Members of the Illustrative Mathematics team recently attended two national conferences for math educators: NCSM (Sept 26–28, 2022) in Anaheim, CA, and NCTM (Sept 28–Oct 1, 2022) in Los Angeles. We enjoyed meeting so many thoughtful educators over the course of the...
9–12 Math
Tackling Wordy Problems: How the Three Reads Math Language Routine Supports Access for All Learners
Aug 9, 2022
Joe Herbert, IM Certified® Facilitator “These problems are great, but they’re just so wordy. My students can’t handle all that reading!” Does this sound familiar? If so, you’re not alone! Many students and teachers struggle with the language demands of IM® 6–12 Math...
Empowering Students with the Geometry Reference Chart
Jul 25, 2022
By Tina Cardone Geometry class can feel like word salad, with a heavy sprinkling of notation on top. Students need to both process and produce mathematical language in the vast majority of the tasks they work on. Here is a portion of the warm up from a section on...
The IM Community Hub is Becoming the IM Resource Hub—Here’s Why
Jul 12, 2022
“Any time we go to the next unit I'm looking for what we can use, tweak, modify, build off of. Everyone is always checking the hub—it has saved us so much time in terms of planning this year.” “It made my ability to support teachers better and stress level lower. Most...
Creating a space for students to become expert learners
Jul 6, 2022
By Vanessa Cerrahoglu and Danielle Seabold, IM Certified® Facilitators Learners have brilliant mathematical ideas. How we teachers use IM 6–12 Math™ impacts how often students and teachers recognize this brilliance. “...[C]urriculum choices matter. But how teachers...
Towards Coherence
Apr 13, 2022
By William McCallum Last week, we had our first large-scale in-person event in quite a while, a training for new and returning facilitators in Baltimore, with over 110 facilitators and 13 employees attending. I gave a virtual welcome to four rooms of eager learners...
IM Curriculum Provides Everything but the Kitchen Sink Needed for Lesson Planning
Mar 30, 2022
By Liza Bondurant, IM Certified® Facilitator/Associate Professor Do you spend hours hunting down materials for your lesson plans? How can you be sure the materials are aligned to your standards? How can you make your lesson planning process more efficient and...
Using IM Algebra 1 Extra Support Materials to Address Unfinished Learning: An Example
Mar 17, 2022
By IM Professional Learning Team How do we attend to unfinished teaching and learning, while attending to grade-level expectations? Algebra 1 is often called a “gatekeeper.” Successful completion of Algebra 1 unlocks options for students on the road to becoming...
Two Recommendations to Elevate Instruction
Mar 2, 2022
By Kate Nowak, IM Vice President of Curriculum Development and Portfolio “The more intensely interested a teacher is in a student’s thinking, the more interested the student becomes in his or her own thinking.”—Eleanor Duckworth If you’re reading this you probably...
Math Language Routines: Discourse with a Purpose
Feb 17, 2022
By Dr. Kristen Taylor, IM Certified® Facilitator Math teachers can talk all day about math! We get super excited when we encounter someone else who enjoys these conversations as well. But too many of our students don’t get to experience that joyful discourse, which...
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