Planning and Preparation

1a. Lesson Planning

If you have read my Philosophy of Education, you know I am student interest centered. I also center my lessons on student need based on data and overall observations from the students. I utilize lesson plans to differentiate for each student. Below are examples of lesson plans I have used for my 6th grade pull out math class.

1c. Interactive Pear Deck Slides

To provide students with clear directions, standards, and reminders during Math, I utilize Pear Deck Slides for students to follow. The students get the materials they need, which are in their math binders and also available virtually on Schoology. The students know exactly what I'm looking for and their pace is set by me. I remind them that everyone will be at different steps. Students and I work collaboratively to solve problems through drawing features, typing numbers, multiple choice questions, etc. Students can also access slides with video assistance and examples of problem solving whenever they want. Please explore my example through the Slides below.

1e. Weekly Math Lessons and Differentiating

Every week for my pull out math class, I focused the week on one specific standard. With the standards, I included a learning target to provide the standards with purpose. The lessons included practice with areas of math in which I saw gaps throughout collecting data in the year. We spent lessons learning how to utilize resources for math (i.e. multiplication charts, handheld manipulatives, etc.). When working on concepts, I sometimes broke them into groups to reach them at their level. I differentiated IXL every week based on the standard and what level/grade they scored on their IXL Benchmarks.

1b. Competition = Fan Favorite

Every choice I have made in a classroom has been with the focus of making students excited about ideas they love and things they are curious about. For this particular example, I wanted to play a game where they could utilize physical manipulatives and compete to have a winner. Students had two large foam dice where they added the numbers together and solved the problem they rolled. They placed their color piece on the number answer they got and the next person solved. I have noticed my math class is most motivated by competitions, so we competed in the "Bump Game Olympics." Students competed to solve Order of Operation questions to find a winner. Since then, we have started "planning" our next Olympic Games competition as an incentive.

1d. IXL

I am fortunate to have multiple resources to encourage student learning through multiple resources. The one I have utilized most this school year is IXL. Students completed the IXL Diagnostic three times in the school year where they continued to improve their scores and pinpoint their areas of need. Each week, students completed two IXL skills in both Math and ELA.

1f. Math Exit Tickets, Daily Journals, and More!

Exit Tickets: At the end of every math class, students independently answer a question on the concept we went over in class, designed by me. I also create their tests, quizzes, and gallery walks.

Daily Journals: For ELA, Students answer a journal everyday to improve their writing skills. We also use Scope Magazine where students sometimes listen to stories or read them out loud and then take an assessment on comprehension. I sometimes read the questions aloud with the students or give them the option to try it on their own first.