Let's Talk About Math

Common Core Math...yes, I said those words. I LOVE the Common Core Math Standards and how these standards have helped to create the independently thinking, problem solving, challenge craving 1st graders I have had the pleasure of teaching this year. These students are thinking about and solving problems I could have only daydreamed about a couple years ago, during my prep time, over a cup of coffee with way too much sugar and flavored creamer in it. I am excited to see these young, brilliant minds grow up and the paths their lives will take because they are able to think for themselves, apply their knowledge, and explain their thinking.

Our math block in 1st grade is quite extensive. There are many parts to it and it is very routined. Our daily  math block includes: Macarena Math, counting up/backwards, math facts practice, math journals, lesson/game/activity, guided and independent practice, and interventions. This does not include our daily calendar math and math power standards.

One goal I had for this school year was to get my students to hold meaningful conversations with their peers explaining how they had solved a math problem. After getting my feet wet in the new world of 1st grade, I decided to post math conversation sparkers in our classroom. These would be sentence starters that I would introduce individually, post on a sentence strip in the front of the classroom, then model and practice to 1st grade perfection before introducing another sparker. I was pleasantly impressed with how my students adopted these sparkers into their math conversations. Of course I was constantly monitoring student partnerships to ensure correct use and understandings of the sparkers and math concepts. If I heard a student struggling, I would first leave it up to the partner to help him or her. If more help was needed, the partner didn't help the struggling student, or the partner didn't know how to help then I would step in and model the process. My favorite and the most challenging math sparker was the last one I introduced, "My answer is reasonable because...". I had to make sure students fully understood this sparker and why I had introduced it before letting students try it in partnerships. But, this sparker was very important in student understanding of math concepts. When students could evaluate whether or not their answers were reasonable, I knew we had it (and we may have done a celebratory dance). 

We held math conversations throughout our school day whenever I saw the opportunity; however, we used it daily during the math journal portion of our math block. Our math journal routine includes the following: I read the word problem to the class, we read the word problem chorally circling important numbers and underlining key words, we act out the problem if it can be acted out (I felt this was super important to my hands-on, kinesthetic learners), solve the problem independently by drawing a picture and posing a number sentence, meet with math partner (students are strategically placed in partnerships) for their math conversation, edit/enhance their drawing and/or number sentence, and finally solve the problem as a class with students editing their journals if needed. During this process my job is merely acting as a facilitator. I try to let the students take control and use the problem solving strategies they know, even if they have the incorrect answer. I do this because I want the other student in the partnership to use their explanations and understanding of math concepts to try to help their peers, I want students to know that it's ok to make mistakes, I don't want math to be about getting the correct answer 100% of the time with students getting frustrated with math, and because we do go over the answer at the end with possible problem solving strategies, so students will see how to solve the problem. I love letting students take the driver's seat and they do too. It makes learning so much more engaging and fun! Yes, MATH IS FUN and students can think so too. It's a beautiful thing!

All of the math conversation sparkers on display at the front of the classroom
as a reminder to students.