I have not been to a seminar, only looked over the materials on the web site. It looks very exciting.

I can picture introducing the 3 steps to solve an equation with the gestures and the Teach OK and I think it would really help the students to learn the steps, the order and what they mean. What I can't picture is how then do you transition to practice time to practice math problems (I did not see any video that showed any individual or even partner seat work). Is there somewhere that you can point me to?

Thanks,

Nancy

Welcome! I am happy to hear how excited you are... I teach 7th grade math - so I will give you an idea of how I structure that kind of lesson.

I use teach/ok to teach the steps, we go back and forth and do some guided practice. If I just want them to practice one or two alone, I do "Try it/Ok" - I will write two problems on the board, and I will say "try it" they will say "ok" and then they will get to work. The deal with this, is that you have to work it into the scoreboard, if they are mostly all working and putting in the effort I give them a point.

Sometimes, I need them to try longer than one or two problems, so we use "SFT" which is time spent, silent, focused and thinking. This only lasts for about 5 minutes, but no one is allowed to talk, - not even to ask a question. I do this with word problems especially, sometimes they need to be alone with their thoughts and see what they can come up with - instead of automatically asking someone how to get started.

Does this help?

Wow, these are some super ideas. I like the Try it/Ok and SFT time. I teach 5th grade, and I think this would be a great addition to my classroom!

Thanks!
Heather
TN

Great suggestions, both the Try /Ok and SFT. They fit in seemlessly which is what I was concerned about. Thank you.

AWESOME!! Let us know how it works for you...