Imagine learning something new and then never touching it again. You would be pretty rusty the next time you actually needed it, wouldn’t you?
That is exactly what happens to our students. We teach a unit, they pass the test, and four months later it is gone. This is why I feel so strongly about setting aside a few minutes every single day to review what we have already taught. Once I started doing this in my own classroom, the results were astounding.
Below are the benefits I saw, and five different ways to fit daily math review into a schedule that is already full.
What Is Daily Math Review?
Daily math review is a short set of problems, usually four or five, pulled from skills you have already taught. Not a worksheet on one topic. A handful of problems from all over the place, done every day, in about ten minutes.
The idea behind it is called spaced practice, and it is one of the best supported findings in all of learning research. If you want the full explanation of why it works, I wrote about what math spiral review is and the research behind it in another post. This one is about actually getting it into your day.
Why Make Time for Reviewing
Daily math review does not have to be time-consuming. It can take just a few minutes, and you can work it in so smoothly that it never feels like it is eating your instructional time. Here are a few things you will notice once you start.
1. Students will STOP forgetting what you’ve taught!
That’s right! No more frustrating conversations with students who do not remember what you taught them last week, let alone last month.
2. Students will gain confidence.
Consistent practice over time is the key to helping many students master a concept. As students see skills again in small doses, they get the chance to practice, master, and hold onto them. The better they get, the more successful they feel. Students who usually struggle in math finally get to feel proud of their work.
3. Less need for strenuous test prep!
Test prep is a terrible word! It is something teachers and students both dread. Instead of cramming right before high stakes testing, a daily review routine spreads that same work across the whole year. By the time you get to the test, your students already know what they need.
This is also the mistake I see most often. Teachers drop their daily review in March to make room for test prep, which is a little like canceling your training runs to make room for the race.
4. You will always know how your students are doing!
This one is my favorite. Once I started daily review, I always knew which students still needed help and which ones totally got it. I used that same review to pull small groups and give my strugglers extra support. It was a win-win!
5. Students are better prepared for testing.
I always hesitate to make claims about test scores, because there are a hundred things going on in any classroom and no single resource deserves the credit.
What I will say is this. After years of doing it, and after hearing from thousands of teachers who do it too, I noticed that I stopped needing weeks of review before testing season. My students were walking in already familiar with everything on there. Whether that shows up as a number on a report is up to a lot of factors I do not control, but the preparation was real.
5 Ways to Fit Daily Math Review Into Your Day
Now that you know why it works, let’s talk about where to actually put it. I have used all five of these, and they each have a trade-off.
1. Start your day with review
Morning work, warm-ups, bell ringers, whatever you call it in your building. This is the easiest way in. Put a few questions on the board or hand out a weekly review sheet your students work through one column at a time.
The best part is that students walk in, sit down, and start without being told. That buys you ten minutes for attendance and lunch count while everybody is doing something useful.
The trade-off is that morning work gets eaten alive by assemblies, fire drills, and picture day. Build in some room for missed days and do not panic when the week falls apart.
2. Make it a center activity
This is a great option because it truly does not take up any instructional time. Give your students a handful of review problems or a short review activity and make it one of the rotations. Simple!
The trade-off is that centers only reach the students who make it to that rotation. If your groups run on different days, some students will get far less review than others.
3. Give it for homework
Review makes the best homework there is. Nothing on the page is new, so students can genuinely do it on their own and no parent gets stuck teaching a method they have never seen.
Giving homework on something you just taught is how students learn a skill incorrectly and then practice it that way all night. Only send home concepts you have fully taught. I wrote more about this in my post on how much homework to give and how to manage it.
The trade-off is that not every student has a place to do homework, so I never graded it for accuracy.
4. Make it part of your lesson
I love adding about five minutes of review to the front of a math lesson. It works as a warm-up and gets students thinking in math before the new content starts.
The trade-off is that it will absolutely creep into your lesson time if you let it. Set a timer and mean it.
5. Keep it simple!
Do not make your daily review too strenuous. I keep it to about ten minutes, and I make sure it touches several different topics rather than drilling one.
Daily review is not drill and kill. It is honestly the opposite. Four or five problems from four or five different skills, and then you move on with your day.
How Long Should It Take?
Ten minutes. Fifteen at the very most.
If your students are still working at twenty minutes, it has stopped being review and turned into an assignment, and that is the number one reason teachers give this up in October. Four or five problems is plenty. You are not trying to cover everything in one day. You are trying to touch a few things today and a few different things tomorrow.
What to Do With It Once They Finish
This is the part that most of us skip, and it is where the real value is hiding.
I did not grade daily review. Instead, I walked the room while students worked and looked at one problem, whichever skill I was most worried about that week. Thirty seconds and I knew exactly who needed me.
If four students missed the same problem, that is a five minute reteach at the back table, not a whole class lesson. If a skill is still being missed in February after you taught it in October, that is not a memory problem. It never got learned in the first place, and that is a different fix.
Save your grading for a weekly quiz. Daily review works best when students feel safe being wrong on it, because that is when they show you what they actually know instead of guessing to look good.
Daily Math Review FAQs
What is daily math review?
A short set of problems, usually four or five, pulled from skills students have already been taught. It takes about ten minutes a day and keeps old skills from fading while you teach new ones.
How long should daily math review take?
Ten minutes, fifteen at most. If it runs longer than that, it has become an assignment rather than a review, and that is usually when teachers stop doing it.
Is daily math review the same as morning work?
Morning work is a time slot and daily math review is what you put in it. Morning work is the most popular place for it, but it also works as a center, as homework, or as a warm-up at the start of your math block.
Should I grade daily math review?
Grade a weekly quiz instead. Daily review is most useful as a quick daily check on who needs help, and students only show you what they really know when being wrong carries no penalty.
What grade levels is daily math review for?
It works anywhere students need to hold onto skills over a long year, which is every grade. Spiral review resources are available for Kindergarten through High School, including Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2.
How do I start daily math review mid-year?
Just start. Pick your time slot, use it every day for two weeks without grading anything, and only include skills you have already taught. Starting in January still helps a great deal.
Ready-Made Daily Math Review
I spent years building my own before I turned it into something other teachers could use. Each week is one sheet with four days of review and a Friday quiz that matches.
Grab some FREE math resources here if you want to try it first.
Click your grade level to take a closer look!
These are just a few of the ways I love to work daily math review into my day. No matter which one you choose, the important part is doing it every single day. You won’t regret it!
You Might Also Like
- Math Spiral Review: What It Is and How to Start
- How Much Homework Should You Give? 10 Teacher Tips
- Free Math Spiral Review and Math Games
- More math ideas and activities
NOW AVAILABLE…
One Stop Teacher Memberships
Our grade-level memberships provide the BIGGEST savings on ALL One Stop Teacher Resources! Get 24/7 access to a library of highly effective, student-approved, educational resources.
