IM curriculum
As some of you know, we are using the Kendall Hunt Illustrative Mathematics Curriculum (IM for
short). IM is a problem-based curriculum. In a problem-based curriculum, students spend most of
their time in class working on carefully crafted and sequenced problems. Teachers help students
understand the problems, ask questions to push their thinking, and orchestrate discussions to be
sure that the mathematical takeaways are clear. Students frequently collaborate with their
classmates—they talk about math, listen to each other’s ideas, justify their thinking, and critique
the reasoning of others.

Typical Lesson
The curriculum divides each lesson into four parts: warm-up, activities, lesson synthesis, and
cool down. The warmp-up consists of either getting the student ready for the lesson or
strengthening their number sense. The middle portion consists of a variety of activities that
introduce new concepts or work towards mastery of concepts. This is accomplished through the
use of modeling or real-world application problems. The most important part of the lesson is the
lesson synthesis. This is when the main purpose of the lesson is reviewed and the key
mathematical understanding is discussed. The lesson ends with a cool down in which the students
are given a task to check for understanding.

Not your grandparents math
This kind of instruction may look different from what you experienced in your own math
education. Current research says that students need to be able to think flexibly in order to use
mathematical skills in their lives (and also on the types of tests they will encounter throughout
their schooling). Flexible thinking relies on understanding concepts and making connections
between them. Over time, students gain the skills and the confidence to independently solve
problems that they've never seen before.
It is considered a higher level of mathematical understanding when students can solve a problem
multiple ways and be able to clearly show their thinking through their work.

Homework
Given it is a new way of teaching math there will not be traditional homework. This means, if your
student uses their time well, they should not be bringing any math work home!