Turn Your Math Class Into a Basketball Team!

Next, I logged onto Scholastic DynaMath’s website and searched for the Scholastic DynaDashes, which are fluency-building worksheets for grades 3 through 5. If you have not checked out this resource, I would highly recommend it!

I would find a DynaDash that aligned with a skill we were working on, or something I wanted to review. Then, I would set my timer for a reasonable amount of time—often more than 2 or 3 minutes—to allow students to complete the drill. Math skills included multiplication, division, area and perimeter, fraction ordering, decimal and fraction equivalence, etc. For each accurately completed DynaDash, I would award them a basketball.

Finally, I tracked students’ progress on iXL. I rewarded milestones such as the number of questions answered, number of hours spent, and number of skills mastered. Each milestone earned a basketball, and if they completed the iXL classwork assigned, they earned even more basketballs.

By the end of the 3rd marking period, I noticed some students completed their homework packets, more students improved in their automaticity with their facts, and many worked on iXL at home or during free moments in school.

My top earners scored over 70 baskets! But some students needed more motivation.

So in the 4th marking period, I put students in teams of five. That’s so the top earners could motivate other students to earn more basketballs. Also, I added a new reward category for classwork, which I gave to students who followed directions, showed their work on each question of a test, added their name and date to an assignment, and turned in assignments on time.

As I continue this initiative again this year, I will look forward to more positive results. Score!