Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Number Play and Proficiency: Maximizing Resources

When I took the PARCC practice test this week, I noticed how important it is for children to have computation fluency and precision.

How will I gain that with this diverse class without taking too much time away from the knowledge/concept portion of the math curriculum.

I decided to have a computation boot camp or better named, a series of Number Play sessions. As the more we play with numbers, the better we become at mathematical thinking and computation.

Here are the initial plans:

Lesson One 12/5-12/8: A class review of addition, subtraction, and multiplication. Many children have mastered the operations, so we'll do a one-class period review to refresh everyone's memory.

Lesson Two 12/8: All students will take an assessments. I'll review and determine who has mastery over the operations of addition, subtraction, and multiplication.

Lesson Three, Four 12/9-12/10: I'll give children a chance to learn with the following stations:
  • Video/Practice station: Watch videos, take notes, practice and learn.
  • Paper Practice Station: Offline practice sheets and programs.
  • Test Station: A place to show your competence and test out of that study.
  • Coaching Station: A chance to help others master the operations.
  • Problem Solving/Number Puzzles
  • Coding
Lesson Five 12/11: I'll review the traditional division algorithm using numbers, words, and models, Students will take the division test.

Lesson Six and Seven 12/12-12/15: I'll give children a chance to learn with the following stations:
  • Video/Practice station: Watch videos, take notes, practice and learn.
  • Paper Practice Station: Offline practice sheets and programs.
  • Test Station: A place to show your competence and test out of that study.
  • Coaching Station: A chance to help others master the operations.
  • Problem Solving/Number Puzzles
  • Coding
Lesson Eight 12/16: Problem Solving Review

Lesson Nine 12/17: Problem Solving and Operations Practice

Lesson Ten 12/18: Unit Assessment

Homework: Related Online Quick-Feedback Related Exercises using Khan Academy, That Quiz, and other resources. 

Once the unit is complete we'll continue to practice these skills during RTI, home study, and in-class skill times.

I want to set this up in a way that children are leading their own learning and helping one another towards this collective goal of everyone mastering the four operations with fluency and precision.