7 Ways for Students to Lead Using Eureka Math

We spend so much of our time and energy teaching our students.

We model each concept and walk them through every step.

Some days we do not even sit or take breaks. We get in the groove of go, go, go to feel we are doing the best we can.
 
What if we took a step back and let go of the reins a bit? What if we put more leadership on the STUDENTS?

Think about it- the best way to know if something is learned is to be able to teach it.  What if we as teachers shared our job and turned some of the math teaching over to the students?

Well, just maybe it would not only create confident learners that are able to now teach what they have been taught, but also empower students with confidence and drive to keep wanting to learn more and teach more!
 
When using Eureka Math, you may miss opportunities for this dynamic when you fear you may lose your routine or time. In this case, it is not be easy at first to let go. So, here are some ways to flip the teaching onto the students to teach what they know.
 

Math Leader: Each day you can select a student to be the math leader. This student will assist you with the opening of your concept development. While you present a task on the smartboard, the math leader’s job is to solve the problem and explain to the class how they can solve it. This student will be prepared to explain their thinking out loud in a step by step way.
 
Student Lead Partnerships: Provide students in partners or groups, with problems to solve. Then allow each student to turn and talk to the group explaining their thinking and drawing the models. Each student can share a strategy they feel most confident with. They will enjoy learning about the ways their friends decided to problem solve and may want to try out that strategy too!
 
Student Created Portfolios: Students select pieces of their math work that they feel particularly proud of. Allow students to create a folder and add to it throughout the year. Students can present their work to their parents at open house. Let them explain how they completed those tasks. They will feel ownership of their own work and of how far they have come in their learning.
 
Math Class Buddies: Partner up with a younger grade level class and create a younger math buddy for each student. They can work together on games. The students can teach the younger ones some fact fluency strategies while having fun at the same time.  The younger students will gain fact fluency too!
 
Math Manipulative Champ: allow students to  select one math manipulative they love to use to model a math problem. Allow one student a day to teach the rest of the class how they use that tool to solve problems. This works particularly well when you are working on place value and have students manipulate the models to solve various problems.
 
Math Technology Leader: Assign a student who is a whiz at the smartboard to introduce how to play a new math game to the class. Let them use this time to shine in their quick fact fluency and teach others how to play the game. Some free math games can be found on abcya.com to help support fluency.
 
Math Fact Leader: Allow a student who has strong fact fluency to practice fact cards with other students. These students will flip the fact cards while the student partner says the answers. This student can be encouraging and also good motivation for the other student to try to beat their score each time and learn even more facts!
 
Overall, think of your students in a new light! Each one of them contains different strengths and are experts at using different strategies.  When students teach each other, they not only enjoy teaching, but they learn the concept at a deeper, more independent level. This also helps students who need help to feel comfortable and learn in a fun way. Peers are a huge impact on one another! Let the love of math be spread around. You will see the impact students have on one another.
 
Not only will you feel the love of math grow, but it will help you to create tight class connection. All students will feel at different times they have something they need to learn AND there is something they can teach!  

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I am Stephanie and I have been teaching grades 1-3 for a number of years. I love using Eureka Math to guide my instruction.  I have found this program helpful in making me a more effective math teacher for my students. In my spare time, I enjoy the outdoors and spending time with my family. 
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