Station Rotations in Math: One Month Update

On August 22 of this school year, Mrs. Allen and I began a new way of delivering math instruction to our 6th-Grade students at Pepper Tree Elementary.  First, we decided to treat the 29  students in each of our home rooms as one math class.  Second, we chose to open the divider between our adjoining rooms to create a large open area for learning.  Then rather than grouping students by performance level, we decided to group heterogeneously.   We wanted all students to help each other reach goals.  We wanted to decrease the idea that only a few students have the ability to succeed at math.  We believe that all students can and will acquire proficient math skills.  Finally, we settled on eight groups of 7-8 students in each group.  

Mrs. Allen would deliver the direct instruction to each group as they rotated to her.  The other groups we had designated were:  GO Math online work (2 different groups),  a group challenge station, an explore center, a prove it to me rotation, and then there were groups using Khan Academy and Prodigy.  I would like to give an update on challenges and successes we have seen over the first 19 days of school.

GO MATH ONLINE:    The information that Go Math online provides Mrs. Allen and me is useful.  We can see quickly which problem students are missing which allows us to talk about that the next morning before beginning our rotations for the day.  Also, the students are getting immediate feedback about how they are doing on a math question.  For instance, if a student answers a question incorrectly, they get a message saying Try Again.  If they miss again, the program shows them the correct answer and then allows them to try another question similar to the one they just missed.  At the end of online practice tests, the students get their results right away.  We are allowing the students to redo these practice tests up to 10 times.  One challenge has been that we are finding that not all students are completing the entire online assignment in a timely manner.  I will discuss modifications to our program at the end of the stations review.

GROUP CHALLENGE:  We set this station up as choose the challenge.  The students have the following activities to choose from:  KenKen puzzles, board game creation, tennis tournament design, and other math logic type problems.  We have been pleased with the collaboration in most of the groups.  One group has created a great game about absolute value.  Other groups have taken an interest in solving 3 x 3 and 4 x 4 KenKen puzzles.  They are working their way up to the more challenging 6 X 6 puzzles. There have been some challenges in this station as all students learn to listen and work together without being told directly by the teacher what they need to accomplish.  We do not mind this struggle as we feel it is important that all students learn to work together and produce results without constant adult guidance.

EXPLORE:  In this station, students are watching instructional videos that give real-world applications of the skills they are learning, or the videos are serving as introductory material for the math concepts they will be practicing or have been practicing.  These are links that we curated over the summer for each module with the addition of Edpuzzle videos that focus on specific concepts we want to reinforce for the students, such as Greatest Common Factor.

PROVE IT TO ME:  This station's purpose is to allow the students an alternative way of showing that they understand the standards taught.  Currently, each student is using Google Slides to demonstrate what they know about the standards in Unit 1.  There are 11 slides that the students will create using images, words, videos, etc. to explain the concepts.  We envision this expanding into a more creative station as the year progresses.  We would like to see students create books, videos, songs, newsletters, and so on to prove they've got it.  This group has been the most challenging because the students have never been asked to show their reasoning this way, and again they are waiting to be told what to do.

KHAN ACADEMY- We are using this station to reinforce Module skills.  For instance, in module 2 we are teaching the students the idea of Least Common Multiple and Greatest Common Factor.  We have used Khan to have students go to the 6th-grade math section of Khan to explore the videos and practice sets for Properties of Numbers.  Some students are having trouble demonstrating on task behavior for this center.  By that I mean let's say it is a 20-minute station.  We would expect the students to have 15 or more minutes recorded for that day.  We are finding some students have less than 10 minutes.  It makes us wonder what happened the other 10 minutes of the station.  It is our goal to reduce this off task behavior as the year goes on.  We like the fact that Khan gives us a daily report of activity, a report of students struggling with skills, a report of concepts mastered, and a report on skills that need to be practiced still.  It is one more source of data that Mrs. Allen and I can use to inform our instruction.

PRODIGY- The majority of students love playing this game.  We have set the skills the students will practice as they play for the week such as rational numbers, factors and multiples, and absolute value.  When they demonstrate a certain level of mastery, the game offers questions in other areas.

MRS. ALLEN- This center is for the students to receive direct instruction on the various math lessons.  The students take notes in their math journals as Mrs. Allen demonstrates and explains the concepts.  This station just reinforces the value of direct face to face instruction with a small number of students. 

After reflecting on successes and challenges over the first 19 days, Mrs. Allen and I have come to the conclusion that eight stations were just a little too many at this time.  Therefore, we have opted to go with six groups of 9-10 students.  We would want students to have more time with Go Math problem solving.  With that in mind, we have eliminated Prodigy as a regular station at this time.  The students will be allowed to choose this activity upon completion of Go Math activities and completion of other station expectations.  Also, we have suspended the use of the Explore rotation at this time.  We will add some of these videos to our morning video routine.

I have to say I am pleased with how the math program is shaping up.  I am enjoying working more directly with Mrs. Allen to help our students.  We meet every day after school to discuss daily progress and to make plans for the next day.  I should note that we are allowing the computer programs to grade all math work whether it be a Google form assessment, a Go Math online lesson, Prodigy, or Khan.  Without having to grade daily math assignments, this is allowing us more time to consider the needs of each student daily.