Showing posts with label small group. Show all posts
Showing posts with label small group. Show all posts

3 Fan Favoriate Phonemic Awareness Ideas (that are free)


 

What is Phonemic Awareness?

Phonemic Awareness (PA) is:

  • the ability to hear and manipulate the sounds in spoken words and the understanding that spoken words and syllables are made up of sequences of speech sounds
  • essential to learning to read in an alphabetic writing system, because letters represent sounds or phonemes. Without phonemic awareness, phonics makes little sense
  • fundamental to mapping speech to print. If a child cannot hear that "man" and "moon" begin with the same sound or cannot blend the sounds /rrrrrruuuuuunnnnn/ into the word "run", he or she may have great difficulty connecting sounds with their written symbols or blending sounds to make a word
  • essential to learning to read in an alphabetic writing system
  • a strong predictor of children who experience early reading success

Why is it important?

  • It requires readers to notice how letters represent sounds. It primes readers for print
  • It gives readers a way to approach sounding out and reading new words
  • It helps readers understand the alphabetic principle (that the letters in words are systematically represented by sounds)

...but difficult:

  • Although there are 26 letters in the English language, there are approximately 40 phonemes, or sound units, in the English language
  • Sounds are represented in 250 different spellings (e.g., /f/ as in ph, f, gh, ff)
  • The sound units (phonemes) are not inherently obvious and must be taught. The sounds that make up words are "coarticulated;" that is, they are not distinctly separate from each other

What Does the Lack of Phonemic Awareness Look Like?

Children lacking phonemic awareness skills cannot:

  • group words with similar and dissimilar sounds (mat, mug, sun)
  • blend and split syllables (f oot)
  • blend sounds into words (m_a_n)
  • segment a word as a sequence of sounds (e.g., fish is made up of three phonemes, /f/ , /i/, /sh/)
  • detect and manipulate sounds within words (change r in run to s)

My students love everything I bring them from Make, Take and Teach, these are great to add to your guided reading toolbox.

 

This cheat sheet from Clever Classroom is a great help when planning what direction I need to move in or if I'll looking for an idea on how to make a PA just a little bit more challanging.

This year I can't seem to find enough rhyming tasks. Be it for my second graders or my kindergartens who just need more, these have been a great addition to my toolbox and a great jumping-off to change it up a bit.


I hope your students find these as Fan Favorites as mine do!!!

Chat Soon-


Letter-Sound Correspondence

It an be very challenging to help students master sound-letter correspondence. This skill is the corner stone of everything we do as readers and writers. When I'm asked by teachers how I build this skill, this is the lesson format I use to teach letter-sound correspondence while building their skills as readers and writers.

What are letter-sound correspondences?
Letter-sound correspondences involve knowledge of:
  • the sounds represented by the letters of the alphabet 
  • the letters used to represent the sounds

Why is knowledge of letter-sound correspondences important?
Knowledge of letter-sound correspondences is essential in reading and writing
  • In order to read a word:
    • the student must recognize the letters in the word and associate each letter with its sound
  • In order the student must break the word into its component sounds and know the letters that represent these sounds.
Knowledge of letter-sound correspondences and phonological awareness skills are the basic building blocks of literacy learning. These skills are strong predictors of how well students learn to read.


What sequence should be used to teach letter-sound correspondence?
Letter-sound correspondences should be taught one at a time.  As soon as the student acquires one letter sound correspondence, introduce a new one.
I tend to teaching the letters and sounds in this sequence
  • a, m, t, p, o, n, c, d, u, s, g, h, i, f, b, l, e, r, w, k, x, v, y, z, j, q
This sequence was designed to help learners start reading as soon as possible
  • Letters that occur frequently in simple words (e.g., a, m, t) are taught first.
  • Letters that look similar and have similar sounds (b and d) are separated in the instructional sequence to avoid confusion.
  • Short vowels are taught before long vowels.
  • I tend to teach lower case letters first before upper case letters. Pick one and stick to it.
The sequence is intended as a guideline. Modify the sequence as required to accommodate student's:
  • prior knowledge 
  • interests 
  • hearing
Is it appropriate to teach letter names as well as letter sounds?
Start by teaching the sounds of the letters, not their names.  Knowing the names of letters is not necessary to read or write.  Knowledge of letter names can interfere with successful decoding.
  • For example, the student looks at a word and thinks of the names of the letters instead of the sounds.
Sample goal for instruction in letter-sound correspondences
The student will:
  • listen to a target sound presented orally
  • identify the letter that represents the sound
  • select the appropriate letter from a group of letter cards, an alphabet board, or a keyboard with at least 80% accuracy

Instructional Task
Here is an example of instruction to teach letter-sound correspondences

Teacher
  • introduces the new letter and its sound
  • shows a card with the letter m and says the sound “mmmm”

After practice with this letter sound, the instructor provides review

Teacher
  • says a letter sound
Student
  • listens to the sound
  • looks at each of the letters provided as response options
  • selects the correct letter
    • from a group of letter cards,
    • from an alphabet board, or
    • from a keyboard.

Instructional Materials
Various materials can be used to teach letter-sound correspondences
  • cards with lower case letters
  • an alphabet board that includes lower case letters
  • a keyboard adapted to include lower case letters
The student must
  • listen to the target sound – “mmmm”
  • select the letter – m – from the keyboard

Instructional Procedure
The teacher teaches letter-sound correspondences using these procedures:
  • Model
    • The teacher demonstrates the letter-sound correspondence for the student.
  • Guided practice
    • The teacher provides scaffolding support or prompting to help the student match the letter and sound correctly.
  • Independent practice
    • The student listens to the target sound and selects the letter independently.
    • The teacher monitors the student’s responses and provides appropriate feedback.

Pointers
There are a wide range of fonts. These fonts use different forms of letters, especially the letter a.
  • Initially use a consistent font in all instructional materials (I use one that have the capital I and lower case q-I want.)
  • Later, I introduce variations in font.

Building Number Sense

WHAT IS NUMBER SENSE?
Number sense involves understanding numbers; knowing how to write and represent numbers in different ways; recognizing the quantity represented by numerals and other number forms; and discovering how a number relates to another number or group of numbers. Number sense develops gradually and varies as a result of exploring numbers, visualizing them in a variety of contexts, and relating to them in different ways.

In the primary and intermediate grades, number sense includes skills such as counting; representing numbers with manipulatives and models; understanding place value in the context of our base 10 number system; writing and recognizing numbers in different forms such as expanded, word, and standard; and expressing a number different ways—5 is "4 + 1" as well as "7 - 2," and 100 is 10 tens as well as 1 hundred. Number sense also includes the ability to compare and order numbers—whole numbers, fractions, decimals, and integers—and the ability to identify a number by an attribute—such as odd or even, prime or composite-or as a multiple or factor of another number. As students work with numbers, they gradually develop flexibility in thinking about numbers, which is a distinguishing characteristic of number sense.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Number sense enables students to understand and express quantities in their world. For example, whole numbers describe the number of students in a class or the number of days until a special event. Decimal quantities relate to money or metric measures, fractional amounts describing ingredient measures or time increments, negative quantities conveying temperatures below zero or depths below sea level, or percent amounts describing test scores or sale prices. Number sense is also the basis for understanding any mathematical operation and being able to estimate and make a meaningful interpretation of its result.

HOW CAN YOU MAKE IT HAPPEN?

In teaching number sense, using manipulatives and models (e.g., place-value blocks, fraction strips, decimal squares, number lines, and place-value and hundreds charts) helps students understand what numbers represent, different ways to express numbers, and how numbers relate to one another.

When students trade with place-value blocks they can demonstrate that the number 14 may be represented as 14 ones or as 1 ten and 4 ones. They can also demonstrate that 10 hundreds is the same as 1 thousand. By recording the number of each kind of block in the corresponding column (thousands, hundreds, tens, or ones) on a place-value chart, students practice writing numbers in standard form.

My favorite way is to play games during guided math small groups. The games below, my students love playing. They are print and go--toss in some dice and your good to go! These games build number sense by having them work with Base Ten, Number Identification, and Subitizing.





Reading Comprehension Strategy: Summarizing

It would come to no surprise to anyone that summarizing becomes more complex as a reader moves from a beginning readers of Level A/1 to those reading at Level 38/P. This makes teaching this reading comprehension skill to a group of readers that span three years-18/J to 28/M to 38/P. (What was I thinking when I agreed to try this?) But this group has made progress than I would have guessed. They have risen to the challenge.

As I started thinking about how I was going to plan the next few weeks with this group, I went back to Fountas and Pinnell's Continuum of Literacy Learning, to see what the summarizing targets looked like. In this case, its the depth that students need to have. (This is a great resource!)

This means my models need to include two different ideas: 1) focusing one beginning, middle, end, with characters, problem, solution, and characters; 2) focusing on summarizing longer texts being more chapter based.

Next, problem what does the summary need to look like and how do I want them to know when they have met the target. But first, I need to find my mentor text to support my modeled lessons. (I could hold story hour for them and they would never mind not working:-))

Knowing I need at least four books covering several different reading levels:


These ones will provide me with different examples for my students.










With models in hand, how do I want students to write their summaries. They will also need the rubric and success criteria. (This is a new push for more. As a building we have just taken on Learning Targets--which   my students have loved. This is a tough challenge.) This is success criteria example of a 4 using the DRA scaffolded summary template.

 I'll share the examples the group puts together. Have a great week.

Three Guided Reading Groups in One

This week I'm changing one of my guided reading groups to not guided reading but guided reading. Confused yet? I was when I was asked to make this change. I have three readers that are outliers and if I had tons of time to give each one on one guided reading I would.

First off, I had to find a common overarching strategy that they all needed to work on but the text level didn't matter. After looking at their reading data and talking with my coach, synthesis was decided on.

Next, finding text that would fit each and allow me to target synthesis. This took some looking but after some time I found three that would fit the bill. Once, I had the books, I crafted questions that would target the skill. I put the questions on return address labels, so I could put the questions in each students reader's response journal.

Before starting the lesson, I told the group that we were going to do some playing. (As I had never done this before.) Because this was new and I would most likely be making changes as the week went on. They were cool with this and couldn't wait.

I started the lesson by creating an anchor chart. I made the pieces large enough to add specific story element information. We used Tacky the Penguin. I wrapped up the lesson by asking the girls to change the end of the story to where the hunters didn't run away.

Day Two: With the questions matching everyone's own books on stickies, students knew what they were reading for. They also had to complete--a four square. (character, setting, problem/solution) This gave me the time to go around, having each one read to me and a chance to ask specific questions about each book, clear up any confusion, and talk about the questions they had to answer by the end of the book. Just like any other guided group! (I got this!) I closed the lesson, by bringing them back to the anchor chart and talking about what they knew of their characters. They had not finished their books and I was laying the groundwork for the next day.

Some sentence frames I used for synthesizing:
-If _____________________, then then the outcome maybe _______________________.
-What would happen if __________.

Its important to remember that synthesis is taking multiple strategies to construct new insight and meaning as more information and ideas are added to a reader's background knowledge. My group of sixth graders, needed a visual to see what I meant when I explained  synthesis. I gave them a couple of different pictures like making cookies or a pizza. All the ingredients are comprehension strategies and the finished product is synthesis. This group of 5th graders sees synthesis as an banana split.

  This week we are going back and doing prediction. With the overall target being synthesis and the daily target being prediction. I'm hoping that this works as I continue to work out the kinks. I'll let you know. Have a great week.

How to Build Number Sense

WHAT IS NUMBER SENSE?
Number sense involves understanding numbers; knowing how to write and represent numbers in different ways; recognizing the quantity represented by numerals and other number forms; and discovering how a number relates to another number or group of numbers. Number sense develops gradually and varies as a result of exploring numbers, visualizing them in a variety of contexts, and relating to them in different ways.

In the primary and intermediate grades, number sense includes skills such as counting; representing numbers with manipulatives and models; understanding place value in the context of our base 10 number system; writing and recognizing numbers in different forms such as expanded, word, and standard; and expressing a number different ways—5 is "4 + 1" as well as "7 - 2," and 100 is 10 tens as well as 1 hundred. Number sense also includes the ability to compare and order numbers—whole numbers, fractions, decimals, and integers—and the ability to identify a number by an attribute—such as odd or even, prime or composite-or as a multiple or factor of another number. As students work with numbers, they gradually develop flexibility in thinking about numbers, which is a distinguishing characteristic of number sense.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Number sense enables students to understand and express quantities in their world. For example, whole numbers describe the number of students in a class or the number of days until a special event. Decimal quantities relate to money or metric measures, fractional amounts describing ingredient measures or time increments, negative quantities conveying temperatures below zero or depths below sea level, or percent amounts describing test scores or sale prices. Number sense is also the basis for understanding any mathematical operation and being able to estimate and make a meaningful interpretation of its result.

HOW CAN I MAKE IT HAPPEN?

In teaching number sense, using manipulatives and models (e.g., place-value blocks, fraction strips, decimal squares, number lines, and place-value and hundreds charts) helps students understand what numbers represent, different ways to express numbers, and how numbers relate to one another.

When students trade with place-value blocks they can demonstrate that the number 14 may be represented as 14 ones or as 1 ten and 4 ones. They can also demonstrate that 10 hundreds is the same as 1 thousand. By recording the number of each kind of block in the corresponding column (thousands, hundreds, tens, or ones) on a place-value chart, students practice writing numbers in standard form.

Using fraction strips, students find that 1/4 is less than 1/3 and that it names the same amount as 2/8. Using decimal squares, students see that 8 tenths can be written as 0.8 or 8/10. By pairing up counters to identify even numbers and marking these on a hundreds chart, primary-grade students discover that, beginning with 2, every other number is an even number. Intermediate-grade students can mark multiples of 3 and 6 on a hundreds chart and find that every number that has 6 as a factor also has 3 as a factor. Using a number line, students see how fractions with different denominators relate to the benchmark quantities of 0, 1/2, and 1. From these concrete experiences, students build the foundation for number sense they will bring to computation, estimation, measurement, problem solving, and all other areas of mathematics.

DAILY ROUTINES

Many teachers use the calendar as a source of mathematics activities. Students can work with counting, patterns, number sequence, odd and even numbers, and multiples of a number; they can also create word problems related to the calendar. A hundreds chart can help them count the number of days in school, and the current day’s number can be the "number of the day." Students can suggest various ways to make or describe that number. For example, on the 37th day of school, children may describe that number as 30 plus 7, 40 minus 3, an odd number, 15 plus 15 plus 7, my mother’s age, or 1 more than 3 dozen. The complexity of student’s responses will grow as the year goes on and as they listen to one another think mathematically. This is a great language building time.

THY THESE

  • Model different methods for computing:

When a teacher publicly records a number of different approaches to solving a problem–solicited from the class or by introducing her own—it exposes students to strategies that they may not have considered.  As Marilyn Burns explains, “When children think that there is one right way to compute, they focus on learning and applying it, rather than thinking about what makes sense for the numbers at hand.”

  • Ask students regularly to calculate mentally:

Mental math encourages students to build on their knowledge about numbers and numerical relationships. When they cannot rely on memorized procedures or hold large quantities in their heads, students are forced to think more flexibly and efficiently, and to consider alternate problem solving strategies.

  • Have class discussions about strategies for computing:

Classroom discussions about strategies help students to crystalize their own thinking while providing them the opportunity to critically evaluate their classmates’ approaches. In guiding the discussion, be sure to track ideas on the board to help students make connections between mathematical thinking and symbolic representation.

  • Make estimation an integral part of computing.

Most of the math that we do every day—deciding when to leave for school, how much paint to buy, what type of tip to leave in a restaurant, which line to get in at the grocery store relies not only on mental math but estimations.  However traditional textbook rounding exercises don’t provide the necessary context for students to understand estimating or build number sense.  To do that, estimation must be embedded in problem situations.

  • Question students about how they reason numerically.

Asking students about their reasoning—both when they make mistakes AND when they arrive at the correct answer—communicates to them that you value their ideas, that math is about reasoning, and, most importantly, that math should make sense to them.  Exploring reasoning is also extremely important for the teacher as a formative assessment tool.  It helps her understand each student’s strengths and weaknesses, content knowledge, reasoning strategies and misconceptions.

  • Pose numerical problems that have more than one possible answer:

Problems with multiple answers provide plenty of opportunities for students to reason numerically.  It’s a chance to explore numbers and reasoning perhaps more creatively than if there was “one right answer.”

NUMBER SENSE EVERY DAY
All of these number sense activities contribute to your students’ abilities to solve problems. When children have daily, long-term opportunities to work (and play) with numbers, you will be continually amazed by the growth in their mathematical thinking, confidence, and enthusiasm about mathematics. By helping your children develop number sense, especially in the context of problem solving, you are helping them believe in themselves as mathematicians.

Addition Strategies for Small Groups

For the last couple of days I have been teaching addition strategies for adding 2 digit numbers with something could be called success. These guys have a hard time remembering the steps--which makes moving on to regrouping tough but yet they have a couple of strategies that have helped them. The basic strategies they have built on to help them work to find the answers. I would love, love if they would memorize the basic facts but getting a correct answer with another strategy is all that matters at the end of the day. Even if its not the most efficient. It has to be efficient and effective for them--not me the teacher.

Though mastering the basic facts is one strategy its not the end all be all. It is equally important that they make sense of number combinations as they are learning these facts. Here are some strategies to help with this understanding.

Adding Zero
Model adding zero (with younger students) or review it with older students. If a child understands that when you add zero you add nothing, he/she should never get a basic fact with zero wrong. Make sure this understanding is in place.

Adding One (Count up)
Adding one means saying the larger number, then jumping up one number, or counting up one number. This happens every time you add one. It never changes. Never recount the larger number, just say it and count up one.

Example: 6 + 1 = say 6 then 7
44 + 1 = say 44 then 45

Adding Two – Count up Two
Adding two means saying the larger number, then jumping up or counting up twice. Again this is always correct and never changes.

Example: 9 + 2 = say 9 then 10 then 11
45 + 2 say 45 then 46 then 47

Commutative Property:
You also have to teach or review the commutative property. The answer will be the same regardless of the order you add the two numbers. 9 + 2 = 2 + 9 Order
doesn’t matter.

Adding Ten 
Adding ten means jumping up ten (think of a hundred’s chart). The ones digit stays the same but the ten’s digit increases by one. Students must understand this. Using a hundreds board to teach this works well to build understanding. Have students actually count up the ten and write down the result. Then affirm with them the pattern and explain why it works every time.

Example: 5 + 10 = 15

10 + 7 = 17
For older students you can relate this to higher numbers:

Example 23 + 10 = 33
48 + 10 = 58

Double Numbers
To add double numbers there are a couple of strategies that might help students.

When you add a double you are counting by that number once.
For example: 4 + 4 = think of 4,8 … counting by fours
Practice skip counting by each number in turn:
2-4
3-6
4-8 etc. This gets harder with the higher numbers but skip counting is an important skill for students to have.

Doubles occur everywhere in life.
For example: an egg carton is 6 + 6
two hands are 5 + 5
16 pack of crayons has 8 + 8
two weeks 7 + 7 =

Do a variety of activities with double numbers and have students determine and explain which strategies help them remember. Each student should look at each fact and relate to a visual image or counting by strategy that works for them.

Near Doubles 
To use the near doubles strategy a student first has to master the doubles. Then, if the double is known, they use that and count up or down one to find the near double.
Example: 4 + 4 = 8 5 + 4 = 9 (count up one)
Or: 4 + 4 = 8 so 4 + 3 = 7 (count down one)

Adding 5
Adding five has a strategy that is helpful but not completely effective as it is a bit tricky. You can decide if it is helpful or not.

To add fives look for the five in both numbers to make a ten then count on the extra digits.
Example: 5 + 7 = (10 + 2) = 12

5 + 8 = 5 + 5 + 3 = 13

Students who can see the five in 8 should have no difficulty. Students who can’t visualize numbers will find this hard. Most students can be taught to do this with some extra work.

Manipulatives
Math manipulatives are an important bridge to help students connect the concrete to the abstract in mathematical learning. Math manipulatives allow students to see, touch, and move real representations of conceptual ideas. Numbers on a page are brought to life when students can model with representations. Concepts such as decomposition, place value, and fractions benefit from the visual and kinesthetic aspects of manipulatives. Challenging and multi-step problem-solving activities can be made more manageable when students are able to use tools like manipulatives to compute and represent various parts of the problem. Practice in choosing appropriate manipulatives deepens student expertise with identifying the correct tools for solving a problem.

Explaining and critiquing mathematical reasoning are important skills in understanding mathematics. Manipulatives help students discuss and demonstrate their methods for solving problems. This type of collaborative communication builds precision in language as well as procedure. When students can demonstrate the how and why of a math concept, they build connections and prepare for more advanced skills. Manipulatives also provide students a tool for testing their theories and the theories of others. And, manipulatives can assist English language learners, who are still building their vocabularies, demonstrate understanding of math concepts.

Manipulatives are great for concrete, visual learners who need to see the problem to solve them. Unifix cubes moved my math group from having no clue on how to add two digit numbers to having a working strategy that they can use with confidence. For showing their work they just draw what they created. This list is full of great ways to help students to solve addition problems. I hope your students find one or two that help them solve addition problems efficiently and effectively. Have a great week!




Giving Feedback

What is Feedback?

W. Fred Miser says, “Feedback is an objective description of a student’s performance intended to guide future performance.  Unlike evaluation, which judges performance, feedback is the process of helping our students assess their performance, identify areas where they are right on target and provide them tips on what they can do in the future to improve in areas that need correcting.”

Grant Wiggins  says, “Feedback is not about praise or blame, approval or disapproval.  That’s what evaluation is – placing value.  Feedback is value-neutral.  It describes what you did and did not do.”

“Effective feedback, however, shows where we are in relationship to the objectives and what we need to do to get there. "

“It helps our students see the assignments and tasks we give them as opportunities to learn and grow rather than as assaults on their self-concept. "

“And, effective feedback allows us to tap into a powerful means of not only helping students learn, but helping them get better at learning.”

~ Robyn R. Jackson

For those of use who are evaluated on rubrics like C. Danielson's, giving student's effective and meaningful oral and written feedback is huge. It becomes part of how you use formative assessments during a lesson and how you determine if students "Got it" or not. 

I think its important to remember what good feedback looks like:

Timely
  • The more delay that occurs in giving feedback, the less improvement there is in achievement.
  • As often as possible, for all major assignments

Constructive/Corrective
  • What students are doing that is correct
  • What students are doing that is not correct
  • Choose areas of feedback based on those that relate to major learning goals and essential elements of the assignment
  • Should be encouraging and help students realize that effort on their part results in more learning 

Specific to a Criterion
  • Precise language on what to do to  improve
  • Reference where a student stands in relation to a specific learning target/goal
  • Also specific to the learning at hand
  • Based on personal observations

Focused on the product/behavior – not on the student

Verified 
  • Did the student understand the feedback? 
  • Opportunities are provided to modify assignments, products, etc. based on the feedback
  • What is my follow up plan to monitor and assist the student in these areas?
I think of how I give feedback during a Wilson lesson, "I heard you read red correctly. How might you fix this word?" To shift the thinking back on the student to make the correction. This means I'm only focusing on one thing at a time. Not everything that needs to be fixed. I find its hard in guided reading, when the student stumbles over several words--deciding which ones to give and which ones to have them fix on their own. It's finding that balance and shifting the cognitive load from me to the student. That way the next time they see the word or get stuck they can independently use the strategy.  It's hard to find that balance and demonstrate that you are using feedback as a formative assessment. But that's what it takes for students to self-monitor. Some thoughts to add to your daily practice. Have a great week.

ScootPad and Freebie

I came across ScootPad, while looking for ideas for my math students to do besides MobyMath. ScootPad is grounded in Common Core reading and math and FREE. ScootPad is a really cool because its based on skill mastery but unlike MobyMath there is no pretest. The creators of ScootPad recognize that no two students are alike and that they will master skills in different ways. ScootPad helps students gain mastery through gradual and thorough practice.


My students like the practice as it builds confidence in learning and keeps them moving forward at a pace that is appropriate to them. I get progress reports on they each did and can assign homework for them on skills missed. since there is no placement text, I have to place them in a grade in which I think they are mostly independent in. (They have not noticed it's not grade level material. Which is a good thing.) Parents have access to all of their child’s progress and alerts.  As I use this as part of my small group math time, the practice is short and doesn't take students more than 10 minutes to complete daily practice.


I have a group of kids working on closed syllables and having a difficult time understanding what some of the words mean. To help them out, since they love the other Draw it's. I hope your students love playing it as much as mine. Click here to get your copy. Have a wonderful week!


Guided Math Chapter 5

Photobucket
Welcome to Guided Math Chapter 5: Using Guided Math with Small Groups

My take away from this chapter was that small group math instruction is the perfect place to provide all students with access to core instruction. This means you have to differentiate the what (curriculum) not change it. Small group math gives you the time to do that--just like you would in Guided Reading.  

This got me thinking about how flexible, needs based grouping affect student learning. I know with guided reading, students move all the time. Why could the same not happen with math. My building has been playing with adding small math groups to the math block. You'll see the schedule below. But I do know that when you group students by math need and provide them time/practice to access core they do get it. They get it and it shows everywhere when they do. 

Why Small Group Math?
The Kids 
 Learn at their ability level
Experience Success
Grow in Self esteem 
Enjoy math 
Gain new understandings
Are allowed frequent movement 
Participate in activities of appropriate length
The Teacher
Knows exactly where each kid stands
Has time to work with individuals in small groups
Has less frustration
Uses time more efficiently

Small Group Math Instruction allows you to address the needs of your class, in a way that targets students’ strength and needs, tailor instruction to provide the specific instruction that best challenges all learners. Students receive the support they need to expand their understanding and improve their math understanding.  Fountas and Pinnell say this about small group instruction, "in the comfort and safety of a small group, students learn how to work with others, how to attend to shared information, and how to ask questions or ask for help." For students who struggle with math learning these things is key for their success. Small group math allows teachers to challenge all learners by providing instruction at varied levels of difficulty and with scaffolding based on needs.  Small group math instruction lends itself to differentiation. It fits perfectly into the Gradual Release Strategy that is used in Guided Reading.

One example of how students could be grouped is from low to high. 
The low group starts with the teacher at the Work With Teacher Station. This group is met with first, so that they are taught the lesson before being asked to work independently or play a game related to the concept I am teaching.  I use a small dry erase board or the interactive whiteboard for my instruction, and the students sit in front of me on the carpet.  They bring their math journal with them because I often have them work on the math journal pages with me during the lesson. This would be the time to provide remedial instruction for students as well. 

The medium group starts at the Math Games Station.  They are often playing the game that is part of that day's Math lesson, but they may also be playing a game that they have played in the past that corresponds to the concepts in the unit.  Sometimes students are also doing projects at this center, especially during the fraction and geometry units. 

The high group starts at the Independent Practice Station.  I have them start at this station because they are often able to do the math journal pages without much instruction.  Each day, they are asked to complete the journal pages that correspond to the lesson I will be teaching.  The high group is also given a math packet created by our "Gifted and Talented" teacher because they often finish the math journal pages before it is time to rotate to the next station.

Depending on the need of the students, like in guided reading, you may not meet with all three groups every day. But you need to meet with every group at least once a week. You may meet with your lowest group four of five days, the next lowest group three of five days, the middle group two of five days and your high group only once. 
Daily Schedule for Math Block
I have one hour and 30 minutes scheduled for math each day (90 minutes).  Below is how my building uses that time.

Number Talks: (8–10 minutes) As a building we use Number Talks: Helping Children Build Mental Math and Computation Strategies, Grades K–5 By: Sherry Parrish 

Lesson Introduction & Directions: 15 minutes) During this time, I briefly introduce the concept I will be teaching for the day, announce any materials they will need to do their daily work (rulers, protractors, etc.), and explain the game that students will be playing at the Games Station (if necessary).

Rotation #1: (20 minutes)
Rotation #2: (20 minutes)
Rotation #3: (20 minutes)
Closing: (5 minutes) At the end of math, I call the class back together quickly to reinforce the day's concept.  If there is time, we will correct the daily math journal page as a class.

I have included two videos examples of what guided math can look like in classrooms.




I have created a Small Group Lesson Plan Template to help in your planning for Small Group Math.

A couple of questions to get the juices flowing:
1) Do you use Guided Reading, how can you use that idea to work in small group math to accommodate all learners? What would be easy? More difficult to adapt?
2) What data do you already have that would help you create those groups?


Small Group Math

Last year I went looking for a new math curriculum, that had strong number sense and would work in either small groups or one on one. I had been using Saxon Math but I was finding that it align so well with our Curriculum Alignment Project (CAP). CAP outlines what needs to be taught when and for how long-its the curriculum and Investigations is the resource. CAP ensures that every student in the district is getting the same thing regardless of what building your in. The problem with Investigations is that it doesn't translate well to small groups or one on one, so it's not used frequently for interventions. We do use it for double dosing students (students getting the same lesson twice).

I found Singapore Math. It came from a recommendation because they had seen improvements in their intensive math groups. Here's what I love about it. It's deceptively thin text books were created with an understanding on how students actually learn. The lessons are structured with the gradual release model(which is huge in my district) which allows students to learn mathematics meaningfully and talk about it like mathematicians. It also aligns better with what they are learning in class. Students love this program because of all the hands on work they get to do. They have said way more tha what they get in class. The girls that I work with in math need all the hands on and language support they can get in math and then some. The down side is the language skills students need to work independently. One way I have worked around in more language supports is creating mini-anchor charts as a visual reminder of what key words mean.
Graph Key Words Math Key Terms

About Me

Welcome to my all thing special education blog. I empower busy elementary special education teachers to use best practice strategies to achieve a data and evidence driven classroom community by sharing easy to use, engaging, unique approaches to small group reading and math. Thanks for Hopping By.
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