Sub Plans for High School Math That Don't Waste the Week

Quick answer: Leave work that is self-checking. A packet with an answer key at the back, or a puzzle that only resolves when the arithmetic is right, keeps a ninth-grade class working without a math-trained adult in the room. Skip new content. Use the days for spaced review of the last unit, and you come back to a class that has not gone backward.

What can I leave that a non-math sub can run?

Anything where the page answers the student's question before the sub has to. That means worked examples at the top, then problems that step up in small increments, then a check. High school students will stop at the first problem they cannot start, and a sub who is a retired English teacher cannot restart them.

• Two or three worked examples printed on the same sheet as the practice.
• Answers to odd-numbered items on the last page, so students self-correct as they go.
• A named extension task, not the word extension. Say which page.
• One reflection line at the bottom: which problem stopped you, and why.

Should sub days teach new content or review?

Review, almost always. New content taught badly costs more to undo than to teach fresh. The exception is a strand that is genuinely procedural and heavily scaffolded, where the page can carry it. Otherwise use the days for retrieval of the previous unit, which is the work most math departments never find time for anyway.

A structured review workbook does this without you writing anything. A functions, derivatives and graph analysis workbook can carry three days for an eleventh-grade class and gives you a page-by-page record of who is behind.

What fails in a high school math room with a sub?

A textbook page number on the board. Half the class does not bring the book, and the sub has no standing to argue about it. A worksheet with no examples, which produces twenty minutes of work and thirty minutes of phones. Calculator-dependent tasks when the cart is locked in your cabinet. Anything on a platform that needs your teacher login to assign. And group problem-solving, which in a junior class becomes one student working and three watching.

The other quiet failure is work that is too easy. Seniors read a page of one-step equations as a message that the week does not count, and behavior follows the message.

How do I make the days feel worth doing?

Give the work a shape with an ending. A puzzle format is the cheapest way to buy engagement without buying your presence: students know when they are right because the code resolves. A statistics and data-analysis escape room holds a tenth to twelfth grade class for a full period and produces an artifact the sub can collect.

Then close the loop when you return. Spend the first eight minutes on the two problems that stopped the most students. That single move is what separates a sub week that was useful from one that was babysitting.

Frequently asked questions

Should I leave the answer key with the sub?

Yes, and tell them it is fine for students to see it after they attempt the page. Withholding it only means nobody finds out anything until you are back.

How much work is a full period for a high school math class?

Twelve to eighteen practice items with two worked examples, plus one longer applied task. Front-load the routine items so the class starts moving in the first two minutes.

What about students in an AP course?

Give them released-style practice with a timing instruction. They will do it because the exam is real to them, and it does not need a teacher in the room.

Can I run a quiz with a sub?

Only if it is low stakes and you accept that the conditions were not controlled. Use it as a check, not as a grade you will defend to a parent.

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