Illustrative Mathematics
It was great to see so many of you at NCSM and NCTM in San Diego. If we missed you, or you weren’t able to attend, read our NCSM and NCTM round-up below.
NCSM NCTM Recap
What is a Measurable Attribute?
Kristin Umland,VP Content Development
A great conversation I had with the IM elementary school curriculum writing team got me thinking: What is a measurable attribute? That is, when given an object, what can we measure about it? Before you jump in with your own answer, consider these questions:
Is “redness” a measurable attribute? Why or why not? Does this picture help you decide?
Rigor in Proofs
Tina Cardone, Geometry Lead, & Gabriel Rosenberg, Curriculum Writer
There is no doubt that proof plays a central role in the human endeavor of mathematics, but there remains much debate on what role it should play in high school mathematics. At least two standards for mathematical practice in the common core focus on this concept. Certainly MP3, “Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others”, is about the need for students to be able to write their own proofs and to analyze the proofs of others. MP6, “attend to precision” goes deeper, though, by noting the need for precision, including the use of clear definitions, when communicating their reasoning. This is what we mean by rigor in mathematical proof.
Continue reading “Rigor in Proofs”Presenting IM Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2
Kate Nowak, Director of 6-12 Curriculum
When I was teaching high school mathematics, my local colleagues and I spent a whole lot of time creating problem-based lessons. We were convinced that this style of instruction was a good way to learn, but the textbooks in use at our school simply contained definitions and theorems, worked examples, and practice problems. One day I was talking to my dad about how much time I had been spending lesson planning. His response was, “People have been teaching geometry for, what, 3,000 years? Shouldn’t the lessons be, like, already planned?”
Continue reading “Presenting IM Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2”How do you start the year?
By Ashli Black, Algebra 2 Lead
Students need a chance at the beginning of the year to shake off the summer dust. Learn how IM’s curricular design builds in opportunities for review while starting the year with inviting, grade-level mathematics.
Representing Subtraction of Signed Numbers: Can You Spot the Difference?
By Greta Anderson & Patti Drawdy, IM Certified Facilitator
I read the lesson three times through, but was still unsure why the number line below shows $3 – 7$. My aha moment arrived courtesy of the grade 1 standards.
Planning Lessons for a Block Schedule
Jennifer Wilson and Vanessa Cerrahoglu
Having an extended period of time to teach a lesson can be an advantage in a problem-based classroom. Students and teachers can savor the questions that are asked. Activities can breathe in a way that they can’t in a shorter period of time. But questions about planning inevitably arise. We find ourselves asking questions like: Do I simply merge two lessons? What stays? What goes? How do we ensure that we engage our students in the right conversations that will prepare them for the next leg of the journey?
IM K-5 Math: Designing for Each Student
By Noelle Conforti Preszler and Kristin Gray
In the following activity, think about the students in your classroom. How might each respond?
What do you notice? What do you wonder?
This activity is the drafted warm-up of the first lesson in Grade 3, Unit 1: Introducing Multiplication. While we believe the structure of this activity — “What do you notice? What do you wonder?” — implicitly supports equity, it is the word each in the question at the top that has become central to our design of the IM K-5 Math curriculum.
What is problem-based instruction?
By William McCallum
When I was a child, I used to get puzzle books out of the library. One of the puzzles was the twelve-coin problem, the most difficult of all coin weighing problems. My mother and I worked on it separately at the same time, and she solved it first. Some time later that evening she came into my room to find me in tears of frustration. Instead of helping me, she asked: “Do you want me to tell you the solution?” I said no and she left. I will never forget the joy when I finally figured it out.