Student learning is no accident!
A while back I took stock of what we were doing as a math department to improve kids’ math fluency. It seemed that every year we had a chunk of kids who came up to sixth grade with amazing fact fluency. We had another chunk who fought with basic addition and multiplication much like struggling readers fought with multisyllabic words…. Read More
In the next few posts, I’m going to focus on Differentiating Instruction in the Math Classroom. I will give you three strategies you can use immediately in the lessons you already have planned- to reach all of those kids! I promise not to ask you to do ANYTHING that wastes your time. I promise to only save you time.
If you’re thinking about fractions, you might be a 5th grade teacher… Thanks to the Common Core State Standards, fifth grade now throws the wildest fraction party on the block! I taught 6th grade math back when that was fraction central, and I learned 3 key things along the way. They have been just applicable in the 5th grade classrooms… Read More
If teaching fifth and sixth graders has taught me anything, it’s that fractions and decimals can be ABSTRACT and TRICKY… and that kids have to be developmentally ready to perform operations on them. The good news is- the standards aren’t encouraging us to get kids to add, subtract, multiply and divide 5/32 and 16/71! We make equivalent fractions as a… Read More
We have moved on to subtraction with renaming (2.NBT.7). You might call this regrouping… but really- if we think literally about what’s happening- we’re also giving the values new names! 50+10 is a different name for 60. So, renaming, regrouping… you know what we’re doing! What’s Working I’ve been doing a lot of this work with students in small groups…. Read More
In my second grade classroom, I’ve recently identified a troubling gap in my students’ learning… Counting. I know how important counting is… and we have been counting all year. We count while we wait in line, we count backwards and forwards, by 2s, 3s, 5s, 10s and more. We start in the hundreds, we start in the teens… So, why… Read More
It’s DONE!!
The Differentiated Fraction Flashcard Games that I’ve been working on for weeks are finally posted in my TPT Store.
🤷🏼♀️If your students (by chance) are not all learning in the exact same way, on the exact same day- this is for you!
🤯If you are talking about common denominators (again!) and someone just added the denominators... this is for you.
💡Spend some time building conceptual understanding. Meet those kids where they are. John might need the cards with the visual models on them, and Dan might be cool with the bare number cards. Whatever!! They can still play ALL the fraction games. And John might not need the visuals in two weeks.
🤦🏼♀️But if we keep asking him to use that chart 🗃📉📖in his binder to make common denominators instead of building conceptual understanding (AKA addressing the fact that he has no idea WHY denominators matter), then we are not actually helping!
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So... 50% off for the first 24 hours- get ‘me while they’re HOT!!
Common denominators?? What?
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Just a little PSA: It’s not you!! It’s them! Well, not exactly. If you’re teaching fractions now, or will be teaching fractions for months, or are OVER teaching fractions... you might be a fifth grade teacher!😂🤣😂
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And it’s a LONG haul. If I’ve learned anything over the past 15 years of teaching fractions (Right? And a few months is rough??!) it’s that all kids WILL develop a stronger fraction sense... if you let them take their time building conceptual understanding. 🥰🌈
👍🏻(No one ever suddenly understood that multi step problem because I gave them a common denominators cheat sheet)👍🏻
💡Not everyone is going to subtract mixed numbers with different denominators while regrouping this year. They’re just not. And if no one else has told you this yet- THAT’S OKAY!!! 🎁It’s fine. If they aren’t ready, why force them to literally move digits around a page while developing a hatred for math and a negative self-concept?
Those same kids might actually compare fractions and justify their comparisons if we let them!! They *might* be able to explain WHY they made common denominators before adding fractions if we let them. 🥳🤩🌈🦄😍🖐🏻
Watch for a few new #differentiated #fraction posts and products in the next few days! Remember, they’ll be 50% off for the first 24 hours!
