True confessions . . . I am a terrible organizer. TERRIBLE! I have spent 40-something years being pretty on the ball and pretty good at keeping things in my head--schedules, appointments, meetings . . . all in my mind. Something has happened! Either I am getting old (GASP) or my life has gotten more complicated! Today as I was taking status of the class I realized how ... Read the Post
Problem Solving Rubric–Try out this math freebie!
I spent the day at a regional music competition watching my son and countless other students show off their hard work and practice. Some achieved their ultimate goal of qualifying for the state contest--others left disappointed. What struck me as I volunteered for the afternoon was the judging. After each student or group performed, the judge walked through their scoring sheet pointing out what ... Read the Post
Fractions Day 16: Word Problems and Critical Thinking
Well . . . I promised a little update on the problem solving from the other day, so here goes! What I often do toward the end of a unit is provide students with a class period or two to work collaboratively or on their own on an assortment of word problems. Some of the problems are right at the level I would expect them to be able to do and others "push" and help them work on their "problem ... Read the Post
Fractions Day 15: Student Self Assessment and Reflection
I know I gave you all a fraction word problem teaser yesterday, but I'm going to hold off and include that in tomorrow's post. Today what I want to share is something I did for about 15 minutes after math class was over. Before this unit, I printed a list of the Common Core "learning targets" rewritten in kid-friendly language for my students. We had looked at this list as our unit ... Read the Post
Fractions Day 14: Composing and Decomposing
Today was a math rotations day in grade 4 . . . I started the day with a minilesson and then we broke up into three math groups to rotate around the following centers: --“teacher time” --problem solving --</>/= activity Today’s minilesson focused on “composing” and “decomposing” using unit fractions, and I was hopeful that it would go smoothly. I was fairly confident ... Read the Post
Fractions Day 13: Benchmark Fractions
It is getting close to the end of our fractions unit . . . and I am trying to reflect on what more I need to accomplish! I am really seeing students (for the most part) having an "ease" with fractions, with equivalence, and with some of the "big picture" ideas. I know I want to dig into some problem solving with addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and I want to throw ... Read the Post
Fractions Day 12–Equivalent Fractions Example/Counterexample
Happy Sunday, Everyone! I woke up to a big surprise--my Skittles "Freebie" was featured in the TpT newsletter! It has already had over 6,000 hits today! Crazy! Today I want to share an activity that I did last week that I feel was a great review of equivalent fractions AND a great opportunity for students to practice their problem solving and their mathematical language. Here's ... Read the Post