Establishing routine in the
classroom is a crucial step to having a successful year for your students (and
yourself as the teacher). In this style of math workshop, students spend the
majority of the time engaged in the same type of math at the same time. This
gives the teacher more time to travel to groups of students (ideally groups of
4) in order to assist and help students find their "just-right" level
for the day's concept. Described below are the parts of my take on math
workshop. These are described under the assumption that the teacher tells the
class when students are "moving" from one part of the workshop to the
next. Moving has been placed in quotation marks, as this is a mental shift
between parts, not a physical movement. In this version of workshop, the
teacher is to one moving until Part four. Once the class is ready for this math
rotation and math conferring, it is a quick transition of no more than 2
minutes.
Part I. Math Focus (5 minutes) - In the first part of maths activity class, students enter the
room and head with their math notebooks, black data binders, and pencils to
their "group spots" on the carpet. Together as a class, we read the
math focus question of the day. This often changes with the official math
target, but is almost always a "how can I?" question.
The next step of the math focus is
to review the official math target and then for students to rate themselves on
their understanding of this statement. We use a 4 point rating scale.
Students then have a chance to
review the 8 standards for mathematical practice and then to recite our 5
"math talk" words. This list changes depending on the needs of
students and on the unit of study.
Part II. Math Talk (10-20 minutes) - Math talk can look very
different from day-to-day, but always includes a teacher-directed mini-lesson
focused on either a strategy, skill, vocabulary, review, or game
Part III. Partner Math (10 minutes) - The Partner Math portion of
Math Workshop also varies throughout a unit, while math partners throughout
each unit remain constant. This is a built-in time to practice the Math Talk of
the day with at least one other student. We have 5 groups in our room, and each
group has the chance for differentiated practice problems based on the math
focus of the day.
This is also a chance to learn how
to help and encourage others, explain math thinking, read about math in the
real world, and to look for faster ways to solve problems. Before we transition
into Part IV, we have a quick group summary. This is a chance to state what was
practiced and to ask any questions or celebrations about the Math Talk. We will
also have a check of how we are rating ourselves on our math target.
Part IV. Math Rotations with Math
Conferring (20 minutes)
- This is the time for students to
finish any partner math assignment and then to focus on their own math goals.
Sometimes there will be practice sheets, other times a game or manipulative
activity, and other times students will have a chance for online math practice
via one of our free math programs. Groups of students have one rotation each
day in order for this specific math practice to happen. One of these rotations
is meeting with the teacher. During this time, students may have a quick
assessment on the current math concept. This is also a time to think and talk
deeply about the math concepts at "just-right" levels for students.
The last 5 minutes of math workshop are devoted to students working on an exit
slip or other formative assessment option.
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