Engage NY and Small Groups

I seriously love the Engage NY Math curriculum. I love that it gives my students the opportunity to discover the content. I love how well it hits on the CCSS. I also love that it gives me more than enough work and problems tiered to account for multiple levels. With that said, when I first looked at everything I was worried about the script and how this would look in my class. With my background being completely early childhood I find it really hard to stand in front of the class and deliver a lesson. I get anxious watching 30 students with all different needs and abilities clump together for a lesson. I read a lot about Guided Math and was incorporating that in to my day as much as possible. Then I got the Engage curriculum and wasn't sure how it would work. I kept tweaking it until I felt like it was right. It is really working now and I push in as much of Engage in to the stations as possible. I have found a lot of awesome resources to make it easier for me and I will share those below as well. 

This post is very wordy right now I promise to add pictures later when I have some free time...maybe next summer? The resources are really amazing though (and they are not mine so this is completely unbiased)! If anything scroll until you see the blue HERE's so you can save all of them! 

First you need to understand my schedule. I am very lucky to be departmentalized so my main focus is Math. I have 3 blocks of math class teaching the whole 4th grade along with a batch of 13 accelerated 3rd graders.

I have 75 Minutes for each math block.

My Schedule is as follows 

10 Minutes - Homework and Agenda
45 Minutes Stations/Small Group 
10 Minutes Problem Set
10 Minutes Debrief

To better manage Stations and to still have enough time to teach the content I split my classes in to two groups. The first group starts with me at Small Group while the rest of the class rotates through MATH Stations. There ends up being about 2-4 students per station while I have 12-14 students with me in small group doing the actual Concept Development from Engage. After 20 Minutes the students in Small Group rotate in to Stations while all of the students in Stations join me in Small Group. 

I use the acronym MATHS to organize all of this movement. 

M = "My Math Fluency" 
At this station students do the fluency activities from the Engage Lesson for the day. I post it on the white board and they sit with mini white boards and answer the questions then turn and talk about their answers. If there is a Sprint then they do the Sprint together with a timer and turn and talk about their answers. 

A = "At My Seat"
At this station students work on the previous lesson's Exit Ticket as a group using "math talk" or "small group discourse". They work together and make sure they agree on an answer.

T = "Tool Box Builder"

At this station students are adding to their interactive math notebooks either math vocabulary or I have them preparing notebook pages for the following days lesson. I found these amazing notebooks aligned to Engage on TPT you can get them HERE. I was lucky enough to have PTSA funds to purchase all of them. My biggest issue with note booking of any kind is the time wasted waiting for everyone to cut and glue. With it in a station students can move on when they are done and the slow pokes are learning to speed it up. If they come to small group the next day without their notebook ready they must draw in the templates which is just no fun. 


When I do not have note booking pages to be added I sometimes give students a Learnzillion video to watch instead. They take notes on an amazing Learnzillion Notes pages that is FREE on TPT you can grab it HERE. 

H = "Hands On"
At this station students are working on a specific area they feel they need to practice. I also use the foundational standards to put out fun activities that allow for practice of these previous grade level standards in a fun way. We have data folders and amazing homework spirals (in my homework post) that help the students choose the area they need to practice. I use yet another amazing TPT resource to give the students options for activities you can get them HERE. They are essentially mini lessons on all 4th grade standards. I wish she had 3rd grade ones because that would really make this station easy to set up. I put out a few folders a week along with one or 2 foundational standard activities. I found a 3rd grade resource on TPT that does help with this and the kids like the different puzzles and games you can grab it HERE. 

S = "Small Group"
This is where I have half of the class and we go through the Concept Development for that day. I do only have about 20 minutes of time with the group so I really have to look at the lesson and see what my group needs to do. However, I have found with 12 students I can get through much more of the Concept Development in a shorter period of time. I flex my class so that I have a group of low/medium and a group of medium/high this way whichever group I am with is getting the meat that they can chew. If I ever have an extended lesson or a topic I want to do an extra activity on then I do it whole group instead. 

After the second group finishes Small Group we clean up and sit down for the Problem Set. I pull any students that are really struggling to work with me. I only assign some of the Problem Set questions but encourage students if they finish those to do as many more as they can. I then give them 1 minute to discuss answers with a partner before we go over one or two together. 

The stations are very successful. On Fridays I do notebook checks and collect station work along with a reflection sheet the students fill out. This keeps them accountable for their work and keeps them motivated and on track. Also on Fridays students take a homework quiz and/or an Engage Topic Quiz. Someone made review for Modules 1-3. They have topic quizzes, along with mid and end module review games, and review sheets aligned to Engage Get them HERE. 

The hardest part about this set up is getting the students to actually use that math talk and push each other without my complete supervision during station time. I spent two weeks modeling and teaching students the different stations. I first focused on the 8 math practices giving students a tool for their notebooks to help them remember each one and we acted out what they looked like. Then we spent one day per Math Station. First we created norms for each station and took notes about who, what, where, when, why, and how to participate in that station. Next we actually did what that station asked as a whole group. I was able to walk around and monitor and adjust to help students learn what is expected. Then we talked about it and added norms if necessary. Once the students learned all of the stations I slowly started adding them to our day. After 2 weeks we were fully functional. The students love stations and If necessary I take stations away. They hate this! 

My hope is that this blog post inspires some anti-engage ny teachers to embrace the content but make it your own. The lessons really offer amazing meat for the students to work through. It isn't meant to be a play with you as the leading star. At first look that may seem like all you can do with it but you are mistaken! Learn the model they give you and then be creative! If stations aren't your thing just focus on letting the kids talk and do the work. Don't stand up there "teaching them". I hope to share more of my Engage NY love soon!


Thoughts and opinions are greatly appreciated!