Reporting from Real Rooms: Math Stations

Because of the nature of coaching teachers, our team is fortunate enough to be in classrooms on a regular basis. This affords us the opportunity to not only offer our expertise, but also watch some important transformations that happen in schools. One effective practice we are glad to be noticing more and more is incorporating work stations in math.

On one occasion while visiting in a classroom, a teacher spoke about her vision for implementing math workstations. She loved the Daily 5 for literacy and wanted something similar for math. After a few minutes of brainstorming, we were able to come up with stations that would be child centered, allow her to differentiate, create time for her to pull small groups, and NOT create an unmanageable workload. Here is what we came up with:

1. Math by Myself
2. Math with Someone
3. Math on the Computer
4. Writing about Math
5. Math with the Teacher

At our next visit the following week, the teacher had these stations up and running!  The students were in their respective areas and were 100% engaged.  She had introduced them to each station, taught them her management system, and released them to work on their own.

This student was working on “guessing and checking” along with sorting and counting. Math By Myself gives students time for autonomous investigations or practice of new skills. Something as simple as sorting and counting with cubes, beans, or counters can happen at this station.

Math With Someone: When students talk to peers about the math they are learning, they deepen their understanding of concepts. A small cozy corner of the classroom can provide a great space for math with someone. A few prompts posted nearby will help the math conversation along:

• How did you figure out the answer?
• The answer is _______ because…
• I am noticing…
• Can you explain your thinking?

Math on the Computer is a perfect way to get math fact practice in. There are many websites that can give students’ brains a workout with logic games, math puzzles, and word problems.

Writing about Math allows students an opportunity to explain their thought process and deepen their knowledge of mathematical concepts. Students should have a math journal where they can document their thinking and discoveries.

Math with the Teacher is the time to stretch student learning and provide support with new concepts. This can be done through regularly scheduled guided math groups or informal conferences with teachers or other adults.

At the end of the center time, the students reflected as a class on the math they had worked on and shared things they learned about how to use math.  Their enthusiasm was obvious and structure of the stations allowed the teacher to observe students in the act of APPLYING math concepts and skills.   This gives the teacher a window into real formative assessment in order to guide future instruction.

Creating these math stations for learners is not only a way to engage students but also foster a love of math that hopefully will continue across many years.  If you have not given math stations a try, we challenge you to take a chance…your students might thank you!