Guided Math Chapter 4 Jots and Thoughts FREEBIES Link Up

Hello fellow Mathematicians (you’ll get the reference later)! I’ve broken the book up into sections and given some thoughts on them. At the end you’ll find some questions to ponder. I would love for you to answer them, all of them, some of them, etc. Hope you enjoy. At the very end there are some math freebies!

USING GUIDED MATH WITH THE WHOLE CLASS

“While whole-class instruction may not be the most effective approach for all lessons, it can be used quite effectively for some instructional purposes.” 

Advantages of Whole-Class Instruction

• easy way to present information to all students 
• it is streamlined (less prep work for teacher)
• great for “hooking” students into a new math unit/topic/chapter
• it can help build a sense of community with your class

Challenges of Whole-Class Instruction

• the teacher student ratio is large in a whole group setting, while small-group instruction diminishes the teacher student ratio
• it is difficult to provide specific feedback to each student in a whole group setting, in a small group setting it is easier to recognize what feedback to give a student
• the author also discusses the use of students evaluating their own work through the use of rubrics and other assessment tools - I believe this allows students to take even more ownership of their learning which was discussed earlier in the book
• in this section along the lines of assessment, an idea used in science class came up: in science class you are often evaluated using paper-and-pencil AS WELL AS a lab component, the teacher observes you using your science in action . . . wouldn’t it be wonderful to incorporate a math “lab” component to your unit/topic/chapter assessments? I will definitely be incorporating this into my math assessment!

Mini Lessons

• can be used to begin a lesson or to wrap up a lesson
• “Mini lessons are primarily teacher directed and are valuable, but should be brief, yet explicit-no more than ten minutes.” I found this interesting because I always feel like when I decide that I am doing a mini lesson it never is “mini,” especially just ten minutes. I’ve read 10-15 minutes is a good length for them but always struggled meeting tat time frame. So I LOVED that she broke down the parts of a mini lesson and gave an example lesson. The following are all aspects of a mini lesson:

connection

• this is the hook, how are you going to get your students interested and involved in the lesson?

teaching point

• state what the students are going to learn today, “Today I am going to teach you. . .”
• what I found most interesting in this section was the emphasis on the teacher ”thinking aloud” we are always told do that during reading instruction, but how smart during math instruction!

active engagement

• let students have a try at the concept
• the author gave some great ideas for this that are more than paper-and-pencil such as: “turn and talk” teaching the point to a partner, tell how they would apply the concept in “real” life, use a whiteboard to solve the problem
• I always thought this time had to be long and I had to check every student
• I learned that it can be a quick informal assessment where I can inventory what students get it and which ones I need to focus on

link to ongoing work

• help student find a connection with past math learning to the present new concept being taught

sample mini lesson

• all I have to say is I am calling my students Mathematicians during any math instruction - what a great way to give them ownership of their learning in math

Tips for Effective Mini lessons

the following are ways to increase the effectiveness of the mini lesson

• limit student talk
• keep the connection brief
• state the teaching point simply and reiterate it
• demonstrate the mathematics teaching point
• use a familiar context for problem solving
• match the active engagement to the mathematics teaching point

Activating Strategies

• one idea mentioned was previewing key vocabulary that students will need for the concept
• earlier in the book teaching vocabulary was discussed - a numeracy rich environment - I LOVE the Frayer model for math (at the bottom of this post is a link to several freebies for math vocabulary)

KWL Charts

• a KWL chart is a great visual for an informal inventory of what students think they know, what they want to know, and what they learned
• I also believe if this a molding object in the classroom that is not done once and put away, but is interactive throughout the whole topic it is a great way for students to take ownership of their learning (at the bottom of this post is a link to several freebies for a math KWL chart)

Anticipation guides

• these reminded me of the reading survey/inventory teachers have their students take at the beginning of the year
• I think these would be great to have for every topic/chapter/unit - they are simple ten questions that can be answered true/false 
• they allow students to have a little commercial of what’s coming up in math
• if they don’t know an answer they are encouraged to do the best they can
• Then you can tally up students answer in an anonymous fashion and even create student driven graphs. I believe this would be a great visual to put up in the class and refer to when doing the anticipation guide at the end of the topic. What a great review session. Allow your students to redo the anticipation guide and create a new student driven graph. I am SO excited to implement this next year with my students! 

Word Splashes

•  this is where you get a big piece of paper and place vocabulary relevant to the topic and introduce the meanings - I’m not sure how I feel about this. . . 

Reading Math-Related Children’s Literature

• I LOVE literature! I invested in some Stuart J. Murphy math books and am always on the lookout for math literature. 

“Stories make ordinary situations come alive for students.”

• It is important, just like any read loud, for the teacher to think aloud noticing the math connections and making math-to-self connections and then to give this process over to your students eventually.

Setting the Stage for Math Workshop

• One important thing here is to establish routines and procedures and not rush this process (it doesn’t work when you rush the process)

Math Huddle

• this is a time for students to share the current math in their life, the teacher acts as facilitator
• I find this to appear to work better with upper grades. . . 

Practice and Review Sessions

• I love the game review concept (when I get around to it I plan on making some reusable pocket chart friendly jeopardy cards) I'll post them as a freebie)

 I created some freebies in different themes to go along with this chapter. I will be using the candy themed ones in my classroom this year!

Grab it HERE for FREE

Grab it HERE for FREE

Grab it HERE for FREE

Grab it HERE for FREE

Grab it HERE for FREE

Grab it HERE for FREE

Grab it HERE for FREE

Don't forget that I am co-hosting this chapter with Once Upon a Teaching Blog