By Sara Finegan

         One of my ongoing beefs with our math textbooks is that they don’t provide enough problems for the kids to practice with. 

          For years, I’ve been writing my own math worksheets and developing my own list of math problems for the kids to attack each day.  It’s time-consuming, but it also is a valuable part of my instruction, because, now that I’ve developed fluency in the task, it’s easy for me to create a set of practice problems that addresses exactly what task the kids are struggling with at any given time.

         And that is what “rinse and repeat” is all about for me.  

          My students do more math problems, more writing activities, and more different kinds of reading tasks per day than most kids do at our school.  They have to, because they know, and I know, that for them, mastery of new skills requires 20 times more practice than other kids. 

Pacing of instruction 

           Although I promote the idea of aiming high and moving the kids upwards from wherever they are, I refuse to move too quickly, because that will defeat the entire purpose of instruction in a demanding classroom.  Likewise, I don’t want to go too slowly, because I don’t want the kids to become too comfortable and complacent about learning.  We teachers have to find exactly the right balance for our group of kids – and that will change from year to year and also from subject area to subject area.

         Thus, when we learn a new math skill, I am not going to rely on the 25 problems in the math book.  My kids will use the skill 50 times in the classroom, and probably have another 20 problems for homework. 

         The more they repeat an action, whether it be identifying the setting in a story or decomposing a number in order to multiply it more easily, the more fluent they become, the more the concept is embedded in their minds, the more easily they will be able to retrieve it in the future a the need arises.

         Now, this doesn’t mean that my students are all going to stay at their desks and do worksheets all of the class period.    I want them to be active learners, and that means I can’t let them get stuck in a dull routine where everything becomes by rote.

Practice in a variety of ways

           Opportunities for practice need to be varied in nature, size, and extent.  Identifying the setting in a story can be done with a partner in a book talk, in a guided group, in a multiple choice worksheet, with a matching game, and in writing journals. 

         Solving math problems can be done on the class white board, in individual white board activities, worksheets, using manipulatives at a table, and by teaching someone else.  All of those can be done during the day, or separated out over the course of several days. 

         This year, I’ve been working with my students on writing daily responses to independent reading in journals every night at home.  Each part of a reading response needs to be taught separately, and practiced repeatedly until the student is able to perform the task independently.  

Guided writing of a paragraph describing a character

          On Friday, I taught the kids in a guided writing activity how to write a paragraph describing a character.  Their weekend homework calls for them to do at least one more before Monday:  I have no expectations that the results will be exemplary, but they will tell me what I need to emphasize in subsequent lesson and practices. 

            We will probably do at least two more guided writing activities on this very topic, followed by some partner writes, and, by Friday, the kids will be able to work on independent writing of character descriptions with a minimal level of  intervention from me and our aide.  Even then, the kids will need to practice this type of writing activity for at least a month before it becomes automatic.  

           In the meantime, I’m not going to lower my expectations or require less than excellent work from my kids.  Each day, we’ll go over some examples of their work, and together, as a group, determine what could be improved, what is missing, or what the student forgot to do.  (example:  Jay forgot to number his list of facts in the order that makes most sense; Roberto didn’t combine two facts in each sentence to form complex sentences; Darren’s paragraph reads like a list rather than a thoughtful description – he needs to use more powerful vocabulary, and a better voice). 

         There’s no shame in not meeting the standards; there is always an emphasis on doing better the next time.

 Lather, rinse,  repeat.  And repeat.  Again.

demanding classroom · high expectations · learning disabled · math practice · reading response · rigor · rigorous instruction · Sara Finegan · special education · standards