Before I am able to begin working with students in our rotations, I need to have a little data on my students. My first step is to make sure everyone has completed their Think Through Math benchmark. I realized that I needed to give some additional time to complete the benchmark today. So while some students finished the benchmark, the rest of the students worked on 5th Grade Skills in Khan Academy.
Once everyone had finished, it was time to begin working on our first math assignment. I had heard about a book series called "Algebra Readiness Builders," that was able to close some of the gaps that hinder students ability to understand algebra. I decided to use the first "builder" today. I actually broke the page in 1/2. The top half was complete review, but the bottom half was introducing some new concepts. I chose to work the problems on the bottom half with my students so that I could model for them.
I do not like to assign math for homework, so I set apart at least 20 minutes a day to work on that day's assignment. I also like to give my students immediate feedback, as well as being able to see immediately what concepts are causing problems. To do this, I require students to solve a single problem at a time and bring their paper to me to check. If it is correct, they get a check mark. If it is incorrect, I circle the problem number and either give guidance as to where the error occurred or ask the students to look more closely at their work. This process also ensures that students either completely finish their work in class, or have only a few problems to complete at home.
I must say, while these problems were intended to be review, I certainly found some areas that I need to work on with my kids!
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