You and I both know that nailing procedures and building relationships at the start of the school year is essential. However, that doesn’t mean setting classroom instruction to the side for the first few weeks. In fact, I’ve always felt that the best way to help students learn procedures and expectations is by practicing them. When it comes to your math block, that means easing students into what each day will look like and what those math routines require of them.
Teaching students how to use supplies and what behavior looks like within groups is great, but math blocks bring their own unique expectations. Here are four tips for setting up your math block for success.
1. Build a “Math Community” from the Beginning of the Year
One of the best things you can do for your math instruction is identify how students currently feel about math. At the beginning of the year, ask students how they feel when they are solving problems or learning a math skill. You can also observe their emotions during math instruction. Do they put their heads down or begin complaining?
Ultimately, this might change how you approach math. You might have to ease into the lesson more and celebrate small wins throughout the year. It’s also important that you create a safe space for students to make mistakes in math. This will make them willing to take risks.
You can work on cultivating this type of environment by modeling the type of behavior you want to see. When a student makes a mistake, just brush it off. When a student answers a question (correctly or not) out loud, hype them up for being brave enough to raise their hand. You can also create an anchor chart of expectations for your math block and display these in your classroom. Learn more about activities you can use to create a positive math block.
Of course, you don’t want to be the only one displaying these positive behaviors, so that’s why practice within your math routine is important. Have students work together on collaborative projects, like a back to school escape room. Give them a chance to display these same behaviors you’ve been modeling.
2. Teach Students How to Show Their Work
Another tip for having a successful math block is teaching kids how to show their work. If you had a penny for every time you said “show your work” throughout the school year, you might be ready for early retirement by now. The reality is, though, that your students don’t always know what that means.
Students might write down what they think will make you happy. Or they might think there is only one way to demonstrate their work. However, that doesn’t help you when it comes to assessing student work and identifying where they are struggling.
I recommend having a class discussion about how students can show their work and modeling the process for them. You can also create an anchor chart that you display in the classroom. This way, showing your work will become a part of your math routine, and students have a place to refer to if they forget what that means.
3. Decide How You Will Structure Your Math Block
Having a structured math block is the foundation for keeping your math routines and expectations in check. When students know what to expect each day, it will cut down on behavior issues and foster independence. You might work in a school or district that has a set math block style you need to follow. If not, you’ll need to choose how you approach your math block.
When deciding how your daily math routine and instruction will look, there are a few things to consider:
- How many minutes of math instruction do you have each day?
- Are you required to follow a curriculum with fidelity? If so, how is that set up?
- Will you teach using a math workshop model?
Then, I like to create a step-by-step schedule of how my math block will go. This is helpful at the beginning of the year as you settle into the timing of your day, but it also makes planning a lot easier. Once you’ve nailed that down, you want to start using your elementary math routine as soon as possible. This will help your students settle into the math block and get familiar with the expectations.
4. Model Daily Math Routines
At the beginning of the year, things are always a bit chaotic because students don’t have their math routines down. Where do they get supplies? Where do they turn in work? It can feel really overwhelming. Eventually, you’ll want students to be able to do these things on their own and with limited reminders.
To build these elementary math routines, I like to pick one routine each day to review and reinforce. For example, you might want to get students into the routine and habit of daily spiral review. First, I’d start by modeling what you want students to do and practicing. After a few days of modeling, you can have students try it on their own. (By the way, these 4th grade spiral review and 5th grade spiral review make it easy to establish this routine!)
Over time, students will be nailing math routines like where to grab their morning work, what is expected on homework, where to place class notes, and more. The sooner you start practicing these routines in your math block, the better!
I know that at the beginning of the year, it’s easy to get caught up in organizing our classrooms or simply sticking to classroom expectations. However, the sooner you jump into your math instruction and start practicing those math routines, the easier your math block will get!
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