Changing Math Lessons for Unit 6

As you may know, I am one of the two teachers from the PGS fourth grade team who are on the math curriculum committee for our grade.  With three counterparts from RBS and our district K-6 math coach, we meet ever few months to continue the process of revising our math instruction.  (I’ll be out next Monday morning to attend one of our curriculum work days.)  When we transitioned to align with the Common Core two years ago, we found that our former series, Everyday Mathematics, was no longer appropriate in its entirety.  As we rewrote our fourth grade math curriculum, we worked to pull materials and resources that were best suited for teaching a given concept or skill.  Sometimes those resources came from individual Everyday Math lessons that we thought fit the objectives particularly well, sometimes they came from OnCore (which accounts for most of the worksheets you have seen come home), and occasionally we pulled in miscellaneous resources (including SMART Notebook lessons from SMART Exchange, homework or classwork worksheets from different sources, etc.)

Four our new math unit, which focuses on adding, subtracting, and multiplying fractions, we are using a new set of resources that we piloted last year.  EngageNY is a resource made available by the New York State Department of Education.  The state has developed Common Core-aligned lessons and resources for each grade, and we have found that the lessons are well-structured, include valuable resources, and integrate an appropriate amount of rigor (while not being unreasonably difficult).  As a team, we have found that the program is particularly well-suited for teaching fractions (especially the concepts covered in the current unit).  You and your fourth grader will see a few changes, and plenty of similarities too:

• Lessons are more structured.  While worksheets are still included for practice at the end of lessons, they are less emphasized than other lessons we have considered.  They will continue to be completed during math rotations.
• The word “tape diagram” is introduced.  It means the same as “bar model” (which your kids should certainly be able to explain to you!)  Both terms will be used interchangeably.  I think it’s a different term because of copyright issues.  That said, you may have heard your students discuss the differences between tape diagrams and area models late last week.  These are very similar visual models, but they do have differences.  Ask your fourth grader!
• Lessons continue to begin with a number talk, which allows students to practice mental computation skills and to discuss different methods in which they solved a given problem.
• Lessons may end with exit tickets.  These are very short (one or two question) worksheets that let teachers get a quick overview of student proficiency.  They can be used in different ways, including informal assessments, warm-ups for the next day, etc.  I use them sporadically.
• Classwork and homework worksheets have the potential to be more lengthy.  There are times when I may ask students to complete a whole assignment.  Other times, I may ask kids to complete certain sections.  Overall, however, the assignments will have more items than the five-item worksheets you remember from OnCore.  Additionally, most items are open-ended, as compared to the OnCore multiple choice homework worksheets.  This allows students to better apply their skills.  Homework worksheets more closely resemble the classwork pages, so a correct sheet from classwork can help a student as he or she completes the homework page.  You’ll notice that I (almost) always will have kids bring home their classwork worksheets.  Even though they may not be entirely completed (for the reasons explained above), I think they can often be helpful guides as kids complete their homework.  Students do NOT need to complete the unanswered classwork questions, unless that’s specifically written as part of the night’s homework assignment.  This practice should be familiar, as I did the same thing in previous units when we used OnCore materials.

As with all changes to our instructional plan, we will continue to meet as a team to review our progress, discuss what we like and don’t like about the new lessons, and revise our plans based on our experiences from students.

Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions!

Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss