Unit 6: Geometry and Time

      Unit 7: Adding and Subtracting Within 1,000

      Unit 8: Equal Groups

      Unit 1: Introducing Multiplication

      Unit 2: Area and Multiplication

      Unit 3: Wrapping Up Addition and Subtraction Within 1,000

      Unit 4: Relating Multiplication to Division

      Unit 5: Fractions as Numbers

      Unit 6: Measuring Length, Time, Liquid Volume, and Weight

      Unit 7: Two-Dimensional Shapes and Perimeter

      Unit 1: Factors and Multiples

      Unit 2: Fraction Equivalence and Comparison

      Unit 3: Extending Operations to Fractions

      Unit 4: From Hundredths to Hundred Thousands

      Unit 5: Multiplicative Comparison and Measurement

      Unit 6: Multiplying and Dividing Multi-Digit Numbers

      Unit 7: Angles and Properties of Shapes

      Unit 1: Volume

      Unit 2: Fractions as Quotients and Fraction Multiplication

      Unit 3: Multiplying and Dividing Fractions

      Unit 4: Multiplication and Division With Multi-Digit Whole Numbers

      Unit 5: Place Value Patterns and Decimal Operations

      Unit 6: More Decimal and Fraction Operations

      Unit 7: Shapes on the Coordinate Plane

      Unit refresh videos

      Unit 1

      • Sub-Unit 2 – Answering the Question “Are There Enough?”
      • Sub-Unit 3 – Counting and Cardinality

      Unit 2

      • Sub-Unit 1 – Comparing 2 Groups Using the Terms More, Fewer, and Same
      • Sub-Unit 2 – Counting Objects in Different Orders
      • Sub-Unit 3 – Making Groups to Represent Numerals
      • Sub-Unit 4 – Comparing Written Numbers

      Unit 3

      • Sub-Unit 1 – Identifying Circles and Triangles in Different Sizes and Orientations
      • Sub-Unit 2 – Using Positional Words to Describe the Location of Shapes

      Unit 4

      • Sub-Unit 1 – Adding and Subtracting Within 10
      • Sub-Unit 2 – Representing Addition and Subtraction Story Problems
      • Sub-Unit 3 – Finding the Values of Expressions

      Unit 5

      Unit 1

      • Sub-Unit 1 – Organizing Data to Count How Many in Each Category
      • Sub-Unit 2 – Counting on to Add and Counting Back to Subtract
      • Sub-Unit 3 – Representing 2 Categories of Data With Addition Equations

      Unit 2

      • Sub-Unit 1 – Representing and Solving Add To, Change Unknown Story Problems
      • Sub-Unit 2 – Using Addition or Subtraction to Find an Unknown Part of a Total Amount
      • Sub-Unit 3 – Solving Compare, Difference Unknown Problems
      • Sub-Unit 4 – Making Sense of Story Problems With Different Questions

      Unit 3

      • Sub-Unit 1 – Finding a Difference Using the Relationship Between Addition and Subtraction
      • Sub-Unit 2 – Using the Structure of Teen Numbers to Find Missing Addends
      • Sub-Unit 3 – Breaking Apart Addends to Make 10 When Adding
      • Sub-Unit 4 – Subtracting From Teen Numbers in Parts to Get to 10

      Unit 4

      • Sub-Unit 1 – Adding a Ten To and Subtracting a Ten From Multiples of 10
      • Sub-Unit 2 – Representing and Writing Two-Digit Numbers
      • Sub-Unit 3 – Comparing Two-Digit Numbers
      • Sub-Unit 4 – Representing the Same Two-Digit Number With Different Amounts of Tens and Ones

      Unit 5

      • Sub-Unit 1 – Adding a Number of Tens or Ones to a Two-Digit Number
      • Sub-Unit 2 – Adding a Two-Digit Number and a One-Digit Number When Composing a Ten is Necessary
      • Sub-Unit 3 – Adding a Two-Digit Number and a Two-Digit Number When Composing a Ten is Necessary

      Unit 1

      • Sub-Unit 1 – Choosing Strategies to Add Within 20
      • Sub-Unit 2 – Representing Data in a Picture Graph and Bar Graph
      • Sub-Unit 3 – Finding the Difference Between 2 Categories Shown on a Bar Graph

      Unit 2

      • Sub-Unit 1 – Strategies to Solve Story Problems Involving Money
      • Sub-Unit 2 – Decomposing a Ten When Subtracting by Place
      • Sub-Unit 3 – Making Sense of Story Problems About Comparing That Use the Word More
      • Sub-Unit 4 – Making Sense of One- and Two-Step Story Problems

      Unit 3

      • Sub-Unit 1 – Measuring the Length of an Object in Centimeters Using a Ruler
      • Sub-Unit 2 – Measuring Objects in Inches and Feet
      • Sub-Unit 3 – Representing Measurement Data on a Line Plot

      Unit 4

      • Sub-Unit 1 – Locating Numbers on Number Lines
      • Sub-Unit 2 – Representing Addition and Subtraction Strategies on a Number Line

      Unit 5

      • Sub-Unit 1 – Composing Hundreds to Represent Three-Digit Numbers
      • Sub-Unit 2 – Comparing Three-Digit Numbers

      Unit 1

      • Sub-Unit 1 – Representing Equal-Groups Situations With Equal-Groups Drawings
      • Sub-Unit 2 – Representing Arrays With Multiplication Equations
      • Sub-Unit 3 – Representing Data Using Scaled Bar Graphs

      Unit 2

      • Sub-Unit 1 – Determining the Area of a Rectangle Using Counting and Skip Counting
      • Sub-Unit 2 – Determining the Area of a Rectangle Using Multiplication
      • Sub-Unit 3 – Decomposing to Determine the Area of Rectilinear Figures

      Unit 3

      • Sub-Unit 1 – Using the Expanded Form and Partial Sums Algorithms to Add
      • Sub-Unit 2 – Using the Expanded Form Algorithm to Subtract
      • Sub-Unit 3 – Rounding Numbers to the Nearest Hundred and Ten Using Number Lines
      • Sub-Unit 4 – Representing and Solving Two-Step Story Problems Involving Multiplication

      Unit 4

      • Sub-Unit 1 – Representing Division Situations With Equal-Groups Drawings
      • Sub-Unit 2 – Representing an Equal-Groups Problem With a Division and Multiplication Equation
      • Sub-Unit 3 – Using the Distributive Property of Multiplication to Multiply a One-Digit Number by a Teen Number
      • Sub-Unit 4 – Decomposing Dividends to Divide

      Unit 5

      • Sub-Unit 1 – Writing Unit and Non-Unit Fractions
      • Sub-Unit 2 – Locating Non-Unit Fractions on the Number Line
      • Sub-Unit 3 – Identifying Equivalent Fractions
      • Sub-Unit 4 – Comparing Fractions With the Same Denominator or Same Numerator

      Unit 1

      • Sub-Unit 1 – Using Factor Pairs to Determine All the Possible Side Lengths of a Rectangle With a Given Area
      • Sub-Unit 2 – Finding Multiples and Common Multiples

      Unit 2

      • Sub-Unit 1 – Locating Fractions with Different Denominators On the Same Number Line
      • Sub-Unit 2 – Using Multiples or Factors to Determine Equivalent Fractions
      • Sub-Unit 3 – Comparing Fractions Using Equivalent Fractions With Common Denominators

      Unit 3

      • Sub-Unit 1 – Adding and Subtracting Fractions with the Same Denominator
      • Sub-Unit 2 – Multiplying Whole Numbers and Fractions
      • Sub-Unit 3 – Adding Fractions with Denominators of 10 and 100

      Unit 4

      • Sub-Unit 1 – Writing Fractions With Denominators of 10 and 100 as Decimals
      • Sub-Unit 2 – Relationships Between Place Values in Multi-Digit Whole Numbers
      • Sub-Unit 3 – Comparing Multi-Digit Numbers
      • Sub-Unit 4 – Using the Standard Algorithm to Subtract When Decomposing is Required

      Unit 5

      • Sub-Unit 1 – Representing Multiplicative Comparison Situations
      • Sub-Unit 2 – Converting Measurements in the Metric System
      • Sub-Unit 3 – Comparing Measurements

      Unit 1

      • Sub-Unit 1 – Using the Layered Structure of a Rectangular Prism to Determine the Volume
      • Sub-Unit 2 – Determining the Volume of a Rectangular Prism
      • Sub-Unit 3 – Determining the Volume of Figures Composed of Rectangular Prisms

      Unit 2

      • Sub-Unit 1 – Representing Equal-Sharing Story Problems with Fractional Quotients
      • Sub-Unit 2 – Representing Fractions with Equivalent Multiplication and Division Expressions
      • Sub-Unit 3 – Determining the Area of a Rectangle With a Fractional Side Length

      Unit 3

      • Sub-Unit 1 – Representing Multiplication of 2 Unit Fractions with Diagrams
      • Sub-Unit 2 – Dividing Whole Numbers by Unit Fractions

      Unit 4

      • Sub-Unit 1 – Multiplying Multi-digit Whole Numbers Using the Partial Products and Standard Algorithms
      • Sub-Unit 2 – Dividing Multi-Digit Whole Numbers Using Partial Quotients
      • Sub-Unit 3 – Representing Multi-Step Story Problems with Equations

      Unit 5

      • Sub-Unit 1 – Comparing Decimals
      • Sub-Unit 2 – Using the Standard Algorithms to Add and Subtract Decimals
      • Sub-Unit 3 – Multiplying a Whole Number and a Decimal Using the Distributive Property
      • Sub-Unit 4 – Dividing Whole Numbers by Decimals Less Than 1

      Access Amplify Desmos Math at home.

      In addition to a print Student Edition workbook, your student will have digital access to all learning, practice, and assessment materials through the Amplify platform. The digital curriculum can be accessed in school and at home by following these instructions:

      • Click the Amplify Desmos Math button.
      • Select Log in with Amplify.
      • Enter your student’s username and password provided by your student’s teacher.
      • Select the desired grade level.

      Once logged in, caregivers can view student work by opening previous assignments.

      Learn how to navigate the student home page.

      Amplify Desmos Math

      Materials overview

      Amplify Desmos Math supports blended learning with supporting print materials and a unique digital experience. All K–5 lessons are available in a write-in Student Edition book. Many of the lessons include hands-on activities with manipulatives, tools that help students understand abstract concepts by making them tangible. Your student will also work with digital devices for an age-appropriate number of lessons.

      When students use devices, teachers can monitor their work in real time, making sure they get the exact support that they need at every part of the lesson, in and outside of class.

      Una interfaz digital que muestra los nombres anónimos de los estudiantes y su estado de participación en diversas actividades. La interfaz incluye opciones para realizar resúmenes, capturas de pantalla y vistas individuales de los estudiantes.

      Components of a lesson

      Students in an Amplify Desmos Math classroom can be seen (and heard!) asking questions, debating answers, justifying their thinking, grappling with problems, and working together and independently.

      A typical Amplify Desmos Math lesson includes:

      • Warm-up: A short, attention-getting problem to pique students’ interest in the lesson.
      • Activities: One to two mini-activities that challenge students’ problem-solving skills.
      • Synthesis: Discussion to review and bring together the important concepts from the lesson.
      • Show What You Know and Reflection: Questions for students to show what they know from the lesson. (Note: The Show What You Know lesson assessment is optional for kindergarten and grade 1.)
      • Centers: Student-led activity stations that reinforce the math learned during lesson activities through interactive and often game-like formats. In kindergarten and grade 1, time for Centers is built into the last 15 minutes of every lesson.

      To support, strengthen, and stretch students’ learning after the lesson, Amplify Desmos Math offers options for:

      • Differentiation: Mini-Lessons, Centers, Extensions, Boost Personalized Learning, and Fluency Practice.
      • Practice: Additional problems your student’s teacher may assign for classwork or homework.

      Support math learning at home.

      You can support your student’s math learning outside of school in many ways:

      Your student’s teacher may assign practice problems at the end of each lesson for classwork or homework. If your student has already completed the practice problems for the lesson, ask them to walk you through how they solved each problem, or talk about any parts that were challenging for them. Ask your student follow-up questions to encourage the use of math language as they explain their thinking, such as, “How do you know?,” “How can you show your thinking?,” or “How would you describe that?” If students are stuck, ask support questions, such as, “What information do you know here?” or “How could you represent this problem?”

      Your student’s teacher may introduce a Center game with students in the lesson or beyond the lesson. These games are aligned to the math of the unit and can be played with students outside of class. Your student’s teacher may introduce a Center game to students during or after completing a lesson, or you may need to teach the game before you play by using easy-to-follow instructions. Sign up for a free account to explore Centers and additional K–5 content in our Featured Collections.

      Each unit in Amplify Desmos Math begins with a read-aloud story to engage students and provide context for the math of the unit. Elements and characters from the Unit Story then appear in lessons throughout the unit.

      Kindergarten

      Grade 1

      Grade 2

      Grade 3

      Grade 4

      Grade 5

      Relate math to daily activities at home, whether grocery shopping, preparing a meal, or planning for a trip to the store. Your student can help you figure out how many more apples there are than oranges in the grocery cart, show how to split a sandwich into fourths, or figure out how much change you’ll receive in exchange for a $10 bill. Encourage your student to point out ways that you use math in your daily tasks.

      Remind your student that getting stuck is part of the process and a necessary—beneficial, even!—part of learning. Many students (and adults) fear making mistakes. But research shows that making mistakes helps our brains grow. When your student gets stuck on a problem, encourage them to keep trying different strategies, even if they’re not sure if they are right.

      Get more information.

      Have a question about Amplify Desmos Math? Visit our help library to search for articles with answers to your program questions. For additional support, please contact your student’s teacher.

      What does problem-based math learning unlock for students? Part 1

      Webinar series recap, part 1 of 3

      Problem-based math learning helps teachers set the stage for memorable learning experiences and transfer the responsibility for the learning to students, which has been shown to help develop students’ problem-solving and math reasoning skills.

      Our webinar series explores how this type of instruction engages all students in grade-level math every day, and how instructors can go about implementing problem-based learning in the classroom. In part 1 of the webinar series, award-winning teacher Kristin Gray asks—and answers—the question: What does problem-based learning unlock for students?

      Experience and explanation form a learning cycle

      Imagine you’ve just gotten a new piece of technology: a phone, a TV, a computer. How do you learn to use it? Do you read the entire user guide first? Jump in and never touch the guide? Or turn it on and try some things, referencing the guide as needed? 

      If the last option sounds like you, that’s very common—and it’s an example of learning through problem-solving. 

      “It’s something we naturally do,” says Gray.  “We’ve had a phone before so we would pick up this new phone and try doing things that we know worked on our last phone, and then we would experiment: Does it work the same on this phone? This bouncing between experience and explanation is really the foundation of how we learn through problem-solving.”

      What learning through problem-solving looks like in the math classroom

      If we think of instructional methods in the math classroom along a spectrum, on one end we might have a classroom where students are left to solve a problem and discover the relevant math on their own. On the other end, the instructional method might be to show students how to get the answer and then practice doing similar problems. 

      The methods at both extremes are challenging, and it’s hard for instructors to go from one to the other, says Gray. “We need to install a soft landing space in the middle of these extremes—and we can think of that space as learning through problem-solving, or problem-based learning.” 

      What does that look like in the math classroom? 

      Students will tackle interesting problems, raise questions about the math required, receive an explanation, and apply it back to the problem—as with the example of learning new technology. 

      “When we show students how to get the answer, we send the message that math is solely about answer-getting and learning processes. Answers are important, but we want to use problems to teach the math, not just teach students to get the answer,” says Gray. 

      Practice is also key, she adds: “This place in the middle pulls the best from both extremes and puts them into a structure that supports teachers in teaching and students in learning.”

      Why students should learn through problem-solving

      Learning through problem-solving has the potential to engage all learners in math, says Gray. It influences the way teachers and students think of themselves as mathematicians and what it means to know and do math. 

      In the 2000 NAEP survey, 70 percent of fourth and eighth graders reported that they enjoy activities that challenge their thinking, and enjoy thinking about problems in new ways. 

      “Students are already naturally curious and like solving challenges and trying things in new ways, so that’s a great start,” says Gray. 

      “No matter how kindly, clearly, patiently, or slowly teachers explain, they cannot make students understand,” says Gray. “Understanding takes place in the student’s mind as they connect new information with previously developed ideas. Teachers can help, but understanding is a by-product of solving problems.” 

      Add understanding is motivating. It inspires perseverance and confidence. It supports making connections, not learning concepts in isolation. 

      When students are given a new problem and are able to use prior knowledge to help solve it, that “promotes the development of autonomous learners,” says Gray. 

      How Amplify Math supports problem-based learning

      Amplify Math supports teachers in the planning and delivery of problem-based lessons. It also enables teachers to monitor student progress and differentiate instruction based on real-time data. 

      Lessons start with warm-ups that tap into prior knowledge and move into problems that require collaboration to solve. Teachers monitor, engage, and ultimately synthesize student work into the main idea. There are also ample opportunities for practice and reflection. 

      Learn more about Amplify Desmos Math.

      Register to watch the rest of the series here. 

      Visit Gray’s site, Math Minds, here.

      Texas State Reviewers: Welcome to Amplify Desmos Math Texas!

      Thank you for taking the time to review Amplify Desmos Math Texas K–5.  This site provides the login steps and tools you need to review the program.

      Watch this short introductory video to help you navigate the Amplify Desmos Math Texas K-5 platform.  Then, use the login credentials below to start your online review. 

      The helpful Navigation Tool-Title Lists with live links and other documents to guide your review can be found below as well.  

      Three people engage in a painting project indoors, with one holding a fraction card and others painting the walls and floor. A tree and math symbols are in the background.

      Login credentials:

      Login page for Amplify with options to log in via Google, Clever, Amplify, QR code, or District SSO. A "Help" button and illustrated design elements are also visible.

      Step 1

      Go to learning.amplify.com and select Login with Amplify.

      Enter the username and password:

      Username: t.txmathk5@tryamplify.net
      Password: AmplifyNumber1

      Step 2

      Select Amplify Desmos Math in Your Programs.

      Educational dashboard showing a welcome message to "Educator K-5 Review," highlighting "Amplify Desmos Math" as a recommended program, with a paper airplane and quick links section.

      Step 3

      Once you’re in the program, select a grade level to explore the digital curriculum.

      Navigation video

      View this short introductory video to help you navigate the Amplify Desmos Math Texas K-5 platform.

      Navigation Tool – Title Lists

      Tip:  Be sure you’re logged into the Amplify Desmos Math platform (steps above) before clicking on the links in these documents.

      New content – Quality rubric 1.1a

      If approved, this proposed content will be added as a Paper Resource on the Course-level tile on Amplify Desmos Math Texas and on the Caregiver Hub as an additional home resource.

      New content – Quality rubric 2.1c

      If approved, these two pages will be added to the front matter of the Assessment Resource teacher ancillary.

      New content – Grade 4

      Citations for Upper Limit TEKS in K-5 Mathematics

      Proposed changes to address the upper limit TEKS breakouts can be found at the link above. The notes for each citation indicate where the new content will exist, once approved.

      Components List

      Access the full list of components for Amplify Desmos Math Texas K-5.

      Center Resources and Kits

      Access a description and ISBN’s for the K-5 Center Resources and Kits.

      Manipulative Kits List

      Access the full list of contents for each K-5 Amplify Desmos Math Texas Manipulative Kit.

      Amplify Desmos Math for the Archdiocese of Miami

      Welcome Catholic school educators, 

      Amplify Desmos Math thoughtfully combines conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application. Each math lesson is designed to tell a story by posing problems that invite a variety of approaches before guiding students to synthesize their understanding of the learning goals.

      What is Amplify Desmos Math?

      Amplify Desmos Math supports teachers in building students’ lifelong math proficiency. The program:

      • Supports social classrooms, invites mathematical creativity, and evokes wonder, creating a welcoming learning space where students are empowered to see themselves and their classmates as having brilliant mathematical ideas.
      • Provides teachers with clear, step-by-step moves to build systematically from students’ prior knowledge to grade-level learning.
      • Connects students to each other’s thinking and to an understanding that they can use math to make sense of the world.
      • Enables access to grade-level understanding for every student, every day.

      A powerful suite of math resources

      Amplify Desmos Math combines the best of problem-based lessons, intervention, personalized practice, and assessments into a coherent and engaging experience for both students and teachers.

      Data informs instruction. Comprehensive student profiles provide full data on students’ assets and skills, empowering teachers to provide just-in-time scaffolds throughout core instruction and targeted intervention when needed.

      Ready to Explore?

      Ready to explore as a teacher? Follow these instructions:

      Ready to explore as a student? Follow these instructions:

      Educational software interface featuring a New York math problem about measuring platform heights using a 9-inch tube, illustrated with a playful, colorful design.

      Experience Amplify Desmos Math

      Click the links below to explore our interactive digital lessons, where you’ll also find print Teacher Edition and Student Edition pages for each lesson.

      For helpful navigation tips and more program information, download our Grades K–5 and Grades 6–Algebra 1 program guides.

      You can also watch a product expert walk through a lesson and the available program components with a lesson walkthrough video.

      A teacher using her finger to count, showing the number two to a young student with illustrated fruits like apples, pears, and blueberries above them in a New York math classroom.

      Grade K lessons

      A cartoon of a worried young woman sitting cross-legged on a sofa, holding a laptop with thought bubbles showing "New York Math" books and a color palette.

      Grade 1 lessons

      A person with long blond hair and a red dress points at a screen with addition and subtraction symbols, tally marks labeled "A" and "B," reminiscent of the engaging methods used in Amplify Desmos Math New York.

      Grade 2 lessons

      Illustration of five children, including one in a wheelchair, seated on chairs, engaging in a classroom activity. A girl raises her hand while a speech bubble shows drawings of hands and numbers, amplifying New York math lessons.

      Grade 3 lessons

      A woman with glasses teaches New York math using a colorful chart, surrounded by geometric shapes in a classroom setting.

      Grade 4 lessons

      Illustration of two people whispering, with abstract backgrounds depicting a box with a question mark and pallets on shelves, emphasizing "amplify desmos math" concepts.

      Grade 5 lessons

      Three animated raccoons on a seesaw in a park at night, with a purple tent and a weight scale showing 21 lbs under a yellow moon and the New York skyline.

      Grade 6 lessons

      Illustration of a number line from -25 to 5, featuring a sheep and a unicorn on opposite ends, set against a backdrop of grass, water, and sky, crafted for Amplify Des

      Grade 7 lessons

      Four colorful cartoon robots of various shapes and sizes standing in front of a large blank whiteboard with a New York math graph.

      Grade 8 lessons

      Illustration of a snail on top of a brick wall, measuring 28mm with a ruler, beside a rising moon and a New York math leaf.

      Algebra 1 lessons

      Personalized learning and support

      Amplify Desmos Math includes digital, adaptive practice that provides the personalized support a student needs to access grade-level math every day. Personalized Learning activities target a skill or concept aligned to the day’s core lesson, with each student receiving personalized scaffolds based on what they already know. This technology complements daily learning and provides another layer of support to the in-lesson differentiation and instructional guidance provided to teachers. Click here to try a Boost Personalized Learning activity. More activities coming soon!

      The Fluency Practice of Amplify Desmos Math uses an evidence-based approach to memory retention—spaced repetition—for the basic operations. Students around the world have answered more than 120 million multiplication questions within our application. Try it now! 

      Educational software on a laptop screen showing a student activity to complete a bar graph by categorizing dragonflies, designed for the New York math curriculum.

      Contact us

      Support is always available. Our team is dedicated to helping you every step of the way. Contact your dedicated Florida representative here for program access, samples, and additional information.

      A smiling man with short hair wears a green polo shirt against a plain background, exuding the kind of confidence that comes from teaching an inspiring math lesson.

      Jeff Rutter

      Field Manager
      Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties
      jrutter@amplify.com
      (727) 407-5801

      A smiling person with long blonde hair wears a textured blue top against a plain background, embodying the essence of personalized learning.

      Amanda Shelley

      Account Executive
      Broward County Schools
      ashelley@amplify.com
      (321)-693-3518

      A man with short, dark hair and a full beard smiles confidently. He is wearing a pink patterned shirt and a green jacket, reminiscent of an engaging math lesson. The light gray background subtly complements his dynamic style.

      Tom Gantt

      District Manager
      Miami Resident
      tgantt@amplify.com
      (305)-546-2979

      NYC Solves Regents Prep A1

      Hello NYC high school math educators!

      Welcome to Amplify Desmos Math NYC Solves Regents Prep A1. This sequence of lessons is specifically designed for students who passed Algebra 1 in eighth grade but did not pass the NYS Regents exam in June. The instructional resources are accessed through the Amplify Desmos Math platform, affording students a highly engaging experience to prepare them for the January administration of the Regents by reinforcing conceptual understanding.

      On this site, you’ll find a variety of resources to guide you in learning more about the course and how to get started.

      Ready to jump in? This quick start guide will help you take the first steps to get started. Remember to use your NYCDOE email for access. 

      Laptop displaying a math website called Desmos Math 6–A1, featuring an interactive exercise involving a sketch of a car and graphs.
      amplify math middle schoolers in classroom

      About Amplify Desmos Math

      Amplify Desmos Math 6–A1 is based on the highly rated IM K–12™ curricula from Illustrative Mathematics, with extensive enhancements that include teacher supports, interactivity, assessments, and reporting.

      The program is aligned with the expectations outlined in the New York City Department of Education Definition of Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education and the New York State Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework.

      Download the CR-SE alignment.

      Your NYC Solves Regents Prep A1 course uses key lessons and activities from Amplify Desmos Math to prepare students for the A1 Regents.

      NYC webinar series

      Figuring out how to implement a problem-based learning approach to mathematics can be fun—and challenging. Rest assured that you will not be alone on this journey. Amplify will be by your side every step of the way. Our back-to-school math webinar series for K–8 administrators and teachers:

      • Introduces the new NYC Solves initiative.
      • Establishes the foundation for all educators to effectively understand and implement the NYCPS Shifts in Mathematics in their classrooms.
      • Provides an overview of Amplify Desmos Math, the pre-approved NYCPS curriculum chosen to ensure every school can successfully implement these math shifts and is supported with high-level, tailored professional development and coaching throughout the process.

      Please see the specific webinars and the recordings below to learn more!

      On-demand webinar 1
      [Aug. 29 and Sept. 3, 2024]

      Would you like to learn more about the NYCPS Shifts in Mathematics and enhance your understanding of each of the five shifts?

      Explore how the NYCPS math shifts are transforming mathematics education from a procedural approach to a more engaging, discoverable, and connected learning experience.

      Listen to the Understanding the NYCPS Shifts in Mathematics session recording.

      On-demand webinar 2
      [Sept. 10 and Sept. 12, 2024]

      Let’s unpack the why, what, and how to unlock every student’s mathematical mind and build math proficiency for life! In this webinar, we discuss the power of teaching our children to be skilled mathematicians through a structured approach to problem solving

      Listen to the Unlocking Mathematical Minds: A Structured Approach to Problem-Based Learning session recording.

      On-demand webinar 3
      [Sept. 17 and Sept. 19, 2024]

      For some educators, transitioning to problem-based learning might seem daunting. There is often concern that its open-ended nature could derail students from achieving mathematical goals. However, by finding the right balance between open-ended opportunities and structured classroom activities, students can be encouraged to share their thinking while meeting key learning targets. Uncover simple shifts that educators can implement to foster open-ended student thinking while maintaining focus on mathematical instructional goals.

      Listen to the Making the Shift to Problem-Based Learning session recording.

      Live webinar 4
      [Oct. 1 and Oct. 3, 2024]

      Learn More and Experience Amplify Desmos Math LIVE, an NYCPS Approved Math Curricula.

      This is the final session of the series. Amplify Desmos Math New York K–A1 is math that motivates! During this session, you’ll experience a Grade 6 lesson that captures the essence of NYC Solves.

      Choose from two convenient times and register below:

      Program features to know

      Screenshot of an educational module titled "Balloon Float" on Desmos Classroom. It focuses on proportional relationships with tables and lists goals related to quantities, patterns, and numerical relationships.

      Desmos Classroom digital lessons

      Digital lessons should be powerful in their ability to surface student thinking and spark interesting and productive discussions. We’ve joined forces with Desmos Classroom to bring this vision to life with a complete library of interactive, collaborative lessons.

      A screenshot of an educational software showing a turtle race. Users write equations for four turtles to determine their speed. Lane 4 is empty, waiting for an equation to be written. Graph and table included.

      Engaging student experience

      Relevant content and interactive math tools create an intuitive and engaging student experience. Plus, working together in real-time allows students to see that communicating their ideas and learning from each other are important parts of math class.

      Laptop screen displaying an illustrative mathematics pattern on a grid in a graphics editing software interface, with annotations and tool icons visible.

      Visibility into student thinking

      Imagine having more visibility into your students’ mathematical thinking. Now imagine students have access to this same information. With our collaborative lesson interface and teacher dashboard, students stay engaged. What’s more, they have visibility into the thinking of their peers—exposing them to a wider variety of approaches to solving the same problem.

      A screenshot displays a Pizza Maker educational tool. Four pizzas are shown, and a question about oven temperature for multiple pizzas is posed. Various student responses are visible below.

      Ready-to-teach lessons

      The two tracks for scope and sequence include ready-to-teach lessons to prepare students for the A1 Regents. Lessons come complete with slides, step-by-step teaching notes, suggested student and teacher responses, tips for incorporating instructional routines, support for developing mathematical language, and links to useful resources. Teachers can also control what slides students see, giving teachers the ability to control the pace of the lesson to suit the needs of the class.

      Planning for instruction

      To start using the program quickly in your classroom, check out the following onboarding videos, guide, and planning resources. They cover what you need to know to get going fast.

      Amplify Desmos Math Regents Prep Course Session I

      NYC Solves Regents Prep A1 is customized specifically to meet the needs of students in ninth grade preparing for the Algebra 1 Regents exam. Within each document below, you’ll find the scope and sequence with course structure and lessons.

      Screenshot of an educational website's dashboard, displaying colorful banners for math 6, math 7, math 8, and algebra 1 courses under the featured collections section.

      Logging in to access the program

      Login instructions:

      Questions? Check out this Tech FAQ for more information.

      Additional support:

      A desktop screen displaying various educational graphs and charts, including trajectory and bar graphs, with icons and text details related to Desmos math lessons.

      Lesson Sampler

      Amplify Desmos Math delivers the instructional power of student-centered learning in a lesson format that’s teacher-friendly and manageable.

      With easy-to-follow instructional support, implementing a problem-based program is effective and enjoyable for both you and your students. Paired with the Desmos Classroom digital experience, math class becomes fun and dynamic, with plenty of opportunities for students to talk through their reasoning, work with their peers, and gain new understanding.

      Cover of "Amplify Desmos Math, Algebra 1, Teacher Edition" depicting students interacting with mathematical graphs and geometric shapes in a futuristic setting.

      Algebra 1 [A1] Teacher Edition Sampler

      LEARN MORE 

      A math worksheet titled "Working Backwards" featuring a warm-up exercise involving a number machine, with a table to complete for different values of x and an illustration of machine operations.

      Algebra 1 [A1] Student Edition Sampler

      LEARN MORE 

      Additional features

      Universal design

      Every student is brilliant, and every student has brilliant mathematical ideas worth sharing and cultivating. Incorporating principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) into lessons brings students’ brilliance to the forefront. UDL is a research-based framework designed to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

      A feedback form with two questions, "How well did you understand the math in this lesson?" and "How did you feel about learning math in this lesson?" with corresponding emoji options for responses, perfectly complements the New York Math curriculum.

      Diversity and representation

      Helping students develop strong, healthy, and flexible math identities is a cornerstone of our program. Throughout the curriculum, students are taught that they themselves are mathematicians, that today’s math has been shaped by a diverse range of mathematicians who deserve to be celebrated, and that learning is never finished.

      Illustration of a laptop displaying various colorful icons and graphics representing diverse professions and historical figures on its screen, emphasizing illustrative mathematics and desmos math concepts through its displayed content.

      Assessments

      Less exciting, but essential for learning: assessments. Amplify Desmos Math features a robust variety of formative and summative assessments, including readiness checks, exit tickets, quizzes, end-of-unit tests, and benchmarks aligned with New York State Next Generation Mathematics Learning Standards.

      Illustration of a laptop displaying various colorful icons and graphics representing diverse professions and historical figures on its screen, emphasizing illustrative mathematics and desmos math concepts through its displayed content.

      Reporting

      Not only do our reports reveal progress toward standard mastery, they also include details on how students performed against the standard in the past and how many encounters are yet to come. This feature alone helps teachers prioritize instruction and intervene with additional resources when necessary.

      A computer screen displays a New York math skills tracking interface, highlighting standard 6.EE.C.9, with progress indicators and a class average score of 74% shown in a yellow pie chart.

      Looking for help?

      Throughout your implementation, you can reach our support team by live chat, phone, or email Monday through Friday,
      7 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET.

      • Chat: Click the orange icon while logged in to get immediate help.
      • Phone: Call our dedicated support line for NYCPS (888) 960-0380.
      • Email: Send an email to help@amplify.com. In the message body, please include your name and question. Provide as much detail as possible, so we can help you find a solution.
      A laptop screen displays an educational curriculum interface with a list of core units and colorful illustrated unit tiles for sixth grade ELA.

      S1-06: Supporting students with a creative twist: A conversation with Kentucky Science Teacher of the Year, Shad Lacefield

      In this episode, Eric sits down with the Kentucky Science Teacher of the Year, Shad Lacefield. Shad shares his experience teaching during the first year of the pandemic, where Shad dressed up in over 100 costumes to create a unique and engaging online learning experience for his students. Shad also explains ways he connects with his students to celebrate student success, as well as large-scale efforts he leads within his school to cultivate the love of learning science content. Explore more from Science Connections by visiting our main page.

      Download Transcript

      Shad Lacefield (00:00):
      When you stay relevant, it’s being engaged with your students and figuring out, or what are, what are they liking? And every year it’s gonna be different. And that helps you stay relevant. When you have conversations and you build relationships with your kids,Eric Cross (00:13):
      Welcome to science connections. I’m your host. Eric Cross. My guest today is Shad Layfield. Shad is a teacher at garden Springs elementary and a part-time professor at Asbury University in Kentucky during the first year of the pandemic, Mr. Layfield dressed up in over a hundred costumes to create a unique and engaging online learning experience for his students. He also created Vader visits, where he visited students at their homes, dressed as Darth Vader to celebrate their online successes and keep them encouraged. During a challenging time. In this episode, we discuss how creativity impacts engagement, transferring lessons learned from distance teaching back to in-person instruction, and how upper grades can apply the same principles to improve student learning. I hope you enjoy this discussion with shad lays field. So you’ve been in fourth grade for four years, and then you were in second grade and fifth grade. And so like how long have you been teaching for like total?

      Shad Lacefield (01:09):
      So this is my 15th year teaching.

      Eric Cross (01:12):
      Really? Yeah. You’ve been in the game for a while.

      Shad Lacefield (01:15):
      Yeah. Yep. It, it doesn’t, and it’s always surprising to parents too during that, that first like, come in and meet your teacher. And I walk in, I’m like, yeah, I’ve been teaching for 15 years and every time it gets ’em, they’re like no way. And I’m like, yeah,

      Eric Cross (01:28):
      That’s, that’s a good thing though. That’s a good thing. Right?

      Eric Cross (01:31):
      You know? So like, well the energy and then, and you’re just how you’re perceived. Like you’re, they’re just, I don’t know. It’s something about work with young people. Like it keeps you young.

      Shad Lacefield (01:39):
      That’s what it is. Absolutely.

      Eric Cross (01:41):
      So how did, how, like, what’s your origin story? Like, how did you become a teacher? Like what, what was it? Was it something like you knew second career, like right outta school? Like how did you end up in the classroom?

      Shad Lacefield (01:53):
      Yeah. No, and I love this question cause I’m a big Marvel and, and superhero. So origin stories are all, I love a good origin story. So I grew up on a 13 acre farm in a little bitty town called Gustin, Kentucky, and very early on, like we were instilled my parents, amazing, amazing parents. But they really instilled like a, a super important work ethic in our lives of like, it’s, it’s all about hard work and it’s important that you’re working hard in whatever it is that you do. And I’m one of six kids as well in my family.

      Eric Cross (02:24):
      Where are you in the–

      Shad Lacefield (02:25):
      I’m second to last.

      Eric Cross (02:26):
      Second to last. Okay. So you’re the second youngest.

      Shad Lacefield (02:29):
      Yes. Okay. And and so, and so growing up, like with that, like, you know, I worked in tobacco, I worked in hay, you know, we did things being on the farm and stuff like that. And within my family as well, there’s four boys. And so when I decided to go to college I was the first guy in my family to go to college. And the first and only boy that ended up going to college. And so it was like this big deal, like, oh, you know, we got one of our boys gonna go to college. So what is he gonna be? And I was like, well, if I’m gonna put forth the, the time and effort and then the financial strain that it would cause cuz we were not poor at all. My dad worked two jobs to make sure, but I really felt the responsibility of like, if I’m gonna go, I’m gonna work in a profession.

      Shad Lacefield (03:09):
      That’s gonna make a lot of money. And here I am as a teacher now. So I didn’t go to college to be a teacher. I actually was pre dentistry. I thought, now here’s a profession. You can, a lot of money. You don’t work weekends or holidays, you know, I can still be the doctor thing. And so I’m gonna be pre dentistry. But like all good origin stories. There was a, there was a flip. So in my first year I started working at the most majestic place that you will ever go. It’s called Squire, boon, caverns. It’s a cave in Southern Indiana. And it’s an amazingly beautiful little place. You have to like one lane highway, like road to go back there up and down. Like you, you think you’re never gonna make it. And if it rains too much, the bridge will flood and you actually can’t even get back there.

      Shad Lacefield (03:52):
      So that’s how we’re talking like way back in the sticks. But once you get back, back there totally worth it. And as part of the job you were a tour I also did grist mill demonstrations and gym mining adventures, or, you know, as they’re gym mining and stuff like that. And within that, I started working with school aged kids and on very large tours and stuff. And my manager at the time, Claudia, I’m still great friends with and we still take our kids back there. Every summer she, to me, you’re really good with kids. Like you’re really good with kids. We have this scout program that’s on the weekends. And then during the summers and you would be teaching kindergarten through eighth grade kids, geology and forestry. What do you think about doing that? And I said, well, right, let’s try that out. And then I got the teaching bug and it hit and I was like, oh my gosh, like I don’t wanna spend my life doing something that is all about money or, or that is like, this is where it’s at. Like, I love this, I enjoy this. I enjoy the response that I get when I’m talking. And kids are excited about learning and getting new information and learning new stuff. And so then I change my major and here I am now, all these years later teaching instead of being a dentist,

      Eric Cross (05:04):
      Are there, are there days, do you ever have days where you’re like, you know, dentistry, it’s still an option. Like I can, I can go back.

      Shad Lacefield (05:12):
      Oh, rare, rare occasions. Rarely. Yeah.

      Eric Cross (05:16):
      Okay. Yeah. All right. All right. Fair enough. I, I, I always joke and say that like we have, you know, sometimes I have my, my alternate job on the hard days, which is for me, it’s working at the gap where I just want to fold clothes and go home at the end of the day, you know, on those really rough days. And you know, it’s never the kids, right. It’s always other things. The kids are like the great part. And then there’s all these other things. And I just wanna work at the gap. I just wanna work at the gap. Fold some clothes. Yes, sir. Yes. Ma’am absolutely. I can find that size for you. And then I just go home cause about their job when they go home at the end of the day, when you work at the gap, at least sorry, gap workers. I’m sure hard of that, but my perception in my mind is that you close up shop and then you’re done. Yeah,

      Shad Lacefield (05:52):
      Absolutely. Like you said, they can turn it, like it’s a turnoff at the end. Exactly. As teachers we know, like you don’t ever turn it off, it’s always there.

      Eric Cross (06:00):
      Yeah. So one of the things that I was super excited about when I, when I first heard about you is I went on your website and there’s so many things I feel like I can just talk about your website and just the, the content that you’ve produced. I, I, there’s so many directions I can go. But one, one of the things I want to ask you is, is about that. Now, one of the things that’s on there, and this is coming from a fellow star wars, Fisha who finished Bobba FET and the Mandalorian recently and is Jones in four OB one to come out.

      Shad Lacefield (06:33):
      Oh, so yes,

      Eric Cross (06:35):
      I live in Southern California next to Disneyland visited Galaxy’s edge star wars. You have these things called VA Vader visits. And so what do you do in those? And like, where did you get the idea for these Vader visits?

      Shad Lacefield (06:50):
      So the costumes were bringing the kids into the classroom. But when they left my room because you would, we only had them for a certain amount of time. There was still a lot of extra work that they needed to get done. And what I was seeing was I could get them to come in and they were really engaged during my lesson. But then afterwards, when it came to work completion or getting things done, there was, it was starting to fall off. As you know, we were experiencing, you know, more and more craziness of what’s going on. So then as an incentive, I decided if you have everything turned in, by the end of the day, I’m gonna dress up in my Darth Vader outfit, full costume, the, you know, the, the full helmet, like everything. And I’m gonna show up to your house and we’re gonna hang out and play any game at all that you wanna play.

      Shad Lacefield (07:34):
      So then it was a way of rewarding. My kids for getting everything turned in. But same time I felt like it would also help me build a relationship with them. That was a very challenging part of online learning. Like, again, I want you to feel like you’re a part of my classroom. I wanna feel like I’m invested in you and wanna learn about you. And it was a commitment because some of those kids put me through the ringer, whether it was we’re gonna do gymnastics on a trampoline. And again, I’m in full costume doing gymnast on the trampoline, or we’re doing soccer drills with their soccer coach at their house playing football games. I mean, all kinds of stuff. I made a Yachty game for a kid that loves Harry Potter. And it was really a big part of getting work turned in because, and it’s the crazy thought they wanted to spend time with me. Like that’s what it was. And so it was like, yeah, absolutely. I’ll keep dressing up. I did over 50 plus Vater visits. It wasn’t just for my homeroom. It was for all of fourth grade. So I went over 50 visits and it was cool to see kids in their home and talk to them and meet their parents. It was a great opportunity for me to engage with parents as well. How is online learning, going, what can I do to support you? Do you guys have any questions and stuff like that? So

      Eric Cross (08:39):
      This thing of relationships is like leading to work completion, which isn’t, which isn’t always the, the thing that we think to as educators of like how, you know, work completion. A lot of times we think of like structures or you know, certain protocols that you do in class get work completion, but here you are addressing as Darth Vader. And, and you said students were turning in more work because they’re connected to, you saw an increase in, in yeah. Engagement.

      Shad Lacefield (09:07):
      And absolutely. And, and I remember even saying that to myself, like this is, this is what’s getting them. But it, it was, and as part of the Vader visit as well with the videos we recorded all of them and I said, I’m gonna make you a YouTube star. And so I would, I, I recorded them. I put ’em on my YouTube channel. And so a lot of the videos that are on my website, all those Vader visits are like the kids showing off and playing against the teacher. And I promise you, I didn’t take it easy on any one of those kids. Like when it was like a verse match, I went all out and I told ’em. I was like, if you beat me, you know, it’s gonna be like, you earned it.

      Eric Cross (09:38):
      What a great way to leverage, just what, what is relevant to our students? Like you used your platform and then now you’re showcasing them on your, you know, your platform or what you were using. And then they’re seeing each other. And I could just see, regardless of the grade level, like just students, like beam from, from getting that kind of positive praise through, through, you know a medium that doesn’t, that tends to be more of a, just content consumption, but you’re kind of watching other folks do stuff, but now it’s about them. Like, and they’re, they’re getting that attention directly. Now I have to ask about the Vader costume. Did you, did you buy it for this event or did you already have that Darth Vader costume in your closet?

      Shad Lacefield (10:19):
      I had parts of the costume, but not the complete costume. And honestly, the very first Vader visit I had, I had the Vader mask that makes sounds, and like you could talk and it makes you sound like Vader.

      Eric Cross (10:29):
      My dark saber is on order. Yes. And it keeps getting delayed from best buy. It’s supposed to arrive in April, but I do have dark staple and order that I ordered back in November. So the best to your point, I don’t know who doesn’t have one, I’m waiting for mine though.

      Shad Lacefield (10:42):
      There you go, come on. Best buy come through for us. So

      Eric Cross (10:44):
      You, you did all this investment in time and, and you created all this content, but then we went back in person. Were, were you able to bring this back into the classroom or any of the things that you had generated during distance learning back in the classroom? Or are you, are you using some of the things that you learned? Like what, or is it just completely separate and you’re just doing something completely different. Now

      Shad Lacefield (11:04):
      That’s a great question. So I still try to dress up at least once every week, if not once every other week just to make whatever we’re doing fun, cuz I already have costumes that were connected to the content that I was doing. So had I had made a character called captain Soundwave that will use when I’m teaching my amplify lessons over sound. And so then I, you know, I have that or I would have, you know, specific characters that were designed for certain lessons that I would do. And so I still

      Eric Cross (11:32):
      Lemme interrupt you real quick. Where did you get these character ideas from? Cause they are super creative. I clicked on one random one. And you have had like a, a knitted like skull cap and like some blue shiny like cloak and I like who is this guy? I think, is that him? Is that captain sound wave? That’s

      Shad Lacefield (11:48):
      That’s hilarious. That was, that was my attempted Elsa. Oh, that was yeah. Started buying more and more costumes and and making characters and putting costumes together. And so yeah, it just ends up being this thing where you never know when I’m gonna show up in a completely random costume and be like today, we’re getting ready to learn about how sedimentary rocks form. And I dressed in my rock outfit, which is the old school rock with the turtleneck and the gold chain with,

      Eric Cross (12:16):
      Wait, do you have a Fanny pack too?

      Shad Lacefield (12:17):
      I have a Fanny pack. Yes you have. Yep. You nailed it. And they’re like, what does this guy

      Eric Cross (12:22):
      Do? He raise the one eyebrow. Can you do the, the rock eyebrow? Oh yeah, you got this. Oh, people on the podcast. Can’t see. Chad’s got it down. He’s got it down. He’s got the, he’s got the eyebrow going. Okay, so you, so I feel like I can go on a tangent and talk about all your costumes that you have, but the thinking about this. So tons of engagement, younger people now taking like some of the principles that you’ve learned from this, how can, how can upper grades like bring this joy to their classroom? Like middle school students, you know, older kids sometimes, you know, they can, they’re still kids, but you know, they might not be the same thing as fourth graders. Like would you, do you have any ideas of like how teachers and upper grades can kind of take these elements that you’ve done and, and apply them?

      Shad Lacefield (13:04):
      Absolutely. So some of the things that you had talked about, like with YouTube can also be applied to like TikTok videos and things like that, that kids are, are willing to watch and, and be engaged in. And so those things, I feel like I’ve seen other middle and high school teachers really utilize in their classroom. But honestly, and this is a new initiative that we’ve started in our district. Minecraft has been something that a lot of kids play and are really engaged in and has shown an amazing engagement for all of our kids when it comes to science engagement, particularly. And so with that, so there’s 126 million active Minecraft players right now in the world. And Minecraft is one of the largest selling video games. The average age, cuz they’re always like, oh, Minecraft is for kids who actually the average age is like 24.

      Shad Lacefield (13:51):
      So a lot of the older kids are playing Minecraft as well with the younger kids. And with that in mind, it was a way when I looked at Minecraft and specifically like Minecraft educational edition came out and it was during COVID and it was free. So if you had a school email or it’s like the, what the go 365 account, you could get it for free and all of our kids got it for free. And so then, then we went from playing Minecraft on the computer as like a fun game to me looking at it and saying like, wait a minute. I feel like when I’m doing energy conversions, we can take Redstone and Minecraft and kids can now show how a simple system using different parts and devices can work and understand even more con creates how energy is converted from one form to another.

      Shad Lacefield (14:39):
      And so let’s make this a, a, a, an actual activity. Let’s take what I’m teaching in the classroom. And if they get done early as an enrichment piece, because there’s not a ton of science and enrichment activities at times for kids to be able to do, like, what do I do when I’m done, Minecraft ended up being that. And so I could have these elaborate worlds that I would build for them that they could then go and play and be super engaged in and show me way more on this Minecraft world, what they knew than what they were writing on paper sometimes, cuz I, you know, you’d get like a sentences out of them on paper, but then all of a sudden when they would build this elaborate system and you just had them record and talk, it was like, oh my gosh, you understand way more than I was thinking that you did with that last exit slip, an assessment that we did.

      Shad Lacefield (15:25):
      And so like, this is awesome. So then I went to my district and I actually proposed an idea what if we did tire Minecraft build challenges for the whole district? So our district has 37 elementary schools and I was like, I think this could be something that, you know, as we’re looking for science, curriculum engagement and making kids excited about learning science and stuff again, cuz that was always the hard part. I feel like sometimes with COVID everything kids lost this love of, of being in the classroom and, and, and learning and that it was like, you know, getting them to come back into the classroom and, and finding, learning fun again. It was like this, this started to get ’em excited and like, yeah, I get to play in Minecraft and I’m learning at the same time. And it was working for all kinds of content areas.

      Shad Lacefield (16:07):
      We’re doing a blast off to, to Mars. We it’s called blast off to us. We’re partnering with CLO of the future. They’re working with SpaceX. Our kids will actually get to send postcards to space and yes, it’s, it’s a super cool thing. And I love my district and all of the office of technology, individuals, Ashley Josh and Kelly for putting this together. And so it asks this question if you could a community in space, what would it be like? And the goal is that kids will write on the back what they want. And then we send this postcard off to space, they stamp it saying it’s been in space and the kids get to have it back and, and be able to use it. But what, what we decided, what we could do with Minecraft is what if they actually built the colony on Mars, like really research put time and effort into reading scientific articles about plants and how plants would grow and, and water and, and structures and apply all of that in a massive build challenge. And then that be, you know what we’re doing? That can be the answer to the question. And so it’s not just a couple sentences on a postcard, but it’s like a week or two week unit that pulls all this scientific content and standards that we’re working with and really allows kids to show so much creativity like on my Twitter I’ve been posting like pictures and stuff like that of some of the students builds. And I’m gonna continue to do that throughout the build challenge.

      Eric Cross (17:26):
      Now, are you using Minecraft EDU?

      Shad Lacefield (17:28):
      Yes. That is correct.

      Eric Cross (17:29):
      I love Minecraft EDU. Like it, it, you talking about it inspires me to, to try to dive back into it. One of the things sometimes I feel limited by is the time that I have and the things that we’re trying to cover. And it’s almost, it almost feels like we’re doing something wrong using a video game to teach, but it’s such a great educational tool. Like you said, you just said that students are able to show what they know in, in a way by creating something that’s different than if they would’ve just written it, but they’re actually creating, and this is one of the things, I guess you kind of hit on this, but I wanted to probe it a little more. Is do you have your students creating content like you do? Cause I kind of heard that they, you were, did you say that they were explaining or doing a video recording or describing it? How are they, how are they, how are they doing that work?

      Shad Lacefield (18:17):
      Yeah. So what they actually do is they’ll write a script and they will use Screencastify to record and then upload to Flipgrid. And then that way they can actually show their build to all of fourth grade. Since we weren’t allowed to be in the same class, like we were all departmentalized, so then we will have voting challenges. So after you record, you get to see everyone’s videos, you get to like and comment and leave feedback on their builds. So you can see what the other kids created. And then then from those initial videos and voting, we selected a certain of kids that then go on to the district level for our Minecraft build challenge. And then those videos are viewed by administration and other teachers to vote again. And then you end up having grade level winners and then an overall winner, which shout out to my boy in fourth grade, who was our overall winner, Eli, super proud of him.

      Shad Lacefield (19:07):
      He, he made this really, really space saving system, which was hidden stairs that ran off of Redstone and used motion, energy. And again, in his video, he talks about like how motion energy has changed to electrical energy and then back into motion through the process of how this hidden staircase would be in the wall. And then you’d be able to use this lever to then release that staircase. So you could go up and down but it was just, and again, when you, when you let kids talk about energy conversions and you let them build all of a sudden, you have kids making security systems for banks. Another kid that made a feeding system for kids for animals at the zoo, and it was just like, oh my gosh, I had no idea that this was what you guys could run out and do. When I, when I taught you how energy conversions work, that this is what you could produce and come over, like this is mind blowing. I love it,

      Eric Cross (19:56):
      What our kids can do and what they can create always kind of blows us away when we give them an opportunity to kind of have that freedom to, to create and take their knowledge and actually do something with it versus channel it into what, show me what, you know, but only do it like this. This is, this is the lane that you have to stay in. How do you get these ideas and, and stay, stay relevant? Like so many of the things like you’re touching, like pop culture, you, you have this hand in education technology, you have you’re, you’re doing video editing. Like where are you drawing from? Cause I’m just thinking like, as a teacher listening to this, that might be newer. And they go to the side like, oh my gosh, this, this guy is doing these so many things like where are you drawing from for inspiration or ideas?

      Shad Lacefield (20:39):
      I think a lot of it is like you say, when, when you stay relevant, it’s being engaged with your students and figuring out, or what are, what are they liking? And every year it’s gonna be different. And that helps you stay relevant. When you have conversations and you build relationships with your kids to figure out, you know, what’s going on. Because I was not a big Minecraft person. It was the group that came in that really challenged me to do Minecraft because it, it showed up on their Chromebooks one day and all of a sudden it’s like, oh, we can play Minecraft all the time. And I said, no, you can’t play Minecraft until that I’ve had training. And I know what’s going on because I’m super nervous about this new thing. And I wanna make sure you guys aren’t doing something that you’re not supposed to.

      Shad Lacefield (21:13):
      And like, they hounded me hardcore about you better do you need to do that training, Mr. Lacefield, you need to, we wanna play Minecraft. You better be doing this. Right. And so I was like, all right, man, I’ll, I’ll invest. I’ll, I’ll put some time into this training. And I’m so glad that I did yeah, again, that’s it just like building relationships and having those conversations help you realize like, what’s, what’s what are they interested in? What what’s going on and what would be really funny, even connecting that back to the costumes. What would it be really funny if I showed up in you know, today, princess Jasmine.

      Eric Cross (21:42):
      Yeah.

      Shad Lacefield (21:43):
      Been yes. Done that. That’s a great one. I,

      Eric Cross (21:45):
      I, I just went to the social studies page. I, and I stop laughing while you were talking. Cause I saw the princess Jasmine.

      Shad Lacefield (21:52):
      Oh yeah. Folks.

      Eric Cross (21:53):
      I’m telling you, you have to go, you have to go to his videos and see what he’s done. I mean, they’re just, they’re just amazing with my middle school students. They, I, I find myself having to be into things that I’m not normally into. And we have these intergenerational relationships, right? Like I think teachers are unique in this I aspect where I can connect with a 12 year old with what 12 year olds are in no matter where this 12 year old’s from. Cuz I get 12 year old culture. But sometimes when I go back into my adult world, like I forget that like, Hey yeah, haven’t watched a new anime you know, or, or whatever, you know, up

      Shad Lacefield (22:26):
      That. Yeah. No said too. And a kid will show up wearing a, a shirt to school and I’m like, I wasn’t the world’s that like, I’ve never even seen that before. And you’re like, okay, I’m gonna have to learn what that is cuz that yeah.

      Eric Cross (22:38):
      And then the next student asks you about, Hey, do you like, do you like these this game? I’m like, yeah, yeah, let me go Google that game real quick. Yeah, I’m totally into it. I’m downloading on my phone real quick. And, and now I’m connected to all kinds of obscure random interests, but to your, to what you said, it like, it helps keep us fresh, right? With I, with ideas, there, there is something that is super practical that you’ve done that you’ve created that I’ve encouraged teachers to do. And I think you really nailed it. On your site, you have these video tutorials. When I look at those, I, I think about how much time you must have saved yourself of not having to explain the same exact thing multiple times. Because you’ve created this virtual help section that allows students to log in amplify earth, check, Flipgrid, whatever. Like do you, when you’re, when you’re teaching students, do you, do you use those in direct students there so they can kind of support themselves? Or is that, what, how did that come to be when you, when you made these, these virtual tools? Because I could just imagine these are time savers for you.

      Shad Lacefield (23:49):
      Absolutely. Cuz again, like you said, it’s it saves on time. So a lot of when you have kids that are already visual learners as well, and they love watching YouTube and they learn stuff from YouTube, why not? I mean, make the video and then attach it to my Google classroom, keeping everything online. Everyone always has access. And by still having those videos, it allows kids to hear the directions multiple time, but on their time and at their pace. So then it’s posted on the assignment. So even though I probably still will give those directions verbally out loud if a kid forgets and maybe they feel a little nervous about asking in front of their peers, like, oh, how do I do this again? Or, oh, I don’t remember how to do that. That video is linked on there. So that way they can go back and watch it.

      Eric Cross (24:28):
      It’s almost like a little co-teacher that you have like a little aide that’s like, but it’s you, but it’s like a mini you who’s helping you out. I found that putting sometimes those tutorial videos on ed puzzle, where at different points in time, you can set it up so that at a certain timestamp, it asks a question and you can control it. So they can’t move faster past it until they respond to the question and you have the question be about whatever you just said. And then it, it syncs with Google classroom. So you can import all the grades and you can see how far through the video they got. But that was one other layer that I was able to do. So I can have some accountability and make sure that okay, everybody watched it and they answered all five questions of like, how do you do this?

      Shad Lacefield (25:07):
      Oh, see, now you’re sharing stuff with me, Eric, because I, I’m not as familiar with ed puzzle. I’ve used like near pod and per deck, but I mean just you saying that I’m like, okay, I need to check out ed puzzle and, and see what, what this is all about. Cause that sounds awesome.

      Eric Cross (25:20):
      Hey, I shared something with Chad and it it’s useful. I’m I’m feeling good right now. I’m feel I’m feeling good. So as we, as we kind of wind down one, couple questions I wanna ask. One of ’em is you’ve been in teaching for, for 15 years and I, I talk to you like right now and I get this energy and this vibe that’s just so upbeat, so positive. How do you stay fresh, fresh. And how did you stay fresh during a time when things have been so hard, you know, and it, and still is for so many educators, how do you stay encouraged? Like what, what have you done and, and to stay in, in education for, for this long,

      Shad Lacefield (26:00):
      I think it, it even goes back to like when I made my initial decision to switch my major to education, like I, I really felt like I found so thing that I thoroughly loved and enjoyed, and I always feel like you go through seasons. Like, and I definitely, when, when COVID hit, like you went through a season of where you start to feel again, that pressure like do I really like doing this as much as I thought that I like doing this and am I ready for this next thing? And then I just go back to just the, well, why did I do this to begin with? And, and it gets me, you know, excited to be like, I did it for the kids, like, and it’s about the kids. And I get joy when they’re laughing and smiling. So again, with the videos, it’s like, how can I make ’em laugh and smile because if they’re laughing and smiling and having a good time, I’m gonna get, you know, jacked and ready to start teaching again.

      Eric Cross (26:48):
      And I just hear that so much in what you’re saying is you’re serving your kids is, is being more than that building the relationship, that connection. And then through all that, the learning happens. The last question I wanna ask you is who’s one teacher that created a memorable experience for you or inspired you. Is it someone that you remember when you were in school or learn experience that just, that stands out to you to this day? Cuz as teachers, we remember thi like our kids remember us and it’s weird to be in that position to think that we’re gonna be that person. So is there anybody or anything that stands out to you that you remember from a, a teacher and experience?

      Shad Lacefield (27:27):
      Gosh, I have, I have a lot that you know, from my fifth grade science teacher, Mr. Goodman, who we did the ecology meet and the ecology team, and we went to OT Creek park and we competed against other schools about science, connected materials to my physics teacher in high school that let us build boats out of cardboard and take it to the only hotel in our town and the pool. And we had like boat races with the cardboard boats that we did. But really I, I go back to Squire boon and Claudia my manager and I remember not only was, she’s such a, a pivotal like getting me into teaching. But I remember the, the curriculum that we were using at the time that I was. And again, it goes back to what if I was to teach that curriculum, I would not still be a teacher because again, as sometimes you experience with curriculum, it can be boring and not engaging. And I was already putting my own flare on it at SQUI boon during the scout lessons. And I said, what if I just completely rewrote this curriculum? What if I made it really fun and put my own, spin on it? And, and she was like, absolutely, absolutely do that. And I feel like that encouragement as teachers, when we encourage kids to be creative when we encourage kids to, to take risk and to try new things we end up getting such amazing results that we didn’t even expect

      Eric Cross (28:45):
      Thought I out to Mr. Goodman for the ecology meet the physics teacher for the, the boat races, which are hilarious, by the way, if you’ve ever been able to watch students, did you make ’em at a cardboard?

      Shad Lacefield (28:53):
      We did. Yep.

      Eric Cross (28:54):
      Yeah. Those are hilarious to watch. And Claudia for giving the freedom to let you be a educational DJ and remix things to make it fun. Thanks for being on the podcast. Thanks for your inspiration and for sharing your stuff like publicly and letting other people see it and, and get ideas. It’s, I’m sure there’s more people than, you know, and more teachers than, you know, that are looking at that and getting their own ideas and coming up with their own. It might not be star wars, but coming up with their own inspiration, maybe it’s like Harry Potter or Lord of the rings or some like that.

      Shad Lacefield (29:26):
      Yeah. Whatever. You’re passionate about. Pull that in.

      Eric Cross (29:31):
      Thanks so much for joining me and Shad today. We want to hear more about you. If you have any great lessons or ways to keep student engagement high, please email us at stem@amplify.com. That’s STEM@amplify.com and make sure to click, subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts until next time.

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      What Shad Lacefield says about science

      “It’s about being engaged with your students and figuring out what are they liking. Every year it’s going to be different…when you have conversations and you build relationships with your kids.”

      – Shad Lacefield

      4th Grade Science Teacher, District Elementary Science

      Meet the guest

      Shad Lacefield is a teacher at Garden Springs Elementary and part-time professor at Asbury University in Kentucky. Mr. Lacefield leads professional development in his district, and has been a guest speaker for Eastern Kentucky University, Campbellsville University, and Amplify Education. His topics include classroom managment, integrating techology, and student engagement. He earned his bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Campbellsville University in 2007, and his master’s in science from Southwest Baptist University in 2011. Shad has either taught or coached every grade K-12, and in his 14 years in education he has served as a lead teacher in literacy, math, science, and social studies. He currently coordiantes with the FCPS Office of Instructional Technology to plan Minecraft build challenges for elementary students, and is working on setting up a science field trip that turns a golf course into a STEM lab. During the first year of the pandemic, Shad dressed up in over 100 costumes to create a unique and engaging online learning experience for his students. He also created Vader Visits where he visited students at their homes dressed as Darth Vader to celebrate their online successes, and keep them encouraged during a challenging time. His creative teaching style, and over 50 “Vader Visits” with students, have been featured on WKYT-TV, LEX-18, Spectrum 1 News, and several local and college news publications. Shad lives in Lexington Kentucky with his wife Whitney Lacefield and their three children.

      Check out his website, YouTube channel, and Facebook account!

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      About Science Connections

      Welcome to Science Connections! Science is changing before our eyes, now more than ever. So…how do we help kids figure that out? We will bring on educators, scientists, and more to discuss the importance of high-quality science instruction. In this episode, hear from our host Eric Cross about his work engaging students as a K-8 science teacher. Listen here!

      You might also like:

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      Check out Shad’s website!

      Check out Shad’s website!

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      Earn CE Credit! Free Coding Webinar

      Integrating Code-to-Learn Experiences in Middle School Science Classrooms

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      Math Teacher Lounge

      Looking for ways to support students in problem-solving? Check out the Amplify’s…

      Join our User Research Community!

      Help shape Amplify products.

      Educators and students are at the center of what we do. That’s why we test our products with real users, visit classrooms across the country, and gather ideas and feedback from educators like you! This is how we ensure that we’re developing new products that meet your needs, as well as continuously improving our existing products to better support your classrooms.

      That’s where our User Research Community comes in. This is a group of valued educators we look to for their expertise! They regularly participate in research and feedback opportunities and share their insights with our Product teams.

      We hope you’ll consider joining Amplify’s User Research Community. When we have a study that’s a good fit for you, our team will reach out with details and next steps.

      Sign Up
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      What to expect

      When you sign up to join the Amplify User Research Community, we’ll ask you some questions that will help us match you with research studies. When an opportunity sounds like a good fit, we’ll send you an email and share the details up front, such as study topic, research format, time commitment, and compensation. Then, you can decide if you’d like to participate.

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      Frequently asked questions

      Sign Up

      We’re looking for all types of educators to join our User Research Community: new Amplify users, power users, and everyone in between. We’re also looking for people who don’t use our products. If you work in a school setting or support schools, we want to hear from you. Here are some of the people we’d love to connect with:

      • Classroom teachers (PreK–12)
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      We have a separate research program for K–12 students. Learn more about our Playtesting program below.

      Amplify runs a variety of research studies, and we’ll include the details of the study in our email. When you participate in one of our studies, you might be invited to:

      • Talk to a researcher in a video call: Share your experiences with a specific product.
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      • Participate in a long-form study: These studies may involve a small commitment for several days or over a few weeks. You may be asked to review new materials or designs or to try something out in your classroom. Our researchers may ask you to respond to questions or take notes based on your experience using a product.

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      You can opt out at any time by clicking unsubscribe in any of our research emails.

      We typically offer e-gift cards as a way of saying thank you to those who participate in our research studies. We’ll include the exact details of the thank-you gift in the email invitation for the session. If your session is eligible for a thank-you gift card, you should receive it within five business days after completing your session. Please note that not all study participants will receive a thank-you gift.

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      A fun and empowering experience for kids

      Students in our Playtesting Program provide feedback on new Amplify games and features as they’re being developed. Our researchers work one-on-one with students for 30 minutes at a time, inviting them to interact with new games and designs and gathering their feedback. We then integrate that feedback directly into our product development. It’s a chance for students to share their thoughts and ideas and have a real impact on the programs we’re building.

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      Who can participate?
      Any students in kindergarten through grade 12 this school year can be part of our playtesting program, with parental permission.

      What are the perks?
      Aside from a fun time and a sneak peek at what’s in development, all students receive a $20 Amazon gift card for participating in a playtesting session.

      When, where, and how do kids participate?
      When playtesting needs arise, our User Research team will reach out to parents/caregivers to schedule a Google Meet session at a time that’s convenient for you and your child.

      How can I sign my child up?
      To enroll your student, please fill out this consent form. Your child will then be added to our playtesting program database. When a playtesting opportunity arises that we think would be a good fit, we’ll reach out!

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      Welcome, New York City Educators!

      Welcome! This site contains supporting resources for the New York City Department of Education’s Amplify Science adoption for grades K–8.

      What’s new?

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      NYC Resources

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      Getting Started

      Login support, materials lists, program overviews, and more!

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      Implementation Planning and Instruc…

      NYC companion lessons, planning and implementation guides, and more!

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      NYC Spotlight

      Access monthly newsletters and nominate a fellow educator!

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      S5-02. Uncovering the causes of math anxiety

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      We’re continuing our season theme of math anxiety, going beyond the basics, diving deeper into what causes it, and how we can help students move forward. In this episode, we talk to Dr. Erin Maloney from the University of Ottawa to better understand what’s actually happening in the brain when a person experiences math anxiety, and how we can take steps to shift student mindsets in a positive direction.
       
      Listen now and don’t forget to grab your MTL study guide to track your learning and make the most of this episode!
       
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      Download Transcript

      Dr. Erin Maloney (00:00):

      It’s the anxiety itself in many ways that can cause people to underperform.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:06):

      Welcome back to Math Teacher Lounge. I’m Bethany Lockhart Johnson.

      Dan Meyer (00:10):

      And I’m Dan Meyer.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:11):

      This is episode two of our new season, all about math anxiety. Who has it? What is it? What do we do about it?

      Dan Meyer (00:20):

      I’m learning so much, learning a ton.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:22):

      I loved our first conversation with Dr. Gerardo Ramirez, episode one, our first episode of the season. Really, our goal with that conversation was just to—we need to talk about the basics of it, for reals. Like, what is math anxiety?

      Dan Meyer (00:36):

      What is it? How do you measure it? How’s it defined? Super-helpful stuff.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:40):

      There’s not only one way that it’s measured. But it’s like, in active research right now, how are folks making sense of it? And I think Dr. Ramirez did such a fantastic job of sharing that with our listeners. And I learned a lot. You learned a lot, Dan?

      Dan Meyer (00:56):

      I did. And I’m also super-excited to take that knowledge that we have developed together and go and build on top of it and keep on climbing up up the mountain here, and learn more about math anxiety. Which is why we’re super-excited to have a guest on, Dr. Maloney, who is going to help us learn more—especially about what happens to the brain when it’s experiencing math anxiety. There’s some really complex stuff that happens there, including the role of parents and educators in creating and resolving math anxiety. And I think we’ll also learn that the whole situation is a bit of a hot mess. And we’ll try to make it a little bit less messy together.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:34):

      Little bit less messy. Dan, if we do nothing else, can we make it a little less messy?

      Dan Meyer (01:41):

      I sometimes prefer more mess, but in this case I prefer less. So.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:45):

      I have a two-year-old, so everything is a mess.

      Dan Meyer (01:47):

      Your life is mess. Yes. <laugh> Right. Well, I’m excited for you folks to hear this. It was a delightful conversation, so yeah, tune in. We are joined by Dr. Erin Maloney.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:56):

      Let’s go. We are joined by Dr. Erin Maloney, associate professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Ottawa, where she directs the Cognition and Emotion Laboratory, as well as serving as the Canada Research Chair in Academic Achievement and Well-being. Welcome to the show, Dr. Maloney. We’re so excited to have you in the Lounge.

      Dr. Erin Maloney (02:20):

      Yeah, thank you so much for having me. This is fantastic.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (02:24):

      So our last season was all about math and joy. And even when I read your title, I felt more joyful. Like, somebody is thinking about academic achievement, but with well-being in mind. I love it.

      Dr. Erin Maloney (02:39):

      Aw, thank you.

      Dan Meyer (02:40):

      Cognition and emotion!

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (02:42):

      E-mo-tion!

      Dr. Erin Maloney (02:43):

      I don’t think they can be separate. I think that you have to think about them together, ’cause they’re so intricately connected.

      Dan Meyer (02:49):

      Love that. People try, but we love that. Yeah. That’s our vibe here, too.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (02:52):

      People try. That was a big problem with my math anxiety. They just wanted…there was no room for my emotion. They’re like, stop weeping at your desk—

      Dan Meyer (03:00):

      It’s rearranging neurons….

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (03:01):

      —you’re distracting the other children. So would you mind telling us the story of how you even got interested in this topic? You know, when you tell people that you study math anxiety—or, actually, I don’t know how you describe it to them; I’m hopeful you bring in that well-being part—but how did you get here? What do you, what do you, what do you…yeah, tell us! We love it!

      Dr. Erin Maloney (03:23):

      <laugh> I feel like what you’re actually asking is, “How did you make life choices that got you to here?” <Laugh>

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (03:29):

      Justify your life choices! Ready? Go!

      Dr. Erin Maloney (03:32):

      <laugh> Whoo. OK. So, all right. So we often, in psychology, we joke that instead of doing research, we do “me-search.” And that’s, that’s admittedly true in my case. I was a student who absolutely loved math up until about eighth grade, and then something changed, and all of a sudden I was terrified of math and I had absolutely no sense of self-efficacy in it. Despite trying really hard, I was extremely anxious about it. And so I initially, I set out…my parents were completely convinced that I was absolutely capable of doing mathematics and that I was getting in my own way. And when I went to university, I decided to prove them wrong. So I set out to prove that some people just can’t do math, and that’s the end of it. And, you know, 20 plus years later, my parents were right. And it turns out that many people—well, I would argue virtually everyone—can do math. And that if you are really anxious about it, it can get in the way. And interestingly, you know, in, in the years that we’ve been doing this research, there’s really good strategies that can be used—that hopefully we get a chance to chat about—that can really help reduce the amount of anxiety that students are experiencing. But I really did set out, like the bold teenager that I was, to prove my parents wrong. And that backfired <laugh>. So I know it’s kind of a strange answer, but it’s the truth. So I was really interested in understanding why it was some people just could not do math.

      Dan Meyer (05:10):

      That makes two for two so far, on guests for this season who did a version of me-search. And I feel like this is pretty common for a lot of researchers. Like, I wanna figure out…my experience as a teacher, the part where you, I think, diverge from a lot of people I knew in grad school, myself included, is that you actually let counter evidence change your perspective on things. Whereas I feel like a lot of us go in: “I know this is true and I’m gonna gather data!” and lo and behold, I’m true! But only now, with the research TM, you know, trademarked research, attached to it. So that’s, really exciting. Thanks for sharing that.

      Dr. Erin Maloney (05:43):

      No, you’re welcome.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (05:44):

      But don’t people say that the more personal you get, the more universal it is? Right? So if you go and get your doctorate about something that you think is just your experience or in your brain, then people are gonna be gonna be like, “Wait a second; you think that too?” “Wait, that math anxiety isn’t just you?” I don’t know, it sounds like a pretty great path to me. When you tell folks that you study math anxiety or when you’re speaking to folks about your research, do you find that there is a lot of folks who relate to what you’re studying? Or how does that conversation typically go?

      Dr. Erin Maloney (06:20):

      Yeah, so it is I think an extremely relatable topic. Not in the sense that everyone experiences anxiety about math, but everyone seems to know somebody who’s really anxious about math. Or everyone’s at least aware of the stereotype that like some people are math people and some people aren’t, and that’s just the way it is. So it feels like everyone has feelings about math and everyone seems very happy to share those feelings. So one thing I’ve always found really interesting, and actually, so I, I know you mentioned that you had Gerardo on recently. Gerardo and I have had really interesting conversations about how people are really quick to tell you that they hate math and they can’t do math, and they’re anxious about math. And I’ve yet to have anyone ever tell me they hate reading, they can’t read, they’re really anxious about reading as an adult. So for some reason math seems really different. And in that sense people always seem to be pretty excited to talk about their feelings towards math.

      Dan Meyer (07:23):

      Yeah, definitely. Been on an airplane or two myself and had those conversations. You know, people asking to be reseated because they found out that I do math for a living or whatever. Or just unburdening themselves, for sure. I’m super-curious: I think that the fact that you are doing the me-search is reason enough to want to dedicate your life to this study. But I am curious: If you were gonna justify to someone else, why is math anxiety important to study? What are its consequences, even outside of math education? What would you say to that?

      Dr. Erin Maloney (07:57):

      So I think it’s probably not hard to convince people that success in math is important, right? So we know that children who start elementary school behind in mathematics tend to stay behind in mathematics, unless they have any kind of very targeted intervention. We know that children who do worse in mathematics throughout K to 12 education in general get lower-paying jobs when they’re older. We also know that when they do worse than mathematics relative to their peers, there’s fewer jobs that are open to them, relative to if they excelled in math. Right? And so I think in many ways there are really clear consequences for students who are not comfortable with math and who avoid it. But I think one of the really, really interesting things about math anxiety, and maybe part of why I’ve fallen in love with it as a research topic is that it’s the anxiety itself in many ways that can cause people to underperform. So it’s not just the case that people who are bad at math are anxious about it. It’s actually that the anxiety itself can cause you to do worse in math. And that for me is really exciting, ’cause it means that if we can change your mindset, then we can really set you on a path with several more options available to you career-wise. And I think that is really empowering.

      Dan Meyer (09:18):

      Hmm. Yeah, definitely. And I’d love for you to explore — your laboratory is the cognition and emotion laboratory, which I love, how you’re creating those linkages between how you feel about a thing and what your opportunities or your aptitude for learning it. I’m really curious, can you say more about the, the relationship there? How does feeling anxiety impair your ability to do mathematics?

      Dr. Erin Maloney (09:41):

      Yeah, so feeling anxiety, typically what you tend to experience is these negative thoughts and ruminations. So you can imagine, you’re somebody who doesn’t really love math, you’re pretty anxious about it; you know, Bethany, maybe you’ve had this kind of experience before. I’m gonna call you out on it. I’ve had it many times, where you sit down to do a math test and all of a sudden you’re not focusing on the actual math test in front of you. You’re focusing on things like the consequences of not doing well on this. Right? Or “my parents are gonna be really disappointed if I don’t pass this test,” or “my teacher is gonna think negatively negative of me,” or sometimes we see things like, “I’m a girl, girls don’t do math.” These types of stereotypes. And what happens is that those thoughts actually tie up really important cognitive resources, like, really important memory resources, that you need to do the math test. And so if you are trying to essentially do two things at once, right? You’re trying to deal with all these negative thoughts that are distracting you and you’re trying to do the math test, then you’re not going to do as well as someone who’s sitting down and doesn’t have all of these distracting thoughts to deal with. And we actually know that from research that we have in our lab right now, where we just ask people like, “Hey, when you did this math test, what kind of stuff are you thinking about?” what we find is that the people who are really anxious about math report a whole bunch of thoughts that are unrelated really to the math test, per se. It’s more about the consequences of doing poorly. And as a result of those thoughts, they actually end up doing worse.

      Dan Meyer (11:14):

      This has been really helpful to figure out, how the emotional state of doing math affects the ability to do math. And it’s really interesting how you’re saying that the direction of the causality can go from the emotions to the cognition. And I’m just curious then, what is the source of the bad emotions about math? Where does that come from? Is it nature? Is it nurture? Some combination? How do you see it?

      Dr. Erin Maloney (11:39):

      Yeah, so one, that’s a fantastic question. And there’s been a whole bunch of people all around the world that have been spending a lot of time really trying to pinpoint that down. And I think the answer is that it’s, you know, it’s complex. So most of what it’s looking like right now is that it is a combination of both. So essentially what we find is that kids who start elementary school who are a little bit behind in math—and for the question of why they’re behind, that’s also complex; it could be genetics, it could be just environmental input, before the child ever entered formal schooling kind of thing—but in essence, what we find is that kids that start school behind in mathematics, those are the children who are most likely to develop anxiety about math by the time they’re finished first grade. OK? But we also know that once they’ve developed the anxiety about math, then that’s when they get these thoughts and ruminations that kind of tie up those memory resources, that then is gonna make it harder for them to succeed in math tests. So you get into this sort of vicious cycle, right? Where maybe you start behind a little bit and then you develop the anxiety, the anxiety causes you to underperform relative to what you should be able to, so now you’re even further behind, you get more anxious because you’re not doing as well as you’d like to…but again, kind of coming back to the “Why are the children starting behind in the first place?” Some of that seems to be the role that parents are playing in the household. So some kids come from a household where parents are playing a lot more math games with them, talking about mathematical concepts on a regular basis. Maybe they have older siblings who are, you know, practicing arithmetic and, and mathematical processing in front of them. And so those kids are exposed to more math before they ever even start formal schooling. Those kids seem to do better. And then we also know that the parents’ attitudes matter a lot too. So what we find is that when parents are high in math anxiety themselves, especially when they help their children a lot with their math homework in really early ages, we find that those kids end up being more anxious about math by the end of the school year, and they also end up doing worse in mathematics. So it really does seem to be, you know, kind of a complex set of factors that have something to do with both maybe genetic predisposition to success in math and genetic predisposition to anxiety, but then also the social attitudes and stereotypes about math to which you’re exposed at home that really seem to be coming together to create this anxiety in young children.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (14:24):

      I feel like everything you’re saying is <laugh>…it makes so much sense and yet it’s so often not talked about, right? Because it’s just more like, it gets boiled down to, “Oh, they’re just not a math person,” instead of all these other factors that are at play. And I completely remember the anxiety I felt, whether it was a test or not, walking into my math classroom when I was in ninth grade. And there’s no way I was set up and ready to learn. Right? <Laugh>. And something with—we mentioned Dr. Ramirez, he was talking about validating that anxiety. If teachers validate that like, “Oh, you know what, sometimes you might feel stumped, or this might feel overwhelming.” Even the power in creating space for that in the classroom, right? And acknowledging that it doesn’t—math doesn’t have to “come easy” to you in order for you to have access or make sense, is such a powerful concept. And I love the way that you are looking at all these different factors and saying, “Hey, it’s both simple and also a lot more complicated than we’re we’re making it.” Right?

      Dr. Erin Maloney (15:36):

      No, and I agree with that sentiment so much. Like, I think, though—one thing I will sort of caution is that I think when teachers are validating the anxiety, or when parents are validating the anxiety, I think there’s a very fine line that needs to be walked where we need to be able to say, you know, “It’s OK to struggle with something. That’s, that is completely OK.” And as we’re, you know, as we’re working towards something that’s really valuable, right? We can, we can work hard at something and by working hard at it, we’re going to get better. And I think that type of validating is really, really important and valuable. I think what we wanna be careful of is not to say things like, “Oh, it’s OK. I also never loved math.” And, you know, “Oh, I was never a math person either.” And so even though we might be bringing comfort to the the child, I think that that’s sending the wrong message. And so sometimes it’s really well intentioned and really not great—

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (16:37):

      A hundred percent.

      Dr. Erin Maloney (16:38):

      —in terms of the messaging. So that’s the only…so just for people listening, the only sort of caution that I would give there is that I think there’s nuances to the validating of the feelings that are important.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (16:50):

      I am so glad you said that because as a kindergarten teacher, I vividly remember—and this is as early as, you know, the kids are five years old, right?—and I remember in a parent-teacher conference, a parent saying, “Oh, I wasn’t a math person either,” or, “Oh, no, ugh.” And they were so quick, like you said, they wouldn’t say that about reading, but they were so quick to talk about their lack of natural math aptitude, right? And, and it was really interesting because you know that even if they’re not saying that specific thing at home, those attitudes are absolutely carrying over at home. And they’re absolutely carrying over to, to how they interact with their kiddo around math and around what’s happening in the conversations about math. And I felt like a lot of times my work as a teacher was also to help support parents through their own math anxiety, and help give them some new language for how they can talk about math. And that math is more than just getting to an answer quickly. Like, let’s talk about, let’s go on math walks, let’s go on number walks, what numbers are around the home? Or oh, is that bigger than this? Do you have more of this? And even those little things, I, my hope was that it was starting to shift the conversation around what math was possible in the home, particularly when you saw that it was the parents who had palpable math anxiety. Right? And how much you know that that’s gonna impact what’s happening when you sit down to do homework together.

      Dr. Erin Maloney (18:22):

      Yeah. And I love that you have worked to encourage parents to do that. So we do similarly. Like even from a research perspective, where I will often give talks to parents and teachers and we talk about the idea of trying to mathematize everything, right? So just the idea that math is absolutely everywhere, and you know, whether it’s a matter of playing games in the car with your kids where you’re thinking of a number and it’s “My number is higher than 42, but lower than 80, and what number do you think I might be thinking of?” And, and gradually trying to get the child to that number. Or, you know, asking questions like, “What’s your favorite even number and why?” And just little things like that that, that I think can make math fun for kids, that help—I don’t even know how to explain it, but just that idea of bringing joy into it, so it’s not always this heavy subject that kids have to come to. So we definitely try to talk to parents about the idea of, like I said, mathematizing everything. And usually it’s well-received, ’cause often parents find it empowering, right? They’re like, “Oh, well, I could do that! But like, that’s not math!” And you’re like, “No, but it is.”

      Dan Meyer (19:33):

      Yep.

      Dr. Erin Maloney (19:34):

      Like, it is! And sometimes parents will say like, “Well, I don’t know how to do fractions.” And you’re like, “OK, but how do you bake?” “Well, I don’t know! I just, like, I know how to do those fractions!” And you’re like, “OK, but that’s the starting point. Let’s work with that.” Like, let’s, you know. And I think a lot of times, it’s reminding the parents that they’re actually far more capable than what they think they are, despite the fact that maybe they struggled with math when they were younger.

      Dan Meyer (19:58):

      Yeah. This is so interesting. And I feel like part of the challenge around conversations about anxiety and math and how to, how to resolve it and where it comes from, is that it, like, it presupposes a single definition of math. And so, you know, we’re talking about like how to be more mindful about math. But you know, like if kids were walking every day through a treacherous street, you know, the solution might not be become more mindful about that street. It’s just like, we gotta fix the treacherous nature of the street, really. You know, I love that we’re talking also about redefining what math is, making it more playful. That feels like a super-important component here. I’d love to know more about what you know about the role of gender in all of this. Are there differences in the way boys and girls experience math anxiety and how it relates to achievement in math?

      Dr. Erin Maloney (20:48):

      Yeah, so, there’s really, really interesting research on gender in math anxiety. So in general, we find that girls tend to experience more anxiety about math than boys do. So one hypothesis is that it has to do with just social stereotypes that, you know, girls are, are good at reading; boys are good at math, kind of thing. So there’s some evidence to suggest that that might be playing a role. There’s other evidence to suggest as well that maybe boys actually do experience as much anxiety, they just don’t really own up to it.

      Dan Meyer (21:20):

      Ooh, yikes.

      Dr. Erin Maloney (21:21):

      So thoughts are, you know, there’s a bit of an apprehension for males to admit experiencing the anxiety. But I think one of the things that is extremely interesting about it—at least to me—is that we don’t tend to see gender differences in young children. So in early elementary school, even though we’ll see that kids as young as six years old will experience anxiety about math, and that that anxiety is related to how well they do in math and how much they enjoy math, it doesn’t seem to vary as a function of gender at that young age. It doesn’t seem to be related to gender until kids are at about sixth, seventh grade that we really start to see this gender difference coming online. And so that, to me, suggests that it’s probably something more social than biological at play. It probably has something more to do with these stereotypes and stuff. But another really interesting—or at least, I’m biased, but to me—another really interesting line of research that comes into play—and some of this is stuff out of my own lab—so we know that boys in general tend to do better at spatial processing than girls. And we know that spatial processing is really important for math, right? So math and space are pretty connected. And by spatial processing, I mean things like being able to picture something rotating in your mind or, you know, envisioning how these puzzle pieces might fit together. And so we know that boys tend to do better at that type of processing. And the gender difference there seems to be related to gender differences in math anxiety. So there’s some speculation, too, that it might be that as the math starts to become more reliant on spatial processing, that that’s when we see this separation between boys and girls with respect to how much anxiety they feel about math. So a lot of this is to say, I think the answer to the gender question right now is what I think what we would officially call a bit of a hot mess, <laugh> where I think there’s probably more questions than answers. But I think that there’s definitely something going on. And it really seems to be coming on later in elementary school.

      Dan Meyer (23:32):

      That’s a refreshingly honest admission from a social scientist, that it’s a hot mess and not perfectly clear, <laugh> so I appreciate that. It’s interesting what you said about the spatial reasoning. In our work creating curriculum at Amplify, I find we lean a lot on trying to tie abstract math towards spatial topics. Like, can you estimate a quantity before you calculate it? Can you identify a pattern and where it breaks before you prove it abstractly? And, I dunno, it’s just interesting to me. I’m just thinking out loud about how I feel like math becomes more abstract rather than more spatial. The farther you venture into secondary math…I’m wondering if I misunderstand what you’re meaning by spatial, and the progression of math from K–12.

      Dr. Erin Maloney (24:20):

      Yeah, so I think you can still have—you can have math be abstract, but still really relying on spatial processing. Right? And I think part of that is maybe a bit of us having different definitions of when we say “spatial.” So in cognitive science, when we talk about spatial representations or spatial reasoning, it’s really like anything you’re picturing in your mind, any time you’re really picturing these things in your mind and manipulating those images at all. So if you imagine, even like at a simple level, but it’s gonna hold when you’re going more complex as well. So doing like equivalence problems, for example, where you have to balance the equations.

      Dan Meyer (24:58):

      Yeah.

      Dr. Erin Maloney (24:59):

      Even just being able to envision things kind of moving around that equal sign and bringing one piece of the equation from this side to the other is actually an extremely spatial kind of reasoning. Right? Or when you’re expanding, that’s actually extremely extremely spatial, despite the fact that it might not feel like it initially. Obviously anything in geometry is going to be very spatial. So I think, in that sense, we would argue that the spatial processing is still playing a pretty important role. But it’s maybe a different type of spatial processing than what we’re seeing at a very early level in elementary school. That said, you can completely disagree with me too. ‘Cause I could also just be wrong, and that’s fair. My kids tell me I’m wrong all the time. So I’m used to <laugh> being told that I’m wrong.

      Dan Meyer (25:47):

      Well, we’re a bit more deferential on this here show, with our guests. So I would not do that. But it makes sense, what you’re saying about how these are things that you manipulate in your mind, whether they are Xs and Ys or numbers and fractions. These are all things that we manipulate. That ties into differences in this spacial reasoning category, it sounds like, which then contributes to math anxiety. And it does start to feel like there’s a lot going on here, is what it feels like.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (26:14):

      You mean hot mess?

      Dan Meyer (26:16):

      I meant hot mess.

      Dr. Erin Maloney (26:17):

      Yeah. <laugh>, I think that’s the technical term, right? I’m pretty sure that’s the technical term for it.

      Dan Meyer (26:21):

      I didn’t know the citation for it. So I didn’t say it. But I knew who in literature named that. But yeah.

      Dr. Erin Maloney (26:28):

      I’ll write something at some point.

      Dan Meyer (26:30):

      We’ll cite Maloney, 2022. Yeah. Yes.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (26:34):

      So I will say that one of my dreams in thinking about this season and last season, but particularly this season, since we’re really getting to talk to some researchers who get to think about this, and have really interesting conversations about it all the time…one of my dreams is that we’re bringing—’cause we do have some folks who are researchers that are listening, right? But then we also have teachers and folks who are in the classroom every day, and parents and caregivers listening. And so I think one of the beautiful things about the way that I hear you talking about it is you’re thinking about the research, but it’s so applicable. Right? And I wonder if there’s anything else you can say around it. I wanna reduce that divide, that gap, between the research that’s happening and then what’s happening with the kiddos and in the classroom and at home. And I don’t know if it’s like a magic wand thing where like <laugh> if there were changes you’d wanna see at a societal level, to try to combat math anxiety, but you see where I’m going. You know, it’s like <laugh>….

      Dr. Erin Maloney (27:39):

      1. So I’m gonna answer maybe in two ways. So I think the first thing that I’m hearing from you is that idea of diminishing this divide, right? And so one thing I try to keep in mind, as someone who’s a researcher and working in the lab, I will often be called in to talk to teachers and give professional development sessions. And they often want the sage-on-the-stage academic, that stands up there and tells you the answers to things. And one of the first things that I’m gonna admit when I get up there is, “I am not on the front lines.” So what I do in the lab, for me to tell you that that’s gonna work in a classroom of 30 kids who may or may not have eaten dinner that day, and may or may not have snow pants, and may or not…like it’s–

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (28:23):

      Mmm, yes.

      Dr. Erin Maloney (28:24):

      You know, I think we also need to be a little bit reasonable. So I try really hard in my own program of research to make sure that I’m always talking to teachers and to principals and to curriculum designers to make sure that the ideas that I have make sense. In fact, one of the most recent book chapters that I wrote, I wrote in collaboration with a really good friend of mine who’s a principal, an elementary school principal, and a former math consultant. And we wrote it together, to really say like, “Hey, here’s how we can help each other inform how research can inform practice and how practice can also inform research.” ‘Cause he can come to me and say, “I’m doing this. I can’t find anything in the literature to support this, but I’m sure it works!” And we can design something in the lab to test whether or not it seems like it’s gonna work.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (29:11):

      That’s huge. Yeah.

      Dr. Erin Maloney (29:12):

      Empirically. And so I think that open communication is massive. One thing that we’re doing in my own lab to try to keep that open communication available. So to anyone listening who’s ever tried to get access to a journal article, they’re held behind paywalls, right? So one, the way it works, my understanding of this anyway, is that the journal owns the formatted version of the paper. So what we do is we put up audio recordings of all of the research papers that we ever publish. So I’m pretty sure I own the words as the author, and the journal owns the prettified version that you can buy. So we audio-record all of our papers, so that if teachers or parents ever want to hear the actual science that’s going into some of these decisions, they have access to at least the stuff that we do in our lab. And we also put up an infographic for every paper, just highlighting kind of the main questions and main findings. And we do that because I think that the only way for the information to actually be useful is if it gets into the hands of the stakeholders that actually need that information.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (30:21):

      And is accessible. That’s huge. That’s huge!

      Dr. Erin Maloney (30:24):

      Yeah. Yeah. So that’s one way that we try to do it. And like I said, the other thing, we try to always be working with principals and with teachers. I joke that the way that I remedied this in my own life…so my husband’s a teacher; it’s like, I just married one! It’s fine! <laugh> I can grill him on a regular basis, and be like, “I wanna try this experiment. Do you think it’s gonna work?” And he can say, like, “It’s not going to. Here’s why.”

      Dan Meyer (30:47):

      That’s awesome. Marrying a participant—you know, a research participant—is unethical, of course. Would not clear IRB. But turning your partner into a participant? Like, what are you gonna do? That’s great.

      Dr. Erin Maloney (30:57):

      Yeah, no, that’s fair game.

      Dan Meyer (30:58):

      Yep.

      Dr. Erin Maloney (30:59):

      Yeah. So that’s—I think we we compensate each other <laugh>. So, no…so I do joke a little bit about that. He was a teacher simply ’cause he wanted to be one. Not ’cause I needed him to be one. But, I think that communication part is, is really key. That’s one thing. Then the other part of the question or the other sort of piece of the question that I was hearing is that idea of, how do we fix math anxiety. Right? Like, what’s the great, “I’m glad that there’s a whole bunch of time and effort and energy going into trying to understand this, but what, where are we at?” And I think with that, it’s really, really promising. So there’s been a lot of research coming out looking at how best to help children or even adults manage their own anxiety about math. And there’s a few really interesting strategies that seem to be quite effective. So one, and I don’t know if—um, it feels weird calling him Dr. Ramirez, just ’cause I know him well!—but I don’t know if Dr. Ramirez would’ve talked about this when he chatted with you, but he has some really interesting work on expressive writing. Did he chat about that at all?

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (32:07):

      He didn’t, but I’ve read some of his work about it and I think it’s so fascinating.

      Dr. Erin Maloney (32:11):

      Yeah! So, OK, well, I’ll tell you about his work on it.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (32:13):

      Yes, please. Please.

      Dr. Erin Maloney (32:14):

      Because it’s super-useful. So when we talked about that idea of how anxiety causes these thoughts and ruminations, and they tie up the memory resources that you need, what Gerardo has found is that when you get students to write about their anxiety for about 10 minutes before they do a test, what ends up happening is they end up doing better on the test, relative to if they would not have written about their anxiety at all. And this is particularly true for students who are really high in anxiety. OK? And the idea is that all of those thoughts that they were going to have about the test or the consequences of the test, et cetera, you just kind of get ’em…it’s like a mind dump where you get ’em all onto the page at first before you even go to do the test. And now when you go to do the test, you’re not having to do two things at once. You’re no longer dealing with these thoughts ’cause you got ’em all out on the paper beforehand. And so Gerardo has some really interesting work showing that that works for math anxiety. And then it also works for just testing anxiety in general. And so that’s a strategy that I love. I also—part of what I really love about it is it’s so low-cost, right? You need a paper and a pencil and it’s great. So those are always my favorite strategies, the ones that don’t really cost us anything. So that’s one way of dealing with like the cognitive part of the anxiety. The other thing you can do is try to deal with the anxiety part of the anxiety. So for that, what we find is that the typical strategies that you’re gonna see for anxiety tend to work for math anxiety. So things like focused breathing. Right? Making sure you’re doing deep inhales and exhales. That really diaphragmatic breathing seems to be quite helpful. We know that what we call progressive desensitization is really key. That’s the idea of doing things, you know, starting with the questions that you know how to handle. And then gradually working up to the more difficult questions. So you’re sort of gradually exposing yourself to the more complex stuff. And how that can play out on an actual test at school is, you sit down, and instead of just starting with question number one, you actually read the whole test, see which questions you feel like you know the best, start with those questions, and that helps build your confidence so that you’re better able to tackle the questions that are maybe a little bit outside of where you’re currently at. So that seems to be really helpful. The other part that I will say, too, that’s extremely helpful: So we know that anxiety really ties up those memory resources. And so the more you can make the math automatic, the more immune it’s going to be to anxiety in the moment. And so I know that this part can be a little bit controversial, because we don’t wanna necessarily demotivate children, and kill the enthusiasm for math that we’re trying to cultivate…but really, you know, really committing your arithmetic facts to memory can be extremely helpful. So really learning those times tables, really learning your addition and subtraction facts. ‘Cause what happens is, then when you’re in a situation where you need that information, even if you’re anxious and you’re working with fewer cognitive resources than what you would normally have, you actually don’t need that many cognitive resources to be able to pull something from memory that you’ve memorized. So it really helps to kind of protect you against some of the negative impacts of the anxiety while you’re doing that test.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (35:37):

      And you’re not using all your cognitive resources to figure out seven times eight, because you can really focus on what you’re trying to do with that. Oh, that’s fascinating. Yeah. Yeah.

      Dr. Erin Maloney (35:47):

      Yes. No, a hundred percent right. And so I know that’s one that, like I said, I know it can be somewhat controversial because it’s…you know, we’ve talked about—or we haven’t talked about in this conversation, but we often talk about—the idea of drilling and killing. Right? So you drill the facts, you kill the, the enthusiasm. But I think that there are ways that we can drill arithmetic facts, or help make them automatic, but still fun, right? It doesn’t have to always be in a high-pressure kind of way.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (36:16):

      Totally. And we’ve talked about fluency, and I’m sure we’ll talk about it more in the Lounge. And that is interesting, that link between anxiety when the fluency isn’t there, that—or, of course we hear about anxiety with timed tests, but the idea of that IS something you can do to reduce it, because you have those facts just at your ready. Right?

      Dr. Erin Maloney (36:37):

      Yeah. So I actually, again, I’m gonna be a little bit controversial. So I don’t hate timed tests in the way that a lot of people do. But I love time to practice. So I think once we’ve got to a point where children have a fairly decent understanding of skills, of a skill, once they’ve got a fairly decent grasp on it, then I love the idea of the timed practice. So it can be still in a low-pressure situation, where in many ways it doesn’t matter if you get the answer to the question correct. But we’re practicing doing it in a situation in which you might be feeling a little bit of pressure, but it’s not real pressure, if that makes sense. And I think that can be really, really useful for students. And again, it can be done in a fun way, right? It doesn’t have to be these super-intense ways. It can be fun. But I think that in life there are situations in which the time that it takes you to complete a problem matter. And I think that we have to make sure that we don’t get too far away from that.

      Dan Meyer (37:40):

      Yeah. It feels like we should do an entire other episode thinking about ways to develop that fluency and automaticity that don’t contribute to anxiety, or create further disparities between people who are high math anxiety and low math anxiety. Not a small question, I’m sure. And I appreciate you alluding to all of that. You know, this whole thing, as you said, is quite the hot mess. And I feel like you, Dr. Maloney, have helped us make this a little less messy, in our heads, and hopefully the listeners’ heads. I really appreciate that. I just love…you’ve mentioned lots of resources that you have. You’ve alluded to them: audiobook-style readings of your research, which I need ’cause I just finished, you know, Harry Potter, the seventh book, so I need a new thing to listen to like that. Also infographics. Can you tell our listeners where they can find this work of yours, and if there are any other kinds of resources that you wanna plug for our listeners here?

      Dr. Erin Maloney (38:32):

      Yeah, for sure. So all of our resources can be found on my lab website. So the address for that is www.ErinMaloney.ca. So there we have, like you said, the infographics and the audio articles and all that stuff. And then we also have a link to a new kids’ book out, actually, that a colleague of mine and I have published recently, that really walks through some of these strategies on combating math anxiety. The book is written as a children’s book, so it’s Peyton & Charlie Challenge Math. But it secretly is a book that would also work for adults. So if you are a parent that’s a little bit anxious about math, or a teacher that maybe is a little bit anxious, and you wanna see how some of these strategies can play out, in that book—we linked to it on the website, but it is available for purchase on Amazon. And the one thing I will say about the book, ’cause this is something that we were pretty proud of, so Sheri-Lynn Skwarchuk, who is a school psychologist, and I wrote the book. And it’s available for purchase at our cost price, so we don’t actually make any money on the book. It was literally just a way of getting some of the science out to people who might be able to benefit from it.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (39:45):

      Reducing that divide!

      Dr. Erin Maloney (39:46):

      Yeah, well that’s what we’re trying to do! Right? So I think in the U.S., I think it’s like $6 on Amazon. And then in terms of other resources, we’re in the process right now of creating some informational videos and and stuff like that that hopefully will be useful for parents and for teachers, just in terms of understanding a little bit more about the anxiety and understanding how to deal with the anxiety in the classroom more, at home or wherever it might be coming up.

      Dan Meyer (40:15):

      Well, thanks so much. I really appreciate—we appreciate!—you coming on, and hearing about how you’re trying to bridge so many different barriers from research to practice, and school to home. It’s just really inspiring. And we’d love to have you back on sometime. So thank you so much for joining us.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (40:29):

      I feel like we’ve just hung out! Don’t you, Dan?

      Dan Meyer (40:31):

      Are we rolling here? Oh my gosh, we’re rolling. I just thought we’re just hanging. Yeah,

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (40:34):

      I thought we were just hanging!

      Dr. Erin Maloney (40:36):

      I know, I do, I really appreciate that it has a very kind of chill vibe to it.

      Dan Meyer (40:41):

      Chill vibe. Like a lounge.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (40:42):

      It’s the lounge!

      Dan Meyer (40:43):

      Thank you. You get us; you get us. <laugh>

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (40:45):

      Dan Meyer. I was shopping for children’s books, and there was this book, and it was talking about being at home with Mom. And it’s going through all the things that the child did that day with Mom. It’s like, “We played outside, we ran through the sprinklers, we even did some homework.” And it shows them sitting at the table with the homework, that’s clearly math homework, in front of them. And the mom is like, “Harrumph!” Like a very perplexed, anxious face. And there’s all these question marks above her. And it’s just like,

      Dan Meyer (41:24):

      “There should not be numbers on that paper!”

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (41:25):

      Exactly. And the child is like, “Ohhhh,” you know. And I mean, I have to give credit to the illustrator, because they really did capture the clear message of this interaction, which was sitting down to do math homework or think about math together is a source of angst. Right? According to this author and according to too many people. And so I think what’s really important is that we recognize those images when we see them out there and speak back to them, and say, “Hey, wait a second.” Yeah, it can feel like that, and it doesn’t have to. And what’s going on that that’s just the assumed way that it’s gonna feel, to sit down and math together. You know?

      Dan Meyer (42:11):

      Yeah. It feels like we all have a lot of work to do on the whole math-anxiety front. Dr. Maloney helped us see how parents play a part, educators play a part, society and how they create people plays its own part in how we all define math as a thing where we evaluate student thought or where students play it with their thoughts, has its own huge part as well. So yeah, it was a really fantastic conversation with Dr. Maloney. I hope you folks will check out the show notes, where you will find links to Dr. Maloney’s website. A lot of her work, which as you heard, is very geared towards practitioners and parents and even directly at kids, especially the new children’s book she co-authored, Peyton & Charlie Challenge Math.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (42:55):

      Next time we’re gonna dive even more into the nitty gritty of combating math anxiety. To do that, we’re actually gonna be joined—I am so excited about this—by Dr. Rosemarie Truglio from Sesame Workshop.

      Rosemarie Truglio (43:09):

      Our core audience are two- to four-year-olds, and they love math. And what’s not to love? Children don’t come with this math anxiety. Math anxiety is learned.

      Dan Meyer (43:23):

      So excited.

      Dr. Erin Maloney (43:24):

      Sesame Street was a huge part of my childhood and my toddler doesn’t know it yet, but Sesame Street is coming. It’s coming. Like, we’re we’re gonna introduce Sesame Street to him. We just haven’t yet.

      Dan Meyer (43:37):

      Sesame Street straight raised me.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (43:38):

      Right?

      Dan Meyer (43:39):

      Yeah. Don’t tell my parents. But that’s, yeah, that’s true. I’m excited, too. It’s gonna be a blast.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson (43:45):

      I’m really excited. I think that the more we dive into this topic—which, again, we’re gonna look at math anxiety from a lot of different angles—and I’m excited to talk to Dr. Truglio about how we can take this research and these conversations that are happening about math and how it can actually impact what’s happening in homes. ‘Cause we wanna help create positive relationships with mathematics, with kids in math. I’m so excited. And I hope you folks keep listening. We love having you here in the Lounge. And if you haven’t already, please subscribe to Math Teacher Lounge, wherever you get podcasts. And if you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a rating and a review. It helps more listeners to find the show, and let other folks know about this show. Recommendations are great. Thanks so much for listening.

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      What Dr. Erin Maloney says about math

      “If we can change their mindset, then we can set students on a path to more opportunities and success.”

      –Dr. Erin Maloney

      Associate Professor in the School of Psychology, Director of the Cognition and Emotion Laboratory, and the Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Academic Achievement and Well-Being, all at the University of Ottawa

      Meet the guest

      Erin Maloney is an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair at the University of Ottawa. Her research sits at the intersection of Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology, and Education and focuses on cognitive and emotional factors that relate to academic achievement. She is a world-renowned expert on the study of math anxiety, conducting research in the lab, in homes, and in classrooms with children, parents, and their teachers. She is passionate about both knowledge mobilization and equity, diversity, and inclusion within education and science.

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      About Math Teacher Lounge

      Math Teacher Lounge is a biweekly podcast created specifically for K–12 math educators. In each episode co-hosts Bethany Lockhart Johnson (@lockhartedu) and Dan Meyer (@ddmeyer) chat with guests, taking a deep dive into the math and educational topics you care about.

      Join the Math Teacher Lounge Facebook group to continue the conversation, view exclusive content, interact with fellow educators, participate in giveaways, and more!

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      Winter Wrap-Up 01: Problem-solving and facilitating classroom discussions

      Promotional graphic for Math Teacher Lounge podcast, episode 1, featuring Fawn Nguyen, Christy Thompson, and Kassia Omohundro Wedekind discussing classroom problem-solving and discussions.

      As we prep for an exciting new season of Math Teacher Lounge: The Podcast, hosts Bethany Lockhart Johnson and Dan Meyer are looking back at the amazing speakers and conversations from past episodes and sharing some of their favorites!

      First up: A season 2 double feature of the power of problem-solving with Fawn Nguyen and Facilitating Classroom Discussions with authors Christy Hermann Thompson and Kassia Omohundro Wedekind.

      Fawn is a specialist on Amplify’s advanced math team and a former math teacher and math coach—so she knows her stuff! You’ll hear about her five criteria for good problem-solving problems, and the power and importance of exposing all students to problem-solving.

      Then, we’ll move into Bethany and Dan’s conversation with Christy and Kassia to learn how hands-down conversations allow students to become better listeners and the steps you can take to implement hands-down conversations in your classroom.

      Explore more from Math Teacher Lounge by visiting our main page.

      Download Transcript

      Dan Meyer: (00:01)

      Hey folks. Welcome back to Math Teacher Lounge. My name is Dan Meyer.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson: (00:03)

      And I’m Bethany Lockhart Johnson. Hello! Happy New Year! Hello, Dan Meyer.

      Dan Meyer: (00:09)

      HNY, Bethany. HNY to you and to all of the listeners out there in Math Teacher Lounge. HNY is the abbreviation that I use sometimes.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson: (00:18)

      Oh, is that what that is? Is that—I wasn’t sure what that was. If on my birthday you send me HBD…no.

      Dan Meyer: (00:25)

      Yeah.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson: (00:25)

      No. Unacceptable.

      Dan Meyer: (00:27)

      I will. No, you want the full thing. To demonstrate my care for your birthday, I gotta spell the whole thing out. I’m just trying to stay relevant. You know, I’m just trying to stay relevant and youthful. So I’m using The Abreevs.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson: (00:38)

      The Brevvies.

      Dan Meyer: (00:40)

      To the extent of even abbreviating the word “abbreviation.” . So, any New Year’s resolutions you wanna share with the listeners, Bethany? While you think, I’ll just share mine real quick here. This is the year of the perfect Wordle streak for yours truly, Dan Meyer. I’m going the full 365. Watch. Watch me do it, folks. I’m naming it here. Live on air. recorded on air. Perfect Wordle year. What you got for the listeners, Bethany?

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson: (01:10)

      Let’s see. It’s raining very hard here in Southern California, and my newest resolution is to embrace nature. My child wants nothing more than to go and splash in all the puddles.

      Dan Meyer: (01:22)

      Nice.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson: (01:23)

      And be amongst the mud. And what I’m gonna keep telling myself—and so far, so far, I’ve been doing pretty good with this—thrive, child. Splash. Squish. We can dry you off. You will not melt. So I want to keep finding opportunities. Like, for instance, my response is, “It’s pouring rain. Let’s stay under covers and let’s read this book together!” And his response is like, banging on the windows, like, “Please let me go outside.” So I myself have some rain boots. I’m going to go forth and splash with my child. So hopefully you’ll see me doing that a bit more.

      Dan Meyer: (02:08)

      Love that.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson: (02:09)

      Ask me what I’m doing. I’m outside, splashing in nature.

      Dan Meyer: (02:12)

      I don’t wanna put words in your mouth, but I have felt a bit like parenting is a means for rounding out aspects of my own personality that I have felt are—or habits or hobbies that are lacking. Like, I’ve never been real outdoorsy or into camping, but I don’t want that to limit my own kids’ aspirations or interests. So let’s do the thing that’s not super natural for me, for their own sake. Which is kind of what I’m hearing a little bit from you, which—that sounds exciting.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson: (02:35)

      Do you wanna go camping together? Like, our families?

      Dan Meyer: (02:38)

      Uhhh. Let’s take this one off the air. I also love something that’s more relevant to a teachers audience that you said, that I think is super interesting, is how there’s ways that we can make the jobs harder for ourselves, that are optional. And what I hear from you is like, “I’m just not gonna freak out. We’re getting wet. We’re getting soggy. And I’m just not gonna freak out.” And I just think that that’s interesting to think about, the things that we take on, you know, that’s optional. Freaking out is optional, sometimes. And there’s other areas, I think, for parenting or for teaching, where it’s like, “Oh, do I really need to choose this particular battle?” And to reconsider that.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson: (03:19)

      And in that spirit, our whole Wordle episode that we talked about? Do you remember you talked about how beautiful Wordle mistakes are, and how you keep learning from mistakes? I mean, you obviously want the final correct answer, but just, you know, when you get on a losing streak, Dan, I hope you’ll continue to pat yourself on the back.

      Dan Meyer: (03:38)

      Well, I will not be taking on a losing streak, or even lose one day. This is what’s gonna happen here. I’m just speaking that and putting it out in the universe.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson: (03:49)

      Speak it!

      Dan Meyer: (03:50)

      But if it happens, I will be taking a long break from all human interaction. And lamenting, as I do.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson: (03:59)

      Camping. Dan’s off in the woods, weeping.

      Dan Meyer: (04:01)

      That’s right. That’s right. Yeah. Well, we wanna share with you folks—an exciting programming note is that we are currently working very hard on producing a special fifth season of this podcast. You thought the other seasons were special? Let me tell you, this fifth season gives new meaning to the word “special.” And we can’t wait to tell you more about that. But in the meantime, Bethany, you wanna tell ’em what we’re up to in the meantime?

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson: (04:26)

      Well, Dan and I went back and we were having a conversation about some of our most favorite conversations, or the conversations that people bring up to us. Like, when we were at the CMC conference, or NCTM, folks, when we talk about the podcast, they’re like, “Oh, I loved this one.” “Oh, I love this one.” And that, to me, I don’t know, that is exciting. And so, while we’re putting together this new season over these next few weeks, we’re gonna feature a few of our favorite conversations from our first four seasons. Dan, four seasons!

      Dan Meyer: (04:59)

      We’ve been at this for four seasons! And I do want to just emphasize something you said, Bethany: that all of our conversations are our favorite conversations. They’re all our special children. What we just felt like you, the listeners, did not quite learn enough from some of these, and so we really needed you to hear them again to make sure you got everything that you should get out of them. So, let’s tell ’em who’s up first. And who’s up first is a conversation we had about problem-solving with Fawn Nguyen, who’s an advanced math team specialist here at Amplify. Been a former math coach, math teacher. Just really done the work, is what I’d say about Fawn.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson: (05:38)

      If you have been listening to this podcast, you’re like, “Whoa, whoa. Wait, I have not missed an episode. I didn’t hear Fawn’s interview.” That is because we used to be video only, not podcasts. So this conversation with Fawn was from, what, our second season?

      Dan Meyer: (05:55)

      Yeah.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson: (05:56)

      And we were on video. And another thing about it is it was, this is a conversation that, when folks talk about problem-solving, a lot of the responses we’ve gotten are like, “Wait, I’ve never thought of problem-solving this way.” In fact, you’ll hear us say that exact thing . So we really appreciated the time with Fawn. And yeah.

      Dan Meyer: (06:17)

      Enjoy it, folks. Especially enjoy Fawn’s—I think a four-part?—definition of problem-solving, a word that’s often kind of mushily defined. And Fawn really goes into, I think, precision and depth on it. So hope you folks enjoy it.

      Dan Meyer: (06:35)

      Give a wave, Fawn, to the camera. Would you? Cool. Fawn has been a teacher for a very long time. She is someone who could have left the classroom at any point and taken any number of jobs in the math-teaching universe. But I’ve always admired that Fawn has taught kids for a very long time, and that has given her, in my view, just a lot of clarity on what is important to her about students. I’ve seen her not get upset or obsessed with certain kinds of small niche issues that a lot of us, like, they get a lot of us down in the classroom, sometimes. And she’s maintained a laser focus on among many other things, problem-solving as a virtue in mathematics classrooms. So, please welcome Fawn to our show. Fawn, thanks so much for being here.

      Fawn Nguyen: (07:18)

      Hey, thank you so much. Thank you. I am so excited and honored that you guys invited me for this, Bethany and Dan.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson: (07:24)

      Thank you for being here.

      Fawn Nguyen: (07:26)

      I love you, Bethany. Dan, I can tolerate, but I love you.

      Dan Meyer: (07:30)

      I really worked myself up there on that complimentary opening for you, and that’s how you get me back, here? OK. Problem-solving is fully on the consciousness of math teachers. Every math teacher knows that they need to say, like, “Yeah, oh, problem-solving. Yes. Love it. Do it. I dig it.” But even so, I feel like it’s become kind of a buzzword. Like, it’s not always obvious what that means…or am I doing problem-solving, really? So we’re curious: As someone who is a problem-solving expert, who is asked all over the world to talk about problem-solving: How do I know if I’m doing problem-solving in my classroom?

      Fawn Nguyen: (08:12)

      This is not my definition of it, but—nor am I an expert, by the way, Dan, thank you! but I try really, really hard and work on it!—my definition—or it’s not my definition, but I like it because it’s short and honest—is “problem-solving is what we do when we don’t know what to do.” And so—

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson: (08:32)

      Ooh!

      Fawn Nguyen: (08:32)

      —with that mind-frame, I’m hoping teachers think more about what they task. Because I think it gets mislabeled a lot, as to what is problem-solving. If the kids already know what to do, there’s a solution path. Then it’s not problem-solving.

      Dan Meyer: (08:48)

      Yeah. So what are examples then? An example of, like, I might call something problem-solving, but it it fails that particular definition that you just proposed there. Very short, very honest definition.

      Fawn Nguyen: (08:59)

      Just, it needs to have constraint and contradiction to what the kids think naturally. It should come as a surprise. There’s an element of surprise in it. There’s tension.

      Dan Meyer: (09:11)

      Maybe if there’s harder numbers or, you know, decimals or fractions in the same kind of procedure…I can feel myself thinking, “Yeah, this is hard. This is problem-solving. Problem-solving equals hard. But we already know what to do.”

      Fawn Nguyen: (09:27)

      Or just word problems. That’s the most common thing. As soon as it just has words attached to the math, it becomes problem-solving. But that’s just coding it to me. That’s just coding it with words, wrapping it around. It doesn’t mean anything until we read through and see if there’s true problem-solving in it.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson: (09:45)

      Like, what’s the moment that it becomes problem-solving? In the way that you envision it?

      Fawn Nguyen: (09:53)

      Well, I think there’s the bigger problem-solving of really bringing a task…I wanna call it left field. It just—we rarely ever, if ever, see it in the regular coursework, but it can also be problem-solving if we just take what we expect the children to do at the end of the unit, how about we front-load that? To me, that’s also problem-solving. And I’m trying to encourage teachers to do that last problem first. The task writers put more thought—not that they don’t do the rest of it!—but you know, this is a special one, because they label it “challenge,” or “enrichment,” or “are you ready for more?” I’ve seen those. And so it is this really special problem. And I would love for us to think about “do that first.” Because my biggest fear is that because it comes at the end, that not all the children are involved. And so that to me is the saddest part. Because we might not get to it, right? In mathematics, we always think, “OK, well, let’s do these problems and then we don’t have time for the rest.” But I think that’s your richest task right there, is at the very end. So why don’t we front-load it, start it, and it’s OK—of course it’s OK!—that we don’t all get it. But the exposure to all students is so important. Talk about, you know, equity. Talk about that, everybody gets the same thing. If everyone dug into that first one with everybody’s collaboration, and we get to share that, and then we leave it, because “Yeah, OK, now we learn more of the other stuff, right? That hopefully support. And then we can go back. And now everybody had a chance to go get into it, and then we can come back to it as, as many problems, we need to go back to it.”

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson: (11:37)

      And that feels so powerful. Because it feels like—as a teacher, I’m thinking it would also inform my work, how I approach the unit, and how I approach the next steps. Right? Like, what kind of work would we be doing if I let it, if I allow it, to change the way that I approach the unit.

      Dan Meyer: (11:58)

      Yeah. What you’re describing is so powerful, and really asks a lot of the task designers as well, I think. There are problem-solving tasks that really require, like, abstract knowledge of the way formulas and variables fit together. And what I love about what Amplify is doing with their problem-solving, what you’re helping them do, is that they start with a true low floor that can draw in every student. And they might get stuck at different places; that’s fine. But everyone has a way in. That’s exciting.

      Fawn Nguyen: (12:24)

      It’s a big deal for me to have this opportunity and this trust, to integrate problem-solving into the curriculum, make it intentional. It’s difficult to implement. It is, to be honest. Because for me, what is a good task? This makes one of my four criteria: One is, it is non-routine. It is simply stated. Simply stated—that’s like your low floor. And then has multiple solutions. And the fourth: This makes it. Because that the teacher enjoys solving it. And so you have to enjoy solving it to bring it. Because so that way I can say to my kids, “This is my gift.” It really is, Because, you know, it has so much fun and joy. And I appreciate the struggle. And I wanna illustrate an example. For example, let’s say Dan and I are classmates. And I know that Dan gets A’s on his tests and the lowest score he ever got was an 89%. I, on the other hand, just sitting right next to him, I average D. I have a D average on everything. While Bethany, our amazing and wonderful teacher, brings in a problem. And when she brings it in, she says, “I worked on this problem. I found this problem; I worked on it; and I struggled with it. And it was amazing. I enjoyed it so much, I’m sharing it with you.” And all of a sudden it’s like, “OK!” And I”m sitting there, right? My teacher loves this problem so much; she’s bringing it in to share with us. And now, all of a sudden, it’s not, you know…and I know she only gives us non-routine. When she talks about problem-solving, it’s non-routine. So it’s not directly tied to the textbook that I’ve been struggling with. So it gives me a chance, it gives me a chance to contribute. To think differently. And now, suddenly I look forward to working with Dan, because in this space, in this problem-solving space, Dan is no longer Mr. Know-It-All. And so that’s what I mean by—I am saying this a hundred times, and I will not stop saying it—problem-solving levels the playing field. Our world is filled with unsolved problems. Are you kidding me? Right? We look around us, we have so many things that are not solvable, or people are working on it, and yet in mathematics, what happens? The bell rings; we start; and we solve everything during that time, and we leave. And that’s…yeah. No! No! We need to wrestle with problems.

      Dan Meyer: (15:04)

      And that was our conversation with Fawn Nguyen, which we first released way back in November, 2021. You folks can follow Fawn on Twitter at Fawn P Nguyen. Um, that’s @ F A W N P N G U Y E N.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson: (15:18)

      So our episode today is a double feature. We are featuring another conversation that we loved from Season Two. This is a conversation with Christy Hermann Thompson and Kassia Omohundro Wedekind. They’re authors of the book, “Hands Down, Speak Out: Listening and Talking Across Literacy and Math.” And I don’t know if you remember, but not only did we have a conversation with them, but we did a whole book study on Facebook, a Facebook Live book study, over the course of several months. And it was one of my most favorite things. And then they did a webinar at the end. So our conversation with them on the podcast for me felt like such a beautiful dive into their book. And you know, I’ve said it before, you think you have something down in the classroom, you’re like, “Oh, hand-raising, I’ve got that down.” You think you have it down, but then somebody says, “OK, but have you ever considered thiiiis?” You know, and it just—

      Dan Meyer: (16:17)

      NOT that??

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson: (16:18)

      , Not that? Something totally different? And I loved talking with them. They’re a lot of fun. And I loved the book.

      Dan Meyer: (16:23)

      Wonderful conversation, great book. Very provocative ideas. Yeah. As someone who’s like, “OK, classroom management, I gotta get the hand-raising going…”. In the classroom before we talked, they offered a really potent challenge to some really standard classroom management ideas. Yeah. Loved it.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson: (16:40)

      And this conversation also offers some really practical tips for facilitating student conversations. So we think you’ll enjoy it. Here’s our conversation with Christy and Kassia.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson: (16:53)

      So today we are talking about “Hands Down, Speak Out: Listening and Talking Across Literacy and Math, K—5.” And we have the authors here, Kassia Omohundro Wedekind and Christy Hermann Thompson. Before we begin, let’s define what a hands-down conversation is. A hands-down conversation is just another way to structure discourse in your classroom. So in a typical classroom, you might see students raising their hand and waiting on a teacher to call on them before they share their ideas or engage in discussion. But in a hands-down conversation, it’s students’ ideas and voices that are taking the lead, and teachers are stepping back and focusing on listening and facilitating. Hello! Welcome to the Lounge.

      Kassia Omohundro Wedekind: (17:44)

      Thank you. We’re excited to be here. We’re fans of Season One. So we’re ready to go.

      Dan Meyer: (17:50)

      I was a secondary teacher but I still found so much to love about the book. I think facilitating conversations is just generally challenging, and perhaps even more so in math, where answers feel so tightly dialed-in, in lots of ways. But I loved it. I would love for you to just explain to our audience, what is a hands-down conversation and how does that contrast with what might be standard practice for some people? For some classes?

      Christy Hermann Thompson: (18:13)

      We just started using the term hands-down conversation because we wanted to differentiate the fact that there are different times to have different types of dialogue in the math classroom, in the literacy classroom. And we use this as one of our tools. Right? It’s not that every day, all day long, we’re very against hand-raising and should never see that again. We find that having this as one of our tools will be where we make really clear to the students that this is a moment where we’re turning it over to you to negotiate the space and make the decisions about when your voice comes in and who speaks next. You know, carry on kind of like that dinner table or that playground or, you know, whatever is your natural habitat for talk. And bringing that into the classroom and then hoping that it also someday transfers back out of the classroom back into the real world.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson: (19:09)

      For the teachers who feel like that’s terrifying to have students just start speaking, and speaking without any sort of control or my little equity sticks, my little popsicle sticks, or my popcorn, or whatever other thing they’re using, what would you say is the first step?

      Christy Hermann Thompson: (19:25)

      So I think recognizing and naming that fear is part of it. And then saying to yourself, “What’s the worst that could happen here?” You know, I think the worst that could happen is that nobody talks and it’s totally silent. Or on the other hand, everybody talks at the same time. And both of those things will happen! And so what? It’s gonna be messy. And if you just acknowledge that it’s gonna look messy, and that’s part of growing; that every child as they learn—and every adult—is messy as they grow.

      Kassia Omohundro Wedekind: (19:59)

      And we have to see what kinds of things will happen in a hands-down conversation. Like there’s no prerequisite. You just start and then you see what happens. And those are the signs that tell you, “What can help this community grow as talkers and listeners? If everyone’s talking at the same time, and they’re kind of pushing each other over with their words by saying, “I have something to add!” “I have something to add!” or something like that, that’s a common thing that sometimes happens at the beginning. Then you know that the next step is to do some work about how to hold your thoughts back, how to add, wait for a space in the conversation to talk. And those are all things we need people to know out in the world.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson: (20:41)

      So can you give an example of a micro-lesson that…well, first, what do you define as a micro-lesson? And then, what’s an example of one that maybe somebody who wants to dip their toe into the world of hands-down conversations that they could try?

      Christy Hermann Thompson: (20:56)

      The reason we call them micro-lessons is because we wanted to differentiate from the term mini lesson, which is out there and tends to describe about 10 or 15 minutes that might take place at the beginning of a work period of time. And this is much smaller than that. We usually follow a pretty predictable structure of naming. Here’s this thing that’s so helpful when we’re having conversations, and we love to especially be able to name something that a student had done: “Kaylee did this yesterday and it really helped us.” So what we might call that is, “And then here’s how Kaylee and other people might do that. They might do something like this.” And, you know, having a little anchor chart, so there’s a visual reminder of that skill. “So when we’re having a conversation today, you could try…”. And that’s basically a micro-lesson, just in a nutshell.

      Kassia Omohundro Wedekind: (21:51)

      When I was doing these hands-down conversations and I had more space for myself to listen as a teacher, I’m like, “Well, look at those kids, like, slumped onto the ground, like, pulling the carpet apart, but they’re having this amazing conversation!” And so I learned that listening is a lot broader. So in this lesson that I’m thinking about, we just talk with kids about what are lots of different ways that listening can look like. Sometimes with younger kids, I’ll take pictures of them listening in different ways and we’ll notice things about them together. And then we invite them to talk with their Turn and Talk partner about like, “How do you like to be listened to?” Or “Tell me about how you listen.” And just kind of broaden that. And really, I like to think that like the micro-lessons are for the kids, but also I’m saying those things to say them for myself. Like, “Remember, you don’t have to insist that kids are staring each other down in the eyes all the time. Like, “It’s OK when they’re doing other things. There’s other ways of listening.” So I think I’ve learned as much from the micro-lessons each time I do them as the kids that I’m trying to help grow as listeners and talkers, as well.

      Dan Meyer: (23:00)

      You folks have a lot of really eloquent ideals you express, around democratic classrooms and engagement. But you also have just some very tangible, practical…even down to, like, how a teacher positions their body in space and the way they use their eyes to connect. I think it would be really helpful for teachers to hear that it’s not just they’re signing on to a manifesto of sorts, but there’s ways they can act their way into the beliefs that you both expressed here.

      Christy Hermann Thompson: (23:26)

      When I’m starting hands-down conversation work, if I put myself a little bit outside of the circle and look down, and give myself a clipboard, it, it helps me bite my tongue and it helps me give better wait time and see what the kids are doing before I have that tendency to jump in and teach and do lots of teacher-y things.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson: (23:48)

      Kassia and Christy, thank you so much for joining us. We are so excited to have this conversation and to share your work. This is exciting. And I feel like this conversation is just the beginning of a deeper dive into this book.

      Kassia Omohundro Wedekind: (24:01)

      Thanks for having us.

      Christy Hermann Thompson: (24:02)

      Thank you.

      Dan Meyer: (24:03)

      Thank you both.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson: (24:06)

      Thanks so much for listening to our conversations with Fawn Nguyen and Christy Hermann Thompson and Kassia Omohundro Wedekind, both of which were released in 2021, part of our second season. And, you know, we hoped you enjoyed listening to it for a first, second, maybe third, fourth time.

      Dan Meyer: (24:24)

      Let’s be real. There’s some real fans out there.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson: (24:26)

      We loved it then. We love it now!

      Dan Meyer: (24:28)

      Yep, yep, yep. Please keep in touch with the show by following us on Twitter at MTL Show, and join our Facebook group, the Math Teacher Lounge community. We’d love to hear from you there. And please stay tuned for more info on what we’re cooking up here in the Math Teacher Lounge. Thank you folks for listening. Take care, Bethany.

      Bethany Lockhart Johnson: (24:47)

      Bye now.

      Stay connected!

      Join our community and get new episodes every other Tuesday!

      We’ll also share new and exciting free resources for your classroom every month.

      What Fawn Nguyen says about math teaching

      “It’s a big deal for me to have the opportunity and this trust to integrate problem-solving into the curriculum.”

      – Fawn Nguyen

      Specialist, Math Advance Team, Amplify Desmos Math

      Meet the guests

      Fawn Nguyen

      Fawn began her work with Amplify in 2022 as a Math Advance Team Specialist. She was a math coach for a K-8 school district for three years, and a middle school teacher for 30 years before that. Fawn has also received a number of accolades as an educator.

      Christy Thompson

      Christy Thompson is a Literacy Coach in Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia. She has spent her teaching and coaching career particularly focused on listening to and learning from the talk of our youngest students.

      Kassia Omohundro Wedekind

      Kassia Omohundro Wedekind spent many wonderful years as a classroom teacher and math coach in Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia and now splits her time between being an independent math coach and an editor at Stenhouse Publishers. Her favorite days are spent in classrooms learning from the many ways children talk, listen and negotiate meaning together.

      Three women are pictured separately in circular frames, each smiling and facing the camera, against a white background with overlapping pastel shapes—perfect for highlighting math teacher lounge discussions or sharing essential math teacher resources.
      A graphic with the text "Math Teacher Lounge with Bethany Lockhart Johnson and Dan Meyer" on colored overlapping circles.

      About Math Teacher Lounge: The podcast

      Math Teacher Lounge is a biweekly podcast created specifically for K–12 math educators. In each episode co-hosts Bethany Lockhart Johnson (@lockhartedu) and Dan Meyer (@ddmeyer) chat with guests, taking a deep dive into the math and educational topics you care about.

      Join the Math Teacher Lounge Facebook group to continue the conversation, view exclusive content, interact with fellow educators, participate in giveaways, and more!

      You might also like:

      A video call screen showing a math problem on the left with a play button overlay, and two participants on the right in individual video boxes. "MATH TEACHER LOUNGE" text is at the bottom.

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      Math games and manipulatives for online and remote learning.

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      Desmos Classroom Grades 3–12

      Join Desmos Classroom to gain access to free classroom lessons, lesson-building…

      Inspiring the next generation of Rochester scientists, engineers, and curious scholars

      Dear Rochester educator,

      We’re extremely excited to be part of your science review process.

      Built from the ground up for three-dimensional, phenomena-based learning, Amplify Science helps your Rochester scholars go from learning about to figuring out scientific concepts.

      Explore the sections below and learn how Amplify creates rigorous, relevant learning experiences for the next generation of scientists, engineers, and curious citizens.

      —Jennifer Fosegan, Rochester Senior Account Executive

      Standards-based and grounded in research

      Amplify Science is an engaging new core curriculum designed for three-dimensional, phenomena-based learning. Developed by the science education experts at UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science and the digital learning team at Amplify, our program is used by hundreds of schools across the country, including New York City Public Schools, Chicago Public Schools, and Denver Public Schools.

      Amplify Science was designed from the ground up to meet the Next Generation Science Standards. To ensure alignment to the New York State Science Learning Standards (NYSSLS), our partners at the New York City Department of Education created additional resources that can be made available for RCSD to implement.

      Instructional model

      The Amplify Science program is rooted in the proven, research-based pedagogy of Do, Talk, Read, Write, Visualize. Here’s how each element works:

      Phenomena-based approach

      In each Amplify Science unit, students take on the roles of scientists or engineers in order to investigate a real-world problem. Students work to define the problem and collect and make sense of evidence. Once the context is clear, students collect evidence from multiple sources and through a variety of modalities.

      At the end of the unit, students are presented with a brand-new problem, giving them an opportunity to apply what they’ve learned over the course of the unit to a new context. This represents a shift from asking students to learn about science to supporting students in figuring out the science.

      Resources to support your review

      What’s included

      COMPONENT

      FORMAT

      Teacher’s Guides and digital experience

      Available digitally and in print, the Teacher’s Guides contain all of the information teachers need to facilitate classroom instruction, including detailed lesson plans, classroom slides, high-level overview documentation, differentiation strategies, standards alignments, materials and preparation steps, teacher support strategies, and in-context professional development, possible student responses, and more.

      Print and digital

      Hands-on materials kits

      Hands-on learning is integrated into every unit of Amplify Science. Each hands-on activity is supported through clear instructions for the teacher, as well as easily accessible materials in unit-specific kits. Each kit contains hands-on materials, both consumable and nonconsumable, and various print materials (e.g., Vocabulary and Key Concept cards). With Amplify Science, students can actively participate in science: gathering evidence, thinking critically, making observations, and communicating their claims

      Kit

      COMPONENT

      FORMAT

      Student Investigation Notebooks

      Available for every unit, the Student Investigation Notebooks contain instructions for activities and space for students to record data, reflect on ideas from texts and investigations, and construct explanations and arguments.

      Print and digital

      Student books

      The age-appropriate Student Books in Amplify Science allow students to engage with content-rich text, obtain evidence, develop research and close reading skills, and construct arguments and explanations about the ideas they are learning in class.

      Print and digital

      Student digital experience

      Students can easily engage with the student digital experience, so effective learning can occur in every type of classroom environment.

      In grades 4–5, students are introduced to digital simulations. Developed exclusively for Amplify Science, these digital tools serve as venues of exploration and data collection, allowing students to discover and construct their understanding of science concepts and phenomena.

      Digital

      Spanish parity

      Amplify Science is committed to providing support to meet the needs of all learners. For Spanish-speaking students, greater access to rich science content is achieved with Amplify Science through the use of a pedagogical approach that offers multiple points of entry. In addition, Spanish language supports are available across the curriculum, including Spanish kits that offer Spanish versions of all student-facing print materials, as well as Spanish digital licenses for teachers. Learn more about the Spanish components available across Amplify Science.

      The same rigor in terms of scientific accuracy, literacy development, and the use of rich content and language in the creation of the Amplify Science Spanish materials. To ensure equity, all Spanish materials were carefully translated using academic Spanish, paying particular attention to consistency and the use of grade-level-appropriate language in order to support language development.

      Review online

      Ready to explore on your own? Follow the instructions below to access your demo account.

      First, watch this navigation video. Then, click the orange button “Log in to Amplify Science” to log in.

      • Select Log in with Amplify.
      • Enter username and password:
        • Teacher username: t1.rcsdtrial@demo.tryamplify.net
        • Student username: s1.rcsdtrial@demo.tryamplify.net
        • Password (both teacher and student): Amplify1-rcsdtrial

      Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCI) review
      Each Amplify Science unit is designed around a unit-specific learning progression that aligns with NGSS disciplinary core ideas (DCI) and crosscutting concepts. The levels that comprise the unit’s learning progression are cumulative. As students progress through the unit, they are able to integrate prior understandings with new insights, and there are continuing opportunities for students to master conceptual understanding of early unit content in subsequent chapters of the unit.

      This means that standards are often addressed across entire units instead of in one particular activity or lesson. Thus, the lessons noted below are examples of where the concept represented in the listed DCI is addressed, but this list should not be considered exhaustive. Instead, students have frequent opportunities to engage with these ideas throughout the unit, the grade, and the grade band. 

      To view the specified lessons, explore our RCSD Digital Review Guide or select a grade level below.

      DCI ESS2.D: Weather and Climate
      Before you begin reviewing these lessons, make sure to locate the following Student Books from your Unit Kit: What is the Weather Like Today? and Tornado! Predicting Severe Weather

      Select the Sunlight and Weather unit, click Chapter 1, and locate the lessons below:

      Lesson 1.1

      • Activities 2 and 3, Step-by-step tab
      • Student book, What is the Weather Like Today? (note: located in your Unit Kit)

      Lesson 1.2

      • Activities 1 and 3, Step-by-step tab

      Lesson 1.3

      • Activities 1 and 2, Step-by-step tab

      Lesson 1.4

      • Lesson Brief, Digital Resources, “Playground Weather Calendars and Playground Weather Graphs (Completed)”
      • Activity 1, Step-by-step tab (especially steps 5, 9, and 10) and Teacher Support tab (“Assessment, Assessment Opportunity: Assessing Students’ Understanding of Types of Weather”)

      Lesson 5.1

      • Activity 1, Step-by-step tab (especially steps 6–7) and Teacher Support, Assessment tab (“Assessment Opportunity: Assessing Students’ Understanding of Weather and Why We Measure It”)
      • Student book, Tornado! Predicting Severe Weather (note: located in your Unit Kit), pages 6–9

      DCI PS4.A: Wave Properties
      Before you begin reviewing these lessons, make sure to locate the following materials from your Unit Kit: Light and Sound Student Investigation Notebook; Student Book: What Vibrates?

      Select the Light and Sound unit, click Chapter 4, and locate the lessons below:

      Lesson 4.1

      • Lesson Brief, Digital Resources, “Assessment Guide”
      • Activity 3, Step-by-step tab (especially steps 1–12)
      • Light and Sound Student Investigation Notebook, page 24 (note: located in your Unit Kit)

      Lesson 4.2

      • Activity 2, Step-by-step tab and On-the-Fly Assessment (hummingbird icon)
      • Activity 3, Step-by-step tab and On-the-Fly Assessment (hummingbird icon)
      • Activity 4, Instructional Guide
      • Student book, What Vibrates? (note: located in your Unit Kit)
      • Light and Sound Student Investigation Notebook, page 25 (note: located in your Unit Kit)

      Lesson 4.3

      • Lesson Brief, Digital Resources, “I Hear a Sound. What Vibrates? Mini-Book copymaster”
      • Activity 1, Step-by-step tab (especially steps 5–11, 13), and Teacher Support tab (“Instructional Suggestion, Going Further: Sound Can Cause Vibrations”)
      • Activity 3, Step-by-step tab
      • Activity 4, Step-by-step tab and On-the-Fly Assessment (hummingbird icon)

      DCI LS2.A: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
      Before you begin reviewing these lessons, make sure to locate the following materials from your Unit Kit: Plant and Animal Relationships Student Investigation Notebook; Student book A Plant is a System.

      Select the Plant and Animal Relationships unit, click Chapter 1, and locate the lessons below:

      Lesson 1.6

      • Activities 2–4, Step-by-step tab
      • Plant and Animal Relationships Student Investigation Notebook (note: located in your Unit Kit), pages 15–19

      Lesson 1.7

      • Activity 2, Step-by-step tab, Possible Responses tab, and Critical Juncture Assessment (hummingbird icon)
      • Activity 3, Step-by-step tab

      Lesson 2.2

      • Activity 2, Step-by-step tab (especially steps 4–12) and Possible Responses tab
      • Student book, A Plant is a System (note: located in your Unit Kit)

      DCI ESS2.D: Weather and Climates
      Before you begin reviewing these lessons, make sure to locate the following materials from your Unit Kit: Weather and Climate Student Investigation Notebook; Student Books Dangerous Weather Ahead and Sky Notebook.

      Select the Weather and Climate unit, click Chapter 4, and locate the lessons below:

      Lesson 1.4

      • Activity 2, Step-by-step tab 
      • Student book, Sky Notebook (note: located in your Unit Kit)

      Lesson 2.3

      • Activity 3, Step-by-step tab and Possible Responses tab
      • Weather and Climate Student Investigation Notebook, page 28 (note: located in your Unit Kit)

      Lesson 3.2

      • Lesson Brief, Digital Resources, “Anchorage, Queenstown, and Saint Petersburg Graphs copymaster”
      • Activities 2 and 3, Step-by-step tab

      Lesson 3.3,

      • Activity 2, Step-by-step tab, Possible Responses tab, and On-the-Fly Assessment (hummingbird icon)

      Lesson 3.6

      • Activity 1, Step-by-step tab (especially steps 3–5) and On-the-Fly Assessment (hummingbird icon)

      Lesson 3.7

      • Lesson Brief,  Digital Resources, “End-of-Unit Writing: Arguing About Future Island Weather Version A copymaster” and “Assessment Guide”
      • Activity 3, Step-by-step tab (especially steps 3–7)

      Lesson 4.2

      • Activity 2, Step-by-step tab, Possible Responses tab, and On-the-Fly Assessment (hummingbird icon)
      • Student book, Dangerous Weather Ahead (note: located in your Unit Kit)

      DCI PS4.A: Wave Properties
      Before you begin reviewing these lessons, make sure to locate the following materials from your Unit Kit: Student books Warning: Tsunami! and Patterns in Communication.

      Select the Waves, Energy, and Information unit, click Chapters 1 and 3, and locate the lessons below:

      Chapter 1

      Lesson 1.4

      • Activity 1, Step-by-step tab (especially steps 1, and 4)
      • Student book, Warning: Tsunami! (note: located in your Unit Kit)
      • Activity 2, Step-by-step tab, On-the-Fly Assessment (hummingbird icon), and Teacher Support tab (“Instructional Suggestion, Providing More Experience: Waves in Water”)

      Chapter 3

      Lesson 3.1

      • Activity 2, Step-by-step tab (especially steps 4–8) and On-the-Fly Assessment (hummingbird icon)
      • Activity 3, Step-by-step tab and Waves, Energy, and Information Simulation

      Lesson 3.2

      • Activity 3, Step-by-step tab, On-the-Fly Assessment (hummingbird icon), and Waves, Energy, and Information Simulation 

      Lesson 3.3

      • Activity 4, Step-by-step tab and On-the-Fly Assessment (hummingbird icon)
      • Student book, Patterns in Communication (note: located in your Unit Kit), pages 6–7

      DCI LS2.A: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
      Before you begin reviewing these lessons, make sure to take out the following materials from your Unit Kit: Student books Restoration Case Studies and Walk in the Woods; Organism Print Name Cards: Set 1.

      Select the Ecosystem Restoration unit, click Chapters 1, 2, and 3, and locate the lessons below:

      Lesson 1.6

      • Activity 2, Step-by-step tab, Possible Responses tab, and Ecosystem Modeling Tool (Box 2 on student apps page, “1.6 Healthy Ecosystem Model”)
      • Activity 3, Step-by-step tab (especially steps 2 and 3), Possible Responses tab, and Critical Juncture Assessment (hummingbird icon)

      Lesson 1.7

      • Activity 2, Step-by-step tab
      • Activity 3, Step-by-step tab (especially steps 3–7) and On-the-Fly Assessment (hummingbird icon)
      • Printable Resources, Print Materials (8.5” x 11”), Organism Name Cards: Set 1, pages 12–17 (note: located in your Unit Kit)

      Lesson 1.8

      • Activity 3, Step-by-step tab (especially steps 6–8) and Possible Responses tab

      Lesson 2.3

      • Activity 3, Step-by-step tab (especially steps 1–4), Possible Responses tab, and Ecosystem Modeling Tool (Box 3 on student apps page, “2.3 Plant Needs Model”)

      Lesson 2.5

      • Activity 3, Step-by-step tab
      • Student book, Restoration Case Studies (note: located in your Unit Kit)

      Lesson 3.2

      • Activity 2, Step-by-step tab
      • Student book, Walk in the Woods (note: located in your Unit Kit), pages 6–10

      Lesson 3.3

      • Activity 4, Step-by-step tab and Ecosystem Restoration Simulation

      Lesson 3.4

      •  Activity 2, Step-by-step tab, Possible Responses tab, On-the-Fly Assessment (hummingbird icon), and Ecosystem Restoration Simulation

      Lesson 3.5

      • Activity 2, Step-by-step tab and Teacher Support tab (“Instructional Suggestion, Going Further: Balance and Interdependence of Ecosystems: Impacts of Invasive Species”)
      • Student book, Restoration Case Studies (note: located in your Unit Kit), pages 11, 31, and 47

      Lesson 3.6

      • Activity 2, Step-by-step tab (especially steps 4–5), Possible Responses tab, and Critical Juncture Assessment (hummingbird icon)

      Lesson 3.7

      • Activity 1, Step-by-step tab, Possible Responses tab, and Ecosystem Modeling Tool (Box 5 on student apps page, “3.7 No Decomposers Model”)

      Looking for help?

      Contact your Rochester Account Executive:

      Jennifer Fosegan
      (585) 590-4200
      jfosegan@amplify.com

      CKLA – Knowledge Research Units for K–5

      To view this protected page, enter the password below:



      Introducing new units for Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos K–5

      As part of our commitment to creating even richer and more wide-ranging curricula, we are excited to release six new units for both Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos!

      Click here to learn more about Amplify CKLA.

      Click here to learn more about Amplify Caminos.

      About these units

      Our brand-new Knowledge Research units carry forward the powerful and proven instructional approach of both Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos while also:

      • Adding more variety to engage students from many walks of life. The rich topics and highly visual components featured in these units provide students with even more “windows and mirrors” and perspectives as they work to build knowledge.
      • Adding more authentic literature. Each new research unit revolves around a collection of high-interest authentic trade books that will spark more curiosity and inspire more inquiry.
      • Adding more flexibility. Units can be implemented for extended core instruction during flex periods, district-designated Pausing Points, or enrichment periods.

      Units cover a variety of rich and relevant topics:

      Three illustrations: one shows people at a gaming session, the middle depicts a diverse group standing together, and the third portrays a group gardening outdoors.

      With these new units, students will soar to new heights with Dr. Ellen Ochoa, Amelia Earhart, and the Tuskegee Airmen. They’ll feel the rhythm as they learn about Jazz legends Miles Davis, Tito Puente, and Duke Ellington. And they’ll explore the far reaches of the world with Jacques Cousteau, Matthew Henson, and Eugenie Clark.

      • Grade K: Art and the World Around Us/El arte y el mundo que nos rodea
      • Grade 1: Adventure Stories: Tales from the Edge of the World/Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra
      • Grade 2: Up, Up, and Away: The Age of Aviation/¡A volar! La era de la aviación
      • Grade 3: All That Jazz/Jazz y más
      • Grade 4: Energy: Past, Present, and Future/Energía: pasado, presente y futuro
      • Grade 5: Beyond Juneteenth: 1865 to present/Más allá de Juneteenth: de 1865 al presente

      Units are available in English and Spanish, and will include the following components:

      • Teacher Guide
      • Student Activity Books
      • Image Cards
      • Trade Book Collection
      • Digital Components (grades K–3 and 5)

      Grade K: Art and the World Around Us/El arte y el mundo que nos rodea

      “Every child is an artist,” said Picasso, meaning that every child uses art to explore and understand the world around them. Art and the World Around Us honors that truth by introducing Kindergarten students to some of the ways in which artists have explored and understood the worlds around them, too.

      This domain introduces students to artists from different time periods, countries, and cultures. Throughout the unit, students learn about different kinds of art and how artists use the world around them as they make art. They also connect this to what they have already learned about the earth, plants, and animals in other Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos domains: Farms/Granjas, Plants/Plantas, and Taking Care of the Earth/Cuidar el planeta Tierra. In addition, students connect this to what they have learned about sculptors in the Presidents and American Symbols/Presidentes y símbolos de los Estados Unidos domain. As they explore different artists and artistic traditions, they develop their ideas about how humans are connected to each other and to the world around them.

      As you read the texts in this unit, students may observe ways in which the characters or subjects are both similar to and different from students. This is a good opportunity to teach students awareness and sensitivity, building on the idea that all people share some things in common, and have other things that make them unique. This unit also offers an excellent opportunity to collaborate with your school’s art teacher, as many lessons have suggested activities to help students understand the kind of art they are studying.

      Within this unit, students have opportunities to:

      • Use details to describe art.
      • Identify three ways to create art.
      • Identify characteristics of cave art.
      • Sequence the steps of making pottery.
      • Describe how artists can create work connected to the world around them.
      • Describe what makes Kehinde Wiley’s portraits unique.
      • Explain how the texture of a surface can affect artwork created on it.
      • Explain what a sculpture is.
      • Describe what makes James Turrell’s artwork about the sky unique.
      • Explain what a museum is and what kinds of things you can see or do there.

      Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.

      • The First Drawing by Mordicai Gerstein
      • Van Gogh and the Sunflowers by Laurence Anholt
      • My Name is Georgia by Jeanette Winter
      • A Life Made by Hand by Andrea D’Aquino
      • Rainbow Weaver by Linda Elovitz Marshall
      • Luna Loves Art by Joseph Coelho

      Grade 1: Adventure Stories: Tales from the Edge of the World/Cuentos de aventuras: relatos desde los confines de la Tierra

      This domain introduces students to adventure stories set around the world and challenges students to dig into the adventures through research. By listening to the Read-Alouds and trade books, students increase their vocabulary and reading comprehension skills, learn valuable lessons about perseverance and teamwork, and become familiar with gathering information for research.

      In this unit, students study the careers of real-world explorers Dr. Eugenie Clark and Sophia Danenberg, marvel at the inventions of Jacques Cousteau, think critically about how teamwork and collaboration can make greater adventures possible, learn about the science and technology that enable adventures, and research some of the ways humans have confronted challenges at the edges of the world, from the oceans below to space above.

      Each lesson in the domain builds students’ research skills as they ask questions, gather information, and write a paragraph about their findings. Students share what they have learned about adventures in an Adventure Gallery Walkthrough. By taking on the persona of one of the adventurers they meet in the Read-Alouds and trade books, students deliver their final paragraphs as if they are a “speaking portrait” of that person. Students are invited to dress up as that adventurer if they desire.

      In addition, teachers can set aside time outside of the instructional block to create the picture frames students will hold as they present to the Adventure Gallery Walk guests. Frames can be made from shirt boxes, cardboard, construction paper, or any art supplies that are on hand. This might be an opportunity to collaborate with the school’s art department if resources are available. Another option is to ask students to make their frames at home with their caregivers. On the day of the Adventure Gallery Walk, students will be the hosts and take on specific jobs, such as welcoming the guests, describing their work throughout the unit, and pointing out the areas of study on the domain bulletin board. You can find a complete list of student jobs in Lesson 13.

      This unit builds upon the following Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos units that students will have encountered in the previous grade.

      • Nursery Rhymes and Fables/Rimas y fábulas infantiles (Kindergarten)
      • Stories/Cuentos (Kindergarten)

      The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in Adventure Stories: Tales from the Edge of the World. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used in this unit.

      Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.

      • My Name is Gabito/Me llamo Gabito by Monica Brown
      • Tomas and the Galápagos Adventure by Carolyn Lunn
      • The Astronaut with a Song for the Stars: The Story of Dr. Ellen Ochoa by Julia Finley Mosca
      • Mae Among the Stars by Roda Ahmed
      • Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean’s Most Fearless Scientist by Jess Keating
      • Manfish by Jennifer Berne
      • Keep On! The Story of Matthew Henson, Co-Discoverer of the North Pole by Deborah Hopkinson
      • The Top of the World: Climbing Mount Everest by Steve Jenkins

      Grade 2: Up, Up, and Away: The Age of Aviation/¡A volar! La era de la aviación

      With this domain, students head up, up, and away with an introduction to the soaring history of aviation. Students learn the stories of early aviators, such as the Montgolfier brothers, the Wright brothers, Aída de Acosta, and Amelia Earhart.

      During the unit, students study the science of flight, including the physics concept of lift, and research the social impacts of the world of flight. Finally, students let their research skills take flight as they explore key figures from the world of aviation.

      The lessons in this domain build on earlier Grade 2 CKLA and Amplify Caminos domains about the westward expansion, early Greek civilizations, and Greek myths, and lay the foundation for learning about other periods of world history in future grades.

      This unit builds upon the following Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos units that students will have encountered earlier in the year.

      • The Ancient Greek Civilization/La civilización griega antigua (Grade 2)
      • Greek Myths/Mitos griegos (Grade 2)
      • Westward Expansion/La expansión hacia el oeste (Grade 2)

      The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in Up, Up, and Away: The Age of Aviation. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used in this unit.

      Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.

      • Up and Away!: How Two Brothers Invented the Hot-Air Balloon by Jason Henry
      • The Glorious Flight: Across the Channel with Louis Blériot by Alice and Martin Provensen
      • The Flying Girl: How Aída de Acosta Learned to Soar by Margarita Engle
      • Wood, Wire, Wings: Emma Lilian Todd Invents an Airplane by Kirsten Larson
      • Helicopter Man: Igor Sikorsky and His Amazing Invention by Edwin Brit Wyckoff
      • The Tuskegee Airmen Story by Lynn Homan and Thomas Reilly
      • Skyward: The Story of Female Pilots in WWII by Sally Deng
      • Aim for the Skies: Jerrie Mock and Joan Merriam Smith’s Race to Complete Amelia Earhart’s Quest by Aimee Bissonette

      Grade 3: All That Jazz/Jazz y más

      This domain teaches students about the vibrant music, poetry, and culture of the Jazz Age in the United States. Students learn about famous writers and musicians like Langston Hughes, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Melba Liston, Tito Puente, and Miles Davis. They study how the jazz art form took root in the South, then spread to the North to become the sound of the Harlem Renaissance, eventually connecting people around the world in musical expression.

      During this unit, students perform guided research to further explore both the history of jazz and what jazz is today. They develop research skills and then use those skills to find deeper connections between the stories and music of the Jazz Age and music today. As students learn about the world of jazz, they collaborate and share ideas with their classmates. They also practice sharing feedback focused on their written work, and, at the end of the unit, students present their research to the group.

      The lessons give students opportunities to dive into the rhythms and stories of jazz, utilizing the knowledge sequence in this unit to:

      • Collaboratively generate research questions about jazz, jazz musicians, contemporary musicians from the state where they live or have lived, and the evolution of jazz music.
      • Utilize Read-Alouds, independent reading, and partner reading to learn about the Jazz Age, the Harlem Renaissance, jazz music, and biographies of celebrated jazz musicians and writers.
      • Research the answers to their generated questions, gather information, write a short research essay about a famous jazz musician, write a short essay about a contemporary musician from the state where they live or have lived, and give a presentation about their research.

      Within this unit, students have opportunities to:

      • Ask relevant questions and make pertinent comments
      • Identify details in texts
      • Determine key ideas of texts by evaluating details
      • Make text-based inferences
      • Generate questions based on prior knowledge and gathered information
      • Synthesize details across texts to demonstrate comprehension
      • Discuss and explain an author’s purpose
      • Identify and cite reliable primary and secondary sources of information
      • Compose a well-organized and focused informative essay
      • Make connections between topics
      • Present information using appropriate media

      Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.

      • Birth of the Cool: How Jazz Great Miles Davis Found His Sound by Kathleen Cornell Berman
      • Little Melba and Her Big Trombone by Kathryn Russell-Brown
      • Benny Goodman and Teddy Wilson: Taking the Stage as the First Black and White Jazz Band in History by Lesa Cline-Ransome
      • Tito Puente, Mambo King by Monica Brown
      • Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl’s Courage Changed Music by Margarita Engle
      • Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra by Andrea Pinkney

      In this unit, students also read the poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes. (Available for free through the Academy of American Poets website and the Poetry Foundation website, with recorded audio available through the website for John Hancock College Preparatory High School.)

      Grade 4: Energy: Past, Present, and Future/Energía: pasado, presente y futuro

      With this domain, students become tomorrow’s problem solvers in this study of energy in the United States. Analytical reading skills are developed by examining the challenges of early energy innovators. Students then read about current energy practices and young energy change-makers across the world.

      Throughout the unit, students conduct research into different sources of energy and present a proposal, putting them in the shoes of future energy innovators. They also use the knowledge sequence in this unit to:

      • Collaboratively analyze texts to identify cause-effect and problem-solution relationships.
      • Generate questions and conduct research about energy.
      • Write an opinion essay making their case for a fuel of the future.
      • Create energy proposals using primary and secondary resources.

      This unit builds upon the following Amplify CKLA units that students will have encountered in previous grades as well as earlier in the year.

      • Plants/Plantas (Grade K)
      • The History of the Earth/La historia de la Tierra (Grade 1)
      • Eureka! Student Inventor/¡Eureka! El arte de la invención (Grade 4)

      The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in Energy: Past, Present, and Future. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used in this unit.

      Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.

      • Buried Sunlight: How Fossil Fuels Have Changed the Earth by Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm
      • Energy Island: How One Community Harnessed the Wind and Changed their World by Allan Drummond
      • The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Picture Book Edition by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer

      Grade 5: Beyond Juneteenth: 1865 to present/Más allá de Juneteenth: de 1865 al presente

      Within this domain, Students learn about General Granger’s announcement in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, a day marked in history as Juneteenth. Texts and multimedia sources will support foundational knowledge-building about the end of slavery in the United States. A review of the first freedom announcement, President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, provides students with background knowledge to further emphasize the significance of Juneteenth in American history.

      This unit also takes students on a journey beyond Juneteenth, as they study specific contributions of African Americans from 1865 to the present day. Students participate in a virtual field trip to Emancipation Park in Houston, Texas and use the knowledge sequence in this unit to:

      • Collaboratively generate research questions about Juneteenth, The Great Migration, innovators and inventors, education, the humanities, activists, and allies.
      • Use Read-Alouds, independent, and partner reading to learn about African American contributions from 1865 to the present.
      • Research to find answers to their generated questions, gather information, and write a four-chapter Beyond Juneteenth book.

      This unit builds upon the following Amplify CKLA units that students will have encountered in previous grades.

      • Native Americans/Los nativos americanos (Grade K)
      • A New Nation: American Independence/Una nueva nación: la independencia de los Estados Unidos
        (Grade 1)
      • The U.S. Civil War/La Guerra Civil de los Estados Unidos (Grade 2)
      • Immigration/La inmigración (Grade 2)
      • Native Americans/Los nativos americanos (Grade 5)

      The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in Beyond Juneteenth: 1865 to present. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used in this unit.

      Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.

      • All Different Now: Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom by Angela Johnson
      • The Great Migration: An American Story by Jacob Lawrence
      • Sing a Song: How “Lift Every Voice and Sing” Inspired Generations by Kelly Starling Lyons
      • Side by Side/ Lado a lado: The Story of Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez/ La Historia de Dolores Huerta y Cesar Chavez by Monica Brown
      • Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters by Barack Obama

      New Mexico Educators: Welcome to Amplify Science 6–8!

      Amplify Science is an engaging core curriculum designed for three-dimensional, phenomena-based learning that is rated ‘all green’ on EdReports.  

      With Amplify Science, New Mexico students don’t just passively learn about science concepts. Instead, they take on the role of scientists and engineers to actively investigate and figure out real-world phenomena. They do this through a blend of cohesive and compelling storylines, hands-on investigations, collaborative discussions, literacy-rich activities, and interactive digital tools.

      Students conduct science experiments using lab equipment, flashlights, and prisms. The EdReports logo and "Review Year 2020" are also shown.

      Amplify Science Success Story

      The Lawrence Hall of Science

      Developed by the science education experts at UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science and the digital learning team at Amplify, our program features:

      • A phenomena-based approach where students construct a complex understanding of each unit’s anchor phenomenon.
      • A blend of cohesive storylines, hands-on investigations, rich discussions, literacy-rich activities, and digital tools.
      • Carefully crafted units, chapters, lessons, and activities designed to deliver true 3-dimensional learning.
      • An instructional design that supports all learners in accessing all standards.
      Aerial view of the lawrence hall of science at the university of california, berkeley, showcasing the building and surrounding trees with a foggy city backdrop.

      Instructional model

      The Amplify Science program is rooted in the proven, research-based pedagogy of Do, Talk, Read, Write, Visualize. Here’s how each element works:

      Do

      First-hand investigations are an important part of any science classroom, and Amplify Science has students getting hands-on in every unit—from building models of protein molecules to experimenting with electrical systems.

      Talk

      Student-to-student discourse and full-class discussions are an integral part of the program. Students are provided with numerous opportunities to engage in meaningful oral scientific argumentation, all while fostering a collaborative classroom environment.

      Read

      Students read scientific articles, focusing their reading activities on searching for evidence related to their investigation and, importantly, on asking and recording questions as they read through fascinating texts on 21st-century topics.

      Write

      Following real-world practices, students write scientific arguments based on evidence they’ve collected, making clear their reasoning about how a given piece of evidence connects to one of several claims.

      Visualize

      By manipulating digital simulations and using modeling tools to craft visualizations of their thinking— just as real scientists and engineers do—students take their learning far beyond the confines of what they can physically see in the classroom in an exciting and authentic way.

      Program structure

      Our cyclical lesson design ensures students receive multiple exposures to concepts through a variety of modalities. As they progress through the lessons within a unit, students build and deepen their understanding, increasing their ability to develop and refine complex explanations of the unit’s phenomenon.

      It’s this proven program structure and lesson design that enables Amplify Science to address 100% of the NGSS and support students in mastering the New Mexico STEM Ready! Science Standards.

      Flowchart depicting a critical thinking process with four circular nodes connected by arrows, each node representing a step: posing a real-world problem, exploring evidence, elaborating concepts, and evaluating claims.

      Unit types

      While every unit delivers three-dimensional learning experiences and engages students in gathering evidence from a rich collection of sources, each unit also serves a unique instructional purpose.

      In grades 6–8:

      • One unit is a launch unit.
      • Three units are core units.
      • Two units are engineering internships.

      Launch units are the first units taught in each year of Amplify Science. The goal of the Launch unit is to introduce students to norms, routines, and practices that will be built on throughout the year, including argumentation, active reading, and using the program’s technology. For example, rather than taking the time to explain the process of active reading in every unit in a given year, it is explained thoroughly in the Launch unit, thereby preparing students to read actively in all subsequent units.

      Core units establish the context of the unit by introducing students to a real-world problem. As students move through lessons in a Core unit, they figure out the unit’s anchoring phenomenon, gain an understanding of the unit’s disciplinary core ideas and science and engineering practices, and make linkages across topics through the crosscutting concepts. Each Core unit culminates with a Science Seminar and final writing activity.

      Engineering Internship units invite students to design solutions for real-world problems as interns for a fictional company called Futura. Students figure out how to help those in need, from tsunami victims in Sri Lanka to premature babies, through the application of engineering practices. In the process, they apply and deepen their learning from Core units.

      Unit sequence

      Our lessons follow a structure that is grounded in regular routines while still being flexible enough to allow for a variety of learning experiences.

      In fact, our multi-modal instruction offers more opportunities for students to construct meaning, and practice and apply concepts than any other program. What’s more, our modular design means our units can be flexibly arranged to support your instructional goals.

      Program components

      Available digitally and in print, our unit-specific reference guides are chock full of helpful resources, including scientific background knowledge, planning information and resources, color-coded 3-D Statements, detailed lesson plans, tips for delivering instruction, and differentiation strategies.

      Amplify Science TG

      Hands-on learning is an essential part of Amplify Science, and is integrated into every unit. Students actively participate in science, playing the roles of scientists and engineers as they gather evidence, think critically, solve problems, and develop and defend claims about the world around them. Every unit includes hands-on investigations that are critical to achieving the unit’s learning goals.

      Amplify Science Flextension

      More hands-on with Flextensions:
      Hands-on Flextensions are additional, optional investigations that are included at logical points in the learning progression and give students an opportunity to dig deeper if time permits. These activities offer teachers flexibility to choose to dedicate more time to hands-on learning. Materials referenced in Hands-on Flextension activities will either be included in the unit kit or are easily sourced. Supporting resources such as student worksheets will be included as downloadable PDF files.

      Our kits include enough materials to support 200 student uses. In other words, teachers can easily support all five periods and small groups of 4-5 students each. Plus, our unit-specific kits mean teachers just grab the tub they need and then put it all back with ease.

      Middle School Materials Kit List 

      Assorted office and household items displayed on a white background, including rubber bands, binder clips, cardboard, and sports balls.

      Our digital Simulations and Practice Tools are powerful resources for exploration, data collection, and student collaboration. They allow students the ability to explore scientific concepts that might otherwise be invisible or impossible to see with the naked eye.

      Available for every unit, our Student Investigation Notebooks contain instructions for activities and space for students to record data and observations, reflect on ideas from texts and investigations, and construct explanations and arguments.

      In grades 6–8, one copy of the Student Investigation Notebook is included in each unit’s materials kit for use as a blackline master. Each notebook is also available as a downloadable PDF on the Unit Guide page of the digital Teacher’s Guide.

      Amplify Science Student Investigation Notebooks

      These customizable PowerPoints are available for every lesson of the program and make delivering instruction a snap with visual prompts, colorful activity instructions, investigation set-up videos and animations, and suggested teacher talk in the notes section of each slide.

      Amplify Science Classroom Slides

      Full coverage of NGSS and New Mexico STEM Ready! Science Standards

      Amplify Science was designed from the ground up to meet the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). As such, it aligns to the New Mexico Science Standards, which were also borne out of the NGSS.

      K-8 NGSS Correlation by Dimension

      K-8 NM STEM Ready! Standards Correlation

      Explore your print samples

      With your Amplify Science print samples, you’ll find unit-specific Teacher’s References Guides and Student Investigation Notebooks for each grade level.

      A note about the Teacher’s Reference Guides:

      It’s important that your committee sees the full breadth and depth of our instruction. For that reason, we provided a copy of each of our unit-specific Teacher Reference Guides.

      Rest assured that teachers do not use these robust reference guides for day-to-day teaching. For that, we have a hands-free Teacher Guide!

      A laptop screen displays a simulation of energy arrows entering and exiting Earth's system, flanked by diagrams explaining water flow and an energy token model.
      • Teacher Reference Guide: Unlike a typical Teacher Guide that requires a series of supplemental books to support it, our encyclopedic reference guide is chock-full of everything a teacher needs to fully implement our program and the NGSS.
      • Ready-to-Teach Lesson Slides: For daily instruction, teachers need their hands free. That’s why we created ready-to-teach lesson slides for every single lesson. What’s more, they are editable and include suggested teacher talk and point-of-use differentiation and other instructional tips. Click to learn more.

      A note about the Materials Kits:

      Hands-on learning is at the heart of Amplify Science, and is integrated into every unit. In order to make hands-on learning more manageable for busy teachers, Amplify Science materials are organized into unit-specific kits.

      Stacked storage bins with labels, arranged neatly; caption notes they are a sample and may not reflect actual quantities or sizes.

      Our unit-specific kits:

      • Include more materials — We give teachers enough materials to support 200 student uses.
      • Are more manageable — Unlike other programs that require large groups of students to share limited sets of materials, our kits include enough to support small groups of 4–5 students.
      • Include supportive videos — Each hands-on activity provides clear instructions for the teacher, with more complex activities supported by video demonstrations and illustrations.

      Materials Kit List

      Access your digital samples

      Explore as a teacher

      Follow these instructions to explore the Amplify Science digital platform as a teacher.

      • Click the Access Amplify Science Platform button below and bookmark it.
      • Select Log in with Amplify.
      • Enter the username: t20.sci6-8@tryamplify.net
      • Enter the password: AmplifyNumber1
      • Click on Science in Your Programs
      • Click on the Program drop-down menu and select your desired domain
      • Select any unit.
      Access Amplify Science Platform

      To help familiarize yourself with navigating the digital platform, watch the below navigational video.

      Explore as a student

      Follow these instructions to explore the Amplify Science digital platform as a student.

      • Click the Access Amplify Science Platform button below and bookmark it.
      • Select Log in with Amplify.
      • Enter the username: s20.sci6-8@tryamplify.net
      • Enter the password: AmplifyNumber1
      • Click Science in Your Programs
      • Click on the Program drop-down menu and select your desired domain
      • Select any unit title.
      Access Amplify Science Platform

      Additional resources to support your review

      New Mexico Educators: Welcome to Amplify Science K–5!

      Amplify Science is an engaging core curriculum designed for three-dimensional, phenomena-based learning that is rated ‘all green’ on EdReports.  

      With Amplify Science, New Mexico students won’t just passively learn about science concepts. Instead, they will take on the role of scientists and engineers to actively investigate and figure out real-world phenomena. They will do this through a blend of cohesive and compelling storylines, hands-on investigations, collaborative discussions, literacy-rich activities, and interactive digital tools.

      Amplify Science Success Story

      The Lawrence Hall of Science

      Developed by the science education experts at UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science and the digital learning team at Amplify, our program features:

      • A phenomena-based approach where students construct a complex understanding of each unit’s anchor phenomenon.
      • A blend of cohesive storylines, hands-on investigations, rich discussions, literacy-rich activities, and digital tools.
      • Carefully crafted units, chapters, lessons, and activities designed to deliver true three-dimensional learning.
      • An instructional design that supports all learners in accessing all standards.
      Aerial view of the lawrence hall of science at the university of california, berkeley, showcasing the building and surrounding trees with a foggy city backdrop.

      Instructional model

      The Amplify Science program is rooted in the proven, research-based pedagogy of Do, Talk, Read, Write, Visualize. Here’s how each element works:

      Do

      First-hand investigations are an important part of any science classroom, and Amplify Science has students getting hands-on in every unit—from building models of protein molecules to experimenting with electrical systems.

      Talk

      Student-to-student discourse and full-class discussions are an integral part of the program. Students are provided with numerous opportunities to engage in meaningful oral scientific argumentation, all while fostering a collaborative classroom environment.

      Read

      Students read scientific articles, focusing their reading activities on searching for evidence related to their investigation and, importantly, on asking and recording questions as they read through fascinating texts on 21st-century topics.

      Write

      Following real-world practices, students write scientific arguments based on evidence they’ve collected, making clear their reasoning about how a given piece of evidence connects to one of several claims.

      Visualize

      By manipulating digital simulations and using modeling tools to craft visualizations of their thinking— just as real scientists and engineers do—students take their learning far beyond the confines of what they can physically see in the classroom in an exciting and authentic way.

      Program structure

      Our cyclical lesson design ensures students receive multiple exposures to concepts through a variety of modalities. As they progress through the lessons within a unit, students build and deepen their understanding, increasing their ability to develop and refine complex explanations of the unit’s phenomenon.

      It’s this proven program structure and lesson design that enables Amplify Science to address 100% of the NGSS and support students in mastering the New Mexico STEM Ready! Science Standards.

      Flowchart depicting a critical thinking process with four circular nodes connected by arrows, each node representing a step: posing a real-world problem, exploring evidence, elaborating concepts, and evaluating claims.

      Unit types

      While every unit delivers three-dimensional learning experiences and engages students in gathering evidence from a rich collection of sources, each unit also emphasizes a particular science and engineering practice.

      In grades K–2:

      • One unit emphasizes the practice of investigation.
      • One unit emphasizes the practice of modeling.
      • One unit emphasizes the practice of engineering design.

      In grades 3–5, students experience the three unit types above, plus:

      • One additional unit that emphasizes the practice of argumentation.

      Investigation units focus on the process of strategically developing investigations and gathering data to answer questions. Students are first asked to consider questions about what happens in the natural world and why, and are then involved in designing and conducting investigations that produce data to help answer those questions.

      Modeling units provide extra support to students engaging in the practice of modeling. Students use physical models, investigate with computer models, and create their own diagrams to help them visualize what might be happening on the nanoscale.

      Engineering design units provide opportunities for students to solve complex problems by applying science principles to the design of functional solutions, and iteratively testing those solutions to determine how well they meet preset criteria.

      Argumentation units provide students with regular opportunities to explore and discuss available evidence, time and support to consider how evidence may be leveraged in support of claims, and independence that increases as they mount written arguments in support of their claims.

      Unit sequence

      Our lessons follow a structure that is grounded in regular routines while still being flexible enough to allow for a variety of learning experiences.

      In fact, our multi-modal instruction offers more opportunities for students to construct meaning, and practice and apply concepts, than any other program. What’s more, our modular design means our units can be flexibly arranged to support your instructional goals.

      Science Curriculum Topics by Grade: Grade K (plants/animals, pushes/pulls, sunlight/weather), Grade 1 (plant/animal defenses, light/sound, rotating earth), Grade 2 (relationships, materials, landforms), Grade 3 (forces/balance, traits, survival, weather/weather), Grade 4 (energy, light/vision, earth features, waves/energy/information), Grade 5 (patterns, modeling, ecosystem).

      Program components

      Available digitally and in print, our unit-specific reference guides are chock full of helpful resources, including scientific background knowledge, planning information and resources, color-coded 3-D Statements, detailed lesson plans, tips for delivering instruction, and differentiation strategies.

      Image of a teacher's guide titled "Plant and Animal Needs: Milkweed and Monarchs" next to a laptop showing the same cover and accompanying online materials.

      Hands-on learning is an essential part of Amplify Science, and is integrated into every unit. Students actively participate in science, playing the roles of scientists and engineers as they gather evidence, think critically, solve problems, and develop and defend claims about the world around them. Every unit includes hands-on investigations that are critical to achieving the unit’s learning goals.

      Two children sit at a table blowing into plastic straws held together, likely making musical sounds, with containers and rubber bands on the table.

      More hands-on with Flextensions:
      Hands-on Flextensions are additional, optional investigations that are included at logical points in the learning progression and give students an opportunity to dig deeper if time permits. These activities offer teachers flexibility to choose to dedicate more time to hands-on learning. Materials referenced in Hands-on Flextension activities will either be included in the unit kit or are easily sourced. Supporting resources such as student worksheets will be included as downloadable PDF files.

      Our kits include enough non-consumable materials to support a class of 36 students and enough consumable items to support 72 students. In other words, each kit can last two years! Plus, our unit-specific kits mean teachers just grab the tub they need for the unit and then put it all back with ease.

      On a white background are various supplies, such as cardboard sheets, pegboards, hooks, rubber bands, tennis balls, popsicle sticks, tape, and other small objects.

      Each unit of Amplify Science K–5 includes six unique Student Books written by the Lawrence Hall of Science specifically for the program. These content-rich nonfiction and informational texts provide opportunities for students to search for evidence relevant to their firsthand investigations, see science practices and dispositions modeled, extend their science knowledge, provide real world connections as they master reading-to-learn and close reading skills, and construct evidence-based arguments.

      Important note:
      Students in grades K–5 are never asked to read alone. Rather, books are read to, with, and by students with ample scaffolding and support provided by the teacher. Big Books are read aloud or together with the class to introduce ideas. Student Books allow for small-group reading and reading in pairs.

      Two children's books, one in Spanish and one in English, with illustrated covers showing a street scene and families walking in a town.

      Available for every unit, our Student Investigation Notebooks contain instructions for activities and space for students to record data and observations, reflect on ideas from texts and investigations, and construct explanations and arguments.

      In grades K–5, one copy of the Student Investigation Notebook is included in each unit’s materials kit for use as a blackline master. Each notebook is also available as a downloadable PDF on the Unit Guide page of the digital Teacher’s Guide.

      Two science books titled “Pushes and Pulls: Designing a Pinball Machine” and “Pushes and Pulls: Designing a Pinball Machine” displayed side by side.

      We know equity is a priority for you and it’s also important to us! Click below to view a comprehensive list of Spanish resources available to support English learners and dual-language classrooms in New Mexico.  All components are available digitally.  Resources also available in print are noted with an asterisk.

      Spanish Components and Supports in Amplify Science

      Amplify Science offers digital experience licenses that make elementary instruction more flexible for students and teachers, as well as providing additional means to engage in remote, hybrid, or in-person learning!

      Student-facing digital lessons
      With the digital experience, students can engage with digital lesson content in one cohesive experience. It’s the same content from Amplify science in a new, integrated format where students can interact with slides, Sims, modeling tools, videos, books, and more.

      A computer screen displays an illustration of four plants under sunlight, each emitting colored streams and coins, with soil and roots visible below.

      Digital student notebook pages
      Students can draw, write, record audio, and insert images into their Investigation Notebook pages. Their work is automatically saved and delivered to you in real time. When students edit their work, those edits are immediately reflected on your teacher work review page. You can access student responses by clicking “View Work,” where you can see students’ Investigation Notebook pages from the lesson, updating live.

      Assign in Amplify
      The digital experience allows flexibility with optional features like scheduling assignments in advance and setting due dates. Teacher can use Scheduling to determine the date and time that the assignment appears in Student Home. They also have the flexibility to schedule when assignments appear and use dates to remove assignments from Student Home.

      Assign in LMS
      You can also assign lessons via our integrations with Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams, or by copying a lesson link and sharing it with students through the platform of your choice. The assignment link you send will provide students with direct access to the full lesson—slides, videos, digital tools, and worksheet activities—no student platform navigation required!

      Teacher platform and presentation
      Teacher-facing lesson content—including sample teacher talk, student responses, pedagogical support, and possible student responses—shows on a teacher’s private Teacher Guide tab. Students only see the lesson slides that are being presented.

      A laptop labeled "Teacher device" displays a lesson slide, which is mirrored onto a larger screen labeled "Class presentation.

      Explore your print samples

      With your Amplify Science print samples, you’ll find unit-specific Teacher’s References Guides, Student Investigation Notebooks, and sets of Student Books for each grade level.

      A note about the Teacher’s Reference Guides:

      It’s important that you see the full breadth and depth of our instruction. For that reason, we provide a copy of each of our unit-specific Teacher Reference Guides.

      Rest assured that teachers do not use these robust reference guides for day-to-day teaching. For that, we have a hands-free TG!

      Three laptop screens displaying educational content on earth's energy system, including diagrams and text annotations.
      • Teacher Reference Guide: Unlike a typical Teacher Guide that requires a series of supplemental books to support it, our encyclopedic reference guide is chock-full of everything a teacher needs to fully implement our program and the NGSS.
      • Ready-to-Teach Lesson Slides: For daily instruction, teachers need their hands free. That’s why we created ready-to-teach lesson slides for every single lesson. What’s more, they are editable and include suggested teacher talk and point-of-use differentiation and other instructional tips. Click to learn more.

      A note about the Materials Kits:

      Hands-on learning is at the heart of Amplify Science, and is integrated into every unit. In order to make hands-on learning more manageable for busy teachers, Amplify Science materials are organized into unit-specific kits.

      Stacked storage bins with labels, arranged neatly; caption notes they are a sample and may not reflect actual quantities or sizes.

      What’s different about Amplify’s unit-specific material kits?  They…

      • Include more materials — We give teachers enough non-consumable materials to support a class of 36 students and enough consumables to support 72 student uses. In other words, each kit will last two years.
      • Are more manageable — Unlike other programs that require large groups of students to share limited sets of materials, our kits include enough to support small groups of 4–5 students.
      • Include supportive videos — Each hands-on activity provides clear instructions for the teacher, with more complex activities supported by video demonstrations and illustrations.

      Grade-specific lists of all materials included in each kit:

      Access your digital samples

      Explore as a teacher

      When you’re ready to explore the teaching experience on your own, follow these instructions to access the Amplify Science digital teacher platform.

      • Click the Access Amplify Science Platform button below and bookmark the page.
      • Select Log in with Amplify.
      • Enter the username: t.nmk-5@demo.tryamplify.net
      • Enter the password: AmplifyNumber1
      • Click on Science on the left hand side.
      • Click on the Grade Menu in the top center of the screen and select any grade.
      • Select any unit.
      Access Amplify Science Platform

      To help familiarize yourself with navigating the digital platform, watch the navigational video below.

      Explore as a student

      When you’re ready to explore the student learning experience on your own, follow these instructions to access the Amplify Science digital student platform.

      • Click the Access Amplify Science Platform button below and bookmark the page.
      • Select Log in with Amplify.
      • Enter the username: s.nmk-5@demo.tryamplify.net
      • Enter the password: AmplifyNumber1
      • Click the backpack icon on the top right.
      • Click Science K-5
      • Select any unit.
      Access Amplify Science Platform

      Resources to support your review

      Amplify CKLA Review for Alabama

      To view this protected page, enter the password below:



      Welcome, New York City Educators!

      Welcome! This site contains supporting resources for the New York City Public Schools Amplify Science implementation for grades K–8.

      Resources for Getting Started

      Click here for support for getting started with Amplify Science for New York City — including login support, materials lists, program overviews and more!

      What’s new?

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      NYC Resources

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      Getting Started

      Login support, materials lists, program overviews, and more!

      Teacher looking at tablet with student

      Implementation Planning and Instruc…

      NYC companion lessons, planning and implementation guides, and more!

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      Monthly Round Up

      Access monthly updates to Amplify Science and timely resources!

      Professional Learning Resources

      Professional learning resources to support New York City educators. Interested in attending training? Contact your instructional lead for next steps.

      two girls working on science projects
      Screenshot of the amplify science video collection webpage showing an interface with various educational program options and video categories.

      PD Library

      Learn more about Amplify Science through short, engaging video collections.

      Screenshot of the amplify science program hub website showing resource sections like pd library, professional learning resources, and additional unit materials.

      Program Hub

      Features learning resources, training videos, and Hands-on Investigation Videos….

      Amplify Science California supports you every step of the way on your journey to the California NGSS.

      PD Recording

      Access recordings of previous PD sessions for NYC.

      Assessment Videos for Leaders

      See overview of the new Amplify NYC Benchmarks here.

      Archived PD Supports

      Professional learning recordings

      • Click here to access the professional learning recordings and materials.
      • Would you like to purchase school based professional learning? Contact Michael Kasloff and Carly Kriss at mkasloff@amplify.com and ckriss@amplify.com.

      Archived professional learning resources

      Responsive Classroom Resources

      Amplify Science supports creating a responsive classroom environment. Click below to explore resources to help aid your responsive launch.