Unique features of EMPower
EMPower is not a traditional textbook series. Each title includes a Teacher Book and a Student Book, both of which are designed to support the teacher and student as they explore math in a way that is far different than the traditional chapter design where whole numbers begin the story and algebra concludes it.
Four essential features set EMPower apart from other math resources: content, sequence, andragogy, and teacher support.
- Content: What is “basic” has been rethought through the lens of the math that adults need to be able to do in today’s workforce. Adults need to be flexible, fluent, and confident in their number sense, estimation, and problem-solving skills.
- Sequence: Algebraic, statistical, and geometrical ideas are developed alongside foundational number sense instead of waiting halfway through or until the end of a book.
- Andragogy: Classrooms are learning communities where learners share strategies and results of mathematical investigations and problem solve with others, just as they do outside of class.
- Teacher support: Each EMPower teacher book provides instructional support, math background, ways to make lessons easier and harder, and a sample lesson in action so instructors can create engaging mathematics learning experiences based on the development work of fellow adult education instructors.
EMPower emphasizes:
Students gain solid footing in all content areas (data analysis, geometry, measurement, algebra, and number and operation sense ) at all student levels (see Executive Summary of NCTM’s Principles and Standards for School Mathematics, p. 4-5)
Students make mental calculations with powers and multiples of 10 and common fractions and their decimal and percent equivalents.
Before consideration of formal operations with rational numbers, students are taught to apply reasoning and estimation, especially on proportions, and parts of quantities.
Students generate data and interpret graphical representations to make informed decisions.
Students have opportunities to see and touch geometry and measurement concepts and applications, so they have a concrete understanding of spatial relationships.
Leading with patterns and relationships in contextual situations Students to engage with the algebraic content more deeply and with a variety of representations, including diagrams, tables, graphs, verbal rules, and symbolic notation.
EMPower is research-based and aligned to standards
Use EMPower knowing that the mathematics content and instructional strategies built into every book and lesson are grounded in research, including NCTM’s Principles and Standards for School Mathematics, as well as frameworks that are adult-focused, such as the Equipped for the Future Content Standards and the Massachusetts ABE Curriculum Frameworks for Mathematics and Numeracy. The College and Career Readiness Standards (CCRSAE) informed the revisions to the three EMPower Plus books. All lessons and instructional routines throughout the 7-book series comply with the CCRSAE and the eight Mathematical Practices. Learn more about the alignment of EMPower™ series to CCRSAE.