Hi, I'm in a bit of a conundrum here. I teach at a rural school, and will have 3 grades this year--2nd, 4th, and 5th (4 students in all). I've had these students for going on 5 years, except the 2nd grader. For math, I usually have had an aide to assist the kids I wasn't instructing, or to teach the lesson to one of the grades. This year it appears that I may not have an aide (she was on the fence about coming back and let us know at the last minute). The rest of the subjects I should be able to get through okay (I'm more worried about how I'm gonna get the meals cooked and the place cleaned!!), but I'm stumped on math. I have one student that struggles a little and will just hand it in and get Fs unless he has someone standing over him, which makes it difficult since I have 2 other grades to teach in that one hour!
in the same boat I teach in a combo class of 3 grades, so I also have to teach 3 grades math. I have 16 students! I might have one extra pair of hands, but I am still worried how this will all play out. What if all the students in each grade are at different levels? Which I'm sure will be the case. I am suppose to individualize instruction at my school. I too feel comfortable with all the other subjects. Math is the one I fear most and I LOVE MATH! I always considered it my best subject.
I might work with the second grader as a separate lesson while working with 2nd I would have the 4th/5th doing skill or word problem practice. I would then move the 2nd to skills or word problem and then work with the 4th/5th as a multi age conceptually focused group. Otherwise, I would focus on concepts and do small group check in of work while all of them did conceptual games and activities. For decimals and percentages I would have the 2nd work on fractions maybe have the 4/5 kids work with the youngers and then branch out to explore the comparisons between fractions, percentages, and decimals. I would include the 2nd in negative number exploration. I also would have the lower child if he is in the upper grades become the helper of the 2nd grade children to help reinforce the low child's basic understanding. If he is in the lower grades I would have the upper grade kids assist him still because it reinforces their learning.
I have been using Addison-Wesley math. I used Saxon my 1st year for the 4th graders and hated it. I've found AW has a lot more "hands on" type stuff. I have basically been doing what EMonkey mentioned, except that I teach the uppers first and then the younger so then the uppers can have time to work on homework. I just wasn't sure if this was an "acceptable" or effective method of teaching. Also...my struggling student is either be super-needy or guesses and hands his work in wrong. I think perhaps I will have my low student check in with me every once in a while to make sure he is showing his work, etc. The only problem with that is that if I tell him "you have 3 wrong in this section" he goes back and fixes them (he's quite bright, but math is an effort for him and he HATES effort) and then I feel like I'm giving him the answers when I say, "yep, you fixed 'em." RuralPATeacher, sounds like you'll have your hands full!! I think math centers would be a good idea, especially since you have enough students that they could work in groups!
In looking through posts about "math centers" I found some links that I can't wait to check out more, and seem to have great information: http://mathlearnnc.sharpschool.com/cms/One.aspx?portalId=4507283&pageId=5051238 http://lrt.ednet.ns.ca/PD/BLM/table_of_contents.htm http://mathlearnnc.sharpschool.com/... Decks (K-8)/Problem Solving Deck B Cards.pdf Sorry they're so long! Another idea I came up with, but not sure if it would work, is to split my math hour into 3 20-min. segments. Teach 5th (2nd/4th have skills), then 4th (2nd/5th have skills/homework time), then 2nd (5th/4th have homework time). Hope this is helpful to anyone else who has a similar problem!
