Guided Math Introduction
Factors and Multiples: Getting into the CCSS 4th Grade Standards (Math Centers and Guided Math Activities)
Factors and Multiples trip kids up! Teach it throughout the year. Integrate it into your daily routines…find the factors and the multiples of the number of the day… Also, set up some of the games in your computer center. Furthermore, do different math activities. The activities listed below can be used in guided math lessons as well as guided math centers. Here are some ways to get started:
Great Activities & Powerpoints (Scroll Down)
Happy Mathing,
Dr. Nicki
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Math Resource Bank
Here is a wide variety of math resources by standards. Rockingham school district has found a very interesting and helpful way to set up a resource bank.
Happy Mathing,
Dr. Nicki
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Beyond Answer Getting: Guided Math Group Work
Here is a must see video by Phil Daro on the need to teach our students more than “answer-getting” (click on the second tab at the top). Guided math groups is a space to help students really talk about the math they are learning. You want to guide conversations, guide conceptual understanding, guide procedural fluency and guide strategic competence building in a small, comfortable, academically rigorous learning situation. Three key elements of guided math group work:
1. Time to talk (each person gets to explain their mathematical thinking and their understanding of the thinking of others)
2. Time to listen (each person gets an opportunity to focus and try to comprehend the math that we are speaking about)
3. Time to practice (with the help of each other and the teacher, students will practice the math)
Whether you are working at the concrete, pictorial or abstract level, students need to know what the math is that they are working on. This should be explicit. We all have to seriously consider what it means to teach math and not answer-getting.
Happy Mathing,
Dr. Nicki
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 3 so far )Scaffolding is the Key! Small Guided Math Groups is the Place!
Josh Rappaport wrote an excellent piece on scaffolding. He notes that
“No one would attempt to climb Mount Everest in a day. But when we teach math, we often expect something similar from students. We expect them to learn a complex, multi-step process in one lesson, in one hour. We expect them to go from no awareness of the process, to awareness to competence to mastery. And we don’t take account of the fact that many math process[es] require a long ladder of thought steps. In edu-jargon, this process of taking all of the little steps into account — and teaching each step individually — is called “scaffolding.” ”
This is a brillant metaphor. See his whole post.
Guided math groups are an essential part of the “scaffolding” process. In a guided math group you can listen to students talk, you can watch them do the math and give immediate feedback and you can do some direct instruction as well.
I encourage us all to think about “How tall are those ladders we are using in math class?”
Happy Mathing,
Dr. Nicki
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Great Free Games for Math Centers and Guided Math Groups
Look at these pages! Be sure to check out the boardgames and the math puzzles!
Happy Mathing,
Dr. Nicki
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )More Base Ten Block Magic: Building Understanding One Block at a Time in Guided Math Groups
See these great resources to teach operations with base ten blocks in small guided math groups!
Visualizing Multi-digit Multiplication
Happy Mathing,
Dr. Nicki
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )The Magic of Base Ten Blocks: Develop Conceptual Understanding in Guided Math Groups
This is a great site that shows you how to use base ten blocks to develop conceptual understanding of the operations. I would do all of these activities with the students in small guided math groups with real base ten blocks. I would then hold small guided math sessions at the computer so I could use this site to teach at the pictorial level. Finally, I would have the students work with this site during center time.
Happy Mathing,
Dr. Nicki
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Using Math Foldables: Great Math Center and Guided Math Activities
Foldable books can be a great tool for helping students to organize, display, and arrange information, so that they can practice and master the math they are learning. Dinah Zike does some excellent work with foldable books. Here is a great site that talks about her ideas for math foldable books. Here is a great website with some step by step picture instructions/examples by Carol DeFreese (scroll down to the middle of the page). Carol has also provided blank foldable templates so you can create your own foldables. Here is another website with pictures of students’ foldable projects. Here is a multiplication foldable. Here is another resource for different types of foldable books. Here is a geometry study unit with foldables for middle school and high school topics.
References:
Happy Mathing,
Dr. Nicki
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 2 so far )More Math Vocabulary Strategies! Do these in Guided Math Groups
Math Vocabulary Strategies:
Frayer Model; Semantic Feature Analysis Grid/Concept Definition; Semantic Map; Word Sort; Word Walls/ Games
http://www.aea1.k12.ia.us/math/mathvocab.html#Anchor-Frayer-49575
Math Vocabulary Bingo
http://illuminations.nctm.org/LessonDetail.aspx?id=L806
Math Vocabulary Notebook Template
http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/vocab/notebook-vocab.pdf
Academic Vocabulary Games (some interesting ideas and templates)
http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/vocab/strategies.html
Happy Mathing,
Dr. Nicki
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