Lots of teachers have shared that they have been working on angle concepts, so I thought I'd share one of my favorite teaching angles lessons with you. I use math sorts often in my room, and I just love how much "bang" I get for my buck! At this point, my students have gotten pretty good at the sorts routine, but I thought I'd share a few tricks with you. Again--there is NO right way, but here ... Read the Post
Using Math Sorts to Encourage Productive Struggle
Ah, the things teachers say when deep in the moment of teaching angles. These words came out of my mouth this week. During a formal observation. While I was teaching math. #lifeinthetrenches I know you know how it goes--your administrator pops in for those required observations, and you just hope all goes well, that the students rise to the occasion, and that NO ONE STICKS TISSUES IN THEIR ... Read the Post
Using Math Sorts to Improve Instruction
I've been getting so many questions about how I use my math concept sorts in my class, so I thought I'd make it easy by sharing some of my thoughts with you here. "How do you work these sorts into your planning and curriculum?" That's easy...I use them in a few main ways. 1. As a full class warm-up BEFORE teaching a skill. This helps me see what they know and what they do not know. 2. ... Read the Post
Teaching Multiplication and More: Using Multiplication Math Sorts
So...as you may know, using math concept sorts is one of my absolute favorite strategies to get students thinking and talking about math. I often used them sporadically in my units....sometimes as a "kick off" to see what they know...sometimes in the middle...sometimes as a review. Today I thought I'd use one of my sorts that we didn't get to earlier as a great test prep review of ... Read the Post
Using Our Fractional Reasoning!
We had a great concept sort today...and I just wanted to share a little about what we did! We are working on the concept of equivalent fractions...we have drawn pictures, told stories (If I had half a pizza but cut the half into two pieces, what fraction would I have?), and generated lists of equivalent fractions. What we DIDN'T do is what most math programs do right away--teach students to ... Read the Post
Teaching Tips for Math Concept Sorts
Have you used concept sorts in your classroom? If you have followed my blog for a while, you know that I use concept sorts regularly--and have posted a number of times about different ways I use them. Click HERE and HERE for two of those posts! Using Geometry Math Sorts to Build Understanding Today I want to talk about a geometry sort I did the other day to "take the temperature" of my class ... Read the Post
Math Concept Sorts: Multiplication Concepts
Helping my students organize their thinking and learning in different ways is very important to me. As I started our multiplication concepts work, I knew I needed to dig in and get to know my students and their understanding. One method I have found to be very successful is to ask students to take work samples or problem types and sort them into categories. People who use Words Their Way do this ... Read the Post