Supporting Incomplete Math Learning in the General Education Classroom
As students have returned to school in the fall of 2021, we are recognizing the variety of ways in which students have been impacted by the pandemic. One commonplace issue surrounds students’ incomplete learning of grade-level mathematics standards over the past year and half. The following brief has some recommendations for supporting students with incomplete math learning in the general education classroom. Recommendation #1: Stick to grade level standards. Educators may be naturally inclined to try to identify the mathematics from prior grade levels where students have ‘holes’ in their understanding, and to start instruction here. We call this just-in-case instruction. In the general education classroom, we recommend starting instruction with grade level standards and scaffolding back to areas of incomplete learning. We call this just-in-time instruction. Recommendation #2: Use just-in-time instruction to catch up on incomplete knowledge. Just-in-time instruction can mean a...