Early on in my teaching career, I began to hear about spiral math homework. Of course, being the person I am (always looking for something better) I had to look into this spiral math homework. I discovered a strategy for homework where instead of just assigning pages from a workbook or problems from a worksheet, students were strategically given a handful of math problems each night in which many of them reviewed skills and concepts that were previously taught. Math concepts spiraled through the homework that was given each day, week, month, hence the name “spiral” math homework.
It was love at first sight! Being the control freak that I am (oh wait…I’m pretty sure most of us teachers are), I knew this was the homework strategy for me. Although there were some versions of this homework out there, none of them were exactly what I wanted or needed.
My checklist for “the most ideal math homework” went something like this…
- I wanted a variety of problems (not just computation)
- I wanted to review the key concepts I had ALREADY taught. (versions I saw went ahead of my teaching. I didn’t like this because I don’t like the idea of sending home problems I haven’t yet taught my students. This just confuses the kids as well as the parents!)
- The difficulty of the new problems had to progress with my students’ learning (start out easy, and slowly become more rigorous)
- Finally, ANSWERS!!!!! How can I effectively check my students’ work in the morning (or review it as a class) if I don’t have an answer key?
I don’t think this is too much to ask for….is it?
I immediately got to work, and each week I began creating my version of “spiral homework.” It was beautiful!
Looking for DIGITAL Spiral Review? Check out my DIGITAL Spiral Math Homework Blog Post!
Benefits I notice after using Spiral Math Homework
- Less test prep required at the end of the year.
- Daily practice helps students sharpen their skills.
- Students don’t forget what they have learned.
- It provides me with a daily opportunity to see where my students are still struggling.
- Students are more likely to do their homework because it doesn’t take that long.
- Parents like the predictability of the homework.
- Parents can see exactly what their child needs to know.
- No excuses from parents or students about not completing homework.
- SAVE Paper! 🙂
- Easy to differentiate (edit) so that I can change up the difficulty of questions as needed.
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