Chapter 9-Mathematics

Math was my favorite subject in school growing up, so as a teacher I try to make math meaningful and fun to learn in my classroom. I know how important math skills are in the real world and I work to make sure my students are able to successfully use the math they are learning in 3rd grade. In 3rd grade we learn a lot of new math skills, so it is important for me to continue to search for new ways to improve my math instruction. Over the years, I have learned several strategies that I do well in my math instruction. First, I do guided math groups once a week for review and extra practice. I would like to do math groups more often, but it is hard to get all the content taught during the week. During these groups, my students rotate through 4 stations (computers, games, independent work, and meeting with the teacher) for about 15 minutes each. I get to have extra practice with some groups and use challenge work with other groups. I also try to make my math instruction real world and interactive. I use problems that students would see in the real world and try to make each lesson meaningful. I use my Smart Board and math websites to help the students stay engaged during the lesson. I also try to use math songs and videos to help my students with math. Right now, we are learning a Multiplication Rap to help reinforce the multiplication facts that we've already learned. Finally, I have a lot of math early finisher work for my students so the high level students can work on these fun activities after they are finished with their work during the day. I try to do whatever I can do to keep my students engaged and successful in math.

After monitoring my students during math, I have seen there are several things I don't do well. First, I don't use a lot of independent practice. We do a lot of guided practice with individual white boards, but I struggle with finding time for independent practice during the school day. I want to do more individual work so I can see how students are progressing during the lesson. Time seems to be a big problem! Also, I don't have a self-monitoring system for my struggling math students. I really liked the examples in the book of checklists for students to follow during math. I would like to create a checklist for some of my students with questions about paying attention and taking their time with math work.

One area of math instruction that I would like to improve in is problem solving. I teach problem solving with different units, but I have never used a set system or program. I would like to use a problem solving strategy so my students could refer back to this strategy whenever they are completing word problems. I find that word problems are some of the hardest math problems for 3rd graders to answers. I would also like to work more with differentiated instruction in math. I am currently meeting with my low math students twice a week in the mornings to go over test taking strategies for PASS. I also want to challenge my high students and find ways to include them with peer tutoring or other classroom activities.