Top

The Teacher Studio

Learning, thinking, creating

Differentiated Problem Solving: A New Approach

I know so many of you have been looking for a way to build deep math thinking with your intermediate students--I know this because I get questions about it all the time!    You want your students to be challenged in new and interesting ways—and be easily able to differentiate so that ALL your students can benefit, right? Here's the problem...what's challenging for some is way too ... Read the Post

Project Based Learning Math Tasks: The Benefits of the Challenge

So many times I am asked questions about why many students seem so disengaged in math.  I ask these teachers to flip through their resources and see how many of them truly help students see the real life application of math--and solve rigorous, engaging problems that students can relate to.  PBL (project based learning) can help make the connections between the math skills and the real world, and ... Read the Post

How We Spend Our Math Minutes–Using Open Ended Math Tasks

Organizing Math Class Minutes One thing that I really try to be mindful of when planning my math instruction is how I "spend" my minutes.  There are some things I really try to minimize as I plan: Transition delays "correcting" things passing out/collecting materials filling out practice pages And I try to spend as many minutes as possible doing the following: high-level ... Read the Post

Partner Problem Solving: Earth Day

Looking for an easy math lesson idea to help you get some much-needed one-on-one time or small group time with students?  See what you think...  I always have a pocket chart or two on my wall where I keep word problems or other challenges at all times.  I can change these out to be more seasonal, to be more review, or to match the topic we are studying.  In this case, I ... Read the Post

Fraction Concepts Day 2! Conceptions, Misconceptions, and Mathematical Language

Well, things got even more interesting as my work with fractions unfolded on day 2!  For those of you who read my first fraction post, I discussed how we used paper folding to get our fraction concepts unit "launched", and we ran out of time to finish the investigation before digging into some fraction misconceptions.  I gave them another 25 minutes today to work on folding their different ... Read the Post

Fraction Folding–discovery learning

Today we kicked off our fraction unit, and I think I am going to really try to do a lot of blogging about it over the next few weeks--because I will be immersed in it AND because it is such a critical component of the Common Core for intermediate grades.  I think it is vital that we dialogue about ways to help students build their understanding of fractions, so I invite you to share along with me ... Read the Post

Coming Up with a Math Plan, Teamwork, and Perseverance!

I just wanted to share a quick blog post about what I am doing in math workshop over the next two weeks because my students are SO excited!  We are digging into the next series of fraction lessons, and I know that some of my fourth graders are going to handle the material easily.  To make sure they have plenty of meaningful work to do when they finish their learning, I introduced the ... Read the Post