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Program Components for Grades 1-6 (For Kindergarten, see below)
Math Journal 1 and Math Journal 2
Student Reference Book (Grades 3-6 only)
Minute-Math+ (Grades 1-3 only)
Lesson Structure Lessons are divided into three parts:
2. Ongoing Learning and Practice
3. Options for Individualizing
Lesson Components A Math Message is provided at the beginning of each lesson, beginning with Unit 4 in first grade. The Math Message usually leads into the lesson for the day; sometimes it reviews topics previously covered. Children should complete the Math Message before the start of each lesson. You can display Math Messages in a number of ways. You may want to write them on the board, overhead transparencies; or post them on the bulletin board; or duplicate them ahead of time on quarter-sheets as handouts. Many teachers find it attractive to have children record their answers to the Math Message. In some classrooms, children keep a daily Math Journal where they enter Math Message questions and answers. In other classrooms, children record their answers on quarter- or half-sheets, which teachers collect from time to time. Although the Teacher's Lesson Guide contains many suggestions for Math Messages, you are encouraged to create your own, designed around the needs of your children and on the activities that take place in your classroom. You may also want to provide a Suggestion Box into which children can put their own Math Message ideas as well as number stories.
The term Mental Math and Reflexes refers to exercises, usually oral, designed to strengthen children's number sense and to review and advance essential basic skills. Mental Math and Reflexes sessions should be brief, lasting no more than five minutes. Numerous short interactions are far more effective than fewer prolonged sessions. There are several kinds of Mental Math suggestions provided in the Teacher's Lesson Guide. Some involve a choral counting routine; many are basic-skills practice with counts, operations, or measures; and some are problem-solving exercises. Ideally, children record their answers to these problems on slates. The Teacher's Lesson Guide suggests Mental Math and Reflexes exercises for almost every lesson. You are encouraged to use these exercises based on your children's needs and your classroom activities. If the suggested exercises do not meet the needs of your class, feel free to provide an alternate set.
Math Boxes, originally developed by Everyday Mathematics teacher Ellen Dairyko, are an excellent way to review material on a regular basis. In Everyday Mathematics, Math Boxes are one of the main components of review and skills maintenance. Once this routine has been introduced, almost every lesson includes a Math Boxes page in the Math Journal as part of the Ongoing Learning and Practice section. Math Boxes problems are not intended to reinforce the content of the lesson in which they appear. Rather, they provide continuous distributed practice of all skills and concepts in the program. The Math Boxes page does not need to be completed on the same day as the lesson, but it should not be skipped. Math Boxes are designed as independent activities. Expect that your guidance will be needed, especially at the beginning of the school year when some problems review skills from prior years. If children struggle with a problem set, it is not necessary to create a lesson to develop these skills. You can modify or skip problems that you know are not review for your children. Lesson activities revisit skills throughout the year. Math Boxes also provide useful assessment information on review skills.
Home Links are the Everyday Mathematics version of homework assignments. Each lesson has a Home Link, which can be found in the Math Masters book. The next lesson has a follow-up to the previous Home Link. Home Links consist of active projects and ongoing review problems that show parents what the children can do in mathematics. A blank Home Link form has also been provided for you to create your own. Home Links activities serve three main purposes: They (1) promote follow-up, (2) provide enrichment, and (3) involve parents or guardians in their children's mathematics education. Other reasons for using Home Links throughout the year include the following:
Many Home Links require children to interact with parents, other adults, or older children. Since primary caregivers or those likely to help with the homework are not necessarily "parents," Home Links instruct children to complete the activity with someone at home. At the beginning of the year, send home the introductory Family Letter to acquaint parents with the Everyday Mathematics program. Continue to involve families throughout the year by sending home unit-introduction letters that explain the content that will be covered. Everyday Mathematics also provides Family Letters that are meant to be sent home at the with particular Home Links. These letters explain an idea or an activity that parents might not be familiar with. All Family Letters and Home Links are included in the Math Masters book. Think of the Home Links suggestions as a beginning. As you and your students become familiar with the program, you may want to send home activities of your own as Home Links. You may also want to use the Home Links format to extend various Explorations and Projects. Blank Home Links forms have been provided for these purposes in the Math Masters book.
In Everyday Mathematics, the term Explorations means time set aside for independent, small-group activities. In addition to providing the benefits of cooperative learning, small-group work lets all children have a chance to use manipulatives (such as the pan balance and base-10 blocks) that are limited in supply. If there are enough materials for everyone, you may decide to have the whole class work on one Exploration at a time. It is more likely, though, that you will want to have small groups of children working on several Explorations simultaneously. Thus, you will need to plan how you will manage several different activities at the same time. Parent volunteers can be very helpful in these situations. The Explorations have been designed so that you can position the various activities at different stations around the room and have groups rotate among the stations (or rotate the materials among the groups). Whenever possible, you might find it helpful to organize thematerials for each Exploration by keeping them together in a small plastic tub, pan, bin, bucket, or box. After the Explorations have been completed, you can make the materials available for review and free-time activities. Each Explorations lesson suggests three activities, with the option of adding others. Decide how many stations you will need to accommodate groups of three to five children each. Each station should have one kind of material for children to share. To ensure you have enough stations for all of your groups, you may want to set up two stations for each Exploration activity or set up additional familiar activities or games for children to complete independently while other groups are working on Explorations. Of all the Exploration activities suggested in the lesson, the first one, Exploration A, contains the main content of the lesson andrequires the most teacher involvement at the outset. Try to spend most of your time at this station, although you will likely need to circulate as well, especially if parent volunteers are not available and particularly at the beginning of the year, when children are less independent. If you remain at one station as the children rotate through it, this will enable you to work with every child in a small group and to use the task at that station as an informal assessment opportunity. To promote a cooperative environment, the authors suggest that you make and display a poster of Rules for Explorations. Discuss these rules prior to each Explorations lesson until children become accustomed to working this way. Beginning in second grade, Everyday Mathematics supplies instruction masters (found in the Math Masters book) for the Exploration activities. These masters aim to make the groups more independent and to incorporate reading into the Explorations process. The groups will need more help and attention at the beginning of the year. But as the year progresses and children become stronger readers, and as they familiarize themselves with some of the activities, they will become increasingly independent. You may want to mount the instruction sheets on tagboard and/or laminate them so you will be able to use them over the course of the school year. You should set aside enough class time so that all of your students can experience the Explorations. Do not set up the Explorations stations solely as optional centers for children to use when they have finished their other work. If you do that, the children who need these experiences the most will get fewer opportunities to participate in Explorations activities.
Many parents and educators make a sharp distinction between work and play. They tend to "allow" play only during prescribed times. However, children naturally carry their playfulness into all of their activities. This is why Everyday Mathematics sees games as enjoyable ways to practice number skills, especially those that help children develop fact power. Games are an integral part of the Everyday Mathematics program, rather than an optional extra as they are traditionally used in many classrooms. Make sure that all children have time to play games, especially those who work at a slower pace or encounter more difficulty than their classmates. Just as with the Explorations, if children play the games only after finishing other work, many of the children who need these experiences most will get fewer opportunities to have them. Games can also be played frequently without the same mathematical problems repeating because the numbers in most games are generated randomly. The game format eliminates the tedium typical of most drills. You may want to set up a Games Corner using some of your students' favorite games. That way, students can get additional practice while playing games of their own choosing during free time. Rotate games often to keep the Games Corner fresh and interesting. There will be times when certain games do not offer sufficient practice with a concept. On these occasions, you may want to employ traditional drill problems. In some instances, you may also wish to use timed drills. Always strive for balance in your approach to drills and practice. Too much monotonous, rote pencil pushing has helped produce generations of people who see mathematics as little else. For more information and sample games click HERE.
Lesson Features Adjusting the Activity-Children with Special Needs Everyday Mathematics is a hands-on curriculum that builds on children's interests and experiences, reinforcing content over time. These and other key features make it an accessible and effective program for all children, even those with a wide range of special needs. Pacing is important in the overall schematic of the Everyday Mathematics curriculum. Since the program is designed to continually build on children's prior experiences, topics and concepts are revisited in a number of ways throughout the year and in the years that follow. Do not dwell on one skill area or concept, even if some have yet to master it. Everyday Mathematics provides many opportunities for children to master the content. Staying too long with a topic may help some children attain temporary mastery, but for maximum long-term retention, it is best to follow the basic structure of the curriculum as it is written. When changes to lesson content or instruction do need to be made in order to accommodate specific children, the authors recommend an approach of modification, rather than supplementation. Modify lessons only when there is a mismatch between the learner and the type of instruction or materials, or within the task assigned. Focus on the simplest change possible and be sensitive to the social aspects of modification. The lessons in the Teacher's Lesson Guide include specific information about modifying content and/or instruction to meet the needs of particular children. The "Options for Individualizing" component, which can be found at the end of almost every lesson, suggests optional activities for extra practice, reteaching, and/or enrichment to reinforce, extend or fine-tune the main content of that lesson. Additionally, "Adjusting the Activity" suggestions provide ideas for making particular activities more or less challenging. Be sure that students have plenty of time to investigate the Explorations that are a part of the program and pay close attention to see that all students have a chance to participate in learning games. Modify the games to best meet students' needs, if necessary, or model game strategies prior to playing games. Many important concepts and skills are taught through Explorations and games in Everyday Mathematics. Students at all levels can participate and gain from these experiences. As you assess students' progress, examine and analyze individual responses through a variety of activities, varying the types of cues given and responses required (visual, auditory, tactile, verbal, written, drawing a diagram, and so on). Ask the following questions to determine what types of modification may be needed:
If children are involved in gifted or special education programs, network with other teachers, counselors, or program leaders. Share information, objectives, and strategies within the Individual Education Plan (IEP) to best meet the needs of each child. Monitor the IEP objectives to determine whether they need to be modified when tasks, assessments, or assignments are changed. Involve the children in helping themselves and one another. Promote student accountability by involving children in setting goals, monitoring progress toward their goals, planning practice activities, and seeking and receiving help from peers, staff members, or parents. Explain to children what they should do when they get stuck on a task. For example:
Provide opportunities for peer tutoring as well as cross-age peer tutoring. Use math buddies from upper grades to practice math strategies, or play math games. When sending Home Links home, provide completed examples, definitions, or further explanations to help children have a successful experience at home. Read and discuss the directions with children prior to sending the Home Links home. Also send home games for children to play with parents. Use parent volunteers in the classroom who can play math games and assist during guided practice. Utilize other available adults in the building during math time by arranging opportunities for children to play math games with the principal, custodians, cooks, specialists, and so on.
Good instruction in mathematics and ESL education share many teaching strategies. Everyday Mathematics supports an effective learning environment in mathematics for the ESL student by incorporating group work into daily lessons, teaching English through content that is relevant to students' experiences, and developing mathematical language proficiency through the use of manipulatives, models, and demonstrations. Daily group work is strongly encouraged. Everyday Mathematics provides opportunities for children to use and hear language through games and activities in student journals. In small groups, students have more opportunities to express ideas, ask questions, and clarify their thinking. Procedures for working in groups ought to be established early in the year. Group work is complemented by whole-class instruction, in which the teacher models and uses mathematical language to reinforce skills and concepts addressed during group work. English, as with any foreign language, is learned through content and contact that is relevant to the students. With Everyday Mathematics there are opportunities for children to experience mathematics in many contexts. Attention is paid to teaching vocabulary in contexts relevant to the children. Concrete examples, visual aids, and diagrams from students' experiences and backgrounds are all provided. Developing mathematical language proficiency in Everyday Mathematics is accomplished through written and oral activities within a problem-solving context. Conceptual development is enhanced through the use of concrete aids, models, and discussion. Children have many opportunities to explain their reasoning in their journals, on slates, and orally. They may represent their thinking in multiple ways. If they lack the skills to explain their thinking in writing, their text can be supplemented with drawings, diagrams, or models.
There are a variety of cross-curricular links in lessons including literature, social studies, language arts, history, consumer skills, science, and technology.
Additional Information about Tools and Pedagogy A unit box is a rectangular box displayed next to a problem or a set of problems. Unit boxes contain the labels or units of measure used in the corresponding problem(s). Unit boxes help children to think symbolically by encouraging them to see numbers as quantities or measurements of real objects.
Most children and teachers genuinely enjoy using slates. They afford an excellent opportunity for everyone to quietly answer a question at the same time, and they help you to see at a glance which children may need extra help. They also save paper. Two kinds of slates are particularly easy to use:
Establish a routine for using slates. You might want to use one-word cues, such as Listen, Think, Write, Show, Erase. The following procedure, if used consistently, helps prevent confusion:
There are, of course, alternatives to slates. Children can fold a piece of paper into fourths, which will give them eight cells in which to write answers. Another alternative is to use laminated tagboard and dry-erase markers.
Constructing 2- and 3-dimensional objects with straws and twist-ties are popular activities, beginning in First Grade Everyday Mathematics. This section includes several suggestions to help you manage these activities. Since these activities result in representations of geometric shapes, we include a few words about the true nature of such shapes. Two-dimensional shapes such as polygons and circles are defined as boundaries of flat regions without the interiors. For example, a polygon is made up of line segments; the region inside a polygon is not part of the polygon. Similarly, 3-dimensional shapes, such as prisms, pyramids, and cylinders, are made up of flat or curved surfaces, but do not include the interiors. For example, a rectangular prism is a box of cereal minus the cornflakes. Polygons constructed with straws are true representations of such shapes-the straws actually show the line segments. On the other hand, 3-dimensional straw constructions only suggest the actual shapes-the straws are the edges of the 2-dimensional shapes that make up the faces of the 3-dimensional object. The Everyday Mathematics authors have found that straw constructions can be made using twist-ties as connectors. Drinking straws are usually about 8 inches long. Straws can easiely be cut to different lengths. Some coffee-stirrer straws also work well but are shorter. Straws with small diameters work much better than those with larger diameters. About 1,000 straws and 2,000 twist-ties are ample for a class of 30 children. Eight-inch, small-diameter drinking straws are available (and inexpensive) in bulk boxes of 500 at party, restaurant-supply, or paper-goods stores. The supplier for your school lunchroom may be able to obtain the appropriate straws, but lunchroom straws themselves probably will not be suitable. Avoid large-diameter and individually wrapped straws. Four-inch twist-ties that are often used as fasteners for plastic bags work well as connectors. Craft pipe cleaners (or thicker chenille sticks), cut into three- or four-inch segments, also make good connectors, but twist-ties work well and cost less. Bulk packages of the twist-ties may be available through your grocery store, bakery, or produce market, or at the same party or paper-goods stores that stock small-diameter straws. Some businesses respond to requests from schools and may be happy to order additional twist-ties for you at their cost. Both straws and connectors are reusable. Except for figures that you or the children wish to keep, shapes can be dismantled and the straws and connectors returned to their storage containers for use at other times. Teaching with straws and twist-ties, teachers find that most children have little trouble constructing polygons with straws and connectors. The ends of the ties may need to be pinched a little to slide into the straws. If you have to use large-diameter straws, fold back an inch or so of the end of the connector for a tighter joint. To keep the size of polygons with more than five sides to sensible limits, use shorter straws. For 3-dimensional figures, begin by putting two connectors, or one folded connector, into one end of each straw, so that each can be connected to two other straws. When more than three straws need to be connected, insert additional connectors as needed. Or you could connect pairs of straws and bundle them all together using an additional connector.
A tool, such as a ruler, used to draw line segments. It does not need to have measure marks on it.
Program Components for Kindergarten Teacher's Reference Manual
Teacher's Guide to Activities
Program Guide and Activity Masters
Minute Math
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