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Making Centers Meaningful in Middle School Math
Time, space, resources, skills: these are just a few of the reasons we have all given for not being able to do centers. So when James Potter, 6th grade math teacher at Clayton Middle, said he had centers up and running in his classroom, we actually jumped for joy. Because this was an area that so many of us just need to see in action.
As we made our way down the hallway, one of the EC teachers stopped us to say, "Are you going to Potter's room? You have to see the beginning of class. I truly value being able to be in a room as an inclusion teacher and not have to be the disciplinarian. His classroom management is just...wow."
We quickly realized we might be observing more than we originally thought...
Classroom Culture
As students entered, Mr. Potter was at the door to greet them, each being handed an index card with a single math problem. The sum, product, or difference told them their seat for the day.
Click to view in action.
Students immediately got to work using the whiteboards and markers at their desks. Their first charge:
As students worked, Mr. Potter rotated constantly, checking answers, giving feedback, asking students to clarify, dig deeper, and explain their thinking - until every single student had an accurate answer on their whiteboards.
Setting student desks up into two "u" shapes ensures he was able to navigate to all students quickly and efficiently.
Specific feedback to students included:
"It's great that you can find the answer! But I want to know what 8 times 2 MEANS."
"Dial back your understanding. I want to know what this equation means, not what a similar equation is."
"Perfect."
"I like it."
"I'm very happy I saw most of you get out your Level Up cards when you finished."
"Teaching" the Centers
After a quick class discussion on the relationship between multiplication and division (which students had just discovered on their whiteboards during the bell-ringer), it was time to dig into the day's objectives.
The 3rd objective perked our interest, and lucky for us it was next on the list.
After a few minutes of playing, we were convinced the game was called "Nobody Gets Any Points". It was actually a factor game. One person circles a number and gets those points, their opponent gets the factors of that number. But if a number has already been circled, it can no longer be included. If your opponent gets no points, neither do you. Thus, there came to be a point where "nobody gets any points".
After practicing, the kids played each other for a few rounds.
"You can do this! I believe in you!" students chimed in encouragement of one another.
When students struggled, Mr. Potter offered an alternate way for their teammates to help: "If you think you know a factor of 12, you can hold up that many fingers if you think you can help him out."
With all the excitement, they even convinced us to get involved (we were on the winning team...no correlation).
Purpose of this seemingly random game: This is how Mr. Potter teaches students each of the centers. What we were actually experiencing was a future center. Whoa. *Mind blown*
Like many of his centers, this game actually was borrowed from another source. This factor game is part of CMP3, a middle school math curriculum used in many 6-8 math classrooms across the district. Although it's intended to be a part of a classroom practice, it also works great as a center.
Purpose of Centers
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Math Fact War (above): Students played a version of "War" where the first to say the product of the 2 cards won that stack of cards. Purpose: To review and practice quick recall of multiplication facts.
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24 Game (above): Students are given 4 numbers and have to make them total 24 in as many different ways as possible in 2 minutes. Purpose: To review the operations, as well as order of operations.
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Students used manipulatives in the above center to compose and decompose numbers into hundreds, tens, and ones. Purpose: To review place value and its meaning, particularly as it pertains to addition and subtraction.
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In Qwirkle - a combination of Scrabble and Dominoes - students worked to put as many similar shapes in a row, but without the shape being exactly the same as one adjacent. Purpose: To get students to look for patterns, and evaluate sameness vs similarity.
As students worked, Mr. Potter constantly rotated to ensure students understood each station, were participating appropriately, and engaged in their learning. He facilitated groups as needed, sitting with some who struggled to get started or stay on-task, or who were struggling with their own thinking.
He pointed out that at this point in the year, centers were purposely focused on review. Reasons were two-fold: (1) he found many students lacked some foundational understandings, and stopped to fill in the gaps, and (2) having centers focused on review topics allowed students time to get "good" at the process of centers.
Students spend 11-15 minutes per center, and rotate through 1 to 2 per day. And yes, this is the process most days during class.
As they move into grade level units, student centers will revolve around the current mathematical concepts, along with the concepts that build up to it.
In addition, as students are more able to smoothly rotate through and operate within their centers with teacher facilitation, Mr. Potter uses this time to meet one-on-one with each student weekly. The time is dedicated to checking their progress on mastery of content standards, setting goals, and understanding their thinking in areas they struggle.
Standards-Based Grading
As most readers have probably thought by now, when do the standards come in?
Remember that Level Up sheet that Mr. Potter brought up at the beginning of class? The one students should work on after they finished their bell-ringer?
Below are two examples of Level Up cards. The first one is dedicated to the review topics of Multiplication and Division. Notice that it includes student learning targets that are direct prerequisites of Grade 6 Math standards. The second one focuses on a grade level standard, but in the same way, requires students to show mastery of learning targets that build up to that standard.
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This was the assignment Mr. Potter referred to for students to work on once they finished their bell-ringer: to self-assess and provide evidence of their mastery of learning targets. When does he check these? During that weekly one-on-one time with students, mentioned above.
He also explained that he creates these as he plans for each unit. He unpacks each priority standard to decompose it into the foundational components.
He also explained that he creates these as he plans for each unit. He unpacks each priority standard to decompose it into the foundational components.
Addressing Independence & Learner Needs
At the beginning of the year, Mr. Potter assigns each student's center rotation, based on their Level Up cards and current areas of instructional need, aka the concepts they have not yet mastered. However, as the year progresses, students determine which centers to rotate to based on their Level Up cards. That's right... students. He admitted there are times when back-tracking and teacher-directed center rotations are necessary. But he is always focused on helping students direct their learning based on what they can prove they have mastered; helping them become independent thinkers for their learning.
Modifying for Different Types of Classes
The pictures above reflect 3 different classes: one advanced block, one regular block, and one inclusion block. Can you tell the difference in engagement? Mastery? Honestly, neither could we. All 3 types of classes are held to the same expectations for centers, and go through the same classroom processes. In fact, Mr. Potter admitted that his toughest class was actually his advanced class. His reasoning? They currently struggle more than other classes to explain why their math strategies work.
The Why for This Approach
Mr. Potter admitted that this was not a "fix everything" method. Some days it works, and some days it doesn't. But he persists in this approach for two predominant reasons:
First: "So I can see what they don't understand, and teach it until they get it."
Second: "I do what I do because it affords me time to talk with each student (even for just 5 minutes) one-on-one each week. I feel that sometimes I get more from that 5 minutes per week than I do from reading a cumulative folder or looking at their test data."
Our Take-Aways
Intentionality and perseverance.Intentionality: Every moment is planned intentionally to connect to and flow into a previous or upcoming classroom moment. Every standard is intentionally laid out from foundational concept to grade-level mastery. Every center is intentionally connected to practice on understanding the conceptual math. And every process is intentionally provided to support students in becoming independent learners.
Perseverance: Ensuring every child gets it can sometimes feel like a pipe dream. But seeing his dedication to every student understanding the "why", down to the conceptual components of the math, makes it seem more real, and feasible. This takes perseverance, and faith in the power of the classroom. Not just faith in ourselves as facilitators, but also faith in our students as learners.
Mr. Potter, thank you for helping to build that faith by sharing your classroom with us, and helping us believe it by seeing it.
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