Charting New Courses: How The Forest School is Elevating Math Instruction with Creative Tools and Strategies
heroes on an epic quest
The thinking routines of mathematics are beautiful. They’re also helpful when pursuing our life’s purpose. For years we’ve been evolving our math approach. So that it’s more engaging, more effective, and more useful for doing what matters most to us—guiding young people to find a calling that will change the world.
In what follows, we share insights from the Math Labs of the 2023-2024 school year and how we are making changes for the 2024-2025 school year. We end with recommendations parents and caregivers can do at home. Our end goal is to foster a culture of math mastery and deep understanding in our learners.
spark studio
Montessori Math
The Montessori Math program of our Spark Studio emphasizes a hands-on, concrete-to-abstract learning approach, allowing learners to develop a deep understanding of mathematical concepts through manipulative materials before moving to more abstract representations. The program progresses through sequential learning stages, beginning with activities like number rods, sandpaper numerals, and bead chains to introduce basic counting, operations, and place value. These tools enable learners to visualize mathematical relationships and build a solid foundation for understanding concepts such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. As learners advance, they engage in more complex problem-solving activities, leading them towards independent mastery. The program is designed to support self-paced learning and foster a strong mathematical mindset by integrating conceptual understanding with real-world application.
lower elementary studio
What Went Well in 2023-2024
Our learners are starting to take more risks, ask insightful questions, and adopt flexible thinking. Many have shown a willingness to share their thoughts during group exercises or concept studies. With community support, they have successfully grasped concepts such as estimation, rounding, range, median, quartiles, and basic operations with whole numbers and fractions.
Areas for Improvement
We still need to enhance skills with regulation to help learners focus on deep learning. Additionally, we aim to improve their ability to apply whole-group understandings to partner work, utilizing number relationships more effectively.
Mid-Year Pivot
With one math specialist supporting several Studios, we decided to pivot mid-year. Initially, the focus was on individually assessing each learner’s math abilities through interactive interviews and coaching Studio Guides. After valuable guidance from leaders at The Number Lab in Austin, TX, we found it more effective for our math specialist to plan and facilitate math labs herself. She also coached Guides on facilitating and reflecting on Math Labs, emphasizing how to foster a culture of mastery and community learning. Assessments were integrated into the Math Labs, with deep reflections on learner progress afterward.
Adjustments for 2024-2025
To ensure effective learning, the Lower Elementary Studio pivoted to have two Math Lab sessions led by our Guides. When we observe learners’ gaps in understanding and focus, we address this by splitting up groups. Currently, 1st graders continue with Montessori-style learning with a Guide, while 2nd and 3rd graders work in groups with Guides who create stability in routines and expectations. This adjustment addressed normal age-related distractibility and the transitions from moving buildings and changing Guides.
upper elementary studio
Celebrating Our 2023-2024 Wins
We saw heroes start to take risks, ask insightful questions, and embrace new ways of thinking with flexibility. They’re not just learning math. They’re learning how to think like mathematicians. From estimating and rounding to understanding range, median, quartiles, and more complex concepts like adding and multiplying fractions, your learners are making incredible strides. Think of it like a garden. At first, you plant seeds (basic concepts), and with the right care, they grow into a lush garden (a deep understanding of math). Our community has become a nurturing environment where these seeds can flourish.
Areas for Growth
However, every garden has weeds. We’re focusing on helping learners transfer their group understandings to partner work, utilizing number relationships more effectively. Sometimes, understanding is a bit shaky. By thinking through problems more fully and explaining their reasoning, learners can solidify their understanding.
Our Mid-Year Pivot in 2023-2024
With one math specialist supporting several Studios, we decided to pivot mid-year. Initially, the focus was on individually assessing each learner’s math abilities through interactive interviews and coaching Studio Guides. Now, we’ve found it more effective for our math specialist to plan and facilitate math labs herself, while coaching Guides on facilitating and reflecting on these sessions. This change ensured that our Upper Elementary Studio had two math lab sessions a week led by a math specialist. By integrating assessments into the math labs and reflecting deeply on learner progress, we were able to adapt and improve our approach continuously.
Adjustments for 2024-2025
This year's Math Labs will be designed around the needs of our learners based on the beginning of the year assessment. We believe this approach will allow learners to continue to grow in their understanding and utilization of numbers, as well as address the Studio-wide skills gaps.
middle school studio
Celebrating Our Wins
We’ve seen incredible growth. Learners are beginning to take risks, ask insightful questions, and adopt flexible, new ways of thinking. Imagine a young explorer proving their understanding with the properties of numbers like commutation and the distributive property. This is what we see in our Math Labs—learners confidently sharing their thought processes and grasping concepts like estimation, rounding, and working with integers, including negative values.
Areas for Growth
However, every hero’s journey has its challenges. We need to improve attendance in Math Labs, especially among those with the shallowest understanding of middle school math. Supporting learners in transferring their group understanding to partner work and verbalizing their thinking are other key areas for improvement. Sometimes, understanding is shaky, but with deeper reflection and explanation, they will solidify their knowledge.
Mid-Year Pivot during 2023-2024
With only one math specialist and several studios of learners, we decided to pivot mid-year. Initially, we focused on individually assessing each learner’s math abilities through interactive interviews and coaching Studio Guides. Now, our math specialist plans and facilitates Math Labs herself, while also coaching Guides on the best practices for facilitating and reflecting on math labs.
This new approach allowed us to integrate assessments directly into the Math Labs, with deep reflection afterward on learner progress. This led to ensuring the Middle School Studio had two Math Lab sessions a week. Given there were 38 learners, we split the group into two manageable sections, each covering middle school-level concepts. This setup helped us build a stronger culture of community learning and deepen our conceptual understanding of mathematics.
Adjustments for 2024-2025
This year's Math Labs will be designed around the needs of our learners based on the beginning of the year assessment. Middle Schoolers will also benefit from regular Office Hours with our Math Specialist for tutoring. Parents and caregivers, please encourage your hero to attend. We believe this approach will allow learners to continue to grow in their understanding and utilization of numbers, as well as address the Studio-wide skills gaps.
high school studio
Celebrating Successes from 2023-2024
We’ve seen remarkable growth. Learners are starting to take risks, ask insightful questions, and adopt flexible new ways of thinking. Imagine a young explorer proving their understanding by analyzing data through describing the shape, meaning, appropriateness behind different data displays. This is what we see in our Math Labs—heroes confidently sharing their thought processes and grasping concepts like median, mean, and data representation through box plots, dot plots, and histograms.
Areas for Growth
However, every hero’s journey has its challenges. Attendance remains an issue, particularly among those with the shallowest understanding of Algebra. We need to support learners in transferring their group understandings to partner work and in evaluating what they’ve mastered and what they’re ready to learn next.
Mid-Year Pivot in 2023-2024
With one math specialist and several Studios of learners, we pivoted mid-year. Initially, the focus was on individually assessing each learner’s math abilities through interactive interviews and coaching Studio guides. Now, our math specialist plans and facilitates Math Labs herself while coaching Guides on best practices and reflection techniques. This approach allowed us to integrate assessments directly into the Math Labs, with deep reflection afterward on learner progress. For High School learners, after a baseline assessment in Algebra, it was clear they needed support with foundational concepts, including Statistics & Probability. To address this, we introduced an optional weekly Math Lab focusing on these key areas.
Looking Forward to 2024-2025
This year's Math Labs will be designed around the needs of our learners based on the beginning of the year assessment. High Schoolers will also benefit from regular Office Hours with our Math Specialist for tutoring. Parents and caregivers, please encourage your hero to attend. We believe this approach will allow learners to continue to grow in their understanding and utilization of numbers, as well as address the Studio-wide skills gaps.
Recommendations for parents and caregivers
Based on the insights and strategies described above, here are five recommendations for parents and caregivers to encourage math learning at home:
Integrate Math into Daily Routines: Use everyday activities, like cooking, grocery shopping, or budgeting, as opportunities to practice math. Measuring ingredients, calculating totals, or estimating prices can help children see math’s practical applications.
Encourage a Growth Mindset: Celebrate effort over correctness. Praise your child for taking risks, asking questions, and trying different problem-solving approaches. Reinforcing the idea that making mistakes is part of learning can build resilience and confidence in math.
Use Hands-On Materials: Provide manipulatives like blocks, beads, or number lines to make abstract concepts more concrete. Following a Montessori-inspired approach, allow your child to visualize mathematical relationships before moving on to more abstract representations.
Promote Group Discussions and Reflection: Encourage your child to explain their math thinking out loud or to others. This practice helps solidify their understanding and identifies any gaps. Family discussions about how math is used in real life can also make learning more engaging.
Create a Structured Learning Environment: Consistent routines and dedicated times for math practice help build discipline and focus. Short, regular math sessions are often more effective than long, infrequent ones, allowing your child to build skills gradually. Encourage your learners to participate in Math Labs and if relevant Math Office Hours.
These strategies foster a math-positive environment at home, aligning with the school’s goals of cultivating mastery and deep mathematical understanding.