Have you ever been in the middle of teaching your math mini-lesson and felt like you were the only one listening?
The pressure to cram everything you know into a lesson in order to teach ALL the things is real. I would often end up doing all of the talking because there were so many things I wanted my students to learn.
Yes, I was able to “cover” all the topics, but when I taught like this my kids were just not getting it. I would often have to go back and re-teach some of the same things.
Then I put myself in my students’ shoes.
How do I feel when I’m in a professional development and all the trainer does is talk?
I may start daydreaming about what I was going to eat for dinner…
…or start thinking about the millions of things I need to do that week.
Then I quickly understood why my students seemed disengaged and knew it was time to switch things up when I taught my math mini-lessons.
BUT FIRST, WHAT IS A MATH MINI-LESSON?
A mini-lesson is a short lesson with a narrow focus on skill or concept. During your mini-lesson, you can introduce new strategies, teach specific skills, extend previous learning, or do a mixture of all of the above.
So let’s avoid blank stares from students and make learning exciting with these 5 ideas for keeping kids engaged during your math mini-lesson.
IDEA #1: CREATE A POSITIVE ENVIRONMENT
The first step towards developing engaged students is to create a positive classroom environment. If children do not feel safe or think their voices don’t matter, you’re going to have a tough time trying to get them to participate.
Let your students know:
- you are not the only question asker, they can ask questions too
- mistakes grow our brains because we can learn from them
- math is about communicating ideas, not just getting the answer right
When you create a positive environment in your classroom, your students will be attentive and focused on learning during your math mini-lesson.
IDEA #2: USE AN EASY TO FOLLOW LESSON FORMAT
Having a predictable format does not mean that a lesson is boring. In fact, the opposite is true. Organization helps our brains focus on the most important thing, learning!
Think back to your college days.
Would you rather be in a class where the professor surprised you with an exam that had nothing to do with what they taught, or would you rather be in the class where the professor provided detailed notes and set clear expectations at the beginning of each class?
I don’t know about you, but I know whose class I would feel more successful in.
Gradual Release
A lesson format that is both predictable AND flexible is the gradual release framework. You may have heard it referred to as I DO – WE DO – YOU DO.
Using this framework, you explicitly model or demonstrate a strategy, skill, or concept. Next, you guide student practice, and finally, students work independently.
Math Journals
Another way to create an easy-to-follow format for both you and your students is to use student journals. As you teach, students follow along in a structured math journal.
Using math journals in class for note-taking:
- Keeps students focused
- Organizes information in a clear way
- Provides supportive notes for later review
IDEA #3: ASK QUESTIONS
It’s important that we ask students questions during our mini-lessons. This helps to prevent you from doing all the talking. This really comes into play during the guided practice part of your math mini-lesson, when you’re working together with your students.
Some of the Benefits of Effective Questioning Include:
- Builds critical thinking skills
- Encourages students to engage in learning
- Develops student interest in a topic
- Deepens understanding through active discussion
- Empowers students to feel confident
IDEA #4: EMBED SUPPORTS
We want our students to feel confident. One way we can do that is to embed different supports throughout our math mini-lessons, so children don’t feel defeated and can use them if needed.
Math Manipulatives
Math manipulatives are a great way to introduce new concepts to students while holding their interest at the same time. Demonstrating skills and strategies with virtual math manipulatives or enlarged magnetic ones makes it easier for all students to see what you are modeling.
In addition, it’s always smart to have tactile or paper manipulatives easily accessible for students that need differentiation.
Math Models
Teaching math concepts using visual representations gives more students access to understanding. We can introduce these visuals as we model strategies and mathematical concepts and then put them on anchor charts for students to refer back to them as they work independently.
IDEA #5: INSERT OPPORTUNITIES FOR COOPERATIVE LEARNING
Cooperative learning is simply when students work together to achieve a similar goal. However, cooperative learning looks many different ways.
Cooperative learning increases student engagement because the ownership of teaching and learning shifts to your students and is no longer your sole responsibility.
When you insert these practices into your lessons, you’re giving your students opportunities to share and discuss ideas, question each other, and actively participate in their own learning.
To boost engagement during your math mini-lessons have your students:
- Solve problems in small teams of 2-4 students
- Turn and talk to a partner to answer a questions
- Play a review game together
- Compare answers after they solve independently and then discuss
- Share their reflections at the end of the lesson
The key to increasing student engagement is to factor in time for student talk and plan for meaningful interactions.
WANT A DONE-FOR-YOU MATH CURRICULUM WITH ENGAGING MINI-LESSONS?
Make teaching your math mini-lessons a breeze with The Simplified Math Curriculum.
With easy-to-follow lesson structures, opportunities for cooperative learning and embedded questions throughout, this math curriculum is sure to keep your students engaged in learning and excited about math! LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CURRICULUM HERE
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