This post is the second part of a series on using math workshop in your classroom. To read how to get started with math workshop, click here. In part one of the series, we learned that spiral review was the first part of a great math workshop model!
Why Do I Need a Spiral Review?
A solid spiral review is something that is often overlooked as part of math workshop time. Including time for this during your math block has many benefits, such as:
- Students remember prerequisite skills that they may need for later units during the school year.
- Students who may not have fully understood a concept the first time they saw it have opportunities to practice it again.
- There is a greater chance that students will make connections between different math concepts.
- You’ll spend less time preparing for end of grade testing at the end of the year, since you’ve been reviewing all year long!
Fitting it In
A major objection to spiral review is that teachers don’t know how to fit it into their day. A solid spiral review doesn’t need to take more than a few minutes a day! I make sure that it is the first thing that we do during my math workshop each day. That way it always gets done!
There are many spiral math resources that are wonderful but take students too long to complete each day. That is why I only plan one problem a day as part of my spiral. To make things even easier, I pre-created a problem a day for the entire school year!
Each day, at the beginning of our math workshop, I display our problem of the day and have students work on it independently for a few minutes. Then I choose a student to come to the board to share their work and we discuss as a class. It’s a quick and easy process that allows us to get our daily review in!
Want to have your spiral review planned for the entire year? Click here to grab 180 days of spiral review! These slides are perfect for displaying and leave room to work out questions together!
How do you use spiral review in your classroom? Let me know in the comments below!
For other posts in this series, visit these links:
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