Math Rotations: Teacher Time

Thank you all so much for your feedback and great questions to how I start setting up Math Rotations in my class! I am planning on doing quite a bit more in this series, including a post on each of the rotation options as well as some Q&A, so if you're ever interested in reading all of the series, be sure to click the icon above and/or the new button on the top sidebar.

Teacher Time

I wanted to start with the simplest rotation choice, Teacher Time. This rotation choice for me was the easiest to prepare, since it was what I was going to teach anyway-- it required very little additional prep work.

I began preparing for Teacher Time by splitting my kids into three groups based on a quick pre-assessment before our unit. The results, paired with what I knew of them as learners, gave me the info I needed to sort them into a low-medium-high kind of system.

I always begin math by immediately pulling my first group. We used to start with an all-class warm-up, but we were running out of time for the last Teacher Time group, so now we just come in and get straight to work on Rotation 1 of our bookmarks:

Students need to come to the carpet for Teacher Time with their math journals, any Lesson Work from the day before and a pencil. They can grab clipboards and we gather around my small white board to get to work.

I received these items from a Donors Choose project and L.O.V.E. them! I know it's marketed as a "Big Book" holder, but the height is perfect for small groups and it's much more manageable than a large easel. I use half-sized chart paper or a dry erase board that I got on the cheap that fits on the ledge when I meet with kids for Teacher Time.

Our new warm-ups in Teacher Time involve going over some or all of the Lesson Work from yesterday. I want to make sure kids are getting immediate feedback on how they are doing and I found that when I collected Lesson Work and graded it later, it wasn't helping them as much as if we graded it together. It also gave me the chance to switch-up the lesson last-minute if I realize the group is missing out on a concept or, on the flip-side, has already mastered what we are doing.

After we are done going over yesterday's Lesson Work, we delve into the lesson for the day. I have each group for about 20 minutes, so after checking over our Lesson Work, it leaves us with about 12-15 minutes. I love this, since that's about how long their attention span is anyways ;)

My general premise for any lesson I teach is: I do. We do. You do. The 12-minute lesson encompasses the "I do" and "We do" part, then I send them off to the "You do" part for Lesson Work.

I love these smaller groups for so many reasons:

• They are smaller ;)
• I can see and immediately interact with each of them-- no hiding in a group of 8!
• I can peek at their work at any time without getting up and walking around
• They are shorter-- attention span is maximized :)
• Everyone is around the same ability, so I can tailor the lesson to fit their needs
• Manipulatives can be divvied out to everyone and less people have to share (Try getting 30 sets of anything math related without spending an arm & a leg! But 8? Not too bad.)
• Groups are fluid as the units change, so they are still getting to work with lots of people

I pull my groups in this order: low, medium, high. Immediately after Teacher Time, they move onto Lesson Work, so I wanted to make sure that my low & medium kids could practice as soon as they had learned something. I meet with my high group last, which is tricky, since they will need to retain what we learned over a 24-hour period before they practice it at the start of next math class, but I have found that with the notes we take and sample problems we do, they have been up for the challenge so far.

If you wanted to switch the low and medium group, I think you could easily do so, since they will be starting with Math Centers and that's always a self-directed, independent activity that does not depend on Teacher Time. I may do that for my next unit, that way the kids who have been doing Teacher Time first for a while can feel they are mixing-it-up a bit more :)

Last thing, I have found that doing Teacher Time in Math Rotations works best on a Monday-Thursday schedule. We will typically do the first picture on Friday only so my high kids will have the chance to finish Lesson Work (without having to wait a whole weekend), my middle kids can work on Math Centers, and my low kids can work with me to get additional support on any of the concepts we worked on that week. We will then spend the rest of the time playing games, doing scavenger hunts like Multiplication Monsters, or going to a website to practice what we've learned.

I hope this has made Teacher Time sound a bit more clear. What questions do you have? I will be back next with information on how I do Lesson Work, then Math Centers, and lastly, Fact Practice. Thanks for joining me on this series!

*UPDATE 2/18/13: The chevron poster set (all 106 pages) are now available for purchase in my TpT Store HERE. All 7 chevron colors are included for every slide as well as a plain background option. Be sure to download the Preview to see an example :) Thanks for such great feedback- I hope you enjoy using these in your class :) :)