Love this Dylan. I have tried to be intentional about designing warm up/ do nows in this way - to review/practice skills that will support upcoming topics - but it felt more rigid than this, and I love the idea of using whiteboards for this purpose. Can I ask about how you tend to structure your lesson, like about how much time you spend on each portion of the lesson? Trying to figure out how to fit multiple strands into a relatively limited amount of time.
Mini whiteboards (10 minutes) - this is where I do most of the strands work. It's also where I spend a bit of time following up on any major issues I see in the Do Now.
Bulk of class (20-25 minutes) - this is often a mini-lesson and some practice, sometimes two mini lessons and rounds of practice, other times there's an exploration or something else mixed in.
Practice (5-10 minutes) - I typically wrap up with a bit of DeltaMath practice. This often revisits topics from mini whiteboards at the beginning of class.
Love this post! I’ve been using strands in HS for my whole career. In Pre-Calc, we usually have a function analysis strand (analyzing log functions, say) going at the same time as a strand on higher order polynomials. I’ll also have a “Do Now” strand on Set Theory in the first ten minutes. I love it for the same reason you mention- slower pacing and slower more continuity (hard shift from polynomials test one day to logarithms functions the next is abrupt otherwise).
One reason I didn’t see you mention is multiple opportunities for student success. A student might really struggle in one strand, but they come to class knowing that there’ll be three strands, so there is always one or two that they feel confident about.
Thanks! And you're totally right about student success. I try to sequence different strands in a given lesson to start with something easier, and use the confidence students gain there to help them take a stab at something more ambitious.
Love this Dylan. I have tried to be intentional about designing warm up/ do nows in this way - to review/practice skills that will support upcoming topics - but it felt more rigid than this, and I love the idea of using whiteboards for this purpose. Can I ask about how you tend to structure your lesson, like about how much time you spend on each portion of the lesson? Trying to figure out how to fit multiple strands into a relatively limited amount of time.
Thanks! Here's my typical class flow. I have 49 minute periods right now:
Do Now (5 minutes, I go over the problems very quickly)
Routine (5 minutes - I wrote about these here: https://fivetwelvethirteen.substack.com/p/non-curricular-routines)
Mini whiteboards (10 minutes) - this is where I do most of the strands work. It's also where I spend a bit of time following up on any major issues I see in the Do Now.
Bulk of class (20-25 minutes) - this is often a mini-lesson and some practice, sometimes two mini lessons and rounds of practice, other times there's an exploration or something else mixed in.
Practice (5-10 minutes) - I typically wrap up with a bit of DeltaMath practice. This often revisits topics from mini whiteboards at the beginning of class.
Let me know if you have any other questions
so helpful, thank you!
Love this post! I’ve been using strands in HS for my whole career. In Pre-Calc, we usually have a function analysis strand (analyzing log functions, say) going at the same time as a strand on higher order polynomials. I’ll also have a “Do Now” strand on Set Theory in the first ten minutes. I love it for the same reason you mention- slower pacing and slower more continuity (hard shift from polynomials test one day to logarithms functions the next is abrupt otherwise).
One reason I didn’t see you mention is multiple opportunities for student success. A student might really struggle in one strand, but they come to class knowing that there’ll be three strands, so there is always one or two that they feel confident about.
Thanks! And you're totally right about student success. I try to sequence different strands in a given lesson to start with something easier, and use the confidence students gain there to help them take a stab at something more ambitious.
Strands, but for teacher education