Five-Day Review Plan
The five-day review plan is a blessing in disguise for teaching math because it provides a scope to re-teach and re-learn material without repeating a lesson or a series of lessons. Specifically, it is a 15 minute block of the day, where students can revise and revisit a math topic that we have already learned. Ultimately, the review plan is a way to support student growth in terms of a wide range of concepts that prove to be a stumbling block for students while also moving onto other topics in the curriculum.
Planning for the Week
Monday |
Review and revise one aspect of a topic that students are struggling with (e.g. double digit addition with carryover). Ensure there are enough examples for them to observe and some opportunities for them to apply the learning on their own in the time frame. The independent thinking time can be a simple exit ticket, for example. |
Tuesday |
Jeopardy is an instant favourite for students based on the famous game show hosted by Alex Trebek, which can also be used for science or other content areas. The online factile resource is a really fun way to plan and organize a Jeopardy review session. For someone who is not as quite tech savvy, I find the website quite user-friendly, and it happens to be free. Teach Hub has several other review games that are just as fun. I also recommend thinking of other popular game shows like the Family Feud or the Wheel of Fortune to add a bit of variety to this activity and to avoid overusing one activity. |
Wednesday |
Select a difficult question from a past exam or make one up around what the students are learning (i.e. basically something that might come up in an assessment and might be a road block for them). Model the thinking behind solving the question and then give them a similar "challenge of the day" question to solve on their own as a form of guided practice. |
Thursday |
Provide math questions on the board and use ABCD cards for students to show their answer. Then, discuss the different responses before showing students how to solve it (in fact, get one student with the correct response to solve it). This can be a form of a math talk, where students engage in a discussion around their approaches and strategies. This review should ideally help students prepare for their quiz tomorrow. |
Friday |
Once a week, I give the students a quiz during our scheduled review time. The quiz includes five questions based on material covered in the Math Review block from the previous four days. Make sure to keep in mind that there are only 15 minutes, so the quiz should not be too long or too difficult to solve. |
Outside the Five-Day Review Plan
The five-day review plan might not work for every classroom, so I have outlined a few suggestions that other teachers use, as a way to step outside of the five-day review plan.
Math Stations: Math stations are popular among classrooms, as teachers move towards greater student responsibility in terms of ownership over their own learning. For this, you can look up the Math Daily 3 or the Math League.
Morning Math: Morning math is one way to make review a part of the schedule. It could follow the same format as the five-day review plan. Alternatively, it could be a morning math challenge that students have to solve first thing in the morning before moving into the day's schedule. Teachers can also work the question around the previous day's topic to get a quick pulse of understanding. As a way to reach different learners, I would suggest including learning activities that have a mix of concrete, pictorial, and abstract approaches to math. Using manipulatives, for example, is a helpful way to encourage concrete learning.
In an article by Michelle Trudeau, it is explained how Rafe Esquith, a renowned teacher in an inner city school, spends the first hours of his class hours on mental exercises around math. Although I do not suggest calling in students at 6:30am, especially since every teacher has a different situation, I do think there is merit in mental math exercises or some other form of the math block occurring in the morning. Specifically, the routine of morning math is to create an environment for students where applying and learning math becomes valuable in the long-run.
Math Stations: Math stations are popular among classrooms, as teachers move towards greater student responsibility in terms of ownership over their own learning. For this, you can look up the Math Daily 3 or the Math League.
Morning Math: Morning math is one way to make review a part of the schedule. It could follow the same format as the five-day review plan. Alternatively, it could be a morning math challenge that students have to solve first thing in the morning before moving into the day's schedule. Teachers can also work the question around the previous day's topic to get a quick pulse of understanding. As a way to reach different learners, I would suggest including learning activities that have a mix of concrete, pictorial, and abstract approaches to math. Using manipulatives, for example, is a helpful way to encourage concrete learning.
In an article by Michelle Trudeau, it is explained how Rafe Esquith, a renowned teacher in an inner city school, spends the first hours of his class hours on mental exercises around math. Although I do not suggest calling in students at 6:30am, especially since every teacher has a different situation, I do think there is merit in mental math exercises or some other form of the math block occurring in the morning. Specifically, the routine of morning math is to create an environment for students where applying and learning math becomes valuable in the long-run.
Scavenger Hunt: The scavenger hunt is a popular review activity that has been shared by other teachers on their blogs. There are various versions to this activity, but simply teachers put ten questions around the classroom. Students, in either pairs or groups three, have to go from one question to the other, scavenging across the classroom in a loop. At this point, the teacher should be a listener who goes around the classroom to provide feedback or support where required. The scavenger hunt can be made more interesting by adding an element of a code, a hidden message, or a race. I also provide students with a map, so they know where to go to next. For example, if the map tells them to start with the sixth question, the next clue would say, "Go to the question that is the sum of 2+3." This is a fun and admittedly nerdy (all teachers exhibit this) way of putting math clues in the map. You can also think of ways to integrate a specific topic into the scavenger hunt. For instance, a measurement topic can be integrated here really well. Each group would be tasked with finding hidden objects in the class using their rulers to measure the objects based on the clue provided to them. Always think of ways to make the scavenger hunt different from the last time; otherwise, it becomes another repetitive activity.
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