Guided Math & Math Stations

During my 1st year of teaching I had a revelation... Why on earth am I giving these poor students these 25 question tests? I didn't think about it at first but I was only making things difficult for myself because I was doing all of the grading and also attempting to re-mediate.

 I changed my game plan and I began only giving my students tests that only had 10 questions.  If a student made less than an 80% they would meet with me and be retaught the skill and then they would have a retest on that following Friday. 

 Needless to say this worked beautifully! I also created a note sheet where I would record the objective & skill at the top. Beside each students name I would write their score ( 8/10) and the date of mastery.  I would also note any mistakes made so even if the student scored an 80% I could still see if there were some sort of pattern of misunderstanding.  I could also send home additional homework on that skill so students could practice at home.

This worked so well for me I was able to use this again this school year with my 3rd grade students.  I loved the idea of having actual notes to discuss with parents at conferences if a low math score came up during our discussion.

I plan on continuing this for years to come because it is very simple and that means math groups change weekly for the most part.  

Now that was my small victory here is the small defeat... Math Centers!

I have a difficult time finding activities for my students to do that will keep them engaged during the 15 minute rotations.  At the end of this school year I created a sheet that contained all center activities and students knew they were to have all of them completed by Friday so that meant that they had to do at least 2 per day.  If any student finished early they knew they were to read silently at their seats. 

I am still looking for activities to add to the sheet to complete the 3 rotations as I would like but after visiting Runde's Room I think I am going to incorporate the math journal as part of center time.  My team also had our principal purchase Mountain Math & Mountain Language for us.  It is a really cool stand up book that has several problems that cover basic skills. It has a basic worksheet to fill in the answers too and students only need to flip the page each week to answer questions with new numbers.

I am not sure if this will help anyone but if so please let me know! If you have something that works wonderful in your classroom during Center time then please feel free to comment!!!