Saturday, January 09, 2016

Teaching Well: The Week Ahead - January 2015

It's time to take a step back and think about the teaching/learning week ahead. Truly with the resources available today you could teach math all day. In this regard you could play math games, create math models, solve problems and puzzles, and learn multiple math procedures and processes. The truth remains though that we devote about one hour a day to math with three additional half hours a week for Math RTI and math tech. Next year I'm wondering if we should add another 30 minutes a day to the menu, but I'm not sure that's possible. Something to think about.

In the meantime, as I think about the math week ahead, we've got the following items on the agenda.

Monday: Divisibility Rules
We ran out of time on Friday to complete our focus on the divisibility rules so we'll finish that including playing the game Factor Captor. I'll set up brackets and we'll play that game.

Tuesday, Wednesday: SRSD Problem Solving
Students will apply the SRSD method of math problem solving as they review the strategies and process of multi-step math problems that require computation and knowledge of measurement facts and information.

Thursdays: SRSD Problem Solving Assessment
On Thursday students will have the chance to show what they know as they complete a couple of multi-step problems on their own.

Friday: Measurement Facts and Information Trivia Game
Students will compete in teams against one another as we review a large array of measurement facts and data. Students homework packet this week will prepare them for this game. In a sense we'll review the homework during the game.

The Following Week
During the following week we'll combine students' new knowledge of measurement and problem solving with a first lesson for our fractions unit.

Using the CCSS as a guide as well as multiple system-wide resources, we are traversing the CCSS fifth grade standards path that also includes review and enrichment along way. The math journey continues.