Teaching Tips

I am sure many of you are asking, "Why do I need to do the Daily Practice Problems, also known as the DPPs, and when will I have time?" The following will explain the purpose of the DPPs and suggestions as to when they can be utilized.

DPPs should become a routine part of daily instruction since these sets of short exercises serve several important functions:
-Provide distributed practice in computation and a structure for systematic study of the basic math facts
-Develop concepts and skills such as number sense, telling time, and working with money
throughout the year
-Review topics from earlier units, presenting concepts in new contexts and linking ideas from unit to unit

The Suggestions for Teaching the Lesson section and the At a Glance in most lessons provide suggestions on how and when to use each DPP item. Teachers present the Daily Practice and Problems in many ways such as blackboard, overhead projector, photocopied and distributed to students daily or at the beginning of a unit as a packet, and utilized in the math journal to preserve a record of student's work.

If you have ever utilized "Problem of the Day," then you will have no difficulty finding a time to use the DPPs. Suggestions may be at the beginning of the math class to get students' focus on mathematics. Throughout the day, the DPPs can be utilized during daily routines such as roll call or in transitional times when other students are completing an assignment, an activity is delayed or ends sooner than expected. Problems can be assigned for homework or used for short assignments. Make sure to work out a system with parents to let you know if there were any troubles completing the problem. Perhaps a question mark and their initials would work well as a sign additional help may be needed.

No matter how you incorporate the Daily Practice Problems into your day, the most important thing is to keep doing them! They are a very important component of the Math Trailblazers curriculum.

For more information on the Daily Practice Problems, please click here.

Ask the Experts

Question
I was curious on what other teachers have done with teaching Trailblazers to students in the special education department that are extremely below grade level? I am most curious in 4th and 5th grade, but K-3 would also be helpful to others. What modifications do you use? Do you teach grade level material or do you teach a lower grade level? Any information would be helpful. Thank you very much for your help.

- Pete Adamo • Title I Math • Towle Elementary School • Newport, NH

Answer
In our district, the spec. ed students are included in the labs with the whole class.
They are then pulled out to do the follow up activities as a group. Sometimes, when the students are extremely low, they are pulled out and their math lessons are divided into a skills lesson (on their level) and then a modified lesson on the grade level. Hope this helps.

- V. Shoemaker • Tabernacle Elementary School • Tabernacle, NJ

Question
We are trying to serve those students (special ed) in the classroom, without great success. The general ed. teacher is very frustrated. Any suggestions besides pulling them out?

- Ketrina Jordan • Assistant Principal • Emerson Elementary

Answer
There are a lot of factors that go into making a special education mainstreamed student find success.

Is the proportion of special ed students in the classroom small enough so that the classroom has lots of students who can model good math thinking?Does the teacher pre-teach some concepts to the special ed group so that they find success during the regular class time? (Some districts call this front loading and instead of spending time trying to "catch-up" students or provide remediation, they spend time giving their special ed students time to initially use materials and discuss concepts in a small group "safe" setting.)Are the goals clear for the special ed student? While we hope all children master all concepts, some districts find that spelling out clear goals for the special ed students in the classroom and for the regular ed student makes it clearer to the teacher and the students what is expected.

In one first grade classroom, all students will be learning to group by 10's, 20's 30's, but the special ed student might only get grouping by 10's the first day and the other students might be able to group by 20 and maybe 30's. The problem posed is "How do you buy 40 marbles ?" The bags of marbles are packs of 10 , 20 or 30. The special ed student will be able to say 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 = 40, and not be able to say 20 + 20 = 40 OR 10 + 30 = 40 OR 10 + 10 + 20 = 40. He can group by tens while others are breaking 40 into more ways. When the teacher has carefully planned the lesson and determined what goals he has for the different students then the teacher and the students may find success. I also wonder if these special ed students have a pull-out time in addition to the regular math period? I don't think the question should be "Do we do inclusion or do we do pull-out, but WHEN do we do inclusion and how should we frame this student's extra time?"I'm sure other strategies have worked for other districts and teachers as well.

Good luck!

- Jan Parsons • Math Specialist

Do you have questions for our math experts?
Please email them to Jodi Standorf. Jstandorf@kendallhunt.com
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Resources

Book
Mathematics Teaching Today: Improving Practice, Improving Student Learning, Second Edition, updates the NCTM groundbreaking publication, "Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics."

Website
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