Do you let the students lead you?
I often let students lead me. I typically introduce a learning menu, and see where students take it. I try to respond to their interest, questions, and needs as we engage in the menu's many choices.
I began the year with a team building exercise, and that led to a discussion about divisibility rules which led to a mini unit about divisibility rules including a number of exercises, a game, and a quiz to assess what we learned.
When we engage in kid-watching or student observation, we can see who is catching on and who is not. We can gauge the pace of the lesson and the learning, and use that meter to decide on next steps.
This week, we'll study the 100's chart that students coded with symbols related to the divisibility rules. Then we'll notice how students may use the chart to help them play Illuminations' Factor Game. We'll squeeze in the first of our numerical reasoning lessons too, a lesson about the meaning of operations, and after that we'll engage in a Factor Game tournament.
Next week we'll dig into the numerical reasoning unit with greater strength and practice. It's difficult to predict beyond that because we'll have to see where the students take us. Onward.
