The Eight Standards for Mathematical Practices may seem overwhelming to teach in addition to content standards, but I have found effective ways to make the standards for mathematical practice kid-friendly and develop ways to explicitly teach and effectively use these practices in the classroom.
Why are the standards for mathematical practice important?
These standards promote perseverance and hard work among your students in working through math problems. Students learn to use various strategies, models, and tools to reason about math word problems, multi-step problems, and more complex math skills.
What are the 8 standards for mathematical practice?
Understand and Persevere
Logic and Reasoning
Justify and Critique
Model with Mathematics
Strategically Use Tools
Attend to Precision
Utilize Structure
Utilize Patterns
How can you use the eight standards for mathematical practice?
I focus on the 3 steps below to incorporate the common core state standards for mathematical practice into my classroom on a weekly basis.
Step 1: Display the standards in your classroom using language that is simple and easily understood by your students. The picture below includes a set of standards posters that I borrowed from Teacher Thrive on Teachers Pay Teachers. I use these for both my 5th and 6th grade students.
Step 2: Talk about the standards...often! Don't let these sit on your wall, taking up space, without discussing them with your students. Make it a practice for yourself to mention even just one mathematical practice standard during each math lesson.
Step 3: Have students reflect on the standards they are using. After teaching a small group, I often have students take their worksheet over to the board and chose two of the CCSS standards for mathematical practice that they think they used during the lesson. They then come back to me and describe verbally how they used that particular standard. I also will discuss a standard used as a whole class at the end of a whole group lesson. The students will talk with each other about a standard that applied to our work that day.
Beginning to use the Eight Standards for Mathematical Practices can be made simple and effective. You can take small steps today to begin sharing these standards with your students in practical ways to help improve their understanding of solving mathematical problems.
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