This week is maths week and I was very excited that planning was all done for me and I was going to change up maths to tie in with maths week. However, when I followed the lesson on Monday, with what I considered quite easy maths for my students, it was a very long and laboured lesson. I think the activity would have been sensational for my group of students last year. This year though, another story. So I decided to can those lessons and continue with my normal maths routine that allows students to work on a few knowledge goals with a buddy and then with me on add/sub strategy. Good choice I think and so a walk through on Wednesday showed this.
At the beginning of the term, when I had three new students, I buddied them up with an experienced student to let them explain the ropes of our maths routine. I was rewarded from the hard work of establishing routines by watching how well buddies showed their partner how to work their way through the maths goals. Being able to work one-on-one with most students each day has been terrific for building each student's maths knowledge, strategy ability, relationship with me and also reading. I recognise that at the moment students are not really interacting with each other to establish their mathematical problem solving so that will be my next step. I do feel one major benefit is really knowing my learners and being able to give them next steps very quickly.
Another benefit has been managing behavioural issues. Knowing the level of each student and giving them each time to be successful at their current working level is terrific as well as pairing students up with who they work well with.
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