Whole Group Lesson
1. Math Warm-Up
My favorite way to start a math lesson is with a short math message or review. This is a great opportunity to reinforce previous skills and also serves as a formative assessment opportunity. Following a quick review, I ask a question involving the new skill for the day. I allow students time to consider how they can solve the problem and then ask students to share their responses with peers. I use this information to guide the rest of the lesson.
2. Establish Lesson Goal
Setting a goal for the lesson allows students to understand what they should be able to accomplish by the end of the lesson. I believe students should be encouraged to take ownership of their learning and by setting goals they have that opportunity.
3. Explicitly Model
We discuss the math question of the day and I explicitly model how to solve the problem. During this part of the lesson, I model the skill of the day and explain step by step how to solve the problem.
4. Scaffolded Practice
In the whole group setting, I provide students an opportunity to practice the new skill or strategy. I scaffold the problems by doing some steps together with the class, asking students to work with a partner, and by inviting students to the board to share their work. During the whole group practice, I am checking in with students and assessing who understands, who needs more support, and how needs more challenging problems. We review the problems together and then prepare for math centers.
Meaningful Math Centers
During this time, students typically rotate through four meaningful math centers.
- M - Meet with the teacher (differentiated instruction)
- A - At your seat (students work on independent stamina)
- T - Technology or small group activity (depending on the skill and resources available)
- H - Hands-on activity (students might be playing a math game or completing activities around the room)
Math Check In
Prior to the math block ending, we meet whole group to check in. Students might complete ticket out the door, share a challenge/success, or answer a closing question in small groups. I encourage students to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses for the lesson and ask them to consider if they were successful in reaching today's goal.
