The following is an adapted excerpt from Jennifer Lempp and Skip Tyler’s Math Workshop, Grades 6-12. Available now!
For more context on Math Workshop, start here: What Is Math Workshop?
By focusing on how to efficiently and effectively facilitate reasoning routines, learning stations, small-group instruction, and student reflections, your confidence in putting these together in a full Math Workshop class will grow. Even if you are hesitant to jump into significant change in your system of mathematics instruction, the following will support you as you try out components.
Reasoning Routines.
A reasoning routine is a five-to-ten-minute engaging, accessible, purposeful routine to begin your math class that promotes a community of positive mathematics discussion and thinking. Often called number sense routines, high-yield routines, or social-emotional routines, these quick and engaging routines help to develop critical thinking skills. They help all students connect with other knowledge to understand and make sense of a situation, context, or concept. There are several ideas for reasoning routines—such a Which One Doesn’t Belong?, Today’s Number, and Alike and Different. Reasoning routines can set the stage for a classroom that is collaborative and built on discourse.
The first impression of class is crucial. How we start our class can be a turning point for kids, especially those who have already determined that math is not their thing. Reasoning routines can set the stage for a classroom that is collaborative and built on discourse.
A student who cannot access the mathematics or is not engaged in the first five minutes of class could quite possibly shut down for the remainder of the class or, worse yet, the whole year. On the other hand, a child who is actively engaged in a collaborative way right away is more likely to feel that they have a voice in your class and to see themselves as capable mathematicians. By transforming those first five to ten minutes, we see significant change in students’ engagement during the lesson, flexibility with numbers, respect for various problem-solving strategies, positivity toward mathematics, and willingness to take risks. Students feel a sense of belonging and view themselves as contributing members of the learning community.
Task and Share.
A task and share combines students working on a math task with opportunities for students to share ideas and strategies for learning. A math task is an activity or problem that requires students to engage in mathematical thinking and develop a deeper understanding of the concepts. Tasks can vary in complexity but typically involve problem-solving. The math share occurs when students have the opportunity to collaborate and communicate by sharing their mathematical thinking, strategies, and solutions with peers and the whole class. Students might explain how they approached a problem, discuss their reasoning, and learn and reflect from other approaches and perspectives. The task and share formalizes a process for students working, learning, and sharing collaboratively.
It is imperative that students have the opportunity to explore strategies and concepts rather than be taught to simply mimic the teacher as they solve problems. This time for exploration will help students compute flexibly, accurately, and efficiently. It will also help them understand that there are a variety of ways to solve problems, and that they can choose strategies that work for them. Later, they can start to recognize when a strategy will be more efficient based on the numbers they are working with.
Focus Lessons.
A focus lesson provides targeted instruction centered around a specific mathematical concept, skill, or topic, and it is delivered in a whole-group setting to all students. It has been around since teachers started teaching. As a result, it often feels like a familiar component to educators who are new to math workshop. However, there are some significant differences between focus lessons and entire class periods of whole-class, teacher-led, direct instruction.
First, a focus lesson, while planned by the teacher, does not need to consist of only the teacher doing the math and talking through the steps to solve. We don’t want students just copying the teacher’s notes during this focus lesson time. We want students to be doing math, thinking, and discussing. Second, we want focus lesson time to be bite-sized and digestible: our challenges are to limit the focus lesson to approximately fifteen minutes and to consider how to chunk large topics into smaller parts. While focus lessons can introduce the instruction in math workshop, we always shift into small-group settings to continue instruction.
Learning Stations.
Learning stations, centers, partner games—there are several terms used to describe this component of math workshop. What’s important to understand about learning stations is that they are opportunities for students to engage in meaningful mathematics and are provided with purposeful choices. When you walk into a classroom that is using learning stations, you’ll see a buzz of activity. Students will be working collaboratively, often in pairs or trios. You might see students working in different areas of the room, having been provided with a few activities from which to choose. There is rich discussion. Everyone is actively learning, and everyone knows what’s expected of them.
Learning stations make learning mathematics fun! The use of learning activities generates excitement for the content. By approaching student learning through fun games and activities, you will engage students who otherwise would be anxious about mathematics or believe that they are not good at it. Learning stations also enrich student understanding and promote a love of mathematics.
Small-Group Instruction.
Small-group instruction is, just as the name suggests, instruction with a small group of students rather than with the whole group at the same time. Small-group instruction provides students with opportunities for “just-right” math instruction. While small-group instruction is a common practice in elementary school settings, it is often reserved for intervention in the secondary grades, which is unfortunate. Small-group instruction allows for true differentiation of learning, giving the teacher opportunities to meet students where they are and learn about students’ strategies, strengths, and misconceptions. Intervention would not be needed as much if we utilized small-group instruction more often as our Tier 1 instructional strategy. As Buffum, Mattos, and Weber (2009) explain, differentiating instruction and small-group activities are the most important steps that a school can make to improve core instruction.
During small-group instruction, teachers are evaluating student understanding, taking anecdotal notes, and making mental notes about future grouping possibilities. Teachers get to know a student’s readiness level, approach to tasks, learning preferences and styles, mathematical vocabulary, real-life connections, and existing mathematical knowledge. In math workshop, small-group instruction occurs alongside learning stations. While students are working collaboratively at stations, you can pull small groups for instruction.
Student Reflection.
Student reflection is a deliberate and meaningful time for students to not only reflect on what they’ve learned and experienced during a math task, at activities in learning stations, or in small-group instruction, but also to share their strategies and their thinking. Reflection is where learning happens: students identify what was difficult and what came more easily to them, noticing their own strengths and areas for growth. They share strategies, compare ideas, and analyze approaches for effectiveness and efficiency. As they think about their own thinking and adjust their strategies, they understand mathematics more deeply: research has shown that when we teach students to think in metacognitive ways, learning improves substantially (Hattie 2023).
Students’ reflections also give us, as teachers, valuable insights not only about students’ progress but about their self-perception of their progress. This enables us to monitor student learning and mindsets, and to plan for future instruction that meets students where they are.
