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!

Help for kids who count every pip on a dice roll!

I know how heartbreaking it is to see students continuously counting all of the pips on their dice roll! Why, why, why?! Don't they play games at home? They certainly play enough games at school- right?

For starters, do these kids instantly recognize dice patterns? Simply flash dice number cards to find out. If they don't, practice flashing daily and they should learn them pretty quickly. Older students in the building or parent volunteers can flash your students daily if that works out! Free dot cards can be found here (sift through to find the dice patterns or make your own):
http://bit.ly/2GerVHb

Do your kids know one more? Practice in a number routine or number talk. Dominoes are great for this because they also have dice patterns on them! Select dominoes that have one on the second face and flash them or talk about them with the larger number on the right and the single dot on the left. After students discuss strategies for knowing one more, present the dominoes with the one dot on the left and the larger number on the right and see if they choose to start their sum with the larger side. Free domino cards (with flaps to cover the faces!) can be found here:
http://bit.ly/2FsgRsN

Next, are they comfortable with counting on? Number routines or counting circles will be your practice. Start from numbers that are not one, and continue counting. Focus on counting on from three, four, five and six. As you count on around the circle start with a new number every fifth or so student, rather than counting up into the 20s or 30s. Even roll a die as the number a student will start counting from! Now you are hitting recognizing a die roll, and counting on from it!

Last, it is the goal to transfer the three skills above to game time! Yes, may times they revert back to counting every pip so, how do you get them to stop? In small group or one-on-one, after identifying the roll, cover one of the dice with your hand. Ask the student how many dots there were on the hidden die. Then point to each pip on the second die and ask, "Four and this dot is...and this...and this. Some kids will want to show the number that is on the hidden die on their fingers. At first, let them. They are in a stage where they must see the counters so they remake them on their fingers when you hide the pips. Say, "How many did you count? Five? Ok, five (and cover their fingers and/or slightly move the fingers away/down) and this dot is...?" Again your goal is to get that first die or the fingers they bring out to be out of their vision or put away and held as a quantity with which to count on from. "Great. Five. There was five on that die. You counted five fingers. Great," and make sure there is a moment before your counting on to separate the recreation of that amount and to process the starting quantity.

Now, they are ready for numerals. Replace one of the dice with a numeral die. So, they are rolling a numeral die and a die with pips. I made a numeral die with numbers six, seven, and eight, and a pip die with one, two, and three. This gets very interesting. Some kids will once again want to get out their fingers for the number on the numeral die. That's ok but when working with that child, gently acknowledge the starting number they recreated, and cover it up with your hands. "You have seven here. We need three more." Direct their vision to the pips and say, "Seven was there," (gently move their fingers down or away a bit) and have them touch the pips to say, "This one makes eight, then nine, then ten."

With some gentle pushes in the direction of counting on and not representing the number that they can't see (because now it is a numeral), your pip counters, in time, will move to more advanced strategies.

Let the games begin!

Focusing a Highly Active, Distractible Student

SUCCESS with a capital S!
This school year I am going through MRIS (Math Recovery Intervention Specialist) training. It is nothing short of amazing. Finally, math intervention programing that is 100% developmentally appropriate, focused, sequential and aims to make a child a "whole mathematician" identifying gaps and getting all areas of math to line up, then advancing students along a trajectory. Enough about that.  Actually that's not enough but...this post is about working with the very lowest first graders who are hard to focus.
The first little guy I worked with in a one-on-one half hour session, was to say the least, all over the place. He repeated kindergarten and thus was starting his third year of school as a first grader and he did not have one-to-one, oral counting to 100, and he did not know how to show me 6 fingers. He would count one hand of fingers as sometimes 4, sometimes 5, sometimes 6, without noticing there was anything off.
In all truthfulness I was scared to take this boy...I was not confident that I could straighten this out. When he counted a group of counters, he used two hands and pushed the counters in every direction not knowing which he counted and which he didn't, starting and stopping and starting over many times. I should not say this but it frightened me. How, after two years of kindergarten, was he still doing this?
As I started with him, he could come down happy as a clam and once entering my room he was grabbing and noticing every single thing. "What's this? What's that up there on that shelf? Can I play with this? Ohhhh! A giant play dollar!" I wanted to strip my room bare- it was just too much for him that I had shelves and bins of stuff.
I started with activities such as counting a group of items and slowing down the count, using one hand, lining up the counters in a line or array, as you might expect. We worked next on finger flashes and that one hand was always 5, and on to subtilizing with dot cards...This little guy did the best he could but he was still very distractible and interrupting to ask questions, interject play ("this is my pizza for the homeless") notice things not on the table, and he would fall off of his chair frequently, or turn around and give me his back, ignoring me. I was trying to figure things out as his progress seemed very slow.
One day, I printed a generic board game from the Internet, and tried to do all of our little activities in the context of a game. He was excited. He chose two men to move. He was both of them. I did not even have to play. We started the game with him having to count a small group of counters and if he counted them correctly (checking by placing the counters in a 10-frame so he would then begin to recognize 10-frame numbers and how many more to make 10 or how many the number was past 5), he rolled a die, had to subtilize the die, and move his piece. After enough rolls with one-to-one practice, the next few turns were practicing finger-flashed numbers. He would finger flash the number, have to find its numeral from some number cards, and if correct, he pulled a tongue depressor that had dots on it that he had to subtilize and move. Literally the more skills he had to do before he moved, the better.
As his skills grew, his turns would be to read 2-digit numbers, tell me one more and one less, roll two die and add, then roll a final die and move that many.
THIS TOTALLY CALMED DOWN THIS LITTLE GUY'S ALL-OVER-THE-PLACENESS.
This boy never fell off of his chair again. He never looked away, laid on the table, or grabbed anything that he should not have, once I intertwined the activities. It really worked. BINGO!

So, the silly thing is that I took on a second student- a girl. This girl was physically not quite as busy as the boy (though she also falls off of her chair as a regular thing) but she would change the subject constantly any time the math got hard. Reminder after reminder...I even took her at different times of the day to see if that would help her off-task chatter, she was a happy gorgeous girl, but...a tough nut to crack.
I don't even know why it took me so long, but the other day after fretting over the slow progress with her, I was getting bored with the same session goals over and over and had to spice it up. I decided to pull out a generic game board. I did the same thing I did with the boy and for the first several turns on the game, she pulled a stick, read the 2-digit number and had to count on, then roll and move. She nailed it like she had not the day before without the game part of the session. The next few turns after that she had to count back. Nailed it. Then solve addition problems that got progressively harder, and finally missing addend problems until the game was over. Her off task chatter was MINIMUM. I don't know why I did not weave in more, sooner. When she left, my jaw was hanging open.

What calmed down these two kiddos could be a coincidence but...I have a little feeling I am on to something.

As I reflected on the effect of blending and mixing many things at the same time, I thought about the media and games students are playing. I remember when my daughter (now 24) was little and I got her a National Geographic VHS tape. It was called GeoKids. We watched it and it made my head hurt. It changed the visual every few seconds- images were fading in and out, swiping in from the side and bam- a new image continuously with very few lasting more than 10 seconds. I never thought she would like it. I grew up with the calming images of Jacques Cousteau and the humor of Gilligan's Island. This was a totally foreign style to me. Just maybe these sessions were more appealing to today's kids? I'll run with it!

Summer plans (per June 15th). Yes- feeling quite ambitious, I selected all of these fabulous books to read:

Summer reality:

Truthfully, this is what I have been into for June and July! But, in my defense, summer is the time to work on ourselves- is it not? Don't teachers spend all year putting themselves last? So, I am pretty excited about the work I have done- I am on the pathway to adopting a vegan lifestyle (I have wanted this for YEARS) and I am super proud of myself!
My goal is to get off of the medications I am on (cholesterol, daily migraine preventive(s) and sleep aids) and to eat clean and love all animals and the earth. If I lose weight in the process- BONUS!
So, if you have wondered where I have been, I am on an incredible journey toward health and happiness!
That being said, August is right around the corner and it is nearing time to focus on my personal summer PD. More later or sooner!