Why students struggle with math

What happens when a student knows the answer in their head but can’t get it right on paper?  In this Tier 1 Interventions Masterclass clip, join Cheri Dotterer (OT, author of Handwriting Brain Body DisConnect) and Jonily Zupancic (Math Specialist, author of Making Mathineers) as they uncover the disconnect between conceptual understanding and procedural math skills—and how the Mastery Math Method bridges the gap.

In this session, you’ll learn:
 ✅ Why number sense isn’t “extra help” but essential Tier 1 instruction
 ✅ How to connect conceptual math thinking with procedural fluency
 ✅ The real story of Brian, a 7th grader who knew the math but couldn’t match classroom expectations
✅ Why pre-planning and sensory–motor–cognitive alignment matter for math success
✅ How teachers can strengthen their core instruction to transform Tier 2 and Tier 3 outcomes

These are neuroscience-based strategies with proven results. Entire classes moving from struggle to success and 92% of students showing measurable growth.

👉 Register for the next Masterclass:  https://disabilitylabs.com/calendar

✨ Subscribe for more episodes of Tier 1 Interventions Podcast and Mastery Math Method strategies!

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 – Welcome to the Mastery Math Method (Level 2)
 01:00 – Why Tier 1 Core Instruction is the Key to All Learning
 01:45 – Meet Brian: A Student Who Knew the Math but Couldn’t Show It
 03:00 – The Disconnect Between Conceptual & Procedural Math
 04:00 – Why Number Sense Instruction Matters in Secondary Grades
 05:00 – Teacher Takeaways: Pre-Planning & Sensory-Motor-Cognitive Links
 06:30 – Closing & Call to Action: Bring the Mastery Math Method to Your School

🎯 Ready to Change Math Outcomes in 10 Days?

👉 Join our FREE Masterclass for school leaders, teachers, and OTs:
 https://disabilitylabs.com/live-webinar/freemasterclass/register

🎁 Download your free Intervention Toolkit (login required):
 https://disabilitylabs.com/43857/files/6887de9b124d7_1753734811_division-cycles-h-and-l-notes-extended.pdf

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🔗 Stay Connected

🌐 Website: https://disabilitylabs.com/courses/mastery-math-bundle
📧 Disability Labs Community: https://disabilitylabs.com/community/3d-learning-lounge-1

🎙️ Credits:
Host: Cheri Dotterer
Co-Host: Jonily Zupancic
Production: Disability Labs Podcast Network

🧠 Resources Mentioned:

Mastery Math Method Level One (Lifetime Access): https://disabilitylabs.com/courses/mastery-math-bundle
Mastery Math Method Level Two (Annual Subscription): https://disabilitylabs.com/courses/mastery-math-method-group-coaching

⚠️ Disclaimer: The content shared in this video is for educational purposes only and does not replace your district’s policies or individualized education plans. Always consult with your instructional team before implementing new strategies.

🏷️ Hashtags

#Tier1Interventions #MathIntervention #MasteryMathMethod #TeachingStrategies #SpecialEducation #MTSS #NeurodiverseLearning #Jonily #Cheri

Creators and Guests

Host

Cheri Dotterer

Hacking barriers to writing success, dysgraphia No ✏️ Required. 30-sec@time Speaker | Podcast Host | Author | Consultanthttps://t.co/eM1CXSUIoZ

Host

Jonily Zupancic

Middle School Math Instructional Coach

What is Tier 1 Interventions?

Math intervention, writing intervention, neurobiology, and cognitive-based learning - Jonily Zupancic and Cheri Dotterer are sharing how to incorporate them into your classroom. Jonily is a secondary math teacher and instructional coach for math K-12. Cheri is an occupational therapist specializing in neurology-based treatment across the lifespan and a Strategy-based Interventionist. Jonily secretly calls Cheri her Lesson Plan Whisperer because Cheri is always in her head, reminding her of the foundations of development before academics begin.

They met in 2018 and have been talking ever since. Together, they have discovered the Miracle Math Classroom. This classroom embeds all math standards from Kindergarten to twelfth grade, plus neuro-based interventions that improve proficiency and boost student engagement. Both gifted and learning support students thrive using the interventions they share, plus all students in between. Using cognitive enhancing techniques strategically placed in the lesson plan, students learn more and enjoy school more, and fewer students get removed from critical instruction for Tier Three Interventions.

Jonily has discovered how to teach all Kindergarten through algebra math standards using twelve, that’s right, twelve Reference Tasks. They include the Pizza Problem, 120-Chart, Paper Folding, Making Rectangles, Quick Dots, Locker Problem, Jesse and Kay, Geoboard, Candy Problem, Paint Problem, Staircase, and the Function Machine.

Cheri uses Body-Brain Anchors to ignite the flame inside everyone’s brain for learning. Whether a person is five or 90, her strategy-based interventions will ignite that flame. These Brain-Body Anchors include the Handstand Flip, Interlaced Bilateral Integration, and the Body Sentence Alphabet.

Together, they connect the puzzle behind math instruction and instructional delivery alongside these cognitive-enhancing activities to maximize math education for all students.

Join us live on the third Saturday of the month, sans July, for the math behind the Reference Task. Every live event is approximately 2.5 contact hours. The first 30-ish minutes become this podcast. To hear the entire training, join our membership program.

Please note: we will not record on holiday weekends. Join our mailing list for updates on dates.

To join us live, register at Tier1interventions.com. The 2.5-hour sessions include the PowerPoint slides, additional audio files of Jonily teaching the Reference Task, resources from Cheri, and much more. A subscription to these 2.5-hour Workshops is $97/month or $947/year.

Membership includes:
*Approximately 27.5 hours of direct training per year
*Audio files of Jonily's Hear Me Teach segments - complete
*PowerPoint Slides to grab and use in your Magic Math Classroom
*Resources from Jonily and Cheri for you and your students
*A copy of Math DYSconnected when released.

Or, you can listen to the first segment on your favorite podcast app for free; no membership is required. No matter how you listen, you will come away with golden nuggets that will transform your classroom.

Reach out to Jonily: [e-mail]
Reach out to Cheri: [e-mail]

Tier1Interventions.com

Jonily: [00:00:00] Hey everybody, it's Cheri Dotterer here at Tier One Interventions podcast.

I'm here today with Jonily Zupancic and we are in class today with a live group of ladies and gentlemen who are learning about the Mastery Math method. So I'm gonna let Jonily talk and if there's any intervention that I wanna add to the puzzle, we will do but for now, I'm signing it all over to Jonily and let us learn a little bit about mathematics.

Girl. Y'all, this is Jay-Z. I'm Jonily Zupancic, I'm your math specialist, your main Mathineer. I if you are listening to this podcast or you're watching this podcast on YouTube I want to give a disclaimer and a warning. This is level two. You're listening in on a level two version of Mastery Math method.

Mastery Math Method is strengthening our tier one core general classroom. We cannot have in our schools effective interventions and effective [00:01:00] tier two and tier three without the strongest core. So if you're listening to this, that's the mindset that I want you to have. You should be listening to this.

If you are a general classroom teacher, a special ed teacher, a parent, a school board member, a superintendent, a curriculum director, a principal, every stakeholder should be involved in the qualities of a strong tier one general classroom environment and the experiences that students are going to have.

this is Brian, this is part of Brian's story. This is true story. When Brian got to seventh grade, he said we were doing a task where he had to add these up, and he said, Mr. Pans I know in my head what this is, because Brian had a very good concept of number. He just didn't have the math ability.

We talk about that in making Mathineers like a number sense is something that's innate and intuitive. It's that mental math piece. He had that outstanding, but he didn't have [00:02:00] the math ability, which is that procedural algorithmic. And oftentimes we judge based on the procedural algorithmic, and that's where we get our data from.

And we want kids to be able to do that, but we don't know how to take the instruction from extracting their perspective and what they have concept-wise and connecting it to the procedural. And so what Brian said to me is, I know that if I add 40, 40 and 40, that I'm going to get one 20, make sure I do this right, because I like, it's late and I'm going on three hours of sleep for four nights in a row.

And then I know that four, four and four is 12. So I know that if I'm looking at one 20. And 12, I know I have 1 32. So in his head he can process through that and he can do it accurately and efficiently and fluently and automatically and all of those things that we want from [00:03:00] students, however he says.

But when Mr. Grappner is stacking and adding, then I don't get 1 32. That way I get 12. 12. So by seventh grade, this is a, a much younger standard, but the numbers came up in one of our seventh grade tasks. And so Brian had enough self-awareness that he was able to ask me here's the situation.

This is what I'm getting in my head. This is what I get when I stack it. This is not what Mr. Grappner gets. Where's the disconnect? And so in the mastery math method, we talk about the strategies to connect for kids that have the conceptual but not the procedural and how to bridge that gap. And it's a very by seventh grade, by the secondary level.

And this is why we say that improving number sense is not [00:04:00] intervention. It should just be natural instruction at the secondary level. We shouldn't expect that kids come in just knowing this. We have to explicitly and directly. Make this connection so that they understand how the notation symbols and procedures match what they already know conceptually.

All right, Amy, tell us incognito. Amy, I, I know lighting is getting really bad. Here's my lone light that I have on in this room right now. My eyes burn, like first day with kids, so tired. I have several Brians this year. FYI welcome. I'm going to have several Brians. What was my takeaway? I took screenshots just to remind me of the, not screenshots, but little pictures, like the pre-planning stuff, how I said like it's in a different way.[00:05:00]

I know I've seen the sensory motor cognitive

with the little sub things underneath it of the vestibular and that kinda stuff. I can never keep straight what all of those are, but I know I got that from Cheri in convos. And then I like how, like the planning part, it was bridging both of the things that I've gone to you guys like either individually and together, if that makes sense.

Because I felt like the planning part was all stuff that I've Mo mostly talked about with Jonily. I feel like I thought of that mostly as math stuff, but the pre-planning up to the academic I felt like. But Cheri stuff that I've gotten from her, I don't know. [00:06:00] My brain's not working anymore though.

Cedric:  "Thanks so much for joining us for this session of the Mastery Math Method. If what you’ve heard tonight has sparked your curiosity, don’t wait—this is the time to explore how these strategies can transform math outcomes for your students.

📞 Call Cheri for details on how to join the Mastery Math Method at this link: tidycal.com/cheridotterer/letsgrabcoffee

.

Let’s grab a coffee and talk about how you can bring these results into your own classroom or district."

  Until then, remember. every student deserves the chance to see themselves as a mathematician. And as Cheri and Jonily say, Go Be Awesome! Go Be Brilliant! For you were put here for such a time as this.