Great Minds

How can you intentionally support your multilingual learners in mathematics?

❌ You don't need to simplify the math.

✅ You need to remove the language barriers that stand between a student and what they're already capable of.

Stacy Fitzwater, Great Minds Implementation Lead, shares exactly how six San Tan Heights elementary schools are successfully doing this in her recent ASCD article.

Read more here: https://ow.ly/PGQt50Z9rvX

🤩 Bringing families into the halls to celebrate student work together is such a beautiful way to make learning a community experience.

No need to wait until the clock strikes 12 to read more about how Terra Linda Elementary School brought learning to life for their students. They hosted a first-grade Cinderella Ball, a special event designed as the grand finale to their Wit & Wisdom unit. 📚👑💙

Jordan School District

We’ve been thinking a lot about phonemic awareness this month, and this is one episode we keep coming back to.

Our conversation with Matt Burns helps make sense of what research actually says and why it matters for instruction.

🎧 Listen now: https://ow.ly/608A50YHrqb
👉 Comment JUNE and we’ll send you the episode

Multilingual learners don't need to "wait" until their English is good enough to thrive in math.

Our implementation lead, Stacy Fitzwater Domingo, recently spent time in classrooms at San Tan Heights Elementary, a school with a high multilingual learner population and rising student achievement.

Here are five tried-and-true strategies she observed that can work for ALL learners.

🧡 Take an Asset-Based Approach to Instruction: Capitalize on what students already know and can do—and build off that.

🧡 Pre-teach common vocabulary: Before the lesson, introduce words like "ratio" or “fraction” and pre-teach sentence structures such as "I notice… I wonder…" to support dialogue.

🧡 Use Consistent Mathematical Routines: Predictable structures give students a safe, low-stakes environment to practice math discourse.

🧡 Make Word Problems Relatable and Readable: Use familiar food items, locations, and names without sacrificing rigor or grade-level expectations.

🧡 Think Beyond the Standard Algorithm: Pictorial models and concrete objects let students show what they know in any language.

SAVE this post and add it to your teaching toolkit for the new school year.

Join Great Minds for an upcoming edWebinar Bridging K–5 Math Foundations to Grades 6–8: From Models to Meaning https://home.edweb.net/webinar/math20260616/

This month, Melissa & Lori Love Literacy are focusing on phonemic awareness. 🎧

Here are the episodes you won't want to miss:
💙 June 12: Marianne Rice on research-based shifts to strengthen phonemic awareness
💙 June 19: Matt Burns on what the research actually says
💙 June 26: Anjanette McNeely on using word chaining to build phonemic awareness
➕ Plus a listening guide to help you connect it all to your classroom.

Share or repost to spread the word and tune in here:
Apple: https://ow.ly/CrIT50Zbam4
Spotify: https://ow.ly/8xhk50Zbam3

In 2025, only 37% of 9-year-olds and 14% of 13-year-olds reported reading for fun almost every day. Forty years ago, those numbers were 53% and 35%.

Summer is here. Parents and teachers on our team are talking about ways to address this.

Ideas include giving kids flashlights with their library books and not worrying so much if they’re reading “just one more chapter” after bedtime. Sleep is important, but so is reading for fun! 🔦📚

What are some other creative ways you've seen that encourage students to read on their own?