Warm-ups in Math Education

Based on your research and personal philosophy, what is the purpose of warm-ups in your classroom?

Warm-ups are valuable formative assessments, both reviewing topics that already have been taught in an earlier class or determining what students already know before a lesson is taught. Warm-ups also are a good routine to establish with students so they know what to expect and what is expected of them each time they enter the classroom. Establishing a routine reduces distractions at the beginning of class because students are expected to be seated and focused on the work by the time the tardy bell rings. This can be accomplished several ways, such as having daily worksheets, using warm-up notebooks or class games in which students go around in a circle answering the previous student's problem then formulating and presenting the next student with his/her problem.

As a teacher, I intend to include warmups as part of my classroom routine, and I likely will require students to keep a notebook for warmup exercises. Each class period I will post new question(s)/problem(s) and give the students about 5-7 minutes to complete them. Then I will ask students to share their answers, discuss the content and work it out on the board, then provide them with the correct answer, which they also will need to write in their notebooks. In doing this I will have reviewed/previewed lesson information, focused their attention to my class, checked their notebook for completion and assessed their understanding of the information, and provided them with the correct answer so they can use their journals as study guides.  At times, I will allow them to work the problems in groups depending on the topic, and though they come to the answer as a group, each student is responsible to recording what they learn in the notebook.