Reply To: Spiraling

[Paolo Tolomeo]

Hey there! I too am a 4th grade teacher working on coming up with a plan for spiraling for next year. I live in Pittsburgh, PA and am also Common Core. Currently, we use Houghton Mifflin’s Math Expressions, but I also have the freedom to change things up and utilize outside resources. 

My current plan is to align the Big Ideas from our math resource with our state standards. My hope here is that the Big Ideas are small chunks of a topic that have a small assessment at the end (5 questions). This can be a nice checkpoint for me and the kids, and possibly a good spot to then move on to a new “unit” that naturally fits with where we are. For instance, when we finish multiplication strategies (Unit 2 in our series), we can move into area (unit 4), then measurement (unit 7). 

Which leads me to my next point, are you all trying to find natural progressions between content as you spiral or are you just going from one topic to another and keeping the curriculum spiraled? 

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Would love to hear all of your thoughts! I will post my spreadsheet.