Thank You for Joining Me Today

<Play silent slideshow of digits being used in the classroom as your audience enters – select folder titled “digits Classroom Photos” and in the Picture Tasks menu on the left, select the first option: View as slide show. Hit “Esc” to stop the slideshow. We have heard from many customers that they want to see more of what the program being used in the classroom looks like. Use this slideshow as a tool to explain/remind them what digits looks like when it’s in use: teacher at the front of the class using the interactive whiteboard (IWB) or digital projector to deliver lesson content, kids at their desks taking notes in the Student Companion.

You may also want to show this fun clip from YouTube, which shows a student playing up the “non-interactivity” of print books and expounding on the great possibilities inherent in a digital curriculum:

Thank you for joining me today. My name is ______and I am a ______with Pearson Education. I am really excited to share with you today our brand new middle grades math program, digits.

But, before we do that, let’s take a moment to think about what life is like for teachers just like you today. Think about all the responsibilities middle grades teachers like you have, all the best practices you are trying to execute – grading, homework, assessing, reporting and so forth It’s a little like juggling a lot of balls, none of which you can afford to drop…

<Click anywhere on Slide 0 to launch the PREZI flash file.

So what exactly are all these balls you have to constantly keep in the air? What are the best practices a middle grades math teacher is expected to execute flawlessly and without fail?

Advance to play the next video and say the below

Let’s talk about these best practices for a minute… Think about how much out-of-class time lesson planning takes with a paper TE where you have to find every bit of information yourself. Assigning and managing homework – we all know how long it takes to grade all those papers and provide feedback the next day in class. Creating, administering, and grading tests by hand – not to mention reporting and aggregating data – is also a major and time-consuming task. And let’s not forget intervention, at just the right time and in the right manner… RtI takes a lot of work. Adjusting instruction to meet the needs of visual learners, English Language Learners, kids who are ahead of the class (or maybe behind) and so forth – meeting all those different kinds of learners in the middle is a major task in and of itself

When we first started thinking about creating a new program, we visited classrooms nationwide to find out first hand what issues teachers were facing everyday. Many of you joked to us that you wanted us to make the day 30 hours long so that you could do everything that you wanted to do for your students. We took this joke seriously and decided to break down and evaluate exactly how teachers were spending their time.

Current textbook program structures left teachers with just 12 minutes for grade level instruction in a typical 45 minute class period and no time to differentiate.

We also asked teachers how much time, ideally, per week would they spend on each of these best practices in order to be an effective teacher. The numbers speak for themselves. It takes more than a full day of outside class time to juggle all those balls and make sure none of them drop…

So what can Pearson do to help? We put together a diverse authorship and advisory team that could shepherd us into a new world of teaching built on a foundation of tried and true best practices and time saving technology. You will notice some familiar authors’ names here, as well as school districts from across the country who helped test and improve digits in development. Note that digits is also the only middle grades math program truly written to the Common Core State Standards as it was developed in complete alignment after the Standards were published. <Feel free to explore the Authors and the CCSS FAQ handouts on the intranet for more ammunition on what to say here. Access here:

Our work led us to define our two program goals: Optimize Time and Personalize Learning, all with the smart use of the best technological tools available designed to enhance your teaching experience. Welcome to digits.

NOTE: If time permits, you can use the longer Lesson 10-1 Walkthrough as a script model to talk about the On-Level Lesson. This document is located on the Intranet -> Secondary Math -> Digits -> Sales Tools -> Lesson 10-1 Walkthrough. Access here:

Notice how I am opening the lesson content straight from the interactive whiteboard. Just a reminder – you do *not* need to have an IWB in your classroom to teach digits – a digital projector or an eBeam work just as well.

Let’s take a look at what digits looks like for students. In this new world, students engage in the math immediately on entering the classroom. Students work on the Launch problem in their student companions while the problem appears on the IWB. Turn to the first page of your presentation packet to find the companion page associated to this lesson. <Use the Student Companion double-sided handout>. In digits, every second of class time was examined because any saved seconds accumulate to give you more time for instruction.

With digits, students are not spending any time copying the Do Now from the board because the Launch is already in their own personal companions. And this Launch problem triggers prior knowledge for the upcoming instruction through problem-based interactive learning. Teachers can invite students to the IWB to share their solutions and strategies, including using the IWB tools or manipulating the objects on the screen, which is great for visual and kinesthetic learners. For example, students can sort the fruit right on the screen. <Demo this> Teachers can pull up the companion page<demo this> and invite students to the board to share what they did in their companions. Teachers can also pull up the answers<demo this> if they want students to self-check their work.

Here we meet Jay, who is one of the Understanding by Design hosts in digits. These UbD hosts are real, young, successful students who middle-graders can look up to – a change from always listening to their math teacher (you!). This allows young learners to engage with the math on a new, relatable level. The Understanding by Design hosts guide students through the lesson by providing context and reasons for why learning the concept is important, and they do this sincerely and authentically, in their own words. In this screen, Jay is simply introducing the students to the Focus Question of the lesson. We will see more examples of Jay in just a little bit.

The examples in digits provide direct, explicit instruction of the lesson’s concept. The examples build on one another to ensure understanding.

Now for some fun features. Note the interactive megaphone button (which reads the problem aloud) –<click button; circled>. Spanish resources are also available<click button, circled. Vocabulary reinforcement is a constant presence, as needed<click button, circled>.

Various animations are built in to support comprehension and engagement. You just saw the shapes convert themselves into audio players and headphones to support the word problem. You also have the option to play the animated solution. Let’s see the solution to this particular problem.

<Click solution button and click play to show the animation with audio for a few seconds. Turn off the audio by clicking on the megaphone button, circled, so that you can say the following while the animation is running.

The animated solution is paced for students who are learning the mathematical concept for the first time. Visual elements such as color-coding, pulsing and movement draw students’ attention to the important details of the concept. Students count along with the narrator and write the ratio accordingly. Color coding and movement demonstrate how the ratio can be rewritten to compare the objects in reverse order. Paced audio narration and visuals support learning and comprehension.

Here’s our friendly UbD host Jay again, explaining the math in real-life terms <click “Jay Says”>. Isn’t he a fun guy to liven up your classroom?

Every example wraps up with such a Got It feature to check for understanding. If students are successful with the “Got It?”, you can move on with confidence. If the class is not successful with the “Got It?”, it gives you the opportunity to re-teach the example immediately.

Assessments in each example can be delivered in a variety of formats. U can use the white space <show> to have students show their work on the IWB. If your class has student response devices (clickers), you can display multiple choice options…<click Answer Choices at bottom of screen, circled… and the correct answer!<click Correct Answer at bottom of screen, circled. Or, you could also have students complete the “Got It?” independently on scratch paper and open the solution so that students can self check their work. <open the Solution at bottom of screen to demo, circled>.

Another unique digits feature is the Key Concepts. This allows you to summarize the content of the lesson and check for understanding. You control how much information is displayed – you can show definitions graphically <demo this using the round radio buttons, circled> or you can reveal supporting text<click on the triangular caret buttons to demo, circled>. As always, Spanish and vocabulary support are available <open Es and V, circled, show the Spanish button on the Vocab screen, then close Spanish.>.

Some examples are designed for higher order thinking.

Jay, our UbD host, has something to sayplay Jay. Teachers or students can use the white space to write different ratios or strategies for how Jordyn and Micah can use the results to plan for next year.

On this next screen, teachers can invite a number of students to the board to complete the T/F statementsdrag the tiles into place, get some wrong. After every statement has been labeled, the class can check their solution. The program is designed to encourage students to try in a non-intimidating environment. Instead of big red defeating X’s, incorrect answers simply snap back to the tile decks to give students a chance to try again.

Additionally, a detailed, comprehensive solution with visual learning elements is also available

<Click to advance to next screen of example 3, then advance to the last screen as noted

Got It 1: Got It 2:

Example 3 has 2 Got Its? The first Got It? is very similar to the ones we’ve already seen, with white space for solutions, multiple choice, and completed solutions. <click to advance> The second Got It? asks students to explain their reasoning.

Each lesson closes with another appearance by the UbD host to help you shore up understanding. The Close and Check is designed to bring students back to the Focus Question. You can use the white space <show> to create a class mind map to summarize all of the class’ learnings, or you can work on the Student Companion Page together or independently, and then have students self-check their work <show the companion page on IWB and on paper,then display page with solutions, both circled. X out of both.>

Let’s take a look at what planning looks like for you.

Click on Launch, then click the Teacher Support panel>

The Teacher Support Panel is your equivalent to the TE wrap, but on steroids. Instead of being limited to the narrow space of a printed wrap around, you now have access to deep resources at point of need, at your command, and the ability to customize.

The details tab right here provides you with specific information about each problem, including probing questions that foster comprehension. If you click the Overview tab <demo this> you will find information on the objectives of the lesson, the essential question, author’s intent, and a short summary of the entire lesson.

If you want more information, simply click on one of the links at the bottom to access deeper content support and resources, only click and expand for what you want.

Let’s open the Teacher Guide<click to open Teacher Guide, circled. The guide has two main sections, a quick, one-page snapshot of the entire lesson that contains all of the probing questions plus navigation tips, and a lesson preparation section that contains detailed notes including author’s intent, math background, common errors, and more.

You can also customize your Teacher Support Panel by editing the existing content or adding your own. For example, you might have found a YouTube video that supports the math concept. You can add it here so that you can launch the video directly from the lesson instead of having to go out of the lesson to open a separate browser. Additionally, let’s say during planning, you decide to change the order of the examples, you can do that. You can also remove examples and add in your own, so that it is exactly what you want, and only what you want, to present to your class. Try doing that with a book!

Differentiation with print textbooks often means managing a variety of resources, both print and online. For the teacher, this most likely involves navigating and managing data across different systems, such as online remediation accounts and grade books. Print materials require teachers to distribute, grade, record and track for each differentiated group, and for this reason, differentiation is often difficult to sustain over the course of the year.

In order to make this best practice feasible on a regular and long-term basis, the digits development team explored ways to simplify the process for the teacher. We looked for ways to automatically manage distribution, grading, and tracking and seamlessly integrate with core instruction.

To start, we moved assessments online. This enabled auto-grading, instant feedback for both teachers and students, data automatically ported into the grade book, and most importantly, auto-differentiation. By automatically analyzing student performance data, digits can identify the students who are struggling and those who are on-level or advanced and automatically assign appropriate materials.