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Imagine Learning Illustrative Mathematics Success Story

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Imagine Learning Illustrative Mathematics Success Story

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Watch this short video to see how IM with Imagine Learning is positively effecting both students and teachers.

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Imagine Learning Illustrative Mathematics Success Story

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Imagine Learning has many supports embedded into the platform to support teachers in addressing student gaps.

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Jared Watson

jared.watson@imaginelearning.com

602-661-0257

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Assessments
Illustrative Mathematics offers opportunities for both formative and summative assessment that empower teachers to measure student understanding and progress against learning goals.

Data Reporting
Real-time reporting gives teachers access to actionable data. The data dashboard and display lets them track student progress.

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The beginning of each unit includes an Inspire Math Video which showcases the mathematics of the unit in a real-world, engaging context. These videos are also available in Spanish.

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This is a short interactive guide through the Imagine Learning Classroom where the effective Illustrative Mathematics curriculum is housed.

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Imagine Learning (IL) Classroom is the digital application that powers our Illustrative Mathematics program. It provides teachers with everything they need to facilitate learning and engage students.

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URL: https://jared-im.ilclassroom.com/resources/1777426-learnzillion-illustrative-mathematics-curriculum/

Login as a teacher
Username: kipp@example.com

Password: 123456

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Imagine Learning Illustrative Mathematics K-12

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IM Author Bill McCallum paints a picture of what Illustrative Mathematics will look like in your classroom.

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By William McCallum, IM CEO
Here at IM we are excited by and proud of the reception IM K-12 Math™ is getting. As more and more districts adopt it, we are thinking about how to support them. What are the next steps? Our vision of a classroom community informs this work. We picture students actively engaged with and excited by the materials, confidently persevering in solving problems and sharing their thinking. We envision the teacher leading productive and meaningful discussions that help synthesize the students' learning of rigorous grade-level content. How can we make this vision a reality in more schools?

A coherent curriculum , like IM K-12 Math™, is critical to building classroom community, but more is needed to support teachers, schools, and districts with instructional shifts that promote access and equity for all students. There should be a shared vision of what the classroom will look like, and consideration of the support teachers will need. At IM, we call our vision the IM Classroom.

What is the IM Classroom?

IM's work is anchored in the belief that all students are capable of learning grade-level mathematics. Our curriculum supports a problem-based instructional model, where students are invited to the mathematics through relevant and affirming contexts. This draws on their naturally inquisitive nature, and their experience with the world around them. Problems provide multiple access points and solution paths, making them accessible to students at different points in their learning journey.

Problem-based instruction means believing all students can solve problems on their own and giving them a chance to try. This sets them on a path to developing mathematical identities as learners who can know, use, and enjoy mathematics. When students are engaged in their learning, they develop stronger perseverance and better retention of knowledge.

Four Elements of the IM Classroom

1. Teachers use an IM Certified® curriculum. practice IM's problem-based instructional model with integrity, and believe that all of their students are capable of learning grade-level mathematics.

2. Teachers participate in IM Certified Professional Learning, and have access to implementation support.

3. School leaders and administrators understand and support the systemic changes that are necessary to change the teachers' practice.

4. Families and communities engage with and support their students' learning.

Let's take a closer look at each pillar.

Pillar 1: Implementing problem-based instruction with IM Certified curriculum

IM Classroom teachers are passionate about learning and implementing our problem-based instructional model with integrity. They make sure their students understand each problem, monitor their students' work and advance their thinking with probing questions, provide information as appropriate, and, importantly, synthesize their students' learning at the end to make sure the goals of the activity have been met.

In an IM Classroom, the curriculum is obtained from one of our IM Certified Partners or by accessing the free, open educational resource (OER) on our website. IM Certification guarantees alignment with our coherent progressions of concepts and procedures. IM certified solutions include print and online tools, such as instructional videos and digital centers and manipulatives that support teachers to meet the needs of all learners.

Pillar 2: Teachers participate in IM Certified Professional Learning

When professional learning is certified by Illustrative Mathematics, it means that high- quality curriculum-aligned content is delivered by qualified facilitators who undergo rigorous training and ongoing development. IM Certified Professional Learning provides a coherent suite of offerings, both onsite and virtual, that support teachers and leaders through initial adoption and ongoing learning.

IM Certified Professional Learning Facilitators are experts in IM K-12 Math™ and the problem-based instructional model. In the IM Classroom, teachers continue to grow in both their practice and their understanding of the curriculum. Their participation in ongoing professional learning supports these efforts.

Pillar 3: School leaders and administrators understand and support necessary changes

While teachers have a direct impact on students' learning experiences, school and district leaders play an important role in making sure teachers have the appropriate tools and resources for their students to thrive. For successful implementation of IM K-12 Math™, leaders have a deep understanding of the problem-based instructional model, pedagogical practices, and planning protocols in order to create systems of support.

The IM Classroom exists in a building where school leaders and administrators support teachers and create systemic change through coaching, collaborative planning, implementation, and long-term support. IM Certified Professional Learning offers products and services for building leaders in order to support this effort.

Pillar 4: Families and communities engage with and support student learning

Families are students' first teachers. At IM, we believe that students should be empowered to recognize and explore math in the world around them, whether they are at school, at home, or in their communities. IM curricular materials include family supports that provide an overview of each unit and interactive mathematical questions that families can ask their children as the unit progresses.

IM is also developing relationships with organizations such as Family Engagement Lab, whose (Families and Schools Talk) tool includes families as instructional partners by providing curriculum-aligned learning activities to families via text message in their home language. The IM Classroom honors caregivers as critical stakeholders, which moves everyone towards a collaborative and supportive learning experience.

What happens in an IM Classroom?

When a student enters an IM Classroom, they enter a space that will encourage participation, develop confidence, inspire collaboration, and most importantly, equip them to know, use, and enjoy mathematics. The essence of the IM Classroom is the idea that learning happens when you pay attention to all of the actors-the students, the teachers, and the mathematics (yes, mathematics is alive in the IM Classroom!)-and build an instructional model that supports the complex community that they form.

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Beyond Curriculum Adoption: A Vision of the IM Classroom - IM CERTIFIED® BLOG

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By William McCallum, IM CEO Here at IM we are excited by and proud of the reception IM K-12 Math™ is getting. As more and more districts adopt it, we are thinking about how to support them. What are the next steps? Our vision of a classroom community informs this work.

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Each unit provides a family support video which includes prior learning, vocabulary explanations, math in pictures, and an easy-to-implement activity all designed to help families and caregivers successfully support their student with math learning at home. These videos also have closed captioning in Spanish.

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SWANTON - Thanks to new curriculums, Missisquoi Valley School District is seeing gains in students' math proficiency.

In September 2022, grades 7-12 started using curriculum from Open Up Resources, and in September 2023, grades K-6 implemented programming published by Imagine Learning and written by Illustrative Mathematics.

"We're already seeing an upward trend," said Kosha Patel, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment for MVSD. She said the data shows the $123,425 investment of federal dollars and grants is already seeing returns.

In 2022, state assessment data showed 32% of MVSD students were meeting state proficiency standards in mathematics. In 2023, 41% were proficient.

MVSD-facilitated assessments conducted in fall 2023 show 52% proficiency district-wide. The most recent assessment, conducted this winter, shows 58%.

"We are really pleased with the data we have seen," Patel said. "Our hope is to continue building on this and make sure that we are continuing to maintain that growth."

Filling in the gaps

Patel started in her position in 2018. Back then, she said, math scores in the district were already low, and when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, the trend was only further exacerbated.

"​​The pandemic meant our students had lots of gaps when they came back to school," said Jennifer DeSorgher, MVU's director of teaching and learning.

The gaps were both across the board and highly personal. In 2020, for example, all students missed half a grade level, but in 2021, one student might have missed a week because they were exposed to COVID, and another might have missed a different week because they were sick.

"When you stack what everybody missed and these individual gaps together, it's a really complex problem," DeSorgher said.

Seeing that issue, Superintendent Julie Regimbal tasked Patel and the district's math coaches with finding a new math program that would bring more rigor and consistency to classrooms.

Patel and others spent an entire year conducting intensive research, which included getting staff feedback, deciding on priorities and visiting other Vermont school districts.

"[We pushed] our thinking about what is a math program," Patel said. "It's a set of materials, but the real work comes in the pedagogy. How are people using the material to actually instruct in the classroom?"

Supporting teachers and students

With that in mind, MVSD rolled out professional development for its staff alongside the new programs. Teachers spent time with representatives from Imagine Learning and Open Up Resources as well as with instructors from the Teachers Development Group.

"The research shows you have to provide two things: high quality teaching material and the professional development to help teachers build expertise around those high quality materials," Patel said.

MVSD's math coaches - Kristen Hughes, Heather Digby, Maria Jarvis and Jessica Bourbeau - are also available to help teachers work with the new program.

Pull Quote

"The research shows you have to provide two things: high quality teaching material and the professional development to help teachers build expertise around those high quality materials." -Kosha Patel, MVSD director of curriculum

While teachers were largely glad to have a new curriculum and the support needed to implement it, there were still some concerns about the change. DeSorgher said some teachers worried the more rigorous program was moving too fast, as a new lesson is scheduled for every day.

"Before, when students were struggling, teachers would respond by creating something for the next day to review the points they had just gone over, and it slowed down the pace, it watered down the rigor unintentionally," DeSorgher said.

With the new program, the pace is faster, but there are still moments for review built in; they just might be further down the line.

"We really had to ask teachers to take a leap of faith around that," DeSorgher said. "There are students who need additional support, we're always gonna have students who need additional support, but now we can think more specifically about how to support that smaller group of students instead of slowing down the whole class."

Students in MVSD who do need extra support can see a math interventionist. There are several at each of the four schools.

The new curriculum also creates more consistency and alignment in the district. Across the three elementary schools, all sixth-graders, for example, are now taught the same lessons using the same materials. That sets them up for better success in seventh-grade, when they all come together under the roof of Missisquoi Valley Union.

A load is also taken off the shoulders of teachers too. Previously, classroom teachers were creating math materials themselves, pulling from a variety of sources. Now, materials are already provided, which DeSorgher said allows teachers to spend more time and energy on rigorous instruction.

The curriculums include assessments, warm ups and games that give students opportunities to demonstrate their understanding.

New ways of thinking

First-hand, educators have seen more engagement from students this school year. The new math curriculum encourages students to solve problems by using what they already know and to value their process just as much as the answer.

This is a pivot in teaching philosophy for MVSD and has resulted in students chatting among themselves and working together.

"Our teachers were doing a great job teaching kids how to do things and then letting them go practice something," Highgate math coach Kristen Hughes said. "But this time, we're really putting the learning on the kids first and saying, 'see if we can do this' and use the teacher as a guide, as opposed to saying the teacher is the leader and you're going to do it this way."

This approach sets students up for success not only in math, but in other subjects and the real world, where being able to problem solve using your own initiative is key.

DeSorgher said another measure of success has been the increased number of students enrolled in higher level math courses at MVU.

"The numbers are steady and growing," she said. "And this year, Algebra I students will get to quadratics, which I don't think has happened in my tenure. The amount of math they are consuming is excellent."
Editor's Note: This article was updated at 12:26 p.m. Feb. 23 to correct the amount of money MVSD spent on the new math program. The amount was less than previously published. The Messenger apologizes for the error.

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Missisquoi Valley School District sees math gains with new curriculum

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SWANTON - Thanks to new curriculums, Missisquoi Valley School District is seeing gains in students' math proficiency.

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Eight Math Language Routines (MLRs) are embedded into lessons to support in both learning the English language and learning the language of mathematics.

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We are so excited to help in your journey of reviewing Illustrative Mathematics with Imagine Learning! Please use this padlet to access valuable information of various aspects of the program. As you move left to right, some sections will have vertical scrolling capability, where you can find even more valuable information. Should you have any questions, please reach out to your account executive.

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The 5 practices were designed to help teachers use

students’ responses to advance the mathematical

understanding of the class as a whole.

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There are 3 major design principles to support all learners: provide access to all, presume competence, provide a strength-based approach.

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This can be used to guide you through the digital platform, Imagine Learning Classroom or you can use the digital walk through above.

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An emphasis on collaboration can support all students seeing both themselves and their classmates as competent sensemakers and powerful mathematicians.

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Collaboration Rather Than Competition: Creating Collaborative Classrooms Through Illustrative Mathematics - IM CERTIFIED® BLOG

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By Eric Partridge, IM Certified® Facilitator I don't have many memories from elementary school. The one memory I have from elementary math is from playing Around the World. The object of this game was to answer a multiplication fact faster than your opponent. The teacher would pose a multiplication equation to a pair of students, one [...]

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Center activities are intended to give students time to practice skills and concepts that are developed across the year.

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The instructional design of the materials supports all learners through a coherent progression of the mathematics based

on the standards and research-based learning trajectories.

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Illustrative Mathematics with Imagine Learning is a dynamic, engaging instructional experience that leverages the power of high-quality curricula.

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Consider what your students need to encounter math more deeply and in collaboration with others. More heads are better than one!

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Math teachers can talk all day about math! We get super excited when we encounter someone else who enjoys these conversations as well.

But too many of our students don't get to experience that joyful discourse, which limits their understanding of and positive experiences with math.

How would our students' math learning and perception about math improve if they also had regular opportunities to talk about math? How might these opportunities help us create a world where learners know, use, and enjoy mathematics?

Let's explore the Math Language Routines, which are embedded in IM K-12 Math.

What are math language routines?

Stanford Graduate School of Education's Understanding Language and the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE) designed eight Math Language Routines (MLRs) to help teachers "amplify, assess, and develop students' language" in math class. These routines are structured, but adaptable to the content and classroom context. The routines "emphasize the use of language that is meaningful and purposeful, not inauthentic or simply answer-based . . . [and] can and should be used to support all students learning mathematics." (from Understanding Language/SCALE's Principles for the Design of Mathematics Curricula: Promoting Language and Content Development ) There are four specific design principles used to entice students to discuss the concepts and ensure that the discussions provide opportunities for students to learn something new. The Math Language Routines also provide opportunities for students to engage in the Common Core's Standards for Mathematical Practice .

As students engage in math language routines, MLRs help students to advance their thinking in the following ways:

OPTIMIZING OUTPUT as students describe their own math thinking to others orally and visually or writing as physical, graphical, pictorial, or symbolic representations.

SUPPORT SENSE-MAKING as students scaffold their thinking and amplify language so students can make their own meaning between concepts and representations.

CULTIVATE CONVERSATION by providing opportunities to simultaneously make meaning, communicate that meaning, and refine the way content understandings are communicated.

MAXIMIZE META-AWARENESS as students organize their own experiences, ideas, and learning for themselves through reflection of the experience of discussing their math ideas, reasoning, and language.

This doesn't just mean that teachers tell students to talk about math and they do. We know that if we simply open the space and tell students to talk, much of the discussion will veer off-topic. Math Language Routines help teachers create a structure in which students can bring those four design principles to life.

Let's see what opportunities each MLR provides for students to practice exploring their math thinking and the MLRs' connections to the Standards for Mathematical Practice .

MLR 1: Stronger and Clearer Each Time - Students write a response to a math problem, then verbally share their response with a partner to get feedback from the listener to improve the response, and revise their original written response based on the feedback they received.

Students learn to both listen to their own thoughts and the thoughts of another with the purpose of strengthening their "first draft" thinking. This MLR strengthens student communication of their thinking. They make their explanations clearer through repeated "reviews" and revisions, which allow them to practice giving, receiving, and applying constructive feedback, and develop listening skills. This MLR helps students communicate their mathematical reasoning with greater clarity and focus.
(This connects to Standards for Mathematical Practice 1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them, 3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others, and 6: Attend to precision. As students verbalize and review in writing the strategies they used and justification of those strategies, students have the opportunity to get feedback which can be used to critique the precision of their solution strategy and answer.)
MLR 2: Collect and Display - Students access their own and others mathematical ideas as the teacher scribes the language, strategies, and concepts students use during partner, small group, or whole-class discussions using written words, diagrams, and pictures.

By creating stable representations of student thoughts, the teacher extends the involvement of students in the math classroom. Student contributions are displayed for everyone to see. During that discussion as well as future conversations, students refer to these written ideas to improve the clarity and focus of their own communication. They can use the vocabulary, reference previous relationships between concepts, and identify new connections. This MLR helps make student thinking visible and promotes student ownership over mathematical ideas.
(Standards for Mathematical Practice 3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others, and 6: Attend to precision. As students view the thinking of their classmates from the representation, they can address any differences they see between their representation and their classmates' representation in type and kind, further pushing students to find the most efficient or precise representation to solve the problem.)
MLR 3: Critique, Correct, and Clarify - Students rewrite a math response from an example that is incorrect, incomplete, or otherwise ambiguous.

In addition to providing students with a space to further engage in math, students employ a "growth mindset" and consider revisions to their work in order to strengthen their communication. This MLR helps students "try on" others' math thinking in order to improve it.
(Standards for Mathematical Practice 3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. Similar to doing error analysis, students have the opportunity to engage with a strategy for solving that might be different from theirs in order to find ways to improve the situation representation, address and clarify misconceptions about the math, and "borrow" parts of the strategy that were relevant to add to their toolbox.)
MLR 4: Information Gap - In a group, each student has different parts of the math context and they work together to piece together that information orally and/or visually to bridge the gap between the parameters of a math situation and a question to solve a math problem.

As students work to make sense of individual pieces of information about a math context, they also identify what information they need in order to answer the math question. This creates an environment where students work together as they consider which strategies are the most efficient and what information they need to know to solve the problem. This MLR helps students explore math contexts with a purpose.
(Standards for Mathematical Practice 2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively, and 4: Model with mathematics. As students imagine the kinds of information they need to know and explain why they need to know that information, they are building an understanding of the problem and possible solutions related to the parameters of the problem and the kinds of data they need to solve for an answer.)
MLR 5: Co-Craft Questions and Problems - Students take a provided math "answer" to create a problem that could result in that answer or use a given context to create a problem that can be answered using that context.

With this MLR, students use their creativity to explore a math context as they iterate their understanding in order to identify questions that can be asked and answered by the context. As students share their understandings with others, they also uncover the importance of slowing down to explore and think before they try to answer a question, which results in students understanding the math more deeply. This MLR helps students define math contexts.
(Standards for Mathematical Practice 4: Model with mathematics. By creating their own questions and problems, students learn to visualize the parameters of the problem as they consider what kind of answers are possible with the information the problem provides.)
MLR 6: Three Reads - Students are guided to read the problem three separate times with three separate purposes with quick discussions between each read.

When students slow down to consider how they can use the information in a problem, they notice things about their understanding of the problem context and their own math understanding that they wouldn't have noticed before. Giving students a purpose to read helps to focus students to identify (1) the context of the mathematical situation, (2) relationships that exist within that context, and (3) strategies that can be used to answer the question using the problem context. This MLR helps students think metacognitively about their math problem solving.
(Standards for Mathematical Practice 1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. As students set a purpose for reading each of the three times, students practice and see the importance of understanding the problem context and using the information they know from the problem in order to identify a strategy for solving that relates directly to the problem context and available information.)
MLR 7: Compare and Connect - Students identify, compare, and contrast their own understandings with other students' mathematical approaches, representations, concepts, examples, and language.

As students encounter other's math thinking, this MLR opens the floor for students to consider how they see and talk about math. This MLR specifically helps students interact with each other's thinking.
(Standards for Mathematical Practice 4: Model with mathematics, 6: Attend to precision, and 7: Look for and make use of structure. As students compare (find differences) and connect (find similarities) between their strategy for solving and another classmate's strategy for solving, students mine their understanding of the math concept in relation to the structure and steps of another student's understanding of the math. This allows both students to attend to precision because to be understood by another, they have to be precise with their explanation.)
MLR 8: Discussion Supports - Students access strategies in multi-modal ways, like visuals, aural, animation/movement, and symbols as modes, to help students better make sense of complex language, ideas, and classroom communication.

Enhancing access to the mathematical context through these multi-modal supports helps students develop understanding while also continuing to work on their mathematical communication. This MLR helps students deepen their mathematical understandings, and find ways to communicate their understandings in different ways.
(Standards for Mathematical Practice 1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them, 3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others, 5: Use appropriate tools strategically, and 6: Attend to precision. Using discussion supports helps students to see the reasoning of others as well as identify which tools to solve are most appropriate. In using these supports, students can be successful with in-depth or multistep problems with support from teachers and classmates.)
Next Steps

Consider what your students need to encounter math more deeply and in collaboration with others. More heads are better than one!

Looking for more support for distance learning ? Check out IM's collection of resources.

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Math Language Routines: Discourse with a Purpose - IM CERTIFIED® BLOG

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Virtual centers are available in addition to tangible centers. Students are able to choose an avatar, play games against each other or the computer and receive immediate feedback.

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The instructional routines embedded within the Imagine Learning Illustrative Mathematics lessons create structures

so that all students can engage in and contribute to mathematical conversations.

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Within the Imagine Learning Classroom there are many types of virtual manipulatives that can be accessed in multiple places and in various lessons.

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A brochure with a high-level overview of the components that make up Imagine Learning Illustrative Math. Each component will be explored further on this padlet.

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Illustrative Mathematics with Imagine Learning is a dynamic, engaging instructional experience that leverages the power of high-quality curricula.

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Our IM K-12 comprehensive program is classroom ready and

enhanced with exclusive features to make instruction come alive.