23 Mar 3 Reasons the Daily Routines Aren’t Working: Part 3: I Don’t Have Time And BONUS content

I don’t have time in my instructional day—the lessons take forever as is!

I don’t have time to let students lead, it’s just faster if I do.

We did it for a while, but we have other things to do now (do I have to do them in Volume 2?).

Let’s explore the time obstacle.  Read to the end for bonus material on Volume 2’s Daily Routines as well as enrichment ideas once your class is ready for them.

Obstacle:

“I Don’t Have Time”

Let’s be clear.  Not having time vs. not taking the time are two different things.  I’m being more intentional around this language personally, as well.  I can say, “I didn’t have time to put the laundry in the dryer.”    Instead, “I didn’t take the time to put the laundry into the dryer.”  I had the time, I just chose to prioritize it differently.  I chose to browse Facebook, put the dishes away, sort the mail, etc.  Regardless of what I did, important or not, I chose some tasks over others.   You have a gazillion things to accomplish each day in your math class.  You have time to do mathematics, but you are forced to prioritize the activities, routines, etc. So, we have instructional time, it’s a matter of whether we are prioritizing part of it to do the routines.

Are you doing other routines that may be taking up your instructional time but may not be giving you the biggest bang for your buck?  Take an honest assessment of the activities you are doing during your morning meeting or calendar time.  There are many great community-building activities that might be happening during this time.  But, if you are honest, are you doing certain calendar routines because 1) you like them, but, if you admit it to yourself you know they have very little value. 2) It’s what has always been done. “I’ve always talked about the weather in my morning meeting!!”  But… are all of the “I’ve always done…” things worth the time they take?   Is discussing the weather EVERY DAY a priority?  Can you find a balance? Could you graph the weather every Friday?  I think that’d be way more interesting data to discuss than the day to day discussion.   **Note: some state’s new science standards call for graphing weather over a period of time.  Decide then if this standard should be addressed during your math routines or during science routines? Could it be a warm up to your science time instead?  IF the math routine is the only place for them, they should be outside the 10 minutes required for the math daily routines.

Ask yourself these questions to determine if you should keep the ‘other’ routines you have in place:

• Do they specifically address your NEW standards? CHECK! Just because you think your grade level SHOULD cover certain topics such as money or time, or patterns, doesn’t mean it’s a part of your newer standards, nor that it warrants the time you are detracting from other routines that DO support your standards. If your routines DO support your standards, and students are not fluent consider keeping them without forgoing the counting routines.
• Are they conceptual experiences or abstract? The bundling of sticks and straws is more abstract than circling ones and drawing lines through tens on the 120 poster.  On the poster, students see everyone and can still see the ones even when we draw a line to make the ten.  With the straws, as we bundle, some straws become hidden and it is not easily counted at a glance.  Can students get the point? Of course, but with limited time, consider doing the routine that emphasizes the same idea but in a very clear and conceptual way for those students who do not yet have conservation of number, perceptual and conceptual subitizing (ie. They still fail the hiding game assessment). The Math Expressions 120 chart and blue dot flip chart accomplish this.

Thee are so many great ideas out there for daily, morning routines.  I’m all for adding in mathematics concepts that students do not have with automaticity and putting them in the routine.  The suggestion, however, is to use these additional routines IN ADDITION TO, not INSTEAD OF.   For example, I’m all for adding in subitizing dot cards, building numbers multiple ways (number of the day), number talks, etc.  These are enriching numeracy activities.  

But— yes, there is a BUT.  If you have NOT been doing the daily routines, DAILY, I do not suggest keeping any of these other routines until you are comfortable with the new ones.  Go ALL in.  Trust it.  Put your energy into these.  Once you have them down, start adding in the others that you love.

The teachers I work with around the nation find they can get the routines done faster and faster throughout the year as students get better at leading them.  They find they can add in these other valuable routines as they get faster with the Math Expressions’ routines.

Set a timer!

I’d be bored too if this turned into a 20-30 minute ordeal. I’d ditch them too if they just kept dragging on. “I have content to get to!!!”  Keep the routines to 10 minutes (quick practice 5).  If the timer goes off before you make it through each part of the routine, stop, and pick up tomorrow. Just set up each part to reflect the new number. Just fake it.  So, if you get through the 120 chart, but run out of time to do the flip chart – probably because you are training a new student leader (wink, wink), then set up the flip chart and number chart with the new number as if you DID get to them.   Start the next day with the part of the routine you didn’t get to so that if you run out of time again you still are getting to each part of the routines over time.  You do want all of the parts of the number of routines to match.  If your number is 53, it should be 53 on all of the charts, cards, etc.

Obstacle:

” I don’t have time to let students lead, it’s just faster if I do.”

Oh, friends. C’mon. This has more to do with your struggle with giving up control than it does with your student’s ability to lead the multiple steps.   I’ve been in hundreds of primary classrooms and have seen student after student successfully lead the entire routine.  This is 100% about how we train students.

• Make it repeatable. It is tough to repeat what changes every day. Keep your language the same and use my script cards and cheat sheets to help.
• Keep the same student leader for the week. As you get going, you can change more frequently, but I find the more you change, the more you have to coach and the more disjointed it feels.  Give students time to get good at the routine.
• Be the guide by the side. Coach students.  I like to say everything they need to do as I stand to the side of them.  They just point and repeat.
• Give script cards and microphones. I have seen so many teachers use a microphone to help students be loud and proud. They love it! Student leaders don’t work when no one can hear them.  In addition, the script cards help give confidence and help to ensure everyone says and does it the same way.
• Make everything choral responses. Ever watch a primary student leader try to decide who to call on?  OH, MY HEAVENS.  It’s like watching paint dry.  CHOOSE ALREADY!!!!  I can’t handle it, plus it loses time and it causes disengagement.  A choral response is faster and more engaging. Student leader asks the question, everyone responds.
• Have a different student leader for each part of the routines. Each student can be getting ready for his/her part while the other student leaders take their turns.  This also increases engagement by all and helps you if one of your student leaders is a bit on the slow side.

As we discussed in last week’s post, Seeing is believing.  Check out these sweet friends, Reese and Miles conquer routines in 1^st grade. Thanks to Ms. Lehr, their teacher, for adding her own personal touch to the routines.   Note: the video is only showing some of the routines, but you’ll get the point.

You will notice that when they are done the same way, every day, anyone can do them.  These student leaders have been coached, of course. These student leaders had sticky note prompts on the wall (look closely) and you might notice the first student leader quickly refer to it.

See this video of some of my friends in first grade using microphones and script cards.  Of course, using the script cards involves some reading. In the beginning, you are whispering coaching each line to them. The script cards are used to help release you as the coach and to give them confidence. You may need to support student leaders with a reader helper.  I haven’t really seen this as an issue.

Obstacle:

“I’m in volume 2, do I really have to keep going?”

WE GET IT, Now What?  Volume 2.

Short answer?  YES.

Long answer: But there are ways to keep it moving.   First decide if students are truly fluent with the skills (counting, making tens, etc.) from volume 1.  Consider adding in the ideas below.  Next, move into Volume 2 routines.

Add Enrichment:

• Show Addition 2 Ways (First and Second)

Instead of the student leader walking the class through 2 ways to show addition on the class whiteboard (1-2^nd only), students bring their math boards to this part or go to their desks to show their own thinking on two ways they could do this addition.  Turn this section into a NUMBER TALK. The important part here is that students can continually make the proof picture and know when to regroup and when not to.  Adding in this challenge will encourage flexibility with numbers.  Regrouping, proof pictures, and the accessible algorithms are all great methods—but so is mental math and open number lines to think through adding friendly numbers.  Should we need a proof picture to add three? It is important that we build flexible math thinkers who can reason and adjust.  Adding in this routine will take additional time, so perhaps you can save time in other places.  By now, the number path would be discontinued as you’d be past 100.

• Number talk on the 120 poster

Let’s say you are on the number 66 and you are supposed to add five more.  Ask students to think about what the new total would be and how they know.  Use turn and talks to increase engagement and to generate ideas.

S: “I just counted five more in my head and got 71.”

T: Cool. Can you show us what you mean by you counted in your head?

S: Yes, I counted 67 (raises a finger), 68 (raises a second finger), etc.. Stops on five fingers (71).

T:  Counting ones is a strategy!  Let’s all practice that strategy.  (Practice with the student).

T: Does anyone have another way?

S:  Yes, I just split up 5.

T: Tell me more.

S: I took the five and I know we needed 4 more to make it to 70.  Then, we’d have one more left over and that’d be 71.

T: Let’s help everyone see it.  (T makes math mountain on board.  5 is the total. She writes 4 as one partner and 1 as the other. She uses color-coded markers to help kids visually see what’s happening.  The 4 is in green, so she circles the 4 numbers (67, 68, 69, 70) in green.  The 1 is in blue, so she circles the one more (71) in blue.  She revoices what the student suggested.

T: So I heard you say you knew that if you already had 6 ones (in 66) you just needed 4 more to make your new ten (70). So you split your 5 into the partners of 4 and 1…

T: Students, would you explain to your neighbor how to use this make a ten strategy?

Adding in this step should make visual what we are hoping students started doing early in the year with mental math.  Counting by ones is the strategy for K, but it should not be the long term strategy for 1^st and 2^nd graders.  Emphasizing how we add to the new daily total is a great way to enrich this part of your routines.  KEEP THE TIMER GOING.  This addition could easily take over your math block. We are having quick conversations.  We are having only 1 or 2 students share.  We are making their thinking visual.  We are MOVING on.

Number of the Day

As mentioned above, doing work with the number of the day can increase student’s flexibility with number and increase fluency.  Consider taking the number of the day and asking students to make the number as many ways as they can.  Many teachers use graphic organizers to help with this.  I’m all for simple and making fewer copies.  So, I’d have my students divide their boards into a four grid.  In each grid, they came up with the number in a different way.  Here are some categories you could use for each part of the grid.

1. Write the number of the day in word name and expanded form.
2. Write the number using a proof picture.
3. Write the number using number strings/multiple equations/ math mountains.
4. Sequence the number. What is ten more, ten less?  What three numbers come before? What three numbers come after?
5. Round the number to the nearest…..
6. Add yesterday’s number to today’s number. Share your method.

I’m sure you could come up with many, many more.

There is so much wasted time in morning transitions.  This would be a great bell ringer, transition activity.  As you take attendance, as students eat their breakfast, as you listen to morning announcements, and you transition to math class and wait for everyone to get materials, as you confer with students on homework, assignments, etc.  Capitalize on the ‘dead’ time in your classroom.    Have students share work with a partner.  Use one board to display with the daily routines.

Volume 2 routines:

Finally.  Here they are.

I have script cards for you/your student leaders to help move you along.  These are modified based on my understanding of the routines with a little added flair, scaffolded language, and engaging techniques.

Print these on cardstock, laminate, add to a large key ring, and keep them by your routine set up.

Volume 2 routine videos are on my YOUTUBE channel as a bonus to my youtube subscribers. Head on over to my channel and subscribe so you don’t miss out on the videos being posted each week. Only subscribers have access to them all!

Watch Volume 2 Routines Here!

For the 2018 copyright users of Math Expressions, there are no videos for each routine since most of the routines already have videos under professional development on the Think Central platform.  However, if there are ones you’d prefer to see done, just reach out and ask!

Pay attention to the copyright editions printed on each script card and video. Routines are very similar in most copyrights, except the new 2018 version where the routines vary greatly.

**Disclaimer: All script cards and cheat sheets are adapted, modified, and personalized from the teacher’s editions.  These reflect my personal preferences, interpretations, and understandings of each of the routines.

Grab your Volume 2 Script Cards Here

Do you feel empowered to give some of these a shot?  I hope so.  Go BE GREAT.  Take your learning and GROW!

Want More? 

Check out the first part in this three-part series here: https://empowerconsulting.org/3-reasons-your-daily-routines-arent-working-and-what-to-do-about-it-part-1/

And for even more, here is part 2 (plus bonus freebies!): https://empowerconsulting.org/3-reasons-your-daily-routines-arent-working-and-what-to-do-about-it-part-1/