5 WAYS TO MASTER COMMON CORE MATH STANDARDS
MASTERING THE STANDARDS
I’m not sure about you, but I want to make math fun. I’m a total geek when it comes to math (well, at least first grade math) and not only do I love teaching it, but I love creating things that go along with our standards that make math fun.
BACKGROUND:
We switched to Eureka Math about seven years ago. I’m just going to say… it was a nightmare AT FIRST. We didn’t get trained in it – it was just thrown at us. Our first PD was after school started, and let’s just say… teachers were in an UPROAR – along with our parents.
The entire first module was about number bonds… and we didn’t even know what a number bond was. Y’ALL – seriously, it was BAD! But – you can go two ways… SINK OR SWIM… so we decided to use our snorkels and goggles, and try to find the best way to not only get our kiddos and parents on board, but to get us on board as well. So – we started created materials to help us teach our students. Because this was our first year, the students didn’t get the background knowledge they needed (because it wasn’t taught in Kindergarten the previous year, so our goal was to create things that would help us bridge the gap.) Anyway – just wanted to give you some background knowledge on how I’ve learned what I’ve learned.
BUILDING FLUENCY
When I think about building fluency, it’s not just about math facts, although we all know how important it is for students to know their facts. But to me, it’s giving students many different strategies that work for them which helps them master our common core math standards. Our district moved to a report card that is standards based. So our teachers now have to figure out if students mastered each first grade standard. Easier said than done, but as I began doing my walk-throughs and discussing certain things with teachers during our PLCs, we came to the conclusion that we would need to use many different strategies to not only assess students, but to help them master the standards.
MAKE IT FUN
Ya’ll – I’m serious… if you make it fun, half the battle is WON! Walking in and out of elementary classrooms on a daily basis – I love seeing how our teachers are MAKING IT FUN for their students. Obviously, in elementary it is much easier to make everything seem like fun, even the most mundane tasks… but eventually they will catch on if it isn’t actually fun. But I have always laughed at the fact that it’s ALL IN THE PRESENTATION. If I was excited, THEY WERE TOO!
Anyway – check out my blog on how to make it fun for students while common core math standards are being mastered. If you are in a state that doesn’t follow the standards, these tips can still apply! I’m really discussing how to help you students master what you want them to master!
Exactly what I was looking for! My babies love doing these! Thank you!
MAKE IT RELEVANT
In keeping in context of Eureka Math, my first attempts at teaching the lesson, having them do the problem set, and then the exit ticket was mediocre at best. It took me at least a year to get into the groove of doing the application problem, problem set, and exit ticket and then creating a learning atmosphere where my higher students were able to continue the learning without me so that I could teach the students who needed my help. Since I’m now an administrator, I love going into math classes and watching how teachers are making it relevant after the “meat and potatoes” of the lesson has been taught. Teachers are using different techniques to make sure all students are learning, even when the lesson is over… I love it! We also meet during PLCs and discuss what standards students are struggling with, since our goal is always to make sure students are mastering our common core math standards. Check out my blog about that below!
These powerpoints are some of the best things to ever happen to my math block. Love the independent and engaging practice.
MAKE IT DAILY
When I left the classroom a few years back to move to the school board, we were at a point in our district where they didn’t want us doing math centers. They only wanted literacy centers… blah, blah, blah. Well… I’m a rule follower, I REALLY am – but when I don’t believe or I do believe in something, BELIEVE me… I will find a way around the system to make it work for my students. I KNEW that math centers or math groups would help my students, so we incorporated them into our literacy centers. Find out how we did that here while still making sure that our students were able to get our common core math standards met!
These have been so helpful for center time! My students love using them! Thank you for sharing!
BUILD ON CONCEPTS
There have been so many times when students say, “But I don’t remember what to do!” OR “Did we learn this already?” While many curriculums are still built on teach the lesson, then move on – Eureka focuses a lot on continuous revisiting of concepts learned, and building on those concepts. Every morning, we used our morning math workbook to get our brains focused. These sheets have previous learning, today’s learning, as well as future learning to stretch our minds. Click here to see a blogpost on how it works.
These activities are wonderful! Very well planned and laid out! Thanks!
TECHNOLOGY THROUGHOUT THE DAY
Ya’ll… what better way to keep your students engaged and build math fluency than with technology. Our students use digital task cards as well as Boom task cards. These are closely tied to either the curriculum or to our math standards so that we are always having students practice skills that have been taught or will be taught. These make learning concepts so easy for our kiddos. This is a great way for differentiation as well – once you build your resources, it makes it so easy to assign students with task cards that they need to master skills/standards taught – all with the click of a button!
I would love to hear what you do to help your students on a daily basis. Remember WE ARE BETTER TOGETHER, so if you have ideas that can help someone else, please don’t hesitate to share! Thanks for stopping by my blog, and I hope to hear from you soon!
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