Engage NY Homework Calendar and GIVEAWAY!!

My first big Teachers Pay Teachers project is FINALLY finished! I worked really hard to get all of the calendars for 2015/2016 updated and ready for purchase. The students really loved my calendars last year and they were one of the most frequently mentioned items in my end of the year student survey. If you want to know more about why I use these homework calendars instead of the regular engage homework please see my earlier blog post that talks ALL about it HERE. 

My completed calendar bundle includes....

• 10 editable homework calendars for the 2015/2016 school year along with extras and answers keys.
 
• 1 show your work page that can be printed front to back and kept in the classroom for students to use as needed. 

• Parent Introduction Letter

• Student/Parent Expectations Letter and Online resources page. 

If you would like to check out my completely editable calendars for yourself visit my TPT store. 


The first 10 people who follow my blog and leave a comment with an email address will get the August calendar pack for FREE.

Engage NY Stations - S Station: Self Study

Objectives/Resources Used: The focus at S stations is for students to practice skills they personally need to work on. Last year this was my H station focus but I wanted something more because too many students were finishing. I am not sure if I am going to make this a daily rotation or more of a what to do when you're through option. I do not use Engage NY as much for this station because I have found that while the curriculum does go back to other standards it does not spiral through everything as much as I would like. To combat this I purchased a CCSS Spiral called Math Moves on TPT that allows students to practice all the standards each week.

You can grab a copy HERE. Students do 4 problems each day Monday through Thursday as a part of their morning work in their homeroom classes. Then on Friday's (and I do not do it every Friday), students take a quiz over the same types of problems they worked on all week. 

I have students write down what area or domain they feel confident in based on this assessment and I have them select an area they need to practice. Then during S station they select an activity based on that domain. I purchased this  math station pack and created folders for students to easily select. I set these up in the beginning of the year and did not have to do much upkeep. They have the answer keys inside and work pages along with a little example or short explanation of the skill. I also put fun games and other things I find in this area for students to pick from. 

Online Options: I would also like to have more online work happening in class each week so I am going to allow students to do Skoolbo, Xtramath, and/or Tenmarks.com during this station. 

Classroom Set Up: 

On my Station Board under S I write Self Study. I also have a carpet area where I keep all of my self study options grouped by CCSS Domain. This year I am going to add some online option packets that have the directions to get to all of the online places along with all the login information. Last year I posted it on the wall and students have the login info in their binders as well but they still seem to waste a lot of time getting logged in. 

Examples:

• Here is an example of the self study folders students can pick from. They have card pieces and worksheets to go with them. The students like these and do really well checking and grading themselves honestly.

Accountability/Assessment: Students can turn in their station worksheet and I can easily see if they did real math work or just wrote down answers. All of the online work allows me to see reports of what they did, how much time was spent etc. I tell the students though that this station is for their personal progress. They will see gains on their weekly math moves assessment and that will tell me if they studied or not. 

Engage NY Stations - H Station: Hands-On

Objectives/Resources Used: The focus at H Station is for students to do something more real world and more fun. This is my center like station but it is not just fluff. I use the Engage NY modules to help plan activities for this station. When I pretest students I assess not only the content that we will be learning but the content they should already have mastered from previous grades in order to be successful. In the beginning of each Module they list Focus standards and foundational standards. 

For the Focus Standards I wanted to have more all encompassing activities for students to apply their new learning. I found some awesome project ideas on K-5 and am going to use these to start of the year.

You can check out the awesome projects options they have HERE. My plan is to have 1 or 2 options a month for projects that align to the standards we are working on. Students at H can work on this throughout that time. 

I really want the students to focus on revising and editing their work and also getting feedback from their peers. I want to work on teaching them to critique each others work and build a community of positive communication and hard work. I got this idea from the book study we did over Summer break and it is one of my goals for this year. You can read more about my goals and what I did this Summer HERE.

Classroom Set Up: 

On my Station Board under H I write whatever they are working on today. "Multiplication Game, Fraction Pizza's, Million Dollar's Project" etc.. I have table in my room where I also store games and activities that I use all year. I also have a bin where I put the activity or options for the week.  

Examples:

Module 1: Place Value/Rounding/Addition and Subtraction

• Projects:
• August: Subtraction is an area I know without assessment that the students will struggle. (In my opinion subtraction is the hardest concept to master!!) For the first month of school I am going to have students do a "Spend a Million Dollars" Project. There are many variations of this available all over TPT. I found a few free ones that I am going to base my project off of. I like the simplicity of this one HERE. I may break down and buy a really cute one but I am trying to avoid it!! Students will have all of August to complete it. 
• September: How will you use math when you grow up (Future jobs project).
• Along with the ongoing project I will always put out some other short fun activities for students to do. They really like math mazes and crafts. I always do a place value block party craft. I like this one I purchased on TPT a few years ago.
  
  You can grab a copy HERE. 

Module 2: Metric Measurement

• Projects
• October: Research, Graph, and Convert Measurements of tall buildings around the world.

Module 3: Multiplication and Division

• Projects
• November: Thanksgiving Dinner Project
• December: Gingerbread Dream House Project

Module 4: Geometry

• Projects
• January:

Module 5: Fractions

• Projects
• February:
• March:

Module 6: Decimals

• Projects
• April:

Module 7: Customary Measurement

• Projects
• May:

Accountability/Assessment: This is not a daily must finish station. Students should only be spending a little time here each day and can dedicated more time when they have finished their other work. I do strategically place my hard workers at this Station first because I know they will get everything done.

I am thinking about creating a board where students can just mark progress they are making on the projects. Students love this station and like to show off the work they complete here. I do check to make sure they are completing it correctly and help them learn to work with each other on this as well. 

Engagey NY/ Guided Math Stations: Updates and Details

My first station post was WAYYY back from last October. As always I have changed and tweaked some things since then. I just wanted to share some of those updates here. If you missed that first post you can read it in all it's lengthyness(not a word..) HERE. 

My first project for Summer was to redo my station board for back to school. I really love how it turned out just need to keep it safe (which is hard in this wild house I live in) until I can get it to a laminator. It already had tomato juice dropped on it which will bother me forever and no one else will probably ever notice....

How I use this board in my classroom:

I teach 3 rotations of math so I needed something that I could easily use to organize my students for all of my classes without taking up too much space. My 4th grade team and I gave each rotation a color since we do not switch by homeroom but by mixing the students up as needed. Those are the colors you see at the top. Green is my first class that comes in, then blue, then red. 

Within each rotation I do 2 groups for centers/small group instruction. Those are indicated by the lighter and darker colors and the 1/2. Group 1 comes to small group for the first 30 minute rotation while group 2 starts in stations then they switch. I put all of my students names on the board with white board marker (I change them as needed usually once a week). Wherever there name is on the board that is where they start stations. I usually have 23-30 students per class and try to evenly split them for each group so in each station I have 2-4 students max. This has been the key to successful stations in that they are small enough groups that the students are quiet and stay on task. 

The bottom row with the colored boxes is where I write the objective or task for each station. I go over the stations but having the tasks written out allows the students to see what they need to get done without having to remember everything. They can go to the board if they forget or were maybe distracted when I explained things. 

Behavior: 
The most important thing in implementing stations is establishing clear norms and expectations from the beginning. The first week of school we practice each station as a whole class and we create norms together. What things do we need to do in the station? What do others need to do so that it goes well? How do we use the materials and tools? 

Once we have created all the norms students get a copy for their math notebooks and I post a large copy next to our station rotation poster. The students LOVE stations and I use that to my advantage. I give and take away class points ("smilies") for class behavior and we have a competition each week. The class that gets the most earns the title "Classy Class" and they get a reward like extra recess, dance party, pick their seats etc. Any class that fails to earn points or loses a lot of points will lose stations for the week. They hate this! Many times when a class loses stations they come back with a bang and earn that Classy Class title right away. 

Accountability: 
A lot of people ask me how I know the students are completing the tasks at the stations and that they are getting them done correctly. I have had students turn in their station work or keep it in their binder. I created a station tracking and reflection sheet for students to use. It allows me to quickly see if they got their work done and that they understood the tasks. I made some aligned to each Engage lesson but I also made a general one that could be used for any lesson. You can grab your own copy HERE. 

I do not think it is necessary for students to write down and turn in all of their work but it is good to have something that you can check periodically to make sure. For the most part the students do what is expected in stations. There may be only certain students who have to use the sheet until they can prove they get their work done. I know I will never be able to check the station work every day for all 80 students but checking weekly or randomly keeps the students on their toes and getting things done.

I have created a short blog entry to explain each station and have given an example of what it looks like. I am going to add pictures and more info. as the year goes on.   

M - Math Mastery

A - Assessment 

T - Toolbox Builder

H - Hands-On

S - Self Study

Math Station Guide and Reflections Page

First I must talk about my squishy perfect little handsome man! Kannon Scott Rowlan was born December 2, 2014 at 8:12pm. He weighed 7lbs 8 oz and was 20.5 in long. He is almost 3 months old now.

He is seriously the happiest baby EVER! I am so so in love with him! I must admit that after having him and finally feeling like a normal human being again I felt a little teacher guilt. It was REALLY hard working and being pregnant. I feel like my students got my worst (and yet they still loved me anyway <3). I love being home but I also will be excited to finish the year with them as my real self! 

While home with my studly I have still managed to get a lot of work done. My new project has been these awesome station guides aligned to the Engage NY Lessons.They help students move through the stations and also stay accountable during this work alone. There is a place for them to do the work for all 4 stations and on the back there is room for the application problem and a reflection area. I have not had the chance to use these personally as I am on leave but my substitute LOVES them. She hasn't even tried full blown stations but she says the kids like having the paper to use for notes and they keep in their work binders for support. 

I have made Module 4 Topic A Lesson 1 for FREE on TPT for anyone to try it out. You can get that HERE

I also created a general page that can be used with any Grade/Module/Lesson You can get that HERE for $2.

If you like what you see please let me know what you think!! I am not done with Module 4 in it's entirety but this is something I plan on adding to throughout Summer as well. 

:)

Engage NY Homework

While the engage homework is great I hate sending it home the day of the lesson. Homework shouldn't be a household burden it should be work students are confident in to practice. It also can be hard assigning the homework especially if you don't assign the whole thing (which I feel is a punishment to the kids after a long day of school!). My homework board would look like this Monday - HW Page 1.A.27, Problems 1 a,e,g and 2, and 4 ALL < That is confusing even for me! I also struggle with sending home old homework as students lose the worksheets before we need them or they lose the problem set so they do not have that direct model. In my class I have a few different things going on instead of the actual Engage Homework sheets. 

***I am very lucky to have very few students without internet at home. For students without access I do assign old worksheets and we create the packets together at the end of each week.

Tenmarks.com - I LOVE this site! It gives online practice that really challenges the students. It also gives great reports on their progress through specific standards. I teach different levels of math so I can assign other grade levels of work if necessary. Best part is it's FREE. There is a paid option but I love the free option so I haven't needed to look much further. My students are required to complete 2 tenmarks assignments each week. I assign way more than this and they can pick areas they want to work on. Many students do way more. 

xtramath.org - I need my students to be practicing their facts outside of school because the fluency mastery is just terrible yet I do not have the time to spare during the day. My students are expected to sign in to xtramath at least 4 times a week to do fluency. I start them at addition! Again this site is free! 

Spiral Activities - Along with these online requirements I give out a math spiral each week. I actually made a booklet for each quarter and only 3 students have lost it during the quarter(not bad!). The spiral covers all CCSS Domains each week this way even though we haven't taught fractions yet in Engage my students are using the vocabulary and practicing it all year. They also have weekly tests you can give that match the work students completed that week. I do not give these weekly and when I do it is not for a grade. I use it for our data folders. Students log how they are progressing through the standards and select one area to focus on while also listing one area they feel confident in. The kids actually really like the spiral and it is easy for parents to understand as well. If you want this amazing spiral you can get it HERE. I even got our 5th grade math teacher to buy it! 

Engage Practice - Okay so with all of this going on I still want my students to practice that Engage level work. I also needed a way for families to easily understand the different math homework requirements since obviously this is not just a worksheet each night. I created a monthly calendar that has all of this information along with a problem to complete each night Monday - Thursday. Students complete the work on a separate sheet of paper and turn it in at the end of the month. We still discuss the nightly problem each day in class. October is actually the first month I have tried out the calendar and parents are really loving it! I put it on TPT for free and am in the works of making more calendars. The questions are from Engage but they are review. Most of the questions for October Review Module 1 and 2. November will have Module 1, 2, and 3 and so on. Check out my calendar and give me some feedback please HERE!!

How do you do homework with Engage NY?