Incorporating Movement Into Your Secondary Classroom

Have you ever been in an elementary classroom and marveled at how students are scattered all over the classroom engaged in a variety of activities?  Is it hard to imagine secondary students staying as focused on tasks in a similar setting?  Have you wondered when this change, from an activity-based classroom to one in which students are primarily seated, occurs?

I can’t explain how elementary teachers are able to keep their young students on task.  However, I always wonder whether they have magically superior classroom management skills, or if little kids are so excited about school and learning that it is easier to capture and maintain their attention.  Whatever the answers to my questions might be, I don’t expect that I will ever find definitive ones.

What I do know is that class size, room design, the teenage psyche, and engaging activities play a role.  I’m sure the differences I notice between elementary and secondary classrooms have much to do with these factors.

By the way, I do think that we secondary teachers have been making strides toward creating more student-centered classrooms recently.  We are striving to incorporate more interactive, inspirational ideas into our classrooms.  (Thus, the title of my blog!)

Here are a few suggestions for those of you who are wanting to ease into a more active environment in your classrooms.

1.   Begin with baby steps.

• Choose activities that you can manage easily.
• Incorporate limited movement.  As you become more comfortable with students being out of their seats, become more adventurous.

2.   Teach routines!

      How? 

• How do you expect your students to behave as they move around the room?  
• How should the room sound?  
• How will students work … in groups or alone? 

      What? 

• What task(s) do you want students to compete?  
• What materials will they need to complete the task(s)?

      When? 

• When do you expect work to be finished?

      Where? 

• Where are materials located?  Are they at stations, loaded on your digital learning platform, ... ? 
• Where will completed work be turned in or checked?

3.   Choose opportunities for movement that can be easily 
      managed.

• One simple way to begin incorporating more movement into your classroom is by setting up a location where students may go to check completed work.  I often have them check it, bring me their paper, and report their score.  This gets kids up out of their seats.  Limit the number of students who can be at this "checking" location at one time.  It works best if they have another task to be working on while they wait their turn, or if they check during work time because all students won’t finish at once.
• Bellwork is an opportune and efficient time to get kids moving in a controlled way.  I project a Google slide listing two or three tasks for students to complete.

         Students know where answer keys and handouts 
         are located in my classroom, so they can do these 
         things quickly and quietly.

• Task card activities are perfect for easing movement into your classroom.  To begin, hand each student a card or have a few students at a time pick them up.  Put extra task cards into a container.  As students finish one card, they may check their solution, return the card to the container, select another, and return to their desk.
• Do you have students seated in groups?  Have one student pick up handouts for the entire group.  If there are other materials they will need, have a different student go get those.  Maybe a third student will bring the group’s completed papers to you, return materials, toss scraps, and so forth.
• Have you tried a problem trail?  This is another great way to get students up and moving around your room without it being chaotic.  Check some out here.

Start small and your classroom management skills, confidence, and comfort level will grow from there!

When in Doubt, Expand it Out!

I have been teaching exponent rules the past couple of weeks and that is my mantra.  I repeat it over and over, encouraging students to understand the rules.  They are often in such a rush to use a "shortcut" exponent rule, that they try to apply it before they actually understand how, why, and in what situations it works.  

Now, don't misunderstand, I actually DO want my students to learn the exponent rules and use them.  I just want them to fully understand WHY they work first.

What do YOU repeat to YOUR students over and over?

Clear Fractions and Decimals from Equations Early!

I've moved this topic to the beginning of the school year and I will always teach it at this time from now on!  I feel like it has helped my algebra students tremendously.  

By learning to clear decimals and fractions at the beginning of the algebra course, students are able to absorb the concept quickly, feel like they are learning something new as they "brush up" their equation-solving, and are able to apply it throughout the entire year.  It has become a strategy my students use often.

The textbook my school used didn't introduce clearing fractions and decimals until the systems of equations unit midyear.  This meant that students were trying to learn how to solve systems of equations and how to clear fractions and decimals at the same time.  Many of them struggled with this.  No such worries now!

If you need materials to assist you in teaching this topic, check out "Clearing Decimals & Fractions Foldable" and "Clearing Decimals & Fractions Practice". 

MATHO!

I think MATHO is my favorite review game. 

It is easy to play and kids love it!  

As a teacher, it is easy for me to set up, and I know my students are getting great practice, so it is easy to justify "game day".  It's a win for everyone!

I have made some MATHO games in which I cut questions apart, draw them from a container, and read them to students.  Others involve a student handout that is much like a study guide.  For these games, I roll a 30-sided die to randomly select problems.  You could also put slips of paper with problem numbers on them into a container and select problems that way. 

I keep track of the questions I have selected and the answers to them on the sticky note.

Yes!  An effective review ...

Students mark answers with highlighters, switching colors each round.  There are no beans all over my floor.  😜

You can find MATHO games here on a variety of middle and high school topics.  Instructions are included with the materials.  If you have an idea for one you don't see, please let me know.  I'd love to create one for you!

Here is a MATHO game about using the Pythagorean Theorem.

Multi-Step Equations with No Solution and Infinite Solutions

I’ll bet if we took a survey of the topics math teachers enjoy teaching most, solving equations would top the list. 

Actually, let’s find out how YOU feel about this.  Participate in the survey here: Create your survey with SurveyMonkey  

When I introduce equations with no solution and infinite solutions, I use these notes.  I’ve found them to be a quick way for students to compare these equations to those with one solution.  The interactive nature of the foldable notes helps to keep students focused.  Incorporating the checking of answers into the notes helps to make the rather abstract concept more concrete.  Students especially need to test multiple solutions to the infinite solution equation to help them grasp the idea, so I've included an area for that.

What next? ... Students need practice! 

Many textbooks and worksheets include very few problems with no solution or infinite solutions.  My belief is that students need a problem set that makes them think carefully about each problem.  If there is a good mix of equations having one solution, no solution, and infinite solutions, they must analyze each problem carefully.  I’ve found that textbook materials may contain only two or three special case equations in a problem set of 20-30 questions.  I want my students to have a problem set in which there are frequent examples of no solution and infinite solution.  That way, they must pause often to carefully analyze their solutions.  This increases the chances that they will actually remember what I am teaching them!  To provide more targeted practice, I created my own materials to use to teach this topic.  If you are interested, you can find them here along with the notes.

Typically, it doesn’t take very long for students to catch on to solving these sorts of equations.  However, it is very important that your students continue to see examples of no solution and infinite solution equations regularly throughout the year.  Bell work is an easy way to provide that review.