Welcome back for Chapter 6 of The Primary Gal's Guided Math book study!
This chapter was all about setting up Math Workshop as a part of your Guided Math period. Basically, Math Workshop is what the rest of the class is doing while you are meeting with a small group or conferring with individual kids.
The "Effective Uses for Math Workshop" she lists include:
*Review of Previously Mastered Concepts
*Math Fact Automaticity
*Math Games
*Problem Solving Practice
*Investigations
*Math Journals
*Computer Use
*Math Related to Other Subject Areas
Sammons includes a chart for these Effective Uses in this chapter, which lists each use, the objective, and some examples of each. For example, some ideas to use for "Math Related to Other Subject Areas" are "math activities tied to current events, science projects, and math connections from social studies, language arts, and science textbooks."
She emphasizes (and I think we can all agree) how important it is for teachers to spend a significant amount of time at the beginning of the year (and several times throughout the year as necessary), teaching procedures for Math Workshop. As I was reading this, I kept thinking about "building stamina" as is described in Daily Five and The CAFE Book by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. The kids need to know exactly what is expected of them and have time to practice the correct behaviors and procedures before being released to complete the tasks independently.
Something I DEFINITELY want to use next year are the principles of a "learning community," which actually come from Fountas and Pinnell. These principles are:
*All members are trusted with rights and responsibilities.
*All members take responsibility for their own learning and for helping others to learn.
*All members take responsibility for managing their time and activities productively.
*All members learn self-management as part of the curriculum delivered by the teacher.
*All members understand that keeping materials in order helps everyone learn.
I love these principles and want to use them for all aspects of my classroom, not just for Guided Math time.
Thanks for joining me for Chapter 6! Be sure to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway below and then check out the other great blogs!
No comments:
Post a Comment