Ep 54: Setting Up A Math Block With No Curriculum

Let's talk about setting up a math block when
you do not have a curriculum. Hello and welcome
to Making Number Sense Make Sense, a podcast
for elementary teachers, specifically early elementary
teachers, looking to really make an impact in
the number sense of their students. I want to
say it was my second or third year teaching.
When we had a curriculum that we had been using,
but then my district decided, curriculum, we
don't know her, and decided to use a completely
different curriculum, which was a hodgepodge
of a bunch of different things, not an actual
curriculum. So if you are in a similar boat,
then I'm going to share with you today some ideas
of how to set up your math block that you can
use when you need to piece a lot of things together
to keep the flow coherent. and so that your students
know what to expect every time it's time for
math. An option for the main components to use
when setting up your math curriculum is to have
some kind of warm -up, a mini lesson or main
lesson, station or center time, and a guided
math time for either intervention, students who
are right where they need to be but might need
a little bit more support, or students who may
need some enrichment. The purpose of the warm
-up is to get your students kind of primed in
thinking about what they learned before, maybe
activating some prior knowledge, and get them
used to having academic conversations about math.
Since this is such a short window, it's usually
nothing long, probably five minutes or less,
they can get some practice with having an academic
conversation that rolls right into your mini
lesson or your main lesson. Some examples of
some Number sense routines or warmups you might
use are quick images, a number talk, choral count,
things of that nature. Now, a warmup doesn't
necessarily have to connect with what your lesson
is going to be, but it's definitely helpful.
But if there's other little things that you'd
like to work on, that's something else that can
be done. during your warmup. Now, after you have
your students all primed and ready to go, you're
gonna go into the mini lesson or main lesson.
I differentiate because sometimes a mini lesson
is just that you don't need more than 15 minutes.
Sometimes if a lesson is more involved, it can
take a little longer. For a mini lesson, you
might consider something small like. We're learning
about how to write the number five. So this is
how you write a number five. This is how many
five is. So it's just bite -sized pieces of information
that students will need to move on. And there
can be a little bit of practice in writing that
number and then moving on to whatever it is that
you're doing during stations or centers. An example
of a lesson that might take a little bit longer
might be a problem solving lesson. or a decomposing
numbers lesson. So for example, sticking with
five, if instead of working on writing the number
five and how many five is, you're working on
different number combinations that make five,
you might want to show students that there are
different ways to make five and kind of show
them how to systematically figure out. all the
combinations of five. So that might include using
double -sided counters and showing them how to
just turn over one counter at a time to find
a new number combination for five and kind of
expanding that to be for any number, but today
we're just working on five. So depending on how
many materials you need and how deep you want
to get into a topic would decide if it was a
mini lesson or a main lesson. Something else
I mentioned in a main lesson situation might
be something more like a problem solving session.
Now, this shouldn't just be reserved for when
it's your problem solving unit, because as we
know, word problems can be tricky for students
to figure out, especially if they don't have
practice. So this might be a time to include.
a problem solving framework similar to a building
thinking classroom style framework that you could
use to replace your warm -up and mini lesson
to practice those problem solving skills. If
you want a deeper dive into how to do that, I
will link below some blog posts and previous
podcast episodes that go deeper into it if problem
solving is what you're looking to have a little
bit more support in. The next part of your math
block can be your math centers or your math stations,
and these are opportunities for students to work
individually with a partner or in a group to
practice the skills that you have been working
on in your mini lessons or main lessons. Now,
in terms of setting up your math centers, there
is no one -size -fits -all for how to do stations
or centers. Some teachers prefer to have only
two students per activity, but if you're thinking
about your class of 24, you would need 12 different
areas or 12 different things that they're doing
and it can get a little bit messy in terms of
if you're having them rotate or not. If you're
not having them rotate, then that could be a
little bit different. That's something you might
want to explore. For me personally, I have found
four or five students in a group to be kind of
the sweet spot. So if it's a partner game, they
can play in a group of two or three, but there's
enough space for them to spread out their materials
so they're not on top of each other. There's
a lot of discussion about if your group should
be heterogeneous or homogeneous, and there's
really pros or cons to both. And what you really
want to consider is how they're going to move
around the room. If you have homogeneous groups,
then that whole group is just going to travel
together if you're having your students rotate
stations, which can be helpful for classroom
management. If you're having heterogeneous groups,
you might need a little bit more support or a
way for students to figure out where they're
supposed to go when and how they're supposed
to complete their stations. or select the correct
differentiated material depending on what their
needs are. Either one can work. It's really up
to you and figuring out what works best for your
students in your classroom. Either way, you want
to develop some kind of system where students
can move independently from one station to another,
consider How they're going to get water. Do they
need to ask you to get water? Do they need to
ask you to go to the restroom? Things like that.
Like if you want them to be a little bit more
independent, having those things in place. Also
being able to access appropriately differentiated
materials and how to save work for another day
if it's not completed. So that might be folders,
cubbies, things like that are things to consider
when you're thinking about how to plan your math
stations or math centers. When it comes to what
they're actually doing at their math stations
or math centers, I like to combine some kind
of practice, some kind of game, or some opportunity
to work collaboratively with a partner or in
their group. And sometimes it has some technology,
like a technology station, sometimes it doesn't,
and sometimes they will be working with me in
a small group for some kind of guided... math.
In terms of introducing a new station or new
center, some teachers will introduce all new
centers at the same time. To be honest with you,
I never tried, but I don't know that I would
just because at that point, if you're thinking
about how your math block went, they would have
already been sitting for their warm -up, they
would have been doing their mini or their main
lesson, and at that point, you're probably reaching
the point where They're needing to move around
a little bit, so explaining four or five new
stations might be a bit much. What I would usually
do is just introduce one new station a day, and
then the oldest station they had. So the one
that was introduced the earliest would be the
one I remove and it would be replaced with a
new station or center. So I wasn't having to
explain every single thing that they're doing.
And the students could help each other because
at least one student usually remembered what
to do if they were unsure of what to do at a
station. But I would encourage you to reinforce
that if they really don't remember how to do
a station or not sure what to do to ask, I would
rather have them ask me and explain it again
than have them playing around for 15 minutes.
That's not a good use of their time or your time.
Now, when it comes to where students are supposed
to be, usually a digital or physical pocket chart
that has it listed is something that can be helpful
for organizing that kind of situation so students
know where to go. or know where to look to figure
out where they're supposed to go. After students
are settled where they're supposed to be, that
we don't have any technology issues, everybody
knows what they're doing, that would be a time
where you could pull small groups who either
need intervention support, reinforcement, or
some kind of enrichment in guided math. There's
a lot of different ways you can do guided math,
but especially if you're working without a curriculum,
you've already planned your lessons and gathered
your centers, planning out five or six different
guided math stations might be a bit of a challenge.
So if you are not granularly planning everything,
I would suggest having some games or some things
you can do. During that guided math time, in
your back pocket, ready to go. So for example,
if you've done your beginning of the year assessment,
you know how high students can count, you know
which numbers they know, which numbers they might
need support in, things like that. You could
have your ideas of what to do around those things.
So maybe you might do a number counting game
during guided math that you are listening to
them count, you're reinforcing the way that they
count, and that's something that doesn't require
a lot of prep. on your end but you know you're
pulling the right students because you've had
an assessment done one -on -one or because you're
looking at the results of your beginning of the
year assessments to know what they need. If you're
working on number writing, have some dry erase
markers, dry erase boards, things like that that
you can use to kind of have them practice writing
their numbers. You can make it a game. You can
say, I'm thinking of the number that comes after
four and they have to write that number down
or just say a number like, let's write the number
five. This is how you write the number five.
Let's practice together. Things like that or
similar activity. So they're practicing the skills
that you know that they need. And same thing
with counting. You could have them count out
numbers instead of writing numbers. So those
are just some really simple basic ideas of what
students might need extra support. And you can
make sure they are counting correctly, forming
numbers correctly. things like that. To recap,
some components of a strong math block would
be some kind of warm -up or number sense routine,
a mini lesson or a main lesson with problem solving
integrated, and stations or center times or time
for you to be able to pull students that require
extra support and intervention, reinforcement,
or enrichment. I will have everything that I
spoke about today written out in a blog post
that will be down in the show notes that you
can use for your reference, and feel free to
Send me an email, send me a DM on Instagram if
you have any other questions or something that
you feel you would like to hear more about in
its own podcast episode. Until then, I will see
you next time.