4.23.2012

Place Value

To help us determine our next RTi focus skill, my teammates and I analyzed our MAP data.  This data showed that our students were low in Place Value (Numbers and Operations) and Time, Money, and Measurement (Measurement).  We started with Place Value for a few reasons.

1. Place Value is the first Core Content in our current WA State Math Standards
2. We did not feel that our current curriculum fully covers Place Value
3. We have tons of materials to pull from because three years ago when we did not have a curriculum in our district, 2nd grade teachers across the district planned, shared, and implemented engaging and meaningful lessons.

This 3-week RTi went fast.  But I loved that because it was just 2nd grade working together this time we were able to focus more on 2nd grade expectations.

We have two para educators working with our RTi and because they are not at our planning meetings (schedule conflicts) it is extremely important that we plan and prepare in a way that is easy to understand and implement for our paras as well.  We always give our Paras the higher groups and the regular classroom teachers work with the middle and low groups, so usually our Paras are reviewing and extending, not teaching strategies as we need to do with our middle and lower groups, but it is still important that we are all on the same page with intended outcomes and routines.

We came up with the following plan:


2nd grade RTi—Place Value/ Numbers and Operations
Feb. 23rd – March 15th
Planning Page

*Post word form of numbers 1 – 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 in classroom for accurate spelling

1. Start the RTi session with “Around the Circle”
a.   Students use hundreds chart
b.   Teachers write numbers as students say them then discuss the patterns seen
2. Use base ten blocks to make a model of a number
a.   Use with whiteboards to then write word form, expanded form
b.   Make a second or third way to model that number
3. Smart board
a.   Order numbers
b.   Compare numbers
4. End with a worksheet
a.   If students finish early, give them a number to start at and on the back of their worksheet  they can count by 10 or 100 (forward or backward up to 1,000)
                                         i.    2nd graders need to be able to count by 10 or 100 starting from numbers like 31 or 423… not just numbers that end with a 0 or 5.



I loved this plan and lived by it.  When I have only 30 minutes, 3 times a week for RTi, I definitely work better with a strict plan.  It is so easy to lose focus or spend too much time on one thing, but a plan prevents me from doing that :)

Something we also changed in this RTi, because it was just 2nd grade working together, was we planned out the worksheets that we ended our RTi with each day.  We felt this was important so we were all doing the same thing on the same day.  We felt that our groups were similar enough that we could do this.

After three weeks we retested our students and I was very VERY happy.



Blue = Pre test
Red = Post test

Pre test--11 students in my class were not meeting standard 
(50% meeting standard)

Post test 4 students in my class were not meeting standard 
(82% meeting standard)

However, those 11 students went from 0/20 on their pretest to between 50 - 65% on their post test.  They made wonderful growth and as we continue to talk about counting by 10s, 100s, number forms, tens and ones, and comparing numbers, I am certain to work with those four students.

Overall, this RTi was one of my favorites!  I appreciated how organized my team and I were.  Not only did I know what I would be doing with my RTi group, but I always knew what my students would be doing when they left my room to go to their RTi group, and I really REALLY liked that!