Guided Notes for Middle School Math are Essential

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. One day my mentor showed me 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 wished they were more detailed. 

Fast-forward seven years. When I stepped away from the classroom and began creating middle school math curriculum, guided notes were one of the first things I wanted to make.

I created the guided notes I wished I'd had as a teacher. They are thorough, engaging, organized, and designed to help students actually understand math.

Teaching with Guided Notes

✔️ Pause before filling in blanks
✔️ Use notes as a teaching tool
✔️ Keep students actively involved
✔️ Let students add to their notes
✔️ Stop and check understanding
✔️ Have students explain their thinking
✔️ Connect ideas to prior learning

✔️ Use notes during practice
✔️ Don’t rush to the procedure

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.  

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

✔️ Video lesson so absent students can still get the content

Get 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. 

Ready to use guided notes in your classroom? Click on your grade level below.

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

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.