Guided Notes in Middle School Math are Essential
It was my first year of teaching and I was drowning, like all first year teachers. I was teaching 6th grade, 7th grade, and 8th grade math, and I was the ONLY teacher teaching those subjects. My mentor was teaching 9th grade math. One day she introduced me to some guided notes that she had made for her students. She continues to tell me how great they are.
- Easy for students to follow along
- Doesn't do all the work for them
- Great to refer back to when needed
- Keeps students organized
- Promotes inclusion
- Promote equal access to material
"Those are so great!" I thought. Except no where in my day did I have time to make guided notes for my students, although I wanted to SO badly.
So...I went searching online hoping that someone else had made them and I could purchase them. I searched, and searched, and searched, and I could not find any guided notes that were as thorough and engaging as I would have liked.
I settled with some that I had found, they were ok, but definitely not as in-depth as I would have liked. The concept worked great for my students, but I wish they were more detailed.
Fast-forward 7 years later, and I decided to take a break in teaching to stay home with my little family. I dove into designing middle school math curriculum.
One of the first product lines I made were the middle school math guided notes that I never had but so desperately wanted while teaching. I worked so hard on them, making sure to never cut any corners, and I love how they turned out.
Create your own guided notes for math
If you haven't incorporated guided notes into your math classroom, I highly suggest doing so. You can create your own guided notes by first outlining how you plan on teaching a certain topic.
Don't forget to think about important vocabulary, and any review of topics you will need to do before diving into the new content.
Create a variety of math problems to use in your notes. Make sure to leave out words that you would like your students to fill in.
Most importantly, keep the notes clean and organized.
Here are some things I included in my middle school math guided notes
✔️ In-depth
✔️ Quality problems throughout the notes
✔️ Additional practice problems at the end of each section
✔️ Room for extra notes
✔️ Page numbers and topics on edges for easy reference
✔️ Included all number lines and coordinate planes for graphing
✔️ Focus on discovery over algorithms
✔️ Focus on making sense of math
Get These Notes for Your Classroom
I imagine if you are an educator in the classroom or a parent homeschooling your children, you do not have time to make guided notes.
That's why I have made my middle school math guided notes available to ALL educators and parents who are looking for some relief.
Whether you are teaching virtually or in the classroom, these math notes are for you.
✔️ In the classroom: Print packets and teach
✔️ Distance Learning: Print packets (or have students print packets) and teach online following them.
✔️ Easy to follow along because they are very thorough! Students can easily go back and review a topic if needed.
See what other educators are saying about Guided Notes from Make Sense of Math
- I love these notes! I have the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade year long guided notes bundle and my year is so much smoother because of them. For a school that does not have a textbook for math this is an absolute life saver. - Allison M.
"I wish I would have bought sooner!" - Eleni L. 7th Grade Math Notes
"This bundle is saving me a ton of time and energy while I lesson plan for next year." - Nicole M. 7th Grade Math Notes
"These are amazing guided notes. They are thorough and move through the material in a way that makes sense to the students." - Allison L. 7th Grade Math Notes
This helps a ton with planning and making notes for the students to follow!" Zach M. 8th Grade Math Notes
Awesome resource. I love the ease of use and how quickly I can use in the Diverse Learner Setting. Thank you so much" Patience S. 8th Grade Math Notes
If you need these in your classroom click on your grade level below to get them now.
Save This Article
Save these tips and ideas to your favorite classroom Pinterest board. Come back and reference them for ideas on middle school math guided notes.
