Math Workshop in Middle School

Before I started using math workshop I had lots of questions, especially about using it with middle school students. It has by far been the best choice that I've made as an 8th grade teacher who services a variety of student clientele. I have one class of special education 8th grade math students, one class of regular education 8th grade math students, and one class of accelerated 8th grade Algebra 1 students. My school uses a modified block schedule and I'm very lucky to be able to see my classes every day for 80 minutes. I've also worked on a 50 minutes class period, and I think this would work well for teachers and students on that schedule. Below are the answers to my own questions that I started with.

Why would we use math workshop with middle school students?

This is the biggest question I had in the beginning. I scoured the Internet looking for researched based strategies and what experts thought. I've attended conference sessions but the best material I've found was from elementary teachers! Of course! The kings and queens of differentiated instruction have written the book on math workshop and how to accommodate students needs. Middle school students are learning a large variety of content in several subjects. Math tends to be a sore point for adolescents these days and they need more support than ever. If we ask our students the last time they enjoyed math class it was undoubtably sometime in elementary school. A few reasons they enjoyed class so much back then was all the fun activities that were on their level, lots of hands on activities, and personal one-on-one time with their teacher.

The great news is that we can bring that same excitement back into our classrooms by implementing those same strategies. Math workshop enables you to provide differentiation easily once you have the systems in place and meet with individual students on a regular basis to track progress and provide interventions and enrichment. 

How does this benefit students if we are wanting them to be learning more difficult concepts?

My students get targeted small group time with me daily. Every student, every day! How many times do we wish we had more time with our kids to cover those really difficult concepts? How many times do we get frustrated that we don't have time to provide more support? How many times do we get upset that our high fliers never get our attention?

These difficult concepts are easy to cover now that I get to see every student, every day. They are also more easy to cover because students are working independent math centers at their own level. I have several centers that are specific to individual topics, see below for that. But, I also have several centers that work on number sense and review material. These centers can be updated easily to allow students to go at their own pace. I can check in with them at any time using their recording sheets.

I love that all my students get support where they need it and I get to know them so well. It makes parent teacher conferences easier for sure!

How do we fit in so many topics while still following a math workshop model?

I still teach the same number of topics a day, my pacing guide hasn’t changed. Although, the format that I follow has. I no longer use my instructional minutes to formatively assess students. I no longer use my instructional minutes walking around and helping an entire class on their homework assignment. I no longer use my instructional minutes working with one or two students and a group of 32.

My instruction is much more targeted, I pick the best examples. I use guided notes, which are typically doodle note style to help students stay organized but a large majority of the notes are pre-filled in. This saves time!

I also don’t use manipulatives with my entire class. There was too much instructional time being taken up by passing out, refocusing students, keeping them on task, collecting and restoring manipulatives for the next class.

In short, I make sure that everything I do during my instructional minutes which is generally 10-12 minutes very purposeful. It's my time to do an introduction to the topic and give the best instruction possible.

What supplies do I need to facilitate a math workshop?

In order to have a productive math workshop, you need supplies accessible by students. They also need to be supplies that are organized in a way for students to maintain the cleanliness and organized method you have set up.

I use these boxes to organize small manipulatives. Currently I have a set to house Algebra Tiles, Two Color Chips, Inch Square Tiles, and Various Flash Cards.

I use these scrapbook boxes to house all the materials for a learning center. They typically contain one of the small boxes with the related manipulatives, blank student recording sheets, laminated directions sheets, laminated activity sheets, dry erase markers, and anything else I can think of to include in order to reduce the time students spend gathering supplies. See the section below on types of activities I include in these boxes.

Because I have 8 rotations moving at once I needed 8 sets of stations. Sometimes I have multiples of the same station because it takes students a few days to complete. In order to keep these organized I have a shelving system, similar to the one pictured. I make labels on my computer laminate them to affix on the fronts of the scrapbook boxes. This allows me to project a display for which students need to complete which stations.

I always have several manipulatives on hand. Although I don't use them with the whole class at one time (remember we want to save time) I do allow students to use them during independent math centers and during small group time. In order to cover nearly every content strand I use the following:

Algebra Tiles
Two Sided Counters
One Inch Square Tiles

I have several other manipulatives that I love, but I could function without. Those include:

GeoBoards
AngLegs
Dice
Spinners

If you don't have manipulatives in your classroom or school and you need them you could apply for a Donors Choose. However, I never seem to plan far enough in advance for that. I end up making most of my own from craft foam. You can make Algebra Tiles, Two Sided Counters, and One Inch Square Tiles with craft foam, spray glue, and scissors.

How is time structured in a math workshop?

I start every day with a warm up. This allows me to do teacher administrative things like taking attendance, and allows the students to settle into class. I use a variety of strategies like paper warm ups, digital warm ups where students use Plickers, number sense warm ups, and sometimes active games. We play a version of catch where we work on multiples of a number. These types of
activities don't require a lot of monitoring on my end and allows me to check in with individual students as well.

This time can also be for grading homework, if you have students trade and grade in class, this would be a great time to get that done before you hit the next lesson. Student scores could also give you an indication of who to pull during small groups. I'm testing out have students bring their homework paper back with them during small groups for when I'm pulling them to work on a skill from a previous lesson. This gives me an opportunity to do several things. I record their homework score, make any notes on a running record for what mistakes I'm seeing, and check in with students if there were any errors that they already know how to fix.

After the warm up time, comes our mini-lesson which is a struggle for me! It makes me be very aware of what strategies I'm using and what examples I pick to use with my students. We generally do one example of each sub-topic for the day. In addition to the textbook notes (which are pre-filled in) I also use doodle notes which my students that gives more organized support. When I created these doodle notes I was very specific about what my students needed. I feel like in the interest of getting kids to see the generalities of math, I end up teaching too many variations of how to attack a problem which ends up wasting time. I feel like my mini lessons are much more purposeful now.

**Click the image for a direct link to this set of doodle notes!**

The next expanse of time is the most important component of math workshop. Teachers can call them stations, rotations, modules, etc. but the end result is that a student works on a skill for a preset amount of time. Our students can generally focus on a task for the same amount of time as their age plus 2. So my students who are 13 can focus for generally 15 minutes. I set up my rotations, where students work for 14 minutes and switch for a minute. This keeps kids more engaged because they aren't getting bored with one task over a long amount of time. Some tasks take students several days to complete, and that's okay! I would prefer for my kids to have dedicated time where their focused and take two or three days to complete a development activity than to rush through it in one day and not get anything out of it.

My rotations include: a technology station, homework time, concept review (from previous units), and concept development.

My classroom is not a one-to-one device room, but I have 8 computers total which is amazing. When I have 32 students I can have every student on the online curriculum for 14 minutes every day! If you have a limited number of devices you might want to try putting students on a rotating cycle of when they will be able to use them. For students who have lost computer privileges, I end up giving them more time to work on their homework assignment, or I print the computer assignment for them to do by hand. This comes from my districts curriculum, so I'm not creating anything for them if they've lost that privilege.

Every day I provide 14 minutes at least to work on homework. I tend to give around 20-25 questions per assignment, which means students get most of their homework done in the room, and need to finish at most 10 questions at home.

The concept review station tends to be skills that were covered in earlier grades which includes fraction and decimal operations, basic computation, and number sense. After the school year gets going I change the focus to be on spiraling review from our previous units. This is a great way to hold students accountable to information taught earlier in the year.

The development rotation is my absolute favorite! After watching Bridget at The Lettered Classroom and hearing her talk about "soft skills" which are those skills that a good serious of directions and hands on use can teach rather than having me directly teach them. It is so amazing to see students reason through and build their own knowledge about a variety of topics. When looking at your textbook the math starters or lesson introductions are a great way to find these types of resources. In my teachers pay teachers store I've created a free resource Squares and Square Roots for you to try with your students. 

**Click the image for a direct link to this FREE RESOURCE!**

While students are working through this series of rotations, I am able to pull small groups based on skills comprehension. I use exit tickets, homework assignments, data from Plickers, data from Quizziz, and our curriculum's online portal to group up students. My students are not grouped by high, medium, low they are grouped by which skills they might be struggling with for that unit or lesson. I talk more about this below in the section about prepping for small groups. 

What are the students' responsibilities?

During math workshop students have several jobs. At the beginning of the year I go over what it should look like and sound like during math workshop. We practice each element separately until they are perfect. This takes time but walking slowly now allows you to run later.

My students' roles include:

1. Be prepared for small group time. 
• Take no more than 30 seconds to get to the table. 
• Bring a writing device, notebook, and last nights homework. 
• Sit in a smart seat at the small group table. 
• Do not touch or distract anyone else on the way to the small group table. 
2. During your work center:
• Get your work box and take it back to your assigned seat.
• Work independently without distracting others. 
• If you get stuck put a star on your recording sheet. Move on to the next section.
3. During your homework time:
• Work independently without distracting others. 
• If you get stuck put a star on your paper and leave 3-4 lines. Move on to the next question.
4. During your computer time:
• Get your computer and take it back to your assigned seat.
• Work independently without distracting others. 
5. During whole group share time:
• Ask questions based on your star questions from your homework. 
• Share strategies and insights you have from today's work. 

What are the teacher responsibilities?

My roles during math workshop are just as various as my students' roles. At the start of the class I am obviously in charge of the mini lesson with the whole class. This instruction time is so important because it's an introduction to the topic and a time for me to address common misconceptions. The most important thing is that I don't take too long. Students are only scientifically able to concentrate for a little more than their age in years.

After this time, I start off by getting everyone settled into their first rotation. I do a walk through of the classroom to make sure everyone is on task and that they have all the materials they need. This shows that I am still very visible in the classroom and that my students are expected to be on task.

This next part is my favorite! I start pulling small groups based on my highest need first. I use the previous day's mini assessment or homework data to pull skills based groups. This puts me two days behind the current lesson. For example, if I teach a lesson on Monday, get a student's homework on Tuesday for that lesson, I will pull them on Wednesday to remediate. By pulling skills based groups I save time because all the students I pull typically have the same misconception and need similar interventions.

After each small group (depending on the length) I try to do a walk around and make sure students are still on task and have what they need. If I see stars on center work, I can stop and check in on what a student is struggling with.

After small group time, I call the class back to attention. We discuss our homework starred questions and whatever strategies we discovered as we worked today. I can use targeted questions to address any misconceptions I might be worried about. This is a time in class where it's imperative that students have learned that your classroom is a safe space where they feel free to share.

Following our small group share, I give a 2-5 question assessment on today's material. As students get done they are allowed to work on any remaining homework questions (only) and I can start grading their work. This process is typically about 8-10 minutes and runs us straight up to the bell. 

How do you prep ahead of time for this learning format?

During the summer, I prepped all the whole class materials for all the units I would be teaching up until Christmas. I put together my presentation slides, lesson exit tickets, unit assessments, standard homework assignments, vocabulary games, and math development tasks.

This took a substantial amount of time. If you are wanting to try math workshop, especially mid-year, I would take your next unit and prepare all the regular whole group instruction materials that you typically use.

The main thing to remember when creating presentation slides is that your teaching segment for whole group is 10-12 minutes only. This means that doing formative assessment during instruction might not be the best use of time. I have found that doing a formative assessment as part of a rotation where students bring me their completed assessment to my small group is the best use of time. I have also found that I am far less "helpful" and can really see what students do and do not understand without support.

How do you prep on an ongoing basis?

Once the school year gets going, I end up prepping my small group instruction only. I don’t need to mess with my whole group stuff because that was done during the summer. My small group planning consists of task cards, review games, review problems, development activities that focus on conceptual understanding and manipulative use, and plenty of assessment materials.

This is also really tailored to where my kids are. I use their exit tickets to pull them into groups and target the skills they need to work on. Their groups are fluid and can change daily. I don’t pull my “high” or “low” group, I pull my “common denominators” or “combine like terms group”. Especially with middle school students, this helps with students self efficacy in math and getting them to see that they have the capability to learn. Of course I have students who fall into multiple groups, but if they don’t understand one sub topic, it doesn’t make sense anyway to reteach them an entire lesson.

In order to keep everything organized I used Google Keep. I was able to make a task list for each unit and what I needed to accomplish in order to hit all the standards. From there, I dove into my school district's purchased curriculum and "farmed the resource" in order to find activities and learning stems that I could use with my students.

In order to help myself stay organized with these materials, I try to divide up a lesson into sub topics that students might struggle with or need more practice on and then find or create mini lessons to target those things. I can do this at the start of a unit or throughout the year as I go.

Is this for every day or just for special days?

This is my regular mode of teaching. Some teachers use math workshop as a special day or event that happens once a week. This is my new normal.

What if I want to do stations, a scavenger hunt, a PBL, or an escape room?

Great! Those types of activities are so engaging for students! I use all of those types of activities all the time too. The only thing that changes in my classroom from a more traditional approach is that I don't do 30 minute whole group lessons followed by a worksheet. I still teach whole group and I still use worksheets. The benefits of small group time cannot be replicated during a primarily whole group type of classroom structure. Doing a fun, engaging, and rigorous activity disrupts the workshop structure the same way it disrupts a traditional structure. Don't shy away from doing these activities!

Thank you so much for reading and if you have any questions please feel free to reach out to me at littlebylittleinthemiddle@gmail.com

Love,

Rebecca