Innovative Instruction for Mission-Critical Knowledge

The sun does not revolve around the earth.

This common knowledge was, at one point, courageous and innovative thinking—the kind of thinking that is initially scrutinized, polarized, and against the societal norm.

But it is this kind of thinking that propels humanity to a deeper understanding of the complexities of life—like how children learn.

Dr. Charles Seipp, assistant superintendent of Roxbury School District (RSD) in northern New Jersey, helps lead a modern-day, innovative school district. He says., “We’ve learned a lot about kids in the last 20, 25, 30 years—about how they learn, what drives their interest, and what motivates them. We’ve also gained a better understanding about the importance of meeting kids where they are developmentally, whether it be from a readiness level, attention level, or academic level.

“And our world has changed on top of that, with technology being such a big part of our lives, so to try and run education the way it worked successfully back in the ’70s, ’80s, or ’90s probably won’t work for this world and these students.”

A Purposeful Model of Instruction

So what does work for this generation of students? How do educators instruct students of the 2020s, not the 1980s?

As science and research have revealed, all students learn differently. However, that knowledge means that one teacher needs to use multiple approaches to teach each new skill. That’s a lot of work for the teacher, but the Teachers College at Columbia University developed the Reading and Writing Workshop to better meet the needs of all learners while supporting the teacher. This approach to language arts instruction allows students to work in centers that are tiered to their abilities. Teachers can then work with small groups of students who have similar strengths and needs, making data tracking easier.

“Recognizing that model works really well for language arts, we had teachers and administrators starting to ask, ‘Well, if it works well with language arts, why wouldn’t we just do the same thing with math?’” says Seipp.

At RSD, many teachers were still offering a lot of traditional math instruction, which included a whole-group lesson and then some kind of worksheet to follow up, but the district took the success of the language arts workshop and started to model the same structure for math.

“This is when we discovered that there was a void in our math offerings,” says Seipp.

With the new math model, instead of one lesson and one worksheet to prepare for students, teachers are tasked with establishing multiple tiered centers for students to work independently on their instructional levels, which in some cases means that up to 16 different tasks must be planned and prepared for a 60-minute math workshop.

“Getting kids into targeted opportunities where they can really pursue the learning goals and meeting their needs individually requires a lot of work from the teachers!” Seipp acknowledges. “How do you structure that? How do you set that up to meet kids’ needs on an ongoing basis? It’s one of the reasons teaching is really a hard job.”

Filling a Void and Supporting Teachers

Innovation comes when a problem exists. With this void in engaging offerings for the math workshop, teacher Lynn Manney stepped up and asked, “Hey, what’s the potential we could use Osmo? Are you familiar with Osmo?”

Osmo itself is an innovative learning tool that merges the power of gamified technology with the physical aspects of fine motor manipulation. Manney, who teaches 2nd grade at Franklin Elementary School, added, “I think this would be something that would be great for our centers. Can we try it?”

With Seipp’s own familiarity of Osmo through his children’s use of the tools at home, he knew the powerful engagement the program provides. “To try to pretend that digital connection is not part of these youngsters’ lives is just not reality,” says Seipp.

Osmo uses reflective artificial intelligence technology with iPads and Amazon Fire tablets, allowing the camera to see a student’s physical workspace so that the student can use manipulatives to respond to the digital questions on the screen.

“iPads are tricky to manage, from the uploading of apps to the integration into the classroom” explains Seipp. “Our tech department worked with Apple and was able to solve those problems so [that] we could deploy the apps to the iPad. We started with running a trial in Manney’s classroom and a couple of her colleagues. She then started to run faculty meetings and share the successes her students were having with the Numbers and Words apps.”

Osmo was the answer to how to fill the void of an engaging math center offering for RSD while simultaneously easing one planning piece off the classroom teacher’s plate, but it still took effort to convince the masses.

“You had three groups of teachers,” explains Seipp. “You had the one that was like, ‘Hey, that’d be really cool. I want to try it.’ You have a second group that’s like, ‘What I’m doing is working; leave me out of it.’ And then you have this third group that’s like, ‘Oh, I’m getting an opportunity to get something cool in my classroom—I’ll take it, even though I’m not really sure what it’s going to do.’”

Collaboration Leads to Successful Implementation and Management Improvements

When RSD and Osmo Education began their relationship, Osmo was relatively new to the education space. For years, they had been a retail product on the shelves of Target or the pages of Amazon, often awaiting children while wrapped in colorful paper and tied with a bow.

Moving into the classroom was a learning curve for both parties, straight down to simply purchasing the program. “Purchasing for schools isn’t easy,” admits Seipp. “But Osmo is really great to work with in terms of getting the materials into classrooms and working with school districts to navigate the school purchasing strategies.”

Once the full deployment of Osmo’s bases, reflectors, and manipulatives were made and the free apps were installed on the iPads, Osmo’s use became widespread across RSD’s elementary centers—for both math and language arts—and began receiving immediate student and parent feedback.

“One of the best things as an administrator and even just as an educator is when a kid goes home and willingly talks about school,” says Seipp. “So having kids open up and talk about their experiences in school is really cool. Osmo led to a lot of emails from parents saying, ‘My kid is talking about this thing; can you tell me a little bit more about it?’”

Lynn Manney’s Franklin Elementary School became a model school for Osmo and Manney herself became an Osmo ambassador, connecting with other educators locally and nationwide to help them implement Osmo in their classrooms, as well as providing front-line feedback that ultimately led to improvements for Osmo Education.

“Teachers wanted to track individual student progress,” shares Seipp. “But in a school where you have centers and kids are using the same devices, it becomes tricky. Osmo was able to update the apps into a classroom management portal where the teacher can have students log into their classroom so [that] teachers can track their progress.”

Another change has been the recalibration of the storage pieces that come with the purchase, which has made it easier to keep track of the manipulatives. Seipp explains, “A fear when you buy small things for kids is that they disappear or become tattered or broken—and they do, because life happens. We didn’t want that to be a hindrance, so right out of the gate, I said to the teachers, ‘I don’t want you to hide this stuff from kids. I want you to encourage them to use it so it’s fun and engaging and all the reasons why we wanted to engage in this relationship.’”

Gamified Learning Supports Mission-Critical Skills

That mindset of openness with the tools instilled responsibility in the RSD students, and Osmo’s gamified learning structure solidified the district’s investment.

“There is a lot of research about gamified learning and a reason why video games are so enticing,” says Seipp. “They keep the user coming back because you get this periodic reinforcement for success, so gamified learning has emerged as a really impactful instructional tool because of that reinforcement on a regular basis. As students are learning basic conceptual skills, particularly with language arts and math, they receive feedback directly from Osmo.”

Positive reinforcement is a key component to student motivation and the strife for mastery. Osmo provides the response directly to the user, which also helps build independence. Osmo has embedded a quest for knowledge into their gamified applications and developed a program that supports mission-critical life skills.

Seipp admits, “I don’t know what the future looks like for these kids. To prepare them for what was once my future isn’t going to adequately prepare them for what they’re going to encounter. That’s why something like Osmo really is a great tool for our youngest learners. It’s problem solving. When you get that red bubble because you didn’t do the problem correctly, you need to problem solve and fix it. Students are doing that autonomously and on-demand, which is a much greater lesson for them to take into their future because it’s mission-critical knowledge.”

Osmo has become an integral part of RSD. Students have found so much joy and pride in the gamified learning that they seek it out during their free time. Seeing this enjoyment, the schools began to implement other Osmo programs, such as Pizza Company, Detective, and Coding.

“Osmo is engaging and easy to access, and kids don’t need a grownup over their shoulder telling them how to use it. It is intuitive and interactive for them, so they seek it out on their own,” says Seipp.

Preparing the Children of Today for Tomorrow

Roxbury School District’s mission statement is “Preparing the children of today for tomorrow,” and Seipp is just one member of the district who helps design programs and find opportunities where the skills needed to fulfill that mission will continue into students’ futures.

“I’m in a great district with a great community, great kids, and amazing teachers. I want to say it’s easy, and it is. Education is a hard space these days, but the people I work with really do make it easier,” says Seipp.

Osmo is just one aspect of the district’s mission, allowing students as young as kindergarten to interact with technology while still using their fine motor skills, which supports information retention.

“Osmo Education is now part of who we are and what we offer,” says Seipp. “We even started to use it in the middle-level grades for targeted intervention with students who are finding difficulty in certain areas or whose academic goals align with the access that Osmo provides.”

Other offerings at RSD include an aviation program in upper grades where students become certified pilots, a sports medicine academy in partnership with Seton Hall University, and even a structural fabrication and design program where students work with a teacher to build homes for Habitat for Humanity. “I don’t mean our kids are going on-site as volunteers; I mean, our kids are with the teacher building a home by themselves in our parking lot, and then we ship it off to the property in town to help out a family,” says Seipp.

These initiatives support the district’s Portrait of a Graduate to help make students adaptable, resilient, critical thinkers of the future. The skills are embedded across the grade levels. Seipp says, “I think that’s really been helping our kids as they get ready for their life, and Osmo is just one of the tools that has really helped us meet that goal.”

About the Author

Maria Grosskettler a Staff Writer of EdCircuit is a lover of the written word. She knows the power and magic it holds. As a teacher, she strives to inspire this same love into young readers and writers. As a journalist and published author, she strives to bring that magic into the hands and minds of readers- no matter the genre. When not reading, writing, or teaching, Maria enjoys spending time with her husband and two sons seeking adventures every day. As a family, they enjoy traveling, hiking, biking, kayaking, and playing disc golf. She lives in Maryland for part of the year. The rest of the time, she travels the world creating her own adventures which are often the inspiration behind her stories.