INTRODUCTION

For students, gaps in math education can often set them back, which can be overwhelming and discouraging, often resulting in general disengagement from math. 

In a series of interviews conducted across school districts, math administrators unanimously agreed that student engagement and math performance are top priorities irrespective of whether their school focuses on math facts or if it prioritizes practical application of math concepts.

“It all starts with the foundation. If students don’t have the basic understanding of numbers, the older they get, the more difficult math understanding becomes,” said Vanese Shaw, teacher at the Clayton County School District. 

Shaw and fellow teachers in Clayton County School District reported significant improvements in their math outcomes, including increased engagement, student attendance and overall retention of math topics — 84% of teachers agreed that Unruly Math improved their students’ retention of math concepts.

Meanwhile, administrators say that teacher engagement is equally important. 

When it comes to any new technology in the classroom, “teachers have to buy into it, otherwise they’re not going to use it,” Derelle McMenomy, math director at the Jackson County School System, said.

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THE CHALLENGE

Clayton County School District was looking for an innovative and engaging way to bring math to their students. Teachers and administrators searched for a way to provide extra math practice and reinforcement for students who were falling behind. 

The goal was to find ways to solidify the math concepts that were taught in the classroom, as well as to work on the students’ motivation and positive associations toward math. The challenge was finding a way to authentically engage students while also engaging teachers and ensuring Unruly Math was easy to use and implement.  

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THE SOLUTION

After reviewing numerous options, the Clayton County School District chose Unruly Math as the solution for math engagement and reinforcement. 

Unruly Math is based on the Unruly Splats platform that enables students to physically interact with the Splats programmable floor buttons, which provide visual and audio feedback. Unruly Math is a supplemental K-5 math program that reinforces foundational math skills through active, experiential group play. It provides a creative approach to math engagement by enabling students to practice what they have learned in the classroom while reinforcing a positive mindset toward math. Unruly Math encourages students to persevere through productive struggle to solve math challenges in a fun and engaging way. Meanwhile, the universal audio feedback makes it inclusive for all students. 

In classrooms, Unruly Math was used to focus on kinesthetic play while reinforcing core foundational math skills at each grade level in alignment with the new Georgia state standards.  

Unruly provided full in-person initial training as well as ongoing in-classroom support. 

“I thought the training was really good. There were lots of opportunities within that training to practice using Splats, setting up Splats, renaming Splats and breaking out into small groups. People were walking around to assist. They did an amazing job at getting us ready to [use] Splats in a short period of time,” said Audrey McGhee, one of the participating teacher in the Clayton County School District.

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RESULTS

According to math administrators, who were surveyed across school districts throughout the country, “engagement is what allows [students’] minds to open up so they can be thinking and reasoning. If they’re not engaged, you’re not going to have them persevere and do the hard thinking,” said McMenomy

Teachers in Clayton County School District reported significant improvements in their math outcomes, including increased engagement, student attendance and overall retention of math topics — 84% of teachers agreed that Unruly Math improved their students’ retention of math concepts.

According to 96% of surveyed teachers, Unruly Math created a positive association with math for their students. 

Students were able to use Splats to compete in teams. They were able to show fellow students how to perform certain tasks, which became a team effort. “I even saw teams crossing over [to the competing team], so that everyone would be winning!” Talia Franklin, one of the teachers who participated in introducing Unruly Math, said. “It was so much fun that I can’t even place it in a realm with anything else. I mean, what other program says ‘jump on something’ so you can learn?” she added. 

Teachers found the Splats to be an engagement tool that connects math foundations with the current concepts that students are learning in class —  80% said that Unruly Math improved their students’ overall math outcomes.

“It is a differentiated learning tool because you can … give kids different levels within the Splats. So, just because you’re teaching, let’s say, a three-digit by two-digit multiplication, and you have kids that don’t know two-digit by one-digit, they can focus on that on Splats versus … the two-digit by three-digit,” said Vanese Shaw, teacher at the Clayton County School District. 

According to Shaw, after their interaction with the Splats, the kids “are actually enjoying doing math.” Prior to Splats, math was not her students’ favorite subject, she said. With Splats, they are motivated to learn math.

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FURTHER STUDY

Unexpected Benefits for ELL Students

Additional benefits of Unruly Math application were identified for ELL students. The audio feedback was thought to be effective in increasing understanding and engagement among ELL students. 

Audrey McGhee, teacher within the Clayton County School District, said students were immediately drawn to the universal lights and audio feedback, particularly ELL students who do not have a fluent understanding of the English language. 

“Even with a language barrier, you can play Unruly and understand. You can see the visual, you can hear it … it opens it up to everyone to be able to understand what you need to do. ‘This is correct, this is not correct.’ Once they caught on to the pattern, they [figured out which way] they need to go. So, it’s almost like it’s providing a self-correction instead of someone standing there trying to always correct,” McGhee said.