Math Stations....Making It Work

Math Rotations or Math Workshop is a model of instruction where students are rotating between several "stations" throughout the math block.  These stations are work stations that include working on a specific skill, working on classwork, meeting with the teacher for small group math instruction and having time to work with math with a hands-on approach.

How do Math Rotations work?

I use the acronym MATH for organizing how students "rotate" from one activity to the next.

M-Minute Math

A-At Your Seat

T-Teacher's Choice

H-Hands On

How do students rotate through the stations? 

Minute Math- During this rotation,  my students complete their daily math spiral review.  This is a daily spiraled curriculum reviewing all fourth grade skills.  There are only 4 questions to complete, so when they are finished with that, they can start their At Your Seat work.

At Your Seat- During this rotation, my students complete the Independent Practice from the math book.  Prior to our math rotations, I teach a mini-lesson on the day's skill.  However, you could have your students complete any independent work that you need for them to complete.  Another option is to have your students complete the work with a partner or with a group of students. 

Teacher's Choice- This is my small group instruction time.  My students are grouped into 4 different groups based on skills they need to review.  I use the data from my spiral review to group my students based on the types of errors they have on the spiral review weekly assessment.

Hands On- This is what most think of as real "Stations" or "Centers".  I use this time to have my students work with a variety of materials.  I have ipads, ipods, flashcards, and games that I put in the station based on the needs of my students.  Each group has their own box of materials to use. Sometimes I use this rotation to give my students an opportunity to create a foldable or flipbook relating to the skill we are covering for that week.  They will then put this hands-on "creatable" in their independent notebooks. For example, for my most recent hands-on activity, my students created this foldable to help them with probability:

Click on the picture to download it from Google Docs.
As you can see in the picture at the top each group (Group 1, Group 2, Group 3, Group 4) all rotate through all stations during each math lesson.  For example, using the picture above, Group 1 will go to stations in this order:

1st- Minute Math
2nd- At Your Seat (Classwork or some other assignment)
3rd- Teacher Time (Work with the teacher)
4- Hands On

Can you differentiate instruction? 

Yes!  When I group my students, I am able to differentiate their small group instruction and their hands-on review work.  For example, if I see that a group of students is having trouble with subtracting, then their small group instruction will be geared towards providing them with some strategies they can use.  They will also practice this skill during their Hands-On rotation.

I use my Math Moves: Daily Spiral Review to help me group my students.  You can find the 4th grade version by clicking on the image below.  Currently, I have a 1st (partial year complete), 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th grade version of this Daily Review, in addition to bundles of these resources.  If you'd like to find the others, you can find them in the description area of the 4th grade version.

After several different attempts and finding the system that worked for me, I finally found one!  I hope that you can use this information to help you find a rotation model that can work for you.

It really did change the way I teach. Is this something that you might like to try?  Comment below and let me know if you have any questions.