Math Work Stations (MWS) chapter 1

General Reflections:

WOW... this book is going to get me moving in math. I love how Debbie talks about "centers" vs. "work stations". I want to go with work stations for this school year. I plan on having teacher work stations in the morning and math work stations in the afternoon. But the really cool thing I want to do is to continue discovery time at the end of the day. I LOVED what I learned about the children during discovery time. This is more of an old school center idea, and it's not mine- my friend April shared it with me. Here is how discover is going to help my work stations. Discover is about free play and exploration. It's a time where I can focus on interpersonal skills and oral language (for those going to common core this is how I am going to link K.SL.6- speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.)

 Chapter 1 questions

* If you are already using literacy work stations, what parallels did you see between literacy and math work stations?

I am not using work stations. I have teacher directed centers where each student is assigned a center to work in. Many of my centers mirror the literacy work stations. One thing that I found to parallel between the two types of stations is that all materials need to be familiar to the child. They need to have been molded. 

*how will what you teach in whole group impact the work students do at math stations?

I use the I do, we do, you do model and I think that my whole group lessons are going to become even more critical! The more an items is modeled the more independent the child's learning will become.