Below are links to PDF copies of the Common Core State Standards’ Standards for Mathematical Practice in multiple languages. Please let me know if you have them in any other languages so I can add them to this list. Armenian Chinese Korean Spanish Tagalog
Math content and language objectives can be challenging to create, especially when you don’t want to explicitly tell students what they will be learning at the beginning. Additionally, if your school is using the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) model, content and language objectives are required for every lesson. Fortunately, the Common Core State Standards’…
Have you looked at a mathematics problem-based lesson and thought that while it would be fun to do one with your classes, you weren’t sure if it would work with your students? Maybe you’ve already tried out a few lessons but keep running into the same issues? This Tuesday at 9 PM EST I will…
Several years ago I had a profound moment that led me to completely rethink what it meant to understand mathematics. I was still in the classroom and had been working with 6th graders on adding and subtracting mixed numbers. My formative assessments and observations showed that most students were proficient, and I felt pleased. To…
The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) released its practice test on May 29, 2013 and it will be available to the entire public (including parents and students) until the official test is released during the 2014-2015 school year. The test will ultimately be administered to grades 3-8 and 11 and there are separate practice tests…
Many teachers reading the Standards for Mathematical Practice are confused by what “Model with Mathematics” (Math Practice 4) means. I define mathematical modeling as the process of taking an often real-world context, turning it into something you can manipulate with mathematics, and then returning to the context with the new knowledge. For example if you want…
My best advice to anyone preparing to implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for mathematics is to get students talking and writing about their work. Regardless of your stance on the CCSS, being an effective communicator is a valuable and often challenging life skill. It is even more challenging when the content is…
The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) emphasizes mathematical modeling, or “link[ing] classroom mathematics and statistics to everyday life, work, and decision-making” for all grade levels with Math Practice 4. Some content standards are easier than others to connect to everyday life, and often the more abstract the standard is, the more challenging it is to…
Teachers who attempt a problem-based learning lesson may be discouraged from trying it a second time if the experience doesn’t go the way they had hoped. Even if teachers are committed to its implementation, they may be unsure of what steps to take next. As a district math coach, my challenge has been successfully demonstrating…
One of the most challenging professional development tasks is helping teachers improve the questions they ask students. Teachers are aware that some questions require students to think more meaningfully, yet research shows that these questions are rarely asked. “About 60% of teachers’ questions require students to recall facts; about 20% require students to think; and…
The Common Core’s Standards for Mathematical Practice significantly progress efforts to articulate how students should demonstrate their mathematical proficiency. These standards “describe varieties of expertise that mathematics educators at all levels should seek to develop in their students” (Standards for Mathematical Practice, 2010) by giving expectations for the depth of students’ understanding, the skills students should…
My article on the interesting similarities shared by healthy eating and math education was published in Education Week (Vol. 31, Issue 33, Page 29) on June 6, 2012: The philosophies behind healthy eating and math instruction share interesting similarities that provide useful insight into the direction educational policymakers should take. Healthy eating means consuming the right…
I believe that, in general, educational policy makers begin with good intentions. However, the hopes and goals they begin with are often lost in translation by the time the policy reaches the classroom. It is very similar to a game of telephone which begins with an idea from the federal government, but then quickly loses…