Math Workshop: Five Steps to Implementing Guided Math, Learning Stations, Reflection, and More

Math Workshop: Five Steps to Implementing Guided Math, Learning Stations, Reflection, and More is an essential resource for any teacher, school, or district looking to shift or enhance how math is taught. It includes lesson plan examples and templates that will help you visualize and implement a math workshop model in any classroom.

Successfully implement the transformational math workshop model of instruction through five accessible, manageable steps:

• Step 1: Understand Math Workshop
• Step 2: Prepare Your Students for Math Workshop
• Step 3: Decide Your Math Workshop Structure
• Step 4: Facilitate Your Math Workshop
• Step 5: Reflect on and Refine Your Math Workshop

Educators are invited to embrace Math Workshop as their own personal “instructional coach,” first exploring what Jennifer Lempp refers to as “three buckets” that need to be in place for a highly successful math workshop:

1. Classroom Arrangement
2. Routines and Procedures
3. Mathematics Community

Guidance for Getting Started with Math Workshop

The resource then offers “Twenty Days to a Classroom Culture That Works,” which includes 20 minilessons that support the communication and practice of expectations surrounding the workshop model. From there, it explores three classroom-tested math workshop structures, providing practical ideas for routines, focus lessons, guided math groups, learning stations, and reflections so you can get started with math workshop in your classroom today.

Streaming Video and Reproducibles Included

The streaming video clips invite you inside K–5 classrooms for a seeing-is-believing look at math workshop in action. Seeing clips of actual teachers and students engaged in math workshop is the next best thing to observing the model in a classroom.

Templates, tools, and ideas are included and also available for download.

Sherry Parrish is best described as “a teacher of teachers.” With over 35 years in the field of education, Sherry’s experiences as a classroom educator, university professor, and national and international speaker focus on teaching and learning mathematics through inquiry. A recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics Teaching, Dr. Parrish is an advocate of students constructing their own mathematical relationships. Sherry is the author of the AEP Distinguished Achievement award winning book, Number Talks: Whole Number Computation and the AEP Golden Lamp winner, Number Talks: Fractions, Decimals, and Percentages.

Dr. Jennifer Lempp is the author of Math Workshop: Five Steps to Implementing Guided Math, Learning Stations, Reflection, and More. This book is a practical resource meant to support teachers with strategies and structures to help create a learning environment where students are engaged in purposeful mathematics experiences.

Jennifer consults with schools and districts around the country, providing professional development on mathematics content and instructional practices. Additionally, she supports school leaders on the development of mathematics professional learning and school improvement plans. 

Jennifer has experience teaching at both the elementary and middle school levels, and she served as a math coach and district leader for many years. Jennifer is a Nationally Board certified teacher in Early Adolescence mathematics, and in her 20+ years in education has found joy in the teaching of both students and teachers. 

Jennifer holds a Bachelor’s in elementary and special education from Duquesne University and a Master’s degree in education from North Carolina Central University. She earned a K-8 Mathematics Specialist endorsement through her coursework at George Mason University and her Administration and Supervision certificate from Virginia Commonwealth University. She most recently earned her Doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of Virginia. 

Jennifer’s goal is to ensure all students have positive mathematics experiences and that teachers have the tools to support all students in the area of mathematics. You can follow Jennifer Lempp on Twitter @Lempp5 or Instagram @jennifer_lempp and learn more about her and her work on her website: mathworkshop.net.