How I Do Daily Math Spiral Review in Middle School

I do math spiral review in middle school because it helps me be less stressed and overwhelmed at standardized test time!

You don’t need to cram all of your review into the weeks leading up to the standardized tests, you can do it all year long!

With spiral review, you will keep the topics you learned all throughout the school year fresh in your student’s minds.

What does math spiral review even mean?

Spiral review is the idea that after you teach and assess the skill, you “spiral” back to it throughout the year. This encourages reinforcement of previously learned concepts and promotes retention of the skill.

For example, we took a test on square roots of perfect squares last week. In a few weeks, they will see square roots of perfect squares on the warm-up.

Warm Ups or Homework?

At the beginning of class, my students do a warm-up. What I am currently using are weekly reviews that I previously assigned as homework (assigned on the first day of the week and due on the final day). 

But, they no longer go home. Actually, I don’t give homework at all anymore.

When students walk in Monday – Thursday, they have about 5-10 minutes to complete 2-3 questions as a warm-up/do now. There are 10 total questions.

How do I keep students accountable?

On Fridays, we have a quiz on the weekly review. I pull 2-3 questions from the weekly review and create a self-grading quiz in Canvas.

How is the spiral review scored?

0 – 70% = C

71 – 89% = B

90 – 100% = A

I decided not to give any Ds or Fs. And it goes in the grade book as a formative grade!

Benefits of Math Spiral Review

1. It’s flexible! Although you can do it however you’d like, I do suggest having a predictable routine!
2. Spend much less time reviewing at the end of the year because you’ve been doing it all year long!
3. Students will know they can’t simply forget a math skill after the test.
4. You can see which topics students need more practice with and do more of that.

Though it has evolved over the years, math spiral review has been part of my classroom since my first year of teaching!

Will you try it out?