Using Centers to Teach Math

Available Year Round

 

Handicap Accessible

Audience:
Classroom teachers in 2nd through 6th grade, Title I teachers, math coaches, teacher leaders, supervisors, curriculum directors, resource teachers, principals, and pre-service teachers. The course is also appropriate for middle/high school intervention specialists, special education personnel and educational consultants/therapists when their students' level of ability lies within the typical K–8 range.

Duration:
Two 2-hour sessions

Objective:
Experience how math centers can be used to enrich learning in a classroom environment. Grades 3-5.

Agenda:

“What does an ideal classroom look like?” We teach literacy through small group instruction, why not the same for math? In the initial session we will explore the advantages of small group instruction: differentiated instruction, child centered, mixed ability classrooms, exploratory learning. In the hands on part of this session you’ll participate in one teacher led activity and one game center to explore the range of activities that can be adapted to center based instruction.

In the second session you’ll explore three to four more activities that are well suited to centers and then focus on how to implement math centers in your classroom. Discussion topics include: group size, length of time at each center, how to assess when you are not watching everyone, how to assign students to centers, what do centers feel like for the teacher and the students?

From this session participants will go home with sample centers and sample sheets that can be used to implement math centers in their classroom.

What is the Zillio Game?

Zillio is a simple, yet powerful math manipulative that introduces and strengthens student understanding of critical math concepts through visual illustration and hands-on interaction. Zillio provides a fun environment where one can see, touch and manipulate numbers to reveal the specific relationships, precise rules and known outcomes of the systematic discipline of math. Our program is unlike flashcards and many other existing manipulatives and math games where numbers are treated as discrete, separate and unrelated events. Zillio can be used for grades 3-10 - elementary through high school level learners.

GAMES
Math-rich games provide motivation and rewards for learning. Zillio grows with your students as they grow. As they become more skilled in math, the games become more challenging. Using the same Mountain, players are able to make connections between many math concepts developing a strong number sense. They can see and understand how addition relates to multiplication which relates to number lines which relates to fractions which relate to ratios and so on.

INSTRUCTION
In addition to using Zillio as a platform for games, you can use Zillio as a platform for more formal instruction. While the games use a broad range of skills and can be used with homogeneous skill sets or heterogenous skill sets we recommend that the lessons be used with students of similar skill levels so that you are teaching the right skill to the right students at the right time, based on their readiness.Zillio will help you with hard-to-teach, difficult-to-grasp topics. On the curriculum page there are two tutorials. The first gives an overview of the design of Zillio. The second tutorial demonstrates 10 ways in which Zillio can be used as an instructional tool at various levels.

INTERACTION
Equally important is how Zillio lets you interact with your students. Because children vary widely in their readiness, interest and learning profiles, the lessons and games let you vary the approach, intensity, duration and measure of success. As they put tokens on the mountain and put their problem solving and reasoning skills to use, you can actually see their thinking, and target any misconceptions or gaps in their skill base.

View and purchase additional Zillio Mountains online by clicking here.