Vestal Hills Staff

6) Skill and Drill

5) Journaling/Problem Solving

4) Games

first- to fifth-grade students waiting to deposit money into savings accounts in a working bank operated by the students.

first- to fifth-grade students waiting to deposit money into savings accounts in a working bank operated by the students.

partnered with Capital One Bank to establish the branch of KidzBank, an interactive program that teaches students financial literacy and the importance of saving.

Below is my weekly schedule.  Just like my reading, I approach math with a combination of small group and whole group instruction. Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Whole group lesson.  Math mini lesson Meet with two small math groups     Math mini lesson Meet with two small math groups     Math mini lesson Meet with two small math groups     Whole group lesson. 

After I give my pre-assessment, I quickly score the sheets.  Then I look for common errors and try to sort into similar stacks.  I like to have between three to four stacks. Each stack is a guided math group.  If I give a longer pre- assessment that will help guide placing kids into groups for the whole unit, then I look for one concept and try to find common errors.  Then I keep the tests and resort them when we are ready to cover the next concept in the unit.

the program offers additional enhancements for differentiated instruction (remediation, reteaching, enrichment, assessment, and additional practice), School-to-Home connections, transition support, and technology integration

Math in Focus offers the authentic Singapore math pedagogy with fewer topics taught in greater depth at each grade level. The program features visual representations and modeling strategies to solve complex problems; a consistent concrete-pictorial-abstract progression; and strong development of both conceptual understanding, place value, and computational fluency so students that understand the “how” as well as the “why.”

the teachers arrived at the idea of personalized schedules for all the students, varying on whether they need more-intensive instruction on basic concepts or are ready for more in-depth instruction. Using a data-analysis tool, the publishing group culled information from state, local, and classroom tests.

Crucially, teachers are expected to target the same standards, but their lessons explore them in different levels of breadth and depth depending on the performance level.

Teachers have common planning at the end of every school day, in addition to their regular prep periods. At those meetings, they’re able to discuss the results from their lessons and go over data generated from quarterly “benchmark” assessments. Then, they can decide whether a student needs to be moved to one of the other classes—something that can occur on a weekly or, potentially, even daily basis as necessary.