One of the keys to successful math rotations is the mini-lesson before you start the math rotations! How this time is used will setup how you do your small group rotations and how you plan the activities that students will do during their independent rotations. I truly believe if you have a plan on how you use mini-lessons that your rotations and small group time will go a lot smoother.
So… how do you make these mini-lessons meaningful and intentional? I am going to share the 3 areas that I focus on during the whole group mini-lesson that will give you the bang for your buck! Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions about them.
Vocabulary: All of my students need to know and understand the same academic vocabulary. So, I try to tie vocabulary into my mini-lesson most days. Some days, it is just reviewing vocabulary and other days it is more intentional with going over vocabulary for a new unit. My favorite way to do this is by having students fill out math vocabulary charts with me at the beginning of the unit and then we refer to these charts throughout the whole unit (the more you reference them, the better!). Students can even use these charts during their independent rotations to reference vocabulary and practice vocabulary!
See the picture below for an example of these math vocabulary charts and click on the picture if you want to see how you can grab my 3rd-5th grade vocabulary charts.
Strategies: Our standards tell us the strategies students need to learn in math, right? This means that all students need to be introduced and shown these strategies. Introducing strategies during your mini-lesson makes it easier for students to choose the strategy that works for them and use small group time to practice these strategies. I LOVE creating anchor charts for these strategies during my mini-lessons and often create them over a couple different mini-lessons by focusing on one strategy each mini-lesson.
See the picture below for an example of one of these anchor charts.
Modeling: The “I Do, We Do, You Do” model is a proven model to help students understand a standard and what is being taught. The mini-lesson time is great for the “I Do” part of this model. Then, I use the small group time for “We Do” and independent rotation time for “You Do”. During the mini-lesson, I like to model for my students how to use strategies or solve a word problem around that standard. Then, they have a model to help them during their rotations.
One of my favorite way for my students to practice what they have learned from the mini-lessons is by incorporating interactive notebook pages for one of their independent math rotations. These interactive notebook pages even tie in some intentional vocabulary practice and pair great with my math vocabulary charts! Click the picture below to check them out!
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