WRDSB MTH1W SUPPORTS: 2021-2022

Research shows that the ways teachers construct their students as learners has a significant impact on the types of programs and services they are offered. By recognizing that all students who enter the classroom have the potential to be engaged and grow as learners, teachers are more likely to design learning opportunities that build on their strengths and experiences. Effective mathematics instruction requires that teachers believe all students can learn and do mathematics.

Prior educational experiences should not determine the quality or nature of a student's current ones. All students deserve to have a teacher who has high academic expectations of them and provides them with opportunities to be challenged and to succeed. What this looks like in the classroom may differ for different students. That is why it is essential that teachers employ the principles of universal design for learning and differentiation to provide equitable and inclusive educational opportunities for all students.

Just as every student is unique, so is their learning journey. Our role as educators is to support students in uncovering and pursuing their interests and then helping them to navigate their journey along the pathway of their choice. There are many routes to a destination, and while some may be unconventional, educators have to be careful not to allow unconscious biases regarding post-secondary pathways to impose roadblocks for students.

Effective instruction should always begin with the strengths, interests, and needs of the individual learner. It is essential that educators consider who their present learners are and design learning opportunities that reflect the lived experiences (i.e. language, background knowledge, home and community experiences, family structure, cultural, social and gender identities) of those students. Because students are unique, each time a course is delivered it should also be unique as it responds to the diversity of the learners within it.

Educators have a significant impact on the learning environment: from the way they construct their learners, to the learning and assessment opportunities they design, and the type of learning community they foster. Knowledgeable, responsive, and reflective educators create the conditions in which all students can find success by focusing on student assets, using assessment for and as learning to be responsive to student learning needs, providing students with multiple opportunities to show their growth over time, and providing feedback that helps students understand where they are and where they need to go next.