School Improvement Plan 101: What Every Educator Should Know
December 6, 2024
A strong academic achievement program and effective math instructional strategies have a meaningful impact on student’s life. These programs and math strategies create lasting enthusiasm in students for learning! Furthermore, nurturing high academic achievement can even translate into a young learn’s future career, giving them a solid foundation for success. Academic achievement programs can make a pivotal difference in student outcomes.
That said, it isn’t surprising to have educators prioritizing their support for academic achievement programs. However, finding the best program to implement for you and your students can be challenging. While there are various teaching methods to try, studies show that kinesthetic learning strategies boost children’s cognitive development and enhance a student’s ability to retain information.
With the Math & Movement program, teachers can foster a positive learning environment by implementing our movement-based practices into their math instructional strategies. These activities and math strategies will help your students thrive and build confidence throughout the learning and testing process! Simple physical activity during lessons can be the difference between progress and stagnation in math.
Movement isn't just for recess
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The definition of “academic achievement” is quite broad and varies between educators. Any identifiable accomplishment by a student in school can be considered academic achievement.
The Encyclopedia of Child Behavior and Development defines academic achievement as “the progress made towards the goal of acquiring educational skills, materials, and knowledge” (Bolt, 2011.) The text goes on to say that academic achievement is “viewed without a definition endpoint” and that there is always “the possibility of further developing those skills and increasing the depth, breadth, and specificity of knowledge.”
In other words, academic achievement is any learning progress made, with the understanding that more progress can always be made. Academic achievement programs consider the progress students can make and help them reach their grade-level goals.
An academic achievement program is any structured initiative designed to support and enhance students’ academic performance. These programs can provide a variety of things to elementary students – including enrichment opportunities, mentorship, or tutoring. Your school’s existing curriculum can be considered an academic achievement program.
There are a few specific things to consider when identifying a great academic achievement program. Here, we will emphasize five key elements in a program that improve students’ test scores and boost their learning.
Learning new things can be intimidating, so it is essential to provide straightforward encouragement for each of your students. As they engage in new math strategies, praise them for their strengths and support them as they continue to practice in their weaker areas.
In movement-based learning, students also get the opportunity to interact with one another. Invite them to cheer on their classmates as they complete each exercise and grow in the learning process together. This will give the classroom a positive atmosphere, perfect for fostering a thriving learning environment.
Your academic achievement program should help you cater to each child’s needs and challenges. As you teach, get to know your students and their specific learning styles! Whether instructing one-on-one or to a classroom of thirty, giving personalized support for math instructional strategies will help students progress faster.
In the Math & Movement Program, our mats and guided movements give opportunities for personal and group instruction, allowing students to ask questions and participate!
Another crucial element of an excellent academic achievement program is outlining clear learning goals. This will help set a steady pace for students’ lessons and provide a definite objective to work towards. These goals can build a framework for study as you help them prepare for their tests.
In addition, using cross-body lateral movements to help students understand new math concepts can help raise motivation levels. These movements are engaging for both sides of the brain and help wake up sleepy minds. With movement breaks, the class can stay on track to meet their grade-level goals!
A good academic achievement program example should build upon past learning experiences. Educators should give their students opportunities to reflect and review each new topic, giving them ample time to solidify their knowledge.
With Math & Movement, we offer educational floor mats for all elementary grades so children can continue to be challenged and grow. They can be used to review mathematical material before a test. Plus, each mat has versatile, corresponding activities for different lesson concepts.
Lastly, the learning process is really amplified when students are interested and engaged in what they are doing during lessons. Help your students become active learners by encouraging questions, helping them solve problems themselves, and teaching critical thinking. Each of these will magnify your math instructional strategies and improve test scores.
Did you know that kinesthetic learning strategies boost student engagement levels? Simple movements, as well as activities on our educational products, are great ways to bring excitement, energy, and enthusiasm to your lessons.
Young students never like to sit still for long periods of time. Math class can be particularly frustrating when a lesson is challenging and students have a lot of pent-up energy. Math & Movement harnesses children’s natural inclination for movement and turns it into enthusiasm for learning.
The Math & Movement program can be divided into two categories: cross-body exercises and educational floor mats. Our movement-based instructional strategies can emphasize and complement your math lessons in various ways. While this article will focus on math growth, we also have material and practices for other subjects as well!
Cross-lateral movements are exercises that activate the brain’s right and left hemispheres. These physical activities involve crossing the midline of the body. In doing this, students will improve their cognitive coordination, and learning will become easier! There are so many benefits to teaching with cross-lateral movements, including improving motor skills, increasing brain activity, and boosting confidence.
Consider implementing these active math movements into instructional strategies and watch your students find success while having fun throughout the learning process. Best of all, these movements do not require any additional materials!
Math & Movement floor mats take kinesthetic learning to the next level with large floor mats that students can walk across and jump on. As they interact with these materials, abstract concepts become concrete, and students can “experience” new math lessons.
The traditional school day is very sedentary, and most classrooms only cater to visual and auditory learners, while in reality, many students thrive in a kinesthetic learning environment. Students who are taught through physical activities can better retain new information, resulting in improved test performance.
The Add/Subtract (1-100) is one of our most popular and versatile floor mats. This mat depicts the numbers 1 through 100 in large, colorful squares. Students can hop from one number to the next while practicing a wide variety of math concepts, including counting, addition, subtraction, rounding, odd and even numbers, factoring, money values, and more!
Testing is an essential part of the learning process, but it is often viewed negatively. However, with a productive academic achievement program, tests can become less intimidating. With effective math strategies, including kinesthetic strategies, students will become more confident in their skills and feel more prepared for tests.
Student assessments are extremely valuable for assessing student outcomes and academic achievement. Tests allow educators to:
Going into a test, ensure that the instructions and expectations for students are clear. Afterward, the collected data from the tests should be used to reflect on recent instructional strategies. When done thoughtfully, assessments serve as a tool for academic achievement, as they help educators make informed decisions to impact student outcomes positively.
What effect can a kinesthetic instructional approach to math have on student outcomes? Overall, movement-based learning brings a lot of benefits, including:
Still not sure about the effectiveness of kinesthetic instructional approaches to math? Consider the student outcomes from the following study we did in Spring 2023! Math & Movement Founder Suzy Koontz led a 2-week academic achievement program for a 3rd grade class in Sarasota, FL. The class’s school was a tier 1 public charter elementary school.
We designed a set of math strategies for 3rd graders. Our focus was to create a program to test the impact of kinesthetic teaching strategies on students’ understanding of multiplication. Each day, students completed kinesthetic activities to boost multiplication and skip counting skills.
The Math & Movement team faced a few challenges during the study. First, the study was conducted at the end of the school year, when many students are antsy for summer break, and their focus and motivation levels may be lower as a result. Second, we found that at the beginning of the study, students were only scoring an average of 26% on their multiplication assessments. This raised significant concerns as multiplication is a crucial concept for third graders and is heavily emphasized in state tests.
As previously mentioned, the program was only two weeks (or ten school days) long. Each day, students worked on multiplication by 3s, 4s, 6s, 7s, 8s, and 9s for 2-3 hours per day using Math & Movement floor mats and workbooks. For a concept that is usually taught over 10-12 weeks, we had far less available time.
So, what were the student outcomes? Did the Math & Movement academic achievement program work? Check out the results below:
When evaluating your school’s academic achievement program, consider the benefits of kinesthetic math strategies for your students. Math & Movement is helping teachers support their students, create a positive learning environment, set goals, reinforce learning, and engage their students. Movement may be the key to your students’ math growth!
Whether you’re including quick active math movements between classes or fully embracing the Math & Movement program for every lesson, kinesthetic strategies can boost student outcomes. When math instructional strategies are fun and effective, tests become less scary and dreadful.
Movement isn't just for recess
Want to get started with movement-based learning right now? Enter your email to get our training manual with over 250 active math movements. No materials necessary!
