My students often struggle with having past information readily available when they need it. They have notes that they keep but having easy access to information would make their class time more productive.
Do you wonder how you might provide students with easy access to information?
Do you have students who just need a quick visual clue to help them move through a problem?
Do you have students who not organized enough to find the notes you just gave them yesterday?
I answer 'yes' to all of these questions and so this year the Math 8 Team that I am part of decided to create anchor charts that we hang from the ceiling.
Here are some examples from our last unit of study - special shout out to Mrs. Nelson on our Team who creates each of these for us:
The greatest value I have found in using anchor charts is the easy accessibility they are for each of my students. For me, it is so cool to see the eyes of students go from the work on their desks to looking up to the ceiling and just seeing the 'lightbulb' go on in their head. All ranges of students access them throughout the unit of study - there is not a single student in my class who at some point does not glance up at them.
Students still have access to their notes but these anchor charts have provided another level of comfort for students in a subject area that many struggle with at some point during the year.
Consider how you are supporting your students through a unit of study - either through notes, videos, etc. - and how anchor charts might augment what you are already doing in the classroom.
Again, I realize that the times we are in are tough and this might not be the year to implement this idea but consider putting into your teacher toolkit for a year that is more normal.
Give yourself grace during these difficult times and then give yourself more grace.
Have you wondered, "How can I teach a smaller group of students versus the whole class?"
Have you wondered, "How can I get really focused on individual student needs when I have a class of 32 students?"
Do you wish that you could 'fill the gaps' with those students needing it and then also differentiate for those students who are needing to be pushed further in their learning - in the same class period?
Do you wish that you could blend technology with in person teaching?
I believe that we all have wonders - because everyone (students and teachers alike) ask questions when they are ready to ask - and this is because we are all at different places in our journey of learning.
Our site's focus this year is Universe Design for Learning (UDL). While we are just in the infancy stages of learning, I found some interesting material in the book "UDL and Blended Learning" by Katie Novak and Catlin Tucker - by the way, I have never been so challenged in examining my own teaching practices as I read this book (well worth the time and I recommend it). .
There was an interesting part in the book on the Station Rotation Model that I brought up with the Math 8 Team that I am part of - and they embraced the challenge of implementing at least one Station Rotation Model during each Eureka module of study this year. I am very lucky and privileged to be part of such a group of teachers (Sandra Castillo, Ylonda Keeton and Jennifer Nelson) who are willing to step out of their comfort zone to try a new teaching strategy that has the opportunity to engage students and impact student achievement.
In the Station Rotation Model we embraced, our design initially had four components to it but we quickly learned that in a 50 minute period this was not the best format for our students. So, we have landed on a three component rotation model where one station is an online activity, another is a collaborative activity, and the last one is the teacher led station. We have found that this design allows students enough time to engage in each activity and have success during that time.
The Station Rotation Model allows for teachers to interact with students in a smaller group setting versus the entire class. Groups can be set up randomly or deliberately based on data - there is no right or wrong way to set up your groups. This is an opportunity to extend students' thinking in areas they are excelling at or to fill some learning gaps so that the grade level material can be fully accessed by each student.
In the Station Rotation Model that we just completed, our teacher led activity was for students to pair up and solve a multi-step equation by putting the steps in order and match up the vocabulary that went with each step. This was a great opportunity to engage with students in a smaller setting to solidify how to solve equations.
The second station allowed students to solve equations, as well, but using a computer program - Desmos. The activity that was designed allowed students to solve equations - the activity gave students immediate feedback as to the correctness of their answers. This allowed students to self pace through the activity without doing everything wrong and ask their table partner for assistance when needed.
The third station was designed to work on their project - #MathInMyLife - which is a real world application of solving equations. During this station, students could collaborate on their challenging project question - which was different for every student.
The Math 8 Team has only done the Station Rotation Model three times this year and the feedback from the students is just amazing - they appreciate the smaller group setting, they enjoy working with others, they enjoy that things are changing every 15 minutes. We have a reflection form that allows students to reflect on each station and give feedback for the entire day - this last reflection had over 95% of the students state that they enjoyed the day for various reasons.
There is planning that is required for this type of student engagement activity and you really need to design it so that it fits your teaching style and classroom. For example, across our Math 8 Team we implement the model slightly differently as one of us actually has students get up and move from station to station - compared to the way I implement it as students stay in their seats and the station activity moves from group to group. Again, just like with grouping, there is no right or wrong way to implement your design.
If this sounds like an engagement strategy that you would like to see in action, then please reach out to Ms. Roni Weink at Roni.Weink@omsd.net. The District actually videotaped this lesson and it is available for viewing. If you have questions, then please feel free to reach out to me and I will answer them as best as I can.
I hope that you are finding various ways to engage students in your classroom and perhaps this idea will spark something new for you.
If Only. These words seem to pass my mind more and more each day as we continue down the path of distance learning. If only I had grabbed my document camera and ten other things from my classroom. If only that student didn't miss that Zoom lesson when I explained that question in depth. If only I could adequately explain these steps clearly to the student when they can't see what I am referring to on their page at that moment. If only I could get the right angle or keep the camera straight while trying to record something for my kids. If only I could write neater and meet the time limit when I screen record my computer. If only there were a way to deal with all of these problems that continue to arise. Well, lucky for you- there is! The solution is on the tips of our fingers-literally! With the pairing of screen recording, digital documents (photos, pdfs, internet), and your unique teaching style on your apple device- you have just created your smartboard on the go. I loved screen recording my laptop screen, but hated how my writing was so awful you couldn't tell what I was doing. Now you can annotate and create mini-lessons/ explanations to support your students straight from your phone. Trust me its easier than it seems!
Reclaiming Your Teacher Voice in Remote learning
One lesson that distance learning has taught me is how much I genuinely miss getting in front of the class each day and teaching. I loved being able to put my unique spin on how I would teach kids or what I want them to understand. In a sense, I feel like I have lost a bit of that- sure everything I assign shows who I am but usually its other videos or links that are teaching the concept-not me. I can't tell you how many times I have searched for videos and can't find one that has EVERYTHING I wanted to say, or I can't find one at all that I think would help my students with a specific problem. These are the moments that I wish that I could be teaching them- without any time constraints or fear that my writing wouldn't look nice. Learn how to change that by watching the video to start.
Annotate? Screenrecord? or BOTH!
As you can see you have the option of doing one of the other or both. If you would just like to annotate- simply just take a picture or share your document afterwards. A few ways to incorporate these skills during distance learning is:
Using a students written response as a mentor text
In detail explain the steps of a math problem
Deeply explain the rubric that you have attached on your assignments
Provide feedback on an exit ticket
Add a post to Class Dojo to better explains to parents and students how to navigate new information (I do this all the time-this is difficult if you do a screen recording on your laptop - works like a charm and helps parents who don't want to read a long post)
Add feedback for a student on Class Dojo Portfolios
Create your own mini lesson for whatever subject you would like
Record an already published video you want students to watch - and pause to clarify what students just watched in the video you may have linked
Create a series of mini video recordings to form an iMovie and/or slideshow
Teach students how to do this for more complicated problems that exceeds the Flipgrid time slot
This list exceeds far more than what I have written. So try it out- you won't be sorry!
Is it through extension problems? Is is through performance tasks? Is it through projects? Is it a discovery problem before the lesson actually begins?
We each challenge our students in various ways - it is good for students to struggle and to challenge themselves.
In the past month, my 7th grade students have been struggling with creating a container using our only 3D printer. The container had to hold the crayons they created from scratch in their science class. The math component was being to design a box within a box that fits nicely together. The creating of the box was not the struggle but it was the 'attending to precision' that was the productive struggling piece. Students printed their initial boxes and then started to realize that the two boxes did not go nicely together - to much space or they did not fit together. As students realized their mistakes you could see them be more careful in how they designed the second box and this was seen as they successfully printed their final boxes.
With my 8th graders, the productive struggle has been with volume. Students were given five different tasks around the concept of volume using cylinders, cones, and spheres. The task was for students to create two different cylinders with the same volume, two different cones with the same volume and two different spheres with the same volume. Also they had to create a cylinder and a cone with the same volume; and a cone and sphere with the same volume. They really struggled with these tasks. I would ask guiding questions to encourage them to try different methods. I would encourage them to put numbers into the formulas and determine what happens. And then it happened. One group got an answer, then another group got the answer, and then the guiding from these successful groups allowed other groups to also find success.
Productive struggling in a classroom is good for students. I would suggest generating some possible questions ahead of time to assist students in not giving up. I would limit the amount of time you allow students to struggle before putting in some scaffolds to assist the students. A lot of times students will struggle, find success, and then revisit what they have done and realize that there is another better way to solve the problem. These type of discoveries can rarely be taught but rather discovered by the students.
I encourage you to have your students 'struggle' through meaningful and relevant work so that they can feel success and discover something new about the content and themselves.
When I think of the number one struggle a majority of my students have when it comes to math each year, it would be word problems. The entire process of reading through the problem, figuring out how to solve it, and explaining their thinking afterward is so challenging for first graders. We work on this skill daily over the course of the school year because it is such an important skill. We focus on not only solving word problems, but on explaining our thinking when answering them.
When I was young, word problems were my nemesis! I understood that the steps below were what was expected of me to solve a word problem, but I had no clue how to get past step 1!
1. Understand the Problem 2. Come up with a Plan for Solving 3. Carry out the Plan 4. Reflect or Check Your Work As much as these steps always seemed like a logical idea and did get me thinking through the math problem I was facing, they didn't get the job done. What do you do when you can't get past step 1? You stare at and then read the question over and over and still can't figure it out. You recognize the known information, you underline the key terms and circle the numbers, but you can't figure out what to do. Under this problem-solving method, you are expecting students to understand the problem before making any diagrams, drawings, patterns, tables, etc. which can leave many students stumbling to succeed. This is why I love the "Read, Draw, Write" (RDW) approach!
What is so great about the Read, Draw, Write approach?
This approach works because students can draw a model of what they are reading to help them understand the problem. In other methods, the drawing usually came after understanding. When faced with story problems, children will often add whatever numbers they see. In the RDW approach, the drawing helps lead to knowledge; it gives students the tools to think about and model the relationships in the problem. Drawing a model helps students see what patterns might arise, which operations are needed, and which models work and don't work. Students must go deeper into the problem by drawing representations and determining which representations are relevant to solve the problem. While students are utilizing the RDW process, they are using the Standards for Mathematical Practice. Some of these would include: model with mathematics, make sense of problems and persevere in solving them, use appropriate tools strategically, and look for and make use of structures.
Read
Read the problem. Read it over and over again. And then reread it. Answer- What am I trying to solve/answer? Identify-What information is given to me in this problem? Deconstruct- Can I box the question? Can I circle the parts? Can I find a total? Can I find missing parts? Can I underline important information? I always ask students to read the problem and think about what information is given. My goal is to get students to tell me what they believe or wonder before they model. Students can tell me, for example: I see the total and one part, which means we can count on or subtract to find the missing part. This is a great time to practice academic language and use collaboration with your students.
Draw
Draw a picture that represents the information given. During this step, students ask themselves: Can I draw something from this information? What can I draw? What's the best model to show the information? What conclusions can I make from the drawing? My students know they can use multiple strategies to solve problems. They chose different, yet similar ways to model and label their work. Each student's work shows detailed, specific choices rather than arbitrary combinations of numbers. It also helps me know if they are confused and helps me to find common errors that can direct my instruction.
Write
Write your conclusions based on your drawings. This can be done as an equation, a number sentence, or a statement--or all three. It's an essential skill to have your students write a statement. It ensures they are answering the exact question being asked. The ability to turn a question into a statement is an important skill. Writing is the time to check your answer for reasonableness. I choose students who used different strategies to share their responses with the class using the document camera. The class can see multiple strategies and understand why certain students chose certain strategies. Do you use the Eureka Math "Read Draw Write" strategy? Has it changed the way your students go about solving word problems?
Welcome to the new teachers in OMSD and welcome back to the returning teachers. For me, it is hard to believe that the summer is over - it feels like it goes faster and faster every year. I hope that you found some time to relax and re-energize for this school year.
As I reflected during the summer on what I wanted to focus and improve for this school year I eventually came to the idea of 'connections.' And as I started to think about this more and more, it continued to get bigger and bigger.
It started with making stronger connections with my students. I believe that when we make connections with our students that they will work harder for me. I also wanted to try and create a positive atmosphere before my students ever met me. So, I wrote each my students a personal postcard and mailed it to them a week before school welcoming them to our classroom. While this took some time, I found value in writing each of their addresses because the community area became real to me as I envisioned where each of my students lived around school. It was nice on the first day when a few students said that they got my postcard - and I feel that the first day had a more positive atmosphere.
Then I realized that making connections also involves the parents. So in an effort to make better connections with my parents I decided to create a website for each of my subjects. My own child had a second grade teacher who did this last year and I found it very useful as a parent to reference throughout the year. After building the website on Google Sites, I realized that it was not very difficult and it was worth the time and effort. While I have heard comments that teachers do not always update their website, I am going to try very hard this year to keep it updated for my parents. The ultimate goal would be to have it in Spanish as well but at this point it is something that I am working on to make better connections with parents.
And finally, I am trying to make better connections with colleagues on campus. This year I am working with a couple new teammates so it is my goal to build a working relationship with these two teachers so that we meet the needs of our students and each other, create meaningful common assessments, and design lessons that have a better impact on our students. I am still project based focused so creating a working relationship where everyone feels their input is valued is important to me. In addition, to my department I want teachers at my site feel free to come and visit my classroom whenever they want - in the ideal world, I would enjoy teachers showing up to my class without telling me ahead of time.
For those of you who follow my projects - my 8th graders are currently doing "Journey To Space" demonstrating their understanding of scientific notation and exponents. My 7th graders are doing "Comic Strip Stock Market" where they have a portfolio of $100,000 - we are using the website, www.howthemarketworks.com (more about this next month - if you are interested in creating your own competition and assign students articles to read about the stock market, then I would suggest exploring this website.) Finally, my Integrated Math I students are doing "#MathInMyLife" based on the game Life - today students got their job salaries to help them buy items of their choice.
I invite you to join me this year as a write about my personal focus for the year. And I invite you to come and visit my classroom whenever is best for you or schedule a Spotlight Teacher visit.
I want (and need) to say, "Thank you." This year is coming to a close in just a few short days. You may know colleagues who are retiring, moving to another site, or leaving for personal reasons. Some of us owe a huge debt of gratitude to these fellow colleagues - I am one of them. It has been my privilege to work alongside a relatively new teacher for the past three years. She came to our site with a couple of years of experience teaching in Los Angeles. The first year she spent her time understanding the math curriculum and getting some exposure to Project Based Learning. The second year she continued to extend her understanding of the math curriculum, making stronger connections with students, collaborating on common assessments, and she started to do a project for each unit of study throughout the year. Those first couple years she demonstrated a gift for being creative in designing documents, asking questions for how to improve student achievement, taking risks for trying new ideas so that students make connections with the curriculum, being open-minded, and most importantly willing to push her students to believe each and every one of them can be successful. She wanted her students to be successful with the math content and at the same time successful with skills, they will need later on in life - like technology use and presentation skills (both verbally and visually). During this third year, she pushed me to grow myself, without her ever realizing it. She was coming up with new ideas of how to take our unit projects in new directions that would help students and she had this excitement about her that made me want to contribute with what I could. Her creativity and ability to tap into students' interests is what pushed me this year further than I imagined. I have started to ask myself, "What more can I do for my students that will have a lasting effect?" So, to my fellow Math 8 teacher across the way in Room 37 - Ms. Keeton - thank you for enriching my life in just these three short years. I can not say thank you enough! There is so much more to acknowledge but I hope you realize that everything left unsaid is actually said inside of me. I wish you only the very best in your next adventures knowing full well that anyone who takes the time to get to know you will be changed forever - you deserve only the best. PRIDE and Growth Mindset - two areas I will continue to pursue with my students. To everyone else, thank you for letting me express my gratitude to a fellow teacher who has impacted my teaching, Enjoy your summer break to its fullest - and I look forward to next year and what it will bring,
A couple months ago I wrote about doing a One-Pager with my math students and that I would give
an update on how it went. My 8th graders have completed one of these activities and my 7th graders just completed their second one.
Well, I cannot contain my excitement about what I received from my students and the possibilities I see happening for next year.
Why am I so excited? The products I received were all student created with very little direction from me. I handed out the expectations and then let the students self-create their own product. The students were able to capture the important facts for the unit of study, draw diagrams for the unit, list key vocabulary words, and ask two questions that they had about the topic of study. While some of the final products lacked the eye appeal you might expect, there were so many the showed a huge effort to make them professional looking by adding color and setting them up in a easy to read fashion.
I wonder to myself what would have happened if I had actually shown examples of high quality work to the students as what I am expecting? Without any guidance from me (besides the one page expectation handout), students were given free reign to design the One-Pager however they wanted.
Another small detail that I enjoyed was that students laminated their One-Pager on the day it was due. This small detail seemed to show students that I felt this was an important document that I wanted them to keep for a long period of time. While there is an expense on my part for doing this, I will continue with this practice as it ups the ante and allows students to keep something from being destroyed.
Next steps . . .
First, the 7th grade math team has agreed to prepare students for 8th grade by reviewing integer operations and solving equations after SBAC and before the end of the school year. To that end, math 8 teachers will be visiting each of the math 7 classes and asking the students to complete a One-Pager for each of the topics. Students will be shown examples of One-Pagers completed by 8th graders so that all students have a visual of what is expected. The final documents will be put back-to-back and laminated, collected and saved for students to use next year. The hope is that students will create documents that will be usable next year and give math 8 teachers some initial insight into students personal understanding of two key topics.
Second, next year, every 8th grader will create a One-Pager for each of the topics taught throughout the year. These One-Pagers will then be used during our sprint to SBAC review and any common assessments given throughout the year. The hope is that students will take pride in their work since they will be allowed to use them throughout the year and that they will become meaningful for every student.
I am thankful to our site's AVID team for presenting this type of student understanding conceptual. I firmly believe, that as educators we hear different strategies throughout our teaching career, and many times we hear the same ones from time to time. Yet, sometimes we are not at a place to use the strategy or it does not ring true for us at that time - but then at a later time, the same strategy is presented and we find so much value and meaning in it. Continue to be open to strategies that are presented by your colleagues and value the time that they have put into the presentation.
What is "fluency" in terms of mathematics? And what is the purpose? Eureka Math explains fluency in such a relevant way in that fluency is NOT only memorization of rote math facts, but rather, the ability of students to be able to quickly and accurately compute simple calculations through having a deepened understanding of number sense. Fluency in each grade level involves a mixture of just knowing some answers (memorization), knowing some answers from patterns, and knowing some answers through the use of strategies and having developed strong mathematical reasoning skills through the understanding of number sense. I'm going to dive into one important Fluency Component of Eureka Math, the Sprints, and show you the purpose, the benefit, what it looks like, and how YOU can implement this structure RIGHT away!
Sprint activities in Eureka Math "Sprints support automaticity so that students can use their mental energies for more complex problems. They allow students to see their own improvement on that path to automaticity, which is motivating. The form of delivery directly supports Sprints' primary functions." - Eureka Math
The Eureka Math Sprint activities are designed to develop and foster the growth in students' fluency skills. They should be fun, adrenaline-rich activities that intentionally build energy and excitement. A fast pace is essential. During Sprint administration, teachers act sort of like coaches, in that they are guiding and cheering on their students to succeed! An exciting routine fuels students' motivation to do their personal best. Students' recognition of increasing success is critical, and so every improvement is celebrated. Eureka Math has carefully designed each Sprint activity in a well-sequenced structure that starts simple and progresses to very complex by the end of the Sprint page. The goal is never for students to complete all 44 problems, but rather to try their best and make growth/improvement on each set. Thus, Sprints should NEVER be collected or graded! One Sprint has 2 parts (Sprint A and Sprint B), with closely related problems (as seen pictured above). Students complete both Sprint A and Sprint B in quick succession with the goal of improving on the second sprint, even if only by one more problem correct. With practice, the following routine should take about 9 minutes in total:
Directions for administering Sprints:
1)Sprint A: To start, distribute Sprint A face down on the students' desks. You will want to read/discuss the directions briefly to ensure that all students understand the task. Let them know they will have only 60 seconds to do their very best work. Students hold pencils up in the air until you give them a signal to begin. Once you have given the signal, students flip the Sprint over and rigorously start working.
2)Correcting Answers: Once time is up, you tell them to stop and draw a line underneath the last problem they completed, then pencils down. You will now let the students know that as you call out the answers, they are to respond with "yes!" if they answered it correctly; if it is incorrect, then they silently circle that number. You continue energetically calling out the answers at a fast rate (to keep the atmosphere exciting and engaging). Once you get to a number where no students are responding with "yes!" you stop calling out the answers and direct students to record their total number correct at the top of the paper (there is a designated spot for this). You will need to model or explain to them how to subtract any wrong answers from the total number they completed.
3)Cheers/Celebration: You will tell students that the number correct they have recorded at the top of their Sprint A is now their "personal goal" for Sprint B. Then you'll recognize student achievement by starting with asking "Who got 1 correct?". Then slowly increase the number until you find the last man standing! (student with the most correct). Celebrate this student with a cheer of your choosing! Just to name a few that I use:
-FAAAAAANTASTIC cheer
-WOW Cheer -Clam Clap Cheer
-Truck Driver Cheer -Cheese Grater Cheer
-Hot Pepper Cheer -Roller Coaster Cheer
-Lookin' Good Cheer -Fire Cracker Cheer
-Give an "Air High Five" -Silent Cheer ............. and sooo many many more to choose from!
**After administering Sprint A, you ALWAYS want to have the students discuss with an elbow partner or teammates what patterns they saw as they completed the sprint, what strategies they used, what parts were easy/hard. etc. This brief discussion often leads to further student success on Sprint B! Then you can give them an additional minute (untimed) to continue working through Sprint A for further practice/support.
4)Movement: Now, to keep the high energy and fun of this activity, always do a stretch or movement activity in between the Sprints. For example, you can do jumping jacks while skip counting by 3's for 1 minute. This will keep the students energized and pumped up to complete Sprint B. This is often followed by a slower paced movement activity, such as slowly skip counting to slow arm circle movements or neck rolls. This helps keep them focused and ready to get back to business!
5) Sprint B: Now you will distribute Sprint B face down. As mentioned above, it looks almost identical to Sprint A. Only minor changes in the digits. Have students raise pencils in the air until you give them the signal to turn the paper over and begin! Again, you time them for 60 seconds. You repeat the exact same process of Sprint A to call out the answers, except this time the celebration will be different. 6)Final Celebration: This time after students have calculated their total correct and recorded it at the top of their paper, they also record their number of IMPROVEMENT from Sprint A to Sprint B. Have all students stand who got 1 or more problems correct on Sprint B than on Sprint A. You again slowly increase the number until only 1 student is left standing--- THIS time the cheer is given to that child to celebrate his/her "improvement" rather than the total number completed!
7) Debrief: You can again have students discuss the patterns and how they were able to achieve more success the second time around, etc. You can then give them an additional minute to continue working on the Sprints if they need the practice and/or time permits.
Here's what a full Sprint lesson looks like from start to finish in my classroom! :-)
I can't even begin to tell you how OBSESSED my students are with this Sprint process! There is not a Sprint built into every Eureka Math lesson, as often times other fluency activities lend themselves better to certain lessons. However, my kids look ahead and know EXACTLY at what lesson our next Sprint will be, and they will make sure I'm aware! (LOL)
I can also honestly say I have seen a HUGE improvement in my student's fluency with numbers and concepts as well as their self- confidence, largely in part due to these Eureka Math Sprints. So I highly encourage you to NEVER cut these out of your Eureka Math lessons, not only are they beneficial, but they are so so fun!
As a kid, I hated math! Just ask any of my teachers. Or my mom. Or my sister. I hated it. I hated it so much that I would feel sick every morning because I feared my teacher would call on me and I would not know the answer. I remember the nights of staying up very late trying to finish my 30 question math homework and only completing five questions to find out the next day they were incorrect. I remember thinking what's wrong with me- everyone understands except for me. Math just didn't make sense. It was so abstract and seemed to move so fast. Most of my teachers just explained it one way and moved on. The way they explained it never seemed to click. This is how I saw math:
Want to hear something funny? I tell people all the time and it's true that it wasn't until I began TEACHING math that I truly began to like it. Now it is one of my favorite things to teach. As silly as it sounds, I think my struggle to understand math as a child only helped me be a better math teacher. I think this because I am always saying to myself "Stop and think like a kid." I am constantly asking myself:
How can I make this relatable to my first graders?
How can I make this boring math lesson come to life?
Eureka is a challenging program that gives us many opportunities to make math fun. Math can be intriguing and exciting for our students. Eureka has helped guide me to prevent boring lessons and in turn, replace them with lessons that are packed with collaboration and engagement. Here are some ways I make that happen::
Implement Engaging Routines
Kids love routines. Routines will help maximize time because your students know the set expectations. For example, most days we start math with a timed Sprint. We pump ourselves up by chanting "I am a mathematician, I will try my best because I am awesome and I can do this!" They have 1 minute to do Sprint A, we correct it, and then they count how many they got correct and write it on the top. They then do the same for Sprint B. They celebrate their growth even if they only got one more right. Growth is growth! My students love this routine. My students are engaged at this time and look forward to beating their own goal. My students love this personal competition against themselves.
Make It Hands-On
Most of Eureka's lessons are very hands-on. Whether it be fluency activities, application problems or concept development a wide variety of hands-on tools can be utilized daily. I like to present my lesson using interactive Smartboard lessons. This is a great way to entice your visual learners. Clear and student-friendly visual representation is a must for student engagement. Math Manipulatives are our friends! Don't be afraid to use them. I like to provide my students with math manipulatives for just about everything. I believe they are beneficial in all grade levels and are crucial for conceptual learning. Some of our favorites are the number line, dice, unifix cubes, the rekenrek, centimeter cubes, coins, dominoes, and tangram shapes. It is also fun to bring in real objects to teach a concept. My student love when we use items such as beads, candy or blocks to add and subtract.
Play Games
So much of what we do in Eureka can be seen as a game. My kids are always saying "Yes, I love that game." Fluency and Concept Development are a great time to play these games. My kids love Happy Counting it's like a math version of Red Light, Green Light. They also really enjoy playing addition and subtraction with cards. In this game, pairs use cards to each make an addition or subtraction sentence. The student with the highest or lowest answer gets the cards. The student with the most cards at the end wins. Lately, we have been working in pairs to create numbers using unifix cubes. Each student shows a different number using unifix cubes or with a tens and ones drawing and then they take turns placing a greater than or less than sign in the middle to compare numbers. The most important part of incorporating math games into your lesson is to encourage cooperative learning. It is a great way to create an environment where it is common for students to work in pairs or small teams. They can solve math problems while holding each other accountable.
Encourage Math Talk Kids like to talk. It's so important as teachers that we model how to have meaningful conversations during math instruction. Once modeled and practiced kids will naturally start having these conversations with each other. To get them there I make sure to ask more open-ended questions. An example of this may be to ask "Why did you use that strategy to solve that problem?" It's also beneficial to ask questions that have more than one answer. My students love to give multiple ways to solve one problem. It's fun and challenging! Differentiate There are many ways to differentiate a math lesson. You can differentiate the content, process, and product. I like to do this, especially during the Application and Problem Set. During the Application, I like to give kids the choice to choose which strategy works best for them. If a student still feels comfortable drawing pictures they can while others might choose the break apart strategy and that is ok. Drawing is a great differentiation. Picture representation leads to using only numbers and symbols which can be very abstract to some kids. During the Problem set, I know that some students might only be able to independently and successfully complete problems 1 and 2 while others can complete the entire page. This is ok... It's not quantity; it's about quality. I want students to feel successful and not stressed out over math. You can break down many roadblocks for kids by meeting them where they are on their math journey. Have Fun Just have fun!
Try acting out word problems. It really helps for them to see what is actually happening then to just hear it.
Sing songs and listen to music during independent practice. I know many people who memorized their multiplication facts by turning them into catchy tunes.
Cheer each other on. We like to use cheers to praise not only ourselves but also each other. Creating an encouraging environment can help melt away the fear that some of our kids have about math. They motivate and encourage our students to persevere.
Get up and move! Always keep your kiddos moving. Kids can be moving a lot during fluency activities. Our favorites include jumping jacks or cross punching while skip counting.
Let them create their own problems. This is so much fun. They love creating silly scenarios for their partner to solve. When kids can relate and make sense of something on their own they never forget it.
Ok! I could go on and on. I have learned to love math. Yes! I am saying it-I LOVE MATH... Why? Well, because I now find joy in it. It's fun and engaging. I see the spark in my student's eyes when I tell them it's math time. I am making a difference by making math an hour of excitement rather than dread. I am taking away the fear and replacing it with smiles. Math can be fun and we can teach our kids to love it.
I had a Spotlight visit last week and during the debrief I was asked about the questions I posed to my students during the lesson. I gave a very mediocre response in that I said I just kind of see where students are having trouble and ask questions or for students who are getting it ask them the 'why' behind their answers. After some reflection on my answer (actually a week later), I realized that there is much more to their important question. And I realized that what may come very easy for me now was actually a struggle several years ago. I read an article, "Asking Effective Questions", several years ago that has become my personal guideline every year in the classroom. I still have the article and it sits in the back of my lesson plan book as a constant reminder that asking effective questions is as important as the lesson itself.
The article states eight tips for asking effective questions. Here are the ones that I currently find meaningful and why they do - it is interesting to note that certain ones do not have meaning for me one year but then the next year it becomes meaningful to me. I believe that is because we are always at a different place in our teaching career and our needs are always changing based on so many different factors.
1. "Anticipate Student Thinking" I like this tip the most because it challenges me in so many different ways. The tip states, "an important part of planning a lesson is engaging in solving the lesson problems in a variety of ways." Wow. I am challenged to find another way to solve the problem and find another way to solve the problem and another way, etc. The value in this tip is that it forces me to think of a problem in multiple ways and gives me an opportunity to see how students might approach the problem. I will be honest, it is difficult to do this for every single problem, but the philosophy behind the tip resonates so much with me - there is no one way to solve a problem!
3. "Pose Open Questions"
The tip states, "an open question is one that encourages a variety of approaches and responses." The opposite of an open question is a closed question which is defined as a question that has a single answer. Here are some examples - "What is 4+6? versus Is there another way to make 10? and How many sides does a quadrilateral have? versus What do you notice about these figures?" While open questions may be difficult to ask all the time because we want all students to know that problems do eventually have one and only one right answer, the challenge is to ask more open questions during the class period in an effort to challenge students to think at a higher level. My favorite question and the one I always default to when I am stuck myself, is, "Why?" I did not notice I how often I used it until someone pointed it out that I am always asking my students why. I want students to explain themselves in an effort to make them better communicators.
8. "Provide wait time"
This is my weakest area for sure. It is an area that I continue to tell myself that students need a safe moment or two to think about the question and to form a proper response. I have a quick paced classroom and this tip forces me to slow down and allow students the process time they deserve. Some days are better than others but I try and remind myself to follow this tip.
The ultimate challenge the article leaves me with every time I read it is,
"Never say anything a kid can say?" (Reinhart, 2000, p. 480)
I encourage you to read the article, "Asking Effective Questions" through the Capacity Building Series.
