By Ashli Black and Elisa Smith Grade 8 is a year marked by shifts in mathematical focus. Where grades 6 and 7 introduce students to negative numbers and using them in operations, grade 8 introduces them to irrational numbers and using them with the Pythagorean...
IM 6-8 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...
Getting Ready for 2022–23: Back to School Blog Posts
Aug 3, 2022
How do you get ready for a new school year? There is a lot to do, physically and emotionally. We hope you start the 2022–23 school year feeling rested, rejuvenated, and prepared. To support you, we have curated a collection of back-to-school blog posts. These posts...
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...
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...
Leveraging IM 6–12 Math Teacher Materials to Enhance Access to Grade-Level Mathematics
Feb 9, 2022
By Vanessa Cerrahoglu and Danielle Seabold, IM Certified® Facilitators Illustrative Mathematics (IM) believes each student has brilliant mathematical ideas has experiences and ideas that are valuable can make sense of and solve problems can learn grade-level...
What Does IM Think About Unfinished Learning and Supporting Students with a Variety of Entry Points? (Grades 6–12)
Dec 17, 2021
By the IM Team In a class of 25 students, there are 25 different learners with 25 different backgrounds. Students come into the classroom with varied experiences with school, with mathematical content, and with life. While this has been true for time immemorial,...
Together Apart: Amplifying the “Gift of Student Thinking” in Distance Learning with IM
Oct 26, 2021
By Maureen D. O’Connell, IM K–5 Math™ Pilot Teacher,IM Certified® Facilitator for IM K–5 Math “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 Whether we teach...
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