Our Guiding Philosophy: Design for All Students
At MIND Education, we believe that designing with the margins in mind benefits all students. This core principle drives our commitment to Universal Design for Learning (UDL). We recognize that students have varying needs that depend on numerous factors—prior learning opportunities, background knowledge and experiences, language proficiency, and even how much sleep they got the night before. Student needs are contextual and can vary from day to day and moment to moment. Effective curriculum must adapt to these changing needs.
By building UDL principles into our curriculum, we support these differences naturally, while offering differentiation for any student who needs additional support at any given moment. Our approach isn't about labeling students or creating separate tracks; it's about creating a flexible learning environment where all students can thrive.
The UDL Guidelines, developed by CAST,* outline three main categories of instructional design:
- Engagement—the "why" of learning—motivating learners and sustaining their interest and persistence
- Representation—the "what" of learning—providing multiple ways to access and process information
- Action and Expression—the "how" of learning—providing diverse ways for students to demonstrate what they know and navigate their learning environment
Responsive instructional programs, like InsightMath, include multiple design elements within each category leading to learning environments that center students’ learning needs.
* CAST (2024). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 3.0. Retrieved from https://udlguidelines.cast.org
Engagement
UDL's engagement principle focuses on the "why" of learning—motivating learners and sustaining their interest and persistence through inclusive, meaningful experiences that honor diverse approaches to learning.
Access
These design elements increase student access to the learning goal by maximizing engagement.
InsightMath Design Elements
| What | Why |
| Math contexts are presented through characters with a variety of interests and background and are realistic to what a student may experience. | Encourages engagement in meaningful tasks. |
| The structure of resources are consistent and simple with minimal distractions. | Facilitates familiarity and ease of use. |
| Lessons are designed with open ended tasks. | Encourages exploration and discovery. |
| Student are provided a choice of tools, models and strategies. | Empowers students to show their thinking in ways that makes sense to them. |
| Playbooks are designed with an open and engaging layout. | Brings joy and fun to the math while letting students decide how to approach problems. |
| Access and Opportunity section highlights moments of student agency. | Supports teachers in recognizing and celebrating student voice and supports students in having ownership of their learning |
How Teachers Can Add to the Equation
- Highlight the ways in which your students' interests and background give them unique insight and knowledge to the learning of mathematics.
- Avoid making assumptions about a student’s ability or support needs.
Support
These design elements support the learning process by maximizing engagement.
InsightMath Design Elements
| What | Why |
| Lessons include built-in layered complexity. | Provides access for all students as well as opportunities for deeper exploration. |
| Formative feedback opportunities are provided through intentionally designed activities and discussion. | Provides opportunities for ownership of learning. |
| Formative Assessment moments are provided at various points within lessons. | Allows teachers to adjust instruction in the moment to match students’ needs. |
| ST Math games used in various ways throughout the curriculum. | Provides motivation due to their highly engaging nature and built-in immediate and formative feedback. |
| Collaborative Language Tool support students to participate in discussions with partners or groups. | Facilitates collective learning and encourages students to gain further understanding of concepts, ideas, and perspectives. |
How Teachers Can Add to the Equation
- Ask the most open ended questions first to give students the opportunity to guide the conversation, asking more specific questions when necessary
- Anchor discussion in student work
- Support students to understand their ideas and strategies and teach students to make their thinking visible
- Use Differentiation as needed to provide further access and extension to any student who needs it
Executive Function
These design elements support learners’ executive functioning by maximizing engagement.
InsightMath Design Elements
| What | Why |
| Activities that ask students to explicitly discuss what they would like their math community to look, sound, and feel like. | Supports understanding others’ perspectives when learning in a community |
| Thinking Path activities help students identify strategies, successes and struggles within their learning. | Supports students to understand that learning requires perseverance. |
| Dialogue and discussions that encourage students to see themselves as mathematicians and understand that mathematicians tackle challenging problems. | Support students to understand that mistakes and incorrect answers are important parts of discussion and the learning process. |
How Teachers Can Add to the Equation
- Notice and celebrate the ways in which students are building strengths. Use the Celebrating Strengths log to collect and highlight times when students are exhibiting Student Strengths in action.
- Periodically revisit the Looks, Sounds, and Feels like anchor chart created in Unit 0 to re-norm on classroom interactions.
- Celebrate incomplete ideas and attempts at solving.
- Highlight interesting mistakes and novel ways of problem-solving.
Representation
The representation principle addresses the "what" of learning—providing multiple ways to access and process information so that learning opportunities are accessible to all students regardless of perceptual or cognitive differences.
Access
These design elements increase student access to the learning goal by providing multiple representations.
InsightMath Design Elements
| What | Why |
| Visual-first instruction with interactive models. | Develops conceptual understanding beyond words. |
| A platform and materials that follow accessibility standards (e.g., contrast, color choices, font size), and are designed with limited distractions, color used for emphasis when appropriate, and consistent layouts. | Provides accessibility of learning materials. |
| Problems presented within meaningful and relevant contexts. | Allows students to ground their learning in familiar situations and build on their prior understanding. |
| Emphasis on discourse and sharing of student work. | Allows students to experience a variety of ideas and solution strategies. |
| Explicitly identified Student Strengths. | Helps students to understand the many strengths they bring to mathematics learning and doing, as well as the strengths they are developing as they move through the program. |
| Concepts represented through the use of concrete manipulatives, visual interactives and models, and verbal discussion. | Allows students to experience math using a wide variety of modalities. |
How Teachers Can Add to the Equation
- Build background knowledge or relate contexts to more familiar experiences to remove any context barriers.
- Encourage students who may not readily share to provide their perspective through sharing of student work.
Support
These design elements support the learning process by providing multiple representations.
InsightMath Design Elements
| What | Why |
| Intentional vocabulary introduction where students put their own language on the math and then are given the mathematical term. | Allows students to build on and connect to their language foundation. |
| A structured pathway for approaching word problems meaningfully, not just for their own sake. | Emphasizes that word problems are opportunities for students to make sense of mathematics in context. |
| Academic language scaffolds that help with math-specific vocabulary and text structures. | Provides access to math learning and communication regardless of language background. |
How Teachers Can Add to the Equation
- Encourage students to describe the math in any way they are comfortable and then make explicit connections between their language and the formal mathematical language and notation.
- Support students to fully understand the language of word problems and contexts before expecting them to attempt a solution.
- Ask students to express their understanding of a concept in their preferred language and help students to see their foundation in a language other than English as an asset.
- Highlight times when words in another language provide more insight into the words meaning or background, and discuss patterns within words, and encourage students to make connections to English.
- Provide access and support students to use a digital tool for word definitions, examples, translations (e.g., Google Translate, Google Dictionary, illustrated glossaries).
- When possible, allow students to work with a partner who shares the same preferred language so students can discuss their thinking while using less working memory for language, allowing students to use more working memory for mathematical ideas.
Executive Function
These design elements support learners’ executive functioning by providing multiple representations.
InsightMath Design Elements
| What | Why |
| Learning experiences are intentionally designed to focus on big ideas. | Helps students to create connections throughout the curriculum. |
| Concepts are taught comprehensively (blending conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and multiple approaches). | Develops a well rounded understanding of math topics and strategies. |
| Units and lessons are designed to activate and build upon prior learning. | Allows students to use what they do know to figure out what they don’t know. |
| Lessons used intentionally sequenced questions to highlight patterns. | Supports students to generalize their learning. |
How Teachers Can Add to the Equation
- If students are stuck because of unfinished learning, support them to discover where their understanding starts and build from that point
- Provide additional examples when necessary to support students to generate their own understanding. For example:
- Provide more opportunities for a student to grapple with a concrete or representational problem before moving to an abstract problem within the same topic
- Provide additional items within a pattern to assist with generalizations
- Use Differentiation to support students to address unfinished learning, make connections, or think deeper about a topic
Action and Expression
The action and expression principle focuses on the "how" of learning—providing diverse ways for students to demonstrate what they know and navigate their learning environment.
Access
These design elements increase student access to the learning goal by providing varied ways for students to express their understanding.
InsightMath Design Elements
| What | Why |
|
The platform is designed with a variety of features to maximize usability, including:
|
Provides accessibility to on-platform activities. |
|
Lessons provide students multiple ways to show their thinking including:
|
Provides opportunities for students to interact with the math. |
How Teachers Can Add to the Equation
- Intentionally teach and reinforce aspects of the platform to help students have greater access to lessons throughout the curriculum. Students may need to be shown not only how to use these aspects of the platform, but also have emphasized specific ways the tools can support them as they work through the curriculum.
Support
These design elements support the learning process by providing varied ways for students to express their understanding.
InsightMath Design Elements
| What | Why |
| Various response types including verbal discussion, physical models, interactive manipulatives, drawings on platform or off, math expressed through the expression builder or drawing tool, written responses by types or using speech-to-text. | Provides students with multiple methods to represent their thinking and learning. |
| Activities that build from concrete and visual models. | Allows students to move between concrete, representational, and abstract forms, strengthening both content and language skills. |
| Sentence frames are provided on three different support levels. | Supports students to self-select their support needs so they can talk about the objective of the lesson. |
| Lessons build connections between different forms of response. | Supports students to understand the connections between representations and uplift all forms of response. |
| Variety of opportunities for practice through lesson activities, ST Math games, Playbook pages, spiraled practices pages, and table games. | Provides a variety of opportunities for students to gain mastery of concepts. |
| Variety of assessments including diagnostic, formative, summative, and self-assessment opportunities. | Provides students a variety of opportunities to show what they know. |
How Teachers Can Add to the Equation
- Within discussion, encourage and highlight students that use alternate methods to show their understanding. A student who cannot clearly explain their thinking using English, but can show their understanding using manipulatives, drawing, role playing, gestures, annotations, etc., should know that this is a valid and encouraged form of communication.
- Consider the variety of assessments provided, as well as different forms of response, as equally valid when determining student learning.
- Use sentence frames either verbally or in writing depending on student needs and lesson and language objectives.
- Use these suggestions from the Math Language Routines** as universal language supports to guide discussion.
- Revoice student ideas to model mathematical language use by restating a statement as a question in order to clarify, apply appropriate language, and involve more students.
- Press for details in students’ explanations by requesting for students to challenge an idea, elaborate on an idea, or give an example.
- Show central concepts multi-modally by utilizing different types of sensory inputs: acting out scenarios or inviting students to do so, showing videos or images, using gesture, and talking about the context of what is happening.
- Practice phrases or words through choral response.
- Think aloud by talking through thinking about a mathematical concept while solving a related problem or doing a task. Model detailing steps, describing and justifying reasoning, and questioning strategies.
** Zwiers, J., Dieckmann, J., Rutherford-Quach, S., Daro, V., Skarin, R., Weiss, S., & Malamut, J. (2017). Principles for the Design of Mathematics Curricula: Promoting Language and Content Development. Retrieved from Stanford University, UL/SCALE website: http://ell.stanford.edu/content/mathematics-resources-additional-resources
Executive Function
These design elements support learners’ executive functioning by providing varied ways for students to express their understanding.
InsightMath Design Elements
| What | Why |
| Thinking Path activities provide opportunities for students to self-assess their understanding of each unit’s mathematical content. | Supports students to reflect regularly on their learning. |
| Student Strengths are used by students to set goals to work on building towards throughout the unit. | Supports students to reflect regularly on how they are growing as mathematicians. |
How Teachers Can Add to the Equation
- Devote time during Workshop Time for students to participate in the Thinking Path and Goal reflection activities.
- Use tools such as the Formative Assessment Recording Log and the Celebrating Strengths log to help you track learning during classroom instructional time as the learning takes place.