I just read the book Build Mathematic Understanding Every Day in Grades 3-5 by Jessica Shumway. In her book Jessica has shared some routines to incorporate into your daily routine in grades 3-5, I would say some of them would also work with grades 7 & 8. Her book is available from Stenhouse Publisher.
The routine I found most powerful was one called Count Around the Circle. In this routine students are in a circle and count from a certain number by a certain amount. It is important to note, Jessica suggests starting with an easy count to set up the routine. For example counting by 1's, 5's or 10's and starting with 0. So the first person counting by 5's from 0 would say 5, then next 10 and so on.
Some things she calls "expectations":
Everyone listens and keeps track in their head.
Give think time for people who need it (don't give them the answer) Student can ask for help if they feel they can't get it after some think time. She suggests choral counting circles if there are issues.
One other thing that I think is REALLY important is recording the numbers as they go around the circle. This is where the discussion and the real "math talk" comes from after the count. See the example below:
The book has tons of examples and ideas for counting around the circle - check it out here
A fun, easy and quick way to practice problem solving or mental math is to use puzzles, I created a page where I keep adding puzzles - here are a couple samples:
Click on the puzzle to take you to the other puzzles.
What are 3 act math tasks? I describe them as flipping the way we do math problem solving, but there is also an estimation portion that is very powerful. My description of each act follows.
Act 1 - students view an image or short video where they are asked what they notice, they record and then they share with a partner. Teacher can also ask for a few ideas to record as well. Then they watch the video again this time they are asked what they wonder or any questions they have about the video. In this section we "guide" the students to the "main question" that we are going to try to solve. After the main question is decided, the students make an estimate, before sharing their estimates, I suggest having the discussion about what is a too low of an estimate and what is a too high of an estimate. Then students share their estimates and record on a number line the low/high estimate and where their estimate would go.
Act 2 - Students are then asked what information would they need to be able to solve our main question. Then the missing or unknown variables are given. The students/teacher work on planning how to solve. This may be where the teacher does a mini-lesson to remind or guide students.
Act 3 - Solve the problem and interpret the results. Students record how they solve and then share with each other the strategy they used. The answer is then revealed.
This next powerful video is a 1 hour webinar with Graham Fletchy who describes why you need 3 act math and how to use them in your class. Here is the website it is from:Why you need to use 3 act math in your class
There are lots of 3 act math tasks already made for you, go to gfletchy.com
If you're in Rolling River School Division and you want me to model a 3 act math task in your room, please contact me!
NEW Search engine to look for problems: click here
If you are looking for another problem solving activity with your students head over to this web site where you can learn more about it and download one for your use!
A general reminder - the assessments are meant to guide your instruction. They are a formative assessment being reported to the government and then should be used to plan for next steps. Also the assessments should not be a formal test or something you "do" to the kids in October or January. Assessment for reporting should be ongoing and authentic.
I have created a couple of documents to help those teachers with the grade 3 and grade 7 provincial assessments.
Grade 3 - smart notebook file click here
Grade 3 assessment package for using smart notebook click here
Focused observation sheets are in the assessment package.
