EdOptions Academy Foundational Skills Instruction

As educators, how do we support the varied needs of all the students we serve? We must look to remove barriers and ensure that teachers have what they need in order to flourish for students.

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How do we support the varied needs of all the students we serve? It’s not unusual for a teacher to have students with multiple learning and academic needs in the same classroom; in fact, it is the norm. Teachers often wrestle with the questions: How do I enrich the students who have already mastered concepts? and How do I provide more time and practice to those who need additional exposure? With often limited staff, limited time, and limited space, the support provided to our most vulnerable students is typically determined by available resources, and often, it isn’t enough.

As educators, we must look to remove barriers and ensure that the teachers have what they need to flourish for students. How can we focus on the foundational skill gaps to help accelerate learning?

What is Foundational Skills Instruction?

Foundational Skills Instruction is an instructional service that provides 60-minute virtual live lessons hourly before school, during the instructional day, and after school. The lessons are organized by domain and skills, and the schedule follows a monthly cadence to provide students with multiple, reinforcing lessons over time, helping to address foundational gaps and bring students up to grade-level proficiency. Essentially, we focus on the building blocks that fill skill gaps.

The lessons are facilitated by our highly qualified and certified EdOptions Academy teachers who are experts at delivering instruction virtually. They have experience, and they have received ongoing professional learning to continue to hone their skills. With this offering, leaders can remove the barriers of limited people, limited time, and limited space.

How does it work?

Assess student learning and identify the gaps students have in their learning compared to their grade-level standards. Teachers consistently assess student learning using formal and informal assessments as a part of the daily teaching and learning cycle. If you need help assessing student learning and identifying gaps, we can assess your students with our Exact Path adaptive diagnostic assessment.

Attend live lessons. Using their knowledge of student needs and performance, teachers will assign their students to specific lessons addressing the necessary skills on which students need support. EdOptions Academy teachers will provide direct instruction on the needed skill using the curricular resources of Exact Path and following the instructional pedagogy: skill introduction, practice, and assessment during each lesson cycle.

Analyze student performance. Student progress on mastery quizzes will be available in the Exact Path platform and accessible to stakeholders. This gives schools the information necessary to make informed instructional decisions regarding their students.

What are the benefits?

Although the need for foundational skills instruction has been around for decades, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has made it even more crucial presently. Education has changed, and virtual learning is here to stay. This solution:

• Supports a double-dose learning plan that simultaneously focuses on both learning gaps and on-grade-level standards
• Provides an opportunity to accelerate learning by building foundational skills that will fill instructional gaps
• Grants access to high-quality instruction with certified teachers from EdOptions Academy
• Is available to K–12 students anywhere there is Internet access
• Reaches students right where they are

Foundational skills instruction is available to support your summer plans and beyond. Get a head start on providing learning opportunities for students before summer. Then, continue the momentum throughout the next academic year.

Want to learn more about the instructional services Edmentum has to offer? Explore the EdOptions Academy page.

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