How can daily spiral math review help your students?
Before we answer that question, let’s think about a few other questions:
- How do you help your math students retain concepts?
- What strategies help students remember the meanings of certain terms?
- How do you help students prepare for standardized tests?
For me, spiral math review has been the answer to all of these questions!
I’ve been using spiral review in 6th grade math for a long time, but never wrote about it before…so here we go:-)
*** We had a live summer session about using daily spiral math warm ups – you can access that replay in the Free Resource Center!
What is Spiral Math Review?
If you haven’t used spiral math before, you may not be sure what I mean….OR you may have a different interpretation than mine.
Spiral review is a way to continuously circle back to review and reinforce concepts that have previously been covered. To me, this means starting out with some ‘easy’ concepts, usually concepts from the previous year and then adding in newer, more challenging grade level concepts as the weeks go by. With this introduction of new concepts, we revisit the concepts from earlier weeks.
For me, spiral math review is also a way of briefly introducing concepts before we officially study the units those concepts are in. This can help us move through new units a little more quickly, because the spiral math helps build some background knowledge for students.
How Does DAILY Spiral Math Help Students?
I’ve been using daily math with a spiral review since 2013. 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 the background knowledge we mentioned!
- Less fear of unfamiliar math problems. As one teacher shared with me, her students stopped being afraid of trying new types of math problems!
- Less need for review before standardized testing time, because we’ve been reviewing all year!:-)
Ideas for How to Use Daily Spiral Math Review
How you use daily spiral math depends both on the specific resource you’re using and on how much time you have in your math class.
I used the daily math I created, which had 180 days in it, with 2 days per page. So, the ideas below refer to how I used that resource.
I also had about 40-minute class periods, so I didn’t have a lot of time to squeeze in the spiral review.
- Use the pages as math homework and have students discuss as the warm up. This was my favorite option, because students could review and discuss answers as soon as they got to class…..no wasted time.
- 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).
3. Have students keep the daily math pages in a binder so they always have them available (also my favorite).
4. Display the pages for students to see as they enter the class. They can complete the problems in their math notebooks.
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.
How can you use the Grade 6 Math Assessment with the 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.
How Will 180 Days of Spiral Review Help You and Your Math Students?
If you decide to give my Daily Spiral Math Review a try (for 6th
OR 7th grades), 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.
- Students will develop deeper understandings of math concepts (and need less standardized test prep as you near testing time)!
- You might cut down on copying by displaying the questions for students, if you choose.
In case you’d like to try the 6th grade spiral review you can gra the FREE Grade 6 Math Assessment, along with 2 free weeks of daily math.
How can you use the Grade 6 Math Assessment with the 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.
I hope you give spiral math review a try, if you aren’t already using it, even if it isn’t with my Daily Math. Your students will absolutely benefit!
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?
