Guided Math {Chapter 2} + 4 on the Fourth

I'm so behind on this book study but I'm loving all of the ideas! Here is my take on Chapter 2: Using Guided Math to Create a Classroom Environment of Numeracy! These are some snippets from my Post-Its all over my book :)


Teach the students "how" to think: This is essential if we want our kiddos to succeed in math! We need to teach them why they are doing certain things {maybe borrowing in subtraction} so that they KNOW what they are doing! We need to teach them how to be problem solvers and connect to the real world! Such a challenging thing to do in our limited math time!

Organized classroom: Everything needs to be labeled and easy to reach! I definitely need to organize and label my manipulatives so that my kiddos can go and grab them whenever they need!

Numeracy filled room: The book says that when you walk into a room... you will most likely see a ton of literacy/reading stuff {word walls, trick words, writing, vocabulary walls, etc} but hardly any math! We need to post math vocabulary, math anchor charts, etc. This is sooo true! I always have all of my literacy charts up and ready... but hardly any math stuff! I plan on using my math vocabulary word cards and having a "math" wall!

Math talk: Developing and using math language is how our students will be able to understand and figure things out by themselves! Having them talk out their problem solving skills is essential... especially with Common Core!

Math ability is not genetic: The book states that sometimes parents excuse their kids' poor math skills because they weren't that good in math when they were their age! We have to explain to our kids and our parents that math skills are not genetic!! That all of our kids can succeed!

Student Notebooks: Student notebooks are a great reference that students can use to look back to what they have learned! I plan on using composition books for student math notebooks and record "notes" and glue in foldables... so if we need to go back and reteach a skill... it will all be there!

Foundational Principles of Guided Math:

• All students can learn mathematics.
• A numeracy-rich environment promotes mathematical learning by students.
• Learning at its best is a social process
• Learning mathematics is a constructive process. 
• An organized classroom environment supports the learning process.
• Modeling and think-alouds, combined with ample opportunities for guided and then independent problem solving and purposeful conversations, create a learning environment in which students' mathematical understanding grows.
• Ultimately, students are responsible for their learning!

Questions for this chapter:

1. Look back at the Foundational Principles of Guided Math. Which do you think are the two most important of these principles? Why? How does your classroom reflect those?

The two most important are that all students can learn mathematics and that an organized classroom environment supports the learning process. These are important because ALL students can learn maybe just different ways and because you need to be able to focus on learning and the lesson not at disorganization!!! :) I feel that in my classroom, I show my students that they can all learn! All of my math manipulatives are in a designated spot... they aren't labeled but I'm working on that!

     2. Do you think your students feel that they are members of a mathematical learning community? If so, how did you establish that feeling of community? If not, what can you do to create it?

I think my students felt that they were members of a mathematical learning community because we all worked together {whole group}, in groups, and with partners. We also all practiced our chants together. My students felt comfortable with one another because we had all worked together as a classroom family!

    3. Look at your classroom through the eyes of a new student. Walking into your class, what would he or she see that would indicate the importance of mathematics?

A new student would see some addition and subtraction anchor charts, they would hear math chants being said, cubbies full of manipulatives... but that's about it! I would love to add a math wall and more vocabulary!

Wooh! That was long! :) This chapter was full of fun stuff I would like to implement so I will also link up with Ms. M from Ms. M's Blog!

For her 4 on the Fourth linky party! Write about 4 things you plan to do this year!! 

1. Start a math wall!!  I would love to incorporate anchor charts and vocabulary stations! I would also love to start PowerPix walls {a la WBT!!}
2. Student Notebooks!!! Last year, I started the year with notebooks and it wasn't pretty! I plan to use composition books and pre printed "notes" in the beginning when my student's writing still is kinder writing! I also plan to include foldables from the beginning!
3. Keep my room organized!!! I stayed countless hours last year trying to maintain my room... it worked for a while but towards the end, my room looked BAD!! I got rid of my desk and then my poor horseshoe table got all of my papers and mess!! I need to find a better way to organize!
4. Organizational binders for my kids!!! I am almost done with my kiddos organizational binders! They are so cute and I can't wait to use these so that my kiddos can begin to learn how to stay organized! I am also not fond of those paper folders that are ripped by the end of the first week of school!!

So those are my four things that I WILL implement for this upcoming year! Thanks Ms. M for this awesome linky! It has made some of my goals a lot more concrete!! :)

Check out some giveaways by clicking the following images!!

I hope you all had an amazing 4th of July!!! 27 more days of vacation!!! Buh-bye!!

Ooh!! Has anyone used DropBox.. it is awesome! Download it on your computer and save everything you download into your DropBox folder!! Click {HERE} to check it out!! :)

Guided MATH Book Study {Chapter 1}

I started seeing this Guided Math book study in blog land and I couldn't wait to find out what it was all about! I ordered my book immediately. I received my book on Monday {YESTERDAY}, went to Office Max to get it bound on Tuesday {TODAY} {KINDA EXPENSIVE...ALMOST 5 BUCKS! I DONT KNOW IF I WOULD DO IT AGAIN BUT IT DID MAKE IT SO MUCH EASIER TO READ!!}, and started reading right away! I don't want to get ahead of myself so I stopped at chapter 1 so I could blog about it!

Chapter 1: Guided Math: A Framework for Mathematics Instruction
This chapter briefly went over the instructional components of the Guided Math model.

• A Classroom Environment of Numeracy
• Morning Math Warm-ups and Calendar Board Activities
• Whole-Class Instruction
• Guided Math Instruction with Small Groups of Students
• Math Workshop
• Individual Conferences
• An Ongoing System of Assessment

Conferencing! I had never heard of conferencing for math... reading?? yes but not math... this is very interesting for me because it will bring me closer to finding out WHERE my students truly are!

Assessing! The author {Laney} talks about assessing where your students are and then take your teaching from there. Yes, I have heard of this before. I think I took a bunch of classes on it during college but I honestly didn't do much pre-assessing this year but after reading chapter one she pointed out WHY we need to and HOW it helps our teaching and our kiddos learning {I can't wait to read the chapter that focuses on this!}

Math Workshop! Teaching your kiddos how to do it and training them so they could be successful! I think I could do this since Daily 5 was so successful last year :) I am interested in seeing what Laney says about the activities to use during Math Workshop. Could I use "math centers", fluency games {cards, dice, dominoes}, or something more specific to what I'm teaching??? I can't wait to read about this chapter!

The chapter also explains how often you need to do what!

Conference 3 times a week, Whole class instruction 4 times a week, small goups/workshop 3 times a week... of course this is just an example and she stresses that it is very flexible! You change it according to the needs of your students!

Overall, I am really excited to get into this book study and read, Guided Math! Obviously, I want to read A LOT of chapters! ;)

At the end of this chapter, the author posed some Review and Reflect questions:

Think of the way you currently teach mathematics.

1. What aspects of it are successful?

The aspects that are successful is how we recognize that math is full of patterns and always go back to that {fact families, skip counting, addition/subtraction}, using manipulatives, being able to draw pictures of our thinking, being able to talk about the steps needed to solve a problem, etc. 

    2.  What aspects of it trouble you? Why?

The aspects that troubled me the most was that I was always teaching whole group. I taught from my projector/camera and when I was done with a problem, I would walk around and assist wherever I could. The problem was that I don't have 24 teachers in my room! It was just me and I had such a hard time getting to every one of my students! I also had a variety of levels in my first grade SEI classroom. From kiddos that could barely recognize and write numbers/numerals to little ones that could add and subtract fluently by using a variety of strategies! Another aspect is that I was very limited on time. Since I am teaching in a SEI classroom with a 4 hour language block in a school where the hours are 8-2 with lunch AND special EVERY day, I was left with a very minimal amount of time for math...usually only 25-30 minutes! BLAH!!

  3. Does your math instruction lead your students to a deep conceptual understanding of the math standards that they are learning? If so, what are you doing that contributes to that? If not, how do you think you would like to change your teaching?

Yes, I believe my math instruction leads my students to a deep conceptual understanding! I really try to have my kiddos draw pictures and talk about what we are doing every day. For example, if we are adding double digit numbers, we would make two groups and draw a picture of how many are in each group. We would then add the ones place, then the tens place to find out the sum. I would remind my students that we could only have one digit in the ones place so if we had 10 or more we had to regroup, we would then draw a circle over the 10 objects we drew and moved them {with an arrow} to the tens place. I'm sure this sounds very confusing but I will add a picture soon! :) I feel that my students really got the concept of regrouping and WHY we had to do that! They were also able to explain their work! I would still like to grow in this area with other math topics!

I am linking up to Primary Inspired!

Go check it out! Tell me what you think about Guided Math! Does this interest you? Do you do something similar? I would love to know any ideas! Be on the look out for my chapter 2 post coming soon! :)

Have a lovely night! I am off to bed!