My students love rap, and I love when they are engaged in the lesson. I found a rap beat, and then I wrote some lyrics to help them remember how to find coordinate points. They loved the song, and I would often hear them rapping the lyrics on the playground. Needless to say, this lesson was successful!
Below is a video of a 5th grade lesson taught to my 4th graders at the end of the school year.
Ms. Payne’s Math Lesson – Multiplying Fractions from Victoria Payne on Vimeo.
My students love our review games, and one of the most popular games we played this year was the American Revolution game. Our reading theme for this instructional window was the American Revolution, so I thought of a way to incorporate that theme into a math game. What resulted was a way for us to potentially “rewrite history” with a battle between all of the sides that had a stake in this “New World”. In our game, we had the British, the French, the Colonists, the Native Americans, the Enslaved People, and the Freeman’s Bureau (free blacks). Each student was placed on one of the six sides. Each side had a Commander/General and a 2nd in Command, which were made up of our weakest and strongest students. We played this game in my classroom with all of the fourth graders at one time to maximize our instructional time and encourage the peer tutoring. This was a game where all students had to have the same thing written on the boards for their teams, and points were awarded for teams that worked well together. Teams could spend as much time as they needed on each problem because early finishers were given “sneak attack” opportunities, which were additional problems the teachers would give finished teams to work on while the other teams completed the problem. Teams could earn additional points if they were called on to explain how they arrived at their answer. This meant that the higher students needed to make sure that the others on their team knew the content and could tell someone else how to do it. One student, who receives special education services in reading and math, was so thankful for his 2nd in Command (a higher student) because he really showed him how to do the problems!
Select slides from this game are displayed below.
There are a lot of things that I do to help students better understand key concepts, however, I just cannot reach everyone at the same time. Since math is such a procedural subject, having additional teachers helps. Well, we know that finding additional teachers is not always an option, but there are often several students that get “it” just a little quicker than others. In DC, we use this amazing program called ST Math, which allows students to apply and practice math concepts without words. Each student should be at 100% completion of the syllabus by the 2nd week of June, but by the time of our high stakes state testing, they should be at 75% syllabus progress. We had one student at 100% before the Christmas break, and then a few others joined her before March. As students reached 100%, they became tutors for the other students. Before our testing began, I had a total of 11 tutors, which was truly impressive and well above any other grade level at our school.
I informed my tutors that I would be taking them to H&Pizza, a local pizza restaurant, once the DC CAS started and they would get their own pizzas with whatever they wanted on it! This field trip did not require the students to bring any money because this was my compensation for their tutoring services! I tried to make sure that all of my 100%-ers could make it as well, even calling a parent on the day of the trip to come in and sign a permission slip so that her son, who had really been one of my best tutors, could go on this reward field trip.
When all was said and done, this trip became an incentive for other students to work towards – students who weren’t quite at 100%. This was open to all 4th graders as well, and not just those on my class roster. The kids had a great time and all of them had plenty of food to take home with them!
At the end of our Fractions and Decimal Equivalence unit, we played a new math review game inspired by the March Madness tournament. I created this game so that all teams had an opportunity to work at their own pace and review the content. The rounds were fast, and there were at least 2 teachers in the room to make sure everyone was on task. I had my 3 highest students that knew the content solidly to grade the work from the teams, so that the teachers could focus on monitoring the student teams and peer coaching. These high students were also responsible for adding points to the score board each time a team correctly answered problems.
We did not have any issues of student engagement during this game, as all teams really felt they had a chance to win the game. As papers came in, they were quickly graded, and the team points were constantly going up. All of the teams had mixed ability levels so that there was equity. In addition, each player had to write, so this necessitated the peer coaching. While points were tallied up, players had a chance to make shots in the room on the mini basketball net.
The final part of the game was our elimination rounds. These rounds were quicker than the qualifying rounds. In the end, only one team won. In both sessions that we played this game UCONN won, and 2 or 3 weeks later, it was such a joy to see that the men and women’s teams at UCONN won the real March Madness!
Finally, a few weeks after we played this math review game, we organized a March Madness basketball tournament the Friday before our high stakes state testing started to let the students relax and get rid of stress and anxiety. There was no content whatsoever in this game – just teams of 3 and their b-ball moves!
Below are some of the slides from our March Madness Math Review game.
One of the ways I love to review math content and encourage my higher students to coach/tutor the other students is to create math review games , where I form teams of mixed abilities. One of the first games we played as a grade level this year was the B-Ball Challenge. The original intention was to incorporate the basketball net, but time escaped us. Still students had the ability to review multiplication and division concepts in preparation for the first benchmark test of the school year. I chose the basketball theme since I know so many of my students love the game – as do I! The teachers were the refs for our game, and we each wore our black and white stripes. In addition, I brought out my voice amplifier for the real surround sound effect, and the kids were besides themselves!
Here’s how we played the game. The highest 5 students for the grade level were given the role of coach and given a tie to wear. All of the others students were assigned a player number for their respective teams. Coaches could only coach students to the correct answer, but could not actually answer any questions or a foul would be called. Coaches would also send up players for each “play.” These players would have a set time limit to solve or answer the question on their boards. Correct responses earned a point. Incorrect responses could be “rebounded” if someone from their team had correctly solved the problem on their board on their “team’s bench”. In addition, if a player did not know how to solve the problem on their board and they were on the “court,” they could ask their coach to call a “time out.” Then the coach would be able to coach the player to help them get to the correct answer. Coaches had up to 4 player strips for each player, 3 time-outs, and 2 rebounds, so they had to use their strips strategically. Since all players were writing on their boards and coaches were always coaching, we had maximum participation during each play. Teams got a point for correct responses.
At my elementary school, we use ST Math, which is an online math program that is aligned to Common Core. Most of my students love the program and ask to get on often, though not everyone is as eager to get on, especially if they are challenged by their current level. I created the following hallway display to motivate students to keep moving towards their goals, as well as to reinforce equivalent fractions and the connection between fractions and percentages. We were trying to get all of the students to 75% before the major state testing, and thankfully we had a number of students that made it to 100% of their syllabus progress before the state testing. Students would come up to me every week and ask me if I was going to move their car, and when I did, the students would gather around to show off their progress.
I have included a before and after photo to show how much the students progressed in this program from January to March 2014.
Before the Thanksgiving break, I created a project for my students. They were asked to plan a large Thanksgiving dinner for their family. They would first need to decide who they would invite. Then, they were asked to plan out what they wanted to cook. Afterwards, they were asked to figure how much of each item they would need to be able to feed their entire guest list. They would then need to go grocery shopping for their ingredients and see how much it would cost them. After cooking the meal (by cutting out magazine images), they would need to set the table for the feast!
All students took part in this project and enjoyed the entire process. They were delighted to see their work posted in the hallway, and many were amazed at how much a Thanksgiving dinner can run. Many of my advanced students chose to “cook” more food than required, which allowed them to do additional calculations. One of the highlights for me was when one student said, “Ms. Payne, that was not math. That was fun!”
Download the Thanksgiving Dinner Math Project Resources.
At the end of our unit of measuring and drawing angles, students were asked to create a Christmas tree or Christmas present by following a few directions and using a protractor. I created 3 versions of this project for 3 levels of students: basic, intermediate, and advanced. The advanced students created the Christmas present, which did not have all of their steps identified. They enjoyed doing this project so much that most of them asked to do the intermediate project when they were finished. One student asked to do this project in detention, which I allowed him to do, and none of the students felt like this was doing “Math.”
When I create culminating projects or unit-wrap-up activities, I try to ensure that I am making the content accessible to all of our students whether or not they have an IEP. I know the levels that my students function at, and I like to make sure that I give everyone a baseline and add more rigor and complexity for my advanced students.
Download resources for this Christmas Tree and Christmas Tree Angles Project.
As a project to do in the month of February and in an effort to prepare students to move from finding equivalent fractions to recognizing fractions as tenths, hundredths, and their decimal equivalence, I created a Black History Timeline Project. Students were put in teams of 3 and asked to create a number line from 0 to 3 wholes with tenths and hundredths labeled. The end product would be a timeline of major events that involved and impacted blacks in America from the early 1600’s up until the Civil War. To do this project, students needed to convert improper fractions to mixed numbers, multiply fractions, add fractions, and make equivalent fractions. They were then given several event cards with various fractions that they needed to get to a denominator of 100 and then place them on their number lines. After they had placed all of their events down, they were asked to identify 2 events that they felt had the greatest impact on Blacks in America, and explain why. Images from the project are displayed below, but the project can be downloaded here.
Black History Timeline – Math Project Resources
