Math is an Expedition!

CLASSWORK:  Every day we are going through at least one lesson.  Sometimes one a day, sometimes a couple of lessons per day, and sometimes a couple days for one lesson.  It all depends on the material being covered.  Each Unit has about 7 lessons on average.  We are walking through the Guided Practice and Guided Instruction in class.  I also give the class time to fill in the blanks for Warm Up, YOUR TURN!, WRAP UP: Ticket Out The Door.   We do this work in the Workbook.  (This all counts for Classwork Grade.)

SKILLS CHECK:  At the end of each lesson are 3 questions called STEPPING STONES and 3 questions called CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING.  These are graded each time your student tries them.  THEY CAN DO THESE QUESTIONS UNTIL THEY GET 100%.  You must do these on the Math Nation app logged in through Clever.  This captures your work and your scores.  (IF THE SKILLS CHECK IS NOT COMPLETED IN CLASS...That means YOU have HOMEWORK.  Complete at home.  It is never more than a handful of questions aimed at you understanding the benchmarks.  At this point HOMEWORK is usually to catch up on missed SKILLS CHECKS per lesson.  At the end of each Unit is a 10 Question UNIT SKILL CHECK called "TEST YOURSELF! Practice Tool" which is a review of the Unit Assessment.  AGAIN, THEY CAN DO THESE QUESTIONS UNTIL THEY GET 100%. 

HINT: If you know how to do all the skills on the Test Yourself, then you will ace the Unit Assessment...every time.

HOMEWORK: Occasionally paper homework assignments will be sent home as I deem necessary per concepts. Usually operations with positive and negative integers, order of operations, coordinate plane, volumes, areas, zombie math and other math concepts that make more sense using a pencil and paper.

EXTRA HELP:  In every Unit in every Lesson there are helper videos.  You are more than welcome and encouraged to watch those short videos to better understand the material, and practice more skills at home.  HINT: The more you understand each skill the EASIER the ASSESSMENTS.

ASSESSMENTS: Paper assessments (AKA Tests) are given at the end of each Unit.  One class period is given for each test.

Just to clarify:

+Stepping Stones/Check Your Understanding (DAILY) - grade recorded 2 days after assigned

+Test Yourself! practice tool (couple questions DAILY, one entire period day before Assessment) - grade recorded day of test

I usually teach thru one lesson per day. At the end of each class I tell them to take that time to do their Stepping Stones and Check Your Understanding (SS/CYU). If they are not able to complete the 3 questions for SS/CYU then it becomes homework due the next day.

I do not tell them this, but I usually put all those grades in a day before the test, so they actually have until the day before the test to get them all done, as I really just want them to practice math every day as that is how they get better at it, but I give them tons of grace to get the lessons done.

Then the day before each Assessment I give them the entire period to do the Test Yourself! practice tool. I encourage them to do a couple problems each day in the Test Yourself! practice tool so that when they get to the day before the Assessment they have gone thru the entire practice tool at least once. I encourage them to watch the videos (Watch Solution) on the review for practice tool. And I encourage them to do the Test Yourself! practice tool at least 3-4 times or until they get 100% a couple times. Afterall it is a practice tool. And practicing is going to help them the most.