Mrs. Walton leads math instruction with a small group of 3rd grade students

The third grade students at Arcadia Elementary are becoming Subtraction Masters thanks to a unique approach their teachers are using. Felicia Walton, Matthew Morse, and Kathy Godfrey have created a leveled system and work collaboratively to ensure that all of their students are working and proceeding at their level of understanding. They began by breaking down the subtraction skills students should know by the end of third grade and ranked these skills into twelve levels according to their complexity, beginning with a basic understanding of subtraction to being able to solve complex word problems using multi-digit subtraction with regrouping. To make it more engaging for the students, they gamified these levels by relating them to Star Wars Jedi mastery levels. 

To provide practice resources for their students, they used their Mimio software to create screen-casted tutorial videos that the students can refer back to as they practice at each level. They then used Go Formative to create sets of practice problems the students work through for each level. The video they created for each level is included in the Go Formative activity for that level, so students have all the resources they need to practice their subtraction in one place.

Not only did Mrs. Walton, Mr. Morse, and Mrs. Godfrey collaborate to create these resources, but these three teachers team up to teach the math. Students will go to one of the three teachers to receive small group instruction with other students who have achieved the same level. Mrs. Walton, Mr. Morse, and Mrs. Godfrey have the small groups in front of their whiteboards to teach the students and provide guided practice at their level during this time.