Middle School Math Workshop Model
“Exactly as I expected. Great ideas and suggestions on how to implement math workshop in my classroom.”
-Joy R.
How can a math workshop model impact your students? Math workshop games and activities completely changed how I reached my students and improved their attitude and understanding of math. If you haven’t already, you can check out my math workshop book and math workshop course! Early in my career, teaching 6th grade math, my middle school's curriculum coach came to me with a new (at least to me at that point!) model of structuring the classroom called math workshop. The basic idea of this middle school math workshop model was for students to be put in small groups that would rotate through various math centers, or math stations, during the class period. I'll be honest, I was skeptical at first. It was overwhelming to think about completely overhauling all of my everyday classroom routines, and in the middle of the school year none the less! Combine that with the fact that I coach high school baseball every spring, and I was picturing what would have been zero free time falling into negative numbers. In the end, I decided to try it out, and am I glad that I did. I truly believe that this middle school math workshop model has the ability to positively impact your students more than any other math classroom structure.
*Update: Registration for the Making Math Workshop self-paced, online course IS NOW OPEN! Don’t wait to get your spot in the online course! For everything you need to get math centers started in your class, all in one spot, you can join my self paced, online Making Math Workshop Work Course. You can find all of the details about the course in this blog post.
Math workshop can be set up several different ways, depending on what works for you and your students. So, let me begin by telling you what I have done in my class. Some years, I have had smaller class sizes of around 22 students, where each of my classes were divided into four groups of 5 to 6 students. My first year I had larger classes, so I had them rotate through five rotations, or centers. As far as placing students in groups, I believe that most of the groups can have students of mixed academic levels. The exception is the group that begins at the homework center, as they will need to have a pretty solid understanding of the content. All of the other groups, as I will describe later, will already have had the chance to meet with you in a small group before starting the homework. Therefore, in my opinion, it doesn’t matter a whole lot which group they are in. The four centers include a teacher center at the front table with me, a homework center, a technology center, and a hands-on center. I typically taught three classes that were 90 minutes each (now I teach in a virtual school with smaller and shorter classes), so after accounting for 10 minutes of checking homework, a 10 minute daily check of what we did the previous day, a very brief introduction to the lesson, and a wrap up at the end of class, I had about 12-15 minutes for each small group rotation. A while ago, I wrote a blog post about how middle school math workshop could work in different class lengths and class sizes. You can check that out here! Above is a chart that I made to keep track of my different groups and centers. I also have a document posted that shows what color group each student is in. So, you might be asking yourself, what do students actually do at each of these math centers?
Teacher Center: This is definitely, BY FAR, the most important center of math workshop for the students. It is the number one reason why I chose to switch to a math workshop model. It benefits the struggling students and advanced students in so many ways, not to mention all of the students in the middle! For my students who are struggling with a concept, I am able to work essentially one-on-one, in their small group, to see what and why they aren't understanding something. With all of my students during this center, I start by having them work on this set of Math Task Cards, which are a basic set of math problems for each new concept that we cover in 6th grade. For my higher level, more advanced students, who usually breeze right through these problems, I have spent a lot of time creating a set of 6th grade Enrichment Task Cards for each of these concepts. I also now have task cards available for 7th grade math and 8th grade math. These are linked below! I typically would laminate and cut out six copies of each card to have ready, so that each student could have their own task card. Originally, I had students doing these task card problems in their notebooks at this center, then I switched to white board work, and then eventually turned my front table into a giant white board. I am glad that I did! The students absolutely loved writing on the dry erase table! Just be sure you order enough dry-erase markers... because they go fast!
Math Task Cards for 6th Grade Math
Math Enrichment Task Cards for 6th Grade Math
Math Task Cards for 7th Grade Math
Math Enrichment Task Cards for 7th Grade Math
Math Task Cards for 8th Grade Math
Math Enrichment Task Cards for 8th Grade Math
Homework Center: I have always had students head to this homework center immediately after they have met with me in their small group at the teacher center. The homework center is their chance to try out and practice what we have just learned at the teacher center. We always had a textbook series for our math curriculum, so my math homework assignments were usually 10 to 15 problems from the lesson we started that day. The one issue that comes up with this center, that I mentioned earlier, is that you will have one of your groups that needs to begin their day at homework, without having come to the teacher center first. I have my higher level group, which can change from unit to unit, always begin here, because they can typically complete the homework with little introduction to that lesson. Then, by the time they get to my center at the front table at the end of class, they have practiced on the homework and are ready for the challenging enrichment problems!
Hands-on Center: This center is definitely the most loosely defined and sometimes difficult to plan for. Many times, at this center, I will incorporate fun math games for middle school that either review a past concept or relate to what we have recently learned in class. This free Connect Four: Multiplying Decimals game is a good example of a game I created for use at this center. I also have a ton of engaging middle school math games, with printed and digital versions, that are described in this post. Other times, I will make a more hands-on activity for them to complete. For example, when multiplying fractions, I had students use fraction dice and cards to create their own problems. They completed their work on this answer sheet (FREE!) found in my TpT store:
Fraction Multiplication Answer Sheet
Technology Center: This center can also vary a bit. My former school’s library had iPads available to check out, so usually on Thursdays and Fridays I would have students play math apps on the iPads (from a list I have picked ahead of time!). On days when I did not have the iPads it varied greatly. We also sometimes had Chromebooks as an option, so using sites like Khan Academy was a great option as well. I sometimes did't even use technology and had students working on these awesome (and once again free!) Problems of the Month, which are from the Inside Mathematics site. The problems are progressively more challenging applications of concepts and skills we had recently learned about. I printed and laminated six copies of one of these problems to have ready to go at this center. Students had about one week to work on each problem, since they typically have multiple parts. The nice thing is that there are different levels for the problems, from easy to more difficult, so students can work at their own pace. What you use for the technology center will depend a lot on what you have available for you at your specific school. Just be flexible and creative with what you have students completing!
Some common questions always come up about getting math workshop started, so I will try my best to answer some of these. One of the most common questions is how and if students are able to stay on task and focused at all of the different math stations. This was probably my biggest concern heading into a math workshop model. After using math workshop and math centers for a little under ten years, I've found that if anything, it has actually been easier for students to stay on task. By moving around and changing centers every 10 to 15 minutes, it helps them get quick movement breaks and refocus on a new task. Of course, there will always be behavior issues here and there, but these behavior problems probably would have happened if students were being asked to sit through a traditional class and work time. Setting up and practicing routines at the beginning of the year is very important and you will get better at doing this every year you run a math workshop model. I have also used a behavior system where the class starts with the four letters P-U-M-A written on the board. If I need to take away all four letters, because students are not following expectations, then we lose math workshop for the following class period on the next day. This is normally some good motivation for students, especially when we are planning to use some fun technology the next day!
Another common question that arises is the amount of prep work. Honestly, it is quite a bit of preparation in the beginning. Having a large bank of middle school math games and some form of consistent technology for the technology center has been critical for me. I have spent a significant amount of time outside the classroom getting things ready and making activities, but it hasn't been completely overwhelming. You also shouldn’t be afraid to find resources that others have created and be sure to re-use activities even within the same year! Every year that I ran math workshop in middle school it seemed like it was less and less prep! If you are just beginning and want to stock up on a wide range of resources all at once, I have the majority of my 6th grade math workshop activities, 7th grade math workshop activities, and 8th grade math workshop activities included in different math mega bundles. My 6th grade resources are available in this Math Workshop Full Year Mega Bundle (Upper Elem/MS). My 7th grade math activities are in my 7th Grade Math Mega Bundle. This Mega Bundle (8th Grade Math) includes my 8th grade resources. These are at a HUGE discount when you compare them to buying everything individually!
If you are planning to being a middle school math workshop structure in your class, my biggest piece of advice would be to find what works best for you! I know that some teachers don't have a schedule that lets every group go to every math rotation each day, so they have the students go to one or two math rotations per day. I discuss many of these options in my book. As far as I am concerned, I don’t think there is one right way to use a math workshop model. I would love to hear any ideas or answer any questions that you have in the comments section below!
