Does anyone in first grade (or another lower elementary) currently do this? Can you walk me through what it looks like? A mini lesson? then seat work/stations? and while that is happening you pull groups?? If you're learning basic addition would you take it up a level for kids who seem to "get it" or do you move to a totally different concept for those kids? Do you try and keep everyone on the same "topic" (telling time, money, addition/subtraction, patterns etc) while extending the lesson(s) with kids who grasp the concept faster or do you move the faster kids along to something else -a totally different skill? Is there any great books/websites that explain how this looks a little better?? I think deb dillar might have one? yes/no? Thanks! (thinking of adding this in this year.)
I gave guided math a whirl this last year. I really liked working with the small groups and found that I covered more content this year than previous years. During guided math I had centers going and "Math with the Teacher" (guided math) was a daily center. I was lucky to have an educational assistant in the room so she supervised the rest of the math centers. I couldn't stand the thought that the students doing centers could be practicing them wrong the entire time since I was busy with my math group. There were 3 independent centers: 1. Math By Myself - this was independent practice (matching games, worksheets, reading math books, math journals, etc.) 2. Math With a Partner - usually a game 3. Math With Tools - pattern blocks, tangrams, adding with dominoes, etc. The centres were practice of the skill we'd worked on during "Math with the Teacher" the previous week. Typically I'd keep everyone on one topic during guided math (i.e. adding on a numberline) but differentiate depending on the group. I'd do a short mini-lesson (5-7 minutes) and then the students practiced the skill with me (another 7-10 minutes). If the students seemed to get it quickly I would challenge them and go further. I used a lot of stuff from "The Sisters" who wrote "Daily 5". They are working on Daily 5 math. I also read a million blogs of teachers already practicing this in their classroom. I really enjoyed teaching this way and it worked well with the group I had.... definitely not a quiet, independent working group! It suited my teaching style, too. I do this with literacy already, why not do it with math? Take the plunge!
Thanks so much! I like the idea of it because I can see how great guided reading is. Ok another question, if you don't mind How did you do your groups? How many did you see a day and a week?? Low group every day? SO if there are 4-5 groups did you see three a day? I have the daily 5 on my list to start reading this week!! And then I'm studying for my ESL cert test next month and getting ready to go back after 6 years. Not sure I'll have time to read a math book before school starts but would like to read it soon after!!
I too do guided math groups. My groups are very flexible. I tend to work with a different group of students almost daily. I form my groups based on whatever their needs are. Students who are struggling with newly learned math concepts, older concepts, those who do poor on quizzes and or tests. I also do guided mtah when my students are working in centers. My centers are slightly different. I have 4 centers, and each group works on one center a day (centers are done Tuesday through Thursday).
I met with each group once a week. My groups were pretty flexible like Tami's, depending on what we were doing. We did guided math 4 days a week (1 center per day) and then on Fridays we played a math game as a class and worked on problem solving together. We also have a lot of 4 day weeks with inservices so I didn't want to always be behind with the centers. I typically kept the same centers for 2 weeks at a time so the students got lots of practice. If something was a total dud, obviously I changed it up.
I would love to start guided math groups this year! I'm going to keep following this thread for ideas.
Oh this is great! I'm so glad someone asked this. I've been pinning like crazy. I'm going to be implementing full Daily 5 in ELA this year, so I've been looking to do the same thing with math. I, too, have been planning to do one center a day - Math with someone, math by myself, math with technology (Moby Max), and math writing (journaling). I like the idea of doing whole group games and problem solving on Fridays. For those of you who use this approach, how long is your math block? I only have an hour this year, which is shorter than last year, so I'm a little nervous. We also use Saxon math, so that's adding a whole other level of difficulty, since Saxon spirals rather than progressing by topic. I was planning to do 20 minutes whole group, 20 minutes guided math (or Daily 5 or whatever anyone wants to call it), and then 20 minutes on the Saxon guided practice worksheet that we MUST do daily. That sheet doesn't always take 20 minutes, but I just wanted to have a cushion.
I have an hour for math as well. The first 20 minutes were calendar/morning math. Then we did 15-20 minutes of guided math (always took longer on Mondays when I was explaining the new centers) and then 20 minutes of whole group lesson and guided practice. On Fridays we'd do 20 minutes of calendar/morning math, 20 minutes of games (i.e. "I Have... Who Has... or Bingo) and then 20 minutes of problem solving.
I'm thrilled to be following this thread! Moving from fourth to first this year and was wondering how to plan for math. Thank you all for your terrific ideas. This is like cooking for me. I read all the recipes (your ideas) and then look in the fridge and start cooking.
Yes, I've been doing math workshop for 6 years now. We start with a number talk. Then I get into my mini lesson. Then they break off into stations. During station time, I am doing 1-1 conferences, pulling small groups or I might see a need to do a mid-workshop teaching point. Then we clean up & share.
These are great ideas. My daughters kindergarten teacher would do the math lesson and then have the students do their work. If she noticed someone not doing it right or needing help they went to the carpet for extra help. In theory this is great, but it has already given my SIX year old a little math anxiety-not cool!! She is already worried about "doing it right" and things like that for first grade. So I think the idea of pulling ALL the kids during some point will help that issue. I love the mini lesson. I guess I need to think about what stations I want to have in the classroom. Lynnnn725 what is number talk?
A number talk is a quick 3-5 min activity we do every day. Basically in Kinder, it helps children with counting, in 1st, it helps with seeing groups of numbers so that they aren't counting anymore. I'll show a dot card with 5 dots. I'll ask the class how many dots are on the card. They can't tell me the answer. I'll choose someone to tell me how they saw the answer. We want to get them from counting each dot, to seeing maybe a group of 3 and 2 (or 4 and 1) and knowing that makes 5. I'll ask if anyone saw 5 dots a different way. They get to share their thinking and see more than one way to solve a problem. Then we move on to the next card. That was only one example of a number talk. They can get more complicated. Here is a link to a video my district posted. http://clearcreekisd.smugmug.com/Video/LeadingEdge/25727296_PWRckF#!i=2151283730&k=GzJCL9t&lb=1&s=A It's of me doing a math lesson. It goes through the number talk, minilesson, stations, and maybe the share? It's a couple minutes long. I'm not sure if it will work or not... if you realllly wanna see it, PM me and I'll send you the link via email.
lynnnn725 - Love your video. Forwarded it to our other first grade teacher. I'm trying to get a feel for the first grade classroom and this helped.
So awesome! Thank you! If you have any more of math groups feel free to add them. They are great! (are you in ccisd in tx?? I went to uhcl:thumb
I love the number talk. I could easily incorporate that. Do you use it all year long? Does the number representation keep getting larger?
Okay, first, I must say we use a math program that nobody else on here uses. If you do use it, please shout it from the rooftops and let me know because I'd love to pick your brain. We use Developing Number Concepts (DNC) by Kathy Richardson. So it is very different than what you may be used to. But I think you could apply the same structure (number talk, mini lesson, stations, share time) to any classroom. Here is a link (if it works) to a video I made for parents so they could see what a unit looks like in my classroom. http://youtu.be/1nL-T0XX3_4 Yes, I am in CCISD. UHCL? Cool! I am thinking of going there soon for my masters. Yes, we use it all year long. In the beginning, they are just really counting. Then we focus on trying to see groups of numbers. Then I'll say what if I added one more? What if I took 2 away? I might also combine two cards so one card might have 5 on it and the other card might only have 2 and they figure out how many all together. Sometimes I simply turn the card in a different direction. It's not limited to dot cards, I use cubes. 2 different color cubes. Or two trains of cubes. They might first tell me how many is in the first train (4) and I'll put a different train beside it (7) and hopefully they'll get to the point where they can use what they know about the first train to figure out how many are in the second train (vs counting the whole second train). Some days we will do Math Talk. Which is more of just reviewing coins, shapes, etc, as a review. Some days I'll show a completed graph and the kids take time to think about what they can conclude from the graph.
I loved uhcl. When I went there it was TINY! We were in many of the ccisd schools doing observations and getting lab hours. Thanks for the video
