Front Row Math

Front Row Math came to me by accident...It was 8:35am, ten minutes before the morning bell was going to ring, and I was having a conversation with a 3rd grade colleague about a variety of things. Somehow, within our conversation, she mentioned Front Row Math and assumed I knew of the resource. I had never heard of it before so I asked for a little more information...she quickly showed me how she's using it in her classroom and I immediately knew I wanted to give it a try in our math workshop. Did I mention the bell was ringing in ten minutes? In a matter of minutes I signed up our class, received our class code, and decided that day would be a GREAT day to introduce Front Row to students during seminar time.

For those of you, like me, that know nothing about this free resource, Front Row provides targeted individual math practice. The students take pretests for each math domain and a baseline is set for each math strand. From there students can choose a domain and work on adaptive practice based on their level, or teachers can assign practice based on the current math unit of study. Front Row isolates skills and builds on students' strengths. The questions posed help them improve in a given strand.

Front Row can be used on an iPad or on the Web. Our students use Chromebooks and we have not had any difficulties up to this point. There are a variety of tools to help the students problem solve:
- videos to support their learning
- questions can be read aloud to them
- online, virtual manipulatives can be used to help them solve
- scratch paper is available

Wondering how this fits into Math Workshop? 
- Independent practice during "May Do" time
- Small group seminar work- groups can be created that allows you to target specific standards with a small group of children
- Assigned homework

We've been utilizing Front Row Math for several months now and it's been a great addition to our workshop! Check out this amazing, free resource! 

~ Kate