Illustrations and Elaborations of Math Practice Standards
This section of the Illustrative Mathematics website helps teachers become more familiar with standards for mathematical practice in order to integrate these standards effectively into instructional planning at both the lesson and unit levels. The exemplars give teachers a clear sense of what the standards look like in actual classrooms. The exemplars on this site can guide instructional planning for mathematics, including the development of lessons, units, and assessments that integrate content and practice standards. Each of the eight math practices (from the Common Core State Standards) is illustrated with example tasks, vignettes, and/or videos drawn from across grade levels and domains. Additionally, grade band “elaborations” of the practice standards (for K-5 and 6-8) give educators a better sense of what these standards might look like for students of different ages.
This resource serves a dual purpose: to familiarize users with standards for mathematical practice and to help users design lessons and units that integrate practice and content standards. The best part of this resource, by far, is the video collection. It includes footage of actual classrooms as well as “student interviews” in which students explain and justify their reasoning, describe the progress of their thinking, evaluate peer solutions, etc. The vignettes, which include well-designed tasks and learning experiences, can be a source of inspiration for instructional planning. The “elaborations” documents (available through the link at the bottom of the Overview page) require more of a time commitment to read. Still, they’re helpful and thorough, and they note specific content standards that are closely related to particular practice standards.