IM Certified® Blog
The TK Year: What Makes Transitional Kindergarten Unique
By Hannah Herbert, PK–6 Content Specialist In one corner of a transitional kindergarten classroom, a small group of children sorts a pile of buttons—some by size, some by color—while their teacher listens in and asks what they notice. Nearby, two students negotiate...
Anatomy of an IM® Math Lesson: The Lesson Narrative as a Roadmap for Understanding
By Elisa Smith, Senior Specialist, 5–12 Content My family likes to take road trips. Driving gives us the freedom to make our own schedule, stop along the way, and take in the varied landscapes of our country. Each night we talk about what’s ahead the next day: how far...
How Los Angeles Unified Paired IM® Math with Strong Implementation to Drive Gains
By the Illustrative Mathematics team Every cohort of Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) middle schools highlighted in a new case study saw gains in math proficiency after adopting IM® Math. Those gains ranged from 2.2 to 9.9 percentage points. But the...
Anatomy of an IM® Math Lesson: Making Instructional Decisions with the Cool-down
by Ashli Black, Director, 5–12 Content You’re wrapping up the day’s lesson, head filled with all the things you saw on student papers and heard as you visited groups. You already have some ideas about what is going smoothly and what you’ll want to spend some extra...
Anatomy of an IM® Math Lesson: Making Meaning in the Lesson Synthesis
by Sarah Caban, Director, PK–12 Learning Experiences and Timesha Brooks, Sr Specialist, PL Design Imagine you're teaching Grade 6, Unit 1, Lesson 4. Students have spent the class investigating the area of parallelograms. As you circulate during activity 3, you notice...
IM’s Back-to-School Toolkit 2026–27
By the Illustrative Mathematics team Every new school year brings both excitement and plenty of questions. Whether you’re teaching with IM® Math for the first time, returning after summer break, or supporting teachers as a coach, we’ve gathered some of our most...
Anatomy of an IM® Math Lesson: Why Centers Matter
by Lindy Olejniczak, PK–6 Content Specialist In this series of blog posts—The Anatomy of an IM® Math Lesson—we’re taking a closer look at each part of an IM® Math lesson and how it contributes to meaningful student learning. After exploring the launch and warm-up in...
Anatomy of an IM® Math Lesson: Setting Up Students for Success with the Warm-up
by Fattama Alkaysi, Content Specialist, PK–6 In this series of blog posts—The Anatomy of an IM® Math Lesson—we’ll take a closer look at each part of an IM Math lesson and how it contributes to meaningful student learning. After exploring the launch in our first post,...
Anatomy of an IM® Math Lesson: Making the Launch Work for You
By David Petersen, Specialist, 5–12 Content In this series of blog posts—The Anatomy of an IM® Math Lesson—we’ll take a closer look at each part of an IM Math lesson and how it contributes to meaningful student learning. We begin with the launch: the moment that helps...
How IM Certified® Products and Services Help Districts Build Coherent Mathematics Programs
By the Illustrative Mathematics team Not long ago, much of the conversation in mathematics education centered on curriculum quality. Today, there is broad agreement that high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) matter. Research has demonstrated their impact, and...
