This math curriculum is problem-based. Lessons invite teachers to post-teach: students explore problems that create an intellectual need for new mathematical ideas, at which point the teacher highlights strategies students developed to solve the problem or offer an explanation.

 

Structure of a Typical Lesson

 
A screenshot of the warm-up screen from the lesson Prob-bear-bilities. The screen shows an illustration of a spinner and a row of dice. The prompt states, “Which game would you rather play?”, with two answer options.

Warm-Up

5 minutes

The warm-up is an open-ended question or an interaction intended to help draw students into the lesson. It might elicit information from their personal experience or intuition, remind them of a context they have seen before, invite them to think about the previous lesson, or preview a calculation that will appear in the current lesson.

 
A screenshot of a screen from the lesson Prob-bear-bilities. The screen shows a bear, a robot, a dinosaur, and a scarecrow. The prompt explains what a sample space is and asks students to “explain why the probability of spinning a bear is ¼.”

Activity (one or more)

30 minutes

Activities are the heart of each lesson. Students notice, wonder, explore, calculate, predict, measure, explain their thinking, settle disputes, create challenges for their classmates, and more. Most activities include a small number of Key Discussion Screens 🔑, which are intended to help students summarize their strategies and to develop shared ideas as a class.

 
A screenshot of the Are You Ready for More screen from the lesson Prob-bear-bilities. The screen shows a randomized character made from parts of other activity characters. The prompt asks students the probability of spinning a full animal.

You’re Invited to Explore More

Optional

Explore problems offer students who finish an activity early an opportunity to continue exploring a concept more deeply. This is often beyond the scope of the lesson and is intentionally available to all students. Consider inviting different students to approach these opportunities at different times throughout the year and celebrating students who attempt these problems regardless of whether they complete the entire problem correctly.

 
A screenshot of the lesson synthesis screen from the lesson Prob-bear-bilities. The screen shows a grid of randomized characters made from parts of other animals. The prompt asks how students might use sample spaces to help determine probability.

Lesson Synthesis

5 minutes

The synthesis is an opportunity for students to put the key ideas from the lesson into their own words. There is typically an open-ended prompt followed by a discussion for students to consolidate and refine their ideas about the learning goals. If time allows, it is also an opportunity for students to revise their responses after the discussion.

 
A screenshot of the cool-down screen from the lesson Prob-bear-bilities. The screen shows an illustration of a cafe menu. The prompt states, “If one item is selected at random, what is the probability that the item is a salad?”

Cool-Down / Exit Ticket and Reflection

5 minutes

The cool-down (also called an exit ticket) and reflection is a moment for students to show what they know about the learning goals and what they are still learning. We recommend that students complete this individually. Each lesson includes recommendations for teachers if students struggle. Additionally, there is a space for students to share how well they understood the math of the lesson and how they felt.

 

Optional Lessons

There are a few lessons that are marked "optional." Some common reasons a lesson might be optional:

  • It addresses a concept or skill that is below grade level and that students often need to revisit before diving into grade-level material.

  • It informally introduces students to a concept that they will develop further later in the unit.

  • It is an opportunity for additional practice on a concept or skill that many students (but not necessarily all students) need. These concepts or skills are supporting or additional work, not the major work of the grade. Teachers should use their judgment about how or whether to use this lesson with students. 

Note: All Readiness Checks / Pre-Unit Checks are optional and can be given in their entirety before the unit begins, or the problems can be spread throughout the unit.

 
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Teachers Talk About Lessons

  • “[This curriculum] does a great job letting students discover content themselves. On days I didn’t do [the lesson] myself first I sometimes ruined that exploration.”
    –Melissa Frangias, Highline Public Schools, Burien, WA

  • “Understand that not every student needs to see every slide and that the material is not expected to be mastered after that one lesson.”
    –Mary Scharf Maruffi, Baltimore County Public Schools, Baltimore, WA

  • “This has made learning both more connected and more flexible to students' own pace. The challenge problems and puzzles in each lesson+practice day and the broader lesson focus allows me to meet students where they are at and still allows us to learn together as a class.”
    –Leeanne Branham, Clovis Unified School District, Clovis, CA

  • “Don’t be afraid to relinquish more control over to your students with this curriculum and resource as it is intended for!”
    –Nicole Johnson, East Irodequoit School District, Rochester, NY

 
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Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to teach each lesson?
Most lessons are designed to take 45 minutes. Some lessons are designed for 90 minutes, which will be indicated in the Unit Facilitation Guide and at the top of the lesson page.


My class is not 45 minutes long. Is that okay?
Of course! Many teachers with block schedules and shorter class periods use this curriculum. We recommend spending some time reviewing the Unit Facilitation Guide / Unit at a Glance to help you determine how to stretch or squeeze the lessons to fit your bell schedule.

 
 

Standards

A standard often takes weeks, months, or years to achieve, in many cases building on work in prior grade levels.

  • Standards marked as “building on” are those being used as a bridge to the idea students are currently exploring, including both standards from prior grade levels or earlier in the same grade.

  • Standards marked as “addressing” are focused on mastering grade-level work. The same standard may be marked as “addressing” for several lessons and units as students deepen their conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application skills.

  • Standards marked as “building towards” are those from future lessons or grade levels that this lesson is building the foundation for. Students are not expected to meet the expectations of these standards at that moment.

 
 

Names of Fictional Students

The names we are given or choose to use are part of our identities, and it is important that we honor those identities. In selecting which names to use for fictional students in this curriculum, we decided that our set of names should be culturally inclusive and gender inclusive, and that they should not distract from learning. 

Read more about our process for determining names of fictional students.

We want to honor the languages and cultures that these names hail from, including pronouncing them appropriately. We acknowledge that this can be challenging if the names are unfamiliar and that the same name can be pronounced a myriad of different ways. 

Here are some strategies to support pronunciation of names in the curriculum.

  • Invite students to share the pronunciation of names that are common in their culture or community. 

  • Use your preferred search engine to type the phrase “pronounce [name]”. 

 
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