K-12 Core Math Strategies to Support Inclusion with Brad Witzel, Ph.D.

It has long been known that we can’t wait for students to be identified with a disability before they receive research-supported instruction. In this session, participants will learn why students struggle acquiring and retaining key math skills. Instructional strategies shared will revolve around the outcomes-focused research across the stages of learning, from acquisition to proficiency to maintenance. Examples will range from elementary to middle to high school standards.

Participants will:

• connect high-quality research to the cognitive stages of learning;
• set rigorous expectations, based on standards, for students of different levels of achievement;
• plan a lesson using principles of systematic instruction;
• develop formative assessment protocols for determining student acquisition;
• practice visuals to support different math constructs, from operations to word problem solving; and
• plan differentiated lessons to meet the needs of students in our core classes.

Audience: K-12 Math teachers, coaches, directors, and interventionists

About Presenter: Bradley S. Witzel, PhD, is the Adelaide Worth Daniels Distinguished Professor of Education at Western Carolina University. Before that he served as Distinguished Professor at Winthrop University. An award-winning teacher, he worked in multiple settings teaching mainly math and science to high achieving students with learning disabilities and difficulties. His work as a teacher carries through to his research where he develops and tests mathematics interventions. Dr. Witzel has authored 10 books, over 80 professional publications and over 50 specialized manuals and multimedia works. His most recent books include Rigor for Students with Special Needs (Routledge), Rigor in the RTI and MTSS Classroom (Routledge), Teaching Elementary Mathematics to Struggling Learners (Guilford Press), and Bridging the Arithmetic to Algebra Gap (Council for Exceptional Children). Having delivered over 700 conference papers and workshop presentations, Dr. Witzel focuses on the learning of children with intensive instruction needs. He has served as a board member consulting with several states on mathematics education, RTI and MTSS. He also served as an author/panelist on the Institute of Education Sciences RTI Math Practice Guide and as an invited reviewer of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel Final Report. Most importantly, he is a husband of a beautiful Occupational Therapist and father of two intellectual and outspoken young women.