The Math Learning Center Blog

Working in pairs and small groups Giving students opportunities to collaborate helps build a strong sense of community in your classroom, and research shows that students learn better when they learn together. Working together gives students the chance to grapple with problems, consider different points of view, and challenge and support each other, all of which contribute to stronger...

The Common Core State Standards identify eight mathematical practices that characterize the ways in which mathematically proficient students engage with mathematics. The content standards describe what students are doing in mathematics, and the practices describe how they are doing it. For many teachers, these practices represent a dramatic shift in how their students are expected to learn and...

Here are some of the districts that have adopted Bridges Second Edition this month: Crossroads Charter Academy, Big Rapids, MI Addison Central Supervisory Union, Middlebury, VT Avon Grove School District, West Grove, PA Washington County Public Schools, Hagerstown, MD* Inchelium School District, Inchelium, WA Dufur School District, Dufur, OR Orange Southwest Supervisory Union, Braintree, VT...

Asking students questions and inviting them to ask questions of their own can help you discover and address their individual strengths and needs. You can tier questions and problems according to level of challenge, generally progressing from well-rooted, shared understandings toward higher-level work. This allows all students to contribute to the discussion as learning is constructed. Follow-up...

Increased Rigor With the tighter focus of the CCSSM comes greater depth and increased rigor. You’ll need to offer students many opportunities to develop conceptual understanding, practice key skills, and apply their skills and understandings to novel situations and problems. To support students in this rigorous approach to mathematics, you’ll need to be comfortable with the mathematics too. We...

Creating an environment that supports risk taking In a collaborative classroom, students share their work, think aloud, ask questions, and work together. For this sharing and collaboration to be effective, they must feel comfortable taking risks and making mistakes. You can help students understand that mistakes are a very valuable part of the learning process and that working through mistakes and...

Here are some of the districts that have adopted Bridges Second Edition this month: Chittenden South Supervisory Union , Shelburne, VT Cartersville City School System , Cartersville, GA Near West Intergenerational School , Cleveland, OH Gervais School District , Gervais, OR Madison Public Schools , Madison, CT Milton School District , Milton, WI Bannockburn School District , Bannockburn, IL White...

Greater Coherence The CCSSM emphasize coherence within and across grade levels. This means that students’ experiences with a mathematical topic should be clearly tied to what they have already learned in earlier grade levels and what they will learn in the future. It also means that instruction should be carefully sequenced and that teachers should help students make connections between topics. We...

Here are some of the districts that have adopted Bridges Second Edition this month: Unalaska City School District , Unalaska, AK Bedford Public Schools , Bedford, MA DeSoto Parish School System , Mansfield, LA Fowlerville Community Schools , Fowlerville, MI White Pass School District , Randle, WA Wai’alae Elementary Public Charter School, Honolulu, HI Jami Smith is a graphic designer and social...

The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics prompt teachers to significantly change both what they teach and how they teach it. In a series of posts, we’ll address the three characteristics of the new content standards likely to have the biggest impact on the way you teach math—tighter focus, greater coherence, and increased rigor. Finally, we’ll cover the other area of significant change, and...