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differentiation

The Simple Math Rotations Schedule That Actually Works in a Real Classroom

Math, Math Stations March 20, 2026

Teachers often hear about math rotations and think, I’d love to try that… but how?

Math rotations can feel overwhelming. You have to plan multiple rotations, manage behavior, and somehow find time to prep everything. It’s easy to feel like it’s just too much.

But it doesn’t have to be that hard. Today I’m sharing the simple math rotations schedule I’ve used in my 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms for the last 15 years.

Why Math Rotations Don’t Work (At First)

I’ve seen the same situations over and over:

Teachers try math rotations once → it feels chaotic → they give up
Too many activities are planned → students get confused → behavior increases
There’s no consistent structure → students don’t know where to go or what to do
Rotations are too short or too long → students either rush or lose focus

The problem usually isn’t math rotations. It’s that the schedule is too complicated to maintain.

My Simple and Realistic Math Rotation Schedule

The biggest reason this works is consistency. I use the same 4 rotations every day so students always know what to expect.

Rotation 1: Teacher Time

Students come to the small-group table to work on the skill of the day.

Everyone is learning the same skill, but this is where I can differentiate the most and support struggling students.

Photo of small group activity during math rotations for line plots

Rotation 2: Seat Work

Students independently practice the skill of the day while also completing problems that include spiral review.

This keeps skills fresh without needing extra lessons or extra planning.

Rotation 3: Math Game

Students play a partner or small-group game.

I don’t introduce new games every day. Instead, I rotate through a few games we already know how to play. This saves planning time and keeps behavior problems low because students already know what to do.

Rotation 4: Tech Time

Students use their computers to practice math skills.

Because this rotation stays the same, students know how to log in, what to do, and how to complete the activity. The predictability makes a huge difference.

What This Looks Like in a 60-Minute Math Block

Here’s the timing I use in my classroom:

Mini-lesson → 5 minutes
Explain rotations → 3 minutes
Rotation 1 → 10–12 minutes
Rotation 2 → 10–12 minutes
Rotation 3 → 10–12 minutes
Rotation 4 → 10–12 minutes
Closing/share time → 5 minutes

The key is balance. Too short and students can’t get started. Too long and they lose focus.

Why This Schedule Works

This routine works because it’s predictable and easy to maintain.

Students know:

where to go
what to do
how long they have
what happens next

For me, it makes planning much easier because I’m not creating something new every day. I’m just plugging in a new math skill into the same routine.

How to Start Without Feeling Overwhelmed

If math rotations feel intimidating, start small.

Start with 2 rotations for a few days
Then move to 3 rotations
Finally move to 4 rotations

At the beginning, don’t pull small groups yet. Use that time to walk around, reinforce expectations, and make sure students understand the routine. After a few days, you’ll be able to confidently pull groups because students will know exactly what to do.

Want Help Planning Your Rotations?

I created a free Math Rotation Planning Page to make getting started easier.

It helps you:

plan each rotation
map out your lesson from start to finish
plan how you’ll differentiate during teacher time

Click here to grab the free planning page and make math rotations easier to start this week.

More Math Rotations Info:

Watch My YouTube Series About How to Start Math Rotations

Shop 3rd Grade Math Rotations Seat Work

Read Math Rotations Round-Up

Differentiation in Writing Workshop – Tip #10 – Student Created Goals

Writing Workshop October 10, 2018

My last tip for differentiation in Writing Workshop has to do with goals – but this time – student created.

Lucy Calkin’s Units of Studies has specific lessons geared towards students coming up with their own goals. There are checklists, mini-lesson ideas, etc. You can do this without Units of Study too. First, come up with a few areas that you have been focusing on. For example, sequencing, adding details, staying focused on a small moment, etc. Create a little checklist with those items on it. Students will then take the checklist and their writing piece and work with a partner. They can read the story to each other and go through the checklist marking areas that they are doing well with and areas they need to work on. From there have each child pick one area that they want to focus on as their current writing goal. Thank you so much for checking out my Differentiation in Writing Workshop blog series! See below to catch up on past posts. If you missed my past tips from the Differentiation in Writing Workshop series, click below…

FREE Writing Checklists

To make your life easier I have a FREE set of writing checklists for your students to use! These are geared towards the primary grades and include 8 different checklists – so you’ll be able to differentiate based on what you’re teaching and your students’ needs. Grab your writing checklists HERE.

Differentiation in Writing Workshop – Tip #9 – Student Conferencing

Writing Workshop October 8, 2018

Conferencing with students is one of my favorite parts of Writing Workshop. It allows you a chance to meet with students one-on-one and really look at their writing and hear from them the writer. Today’s tip is how I use this as a chance to differentiate…

Conferencing is one of the easier times to differentiate Writing Workshop. I have a schedule I use (see below) and call students back on their particular day. They bring the piece they are working on or one we looked at the last time we met and we look over it together. This is a great chance to talk about student specific goals, see what goal the child wants to have, and talk about the positives you see in them as a writer. These opportunities also show me areas where they can grow as writer, which often leads to us creating new goals.

Do you conference with students during writing? If so, share your thoughts on it down in the comments. Check back tomorrow for the final installment where I share about students creating their own goals to help differentiate Writing Workshop. If you missed my past tips from the Differentiation in Writing Workshop series, click below…

FREE Writing Checklists

Differentiation in WW – Tip #6 – Editing Checklists

Writing Workshop September 25, 2018

Today I’m sharing with you some ways you can differentiate during Writing Workshop using editing checklists.

Editing is always a part of the writing process no matter what program you use. To help students through the editing process, I like to provide them with an editing checklist. This helps remind them of what they should be looking for and focused on. I change this up throughout the school year. In Trimester 1, I have a few items on there, but as we continue through the school year and learn different skills the list grows.

Trimester 1 Editing Checklist

Trimester 2 Editing Checklist

Checklists can also be differentiated. You could make checklists based on certain goals or skills a child is working on. You could create a picture type checklist for students who struggle with reading. You could create a more challenging checklist with higher level skills on it for students who are ready for a challenge. You don’t have to use the same checklist for everyone.

In Lucy Calkin’s Units of Studies, she provides checklist options. I have given some students who needed more assistance the checklist from the grade level below because it met their needs. I’ve also given some children the checklist from the grade above because they were ready for those skills. Checklists don’t have to be one size fits all!

Thanks for checking out my post on differentiating checklists. On Thursday I will be sharing differentiation ideas with class anchor charts.

If you missed my past tips from the Differentiation in Writing Workshop series, click below…

Differentiation in WW – Tip #5 – Word Walls

Writing Workshop September 20, 2018

Today I’m back to share my fifth tip for differentiating during Writing Workshop. Today’s tip is all about word walls!

I currently teach first grade and have also taught second for many years. As we know these ages are still learning how to spell and some kids can get very caught up on spelling things correctly in their writing. One of the things I love is training kids to spell things the best they can. Inventive spelling is amazing! Now that being said there are some words that kid will frequently use in their writing or words that they can’t sound out. This is where the word wall comes in handy.

Now I’ve seen word walls done many different ways. Some teachers create a bulletin on their wall, some create a page at their table or in their folder, and some use portable word walls. I love the portable word wall! I’ve been using one for the last 2 years. It takes up less space and it’s easy to add words. The nice thing is this can be differentiated for my specific class. I will often put student names in there (as kids like to write about their friends), teachers at the school, special places where we live, and more. This can also be differentiated depending on your grade and student needs. If you have a high number of ELL students, you could differentiate by also adding pictures to your word wall words.

Here are a few pictures of what my portable word wall looks like:

Check back on Monday! I’ll be sharing ideas for differentiating editing checklists!

If you missed my past tips from the Differentiation in Writing Workshop series, click below…

Differentiation in WW – Tip #4 – Mid-Workshop Interruption

Writing Workshop September 18, 2018

Today I’m sharing my fourth tip for differentiation during Writing Workshop. The Writing Workshop model is set-up as such – mini-lesson, time to write and confer, mid-workshop interruption, and sharing. The mid-workshop interruption provides another opportunity for differentiation for your class.

Mid-workshop interruption is where you interrupt your writers about halfway through their writing time to make a suggestion or share a tip/reminder. If you have the Units of Studies book, Lucy provides ideas for the mid-workshop interruption. If you don’t have it, you can create your own. Often I will reiterate the point of that days lesson, but I also will differentiate and share a tip or suggestion based on something I notice when I’m conferring that day. Again this is one more quick way to differentiate Writing Workshop to meet the needs of your class. I might use the interruption to remind students to re-read their writing for clarity, add details, or make sure they are staying focused on their topic or small moment.

Today’s tip was super quick. Check back on Thursday for a tip about differentiating with a word wall.

If you missed my past tips from the Differentiation in Writing Workshop series, click below…

Differentiation in WW – Tip #3 – Paper and Topic Choice

Writing Workshop September 13, 2018

Today for my differentiation in Writing Workshop tip I am talking all about choice! Writing Workshop provides lots of opportunities for choice which is a part of differentiation.

Paper choice is one part of Writing Workshop. I always provide multiple paper book formats so students can choose which one they want to use. I choose different paper formats and within that variety there are some with opportunities to draw more and/or write more. Then kids can choose a paper/booklet they feel comfortable using. For students who are ready to write more, they can choose the paper with all lines or more room for writing. For a student who is struggling, they might choose a paper with less lines and more room to sketch their picture.

Topic choice is another part of Writing Workshop. I love that the kids get to choose what they write about. There is a time and place for writing prompts, but during Writing Workshop they pick the topic. During narratives, they can write about events in their life. During informational writing, they can write lab reports about experiments they have done or reports about topics they are interested in and that they picked to research. For opinion writing, they can pick topics they want to share their opinion about. Students are more engaged when they are writing about something they are interested in!

Thanks for checking out my tips today. On Monday I’ll share my differentiation tip for the mid-workshop interruption.

If you missed my past tips from the Differentiation in Writing Workshop series, click below…

Differentiation in WW – Tip #2 – Mini-Lessons

Writing Workshop September 10, 2018

Today’s post is all about mini-lessons. One way to differentiate Writing Workshop for you class is tailored mini-lessons.

If you have Lucy Calkin’s Unit of Studies her books have mini-lessons to take you through each type of writing. She also has a book called If…Then… that also has great mini-lesson ideas that you can use when you notice your students may need practice with certain skills.

If you do not have Lucy Calkin’s Units of Study, you can still differentiate with your mini-lessons. If you remember in my last post, I was talking about getting a writing sample as a pre-test. From this writing sample you will be able to see what your students excel at and what they need to work on as a writer. From the list of things they need to work on, you can create your own mini-lessons.

If I notice my students are struggling with word choice, I will do a mini-lesson where we practice adding descriptive words to a sentence.

If I notice the class struggling with capitalization, I will have them help me edit a piece (with lots of mistakes focused on capitalization). If I notice that we need to work on adding details, I will have a mini-lesson focused on that. For more mini-lesson ideas, check out my blog post about mini-lessons >>>here.

These differentiated mini-lessons can also be done in a small group. From the student writing sample and observation you might have a few kids who need to work on a specific skill. Instead of doing a targeted mini-lesson whole group, you could pull them for a quick small group mini-lesson working on the specific skill they need help with.

On Thursday I will be sharing my next differentiation tip focused on paper and topic choices.

If you missed my past tips from the Differentiation in Writing Workshop series, click below…

Differentiation in WW – Tip #1 – Writing Pre-Test

Uncategorized, Writing Workshop September 6, 2018

I am so excited to be sharing my first differentiation for Writing Workshop tip with you today. If you missed my intro to this new blog series click here >>> Introduction. So before you can actually differentiate for each child in your class, you need to know where they are as a writer. You need to know their strengths and things that they can work on. One way to quickly figure this out is by giving them a writing pre-test.

If you use Lucy Calkin’s Units of Study, she has pre-test ideas in the Writing Pathways book. She calls them On-Demand Performance Assessments. If you don’t have the Units of Study, you can still have your students complete a writing sample/pre-test. At the beginning of the year, I have my students write about themselves on the page below.

From this writing sample, I can learn a lot about each student. For example…

Do they use complete sentences?
Am I able to read their spelling and inventive spelling?
Are they able to stay on topic?
Do they use capitals and end marks correctly?
How is their handwriting?
Do they add details?

Those are just a few questions I can typically answer by looking at this writing piece. Now – this helps me differentiate for students because from this I am able to make individual goals for each student. Some students might need to work on adding details to their writing pieces while others might need to focus on conventions. To be able to differentiate it’s important to know where you students are. It’s also important to have a sample from the beginning of the year so you can see the growth and progress they make by the end of the year. Stay tuned….on Monday I will be sharing Tip #2. I will be talking about differentiating with mini-lessons.

FREE Writing Checklists

New Blog Series – Differentiation in Writing Workshop

Writing Workshop September 3, 2018

I’m so excited to share with you a new blog series that I’m starting called Differentiation in Writing Workshop. I am very passionate about teaching Writing Workshop and have been teaching it my entire career in grades first through third. Through the years, trainings, and books, I have come up with some ways you can differentiate Writing Workshop in your classroom to reach all learners.

Here is what the series will include:

How to use writing pre-tests
Mini-lessons to fit your class’s needs
Choice in paper and topics
Effective ways to use a mid-workshop interruption
Word walls
Editing checklists – differentiated
Anchor charts
Strategy cards as a differentiation tool
Individual conferences
Students creating their own goals.

Check back Thursday for a new post in the series about how to use writing pre-tests to help differentiate Writing Workshop for your students.

Hi everyone! My name is Jordan and I'm a 2nd grade teacher in Mesa, AZ. I've also taught first and third grade. This is my 17th year teaching and I'm excited to use my blog to share activities, ideas, tips, and more with you!