Teachers at Arlington ISD’s Beckham Elementary are making big goals for their students and developing innovative strategies to meet them.
Ashley Rodriguez works with a student in her ELAR classroom. Beckham teachers raise the bar with stellar teaching methods
Teachers use the strategies to help their students move beyond surface-level learning and develop a deeper understanding of academic content.
Last year, Beckham administrators led the charge in developing aligned rubrics tied to their campus WIGS, or Wildly Important Goals. For math, the Blazers worked to improve daily math problem solving skills using the UPS Check (Understand, Plan, Solve) system. To strengthen written responses in reading and science, administrators implemented the RACE (Restate, Answer, Cite, Evidence, Explain Your Thinking) and CER, (Claim, Evidence, Reasoning) methods. Teams of teachers defined clear expectations for student mastery at each grade level, creating a progression toward high-quality writing.
“Creating an environment in the classroom where students have to restate the question and give it an answer has really developed them,” said Ashley Rodriguez, a fifth grade English and writing teacher. “They communicate better with their peers and teachers, and their writing has improved.”
In Nadeen Fattal’s fifth grade science and math classes, students use an “I do, you do, we do” approach that encourages them to develop answers independently, with a peer, and then with the entire class.
Beckham teachers raise the bar with stellar teaching methods: Nadeen Fattal helping student in her classroom.
“Sometimes their peers can give them advice that I would not have thought of, and it prompts their communication with each other,” Fattal said. “They are also typing every day, which is helping them since testing is all online.”
Both Fattal and Rodriguez’s mastery of the rubric contributed to a significant reduction in students scoring zero on written responses, with the ELAR (English Language Arts and Reading) benchmark decreasing from 50% to 9% and the science benchmark decreasing from 50% to 16%
With communication being a vital part of any career, teachers at Beckham are encouraged by the impact of the RACE method, which is giving students the tools they need to succeed beyond the classroom. Two additional teachers at Beckham have demonstrated full mastery of the rubric, sixth grade math teacher Aarion Williams and fourth grade math teacher Hayley Cook.
Aarion Williams of Beckham Elementary teaching sixth grade students.
In math classrooms, teachers have adopted the UPS Check system, which prompts students to understand, plan, solve, and check their work.
“We have a ‘problem of the day,’ which is a released STAAR question that applies to whatever TEK we are currently learning,” Williams said.
She explained that at first, students were required to use UPS Check, and once they demonstrated a deep understanding, they were given the choice to continue using the model.
“I believe in giving students a choice,” Williams said. “I love the intrinsic motivation they show. It started with me encouraging them, and now it has become natural.”
With educators like Williams demonstrating 94% student growth with 85% passing, and Cook’s fourth grade math classes achieving a 91% pass rate on the most recent benchmark, teachers at Beckham are proud of what their students have accomplished.
Wildly Important Goals drive Beckham teacher Hayley Cook’s classroom to new academic heights
“I think boosting their morale with praise and showing them their growth really gets them excited,” Cook said. “Once they had that ‘ah-ha’ moment, they continued to grow into better problem solvers in math and in life.”
Watch videos on each teacher’s methods: