What would a math data wall look like?

        Districts love data walls. They are a great visual that organizes kids into groups for targeted instruction and people can celebrate the movement of students along a data wall. Or- discuss options for students not moving along the data wall. Staff can use them privately. Teachers and students can use them in classrooms but with much controversy. (More on the controversy later but we are mainly talking about privacy and shame.) Let me start with a staff data wall that I created for my building.
        First, let me say I am trained in Math Recovery (MR) and MR's stages of development in 5 areas of early mathematics fit very nicely into a data wall. This is where I got my ideas and put them on a large board. My principal loved the data wall.
        But for those of you without the training, who are seeking something for your PLC or to base your goals on, you can use your standards across grades to formulate your data wall.
        Let's use the idea of counting forward and backward for students in K-1 and even K-2. A data wall for counting forward would have the levels of 1) I can't count to 10. 2) I can count to 10. 3) I can count to 20. 4) I can count to 50. 5) I can count to 75 and 6) I can count to 100. Of course you can level it in any increments you choose. Some report cards for kindergarten already have the levels with the end of year goal to be counting to 100 according to the CCSS. You can even have 7) I can count to 120 or beyond for showing students in kindergarten who are advanced and need enrichment.
        At the first data day in my building the kindergarten teachers brought data on counting to the meeting. They put sticky notes for every student showing their independent level of counting forward. We looked at who was on track to meet the card marking expectation of counting to 25 by November and who was not counting to 10 yet. Interventionists and paras were assigned students who were not yet counting to 10 independently for a tier III intervention, and the classroom teachers kept an eye on the students who could count to 10 but not 20 for a tier II intervention. The students already meeting the card marking goal of counting to 25 were not worried about and were not put into a group or assigned an intervention.
        When students in tier III moved levels, the para or interventionist moved the sticky and sent a quick email on the progress and moved that student to a tier II intervention to be in a group with the classroom teacher. Communication was quick and easy. If the teacher said the student was not counting to 10 in the classroom, the person who worked with that student was called upon to see why, when he/she did it during intervention. Sometimes it is the way things are worded from teacher to teacher. Sometimes the para needed to see how the classroom teacher expected the performance to look. No offense but sometimes paras will support or hint and not really know they are doing anything wrong. Some students just need to see that the teacher is asking them the same thing they were doing in their small group or one-on-one.
        The levels we used for counting backward for kindergarten were way less rigorous. Math Recovery only expects a first grader to count backward from any number within 100 so we decided for kindergarten we would look for counting down from 10 by mid-year and counting down from 20 by end of year. This is not a CCSS but we thought it a goal worth fighting for and kindergarten said they count backward anyway in regular instruction.
        The first grade team used this same data wall but their levels for counting backward were 1) I can't count back from 10. 2) I can count back from 10. 3) I can count back from 20. 4) I can count back from 50. 5) I can count back from 100. Again, you can level it in any increments you choose. You can even have 6) I can count back from 199 or beyond for showing students in first grade who are advanced and need enrichment.
        Counting back by ones is not specifically stated in the CCSS but we all know students who can't subtract, can have issues with counting back. It also translates to one more/less and ten more/less.
        Here is a table (click here) to show what all this means. I hope this makes sense and gives you an idea on how to make a data wall that can be used for instruction, intervention and celebrating growth. Just pick an area, level it out in increments, and you will have a data wall!

Counting Back or Counting On Card Game

Do you need more activities for counting on and counting back? Here is a game I adapted from something I read in a book. I call it Zero and 100. This game can be played with one row of cards, two rows or three rows of cards depending on how hard you want to make it. These two girls I had play, were close to being secure with counting back from any number. I decided to use three rows of cards to play at the hardest level.
First- get 10 cards in a row of a counting sequence, for each row of play you want (one is easiest, two mamma bear, and three papa bear, if you get what I mean). And grab a card that is zero and the 100 card. I have a deck of 0 to 100 cards but you can make a set just for this game on card stock.
I played counting backwards Zero and 100, so I put up the top number of each counting row. Of course your starting card can be the lowest number in that sequence of 10 cards if you are playing counting up!
I actually had the cards in order of counting back but facing down so I could explain to the girls what order the cards should be in when the game is done, and to practice the counting back sequences once before playing. As we practiced the sequence I showed the girls each card and they could see what the finished game board would look like (but the zero and 100 cards would be off to the side when the game is over).
Then I left the three starting numbers face up and shuffled the rest of the cards. I replaced them in any order because they were shuffled. I hope this is all making sense to you!
This is what the game looks like before anyone starts-

The first player chooses any face down card- turns it over, reads the number and tries to figure out where it goes. As you can see my three counting back numbers are 97, 82, and 66. All of these cross over a decade so when a child picks the number 71, it is not always obvious which row it belongs in!
Oh- should I say these are first graders playing? Of course any students needing the practice will find this fun.
So, when you place your card where it goes, you pick up the card that was in that spot and figure out where that card goes. With each new card I have the student practice counting back through the entire row. Very few kids resist this and try to count up from a card that is face up. Your turn is over when you pick up the zero card or the 100. Then it's the next players turn.
Your turn can also be over when you place a card in an empty spot and there is nothing to pick up. Two ways to end your turn! Some turns are very long, some turns are very short. Kids love this game and ask to play it again and again. The last person to place the last card where it goes in the sequence is the winner!
If you have any questions, feel free to ask and watch the video on my FB page!