Classroom Management Strategies
Maintaining Control of your supplies:
Store the XMG game board flat to preserve its life. Keep
dice and game pieces in small plastic bags, or plastic containers,
organized by like dice.
Use sturdy paper plates as a “field” for rolling the dice. The
plate keeps the dice in bounds and the plate keeps the noise level
of the crowd down.
When passing out the game always pass out the game
board and the game pieces, on the paper plate, to one person in
the group. Accept the supplies back from the student only if they
are all being returned by the same person, on the paper plate. By
accepting all the supplies back from only one person, you can
recognize immediately if you are not getting all the pieces back.
This helps to control classroom supplies.
Grouping students and playing the game:
Play XMG with a given concept for one week, beginning the
first week with the Basic XMG rules. Introduce the game on Monday
and play for thirty to forty minutes on the first day.
Put students into teams of two students. Three teams, play
together: the Home Team, the Visitor Team, and the Officiating
Team.
In the first round the Home Team will play the Visitor Team
for about ten minutes. After ten minutes the teams rotate positions.
The Official team will switch places with the team who leads in the
first round. Play a second round for another ten minutes. Finally,
the two teams who haven’t played against each other, play for the
last ten minutes, with the third team officiating.
After the first day, if you keep the players on the same
teams, you can play for about twenty-five minutes, switching about
every seven or eight minutes. It is not necessary to play 3 rounds
each day. The kids don’t really object if they aren’t able to play a
full rotation, unless it is a tournament situation.
Using the XMG Recording Sheet
We need to be able to differentiate class work from
homework and give students credit for what they do in the
classroom. This is why I expect students to turn in the XMG
Recording sheet on their way out the door.
Since you may have as many as six games, with six students
per game board, being played all around the room, you will have
many different math problems being generated around the
classroom. It would be an assessment nightmare to evaluate every
problem on each student’s paper. This is a perfect opportunity for
an informal assessment.
First, walk around the room and check for understanding
just by observing the student. Carry a clip board with a class list
prepared for just this sort of assessment.
To check for understanding at the end of the playing
period, create an assessment problem and write it on the
board. Ask students to clean up the games and supplies and to
put them where you so designate. Next, they should work the
problem given on the board somewhere on their XMG Recording
Sheet. Have them circle the problem before turning the
recording sheet into you. This becomes their “Ticket out the
Door.” I then evaluate each problem as it is handed to me and
make a note of which students need more instruction on the
concepts.
