Guided Math in Action: Chapters 5 & 6

Want to join the discussion? Head to our FB group by clicking the image above.

 I plan to use Plickers more this year as a fun and fast pre-assessment! I also like the idea of starting the year with a math inventory.. I've never done that before! I plan to post more about Plickers on my blog soon. In the meantime, Laura Candler has an awesome tutorial and even a FB group!

This is a tough one for me. I already feel like we assess kids so much, especially in testing grades. I do want/need to get better about anecdotal notes. My favorite way to take and organize notes is to use peel and stick labels. I put a blank sheet of labels on my clipboard and then when I see something i need to record, I write the student name and date along with the note on a blank label. When the whole sheet is used, I transfer the label to the appropriate student page in my assessment binder. 

We have districted provided summative assessments. However, I plan to use the data from those assessments in a more authentic way. In years past I have created an item analysis and then gone over the most missed questions with my class. Now, it makes more sense to pull individual or small groups of students back to the guided math table to reteach skills missed. Not revisiting those areas of misunderstanding is what creates gaps in their mathematical foundation.

 My plan is to Conduct a math interview at the BOY, MOY and EOY, use exit tickets, math talks, math interviews and formative assessments weekly, and use summative assessments as our district scope requires.

I do always start my lessons with, " Today we are going to learn about..." but I very rarely summarize at the end of the lesson. I am adding it to my growing list of #teachinggoals I most definitely see the learning impact and meaning of this step!

 We play games at my table almost daily. Sometimes the game is a review, sometimes I use it as a formative assessment and more often than not I use games at my math table to make learning fun and memorable. These games are then transitioned into math bins when I am sure all the students know how to play. I have some math games in my TpT store and I have plans to create and share many more. One of the class favorite games is a simple place value game called From Here to There. I have a Christmas themed freebie in my store if you want to take a look. The kids LOVE this game because it involves both luck strategy. I love it because it is super easy to differentiate. You can play with 1 ten-sided die, 2 regular dice or even 3 dice for students who are ready for larger numbers.


I hope you'll head on over to our FB group to join the discussion or post a comment below! Thanks for stopping by!

Guided Math Book Study: Chapters 1 & 2

Today's the day... we are officially talking about Guided Math in Action! 

Here are my biggest ah-ha moments from the first two chapters. 

 Feel free to grab the blank copy below to post on your social media sights or your blog. 

Alright, shall we start?? Feel free to respond to some or all of the questions below. These questions come from the end of each chapter. 

No. I get children every year who believe they are "no good at math" even from such an early age. Or they think, "math is hard" I think a lot of these kids even have parents who reenforce this idea by telling them that "math was hard for me in school too" I know parents do this to comfort their child and with good intentions, but I wish they would stop! Click here to read what I think about this "I'm not good at math" societal norm we've created!

Talk to them. Remind them it is okay to not understand. It is okay to struggle. Encourage them to keep pushing through that struggle. Teach them to take a break and then come back to the problem. 

I created these posters you can grab for free. They come straight from Dr. Nicki's thoughts on teaching kids how to preserver. I plan to talk about this idea at length with my kids from day one next year. These posters (freebie alert) will hang on the wall and I will refer back to them MANY times. I think we need to remind students a lot that not everything we do is easy. We grow as learners when things are not easy!!

They do now! Lol! I am guilty of asking just a few students to respond to questions I throw out during a whole group mini lesson. When you "do the math" and realize how many questions a student answers during the year if you can on one student to answer each question VS. the number of questions they answer if you allow all students to answer, it becomes a no brainer. So, my plan moving forward is to assign students a partner starting on the first day. When I am teaching my mini lessons students will sit near their turn and talk partner. Then, when I ask a question they will turn and talk.  I created these posters (freebie alert) to assign partners in a fun way. I think I will just hang the posters up near the board so we can see them all the time. I plan to print and laminate so I can change partners easily as needed! 

Of course students also get to have mathematical conversations at my table. 

Celebrate the struggle!! Cheer for kids no matter if the answer is right or wrong, cheer for them when they don't give up!! If your class uses brag tags you could give this perseverance tag to students who stick with the struggle!!

Two years ago I started number talks. These number talks have helped my students think flexibly about numbers in a safe environment. It allows us to model math reasoning through thinking out loud. This year I also plan to use beaded number lines to teach many skills at the guided math table. I believe this tool will encourage flexibility as well.

I've always used Turn and Talk to launch discussions and number talks as mentioned above. This year I plan to incorporate google classroom as a way to facilitate conversations between peers (I will blog about it once I get it started) and I also plan to use a cool app called Plickers. This are mostly all for auditory and visual learners... I can't wait to see what others suggest!  

Usually I pull everyone back to the carpet and quickly sum up what we learned that day. Sometimes I will highlight something cool a students said or did or I'll ask them to share. I may even ask for feedback on a management piece if there is something we need to work at. After reading the chapter though I plan to do a better job at this piece. I want students to be the one to share and I love Dr. Nicki's suggestion of a mathematician's chair just like an author's chair! I will set a timer though because it is easy to turn that into a time suck!!

I have a few more freebies I am working on from these chapters. I'll post them on IG and in the FB group when I get them posted. Thanks for sticking around, I know that was a LONG post.. I can't wait to have a discussion with all of you!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Guided Math in Action: The Plan

Hi! Welcome to my little piece of the internet. I am Heather, a thirty-something wife, mother of 2 and teacher blogger. I have been teaching for 13 years and loving every almost every minute of it! I taught 3rd grade for 10 years, first grade for 3 years and now I am headed back up to teach 3rd grade math/science! Teaching first grade really strengthened my teaching craft. It enabled me to hone my small group skills in a way I don't think would have happened if I'd stayed in a third grade classroom. I am ready to take those skills back up to third with me though!! 

I have be using guided math for 3 years now and I can't imagine going back to whole group! I still have a lot to learn though and I am eager to work my way through this book. I hope you'll join in on the conversation either through your blog, our Facebook page, or on Twitter. I can't wait to see what we can learn together!!

I am so excited to be co-hosting this guided math book study with Cindy from Mrs. Price's KinderGators and Maggie from Maggie's Kinder Corner. We will be reading and discussing Dr. Nicki Newton's book, Guided Math in Action. If you have never had the opportunity to hear Dr. Nicki speak, you are missing out! She is amazing. She was recently a presenter for a small group of teachers in my district but I was not asked to attend :( I considered crashing the party!! Those who were able to attend had so many wonderful things to share! Then, I was lucky enough to watch a webinar she posted on her blog... I took 4 pages of notes and had so many ah-ha moments!!

Okay. Are you still with me?? Below you can find the details for the book study

3 ways to join the party! 

1. Create a blog post and link up each Wednesday
2. Hop on over to the FB page and post/ read along there
3. Head over to twitter and join the discussion using the #guidedmathbookstudy 

Why am I passionate about teaching kids to LOVE math?

Imagine you were on an airplane and the person next to you asked what you did for a living. You say, "I teach reading." What if they then said to you, "I hate reading, I am no good at it."? You would probably be in shock that they just admitted to you that they were not a good reader. Admitting you are a struggling reader is a kind of social faux-pas.  However, this happens EVERY DAY when you tell someone you teach math. Inevitably, people respond, "I'm no good at math." I wonder, why is that okay? Why do we not think anything of it?

I use guided math because I want the kids that leave my class to love math. I hope I can teach them to believe in themselves and their math ability. I hope I teach them to be problem solvers!

Watch this short clip below. This is why we need to be flexible thinkers - problem solvers! Obviously this is meant as a joke, but it may not be that far from the truth!


Thanks for stopping in today! I hope to see you here again next Wednesday. Have a great week!!