Teachers worry a 60-minute math class doesn't leave room for small group instruction. What I've observed tells a different story. Whole group feels efficient: explain a concept once, everyone hears it. But that's rarely what happens: you end up explaining it again anyway, because not everyone got it the... first time.show more

All last year I did both. One hour of Eureka Squared math instruction as a whole class with my fourth graders. Then small group reteaching/practice followed based on their needs (20 min per group). This took place from 8:25-10:20. My state test scores show my class performed better than my peers who did not small group instruction at all.

That's a fantastic result

I’m beginning to wonder if laws require 60min of math and 90 minutes of reading instruction are flawed. Students’ cognitive load can only handle so much. I feel like a 15 minutes for a small group lesson is more powerful than 60 minute whole group.

Yes, and of course in the traditional approach, the mini-lessons are meant to be about 15 to 20 minutes for the whole group, but they seem to balloon to at least 30 minutes due to kids who are struggling prior to practice and review.

And in math, each lesson serves as the foundation for the next, so students who consistently finish lessons without fully understanding the material face a growing challenge with a shaky foundation.

Small group, tailored to what each group actually needs, means you're not repeating yourself. That's where the real time savings come from👉🏻 #mathchat #k12

🧡 Maths needs more talk time and sharing and reflecting and synthesizing (as does every literacy) less working and learning by yourself (whole group can be very isolating…)

Agreed

Information overload. Repetition breeds mastery. Quantity over quality has ruined actual education. Present + test pushing an overloaded curriculum load through instead of spending time on making sure fewer concepts are mastered has damaged true learning.

Input, model, check. Teach the new concept, model it, independent practice. Walk the room monitor progress, assist those that need it, pull a small group if necessary.

This is definitely one way to approach it! In my blog post, my approach is slightly different with instructional design that meets kids where they're at from the start, lessening the need for intervention with strugglers later.

So how does that work with class sizes of 30-35? 8th grade Jennifer math teacher. 😂 Then regardless of onboarding they sit and talk rather than do the work. Spiral review station: 3 kids complete the spiral review. 5 kids don’t even start it, they sat and talked. And 1 kids spent the time in the bathroom. 1 only completed three problems. Collaborative station, rinse and repeat. They don’t remember from teacher led. Too shy. Refuse to do it. Now I’ve wasted two days and they’ve independently learned nothing. Ideologically this works. Reality. Didn’t work. Tried for 5 years.

can you share some videos or detailed lesson plans for something like eg solving quadratics, mid-level aged 14?