Instructional Minute

Amplify is committed to supporting K-12 education through intentional products that make a difference. To help us achieve this, please consider joining the K-12 Educator Insights Panel, an invitation-only research panel that brings together incredible educators like you to share their experiences!

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• Connect with product developers, researchers, and other educators on a range of topics.

Research projects typically involve short online surveys that can be completed at your own pace. If selected for the panel, your time investment will be minimal, but the impact you'll make will be immeasurable. We’re also happy to accommodate your busy schedule, and you can opt out of any invitation anytime.

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The Assign feature:

You can use the Assign feature on the digital lessons to assign activities through Amplify, Google Classroom, or Microsoft teams. If you choose to assign activities through Amplify, students will be able see their assignments on Student Home.

The C3 Framework begins with curiosity. When students generate their own questions, they become active investigators of the past, present, and future.

Examples:

• K–2: After reading a picture book about community helpers, have students ask, “What do we want to know about how our community works?”
  

• 3–5: While studying explorers, encourage students to ask, “Why did people risk traveling to unknown places?”
  

• 6–8: Launch a unit on government with the question, “How do people influence decisions in a democracy?”
  
  

💡 Reflection Prompt:
How might you guide student questions to spark meaningful inquiry in your classroom?

In our last newsletter, we focused on the importance of normalizing mistakes as a natural and essential part of learning. This week, we’re turning to another key practice: highlighting effort and strategy.

When students believe math success is only about getting the right answer quickly, many shut down if they don’t succeed on the first try. By shifting the focus to effort and strategy, we help students see that persistence and problem-solving approaches matter just as much—if not more—than the final answer.

Celebrating the “how” behind student thinking builds confidence, fosters resilience, and empowers learners to view themselves as capable mathematicians. Our new math curricular tools support this by encouraging multiple approaches and valuing the strategies students use along the way.

One of the main findings of Graham Nuthall’s work on attention is that students learn content best that they come into contact with at least three times, especially when the information is presented in a different way each time (for example reading, listening, or writing about content). But this only happens if students are paying attention. Half-focused learners master concepts much more slowly and with more difficulties. Thus, building habits of sustained focus is one of the most important routines teachers can embed in their classrooms.

When we switch from one task to another, our attention remains partially focused on the previous task. For example, as a student switches from listening to direct instruction to checking their text messages, when they return to the lesson their minds are now partially on the text message. Sophie Leroy coined the phrase attention residue to name this phenomenon. Attention residue is particularly damaging to learning new and difficult things. As educators, we have to balance the needs of a generation whose neuroplastic brains have developed to switching tasks every two to three minutes with the universal human condition of attention residue. This is where habits of attention can support.

• Intentionally embed habits of attention in your classroom as you would other classroom routines and procedures.

• Ask students to be attentive to their bodies as a means to harness attention

• Eyes- “Track” speakers with their eyes

• Body- Sit up and use head nods or facial expressions to communicate things like agreement or confusion.

• Allowing students to check out physically allows them to check out mentally. If our mission is to ensure that all students receive a quality education, then we can’t send the message that opting out (for example, putting their head down) is acceptable.

• Support active listening in the classroom, including the teacher and students’ contributions.

• Ask students to rephrase the comments of the speaker before them before adding their own.

• Rate (and Change) Tasks

• If you notice a child is constantly avoiding work or seems overly distracted, ask that child to rate the level of challenge found in the activity on a scale of 1 to 10. If the child indicates the activity is an eight or higher, ask what could be done to make the task a two or three. Sometimes, you will get excellent insight into what you can do to help the student decrease his/her level of frustration.

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.

Relationships and Respect

• A healthy classroom culture is built on strong relationships between teachers and students and among students themselves.

• Mutual respect is essential, with clear expectations for how individuals should treat one another.

• Teachers model and foster respectful communication, active listening, and empathy.

• In a classroom with strong relationships, students feel comfortable expressing themselves, asking questions, and making mistakes without fear of 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: