How do they remember the meanings of certain terms?
How do you help them prepare for those standardized tests?
Spiral review helps with all of these. I’ve been using spiral review in 6th grade math for a long time, but never wrote about it before – so here we go:-)
How does spiral math review on a daily basis help students?
I’ve been using daily math with a spiral review since 2013 (and now I’ve added a digital version!) I created my own daily math at that time, because I couldn’t find a resource that really helped my students. With this spiral review, I found these benefits:
- Dramatic difference in students’ retention of math concepts, because they are reviewing all year long
- Much more solid understanding of math concepts because the concepts are revisited and discussed multiple times, not just during a certain math unit
- Student excitement when we begin studying new math concepts they were exposed to in the math warm-ups, because they have background knowledge!
- Less need for review before standardized testing time, because we’ve been reviewing all year!:-)
1) Cut each page into the separate days for students to work on as their bell ringer or warm up (or assign each day to students in Google Slides).
2) Have students keep the daily math pages in a binder so they always have them available (my favorite).
3) Display the pages for students to see as they enter the class. They can complete the problems in their math notebooks.
4) Use the pages as math homework and have students discuss as the warm up.
5) Have a weekly/monthly/quarterly math quiz, allowing students to use their daily math pages as a resource – I love doing this because it helps students to make sure they don’t lose their pages!
(I created a Grade 6 Math Assessment, that you can download for free, along with 2 free weeks of daily math.)
The Grade 6 Common Core math standards are on the assessment answer key, so you can reference which questions address which standards. The Daily Math also has an index of the Common Core math standards, along with the days they are covered in the 180 days.
Using these together can help you individualize instruction for your math students, especially those who may be advanced or may need more math review/reinforcement.
If you decide to give the Daily Math a try, you can expect:
- You’ll save time and energy – you won’t have to figure out how to keep reviewing the core math concepts – it’s already set up in the warm-ups.
- Math students will be engaged, especially if you give them the opportunity to discuss their answers with one another – a strategy I always use (I often assign warm-ups for homework and then students discuss as their bell ringer -we have 40 min math classes, so we need to use time as efficiently as possible).
- Students will develop deeper understandings of math concepts (and need less standardized test prep as you near testing time)!
- Cut down on copying by displaying the questions for students, if you choose.The full resource comes with a PPT file with one day per slide, as well as each day in Google Slides.
If you have any questions, please feel free to add them here or email me!
If you already use spiral review, what other benefits do you see?
