Implementing Speak Agent In Your District

Written by Leah Claflin | August 11, 2022

As you prepare for the new school year and figure out which programs to implement, it’s critical to choose an edtech solution with proven results. Research shows Speak Agent’s Math+Language^SM and Science+Language^SM programs have achieved a 210% increase in the rate of STEM academic language learning compared to conventional instruction (Li, 2018).

Academic language is the specialized vocabulary required for students to understand educational content. In math and science, the key concepts, practices, and procedures are universal. However, without a firm grasp of the academic language, students will struggle to comprehend the specific content knowledge and standards being taught.

There are a lot of buzzwords and resources around the topic of acquiring academic language—and for good reason. There is a lot to learn! Speak Agent seeks to simplify the learning process for multilingual and marginalized students in an equitable way so that all students get the support they need to succeed. Keep reading to learn more about how Speak Agent kicks off a successful implementation with its district partners.

Collaborative Planning: Getting started with Speak Agent is easy and collaborative. We work closely with district and school leadership, as well as with classroom teachers, to develop an implementation plan that will be effective for your students. Speak Agent’s Math+Language and Science+Language programs combine our unique technology platform with research-based language strategies and engaging STEM content. What really sets us apart is our curriculum mapping and alignment service, which enables teachers to seamlessly integrate Speak Agent into their existing lesson plans.

Curriculum Mapping & Alignment: Digital instruction is most effective when it integrates closely with the classroom curriculum. Speak Agent supplements and supports what you already teach in the classroom. We provide strategy-rich learning tasks that support teachers' efforts to bridge the language gap and differentiate instruction. As educators ourselves, we always respect that teachers know their students best. Therefore, our toolset is flexible enough to supplement teachers' instruction where and when they need it.

Speak Agent is here to provide your students that extra boost to comprehend the key academic concepts and STEM content. We start by aligning to the state and national standards relevant to your curriculum. Then, we map each Speak Agent module to your scope and sequence, reordering and renaming them to match your units of study. This ensures that our Content+Language modules are the best fit for your curriculum. Here’s how it works:

Speak Agent takes care of all of the heavy lifting in three easy steps:

1. Share your curriculum documents with us.
2. Speak Agent populates your account with all the courses and lesson sets appropriate for your implementation. We name and sequence our digital lessons to match your curriculum.
3. Each lesson is tagged with the searchable state and/or national standards that apply to your curriculum.

Professional Development: Speak Agent Academy offers eight unique professional learning courses that enhance academic language instruction skills and knowledge. Our PD courses enable educators to gain hands-on practice using Speak Agent and its research-based strategies. For teachers new to Speak Agent, we run an engaging, interactive "101" course that introduces our Content+Language framework and research-based strategies. Teachers also learn the core principles of multimodal instruction and best practices for content and language integration. The strategies we share benefit multilingual learners, marginalized learners, and, in fact, all learners! Our PD also includes a thorough overview of how to use Speak Agent, from assigning learning tasks to monitoring student participation and progress. In addition to the PD courses, we provide a unique service of on-demand one-on-one coaching. At a time of their choosing, teachers may connect with any of our instructional coaches to get help with any aspect of Speak Agent.

Progress Monitoring: Your Partner Success team monitors participation and progress data to provide informative communications and accessible support resources that keep student engagement high and educators in the driver’s seat. Teachers and administrators have access to on-demand reporting tools to track student progress and continuously inform instructional decisions.

Edtech programs should adapt to administrator & educator needs, not the other way around. We let our partners be in charge of personalization with the Speak Agent team here to support you! Learn more about how Speak Agent facilitates a seamless implementation and reduces teacher and administrator burden by setting up a meeting.

p.s. Be sure to subscribe for Speak Agent Updates to stay informed!

SOURCES:

Li, J. (2018). Speak Agent in the Classroom Summary Report. Bloomington: Rockman et al, June 2018. Retrieved from: http://rockman.com/docs/downloads/Speak-Agent-_-Final-Report-2018.pdf. Last retrieved: August 6, 2018.

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