June 6th, 2023

How This 2nd/3rd Grade Outdoor Immersion Teacher in Southern California Personalizes Math

Vivian Rios is an elementary combo teacher in Southern California who teaches 2nd and 3rd graders. Vivian's school site is an outdoor immersion school, which is incredibly fitting given that when she's not teaching in the classroom, she enjoys riding her bike to the beach, boba in hand. Though her students thrive in their outdoor education and learn best while exploring outside, Vivian finds that it can be complicated to say the least to create math lessons to meet the varied needs of all of her 2nd and 3rd grade students, many of whom are below grade level and need extra practice with grade-level standards. As such, she has found Boddle to be helpful in tailoring instruction according to the unique needs and abilities of each student, fostering a personalized and targeted learning experience.

Key Outcomes:

  • Addressing Students' Individual Learning Needs: To fill learning gaps for students that need extra help and to provide enrichment for students who need a challenge, Vivian uses Boddle's assignments feature to assign standards-specific, gamified learning content.
  • Time-Saving and Effective Supplemental Resource: After her students complete an initial placement test, Vivian uses Boddle's adaptive learning technology to continue engaging students in the skills they need the most.

Challenge: Meeting the needs of a diverse group of learners in different grade levels and with varying academic focus areas.

With students at various grade levels and academic focus areas, it can be tricky (not to mention time-consuming), for teachers to provide differentiated instruction to meet individual learning needs. Oftentimes, this requires creating different lesson plans and adapting teaching strategies to suit each student's abilities and goals. To make this challenge even more difficult, Vivian must do this for not one but two grade levels of students within her classroom.

Solution: Using Boddle to inform instruction and assign specific standards based on students' current math levels.

Boddle enables teachers to create individualized assignments based on students' math levels and specific standards. In this way, Vivian can assign activities and challenges to her students that align with their current proficiency and target areas where they need additional practice. After her students complete an initial placement test, Vivian is quickly able to see where her students require additional support or where they might need enrichment to be challenged. This personalized approach helps her students engage with math content at an appropriate level and supports their progress towards grade-level standards and beyond.

Result: By utilizing Boddle's adaptive learning, Vivian can more easily see her students' math levels and therefore enhance their grade-level math fluency.

By utilizing Boddle's adaptive learning, real-time data, and individualized assignments, Vivian can gain valuable insights into her students' math levels and provide intentional instruction where each student needs it the most. Boddle's interactive learning platform not only aids Vivian in efficiently creating learning material appropriate and specific to each of her students, it also fosters their learning and engagement in mathematics.

“[With Boddle,] I am able to individually select students who need extra review, or select students who need an extra challenge."

-Vivian Rios

Devices

Boddle currently runs on desktops, laptops, and Chromebooks using Safari, Firefox, or Chrome browsers. The Boddle app for iPad, tablets, and mobile users is also available on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.

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