Different methods helps learning

I like that my middle school uses block periods for four days each week because I know several districts who are transitioning to block periods; however, it can be a challenge to motivate students for 105 minutes of math.  My cooperating teacher is experienced with block period scheduling, and she uses many different techniques throughout the period.  There are times when students work quietly on their own, completing a worksheet or problems from the book.  At other times, the students have white boards to show their answer to a problem at the front, and student are allowed to work with partners.  One student who was reluctant to fill in a worksheet became very motivated when we switched to an online game, even though the math task (rounding decimals) was the same.

Another technique that has helped us assess whether the students understood place value or estimating fractions has been to hand out notecards with different numbers on them, one to each student.  Then the students self-order themselves into a line, based on their understanding of whether 15/7 is greater or less than the square root of 3 in the case of the algebra students.  This gives the students a chance to get out of their seats and work with their classmates to determine relative values.

The students have also come to the board to demonstrate their factor trees, which allows students to see each other as teachers. The teacher usually asks the class if there are any other ways to find the solution, so students can see several methods all create the correct answer.