Classroom Management, Organization, and Middle School Math Games

When implementing small groups and math games in the middle school math classroom, I have discovered several common questions that come up. What games should I use? How do I introduce a new math game? How should I place students in groups? How do I effectively manage the classroom while students are in small groups? How do I organize all of the materials? And this year… how do I manage small groups and math games digitally? After 12 years of consistently using small groups in the middle school math classroom, here are a few tips that I have discovered.

WHAT GAMES SHOULD I USE?

With how often I have used math games in the classroom, I have spent considerable time creating engaging middle school math games. You can check out some of my favorites in my TpT store.

How Do I Introduce A New Math Game?

There isn’t a right or wrong answer to this, but here is what I have found to work really well. The first time you introduce a brand new game, see if there is a way you can play as a Teacher vs. Class game. For one, this allows you to teach the rules and model how to play as a class. Second, students love to try to beat you. :)

Seriously though, students love to try to beat the teacher in a math game. Some of my favorite moments in my 12 years of teaching have come while playing games as the teacher vs. the class. It is fun for you and fun for students!

Once you have played the game at least once as a Teacher vs. Class game, then you can break students into small groups the next time you play. They will now know the rules and how to play, so you won’t have to explain this step, other than maybe a quick refresher.

How Should I Place Students in Groups?

I personally think it is best to place students in groups randomly, with a mix of students at different academic levels in each group. Even though the nature of the games I play with students is competitive, I encourage teamwork and helping each other with the math work. In games like my math Connect Four games, for example this free Multiplying Decimals Connect Four game, I sometimes have all students work on the same problem as a group and agree on the answer as a group. There is still variation in who wins, because they all have their own game board.

If you are using games in a math workshop classroom structure, I still think students should be somewhat randomly place by academic level. However, in my math workshop structure, the students that work on homework as their first center, do need to be at a little bit higher level of understanding, so that they can successfully work on the homework assignment independently. You can read more about my math workshop structure on my page dedicated to math workshop in middle school.

How Do I Effectively Manage the Classroom While Students are in Small Groups?

This might be the most important question, right? Managing behavior in middle school can be a challenge, so how do we do this when students are playing math games in small groups?

First, although math games promote more talking and student interaction, they are also more engaging than asking students to sit and work on problems independently. Not to say there won’t be behavior issues that come up, but in general, you won’t have to fight as many battles to try to convince students to do the work, or play the game.

Setting up clear expectations and practicing these routines the first time you introduce games into the classroom is also important. I highly recommend having students turn in something that shows the work they completed during the game. Most of my games have a student worksheet, which is essentially a blank piece of paper where students do their work. This can be turned in and marked as complete, graded, or just collected to browse through as the teacher. When students know they need to turn in something from the game, this holds them more accountable for their work during the game.

In addition, as the teacher, know what the consequence is for a student that is causing problems or a distraction during the game. In the classroom, I would often have a set of backup problems, essentially a worksheet of problems, that students were required to complete at their seat if they couldn’t handle the game. Games are motivating for the majority of students, so when the consequence for not participating appropriately is to work on problems individually, this can be a good motivator. Whatever you decide as a consequence for students that don’t follow expectations, just be consistent with enforcing it!

Starting math games in your class can be intimidating because of the amount of motion and excitement they generate. But these things are a positive. If you start using math games consistently in your classroom, you will be surprised at how much excitement and fun it results in for your students.

How Do I Organize All of the Materials?

If you are using math games consistently with your students, whether it is in person or virtually, one of the biggest challenges is organizing all of the materials and games.

For those of you using a lot of digital games, specifically in Google slides, create digital folders! I admit, I have been guilty of using a math game and not organizing it in my Google drive. This is a huge mistake! I now have a folder titled Math Games in my drive. Within that, I organize new folders by grade I teach or have taught, 5th through 8th grade. Within each of those grade level folders, I create folders for the type of game (Connect Four Games, Bingo Games, Board Games, etc). Remembering to place your copies of these games in the folders is key!

In the physical classroom, organizing these materials can be even more challenging. After years of experimenting with different methods of storing all of my middle school math workshop games and activities, here is what worked best for me. In a file folder cabinet or file folder crate, have a labeled file folder for each game you play. This is where you can keep the game board copies and any other materials for the game that are the size of a normal piece of paper. For example, if you are playing a board game and you have 6 or 7 laminated copies of the actual game board, you can store them here. For any extra cards that go with games, I would recommend Ziploc bags and then placing them in containers like in the picture below. I found the containers at Michaels a long time ago, but you can find similar containers at a lot of different places. With this system, whenever you want to play a game, you just go to the file folder to grab the boards and then to the container to grab any extra cards.

How Do I Manage Small Groups And Math Games Digitally?

This year, of course, math games have been required to take on a digital format for a lot of classrooms. Having taught virtually the last three years, I have enjoyed experimenting with digital games with my math students. Here is what has worked best for my students.

If you are playing a math game like this free 7th Grade Math Probability Connect Four game, or any other game, I would recommend introducing it as I described above. Starting with a Teacher vs. Class game helps teach the rules and allows you to model how to play. Once you are breaking students into groups using the digital games, I would recommend creating the groups ahead of time. For this example, let’s say you have a class of 25 broken into 5 groups of 5 students each and you are playing the Connect Four game above. If playing digitally in Google slides, you will want to create a different copy of the game for each group. So in this case, you would create 5 different copies of the game document. I label them Group A, Group B, Group C, etc. You can then share each copy of the game with the 5 students in that group.

*Note: Make sure in this step you aren’t having each player in the group make their own copy. They should all be in the same document as they play.

When you start the class period in which you are going to play the games digitally, I have each of the links ready. That way I can say “These five students (list their names), here is your copy of the game.” My school uses Zoom as our platform, so I have used breakout rooms and students LOVE IT! Depending on your setup, you will have to decide if you want to break them into rooms, or just have them play in the group setting.

When Can You Introduce Your Next Math Game?

Those of you that have used math games in the classroom know how much fun they can be. If you haven’t tried math games very often in your class, I highly recommend trying them out as a way to add some excitement and fun into your class for your students. Put it on the calendar and lesson plans. Feel free to use one of my free Connect Four games listed above. I’d love to hear how it goes and any other comments or questions in the comments section below!