What Does an EFFL Lesson Look Like?
Watch video footage of Sarah teaching an Experience First, Formalize Later lesson.
Lots of Dots
Watch a classroom debrief of how the Lots of Dots activity is used to establish class norms.
Focusing vs Funneling Questions
How to help students arrive at the main idea without taking over the thinking.
Why I Ditched My Textbook
Four reasons why I stopped using a textbook and what I did instead.
Get Your Department to Go ALL IN with Math Medic!
Strategies for growing EFFL in your math department.
3 Ways to Use Unit Overview Pages
How we use the Unit Overview pages to communicate schedules, help students self-assess, and organize extra resources.
Precalc vs. AP Precalc: What’s the difference?
Learn everything you need to know about the new AP Precalc course.
Building Thinking Classrooms and EFFL: Can You Do Both?
How to incorporate Liljedahl's 14 teaching practices into your EFFL classroom.
Redefining What it Means to Be Good at Math
How to broaden our definition of mathematical competence and why it matters.
When Am I Ever Going To Use This? - Part 2
When students ask “When Am I Ever Going To Use This?”, instead of focusing only on the content, look at the everyday skills the lesson teaches. Let's step through a full EFFL lesson and see how we teach all of these skills!
10 Questions to Liven Up Your Math Classroom
Questions to open up discussion, extend students' thinking, and help students consolidate their learning.
Why Won't the Math Medic Assessment Platform Grade Student Responses?
Everything you need to know about the features we DIDN'T include in the Math Medic Assessment Platform (and why).
When Am I Ever Going To Use This?
When students ask “When Am I Ever Going To Use This?”, the best answer may not be when they will use the content. Instead, show them that inside of every lesson are skills they will need every day!
Math Medic Assessment Platform FAQ
Our most helpful responses to the most frequently asked questions about the Math Medic Assessment Platform (MMAP).
Using Homework Questions to Extend Students' Understanding of Solving Equations
In this article we'll look at how six sample homework questions deepen, extend, and assess the conceptual learning done in in an Algebra 1 lesson.
Math Medic Assessment Samples
Check out a sample homework assignment, quiz, and test from our Algebra 2 course.
Assessment in the EFFL Classroom
How we use homework, quizzes, and tests to deepen and assess students' learning.
Laying the Foundation for High School Math
Why establishing flexible thinking at the beginning of Algebra 1 is essential for long term success.
Why We Should Embrace Inefficiency
Acknowledging that learning takes time when time is short.
The Swiss Army Knife of Math
Find out what we think is the most versatile tool in mathematics.
Teaching the Unit Circle WITHOUT Memorization
All you need are a couple of special triangles to find all angles and coordinates of the unit circle.
Announcing Math Medic Foundation!
Math Medic Foundation has the mission of connecting students, teachers, and schools to resources that increase equitable access to high-quality mathematics education.
Reframing Mistakes in the Math Classroom
How to respond to student errors in real time and cultivate a productive disposition toward mistakes
There's more to Trig than SOH CAH TOA
Students can develop a deeper understanding of trigonometry by focusing on proportional reasoning.
How to Turn any Worksheet into a Review Game
Ideas for combining practice and play on review days.
Making Group Work More Effective - Part 2
Strategies for getting your students talking, collaborating, and upholding group work norms.
Making Group Work More Effective -Part 1
Learn how to overcome the common obstacles to productive group work.
Reviewing without Reteaching - Part 2
Here you’ll find a collection of our favorite review activities to help students synthesize the content and concepts from the semester and prepare for exams.
Reviewing without Reteaching - Part 1
Why re-teaching may not be the best option for end-of-semester review, and actually may have some problematic effects.
Choose the Right Contexts for Linear Systems
Help your students go deeper in their understanding of linear systems by choosing contexts that highlight the math, instead of complicating it.
Build deeper understanding of lines through contexts
Spark students' intuitive understanding of slope and linear relationships through contextual questions.
How to Debrief an EFFL Lesson
Understand the teacher's role in preparing for and facilitating an effective debrief of the EFFL activity.
A Full EFFL Lesson in One Class Period
Are you having trouble getting through a full lesson in one class period? Here are some tips to make you more efficient.
Using Questions to Help Students Construct Understanding
When getting ready to teach an EFFL lesson, many teachers worry: How will my students know how to do the activity if I haven't taught them yet? The key to students being able to complete the activity before instruction is in what questions you ask and how you ask them.
Using Question Structures to Write Assessments
Write your own higher-level thinking questions with intentionality and efficiency.
Mix Up Your Verbs
Assess deeper understanding by varying your verbs. In this blog post, we'll look at three categories of verbs and how to write appropriate questions at each level.
Setting the Stage for a Successful New School Year
A collection of our favorite tasks, resources, and activities to start the school year off right!
Establishing Norms in the Math Classroom
In this post we discuss our math and group work norms and how we introduce and uphold them throughout the year.
How to Balance Concepts and Procedures in an EFFL Classroom
Let's take a deeper look at how we can use homework and assessments to assess conceptual understanding and build procedural fluency.
Why Won't Mrs. Gallas Just Give Me Notes?
Research shows that students learn more when active learning rather than passive learning. This blog post contains an activity you can do with students to make them aware of why you teach the way you do.
How to Use a Math Medic Answer Key
Math Medic answer keys are not just for solutions and correct answers. They are meant to be the official guide to teaching the lesson.
How Do We Assign Homework?
In this post, we explain some of our philosophy around homework, with links to several resources you can use to create your homework assignments.
Turn your old notes into an Experience First, Formalize Later (EFFL) lesson
How can you take your more traditional notes and turn them into an activity that students can engage in without your direct instruction?
How to Design an Experience First, Formalize Later Lesson
We have explained how we teach using the Experience First, Formalize Later lesson design and also why this model is best for students. Here we will explain the ideas that we consider when designing these lessons.
Why Teach Using the Experience First, Formalize Later Model?
In our previous post, we explained how we implement the Experience First, Formalize Later model in the classroom. In this post, we dig into the "why".
Experience First, Formalize Later (EFFL)
Experience First, Formalize Later means that students are working collaboratively to think, to discuss, and to construct their own understanding of new content before the teacher helps students to arrive at formal definitions and formulas.