Managing small group work when no other adults are around to assist can be a great challenge. Especially considering the vast differences in mathematical understandings educators are experiencing in the classroom this year. So how can small group work be structured to benefit all kids in the classroom no matter where they are in their understanding? The Build Math Minds Facebook group community delivered a ton of super helpful strategies to help answer that question and I wanted to share some of those in today’s podcast episode.

Episode 119 - Managing Small Group Work

The Build Math Minds podcast is for my fellow Recovering Traditionalists out there. If you don’t know whether or not you are a Recovering Traditionalist, here’s how I define us. We are math educators who used to teach math the traditional way. Flip lesson by lesson in the textbook, directly teaching step-by-step how to solve math problems. But now, we are working to change that to a style of teaching math that is fun and meets our students where they are at, not just teaching what comes next in the textbook. We want to encourage our students to be thinkers, problem solvers, and lovers of mathematics..we are wanting to build our students math minds and not just create calculators. If that is you, then this podcast is for you.

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If you’ve struggled with how to help your elementary students build their math fluency, there is one thing I encourage you to do: Help your students build their flexibility with numbers. Textbooks try to directly teach strategies to students thinking that is how they will build flexibility, but you spend months doing that and then later in the year they act like they have no idea what you are talking about.  That’s when we revert back to just making kids memorize.  In this episode we take a look at my book Fluency Through Flexibility…because fluency doesn’t happen from memorization or teaching a ton of different strategies, it happens when kids build connections & relationships around the numbers so they can use those to help them solve any math problem. Get any links mentioned in this video at BuildMathMinds.com/169   

Episode 169 - Math Fluency Through Flexibility

When I first started teaching I don’t think I ONCE used a math manipulative with my students.  It was all about learning and memorizing procedures and I didn’t know they needed to actually understand the math.   Now, I’m a Recovering Traditionalist and I know that kids need to understand the math, not just DO it, and to help them understand they need to work with math manipulatives.   In this episode, I’m sharing 3 key things to watch out for when working with math manipulatives.  We need to be using math manipulatives at any age however we need to make sure we do it properly or they can easily become just like any other rote procedure we tend to teach kids in mathematics.  Get any links mentioned in this video at BuildMathMinds.com/168 

Episode 168 - Use Math Manipulatives - No Matter The Age

Growing up I thought doing Mental Math meant doing the algorithm in my head.  Times have changed and now many educators have kids solve math in different ways but during Mental Math it’s still only having kids to do math in their head.  That’s not exactly what Mental Math should be about.  In this episode we explore what doing Mental Math really should be like. Get any links mentioned in this video at BuildMathMinds.com/167 

Episode 167 - Mental Math does NOT mean doing it in your head

If you’ve ever watched a child during a counting collection and thought “Ugh! Why are you grouping the items like that?!?”  Well, there’s probably a reason.  There is a progression kids go through when organizing items they are counting.  Now even though this information comes from a book about Early Childhood Education, it still applies to those of you in 3rd-5th as you work to help them group items in ways that lead to multiplicative thinking. Watch this week’s video about The Progression of Grouping to help you understand why kids might be grouping items a certain way and how to help them.  Get any links mentioned in this video at BuildMathMinds.com/166 

Episode 166 - A Child’s Progression When Grouping to Count Items

It is commonly thought that Geometry in the early grades is just about getting kids to name and identify shapes.  There are actually 4 big ideas talked about in the Navigating Through Geometry book.  One of which is the work around two- and three-dimensional shapes but it is so much more than just naming & identifying shapes.   In this episode we take a look at what knowledge kids in PreK-2 should be developing around shapes and the types of experiences you can provide to help them develop it. Get any links mentioned in this video at BuildMathMinds.com/165   

Episode 119 - Managing Small Group Work

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