Workshop Math for Dummies...You CAN do it!

Back in August, my team of teachers and I found ourselves facing brand new curricula and instructional strategies. Novices, or dummies for lack of a better term, to the "Workshop Style" of teaching, we jumped right in and found out...it wasn't that scary! Our collective experience was limited to either undergraduate methods course in implementing a workshop or in-classroom experience 12 years ago. So, if we can do it, you can too!

My Team's Must-Haves to implement Workshop Math:

• District-wide collaboration with all Kindergarten teachers for 2 hours to introduce the structure and provide specific support during a Professional Development Day ("This really worked for me....or Definitely don't try it this way...")
• Followed up by e-mail chain to troubleshoot and share resources
• Weekly collaborative plan time to share anchor charts and clarify Math Talks
• Parent Volunteers
• Some parents are only comfortable with prepping materials while others can follow your lead and jump into guiding a group or work station...we'll take any help we can get!
• Technology
• Specifically
• IXL.com, for targeted skill practice
• Various skill-based apps for our units
• SMARTBoard & Notebook application, used for the majority of Math Talks

Structure of Workshop Style Math in Kindergarten

Daily Time Frame

5-10 minutes: Math Talk

20-40 minutes: Exploration

5 minutes: Close

• Math Talk: A concise and focused mini-lesson, directly connected to that day or week's exploration and big idea
• Exploration: In my classroom, these are one of four small group centers or work stations. Each center is labeled according to one letter in the MATH workshop acronym
• M is for Manipulatives
• A is for Applications (specifically on our iPads)
• T is for Teacher assisted exploration
• H is for Help A Friend, in a partnered math activity
• Close: A quick check of finished products, opportunities to reflect on the big idea and use relevant terms in oral language or students sharing "I found that..."

Visuals for both the Center assignments as well as the tubs I store manipulatives in are labeled as such:

To group students and rotate them through each week, I put them into groups of 4-6 based upon skill level, heterogeneously. They named their groups on their own, and we ended up with simple visuals for some of their favorite sports teams (or so they say!).

In the Friday column, I record student choice or my own assignment for them for the day. In the far right column, I treat that as a checklist for the 1-on-1, performance based assessments that I work through the week to get through. (Sometimes during math, sometimes not...)

 I'm so proud of my class for picking up this routine faster than any other in our classroom this year. This chart is where I first started. I have 2 students who currently require some heavy intervention so I have a modified schedule for them to follow. I'll share that soon in Part 2 of implementing Math Workshop....