Have you heard all the talk about math centers, or as I call it, math rotations? Have you wondered why so many people are now using them in their classrooms? Are you unsure what it really means to do math rotations? If you said yes to all or even one of those questions, this post is for you! In this post, I will be sharing 3 reasons why I believe that every upper elementary teacher should be using math rotations in their classroom!
You will reach more types of learners!
The main reason I started using math rotations in my classroom 4 years ago was because I felt like my whole group lessons were only reaching one type of learner each day. Some days, I was reaching my learners that needed extra support, but this meant my learners who needed to be pushed, were bored. Some days, I was reaching my learners who needed to be pushed, but this meant my learners who needed extra support, were lost. I was not okay with this! I knew something needed to change. That is when I knew I needed to change how I did my math instruction and switched to math rotations. By doing this, I was able to group my students by the level they were at or different types of learners. I could go on and on about what the difference between teaching whole group and small group meant to my learners (I am sure I will at some point too), but for now, I will leave you here to think about how you could help your learners with small groups.
Your Students Will Be More Engaged In Math!
Have you ever been in the middle of teaching a whole group math lesson and when you look around the room, you realize that the majority of your students are not engaged in the lesson? Maybe some students are laying their head on their desk, some students may be drawing in their notebooks, some students are playing in their pencil pouch and maybe even some students are staring off into space. Let’s be real! We have all been there before. I realized that the whole group lesson followed by a math worksheet or activity, was not engaging my students anymore. As a teacher, we all know how frustrating it can be to put together a lesson and then not see our students engaged in the lesson. This was another reason why I felt like I needed to try something new, like math rotations. After the first week of math rotations, I saw a HUGE difference in my student’s engagement. I saw students actively working on the activities in their math rotations and even talking to one another about them after! My students loved that these rotations were different for each rotation, that they were shorter math activities and that they were able to move around more. My rotations were always somewhere between 12-18 minutes, which is a perfect amount of time to keep students engaged! After our first week of rotations, I had my students fill out a survey on which way they like learning math better (whole group or math rotations). ALL of my students said math rotations! They said they loved that they got to move around the room more, do different types of activities each day and collaborate more with other classmates. I cannot even begin to explain how happy this made me and how it changed how I planned my math lessons going forward.
I was able to Take Differentiation to the Next Level
Yes, I know some of you are cringing at that word differentiation, because in your head you’re thinking that means a lot more work for planning. That doesn’t have to be true and what I have found using math rotations is that differentiation is a lot easier than when I did a whole group math lesson. Yes, you heard me right, I said EASIER! I used to think differentiation meant 3 different lessons or 3 different worksheets. That is not true and especially not true with math rotations. I found that I could easily differentiate my small group lessons by creating an on grade level lesson and then tweaking it for my other groups. This tweak can be as simple as adding more or less manipulatives for some groups, or creating different level word problems for each group. Then, when it comes to the activities in the other rotations, I was easily able to do the same. TIP: Label your groups by shapes. The more sides a shape has, the more support that group needs. This makes it easy for you to remember and your students do not figure it out as easily. I do recommend mixing it up and doing it opposite every once in awhile too!
Now, you are probably trying to process all that I just threw at you. I know it is a lot and you probably have so many more questions! I would love to help you better understand what math rotations look like and how you can implement them in your classroom. I have created a math rotation series on IGTV on instagram. I have linked here one of my questions and answer videos that can help you with some ideas of how to get started with math rotations in the classroom. Make sure you check out the other videos too!
Would you like to learn more about math rotations or how to have math rotations be successful in your upper elementary classroom? I am currently putting together a guide that will have everything you need! This guide will walk you through setting up, managing and running math rotations while giving you many resources to help you along the way. Click the image below to join the waitlist and be the first to know when this guide is available!
