Additive and Multiplicative Patterns with Geoboards?

So my Math (K-5) District Instructional Officer is nothing short of amazing! Both as a person and as a professional. She awes me each and every time she gets up to present. She's not flashy or overly passionate. She's simply a math geek who loves her craft and does everything in excellence.

I sat in on a training of hers last summer as she introduced to her sea of teachers around the district a website that has no doubt changed my vantage point both as a teacher and a coach/specialist. As a teacher I was "that teacher" that when I learned something new, I was implementing it in my class immediately! I wanted my kids to be 100% engaged and to subtly fall in love with math b/c of my approach in instruction. I no doubt carry that same passion when I turn around trainings and PDs for my teachers. I seek to capture their interest and ignite a fuel in them that sparks their desire to "flip their classrooms". And by flip I don't just mean technology wise, but to take a transformed and reflective attitude into their next lesson. I want them to seek to capture the imaginations and interest of their students through the delivery of their lessons, so that students walk away amazed and more so walk in the next day, eager to see what they will be learning that day...and how!?

So I say all that to say, I was geeked when my younger sister was playing on my iPad and discovered my Geoboard app through www.mathlearningcenter.org. I walked her through some cool things she could do and I went back to minding my business on my phone. A few minutes later, I look over and she has completely transformed the app and begun exploring other things to do with it. She's a music major, vocal genius and musical arts teacher so I'm sure she was exploring the app from that premise. However, I literally drooled (a healthy educational math drool) as I snatched the iPad out of her hands and began to play around with the app from the perspective of the K-5 TEKS that nest in my own mind.

Here's what I discovered. Keep in mind, this is for those of you who teach 5th grade 5.4CD (in the state of TEXAS) and/or use Common Core and teach the Additive/Multiplicative Patterns standards.

Side note: The lesson approach I use in the video is taken from a lesson plan I discovered weeks ago, online. So the idea is not my own. However, the interactive use of the Geoboard as a coordinate grid was my amazing discovery!  

Odd and Even

Just a quick share with you on TEKS 2.7A:

Resources for teaching 2.7A (Odd and Even numbers to 40)-

• Number Frames

• DecaDots or Ten Frames and double sided counters

• Hands On Standards *Make sure to click on Unit 3 (Student pages)

Here's a quick mini lesson video for you...

Enjoy! Hope this helps!

Mental Addition and Subtraction Strategies

Huge "WELCOME BACK" to my 2nd and 3rd grade Math teachers!

This one is just for you!

Just wanted to share some mental strategies our TEKS specify that students should be able to use to assist with solving addition and subtraction of 2 digit numbers (2nd grade) and 3 digit numbers (3rd grade).

It might be advantageous to brief yourself on "Number Talks" to help students be more flexible and fluent with these strategies.

You can find "Number Talks" on YouTube or purchase the book which has a video CD at the back with various examples. I would suggest utilizing them every morning before class for about 10 minutes to build fluency and flexibility with number (sense) among your students!

The following videos help build on this number sense and should be used when teaching grade 2 +/- (2.4B & 2.4C) or grade 3 +/- (3.4A & 3.5A).

COMPENSATION (strategy)

PLACE VALUE (strategy)

MAKING A TEN (strategy)

Enjoy! And leave comments or hit me up on Twitter (@Lady_JAG) or Facebook (Kim O'Neal)! 

Digital Story Mats

I sat in on a phenomenal training the other day by way of serving as the session "helper". My assignment was to help the presenter with any technology issues and ensure that attendees signed in and get their class credit.

As I was listening to this presenter show other teachers how to implement "Movie Talks" in their world languages classes, I got an idea, I wanted to share with you.

So in Kindergarten, we know students are expected to compose story problems or word stories as they practice the concept of joining and separating.Finding STORY MATS is as easy as googling and printing. But if you have a great curriculum resource, you might find a few there as well.

In the video, below, I reference Kathy Richardson's "Developing Number Concepts" book and she has lots of Blackline masters for Story Mats in the back.

My desire is to see teachers using technology in their classes (and by that I mean "students using technology") and introduce story mats to our students!

ENJOY!!!

Adding (2) Two-digit numbers using Place Value Strategies- 2nd grade

Check out my vblog for adding 2 two-digit numbers using tools such as hundreds charts and number lines.

I believe these tools assist with developing place value and mental strategies for our students as noted in the Texas standards (2.4B).

To access a few of the resources I reference in the video:

Standards Snapshot: Lead4ward

Number Line app: Math Learning Center

I also want to add a link to Donna Boucher's blog since she has a FREE resource that puts a hundreds chart next to the number line where students can practice this right after your lesson!

Watch the video!

Multiple looks at Multiplication!

(cited: https://www.tes.com/lessons)

Try these analogies:

Zebra is to stripes as giraffe is to _________.

Helmet: Football:: Broom:__________. 

Teachers planning in isolation is detrimental to students AS ...

Teams planning in isolation is equally ...__________________________________________________.

The first two pretty easy? Well of course. (answers: spots, cleaning)
What did you say about the third one?

Well the final analogy has to deal with the power of Vertical Teams planning. When I began as a teacher I had no choice but to plan alone. As magnificent as I believed myself to be I'm sure in my first few years, I ruined a great deal of kids. (shhhh...don't tell them)

(cited: https://teachertweaks.wordpress.com)

When I finally joined a team, I gained so much more insight into what I was doing, what I was supposed to be doing and whether or not my techniques were standard and research-based, even!

Before my tenth year in education, I was afforded the privilege to participate in some vertical math team planning sessions and my mind was blown! Coming from facilitation of 6th-8th grade for the first 5 years of my career, I had an idea of what I was to be doing when I became a 5th grade teacher. But at this point, it being my fourth consecutive year as a 5th grade math teacher, to sit with 3rd and 4th grade teachers and hear their input as to the strengths and weaknesses of students intrigued me. To hear how concepts were being taught in other grade levels opened up a whole new world of realization for me.

I reaped the benefit of knowing (for example) that students should have been coming to me already knowing how to make equivalent fractions, so when I began teaching add/subtract fractions with different denominators, it shouldn't be a skill I needed to spend a few days introducing. It needed to be a skill I reviewed as I introduced my focus skill. Talk about huge benefit! It saved me days in my instructional pacing!

Other Benefits of Vertical Team Planning/Discussions:
1. I began to know how to better pre-assess my students.
2. I was able to understand how to intervene and re-mediate (by reaching back and closing previous grade level gaps).
3. I knew which teacher to go and tattle to when one of the students said "we never learned that!"

Okay, that last one I threw in for fun-sies ...but doesn't that happen though? LOL

Anyways, in the same way that teachers planning in isolation is detrimental to both students and that lone-teacher; teams planning in isolation can be equally hazardous to the instructional process within a campus.

(cited: https://media.licdn.com/mpr)


Richard Dufour (of "All Things PLC" and Solution Tree) gives
precise focus for collaboration on Vertical Teams.

Check out my video that might bring up some great conversations for 2nd-5th grade Math teachers who might have the chance to participate in Vertical planing. The concept I focus on is Multiplication from creating equal groups to multiplying decimal numbers using models.

Arrays and Area Models are the focal point in these videos as well as how to connect the models to the algorithm!

Part 1 (2nd through 3rd grade)

Part 2 (4th through 5th grade)

I give a brief look at the following TEKS -
2.6A,
3.4D, 3.4E, 3.4G
4.4C, 4.4D
5.3B, 5.3D
...and the documents I use can be found at Lead4ward's website (their free resources) called the "Snapshot".

A few of the apps you see me using in the video are also free!!!
*Who doesn't love free stuff!?

Math Learning Center "Number Pieces" and "Number Frames" apps!

Let me know if there are any additional Vertical Team Planning videos you'd like to see as it pertains to K-5 Math instruction!

Word Walls in Math

How cute is YOUR Word Wall? Super cute like this one!?
How interactive is your Word Wall? If you're like me, when you were in the classroom it was probably growing cobwebs! Until an Instructional Specialist came in a modeled for me how to make it interactive in one of my science stations. From there, I used the same idea during my math stations! From then on, I realized the power of Math Word Walls in the language development as well as the mathematical success and confidence of my students!!

One focal area for this upcoming year will be WORD WALLS on my campus! Although the demographic make-up of our campus is thirsty for language development, you don't have to be an English Language Learner in order to benefit from such tools as Word Walls!

This link lists some additional tools that are best practices for all learners. I, myself, am a visual learner so any teacher that uses hand movements, allows movement, lets me talk and draw pictures provides the perfect atmosphere for me to learn. I can't tell you how dreadfully bored I am when I go to a training where my am held captive to my seat while the presenter does ALL of the talking (much less when they insult my intelligence by reading the Power Point to me word by word). But I digress!

I want to share a website with you that might assist you with a Word Wall station you could create in your class!
Google "Free Math Apps" and look for "The Math Learning Center". Or simply click on the link just listed. You should come to page like so:

Now,  let me paint the picture for your classroom set up.

All of your students are sitting on the carpet in a semi-circle around you and you have invited a student up to stand across from you. Prior to class (ideally during the course of the unit) you have placed up about 10-15 vocabulary words on your wall (via index cards or maybe printed out from one of these websites).

Math Word Walls

Vocabulary Cards

You hold an iPad with this free Web App pulled up called "Math Vocabulary Cards".

You read the definition of the missing vocabulary word to your partner, then turn the iPad to face him/her and let them look at the visual/definition. You encourage them to look at the words listed on the WORD WALL behind you two and use the clues on the iPad to take an educated guess. Once they guess...you hit the EYE looking button in the top right corner to reveal the answer.



The two of you trade places or you hand the iPad to him/her. They hit the PLAY button and you switch turns becoming the one using the clues to guess the words.

Once this "game" is introduced to your class, I might suggest putting students in pairs and letting them practice it for about 3 minutes while on the floor. Have a mini-discussion about procedures and expectations and then later in the week, make it a station!

In the station, put up a poster with your expectations and "I can" objectives such as:

"I can orally describe key math vocabulary using picture models and definitions."

If you want to differentiate for your more advanced learners, click on the little "HIDE/SHOW" button in the bottom middle and choose to either hide the definition (causing students to create their own) or hide the picture (prompting students to draw their own). 

What a buzz this station will be! You kids will love picking a partner and growing in proficiency as they conquer more words each week! You might even have them create 3 columns in their math journal labeled "Don't know", "Sort of know" and "I rock" and as they conquer more words, they can write them on sticky notes and move them from the "Don't know" category to the "I rock" category!!

If you have additional ideas, don't hesitate to leave a comment or two! Enjoy!

5th Grade Math Readiness Videos

I support a Title school in my district and in preparation for our Summer version of SSI, I put together a few videos for the teachers who would be facilitating the sessions.

I wanted to place these short clips on my blog site in efforts to "spread the love". Although I put together lesson plans for SSI, I knew the teachers who'd be working with our students, had never taught 5th grade. Initially, it was a scary thought, but when I found out WHO those teachers would be (some of our campus finest), I let out a sigh of relief. There's just a level of trust you accrue when you know that a model teacher can take their best practices and apply them to ANY group of students. Model teachers have the "with-it-ness" to study standards and apply their instructional practices for the benefit of students!

Despite this trait, I can't assume that we (as educators) don't daily fight the natural tendency to slip into our mathematical vernacular (our old ways we were taught). It takes looking at the NEW MATH TEKS from the concrete to abstract path rather than jumping straight into the abstract.

I might be on a 'road less traveled' when it comes to this approach, because many people might argue that students need to be taught 'whatever it takes' this late in the game 'to get them to pass the STAAR'. My belief is contrary, it's predicated on never abandoning the foundation of math for a quick teach. Retaining and comprehension are at stake. I'm not one to argue my stance, but just a heads up...these videos model quick re-teaches without "tricks".

Here are the Readiness Standards ONLY! Coaches, feel free to watch these in PLC with your teams, or simply share them with some of your 5th grade math teachers. You will hear me reference "SSI timing" so ignore certain phrases when thinking about how to use this in your initial instruction throughout the year!

5.3E

5.3G

5.3K

5.3L

5.4F

5.4H

5.9C

4.2A Can someone INTERPRET that for me?

I've heard teachers say that teaching 4.2A is just teaching "place value". They couldn't be more off base. It's more than that!

I've also seen teachers completely SKIP teaching 4.2A as to avoid the uncertainty of what it really means and to hide from the insecurity of 'not knowing'. They would probably find themselves in good company as this is a common practice with teachers.

Listen friend, there's no harm in studying your TEKS and using resources such as John Van De Walle's' "Student-Centered Math" to help you gain a richer understanding of how to meet the needs of your students!

Let's put an end to the avoidance as well as the misinterpretation of this standard, shall we?

Check out my 3 videos below and gain some ideas on how to uncover this understanding in your students! Hope you enjoy the hidden ELL strategies and formative assessments tucked in each video!

A special thanks to my fabulous network of teachers that aren't afraid to allow curiosity to spark investigation and both uncover as well as attempt new things! #indebted

Student Engagement...you or them?

What spurs engagement in our students? 

Is it an intrinsic attitude they must possess? Should they walk into class wanting to participate in the learning?

Is it an extrinsic motivating circumstance created by the teacher to pique and sustain the interest in the subject being taught? 

Is it a little of both? 

Watch a bit of the 7 min video clip and determine what is keeping these students engaged in the learning.

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/subtraction-math-lesson-ousd#

In an article written by Richard Strong in Educational Leadership, teachers were polled about what type of work they found engaging. Their responses are wrapped up in the following summary,

"Engaging work, respondents said, was work that stimulated their curiosity, permitted them to express their creativity, and fostered positive relationships with others. It was also work at which they were good. As for activities they hated, both teachers and students cited work that was repetitive, that required little or no thought, and that was forced on them by others."

Consider the following components:
1. Stimulates curiosity
2. Allows students to express creativity
3. Fosters positive relationships with others

Fractions and more! (4.3F and 5.3K)

There's an epidemic spreading throughout our classrooms and it's deadly; a silent killer.

Do you care what that widespread outbreak is? It's the lack of manipulative use in the classroom.

The understanding of fraction concepts...I'm talking the conceptual awareness that is mandatory for students to be successful in computing fractions...is predicated on the concrete foundation of fraction manipulation. When students skip this constructive play time, when we (as teachers) fail to intentionally embed this hands-on time into their lesson plan, we set our students up for a weak, rule-based abstract understanding (or lack thereof) concerning fractions.

Here are a few videos to support a 4th and 5th grade TEKS, respectively:

4.3F (and 4.3E)

5.3K

Multiplying Decimals

As we continually grasp an understanding of the New Math TEKS, we notice that 5th grade embodies a lot of the standards previously taught in middle school/intermediate level.Within that sphere of knowledge, we (as Instructional professionals) have tried to own the concept of 'how do we teach an intermediate concept at an elementary level'?

I'd like to share many of my study tools with you and encourage you to dig a little deeper into uncovering the mysteries behind this question. One of my favorites (introduced to me by a mentor and friend) is Teaching Student Centered Math by John Van de Walle (3-5th). He is the guru (in my opinion) of breaking down math to its most concrete understandings and he offers various hands-on activities and formative type assessment ideas!

Another favorite study tool of mine is the Lead4ward Field Guide and the Region 13 Click on TEKS. Make sure your district and school have these documents...they are critical to our understanding of how the TEKS will be tested and more importantly they're the basis for ensuring the facilitation of solid Tier 1 instruction in the classroom.

Any-"who"...as we shift focus toward intervening and preparing to conduct STAAR review, a lot of reteaching is on the horizon and we've brought in some additional teachers from various grade levels to assist with this in our testing grades. So i've had to do some quick-teaches and minds have been blown. Teachers from lower grades are seeing how complex math has become at the upper elementary levels. But when mixed with concrete and representational strategies, these concepts aren't so abstract after all!

Check out my video blogs!

Compatible Numbers (with Division)

Working in a Title 1 school is always an adventure. When I did a model lesson, I introduced the topic and vocabulary word "compatible" with the hook question, "How many of you have seen the advertisements for Match.com (c) ?"

Sure enough students raise their hands and before long began shouting out other dating sites they've seen commercials for! Before long, we began conversations about how they match those who sign up with others who they are compatible with by using their likes and hobbies. From that discussion they were able to ascertain that 'compatible' meant something like 'finding someone who has something in common with you'.

Compatible numbers has been quite the nemesis for teachers primarily because it's a new concept. Before now, we were accustomed to 'rounding' as a strategy to estimate solutions (sums, differences, products and quotients). But compatible numbers is something we, as adults, use in our everyday mental math (believe it or not).

I would explain it as simply finding numbers that work friendly with other numbers.

• In addition & subtraction, 5s and 0s are easier to add (without regrouping) or digits that make ten.
• In multiplication, 0s & 2s are the easiest to mentally multiply.
• Watch this video to see what type of numbers are compatible with divisor in division...