230 likes | 422 Views
Math Stations. How to Improve Problem-Solving Skills & Incorporate Differentiated Learning into Math Classrooms. What’s your biggest challenge as a teacher?. Time Responding to an increasingly broad spectrum of student needs, backgrounds, and learning styles Differentiating.
E N D
Math Stations How to Improve Problem-Solving Skills & Incorporate Differentiated Learning into Math Classrooms
What’s your biggest challenge as a teacher? • Time • Responding to an increasingly broad spectrum of student needs, backgrounds, and learning styles • Differentiating
Differentiated Instruction • Enables teachers to reach the needs of diverse learners • Activities based on essential concepts and multiple ways to display learning • Challenging and engaging tasks for all learners • Provides opportunities for students to work in varied instructional formats • Meets curriculum standards and requirements
Why Use Math Stations? • Stations is a strategy that allows students to work on an ongoing assignment directly relating to the curriculum • Can be independent throughout a unit or semester • Logical extension of learning during a unit • Extension work and intervention needs can be met with the use of stations
Purpose of Math Stations • Provide meaningful work for students to work at their own level of learning • Used to differentiate on the basis of student readiness, interest, and learning profiles • Allows students to work more in depth with concepts to enrich their skill development • Can be used as a management strategy for working with smaller groups • Can be used as an opportunity to make a classroom more student centered
How do I decide what concepts to include in my stations? • Basic / Pre-requisite Skills • Enrichment Skills – use the 6H to 7H correlation and extension maps (county created) • MSA review materials • Problem Solving Activities that incorporate several concepts
How much time do I allow students to work on the stations? • Teacher discretion based on time • Once a week for 45 minutes • For those Fast Finishers
How much choice do the students have on what topic they work on? • Differentiate based on student needs • Per Unit / Semester – students have certain stations they must cover but can complete in any order as long as they turn in required stations
How to meet the needs of all students? • Know your students modality and learning preferences, ability and readiness, interests • Differentiate • Be flexible
How to run the stations? • Locate stations in different spots in the classroom • Frequent or occasional, formal or informal • Flexible grouping/time – not all students need to go to all stations for the same amount of time
Possible Station Topics • Problem Solving Stations • Geo Boards • Time • Data & Probability • Decimals, Fractions, & Percents • Estimation • The Travel Game
Planning your stations • What are your learning objectives? • Start Simply: One of the stations should be familiar and an all class activity • Emphasize student responsibility • Is the time flexible or fixed? • Each station should have a recording sheet • What is the plan if a student gets stuck?
Differentiating Stations • Vary the particular operations • Vary the degree of difficulty of activities based on students strengths and needs • Complexity, duration, group composition, and skills required
Management Tips • Explain the activity, model and practice with whole class • Take 10 minutes to introduce 1 station per day before beginning • Be clear on expectations – establish a clear policy for accountability, evaluation and value • Develop the ground rules with the students
Station Assessment • Check recording sheets 1x a week • Check student folders every 2 weeks for completed activities • Some stations – students may check with an answer sheet and write a comment on how they did and what they learned
Station Folders • 1 folder per student • Every folder has: • 4 step Problem Solving Plan • Math stations record sheet • Question sheet
Another Version of Stations • Use your school resources – IAs, Math Specialist, Special Educators, etc. • May use one or all • Create a rotation of “Stations,” which each participating member does curriculum • Example: • Math Classroom Teacher: New Content Material • Special Education Teacher: IEP Goals / Basic Review • Math Specialist: Extension from previous content • IA – Independent station – practice
Station Ideas: • Math & Literature Connections • Map Skills • Geoboards • Estimation • # Sense • Math & Art • Basic Skills (+, -, x, /) • Time • Graphs • Place Value • Problem Solving • Geometry • Data & Probability • Fractions • World Tour
Contact Information Kristen Wolf New Market Middle School Email: Kristen.wolf@fcps.org Website: http://www.fcpsteach.org/hp/usersites/kristen_wolf/New_Market_Middle_School_Math_/NMMS/ http://nmms.sites.fcps.org/kristenwolf
Let’s Try Some: • The Travel Game • Decimals In between game (Investigations game – adapted for MS) • MSA Lesson • Leap Frog – Problem Solving • Probability with Dice • Crossmatics