LaSota Guided Math (My version of it!)

Hi Blogging friends!

I have taught using a guided math format for about 4-5 years.  For about 3-4 years I had three math rotations.  Due to the make-up of my class and the extra time needed for working on social skills- I moved to two guided math rotations.

Here is how I complete math:

In August, as I am working on reaching stamina and establishing rules and routines, I check my students on K skills.  I am in the process of creating these for the common core k standards.

Based on how my students did on the K assessment, I choose a 1st grade assessment and teach it whole group on Monday.

Then, I give my students the pre-assessment after the one lesson to determine what to do next.

Based on the results:

• If almost all students do well- I skip focusing on that skill.  I just add it to our math meeting review and the students that did not do well- earn that skill as their goal.
• If most students do not know the skill- I either teach it whole group or teach it in my small guided math groups even though it would be the same lesson.

I have a version of this on my Mimio.  This is our daily warm- up.

I send this home during the week that I am teaching the skill.

This year I had to move to two rotation groups.  I place students into groups based on their pre-assessment. 

• Math on My Own- This is usually a skill worksheet (in the laminated pouches) that students can check their answers.  When they finish- they go to math facts and practice their facts until I signal for the next rotation.

• Math with Teacher- Students meet me at the front carpet for a mini- lesson.  White boards are available for students to use.  When I finish with my lesson- they students who seem to "get" the lesson go to work on individual math goals.  The other students stay with me for a longer lesson.

I keep a variety of fun manipulative materials like fish stones, fuzzy pom-poms, jewels, beads etc.  The students may use these materials to work on their math facts.  It is interesting to watch what students choose to use.

We try to end Monday-Thursday with problem solving.  I hope to have a better schedule next year to make sure that I can always fit it in!  Regardless we meet back together and discuss what we learned.

I assess at the end of the week using a quarterly post skill assessment.  I also record if there was student mastery in student I Can notebooks. 

On Friday- I complete my post- assessment, fact assessments and also have math games and math art/ activity rotations.  We try to apply what we learned during the week into a game and an art or activity. 

We have favorite activities that we will pull out and play a couple times a month.

This is one more item that I am putting in my portfolio.  (I try to update it each year!)  :-)

For those of you that have your last week of school this week- enjoy it!  I don't know about you but I always get really sappy and cry on the last day!  :-( 

I always make my students a slide show and display recess, and special event pictures all year with fun and catchy songs.  The last song on the slide show is, My Wish.  I have their first day of school picture and then put a heart around it and it goes to their last week of school picture.  I always sob as I make this part each year.  I think that I have been putting off making this last part of the slide show because I am super emotional about this class already.  It has been like an emotional roller coaster this year.  I have a lot of time, thought and love poured into each of my students this year.  It was a challenging but a huge professional growth year because of my kiddos. 

I hope that you enjoy your little ones during the last few days too!  :-)

Math Warm-Up

I am ALMOST ready to go back to work tomorrow!  I have been working all day preparing for it.  ;)

I have been working on updating my math meeting.  I FINALLY finished making a nice copy today. 

Here is a peak:
You start with students making facts using the date.  This is something that keeps my students "busy" as they are getting their drinks and putting their snack on their desk before we start our meeting. 

The next part of the meeting is Counting Review.  I have many review cards made.  You can choose a different card for a week or use a different one each day. 

I also made counting choice cards which are used to make this exciting when needed.  Examples of this are: "Count while holding your nose."

The next part of the meeting is Tell Me What You Know.  As you teach skills, you can add the card.  You draw out a card and can have your students tell you as much as they know about the skill.  This is so that you can review and practice skills all year.

This is another option for Tell Me What You Know.  You can use the spinners to determine the type of question students will have to answer about the skill.  The questions are simple enough so that it makes it broad enough for any skill.

If you would like to get your own- you can find it here!

Happy 1st day back to many of you tomorrow!  I am definitely going to stop at the gas station and buy a few Mt. Dew's to get through the day!

I'm having a sale!

I am throwing a 20% off sale on everything in my TPT store through Friday this week.

I'll show you a few pages from my Common Core Standards I Can Notebook and my Fall Quarter Math Centers.  (Which can actually be used at any point in the year depending on your expectations for students.)

These are the first 2 pages in a book that I send home with each student every other week.

These are 2 pages of common core standards.  When first grade students master the skill, they add a sticker to their notebook.  It could also be used for you to record what you have taught.

These are whole class graphs using the common core standards.

I have a set of recommended materials, center ideas and ideas of whole group games for each skill.

This contains the exit slip that I give the students after my Monday whole group lesson to determine small groups for Tuesday- Thursday.  I also have some of the numbers for the math with someone rotation.

This is an example of the work on numbers pages.  They are simple but the students need to practice.  The directions are on the weekly lesson plans.

This whole unit only focus' on the doubles facts.  One set of flashcards is given. 

A few pages from my doubles unit are included for practice.

An example of Math on My Own is included for each skill.  I personally use my Saxon Math worksheets for my Math on My Own rotation for most days.

Sorry that I am not posting more tonight!  I am beat!  If I take a nap and feel a second wind, I will post more!  :)

-Danielle

Guided Math Rotations

I thought that the other guided math post was too long so I waited to post this.  I have had many emails asking me about my math rotations so I am going to post it here.

Here is an example of an exit slip that I give my students after my Monday whole group lesson and the planning page I use to determine what I work on for each group.

Here are my rotation charts:

This is backed in orange paper.,  I call it my orange math group.  When I say "first rotation" they come and sit on the carpet ready for instruction!

This is backed in pink paper and is my pink math group.  During first rotations they work on work on numbers and when they finish they go and work on math goals over and over until it is time to rotate.

This is backed in green paper. and is my green group.  During first rotation they go grab their differentiated math on my own worksheet or just a simple skill review worksheet or even a Saxon math worksheet.  When they finish, they work on math facts over and over until it is time to rotate.

Example Rotations

Math on My own-  You can use a simple review sheet like this, a sheet from your math series etc.  This also can be differentiated easily by the group that your students are divided into for the week.

Work on Numbers-  You can give the students number sheets to complete etc.  I actually usually use a skill for the week like "counting forward."  Then I have a small pocket chart that holds a green, pink and orange index card.  I write different counting forward skills that are differentiated.  Example:  Orange count and write 1-20, pink 50-70, green 105-145.  I Then have weekly jobs to practice these skills into a small spiral notebook.  Monday- write the numbers once using your hundred chart, Tuesday write the numbers in an AB pattern etc.

Math Facts-  Students can practice using this or a fact sheet but always have math facts available so that if the sheets are finished they can practice the facts using a dry erase board and objects etc.

Math Goals:

These are determined by skills that individual students have trouble mastering.  Until I have time and am organized enough to determine individual goals, I have the students all work on a review item.  Last week I had my students roll a shape die and they had to draw the shape on a dry erase board each time that it landed.  It was simple but kept them engaged.

Off to bed! 

-Danielle

Setting Up Guided Math

Happy Tuesday!

I had an email from a very sweet teacher asking about how to start guided math.  I thought that I would post about it for all to see!  :)

This is a SMALL part of what resembles a novel that I wrote for a teacher in my district.  :)  I honestly have a hanging file that is busting open organized into files folders regarding each topic. 

How to Start Guided Math

You could go out and buy items from Lakeshore, make all new items etc.  But who has the money or the time?

1.   I started by going through ALL of my math workbooks, hands- on math items, games etc.

a.  I made post it notes labeled with the different math skill topics that we cover.  I designated a desk or desks for each topic so that I could lay everything all out!

b.  I started by going through my worksheets and workbooks.

                                        i.    Even if I had to make a copy of the pages, I separated each worksheet that I had by topic/ skill.

c.  I went through my games that I already had and separated them by topic/ skill.

2.   Next, I bagged up each of the topic/ skill items separately in a large bag.  (This next part I did by taking home one skill/ topic home at a time so that I wasn’t overwhelmed.  You could skip bagging them up if you did this step at the same time as step 1.)

a.  One skill at a time, I’d take it home and then sort it out if it was a 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th quarter or enrichment worksheet or game.

b.  Then, I took just the 1^st items and sorted it by if I would want to use it for homework, an item to use in a small group or a math goal item.

c.  I repeated step 2b for the 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th quarters and also for enrichment items.

3.   I repeated all of step 2 for the remainder of the skills.

4.   Through sorting all of the items, I determined that I had some areas that I lacked good materials.

a.  I asked my grade level teachers to borrow their math materials so that I could fill in my gaps.  J

b.  I also researched online to find other material.

                                        i.    I re-sorted all of these items using all of the step 1-2 directions.

5.    Now everything should be organized!  J

6.   I made the rotation charts and designated a place in the room for all of the math items to be located.

7.   I started teaching the rotations in a whole group.  (Much like you would teach reading stations whole group at the beginning of the year.)  I always referred to the charts and discussed them as we did the rotations whole group.

8.   I gave the students a pre-assessment and analyzed the results.

9.   I determined a skill that I wanted to teach for the week.  I wrote the names of the students on three post-it notes.  (High, middle, low)

10.               On the first day of putting the skills all together, my skill group was just to take the time with each individual group and explain the rotation charts in detail.

11.                At the beginning of the year, until I can form individual goals for the students, I just gave the students a never ending job for all students to work on.  (Going on a shape hunt etc.)

Goals

Goals are determined by skills that students did not do well on even after a week of instruction.  Each Friday I give a post assessment just on the weekly skill.  If most of the students do not understand, I will re-teach next week.  If most of the students understand and just a few students do not, then the skill will become the goal for the students that do not understand.  Goals are differentiated based on students needs.  Some students need many goals so I try to group them with as many alike goals as possible so that it is easier to keep track and make sure materials are prepared.

Friday is my assessment day.  The students are given fact assessments as well as the weekly skill post assessment.  The students also have math art and math game rotations.  As they are working on rotations, I am helping students fill in their goal paper or assessing goals.

Items in the goal tubs are self checking items.  I use worksheets in page protectors with answers on the back, I use Lakeshore self checking puzzles, I use other store bought items that the students can use individually.

I am attaching my old goal sheets (the new goal sheets are much more fancy and at school.)

I will also be attaching my rotation charts.  These hang right below my calendar.  I stick a post-it-note right above them each week depending on who is in the group for the week. 

Have a great Wednesday!

-Danielle

Guided Math Rotations

They are FINALLY getting it!  I love this time of year when they seem to finally start to understand.


I have made just a few minor adjustments to my guided math rotations this year.
Here is what they looked like last year.


*Monday- I teach a whole group skill.  We also enter the new math vocabulary into our math journals.  At the end of the lesson, I give an Exit Slip.
After school I grade the Exit Slips and form the students into three groups based how much they understood.


*Tuesday- Thursday we complete math rotations. 
      -Math on your own ---> math facts
      -Work on numbers --->math goals
      -Math with Mrs. LaSota


*Friday- I give a post skill assessment and Mad minute fact assessment.  We also complete math art rotation and math games rotation.


I begin each day with a math meeting where we review/ practice skills on the Mimio.  I end Tuesday- Thursday with math strategy instruction and practice.


I have been so pleased with how well they are adjusting to the rotations and how much they are improving during the week!


Let's hope that their independence during math keeps up! :)


-Danielle