OUR APPROACH

ABLe uses the Subordination of Teaching to Learning (SubTLe), so that innate learning powers flourish. The instructional approach includes carefully crafted materials that:

provide learners with clarity and full confidence in themselves.
are flexible, so teachers can be guided at all times by their students’ learning.

Learn more about “SubTLe”

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PROGRAMS

ABLe works with individual schools as well as school districts. Our programs ramp up professional development to new levels and include opportunities for pupil participation, offering a uniquely productive option, with hands-on experiences and reflective coaching.

We bring a suite of student materials for both adult-supported and independent learning in the areas of reading, mathematics and effective classroom management that incorporates social and emotional learning. Programs can be customized, and delivered in person or virtually, either during regular hours or afterschool.

RESOURCES

Our instructional resources are designed specifically to align with the Subordination of Teaching to Learning. They provide visible and tangible criteria, such as color, size or shape to ensure students’ independence, autonomy and responsibility for their learning. Easily accessed online or as no-cost iOS apps, they can complement and enhance more traditional curricula, for improved student achievement outcomes and, perhaps more importantly, for awakening and sustaining a love of learning.

RESULTS

Along with the materials, techniques and activities that comprise its essential ingredients, the Subordination of Teaching to Learning is the pedagogical approach that distinguishes the remarkably successful Bronx Charter Schools for Better Learning (BBL). Years of high stake test results provide clear and compelling evidence of the effectiveness of SubTLe, accomplished without extensive test prep, without longer school years or hours, without high pressure lessons and “test anxiety” teacher burn-out.

The chart below reveals highly significant student passing rates on New York State’s annual English Language Arts and mathematics assessments over time, compared to those of their peers in their resident district in the northern Bronx.

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PARTNERSHIPS

TESTIMONIALS

“I have worked with students from kindergarten through the third grade, using the Subordination of Teaching to Learning (SubTLe) approach in ELA and math.

Its premise is that all students have the power to learn, and the learning is at the center, where teacher and learner are both learner and teacher. Students have autonomy in their learning and move with confidence, feeling a sense of joy when they have success.

The SubTLe approach has taught me to be attentive to myself and my students in connection to the learning. Being aware of what’s happening now, staying present, and then taking the necessary steps. As a result, everyone builds awarenesses, stretching their knowledge of the world around them; it’s being human.”

— Doris Fleming, Teacher and Academic Leader, Grades 1-3, Bronx Charter School for Better Learning

“In my career as an educator, this is by far the best training I’ve experienced. This is what has been missing. We haven’t been able to reach students in this way before.

I am grateful that we were able to incorporate the practicum piece with instructors, facilitators and students.

The approach of Subordinating Teaching to Learning allows us to meet the learner where they are, to build them up and recognize their abilities in ways they have not experienced.

The ABLe team and materials will be a continued presence as we grow our program for extended teacher development.”

— Ms. Yolanda Gadson, I Have a Dream Foundation

“I have found that children who learn with this approach are unafraid of math: through working in a careful way with the rods, and through careful What-Do-You-Notice? questions from the teacher, mathematical relationships become visible and tangible to students. The relationships become a part of them. There’s nothing to remember.

I have also found in using this approach that the children can go far beyond what any list of standards or set curriculum for the grade “expects” or challenges them to do.

In math children as young as first grade delight in producing and solving equations like

(1/3 x 6) + (½ x 8) + 1/2 x 4) =?

In second grade, after building rod trains for the length 36 they work on problems such as 1/3 x 1/3 x ½ x 36 = ?

Once they find themselves producing these elegant and complicated math sentences, their sense of themselves and their powers skyrockets.”

— Dr. P. Hajar, PD Specialist in Mathematics