How to Use Dynamic Partnerships with Eureka Math

Peer interactions are one of the most helpful strategies when it comes to student learning. 

Kids love to discuss ideas with classmates and most of the time, when kids are working together, everything becomes a game. 

​The students become so engaged in their activity and begin learning quickly from one another.

​How to Create Dynamic Partnerships
 
When pairing up students, one strategy to use is to mix the academic levels of students.  When you pair together a stronger math student and a student in need of support,  you are giving the student in need of more support a strong model. 
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You are also allowing the stronger student to use teaching how to do something to become stronger at that skill. Both students benefit from the partnership and help one another with the task.  Keeping the grouping small to just partners also allows for more opportunities for each student to share.

This type of learning environment quickly catches on when it is incorporated into Eureka Math.  Once you get into a good routine, you may be afraid to stray from it, however, here are some areas of your math block or even outside of it that partner work can lend itself nicely to use in.  It is also a great way to add something different to your lessons when you feel like the students may need an extra boost in engagement.  Before you begin, allow students time to practice how to speak in a partner voice, listen to one another, and take turns allowing others to model the problem and explain their thinking.  Remind partnerships that both roles of speaking and listening are equally important.
 

• Active Engagement: After you finish your mini lesson, provide students with whiteboards and dry erase markers to participate in an active engagement portion of the lesson.  Display a problem for students to solve on the board.  Allow time for students to turn and talk and discuss how they would solve the problem.  Then select groups to share what they did to solve. 

 

• Independent Work: When you send students back to their seats to begin working on the worksheet or workbook page for the independent practice portion of the lesson, you can allow some time for students to turn and work with a partner on the first example of two.  This will provide some guided practice for those students still not ready to take the concept on independently.

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• Wrap Up: At the end of a lesson, provide students time to work on a problem in partnerships.  You can post a problem on the board and allow time for students to work together and discuss possible solutions or use this time to assign an application problem from the Eureka Math workbook.  When students work together, they can suggest strategies on how to draw the model for the problem, write the equation and statement of the answer.

 

• Review: Before giving an assessment, provide a review for the class.  Allow students to work in partners to solve the problems and explain their answers.  This will help students see a variety of ways to problem solve.  It will also provide struggling students with support from their peers on concepts they may need more time to master.

 

• Centers: Providing center work outside of the math block is another great way to incorporate partner work.  You can offer math concept work in the form of fluency games.  You can provide students with ways to explain their answers and promote the student discourse to elevate to higher order thinking.

 
When students work together in partnerships, student engagement in the content is increased.  Students also enjoy the opportunity to work together to play games because it’s fun.  Students can learn from their peers and build new ideas off one another.  Student discussion and problem solving together are such valuable tools to use each day!