KISS -- Keeping it Simple -- teaching Algebra concepts simply

This article brings a cleansing breath to Algebra teachers who have understand that concepts can be taught simply without sacrificing conceptual understanding. This article reviews four essential components to ensuring success for Algebra 1 students: (a) basic skill development, (b) computational ease, (c) step-by-step scaffolding, and (d) the extensive use of the Explain-Practice-Assess (EPA) Strategy (Holmes, Spence, Finn, & Ingram, 2017). In this article, each of these four components is described ... simply and in detail with accompanying examples. These examples model evidenced-based practices and provide a very useful guide for algebra teachers in their own classrooms.