Feedback is Crucial
Imagine if you had an observation from your principal and never heard about how you did. You wouldn't know of areas in which you were excelling or need improvement. This is very similar to a student taking a STAR and never knowing how they performed. Feedback is crucial!
Use the star reports.
- Instructional Planning Report: Student Report
- Monitor Student Mastery Dashboard
- Star Student Progress Monitoring Report
Have students graph their results.
Students graphing their own data helps them take ownership, set goals, and (as a bonus) helps with graphing abilities. Below are some links to graphs you can use. Make a copy of the document and edit the scaled to reflect your grade level.
Calculator Policies for 6th Grade and Special Education Classes
We love them and we hate them - calculators. We would like to make sure everyone is using calculators in a similar way to keep it consistent across the district, but also for when they head to junior high.
So the question is, when should we use the calculators?
- When the lesson/problems focus on the arithmetic ( ex. 3.21 x 0.71), no calculator.
- When the lesson/problems focus on how to interpret a word or story problem in order to do the arithmetic, use the calculator.
The focus is on the cognitive load; where so we want the majority of their thinking to be? If it's strictly numbers, let their brain do the work. If the work is really the interpretation of words and application of the math, then we can use the calculator to assist.
We do want students to be using calculators throughout the year - not just at testing time. They will be using a calculator for the rest of their time in K-12 schools, so let's teach them to use them wisely.
For SPED: Your students can use the calculators for all math. If it is listed on their IEP, we must allow them to use it.
Make 10
Materials:
Deck of Cards (Only A – 9)
Procedure:
Lay out 3-4 rows of cards with 4 in each row face up.
Players will pair cards that sum to 10.
Replace cards as you use them.
Alternative:
Make Sums to 11 or 12 by using the 10s and Jacks (11).
Play this game with a partner and take turns to allow for more processing time.
For PK/K use the subitizing cards instead of playing cards.
Note: This is NOT timed. Each student moves at their own pace, but they can time themselves if they want to do so.
How Close to 100? (Youcubed.org)
Materials:
Two Dice
Pencil/colored Pencil/Marker
Procedure:
This game is played in partners. Two children share a blank 100 grid.
The first partner rolls two number dice.
The numbers that come up are the numbers the child uses to make an array on the 100 grid.
They can put the array anywhere on the grid, but the goal is to fill up the grid to get it as full as possible.
After the player draws the array on the grid, she writes in the number sentence that describes the grid.
The second player then rolls the dice, draws the number grid and records their number sentence.
The game ends when both players have rolled the dice and cannot put any more arrays on the grid.
How close to 100 can you get?
Alternative:
Each child can have their own number grid. Play moves forward to see who can get closest to 100.
Salute
Materials:
Deck of Cards
Procedure:
- Students work in groups of 3.
Place the cards in a pile, face down.
Two players pick up a card.
Players do not look at their card but hold the card, facing out, on their foreheads in a “salute.”
Player three multiplies the numbers on the two cards they can see and calls out, “The product is ___.”
Player one and player two must work out from the answer the value of the card on their forehead.
The game is repeated with the players swapping their roles.
Alternative:
Can also be used for basic addition and subtraction.
Can also be used for adding and subtracting integers. The red cards are negative numbers, and the black cards are positives numbers.
Bean Thirteen (PK- 1)
Ralph warns Flora not to pick that thirteenth bean. Everyone knows it’s unlucky! Now that they’re stuck with it, how can they make it disappear? If they each eat half the beans, there’s still one left over. And if they invite a friend over, they each eat four beans, but there’s still one left over! And four friends could each eat three beans, but there’s still one left over! HOW WILL THEY ESCAPE THE CURSE OF BEAN THIRTEEN?!
Sir Cumference and The Fracton Faire (2nd - 6th)
Join Sir Cumference and the gang for more wordplay, puns, and problem solving in the clever math adventure that introduces readers to the concept of fractons.
Sir Cumference and Lady Di discover "Fracton numbers" while purchasing cloth and cheese at the Fracton Faire. While two-fourths may seem like the same as one-half, in truth it denotes two parts of one-half, or two quarters of the whole. But the real mystery is the fact that items at the fair keep disappearing, and Sir C, Lady Di, and the Earl of Fracton must set a numeric trap for the thief, teaching an important lesson along the way about the comparative size of fractions.
If you Hopped Like a Frog (4th - 6th)
If you hopped like a frog.... you could jump from home plate to first base in one mighty leap!If you lifted like an ant...you could lift a car!If you grew as much in your first nine months of life as you grew in the nine months before you were born...you would weigh more than 2 1/2 million elephants and would be taller than a mountain!Did you know that a frog can jump 20 times its body length? Or that an ant can lift 50 times its weight? Or that a baby's weight increases 3 1/2 billion times during the nine months before it is born?These are but a few of the outrageous ratios that will amaze everyone!
Made of Stories: Creating Connections the Build Community
Monday, December 5th, 3:00 - 4:00. (Register and a recording will be sent to you.)
Two demonstrated needs with the ongoing global pandemic are language fluency and social connectedness. Storytelling is the natural ally of both literacy and friendship. Attend this edWebinar to learn how we can address language loss in our classrooms by intentionally creating space for speaking and listening through retelling picture books with puppets, props, and flannel boards, explicitly teaching conversation skills, and reserving some time to practice interactions. We can build community by sharing our own stories with children and colleagues to get to know each other better and to find the ways we are all alike and all different through our stories.
Fraction Progressions: How to Use What Your Students Already Know to Solve Rich Math Performance Tasks
To inspire deep learning, curiosity and a love for mathematics, educators use student prior knowledge of fractions to drive instructional moves in their problem-solving progression. By understanding the progression of fractions, educators will be able to anticipate how to support students’ entry points through rich math performance tasks.
This edWebinar explores facilitation of fraction instruction in the classroom using the Five Practices: anticipating, monitoring, selecting, sequencing, and connecting. Along the way, we look at:
- How performance tasks serve as the perfect complement to support the development within the fraction progressions
- Why developing solutions is as important as finding answers
- Specific tools teachers can use to foster conceptual understanding of fractions
How to Set Up Your Math Classroom to Foster Engagement, Collaboration, and Problem Solving
Creating a learning environment that is exciting and engaging for students takes more than a good curriculum. How can teachers establish a classroom environment that helps students successfully learn mathematics while enjoying the process? Hit the ground running with effective ideas for establishing a classroom culture that inspires deep learning and gets students excited. In this edWebinar, you’ll learn:
- What kinds of math tasks and problems should you be asking your students to work on
- How to inspire students to construct their own understanding versus simply giving them algorithms
- Questioning strategies to keep students thinking when they struggle
- How your walls and classroom set up can help stimulate engagement while supporting your learning goals
- How to arrange your classroom so that mathematical resources are readily accessible
- How to arrange desks to stimulate collaborative mathematical investigations and discourse
- How to establish a safe culture for sharing ideas and developing a growth mindset during the first few weeks of school
