Tag / fact fluency

by Beyond Traditional Math

Level Your Games: More Small Steps for Differentiation

Recently, I had two first grade teachers approach me about fact fluency. They were feeling both frustrated and scattered. They weren’t sure how to organize the time, how to organize the many games, or how to reach students at all the different skill levels they were at.

It is the same story we all have where every child that we teach is functioning at a different level. Some students didn’t even know their combinations to 5, many were learning combinations to 10, and even a few of the students could work within 20.  The games that we were using were just not reaching every student with what they needed…they were flat and one dimensional. WAY too difficult for the students who weren’t on level, and WAY too easy for the students that had already reached mastery.

Enter the post-it note.

 

differentiation-fact-fluency-practice.JPG

In “Steal the Cubes” each post it assigns each group to a level that is right for them.

Those sticky things are my savior when it comes to flexible grouping.

After talking it through, we thought that we would choose just FOUR fact fluency games that the students could rotate through daily. Once they get bored with the same four, we might introduce a new one.  Time in the day is precious, so we knew that they had to be “go-to” games that could be setup, played and cleaned up quickly. We also knew that students grow fast as they learn, and that our groups had to be easy to change in and out.

So here is what we did:

  1. We taught ONE game to the students each week.  They played them for a week until they understood the ins and outs of them. Then, once the routines of the games and the game playing behaviors/expectations were taught, we were ready to rotate through them.
  2. Each day the teacher chose the game by putting the color of the game out first, leveling the game like in the photo. Each game can be easily modified with different numbers, different cubes, etc. by just changing the post it note.
  3. We attached a third level of post it notes for the partners/groups that stayed in the same place for each of the games, the teacher can simply change up the post its when students move levels.

So once again, differentiation can truly be a little small step.  While this one takes a little bit to set up, the students aren’t bored which makes that classroom game time so much more productive!

 

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by Beyond Traditional Math

Release of Materials: More Small Steps for Differentiation

I struggled to understand a very basic thing when I taught third grade, and I see it’s importance all the time now that I am in many classrooms K-4.  Math is incredibly abstract for elementary minds, and the need to provide them with hands on tools and manipulatives is essential for conceptual understanding. So often we skip this step (or at least I did) because we as teachers are developmentally past needing this to understand numbers.  So often we skip this step (or at least I did) because tools are messy, noisy and the students play with them. So often we skip this step (or at least I did) because we run out of time to grab them, or it takes too much time to get them out and put them away. Despite all of this, we really need to allow students to have them so that we can see where they are developmentally.

Which leads me to another small step for differentiating in your classroom.

When introducing a concept, provide tools always to the students. Then, as you notice that some students need more of a challenge, ask them to try it without the materials to see if they can make the connection with just the numbers and symbols. For example, Make 8 Go Fish:

differentiation-easy-tips

This is a great, easy game for K-1 students. They play Go Fish but ask for pairs that make a given number. In this case I chose 8 for a student that I am working one on one with right now. She struggled to find combinations that sum to 8, so we built them using ten frames before we started the game. Some students may need this support, while others may be ready to do it without ten frames or any tools at all.

Sometimes we force tools on all students, or we just don’t provide them at all to any of them.  Put it in your student’s hands by teaching them how to recognize that feeling of when they do or don’t need them.  Challenge them by releasing those materials when they no longer need them!