I'm new to second and am interested in doing workshop for math time. I want to work in small leveled groups to meet my students' needs but that means what else does everyone do? Stations/Centers/Workshop?
What do your stations look like?
How many times do you change them up? Weekly? Bi-weekly? Monthly?
What about management?
10-20 minute whole group lesson (just depends on what I'm teaching)
15 minutes: Rotation 1- low group meets with me, medium group is doing math games (a game I pick), and high group is working independently
15 minutes: Rotation 2- medium group meets with me, high group games, low group independent work
15 minutes: Rotation 3- high group with me, medium group work independently, low group games
5-10 minutes: back together to share (this didn't always happen but I'm making it a point to do next year)
I don't let them move onto the games until their independent work is finished. If they don't finish the work by the end of the week they have extra time on Friday to get it finished and don't get games until they finish all their work from the week. I do a preassessment on each unit and plan my groups and the lessons for the groups around that data. I usually choose a couple of games from the unit that they can play. They know where the math materials are and get what they need.
I love math workshop!
10-15 minutes: lesson introduction: students write the lesson and objective in their math notebook (for instance: lesson 9.3: I can measure perimeter)
Then I introduce student stations and let them go. I set the timer for 12 minutes for each station.
M: Math games (the game relates to the lesson of the day)
A: All by myself (students do an independent activity based on the lesson)
T: Teacher time (differentiated instruction for each group)
H: Hands on (for lessons that are whole group activities)
I pretest quarterly and assign students to groups and assign partners for game time. But, you can assess for each unit and make your groups/partners more often.
I have three groups and like the previous post, I meet with my lower group first. Then, I can also introduce the independent work they have to do in "all by myself"
Each group rotates between Math game, All by myself, and Teacher time everyday.
At the end of the lesson students meet me in our community circle to share what they learned. We might do it orally or we might write a reflection in our math notebooks that we started the lesson with. I also ask if they are still confused about something and we share about that.
The reflection piece is very important and I am amazed at how my students have taken responsibility for their learning when I give them time to share and explain their thinking.
Math time takes a lot longer this way(75-90 minutes) but My students truly love math!
Debbie Diller's Math Workshop. She gives you the nuts and bolts of how to do it. I adapt a lot of her ideas to fit my class.
I have 3 heterogeneous groups composed of 3 or 4 partners, paired stronger with weaker. They rotate through teacher table, seatwork, and work tubs in about 15-20 minute. New instruction I give in whole group before they begin rotations.
I change activities with each new chapter in our math book, but I don't change them out all at once. Instead I phase them in a little at a time. I spend time explaining how to do the job and how to put it away properly. Usually I have someone "sweep" the room before we rotate to make sure all jobs are put away properly.
I'm able to meet individual needs better with MW, and my students just love it.
The thing I love about the article is how she explains that the highest group starts with the indep. practice because they can handle that. The lowest group starts with you.
math with teacher
math on paper (indep. practice)
math game
*This will be my 3rd year of math workshop and due to larger classroom numbers next year I am adding a 4th rotation (fact fluency- math fact practice)
I have a tub like this (double deep version for the game center) http://www.walmart.com/ip/Sterilite-...-of-6/20699631
for each center to hold the supplies needed. The kids take them to the designated area. (math games- carpet area, math on paper- at tables with privacy folders, math with me is on the carpet by the smartboard)
I use a digital time from Dollar Tree for the rotations to keep us all on track.
The groups change for each topic (about weekly), but sometimes a few will be switched if I feel that I need to bump them up or down. I change activities daily, but don't feel that you have to in the beginning. I didn't and the kids were fine with that too (especially if they really liked the game).
If you have any other specfic questions, I'd be happy to share what works for me.
I am interested in improving my math instruction, too. I just bought Guided Math and hope that will be helpful. Has anyone else read this book?
I currently teach a whole class lesson and then provide differentiation through practice, games and choices. But I'm not satisfied with this and hope that math workshop/guided math will offer some better ideas.
Thank you for posting the scholastic article! It was very helpful! I plan to do math groups this year instead of a whole group lesson. I have Debbie Diller's math stations book and I can't wait to read it.
I also do math workshop in my classroom and love it. I agree that Debbie Diller's Math Workstation book is a huge help. I have found that Math Stations are similar to Literacy Stations.
I actually had 8 stations (2-4 people per group) so that my small groups were smaller and it meant that I had to change the activities every 2 weeks!!! I also do a whole group lesson, then Ind practice, stations. My students come to see me during Ind Practice and stations. I also have an assistant that sees some groups (it was great) one co-worker had a parent volunteer daily during this time to run a station. My students went to ONE station a day due to our schedule.
Next year I am going to have at least one "tub" for each Common Core strand every week. Then I am going to have some Review and Technology that are focused on what I am currently teaching.
You might also want to have a math literature station. An adult volunteer/aide (or capable student) could read a book aloud once per week to each rotation. Then students could do word problems you created or write their own problems for others to try.
Writing word problems takes a lot of practice. You will need to teach students about the language (how many, how many more, how many less) and this is a several day mini-lesson in itself. You could make a chart of words used for addition, subtraction, etc.
Someone on the third grade board recently printed a list of wonderful books to use with math. I will try to find the post and make a link here.
You might also want to take a look at the site www.mathwire.com. It is a wonderful math site and has great game ideas. Just type what you are looking for (geometry, fractions, etc.) in the search box, and you will get lots of links.
One of your math rotations could deal with technology. Students could explore a different math site every few weeks and really get to know it. I bet they would go home and work with these sites independently!
You don't have to make math games. I used "Brain Teasers" as one of my rotations. I put out puzzles, Hi-Q, Rush Hour, Nuts and Bolts, tanagrams, pattern block puzzles, a Rubik's cube, a deck of cards, boards from games like Chutes and Ladders or Go the the Head of the Class. Students needed to pick a math fact card and if child gave a correct answer, he/she rolled and moved on board. Rummage sales work well to pick up these hands-on activities for affordable prices.
Yes, I have been obsessing over Math Stations this summer. I am moving from 4th to 2nd and am VERY excited. Read Debbie Diller 's book...love it! I couldn't figure out the logistics of rotating 10 stations & making sure I see everyone in small group. So, I also found CFClassroom.com. MUST check it out. I first saw her math workshop board on pinterest. I downloaded her stuff for the bulletin board rotation & bought a few pocket charts (green like hers : ) on eBay. There is a video on her website that shows you exactly what it looks like and how it works I will follow Debbie Diller's "foundation" and ideas for stations but use the other website for the way I manage & rotate. You have 4 groups ( with students paired up within the groups) and 4 stations: math facts, at your seat, teacher, hands on. I will do "tubs" 1 - 5 math fact games (later maybe money then measurement) and "tubs" 6 - 10 for the hands on stations as described in Debbie's book. I do not want a bunch of games I have to make or tubs I have to switch out weekly...that is where Debbie Diller's math station book really eased my mind & gave me great ideas. Hope this makes sense...good luck to you : )
MMW- there are plenty of games out there that you could adapt for stations. I use a lot of dice and card games. I created a couple of generic game boards and printed math task cards to use. You would be surprised at what you already have on hand.
The Math Workstations book is a must. i have done MW for years but after reading that book last summer I changed my Independent work/games and it really helped.Here's what I did:
We use Investigations math which has lots of games that go with it but you could use any games or activties as many PP have shared.
I got 12 of the paper size baskets from the Dollar Store and labeled the baskets from 1-12. Then I used a dollar pocket chart from Target and had a set of 1-12 numbers. I put the children in partners and put their name cards on the chart. ( I changed partners every few weeks ; usually but not always with like abilities)
So during "Math Basket" time they would look on the chart and see which basket they should get and who was their partner. The games were all taught in group lesson before going into the basket.
They loved it and it made them very independent. that way i could teach another lesson (I had a 1st/2nd class last year)
I would add games as they came along in the lesson and take some out. I kept decks of cards in the baskets all the time. They could play Compare ( like war) by adding cards and other card games. I also kept dice and play money in there.
So my workshop time was
Update calendar pages in math journal , discuss the Morning Work problem . I would walk around and check their math journals to see how they solved and showed their work.
Then some children would go to Math baskets while I had a lesson with a group. The lesson group would then go to their desks for independent practice work based on the lesson. The children who had been working in baskets would come for a lesson. As children finished their independent work they would get their math baskets. If their partner was not finished they would play a solitaire-type game using cards or dice until their partner was ready. I taught them several games they could play alone with the cards and dice.
I also use Math tiles packets from Marci Cook. They are great. On days when i had a parent volunteer or assistant help, children could work on math tiles as part of basket time. The cards must be checked by someone so I needed an extra hand for that. The children love math tiles. She has card sets for everything so they can be used for differentiation.
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06-11-2012, 03:00 PM
