Not every student enters the classroom ready for grade-level rigor — and when foundational gaps go unaddressed, academic frustration can quickly grow into disengagement. PowerBasics was created to help educators bridge those gaps through focused, accessible instruction designed to support struggling learners while building the confidence needed for long-term success.
Built specifically for intervention, remediation, differentiated instruction, and alternative learning environments, PowerBasics helps students strengthen essential academic skills through clear, scaffolded learning experiences that make complex concepts easier to understand and apply.
Whether supporting students who are performing below grade level, recovering unfinished learning, or preparing learners for greater academic independence, PowerBasics provides practical instructional support that helps educators meet students where they are — while helping move them forward with confidence.
Focuses on one concept at a time, with ample practice to achieve proficiency and mastery.
Provides an overview, strategies for differentiation, extension activities, forms, and graphic organizers.
Extends and enriches the Student Text with critical-thinking and cooperative-learning opportunities.
Provides assessments and test-taking strategies.
BW Walch is committed to supporting meaningful instruction and student growth through practical, educator-focused solutions.
Power Basics uses “considerate text” to present content in a way that helps students understand, retain, and use the content in the classroom and beyond. For text to be deemed “considerate,” it must have an accessible reading level. New vocabulary must be highlighted and clearly explained, as learning new vocabulary is essential to processing new information. Considerate text must also be organized appropriately for the audience. Power Basics is structured to maximize comprehension.
Power Basics content and design contributes greatly to the program’s coherence. No background knowledge is assumed. This levels the playing field for all students in the differentiated classroom. Plus there are several features that contribute to the coherence of the text, such as heads and subheads, short, manageable lessons, clear examples of concepts, frequent opportunities for practice, and ongoing assessment.
One of the most important features of Power Basics is that each book has been divided into short, manageable sections with directly stated main ideas. Each section begins with an explicit learning goal and a list of words to know that students will encounter in the lesson. A brief practice activity follows each section of text. These practice activities are frequent, and help reinforce what students have just read. Brief activities are less overwhelming than long practice activities often found in traditional textbooks.
To ensure access for diverse learners, Power Basics uses a combination of controlled reading level and text organization to facilitate understanding. Sentences use simple structures and the active voice. Ideas follow logically from one sentence to the next, and linking words are used to show relationships among ideas.
Each lesson introduces key terms needed to understand the lesson content. These key terms are listed at the start of the lesson, appear in boldface type the first time they are used, and are clearly defined in context, using familiar words and concepts to explain the new terms.
Each lesson in Power Basics introduces a few essential new concepts, and elaborates on them to make them understandable to learners. Power Basics provides clear examples for each idea presented. Power Basics also contains explicit transitions from one topic to another.
PowerBasics provides scaffolded instructional support that helps students build essential skills step by step. Rather than overwhelming learners with unnecessary complexity, the program focuses on clarity, accessibility, and meaningful skill development.
The result is a learning experience that helps students:
For educators, PowerBasics offers instructional materials that are easy to implement, adaptable across learning environments, and designed to support students with diverse academic needs.
PowerBasics can support broader district and school initiatives focused on:
By providing structured instructional support for struggling learners, PowerBasics helps schools create stronger pathways toward academic success for all students.
Providing accessible educational resources so that ALL types of learners can thrive is one of our core principles. In efforts to build on our vision, we partnered with Robert Taggart, Ph.D., the author of the Power Basics to publish the series. Purchase the Power Basic resources at our online shop or through one of our many resellers.
Robert Taggart, developed Power Basics specifically to address the needs of students not well served by traditional strategies and texts.
Dr. Taggart was the founder and president of the nonprofit Remediation and Training Institute in Alexandria, Virginia, and a former research professor at Howard University, where he headed the Howard University Opportunity Institute.
He has also authored twenty books and monographs on diverse topics, including job-training strategies, economic development, and the importance of basic skills.
