Have you ever gotten to the middle of the school year and realized that your students can’t remember what they learned in August or September? Don’t worry–we’ve all been there! Dedicating 5-10 minutes every day to a math spiral review will completely change that!

Thinking about adding one more thing to your busy school day can seem daunting at first, but I promise it doesn’t have to be! Keep reading to learn how to start planning a spiral review that works for you and your students!

1. When does math spiral review fit into your daily schedule?

The first step is deciding when spiral review will take place during your day! Knowing when you have a pocket of time for your math spiral review will give you an idea of how much time you have to complete it each day. If you only have a few minutes to dedicate to spiral review, it’s a good idea to plan just one “problem of the day.” If you have more time, you can plan for 2-4 daily questions.

I have found that the best times to add in a spiral review are:

• the beginning of the day as morning work
• the first few minutes of your math lesson as a math warmup

Find the time that works best for your schedule and your students! It may vary depending on if you’re self-contained (teach all subjects), departmentalized (switch classes), or even your school’s expectations.

2. How will you format your review?

Once you have decided when your math spiral review can take place, you can start planning what it will look like! There are a couple of options that you can choose from, based on your own style.

My favorite option is to display the review using an interactive whiteboard or projector and have students use a notebook or individual whiteboard to show their work. I love this option because it doesn’t require you to run to the copy machine! It also means that you can plan your daily spiral review questions flexibly. If you need to switch questions around, you can easily move slides around!

Another option for your spiral review is to print the problems for the week on a sheet of paper and give a copy to each student. I like this option because it makes the work easy to collect and look over for any misconceptions. It’s also a great way to show parents what their children are working on to review each day, if you choose to send home the sheet later!

3. How will you hold your students accountable?

When I first implemented a math spiral review, it was hard for me to hold my students accountable. When I had them complete it as their morning work, many of them would pretend they were working. It was hard for me to monitor how they were working during this time because I was busy greeting students at the door. Then they copied down the work while we went over it as a class! Needless to say, I needed to hold them accountable somehow.

If you are using spiral review as your morning work during arrival time, stress their accountability when you are finished greeting students at the door. When the bell rings, and it’s time to start instruction, give students a 5 minute warning before it is time to go over their strategies. At this time, do a quick walkthrough to peek at the work students have done so far.

If you use your spiral review at the beginning of your math lesson, it’s a little easier to make sure that your students are completing their work. Display the warmup or have students get out their weekly sheet and set a timer. Walk around the room and monitor students to make sure they work. This is also a great time to identify students who are struggling and may need to be pulled into a small group later!

4. How will you go over the review with students?

Although it is tempting to collect students’ work and move on–don’t do it! The magic of a math spiral review happens during the discussion! 

As you’re planning your math spiral review, it is important to think about how you’ll go over the work with students. This will depend on how much time you have, how comfortable your students are with sharing their work, or if the review is an area that you need to reteach.

Here are 3 ways you can go over a spiral review with students:

• As you’re walking around the room, make note of strategies that you want to highlight. Ask those students if they would be willing to come to the board to share their work. This is a great choice for questions that can be solved using multiple strategies!
• Choose 1 student to come to the board to show their strategy on the board. If you have a document camera, you can even have the student display their work under the document camera and describe it to their classmates!
• If you’re short on time, you can model the strategy for students instead of having them come to the board. If you do this method, I do recommend that you call on students to have them walk you through how to show your work.

5. How will you plan the questions for your review?

There is so much content throughout the year that has to be taught, but it can be overwhelming to decide what to review each day. Your spiral review can be based on a scope and sequence, or it can be decided day today based on your students’ needs.

When I plan a spiral review, I make a list of the major concepts that students need to know by the end of the year. I put the list in the order that I teach them, and then I plan questions that cycle through those concepts. The goal is to hit the toughest concepts the most often and to repeat concepts that take more practice throughout the year.

Once you have your questions planned, you are ready to start using a math spiral review in your classroom! 

Still feeling overwhelmed? I have created 180 “problem of the day” slides for 4th and 5th grade, to take planning a review off of your plate! All you have to do is display the question, let your students work it out, and then go over it!

Each set of slides comes with a scope and sequence, teacher guide, and 180 slides for you to use with your students! Check them out here.

Want to read more about how to use spiral review? Check out this blog post!

Need help getting to know your math standards? Check out this blog post!