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How do we encourage playful, productive struggle in Math Menu?
Our goal in Math Menu is for students to feel both relaxed and curious. Let’s use a recess analogy to help visualize our menu practice. At recess, students are independent and engaged in an activity of their choosing. They are motivated, playful and happy. Some students are working hard at various games and challenges all across the playground space. Others are focused on independent play and exploration. Some students are working to master a particular skill or apparatus. Most students are relaxed during recess. Their curiosity, interest, and preferences drive their choices.
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Establishing Classroom Culture
Establishing a classroom culture within the first six weeks of school is crucial for the success of a learning community. To facilitate an inclusive community culture, educators should establish routines and expectations with students, use language with intention to reflect the ideal of the environment, and foster student voice, choice and ownership through authentic learning experiences.
Inclusion and MTSS
I spend a lot of time in schools in many different grade levels and while there are more differences than similarities in the goings on of a 1st grade classroom and a 10th grade one, a major similarity is the question of inclusion. How does one classroom teacher meet the needs of all their students when the needs can be quite disparate?
Differentiation - What Is It?
What is differentiation and where can it be applied? A differentiated classroom is facilitated by an educator's timely and ongoing response to student needs. Educators target and implement strategies and tools that provide access and inclusion and promote student engagement, independence and growth with content, process and products. The learning environment and a balanced math block provide the structures and opportunities for all students to receive the support and just right instruction they need to achieve high levels of success. Differentiated instruction can be applied to 4 key areas of …
MTSS and the All Learners Lesson Structure
Schools and classrooms are filled with diverse learners who all have their own individual knowledge and needs when it comes to learning. A Multi-Tiered or Multi-Layered System of Support (MTSS) provides a system in which educators can meet the needs of all students through adding layers of support. All Learners Network's (ALN) All Learners Lesson Structure provides a way to incorporate the elements of MTSS within a math class/block. The All Learners Lesson Structure includes four elements: Launch, Main Lesson, Math Menu and Closure. All parts of the lesson include differentiation, inclusion fo …
Why Math Menu Matters Even More Right Now
Published: Fall 2020 This school year has so many of us feeling like our first year teacher-selves, struggling with the work and effort that is required when you’re learning how to do something new. It feels like we are facing more obstacles than solutions and more don’ts than do’s. It has brought us face to face with so many gaps, struggles, emotions, hardships, and inequities. As teachers who are on a mission to ensure all means all in our school buildings, we confront these struggles on a daily basis as we dive into the complex work of building trusting relationships with our students to he …
30 Minute Intervention Block Using Math Menu
At Malletts Bay School, we had a set 30 minute intervention block beyond what we call “First Instruction.” My everyday math block consisted of about 55 minutes for the math lesson that day and then an additional 30 minutes set aside for intervention. That first 55 minutes of math includes a Number Talk, the Math Message, the Focus Lesson, Independent Practice and a Summary. Typically, this takes more like 45 minutes because we have 10 minutes of snack in between first instruction and Intervention. The 30 minutes of Math Intervention is the time when our math interventionist pulls a small group …
