This is Jennifer Gonzalez welcoming you to episode 229 of the Cult of Pedagogy podcast.

In this episode we'll be looking at a tiered system of strategies two teachers used together

to provide just the right amount of support to all learners. The most important disclaimer about this episode is that it's not just for math teachers.

The setting in which my guests and I have placed ourselves happens to be a math classroom, but we feel

strongly that teachers of any subject will be able to take the strategies we talk about today

and apply them in their own work.

With that said, here's what we're doing today.

I'm talking with two teachers, Sarah Riggs Johnson, who is a learning and behavioral specialist, and

Nate Wolkenhauer, who teaches middle school math.

You might remember Sarah from episode 173 when she talked about how she collaborates with English

language arts teachers to improve the writing skills of students with

learning differences. Now she's back to talk about how she collaborates with a

math teacher, Nate.

In their working relationships, Sarah and Nate have developed a system of strategies that help

all students learn better, a kind of pyramid where the strategies at the bottom apply to all students, the

middle layers are used with a smaller group, and at the top are strategies that are

only needed for a few students. They've written a blog post on cult of pedagogy that explains what every

tier of this system looks like. If you teach math or special ed, this one is a must, but even if you

don't, you're going to come away with some new ideas for how to help students

who struggle, even if they don't have an identified learning disability.

We had a hard time giving this one a title, and that's because it has so much good stuff

that teachers can learn from.

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