As a math teacher, I implement a variety of strategies to help students work towards mastery of key skills. These strategies fall into the following areas: fluency, new skills, writing, review, and application.

Fluency

• To improve students fluency of math facts, I heavily rely on minute drills, which we do at the start of the day. At the end of each week, they take a minute drill test. We also play games, like Around the World where students compete against each other to show the most mastery in facts.

New Skills

• In addition to teaching a lesson on a new skill, I will often times us a “Rally Coach,” which is a Kagan strategy. With the Rally Coach, I will craft a practice sheet with two sides for 2 partners. Each partner will be given a turn to explain how to do a particular process, like multiplying a 2-digit number by another 2-digit number. The other partner looks on the entire time. If the partner solving the problem does not quite get it, the other partner will coach him to the correct answer, by giving 2 tips and then a full explanation.
  • View Rally Coach – 4th Grade Multiplication
• ST Math has been an instrumental program in helping students learn and master a new skill.  After I have taught the new skill, I will then move up the skill in ST Math through the Teacher Admin area.  When students log in for that week to ST Math, they will be directed to the new level, unless they have already completed it, and they will have the opportunity to get a deeper understanding of the process of skill.
  • ST Math by Mind Research
• My class website has also been something that I use to allow students to practice new skills.  On my website, I have pages created for each class, and on each page, there are links to pre-approved online math games that effectively assess or teach the skill.  Students are given a “Passport” for accountability, and they have to record information about the game at the end of the time.
  • Ms. Payne’s Class Website

Writing

• In the District of Columbia, writing is a key 4th grade skill that is assessed on our yearly high-stakes testing.  Knowing this was an area that our students were not as strong in, I implemented Math Procedural Writing into our math block, which we did every other week.  During this time, I would model the writing process of planning, drafting, revising, and writing a final draft to a review skill, like making an equivalent fraction.  Students had access to a transition word bank and they we able to develop their own topic and concluding sentences for the writing.  Students had one day of teacher modeling, followed by a day or two of guided practice, and then another day or two of independent or partner practice.  On the fourth or fifth day, students would have to demonstrate their understanding of the skill by responding to a writing prompt very similar to the writing prompts they had seen all week.
  • Sample – Math Procedural Writing – Rounding

Review

• Games have been my most successful and well-received strategies for reviewing content with my students.  To get my boys initially interested and to keep them engaged, I have used a number of basketball-themed review games.  However, when we completed our American Revolution unit, I created a fraction review game with that team.  How the games typically work is that there will be groups of mixed ability levels.  I tried to even the teams out with a good mix of my highest students and the others.  Each game has some level of peer coaching involved, and in some games, the highest students are only allowed to coach and not directly answer.  Some games have built in opportunities to keep the scores competitive with things, like “sneak attack points” and “unified team points” as well as “quiet points.”  Not only do these extra points potentially keep the scores close, but they also help with the classroom management.  I have typically played these games with as few as 12 students to as many as 45.
  • Sample – American Revolution (Fractions Review) Game
  • Sample – B-Ball Challenge Review Game
• My students have also enjoyed playing Scavenger Hunts, where I hide numbered problems around the room.  Students find the problems and then work as a team to solve them.  They have a set amount of time, but they want to get the most done in that limited time.
  • Sample – Scavenger Hunt
• Every other week, we have a Skills Review.  During our math skills review, I model a review skill, and then students practice it in the “Your Try” column, and if they still have extra time before I move on to the next skill, they can do the “Extra Time” column.  I have been using this strategy for the past 3 years, and I know that this has helped students not forget skills as more and more are learned.  We will have 3 variations of the skills review for 3 consecutive days, and on the fourth day, the students will take a Skills Review Quiz with the same type of problems that we worked on all week.  The skills reviews were great for key skills, like multiplication of 2-digit numbers by other 2-digit numbers and long division because students did not initially get this skill.  The reviews allowed up to keep modeling the skill for students and then let them try it on.
  • Sample – 3rd Grade Skills Review
• As stated in the section above, the Math Procedural Writing also proved to be a review of sorts for students as they wrote down the steps to perform a mathematical operation for at least 3 days, and then they were tested on the skill.

Applications

• I always like to make math relevant, so I make it a point to come up with projects that tie in the skill we have learned to a real-world situation.  These typically become projects that take multiple days to complete.  Some tasks are group assignments, while others are individual assignments.  In each case, my students have enjoyed the process and told me that this was not “math.”  At the conclusion of our angles unit, students had to create a Christmas tree or Christmas present by following directions and correctly drawing angles with their protractor.  At the end of our multiplication and division unit, students had to create a menu and guest lists for a Thanksgiving Dinner party.  They needed to make sure that they purchased enough food so that everyone could eat.
  • Sample – Thanksgiving Project
  • Sample – Christmas Tree Project
  • Sample – Black History Month Timeline Project