The purpose of my study was to determine if the use of a guided math workshop would increase student ability to solve addition and subtraction problems. Before this study, I taught my math lessons as a whole group. I would stand at the front of the classroom while my students would sit on the floor in front of the white board with their clip boards, math mats, and a pencil. Often times I would notice the above level students drawing on their math mats or even working ahead to complete the math mat. On the other hand, I would notice the below level students looking at their neighbors' math mats for the answers to the problems. For these reasons, I found teaching math frustrating because of the variation of academic levels of my students. 

 

After I spent time reflecting on my fall and winter AIMSweb scores and topic test scores, I realized that I needed to differentiate my instruction to meet the needs of my students. I could meet the needs of my above level learners by challenging them and pushing their knowledge of skills deeper. I could meet the needs of my on-level students by finding supplemental opportunities for practice and growth. I could differentiate for my below level students by catching their mistakes and providing activities and practice that meets them at their instructional level. 

 

In the fall, fifteen of my 21 students did not meet the AIMSweb benchmark of 12 for one digit math fact fluency. Two of my 21 students qualified for monthly progress monitoring for math fact fluency. One of my 21 students was able to accurately complete 80 addition and subtraction problems in 8 minutes. My students struggled with addition and subtraction problems and being able to do mental math. In the winter, 4 of my students still had not met the AIMSweb benchmark for one digit math fact fluency.

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I chose to focus on a guided math workshop because it was something I wanted to implement into my classroom since school started and my students’ needs were math based. My students needed improvement in math, specifically math fact fluency, so when I looked at the AIMSweb data, I knew it was an easy choice. Guided math workshop provided the repetitive nature that math fact fluency would require and it gave me the opportunity to differentiate instruction to best reach each of my students.