One of the biggest hindrances to pulling students into small groups is the big question of, “What are the other kids doing while I am working with my small group?” About half of the questions I get about small group instruction revolve around the idea of how to keep students who are not at the small group table engaged and working. Here are a few tips on managing small group ...
Why intervention should be skill based
Over the past several months, I have been sharing quite a bit about best practices that surround the concept of math intervention. We have discussed strategies for improving number sense, getting started, and what to do when your students are all on different pages. Today, I want to discuss why I believe that a skill-based approach is the best one to take. SKILL-BASED MATH ...
Building Staff Culture
If you are interested in implementing some small things that go along way to increase positive staff culture, then this post is for you! Personally, I believe administrators should take charge of implementing (though I’m not sure if many administrators read this blog) these school-wide activities because I think it has a greater impact on the entire staff culture. However, I do think ...
5 Steps to Effective Small Group Instruction
Anyone who has taught a day or two can tell you that it is a rare event that you might teach a new concept and 100% of your students master said concept. I would say that 99.99% of the time, there is a student or a group of students who are not ready for mastery. Potentially they have gaps in the skills needed to master the concept, or maybe they just need more time. Today, I am ...
How to Get Started with Math Intervention
For the past several weeks, we have been sharing ideas about number sense in middle school and discussing how students who struggle with math concepts generally also struggle with number sense. If your campus implements the RTI (response to intervention) process, then you know these students who struggle need a Tier 2 intervention. Today, I want to share some ideas on how to get started ...
Using the Guided Math Framework in Math Intervention
When we first started working on a resource for math intervention, I picked up #allthebooks. I was quickly becoming Amazon’s favorite customer! Guided math: A framework for mathematics instruction, was the first one that I dug into. I liked its very step-by-step approach to small groups and the various sample schedules and routines. Looking for more ideas for math ...
2018 Ultimate Teacher Gift Guide
If you are like me, then you are always struggling with what to ask for at the holidays. Some gifts seem too personal (clothes) and some are difficult to explain aside from sending a specific link. Our 2018 Teacher Gift Guide is broken down by cost so that you can find a small way to express your thanks for as little as $10. 2018 HOLIDAY TEACHER GIFT GUIDE UP to $10 Seven fairly ...
Using CRA to Teach Difficult Math Concepts
You name the grade level, and I will name a difficult math concept. Maybe it’s percent change in 7th grade or integer operations in 6th grade. Teaching difficult math concepts to students who struggle is a huge challenge! Each year, students are tasked with mastering new math content and building upon their math foundation. Unfortunately, some students have a pretty shaky math ...
Combatting Work Avoidance
This year I had a student who was new to our school. She was super sweet, took her notes, and whenever it was time for independent practice, she would raise her hand to ask to use the restroom, go get a tissue, or sharpen her pencil. I would give her permission, and I would watch as she spent WAY TOO LONG completing these tasks. As the year progressed, these behaviors escalated to total ...
5 Strategies for Building Number Sense
Last week, I shared my love for the book Developing Numerical Fluency and broke down the idea of number sense. This week, I wanted to share five strategies for building number sense in the middle school classroom. Upon preparing for this blog post, I did quite a bit of research and was disappointed to see that the vast majority of books on numerical fluency are geared towards K-5 ...