Is your curriculum optimized for Common Core math?

How is the transition to Common Core working for your class? Does it seem like you have more to teach than before? If so, here are some critical questions to consider when adjusting a unit of instruction from a prior year or from older curriculum materials.

1) How close of a match are the content goals of the unit to the goals of Common Core for your grade?
For quick reference, see the goals list for your grade level at www.mathpaths.com. For more depth, read the actual wording of the standards using the CCSS links on that same page. Make a list and mark the unit goals as required, not required, or uncertain.

2) Which content goals in the unit should be considered as review or as preparation for the next year? 
The color coding and domain icons in the list at www.mathpaths.com will help you find related content in the prior or next grade. If the goal is review, you might be able to give it less emphasis. If the goal is not needed until the next year, considering skipping it! It is much more important for students to learn all goals for this year than to preview goals for the next year. Instead of uncertain, mark that goal as not required. When you skip content, remember to remove related questions from tests or assessment materials.

3) Does the unit include appropriate emphasis on the Standards for Mathematical Practices (MP)?
Mathematical practices are the important habits or processes needed to effectively solve problems including word problems and non-routine problems. These habits are often called problem-solving skills. For Common Core, it is important that problem-solving pages or activities relate to content standards of the prior year or current year. If a publisher's correlation mentions only an MP standard for a lesson, you may be able to skip the lesson. You can increase emphasis on MP standards during other lessons that develop required content.

4) Does Common Core require content that is missing or not sufficiently covered in the unit from a prior year or older materials?
If publishers simply updated the curriculum with "gap" lessons, there may be minimal content for some standards. And, the "gap" content might not be assessed. You may need to supplement the unit with free or low cost activities from TeacherPayTeachers.com, TeachersNotebook.com, or other sources.

In the past, most curriculum materials included 100 to 150 content goals/objectives per year. With CCSS, there are only 50-60 goals/objectives (based on the goals at www.mathpaths.com). Compared to prior years, the curriculum should include fewer topics in more depth! Good luck with Common Core!

Choosing K-8 textbook lessons important for Common Core

The Common Core standards do not tell you how to teach, but they do tell you what to teach. If you are confused about what topics are important, this post can help you.

First of all, let me warn you not to depend on a correlation from the publisher! If the publisher updated textbooks instead of designing a brand new series, be especially wary. Because each change to a textbook affects supplements as well, a publisher trying to meet new standards at minimal cost may keep unneeded lessons and just add "gap" lessons. Many parts of the publisher's correlation may be "stretched." For example, the publisher may correlate a lesson to mathematical practices (problem solving) even when most of the lesson content is not required by CCSS until a later grade. Perhaps only a small part of a lesson is required for CCSS.

The math standards are broken down by domain (strand), with one to four clusters of content for each domain. In K-8, each grade has about 10 clusters in all. At the standards website these clusters are described with paragraphs. My MathPaths website shows lists of lesson goals or objectives based on CCSS cluster descriptions.

Here is a basic approach for evaluating lessons.

1. Look at the lesson title and identify the domain. On my website, domains are color coded to help you see related content across grades.
2. For that domain at your grade level, look for the lesson title and/or content in the cluster descriptions and goals. (The goals that I have written are often similar to common lesson objectives.)
3. If you see a close match, you should use the lesson. If not, you might be able to skip the lesson!
4. Look at the related content at the prior grade and the next grade. If the content is required for two successive grades, pay close attention to the difference between requirements and decide what adjustments to the lesson may be needed.

Because Common Core requires fewer topics per grade, you may find that you can skip a lot of textbook lessons. This should allow time for extra activities toward the goal of getting all students to master the core content. Advanced students may have time to work independently on previously skipped lessons.