Teaching Math Medic Lessons with a Block Schedule

The block schedule. Half the days for "double" the time, but you only get through two-thirds of the curriculum. Something's not adding up here. If you're nodding along in solidarity right now, this blog post is for you!

I first read about the Math Medics and Experience First, Formalize Later (EFFL) at the beginning of the 2018 school year. My teammate and I would download the lessons without reading the lesson posts (sorry, Luke and Lindsey!), format them to fit our plan, and then stand at the front of the room and work through the activities with the students. After using a few of their lessons, we signed up for Math Medic Summer Camp. We wanted to meet the creators of the “fun hooks” and learn how they did it all without traditional notes. On the first day of camp, Lindsey got out her red pen and went through the debrief process. We were in awe.

My teammate and I looked at each other and agreed: “This is so cool now that we actually know how it works, but it will be impossible to do every lesson like this while on block schedule.” After taking out midterms and final exams, holidays, and special occasions, we have about 70 days to work with overall. How could we possibly turn 150 days of EFFL lessons into 70?! With a little bit of work up front, it's definitely possible and 100% worth it!

Modifying the Schedule

The first thing to do is look at the overall schedule and determine where you can combine or cut out days. Review days and quiz days are a great place to start--these can be easily combined into one day or cut out altogether. In addition, any lesson with a "part 2" makes for a natural combination, and can be added to the previous day's lesson. Next, reading the lesson posts will help you determine how long to expect the Activity portion to take or if the Debrief is more involved.

As you can see in both sample schedules, some lessons should stay on their own day, when possible. Anything with a long debrief (i.e., lots of margin notes) should remain on its own day. To save time elsewhere, you could combine the first quiz with either a review day or another lesson, and then cut out the second quiz completely.

Teaching Two Lessons in One Day

After creating your new schedule, you now have to figure out how to get through two lessons in one class period. Here are some tips for executing the double-lesson:

• Set a timer! Use the lesson posts to gauge how much time students should be spending in their groups on the activity and try to make them stick to it. It's OK if some groups don't answer all of the questions.

• Combine both sets of Check Your Understanding questions to do at the end of class. This will make sure you have enough time for the second Activity, the portion that needs to be done in class while peers are available.

• Make sure you get to the debrief for each lesson. You can save the Check Your Understandings for the next day or for homework, if needed.

• Print unit packets for the students with pre-filled QuickNotes to save time. This might involve covering up words for a "fill-in-the-blank" style QuickNotes or pre-filling all of the QuickNotes--whatever works best for your students!

• If you teach an AP course, take advantage of the Video Subscription. You can assign parts of the video for homework (like the QuickNotes or going over the Check Your Understanding) and have more time in class for the Activity.

You Got This!

Teaching the Math Medic lessons on a block schedule can be challenging, but so worth it! Students’ communication skills will greatly improve, they can refer back to experiences while studying for tests, and they’ll be awake and engaged throughout each lesson (even when they have to complete two in one day!). Remember to read the lesson posts for important tips to make everything go smoothly. You got this!

Email kelly@mathmedic.com if you have any questions about making a new schedule, combining lessons, or any of the Math Medic resources.