This article explores the benefits of three common instructional practices: prompting turn and talks, using and connecting representations, and facilitating whole group discussions. We look at two different ways of implementing each of the powerful practices, to highlight ways their use can be maximized to further increase student engagement with each other and the mathematics.
Relationships that Drive Rigor
In this article, we share stories about how two teachers from Dallas ISD work to humanize rigorous ELA instruction through the process of building relationships with students. Their stories convey the importance of building relationships with students and how those relationships led to classroom communities where students feel safe and excel in rigorous learning.
Bridges Most Loved Articles
With a nod to Valentine’s Day, the Bridges Editorial Committee wanted to share some of our most loved articles! Check out the top articles related to English Language Arts instruction, Mathematics instruction, and Accountable Talk®practices. We hope you take a couple of minutes to (re)read, reflect, and share them!
Making Connections Beyond the Classroom, Seeing Mathematics in Our Everyday Actions
What might it look like when a teacher works to support students in making connections between their math work, themselves, and the community/world in which they live? We invited a teacher from one of our partnering districts to share stories from their classroom and reflect on the impact connection-making has had on students.
Vending Machine Nourishing Hungry, Young Readers
A book vending machine was introduced to inspire readers at a Texas elementary school and now students are reading at a record pace.
Making Space for Student Choice in the Writing Process
Students should have a voice in the writing process. Building students’ writing toolkits and then inviting them into the writing process by asking them to make decisions about how to approach a writing task is one way to do that. In this article, we discuss one way to use gradual release to build student agency in the writing process.
Revisiting Practical Ways to Increase Instructional Equity in Mathematics Classrooms
Check out four of our top math articles from the archives! They offer insights and practical suggestions for making math classrooms more equitable learning spaces for students.
Superintendent’s Student Cabinet a Success
You wouldn’t want to be at a job where you had no say on what happens, how it happens, or why it happens. So why wouldn’t students want the same? By inviting student voice into your school, you’re building accountability and credibility with the students you serve.
Ptáyela Waúŋspeič’ičhiyapi: Building Cultural Competence and Responsiveness
IFL partner Todd County, South Dakota serves nearly an entirely Indigenous student population. However, their teachers do not reflect that population. To bridge that gap, they are putting their students’ culture at the center of their education.
Combatting Anti-Asian Hate: An Interview with Dr. Virginia Loh-Hagan
Fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, hate crimes against Asian Americans are on the rise. Dr. Virginia Loh-Hagan describes the historical context for this problem and some actions educators can take to combat anti-Asian hate in their schools and classrooms.
Are You “Wishing” Math Content Knowledge Into Your Students? 6 Questions to Ask Yourself to Find Out
What does it mean to “wish mathematical knowledge” into your students? If reading the title of this article makes you pause, you might be doing it. Take the quiz to find out!
Increasing Representation by Globalizing School-Based Multicultural Libraries
Students are more engaged when they see themselves in the books they read. IFL partner, Syracuse City Schools, has worked to better represent all their students by expanding their multicultural libraries on a global scale.
Planning for High-Level Comprehension
Comprehension work is critical work when we engage students with a text. Understanding and enacting the steps for planning a high-level comprehension task will help teachers provide students instructional opportunities that set every student up for success.
Meeting Challenges with Commitment and Cariño Is a Good Life
Never doubt the big impact something small can create. A tiny acorn grows into a towering tree, providing air for the world around it to breathe. A flicker of ember being carried by the wind can spark a towering inferno. And then there is Executive Director Rosita Apodaca, who announced her retirement after 22-years with the IFL and a lifetime of inspiring students and fighting to ensure that each and every child are given a fulfilling educational experience.
Making Space for Creativity Using A Mathematics Lesson Routine
Creativity in mathematics abounds at the intersection of belief and practice! When the belief that all learners are doers of mathematics and enter the classroom with valuable lived math experiences intersects with the use of a lesson routine that offers space for students to do the thinking, learners become the creators and authors of the material from which they learn.
4 Effective Communication Strategies in Multilingual Math Classrooms
“If you cannot read the word problem, you cannot do the math.” This statement is false on many levels! Students who are receiving math instruction in a language other than their native language are doers of mathematics! And as teachers, it is our job to utilize specific strategies that allow every student in each of our classrooms to engage in thinking deeply about the mathematics. In this article we share four strategies for math teachers to use when working with multilingual students who are working on their English skills while also learning math.
Liberating Your Summer Readers
A district’s goal for summer reading should be to help students continue to build their independent reading skills and to foster a love of reading. Students who take up summer reading typically have access to compelling books and choice in what they read (Shin & Krashen, 2008). To achieve a reading program with books that engage students, student voice should be central to summer reading lists.
Building Allyship Among Educators
As educators our goals are to inspire, motivate, and empower the students we interact with every day. Can any of these goals be truly accomplished when we have educators in our schools that feel disenfranchised, alone, and unsupported by their colleagues? Becoming an effective educational ally is a journey that requires substantial self-reflection, a strong sense of self-identity, and a willingness to step up and advocate for a colleague.
Mathematical Representations: A Window into Student Thinking
Representations are windows into student thinking and reasoning. In a time of virtual classrooms, using visual representations is more complex, but as important as ever. If a teacher values students’ thinking, they need to consider how to make it possible for all students to represent that thinking. This article addresses the use of representations and the questions that help students connect representations to deepen understanding of math concepts.
Six Strategies That Can Lead to More Equitable Online Mathematics Instruction
As the need for virtual instruction continues, educators continue to look for ways to make mathematics instruction more equitable and honor students’ abilities and backgrounds. In this article, we examine three teaching practices that work in virtual spaces and offer six strategies for keeping every student invested and advancing in their conceptual understanding.
Using 4 Learner-Centered Routines to Build Positive Math Identity in Equitable Classrooms
Every person is a “math person” and using learner-centered routines can support students in seeing themselves as doers of mathematics. This article, the second of a two-part series, shares how’s and why’s of four learner-centered routines that provide opportunities for students to build positive math identity by creating space for voice, agency, and actually doing mathematics.
Translating Accountable Talk® Practices Between In-Person and Virtual Teaching
A story about the art of teaching and the process of translating and refining practice to ensure rigorous learning opportunities for students through collaboration and productive talk.
Focusing on the Instructional Approach Nurtures Agency
Many educators name student agency as something they want to work to develop within their schools and classrooms. But what is student agency? And, more importantly, what can we as educators do to foster student agency?
Agency and Voice: A Push for Greater Equity and What it Looks Like in Math
In her article “Framing Equity: Helping Students ‘Play the Game’ and ‘Change the Game’” (2009), Rochelle Gutiérrez lays out the four key dimensions of equity: Access, Achievement, Identity, and Power, which sit on two axes. Access and Achievement create the dominant axis, and Identify and Power create the critical axis.
Student and Teacher Agency: One District’s Reflection on Taking Action
Learning Forward and the National Commission on Teaching & America’s Future conducted interviews with teachers and school administrators to understand the disconnect between professional learning that teachers need and want and what they actually experience.
Personalized Learning, Student Agency, & the Stakes of Education
We are privileged to live at a time with many resources and technologies that exist to aide educators, but sometimes these advancements can carry an ironic cost: They can be distracting to the basic aims of education.