Instructional Minute

Last week, we highlighted the importance of effort and strategy in building students’ confidence as mathematicians. This week, we focus on another powerful practice: offering low-stakes practice.

When students feel that every problem is “high-stakes,” mistakes can create anxiety and discourage risk-taking. By designing opportunities to practice without the pressure of grades or evaluation, we create space for exploration, curiosity, and growth. Low-stakes practice—such as warm-ups, math talks, or collaborative problem-solving—helps students take risks, learn from missteps, and build fluency over time.

Our new math curricular tools include structures that support this kind of practice, making it easier to give students frequent, meaningful opportunities to try, reflect, and grow—without fear of failure.

Classwork: Access and review student work.
Classwork is where you’ll view all student work—from completed assignments to those in progress or missing. In Classwork, you can also provide students with timely, actionable feedback, and monitor whether or not they’ve reviewed your feedback or submitted revised work.

Inquiry deepens when students think like social scientists. Historians, geographers, economists, and political scientists each bring unique tools for exploring human experiences.

Examples:

• K–2: Use a simple map of the school and ask, “How do we use space in our daily lives?” (geography).
  
  

• 3–5: Examine artifacts or images from the past and ask, “What can this object tell us about how people lived?” (history).
  
  

• 6–8: Discuss supply and demand during a study of trade, asking, “Why do prices change?” (economics).
  
  

💡 Reflection Prompt:
Which disciplinary lens do you most often use—and how could you expand opportunities for students to use others?

Purpose: Breaking down standards into clear, student-friendly learning targets with defined success criteria helps ensure instruction is focused, assessments are aligned, and students know what success looks like.

Step 1: Unpack the Standard

• Read the standard carefully. Identify the nouns (what students need to know) and the verbs (what students need to do).
  

• Determine the concepts (ideas) and skills embedded in the standard.
  

Step 2: Identify the Learning Targets

• Convert the concepts and skills into clear, student-friendly “I can…” statements.
  

• Learning targets should be:
  

• Measurable
  

• Focused on a single skill or concept
  

• Written in language students can understand
  

Tip: Use Webb’s Depth of Knowledge (DOK) to help ensure you address different cognitive levels.

Step 3: Create Success Criteria

• Define what it looks like when students meet the target.
  

• Use specific, observable actions or products.
  

• Success criteria can be:
  

• Checklists
  

• Rubric indicators
  

• Descriptions of quality work

As we reach this point in the school year, we’d love to hear how the Instructional Minute is working for you. Your feedback helps us ensure that the newsletter continues to be timely, relevant, and useful in supporting your work. Please take a few minutes to complete our short survey and let us know what’s been helpful and what we can improve.

Emotional and Physical Safety

• A strong classroom culture ensures that students feel both emotionally and physically safe. This means students can express their thoughts without fear of ridicule, and conflicts are handled respectfully.

• There is also a focus on inclusivity, where diverse backgrounds and perspectives are valued and incorporated into classroom activities.

• Students in such a classroom culture know they can raise concerns or challenges and that their teacher will support them without judgment.

For more information on Classroom Culture & Climate, check out our brand new Lansing School District educator's Guide located here on the district's staff forms page!

These guidelines are in place to ensure that all students have access to a guaranteed and viable curriculum—one where every learner receives the essential content and skills needed for success.

Intention to daily instructional minutes supports learning retention, builds routines, and ensures equity across classrooms and schools.

By adhering to the daily instructional minutes, we create:

• Consistency – Students know what to expect and can build stronger learning habits.

• Equity – Every child has access to the same high-quality learning opportunities.

• Progression – Skills and content build in a logical, intentional sequence.

Your commitment to this practice ensures that our students benefit fully from the curriculum we’ve adopted and are better prepared for future success. Thank you for your dedication to maintaining this consistency for all learners.

The documents attached outline K-8 curricular resources, standards and pacing. This can also be found by clicking here on the LSD website. *Please note that pacing for Illustrative Math powered by Kiddom and Reveal Math will become available as the year progresses.

The document attached outlines 9-12 curricular resources, standards and pacing. This can also be found by clicking here on the LSD website.

A resource to use as you see fit.

The newsletter is created each week by the Instructional Division: