Connecticut State Department of Education

Connecticut Core Standards

Classroom Resources - Math

Resources for Lesson/Unit Development

K-12

  • Lesson Planning Tool for Math – This planning tool is designed to help educators create a Common Core-aligned math lesson. Module 1 guides curriculum planning through some of the most critical questions to consider when setting up a lesson that reflects the Common Core Shifts. For example, if a math educator is wondering, if the lesson fits into a coherent progression of math instruction with clearly articulated learning goals and formative assessments, each prompt includes an “Examples and Support” section with helpful definitions, guidance, free tools, and resources. (achievethecore.org)
  • STEM Teaching Tools - This is a collection of brief essays, each focused on a specific issue, is authored and reviewed by teachers and researchers. Each Practice Brief highlights ways of working on specific issues that come up during STEM teaching. 
  • CCSS Mathematics Tasks by Content or Practice Standard (illustrativemathematics.org)
  • YOUCUBED: Open Math Tasks – This website provides examples of open math tasks that typically have more than one right answer with different entry points and ways of seeing the tasks. All tasks are low floor and high ceiling – they are accessible to all students, and they extend to high levels. Students learn important growth mindset messages that will help them feel confident, embrace mistakes, and challenged.   Teachers can sort by “Concept”, “Grade”, “Mathematical Practice”, and “Math Topic”. (Dr JoBoaler/YouCubed.org/ Stanford University)
  • NCTM Illuminations—Common Core Resources for Teaching Math  (illuminations.nctm.org)
  • Collaborating Around Math: Before, During, and After Lessons—This  video series showcases elementary, middle school, and high school  teams of educators coming together to plan, teach, and reflect on student learning. (Developed by Illustrative Mathematics and Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium with the Teaching Channel)
  • Literature and Math-Everyday Mathematics has created K-6 Literature Lists that include renowned books and their corresponding math topics. Reading books that weave mathematical ideas into engaging stories can generate interest in math and also provide contexts that help bring meaning to abstract concepts. Great titles include Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi, How Much Is a Million? and The Grapes of Math, among many others. (everydaymath.uchicago.edu)  
  • Technology & Engineering Reading Passages – These K-12 non-fiction and literary passages and question sets helps build students' background knowledge and vocabulary and improves reading comprehension on topics related to technology and engineering. (readworks.org)  
  • Visual Math Improves Math Performance - This article by Stanford Professor of Mathematics and Co-Founder of YouCubed.org., Dr. Jo Boaler, explores how training students through visual representations significantly improves students’ math performance. (youcubed.org)
  • VISIBLE THINKING – This website is for teachers, school leaders and administrators in K-12 schools who want to encourage the development of a culture of thinking. Many resources for classroom use are described in detail. (visiblethinkingpz.org) 
  • See, Think, Wonder Visible Thinking Routine – This is a routine for exploring works of art/photographs and other interesting things; it encourages students to make careful observations, thoughtful interpretations, and sets the stage for inquiry. (visiblethinkingpz.org)  
  • See-Wonder-Think Strategy Sample Video Lesson demonstrates a routine that helps students to analyze and interpret art and/or photography. It was developed by Visual Thinking. (teachingchannel.org) 
  • WebTools4U2Use: Finding the Right Tool (webtools4u2use.wikispaces.com)
  • K-12 Math Practice Standards – Activities by Grade and Standard (Mathematics Assessment Project)

K-8

  • TurnOnCCMath- 18 learning trajectories that unpack the K-8 Common Core State Standards for Mathematics from the standpoint of student learning, and elaborate the underlying scientific research in mathematics education. (GISMO research team at North Carolina State University)
  • K-8 Math Vocabulary – Resources and Activities (Granite School District, Salt Lake City, UT)
  • Gr. K-8 Teachers: Sorting Math Tasks by Cognitive Demand (CA Math Project)

Elementary

Secondary

  • Common Core Standards and Career Technical Education Classroom Tasks – This site showcases a process of how Career Technical Education (CTE) content can be leveraged throughout high school mathematics. (Achieve and National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education)
  • App Building for Everyone—This website offers a complete introduction to app programming concepts and methods for grades 6-12. Common Core-aligned standards are listed. (www.graphite.org/website/appinventororg)

Learning Projects Aligned to Core Standards

Illuminating Standards Video Series

What would it look like if standards were met with depth, and imagination? The Illuminating Standards Project, a collaborative project of Expeditionary Learning and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, showcases a video collection of long-term, interdisciplinary, arts-infused, community-connected projects illustrating how to make standards come alive in project-based learning. (centerforstudentwork.elschools.org)

Elementary School

  • Original Physics Experiments – This video illustrates the results of what happens when students are given the opportunity to design experiments to answer their own questions. (Santa Fe School for the Arts & Sciences, Santa Fe, NM, grades: 1, 2)
Middle School
  • Food For Thought – This video showcases students creating a cookbook with original recipes and illustrations as part of a project focused on why and how to make healthy food choices. (High Tech Middle Chula Vista, San Diego, CA, grade: 6)      
  • Mohammed and the Number Genie – In this video, small groups of students write their own chapter, taking key concepts in math and embedding them into a narrative. Each group worked together to explain their mathematical concept accurately and within the context of the story. (High Tech Middle Chula Vista, San Diego, CA, grade: 6)
  • ReVOLT – This video shows students engaged in an interdisciplinary project using design to solve a real world problem: the limitations imposed by our current ways of using energy. After investigating science and social issues such as environmental concerns behind wind power, they used what they learned in all of their classes to design and build devices that solved a modern-day energy need in a unique way. Designs and research were pitched to a panel of community members. (King Middle School, Portland, ME, grade: 8) 
  • The 20 Years Project – This video features a project that shows how Common Core math standards can be addressed in work that is engaging and compelling; it asked students to imagine their life 20 years in the future. Each student created a portfolio that included an interview of someone who had taken a career path similar to what they envisioned for themselves and a monthly budget based on their projected lifestyle. Each student’s portfolio ended with “20 Years Reflection”, an imaginative look back at the last 20 years. (High Tech Middle Chula Vista, San Diego, CA, grade: 8)
High School
  • Water Quality and the Future Use of Loon Pond – In these video, students conducted a full, professional water quality assessment on a local pond to determine if it was safe to be re-opened as a public recreation area. In addition to learning how to conduct scientific field work, students gained a deep understanding of environmental science standards, scientific reading and writing standards, and what it meant to provide an important service for their community. (Springfield Renaissance School, Springfield, MA, grade: 9)
  • Get Bent - This video shows students collaborating in a project-based learning activity as they design and build a chair with a curve or a bend by researching the history of design and marketing.  (High Tech High, San Diego, CA, grade: 12)   
  • Calculicious - This video showcases students who worked to create artistic interpretations of mathematical concepts and formulas. (High Tech High School, San Diego, grade: 12)
Other Projects Aligned to Core Standards
  • Authentic Products Aligned to Common Core Writing Standards – This document focuses specifically on the writing component of final products.  Ideally, these products are created for an authentic audience, one beyond the classroom and the teacher. (Expeditionary Learning, Plaut and Passchier, January 2015)

EQuIP Resources for Common Core Alignment

Toolkits and Materials

Resource Libraries

  • iCONN--This is a comprehensive search engine for educators and students.  It provides all students, teachers and administrators with free online access to a wealth of essential library and information resources from trustworthy sources. It is freely accessible from every school or library, and from home. Access from home requires a public library card. (iconn.org)
  • Illuminations Resources for Teaching Math by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics-includes quality standards-based resources for teaching and learning mathematics, including interactive tools for students and instructional support for teachers.  (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics)
  • Inside Mathematics is a professional resource for educators passionate about improving students’ mathematics learning and performance. This site features classroom examples of innovative teaching methods and insights into student learning, tools for mathematics instruction that teachers can use immediately, and video tours of the ideas and materials on the site.  (Inside Mathematics)
  • CK-12--provides open-source content and technology tools to help teachers provide learning opportunities for students. Free access to high-quality, customizable educational content in multiple modalities suited to multiple student learning styles and levels allow teachers, students and others to innovate and experiment with new models of learning. (ck-12.org)
  • OpenEd offers free Common Core resources in a K-12 educational resource catalog. (opened.io)
  • The Hartford Courant Newspaper in Education Program is an online interactive classroom resource to help teachers connect students to the news. Many of the resources list Common Core Standards. Programs have been specifically designed to address the needs of Connecticut students in social studies, geography, science, math, and language arts. Resource pages are written by educators, museums, nature centers and other professional organizations. Current offerings include: Cartoons for the Classroom, Front Page Talking Points, Geography in the News, Green Room, News Video, Pulse of the Planet, This Week in History, Use the News and Words in the News.  (The Hartford Courant NIE)