Math- 1. It all starts with a test
I teach Everyday Math, and unlike reading where I have the emergent readers, I have the Nearing Proficient students. For my emergent readers I do a lot of modeling and scaffolded instruction. With my math students I tend to push them more in order to become proficient. Since my students are nearing proficient, they know some of the content well already, so I want to focus on the areas of need.
In order to figure this out, I give the students the Unit Test BEFORE I teach the lessons as a pretest. As I grade the pretest I keep a running record of the areas the students are proficient in, as well as the areas of most need. I will always review the proficient areas, but I will put more emphasis on the lessons that have the most need. Students keep their graded pretest in their student data binders to show during Student Conferences. The students color in a progress check graph, the pretest in one color, the post test in another. This allows students to make goals and to quickly see improvement.
In order to figure this out, I give the students the Unit Test BEFORE I teach the lessons as a pretest. As I grade the pretest I keep a running record of the areas the students are proficient in, as well as the areas of most need. I will always review the proficient areas, but I will put more emphasis on the lessons that have the most need. Students keep their graded pretest in their student data binders to show during Student Conferences. The students color in a progress check graph, the pretest in one color, the post test in another. This allows students to make goals and to quickly see improvement.
Math- 4. Cooperative Learning Groups
Students work in teams to solve math problems.
Students work in teams to complete sample problems. Students working in teams allows the students to teach one another as well as practice any steps of the problems they don't know. Students show their work on dry erase boards and I walk around the room assisting any teams whose members are all lost on a problem. I also give teams more points at this time for working well as a team and staying on task.
Math- 5. Individual Student Work
Students need to finish the last problems of the Everyday Math Journal individually. Once they have completed the problems they line up next to my desk for me to grade the problems, conference with them and keep annecdotal records on the Everyday math RSA form. They receive their homework only after I grade them, so I can explain any part of the HW I feel may be too difficult for them. Students then return to their desks and fill out a math spiral. The math spiral is an ongoing collection of notes about each lesson. Academic vocabulary and examples are including. Students record the notes from the Promethean Board. Students are allowed to take the spirals home prior to any exams.
Math- 6. Math Interventions
Every Friday we have "math interventions." This is a separate time from math instruction, and is 1 hour long. My math intervention class for the nearing proficient students is broken up into two sections.
MATH PDSA
The first half of interventions is PDSA. This is a continuous improvement strategy to help students focus on an area of need. Throughout the week I take my annecdotal records from the RSA, as well as the Pretest for the unit, and I determine the lesson that students need the most help on. The students and I create a PDSA (Plan, Do, Study, Act). Plan- I develop the plan, explaining to students the area of concern and let them know that our goal is for everyone in the class (all 20 students) to be proficient in that area on an assessment the next week. Do- The students and I develop strategies we can work on together to help us improve the classroom score. I then create a supplemental lesson on that topic; sometimes an Everyday math game, or a whole group activity or a practice worksheet etc. Study-The following week during math intervention time we have a practice review game in teams, and then students have a very short assessment on the subject.We grade all the papers as a class, and I collect them and write down how many people are emergent (0-1 correct), Nearing Proficient (received a 2) or Proficient (received a 3). I then create a bar graph with the number of students who were proficient. The students and I then create a Plus + (what went well)/Delta ^ (What we need to improve on). Act-We determine at this point if the class was proficient enough to move on to another area of need, or if we need to focus on the same area again for 1 week.
MATH PDSA
The first half of interventions is PDSA. This is a continuous improvement strategy to help students focus on an area of need. Throughout the week I take my annecdotal records from the RSA, as well as the Pretest for the unit, and I determine the lesson that students need the most help on. The students and I create a PDSA (Plan, Do, Study, Act). Plan- I develop the plan, explaining to students the area of concern and let them know that our goal is for everyone in the class (all 20 students) to be proficient in that area on an assessment the next week. Do- The students and I develop strategies we can work on together to help us improve the classroom score. I then create a supplemental lesson on that topic; sometimes an Everyday math game, or a whole group activity or a practice worksheet etc. Study-The following week during math intervention time we have a practice review game in teams, and then students have a very short assessment on the subject.We grade all the papers as a class, and I collect them and write down how many people are emergent (0-1 correct), Nearing Proficient (received a 2) or Proficient (received a 3). I then create a bar graph with the number of students who were proficient. The students and I then create a Plus + (what went well)/Delta ^ (What we need to improve on). Act-We determine at this point if the class was proficient enough to move on to another area of need, or if we need to focus on the same area again for 1 week.
MATH RACED
The second half of math interventions the class focuses on RACED. RACED stands for Restate, answer, compute, Explain and Draw. Students are taught to use words, numbers and pictures to solve math problems. Students are required to explain their thinking and reasoning on these problems. I create a RACED unit that lasts 1 month. The first week of RACED I model on the electronic whiteboard how to answer a written RACED question. The second week students need to work in teams to complete a RACED question together. They make sure that all the different parts are completed. The third week, each individual student fills out a RACED form; I walk around the room and assist anyone who needs help. The fourth week of the month is a RACED assessment. Each student needs to complete a RACED form that is graded. Students record the grade in the Student Data Binder, and place the test in it.
The second half of math interventions the class focuses on RACED. RACED stands for Restate, answer, compute, Explain and Draw. Students are taught to use words, numbers and pictures to solve math problems. Students are required to explain their thinking and reasoning on these problems. I create a RACED unit that lasts 1 month. The first week of RACED I model on the electronic whiteboard how to answer a written RACED question. The second week students need to work in teams to complete a RACED question together. They make sure that all the different parts are completed. The third week, each individual student fills out a RACED form; I walk around the room and assist anyone who needs help. The fourth week of the month is a RACED assessment. Each student needs to complete a RACED form that is graded. Students record the grade in the Student Data Binder, and place the test in it.
Math- 7. It all ends with a test
After all the lessons are completed, and students have had a PDSA on the areas of most need for the unit students have a review. Everyday math is a spiraling curriculum, so lessons from previous lessons are included in current assessments. In order to help the students review these concepts I created an extra lesson called Progress Check Review. I took the EDM tests and created a test that is very similar to the EDM Progress Check. A day before the test students work in cooperative learning groups to complete the practice review. After each problem I focus the entire group back together so we can discuss what the problem on the form is asking, and as a whole group we determine what an "advanced" paper should look like. For example instead of just finding maximum, minimum, mode, range and median; students would have to define each of those terms next to the appropriate problem to receive a 4.
After completing the Progress Check Review 1 for that unit, students need to take it home to study. They also receive another worksheet Progress Check Review 2, that is a homework worksheet that needs to be completed that night. The following day students take the EDM test, and the following day when it is graded, they add the new score to the Post column in their data binders. The students will then take the Pretest for the next unit and the cycle starts over.
After completing the Progress Check Review 1 for that unit, students need to take it home to study. They also receive another worksheet Progress Check Review 2, that is a homework worksheet that needs to be completed that night. The following day students take the EDM test, and the following day when it is graded, they add the new score to the Post column in their data binders. The students will then take the Pretest for the next unit and the cycle starts over.