Add a gestures-teaching world to enable differentiated starting points, and expand content beyond linear equations¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

Educators recommended that FH2T allow differentiation "by allowing students to start with different worlds based on the students' prior knowledge and/or the content the class is currently working on." The research team suggested creating a world that teaches the gestures, after which students could begin in any world. Educators also recommended expanding content beyond linear equations to quadratics, other polynomials, logarithms, and exponential equations, emphasizing that advanced algebra frequently reduces to applying order of operations and inverse operations appropriately.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• A dedicated world teaching the gesture interactions so students can enter at any world

Constraints¶

• The current predefined single-track design exists because students learn gestures as they travel through the worlds and the pacing shifts students from procedural to strategic views of math

Target Learners¶

• Grades 6-12 algebra students with varying prior knowledge, including students needing remediation

Target Learning Goals¶

• Differentiated entry into algebra practice matched to prior knowledge and current class content
• Manipulation of more complex equation types

Related Strategies¶

• Low Floor, High Ceiling Tasks
• Begin targeted math support for BVI students in middle school, focusing on algebra-predictive topics with systematic differentiated instruction and inclusive assessment

Examples¶

-

Key Sources¶

• Tarik Buli, Stefani Pautz Stephenson, Rebecca Banks, and Amanda Wortman. (2025). From Here to There (FH2T): Educator Perceptions of Game-Based Algebraic Learning. Digital Promise white paper. https://digitalpromise.dspacedirect.org/items/7dcf9d16-b5ad-4067-be9f-be30319b1185