Math for multiple levels?

rose · October 14, 2017

I've been math philosophizing lately and I got to wondering how possible it would be to teach and/or play with math for children that are different ages and different skill levels. I have a bunch of littles and I'm wondering how I can adapt a curriculum to foster math skills and interest so that I could somehow work with multiple levels at once.

I've conventionally used MEP, which I appreciate, but it's a little teacher intensive if teaching multiple years and it doesn't seem terribly adaptable. Lately I've been tinkering with CSMP kindergarten and first grade. It seems to me that I could probably combine those two years quite easily by extending the younger activities for the older dc and simplifying the harder activities for the younger dc. I also recently became aware of the concept of math circles and that also got my gears working.

It seems to me that a lot of people span multiple years in history and science education. These are more knowledge based subjects but to some extent math is too. At least for the early elementary math years it seems to me that a daily math session might be sufficient to foster the necessary numeracy and geometrical awareness needed to go back to formal curriculum in later elementary.

IDK, I'm rambling here but what do you think? Have any of you tried to teach math to multiple levels?

MyLife · October 14, 2017

So, we use Math Lessons for a Living Education and because of the hands on activities my kids will jump in on each other's lessons, but not every day.

Some things that might work for family learning at different levels...

Miquon - the family could work on the same topic (for example, addition) but then each individual child work at their in level. You would need to purchase all the workbooks at once to do this.

Family Math - do the activities as a family but adjust depending on each individual child's needs. For example, one child may be building fluency during an activity but another child may need more teaching during the activity.

Edited October 14, 2017 by MyLife

MyLife · October 14, 2017

Just for example, the other day my oldest son's lesson was in division. He is working towards memorizing division facts, but my youngest was able to jump in. Even though the youngest is no where near memorizing division facts, he was able to take the large group of blocks and split them into smaller equal groups.

Edited October 14, 2017 by MyLife

sweet2ndchance · October 14, 2017

Math on the Level can be used this way. Just customize the 5-a-day sheets for each child but the whole family could be working on say fractions on different levels depending on what they are ready for, littles working on learning what a fraction is and is not, elementary ages working on adding and subtracting fractions, middle school working on multiplying and dividing fractions, pre-algebra level kids working on equations with fractions.

Everyone could work on addition the same way, littles learning to add with manipulatives, elementary learning to add with carrying, middle school learning to add equations with variables.

It can be very work heavy for the parent to use Math on the Level, but when I had lots of kids still at home, I actually found it easier for me to have all the kids learning within the same area of math and the older ones could help little ones which helps me tell how well they know their stuff and what needs more work.

fralala · October 15, 2017

I've been having fun doing this with c-rods and Gattegno's math textbook. I think what you're talking about doing with CSMP sounds similar to what I do. It seems to me the early years of math lend themselves well to joining together around the table-- and older kids can often benefit from being the "teacher" or explaining concepts, while younger kids benefit from being exposed to more math than they would otherwise. I also think math is a team sport, and this is my team! The main challenge for me is to gather together the appropriate practice sheets for each level (and luckily with c-rods it's often just graph paper and instructions) and make sure no one feels threatened by a younger sibling's sharp mind.

medawyn · October 15, 2017

I've been having fun doing this with c-rods and Gattegno's math textbook. I think what you're talking about doing with CSMP sounds similar to what I do. It seems to me the early years of math lend themselves well to joining together around the table-- and older kids can often benefit from being the "teacher" or explaining concepts, while younger kids benefit from being exposed to more math than they would otherwise. I also think math is a team sport, and this is my team! The main challenge for me is to gather together the appropriate practice sheets for each level (and luckily with c-rods it's often just graph paper and instructions) and make sure no one feels threatened by a younger sibling's sharp mind.

I have zero business jumping into this thread, because mine are all tiny, but the above is what I do. 10-15 minutes around the table in the morning with a big pile of c-rods and a mashup of Gattengno and Miquon. The 4.5 yo has a great time making math discoveries (he's a workbook kind of kid, so the opportunity for cheerful play/discovery is important to me), and the 2.5 (almost 3) is playing at her own pace. We've been doing this about 6 months, because it originally started as a way to keep the kids quiet while the baby had morning nap. Initially the 2.5 yo just worked on colors and bigger/smaller. Often she just builds. But I can see her paying so much attention to what brother is doing, and she's picking up all kinds of abstract concepts through her play.

I've recently incorporated the baby, because he's dropped his morning nap (darn). The real draw of table time is art/sensory play after math, but he's "doing math" with us, too. He's not mouthy, so sometimes I just give him a pile of c-rods to play with. Other times he gets puff balls and an egg carton for sorting, counting bears and cups, colander and pipe cleaners. Whatever is easy and will entertain him for 10ish minutes. Then everyone gets snack, so he knows that's coming.

I'm not confident enough in my own math skills to go it without a curriculum, but I'm hoping to keep this "math lab" time as a long-term part of our schedule to continue with discovery oriented math, while the box checker in me runs Right Start or Singapore alongside. Hopefully my confidence grows with my kids, and I can trust myself more.

Dramorellis · October 15, 2017

I've been merging my 5 and 7 year olds for the past two months and it has worked very well. I decided to take the path that I use for other content subjects and teach to the oldest child's level and modify it backwards for the younger. For math that means that we've been doing Beast Academy 2A, Kitchen Table Math 1 and 2, Life of Fred, Math and Magic in Wonderland and just playing around with money and manipulatives. The 5 year old catches what he catches. It's been great as I feel he is getting exposure to more math concepts than he would have if he was working solely on his level and she is getting more of me since I'm not rushing. We don't do it every day and she does write down her work and goes at a faster pace when he is not in the mood. I think it can work wonderfully for the younger range. If I had your age spread I would absolutely merge everyone 4 and under together. Teaching at the highest level and giving the others an opportunity to fill in as you see fit. In our co-op we have had two classes that were basically a math circle format with art and manipulatives for the 4-6 age range.

MyLife · October 15, 2017

I've been merging my 5 and 7 year olds for the past two months and it has worked very well. I decided to take the path that I use for other content subjects and teach to the oldest child's level and modify it backwards for the younger. For math that means that we've been doing Beast Academy 2A, Kitchen Table Math 1 and 2, Life of Fred, Math and Magic in Wonderland and just playing around with money and manipulatives. The 5 year old catches what he catches. It's been great as I feel he is getting exposure to more math concepts than he would have if he was working solely on his level and she is getting more of me since I'm not rushing. We don't do it every day and she does write down her work and goes at a faster pace when he is not in the mood. I think it can work wonderfully for the younger range. If I had your age spread I would absolutely merge everyone 4 and under together. Teaching at the highest level and giving the others an opportunity to fill in as you see fit. In our co-op we have had two classes that were basically a math circle format with art and manipulatives for the 4-6 age range.

Gah! I just added Kitchen Table Math to my Amazon cart.

letsplaymath · October 15, 2017

I was going to recommend Cuisenaire rods and Gattegno, but I see I'm late to the game. :-)

This can work at a wide range of levels, because it truly is learning through play. Each child meets the ideas and absorbs what they are ready for. If you want some guidance in getting started, this lady has a free introductory handbook and a whole series of wonderful blog posts.

Edited October 15, 2017 by letsplaymath

homemommy83 · October 15, 2017

Is there anything similar to Math on the Level for basic arithmetic, but in a single book and affordable (for me affordable is less than $40)? I love the look of Math on the Level, and the idea of teaching addition-fractions, with additional topics as well, repeatedly as a group, but with ability appropriate problems. I would like to do like 3 or 4 week "units", but the thought of making up all of my own problems for each child has always kept me from implementing it.

Hunter · October 16, 2017

Have you seen this video?

PeterPan · October 16, 2017

My ds functions at multiple levels in math because he is gifted with learning disabilities. Like literally, he's considered gifted in math and SLD math at the same time. Screwy.

Anyways, the short answer is that the easiest way to teach to multiple levels is to have the progression in your head, meet them where they are in any session, and use a straightforward spine (Daily Warm-Ups, that kind of thing) to catch holes on things you're not going to do well.

On a functional level, it takes a significant amount of knowledge, a significant amount of prep (I prepare 10-20 minutes for 20-30 minutes of math instruction), and a LOT of time scavenging materials. I also think it underestimates the amount of work necessary to think your targeted interactions of one session a day (which with littles means 10 minutes, maybe 15) is going to be enough. I try to get 2-3 sessions a day with my ds. My ds just turned 9, is 3rd grade by age.

So it's a LOT of work to teach this way. I think it's more sane to do it as a supplement. Find something stable and consistent and use that level of knowledge you have to make it pop. The ONLY reason I'm doing math this way is because my ds has autism on top of his learning disabilities, meaning he doesn't generalize well and has language gaps. So I'm having to do things lots of ways to make sure that 2+3 is 2+3 in every environment, every situation. Literally, you change the manipulative, and he no longer knows the content. But a more typical child with no disability?? Teaching that way, with no spine, would be very time consuming. I'm very cognizant of my HOLES. I use published materials, ebooks from major publishers, to make sure I'm addressing my holes. I get books from Evan Moor, Teacher Created, a little from Scholastic, etc.

If you just want sane, open and go, works for lots of kids, have you looked at stuff Timberdoodle recommends? They're always very sensible in their recommendations. Making everyone dependent on you probably isn't the way to go with a large number of kids. You're going to need to facilitate and tutor.

But hey, if you don't wanna go that way, if you want to know how it COULD be, sure there are really cool multi-level things you could do. I have many of the books in the Marilyn Burns Math By All Means series. It's stuff that is multi-level. You could teach kids together. It would be an attention nightmare in my house, lol, but you could. But even with that, you know, there's a time for everything. Have your day to day and then do units. Or do a trim daily warm-up kind of thing and then have together math time in groups.

hm83 mentioned liking the idea of units but not knowing how to deal with the problems hurdle. That's where the daily warm-up printables come in. Your time with them would be more exploratory, more conceptual, and they'd get their more traditional work (word problems, measuring, time, computation, etc.) hit with the warm-ups. There are lots of series like that, and they aren't very expensive. Also you could do things you can buy like Math Mats where you set them up and then they just know to get them and spend 10 minutes and play together. Math Mats are set up as games so they would work well in pairs.

Hunter · October 16, 2017

Math spirals. Most topics are repeated each year with a review followed by a small amount of new material.

A wide curriculum, with LOTS and LOTS of other stuff as well as the arithmetic, can cloud our ability to see the whole of the arithmetic sequence. Pull out the arithmetic only. Create a yearly spiral. Make this the core of your curriculum. Use Ray's Practical Arithmetic as a suggestion for a scope and sequence.

Teach the other topics more like content subject, than skills. Don't stress over them. Find real life activities instead of workbook sheets. Call them "math labs" and be trendy.

Learn to notebook math. Write a title, definitions, rules, and examples. Look to your favorite English grammar book as an example of how to set up a page. Get verbal about math. Talk about it; write about it.

I learned a lot about teaching basic arithmetic from the math section of this book. The methods suggested work well with Ray's arithmetic and I think the authors of the New Ray's curriculum are incorporating some of this. I think this book might be OOP now.

A Guide to American Christian Education for the Home and School.

https://www.amazon.com/Guide-American-Christian-education-school/dp/0961620110/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

The math section of Blumenfeld's How to Tutor is AWESOME and free. I was not the same PERSON after reading it, rather than just a better teacher.

http://blumenfeld.campconstitution.net/Tutor.htm

I learned some from Waldorf people too. Especially how to notebook math lessons. Google "Waldorf mainlesson math" and then click "Images" An entire year of Waldorf math might be only 20 pages for mom.

Newspapers in Education Math can be used as free ideas for math labs

http://www.nieteacher.org/

Itâ€™s NIE for K-3 by Ann West
NIE Itâ€™s Elementary by Ann West
Football Fanfare by Ann West
Hoops by Ann West
Using the Newspaper to Teach Virginiaâ€™s Standards of Learning K-5
Get into the Newspaper by Watertown Daily Times

Eli J. Hoenshel Progressive Course in English TM pp 13-14 Number Stories

https://books.google.com/books?id=Zn8SAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA13&lpg=PA13&dq=Eli+J.+Hoenshel+Progressive+Course+in+English+Number+Stories&source=bl&ots=zt6MaxMFno&sig=oPCevW8uIAhzlLhT8ltu_vz-yG4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjN-eCihfbWAhVD54MKHePfBlEQ6AEIKjAB#v=onepage&q=Eli%20J.%20Hoenshel%20Progressive%20Course%20in%20English%20Number%20Stories&f=false

Everything You Need to Ace Math in One Big Fat Notebook. This book has great examples of notebook pages

https://www.amazon.com/Everything-You-Need-Math-Notebook/dp/0761160965/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1508188131&sr=1-2&keywords=math+notebooks

Google "math journals" and "math journaling"

Borrow "Writing in Math Class" from the library

https://books.google.com/books?id=sdEfker6zlwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=math+write+to+learn&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwir_rn9iPbWAhWB24MKHbNHAyQQ6AEINzAD#v=onepage&q=math%20write%20to%20learn&f=false

Free worksheet generators

http://mathmaster.org/worksheet/

https://www.kutasoftware.com/freeipa.html

If you use Ray's and some other really old curriculum, the algebra sequence is in the same exact order as the Practical arithmetics. You can even teach arithmetic and algebra side by side. Notation, addition, subtraction, etc.

Edited October 17, 2017 by Hunter

Hunter · October 17, 2017

Scope and Sequence for teaching math to K-8 together.

https://homeschoolingtorah.com/introduction-to-foundations-of-arithmetic/

rebbyribs · October 17, 2017

The only thing I've done that combines for math is Bedtime Math. It's an app that has a daily story (often a kid-appropriate news item) and then word-problem type questions on several levels. It's certainly not a full math curriculum, but it could be useful.