High Quality Math Do Now's
If teaching is like driving a car, then the Do Now is the equivalent of starting the engine. The start of class sets the tone for the entire period. Daily procedures for the beginning of class are essential. It allows students to settle into class, the teacher to get prepared for the lesson, and provides students quality practice time at the beginning of the period.
In math class, Do Now’s have so much potential. You can incorporate reviews, work on specific skills, give an intricate word problem, and even give a thought provoking question that leads students into the topic you will cover for the day. It is a wonderful learning tool that, if consistently utilized, will result in some major gains for your students.
Furthermore, to keep the car comparison going, not all cars are created equal. Some cars start better than others. If your car fails to start in the morning when heading to work, you can quite literally feel your heart sink (and your wallet getting lighter).
A Do Now can easily be derailed if we are not strategic about how we choose to deliver them. It is definitely more of an art than a science.
High Quality Do Now’s Have The Following:
1. Procedure for starting, structure to complete, and time limits
The most important part of the Do Now is building the procedure of how to complete it. Giving students expectations on what to do when they enter class, how long they have to do it, the amount of effort that needs to be put forth, and how they should be behaving is extremely important to executing a great Do Now.
In my class I utilize Gimkit (I will explain more how later) which is on their chrome books. Immediately when they enter class, they get out their Chromebook, go to Gimkit, and join the game. They have about a minute to do so and once we begin, it is silent and focused.
2. All students can complete the Do Now
Students should be able to complete the Do Now independently. Therefore, if students get get stuck and cannot move forward, you need to rethink how to create the Do Now to be accessible to all students.
The best part of making it accessible is that there are a ton of ways to do it! Here are just a few:
Make problems scale in difficulty (easy to hard)
Give students different Do Now’s based on ability level
Allow students to choose the problems they wish to complete
Give more open ended questions that are a low level of entry
Have students work in pairs to complete the Do Now
3. Instant Feedback
When possible, the Do Now should give instant feedback on whether a student got the problem correct or incorrect. This is best utilized through technology, which is why I utilize Gimkit. As students answer questions, they are immediately given feedback as to if they got the question correct or incorrect. They are also shown the correct answer if they get it wrong.
Instant feedback is especially important if you plan on not going through the entire Do Now. Students should be provided with feedback to know if they are answering questions correctly. We do not want to encourage completing math problems incorrectly by not having an answer check in place.
4. Keep it Short
The Do Now should never last longer than 5 minutes. I utilize the timer on Gimkit to set it to 3 minutes. This allows plenty of practice and students to be able to get a significant amount of questions correct.
5. Track Growth through Accuracy
An under-estimated portion of completing the Do Now’s is student investment. When student investment and motivation is higher, students tend to perform better on a task and take it more seriously.
Another great attribute about Gimkit is that it tells you the overall class accuracy, individual student accuracy, and which problems were the most missed. I go through these statistics each day after the Do Now with the class and track the overall class accuracy on the board for the entire Unit. I will also give out small prizes for the class who has the best score by the end of the Unit, or do a random daily prize for a certain accuracy mark.
Since doing so, my students love Gimkit. They are instantly locked in when they enter class and they want to do it. There is no need to redirect students, they are ready to go each day.
6. No Questions
During the Do Now, force students to not ask questions. It is a time for you to set up for class and if the students struggle a bit, then it can have some positive outcomes. Help students recognize that if they are struggling on the Do Now, then they need to do some serious studying of material. Furthermore, students need to develop confidence to complete problems independently if they hope to be successful on tests later on.
7. 100% Participation
How do you know that 100% of students are participating? Many times students can be “busy working”, where they imitate the action of actually working. Students can only benefit from the Do Now if they are actually completing it. Incorporate methods, or checks, to know that students are actually completing the Do Now.
8. Keep It Low Stakes
Never grade the Do Now’s, except for completion. I do not believe that a Do Now is a great representation of a students knowledge, considering how short it is and limited it can be. Furthermore, most students have difficulty readjusting to new environments and classes after a transition. If you are grading on accuracy, it will set students up for failure.
Furthermore, the Do Now should be low stakes and allow students to mess up. We are letting them work independently without questions, therefore they are going to make mistakes. This is why instant feedback is extremely useful, as they will be able to self-regulate and see which questions that they need to work on without us even intervening.
Keep It High Quality
I know so many math teachers who neglect the Do Now or just don’t do it. Keep it high quality and I promise that students will benefit greatly from it. It is amazing how much more students remember from a 3 to 5 minute review of old content each day over the course of a week.
I also highly recommend Gimkit and keeping a tracker on your board for each period or class that you have. Writing their overall accuracy rate, then challenging other classes to get higher is how I encourage healthy competition in my classroom. You could also go the extra step and have students track their own accuracy ratings. There are TONs of Gimkits already created and since I have utilized it for so long, I have already built up a library of great questions.
Keep it high quality and consistent, and the results will come.