The B.R.E.A.K. it Math Intervention Framework is the most effective way to increase engagement, achievement, and motivation of students who struggle with math.
The framework was developed from my own classroom experience, teaching high school math intervention, and through my experience having been in hundreds of secondary math classrooms as a coach and consultant and detailed in the book, Teaching 6-12 Math Intervention: A Practical Framework To Engage Students Who Struggle (Routledge). Every step of the framework has proven successful in helping teachers boost achievement of students who have been historically unsuccessful in mathematics. In fact, teachers who implement this framework see 20% more students passing their classes and 46% more students engaging every day in lessons. Let’s look at the framework visually and then dive deeply into each part!
Phases for Students Who Struggle With Math
The framework is divided into three phases: student engagement, student achievement, and student motivation. There are five total steps that need to be completed in order: build community, routines to boost confidence, engage every student, advance your expectations, and know students' level of understanding. In the chapters that follow I will share practical strategies you can begin using tomorrow to help you through each phase on your way to becoming a gatebreaker for your students.
Phase 1: Student Engagement
Phase 1 has two steps. Step 1, build community, and step 2, routines to boost confidence. Many of the teachers I support are frustrated by the sound of crickets in their classrooms. They want students to be participating in rich discussion about mathematics, but instead it’s like pulling teeth to get students to engage at all. This is where we will start, this is where we must start. To break the first gatekeeping cycle, the student gate of math trauma and math anxiety, we must build intentional community and implement routines that boost student confidence in mathematics. I already know you’re tempted to skip the classroom community chapter, but without this foundation, the rest of the framework crumbles. Don’t worry, I’m not going to ask you to build a birthday wall or do classroom bingo every unit. Instead I’m going to give you the rationale and the tools to facilitate a community that is a safe place for students who have been historically unsuccessful in mathematics to thrive. Once we have that strong community foundation it’s time for the next step of the framework, active participation. In this chapter you’ll learn the six engagement structures you can use every single day to get students engaging and talking about mathematics so that you can kiss those crickets goodbye.
Please note Some teachers will need to stay in phase one for a while. If you teach math intervention and you only get to phase one, that’s okay. If all you do is help students feel comfortable in a math class again and finally start participating in the engagement structures, you’ve won. While you might not see the rise in scores you hoped for you are setting those students up to have a positive math experience the following year and that is something worth celebrating.
Phase 2: Student Achievement
Phase 2 also has two steps. Step 3, engage every student, and step 4, advance your expectations. Only once you’ve completed steps 1 and 2 should you move on to steps 3 and 4. In order to break the second gatekeeping cycle, the teacher gate of remedial content and implicit bias, we must learn how to engage every student in every lesson and advance our own expectations of what students can do in our classrooms. Here you’ll learn my signature Math Wars Method® so that you know how to deliver content each and every day effectively for students who struggle, boost retention, and no longer feel like you’re talking to yourself during your lecture. You’ll also learn about the Just In Time Math Intervention Cycle and how to have high grade level expectations of your students even if they have failed math for multiple years and struggle with their basic math facts.
Phase 3: Student Motivation
Phase 3 has just one step, step 5: know students' level of understanding. This is a phase and step we all desire to get to. We all want to have students who are motivated to show up everyday, put in the work, and put effort into tests and quizzes, but just like the other phases, if you don’t complete the phases prior, the framework will crumble and you will not experience the gains you hoped for. You might be surprised to hear that in order to increase student motivation you actually need to overhaul your grading and assessment system. In this final step you’ll learn my mastery based grading system called the Rethinking Math Assessment Framework™. This might be the most challenging step to implement in your classroom because it goes against everything you’ve experienced as a student and everything you believe grading should be as a teacher, thus shifting systemic gates in mathematics, but if you really want to be a gatebreaker, you cannot skip this final step.
Let’s Become Math Gatebreakers
Once you’ve implemented all of the steps of the B.R.E.A.K. it™ Math Intervention Framework in your classroom you will officially be a member of the gatebreaking community. What is a math gatebreaker™? To be a math gatebreaker™ is to help any student who struggles with math to recover their mathematical confidence, find academic success, and achieve at high levels in mathematics thereby breaking the gates that have held them back. If you want to hear more about these gatekeeping practices in mathematics, this blog post is one you won’t want to miss. We know mathematics has long been a gatekeeper, so let’s break the gate for our students who need us the most.
Want more?
Each step of the framework is detailed in Juliana’s bestselling book, Teaching 6-12 Math Intervention: A Practical Framework To Engage Students Who Struggle (Routledge), which is available for preorder right now! Click here to preorder and access $400+ of bonus material from me, author, Juliana Tapper!
A new spin on an old framework
I used to refer to my framework as the CARES Math Achievement Framework, however I renamed my framework for my book, Teaching 6-12 Math Intervention. Here's how the two frameworks compare:
