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Hi Everyone - Please read and post one response about your understanding of the Big Ideas and how you would like to see us work together on building our math curriculum.

__**Beginning the Conversation The BIG Ideas of Math**__ ** Patterns ** ** Logic ** ** Geometry ** ** Fractions ** ** Probability and Statistics ** ** Measurement ** ** Number ** ** Investigating Big Ideas through everyday experiences: ** ** Investigating Big Ideas throughout the year: ** **__ Building Units of Study __** Stepping back from the math offered in TERC, or other math textbooks is important. The goal for each grade would be to take each of the Big Ideas and create a unit of study around each strand that ties into standards and benchmarks for each grade level and allows for differentiation for individual students. Take "patterns"… you could create a unit on patterns that uses resources like TERC, Marilyn Burns, other text books, and what we know about what each grade level should show as an outcome for pattern knowledge. The unit would be planned backwards - 1. what the grade level goals/objectives are for learning outcomes regarding the big idea 2. the assessment of student learning of these goals/objectives 3. the map, or course, you need to create to get to the learning outcomes 4. the timeline to get it all accomplished 5. the activities that help support the journey 6. and the resources you need to teach the lesson. (differentiation is part of the process all along, from the goals. the assessment, the map, the timeline, the activities, the resources...)
 * Morning Meeting
 * Calendar Work
 * Daily Math Review
 * Morning Message
 * Many of the TERC units can be incorporated throughout the year.
 * Measurement can be integrated during weekly cooking and Science investigations.
 * Time and Money can be part of the morning calendar work and part of interdisciplinary units.
 * Backwards Planning - Designing Curriculum for Understanding**

I will provide you with templates for each piece so we can look at one unit by the end of the year together. Many of the templates already exist on the server.

This is an organic process - this will take us a few years to complete. Using TERC as a sole resource works for now-- although it is very important to learn to create a unit that merely uses TERC pieces. ** Knowing what your grade level expectations for outcomes and becoming comfortable with each Big Id ea are first steps for now. **  The Teacher Resource Library has the beginnings of supplemental unit supports for each of the Big Ideas. TERC is one resource that seems to teach to the Big Ideas, but needs teachers to decide what is missing or is too much. IDEAL Binders for each of the Big Ideas have been created to provide a map to guide particular studies. This is a work in progress and you are encouraged to keep adding to the binders as you find exciting and new games, materials, or units that add to the existing files. The maps are not comprehensive or complete... they are merely a scaffold and you will revisit them and make changes as you create the curriculum for The IDEAL School math program. I would love to see us working throughout this and next year on filling those Big Idea binders with lessons. Making the units of study overlap with other disciplines is important. Themes and topics covered in social studies and science are natural bridges. Service Learning etc.

How many of you would like to plan a unit of math using a big idea before the end of the school year? Have any of you already created a unit this way? What are the pitfalls of this type of plannig? How can we help each other? How can we create a comprehensive resource room - full of games, lessons, activities that allow us to teach to the Big Ideas without feeling overwhelmed? __Sample First Grade Math Map__