This blog post is the third in a series of four blog posts exploring the student experience of problem-based learning. The first two posts are available here: “How Do Students Perceive Problem-Based Learning?” and “Inviting Students to the Mathematics.”
Once students have an invitation to the mathematics and understand the situation, how do they get started answering questions?
Continue reading “Concrete Representations that Give Students a Way to Get Started”
IM Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2 courses are now available to all.
Alright, folks, this is not a drill: IM Certified 9–12 Math 2020 is now available to all.
So now what? To help folks dive into the curriculum, we’ve put together some links to the curriculum and some relevant blog posts here. No matter what your experience with IM curricula, this post will give you a place to start.
Continue reading “Introducing IM Certified 9–12 Math 2020”
How do we invite students to the mathematics, and explicitly signal to kids that they have ideas that matter in math class?
In this series of blog posts, the first of which is available here, we’re exploring how, in order to be successful in a problem-based classroom, students have to shift their thinking about what being a good math student looks and sounds like. What do you notice about your own students’ beliefs about how they should participate? What are you curious about now, as you think about what it takes for students to be successful in a problem-based classroom?
Continue reading “Inviting Students to the Mathematics”
Does problem-based learning mean students need to forget everything they knew about how to act in math class?
As a teacher, and then as a coach and teacher-educator, I’ve been thinking for a long time about the shifts teachers need to make when using a problem-based curriculum like the IM Math curricula. Recently, though, I’ve gotten to be in classrooms not as a coach or a teacher, but just to observe. Sitting with the students, experiencing math class from their perspective, I’ve been reflecting a lot on the demands placed on them as learners in a problem-based setting.
Continue reading “How Do Students Perceive Problem-Based Learning?”
In my first post on the topic of realizing the promise of open educational resources, I described the IM Certified program. Our partners offer multiple versions, including a free online version and enhanced versions with different options for users. This is IM’s way of reaching teachers and students from a wide variety of districts who may be looking for those different options, while assuring that, as these versions evolve, they will stay true to the original design. However, by the terms of the CC BY license, anybody can use the curriculum with or without certification. This freedom further supports our mission to get these carefully crafted materials into the hands of as many students and teachers as possible.
Linda Richard, Curriculum Writer
I used to teach my students a catchy song to memorize the distance formula. We all had fun goofily singing this song. My students hummed it to themselves during tests and successfully calculated distances. I was pleased with this outcome—but what did my students actually understand about distance in the coordinate plane? In retrospect, very little.
Continue reading “Making Sense of Distance in the Coordinate Plane”
Six months ago, I hated trigonometry.
In fact, when my daughter missed a week of school, she announced on her first day back, “Someone has to teach me trig because I missed the whole thing.” Her father jumped in, “That’ll be me. Your mother hates trig.”
At least that used to be true. I have since made peace with my least favorite topic, in large part because of my experiences with the Illustrative Mathematics Geometry course. Let me tell you ways that the IM Geometry course has helped.
Continue reading “Making Peace with the Basics of Trigonometry”
Kristin Gray, Director of K–5 Curriculum & Professional Learning
“An excellent mathematics program includes a curriculum that develops important mathematics along coherent learning progressions and develops connections among areas of mathematical study and between mathematics and the real world.“
Principles to Action by National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Developing coherent learning progressions and connections among areas of study requires crafting lessons to tell a mathematical story. Lessons must coherently build across units and grade levels and attend to many things: the mathematics, representations, activity structures, and learning trajectories, to name only a few. Each of these considerations impact how students access the mathematics and influence the belief that mathematics is a connected set of ideas that makes sense.
Continue reading “Storytelling in the IM K-5 Math Curriculum”
William McCallum, IM President
Big ideas are popular in mathematics education, and you can find many lists of big ideas on the web. Some are more thoughtful than others, and I can see how some might be useful for organizing a curriculum. But few of the ideas I see in these lists really get me excited, or really capture what I love about the subject. I am a big fan of small ideas; like intricate joints in a fine piece of carpentry, small ideas often evade the eye, but are crucial to the beauty and structural integrity of the finished product. I’d like to mention a few of my favorite small ideas.
Continue reading “The Power of Small Ideas”