Formative assessment is the process by which teachers and students gather evidence of learning and then use this to adapt the way they teach and learn. I describe a design research project in which we integrated formative assessment strategies into lesson materials that focus on developing students' conceptual understanding and their capacity to…

While there is disagreement among mathematics educators about some aspects of its meaning, mathematical modeling generally involves taking a real-world scenario and translating it into the mathematical world (Niss, Blum, and Galbraith 2007). The complete modeling process involves describing situations posed in problems with mathematical concepts,…

The Standards for Mathematical Practice provide an excellent foundation for encouraging students to think, reason, and persevere like mathematicians. Many elementary school teachers, however, face a challenge unpacking these practices and figuring out how to implement them in their classrooms. Christine Moynihan wrote "Common Core Sense:…

Creative thinking is important to scientists and engineers as they frame their work and engage in the practices of their fields. Elementary-age children need opportunities to think about and develop an idea from its inception through to its conclusion to expand their thinking and engage in scientific processes. Generating and expanding on ideas…

Holidays and seasonal activities provide excitement and a change of pace for teachers and students alike. They also offer perfect backdrops for mathematical tasks that can be related to other topics and themes in the classroom. "Problem Solving in All Seasons, Prekindergarten-Grade 2" delivers thirty-two appealing, real-world situations,…

Although the Common Core State Standards call on parents to support professional educators' efforts for improving student academic achievement, we have yet to examine how to best support parents in achieving this goal. The present study addresses this need by examining a five-month mathematics intervention which aimed to increase awareness of the…

This article analyses the experiences of 55 secondary pre-service teachers (PSTs) in a mandated professional development course that used Halliday's systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and related pedagogical practices to support PSTs' development of disciplinary linguistic knowledge for working with linguistically diverse students in the United…

Background: This paper describes the Problem-Solving Cycle model of professional development and the Mathematics Leadership Preparation model of PD leader preparation. These models form the backbone of our current research-practice partnership project in which we are working with a large urban district to adapt these models to develop district…

This paper describes the learning trajectory for Early Equations and Expressions (EELT), one of the 18 learning trajectories presented at www.TurnOnCCMath.net, developed to interpret the Common Core Standards for Mathematics based on research on student learning. The EELT is foundational for introducing concepts of early algebra and setting the…

Experts think in patterns and structures using the specific "language" of their domains. For mathematicians, these patterns and structures are represented by numbers, symbols and their relationships (Stokes, 2014a). To determine whether elementary students in the United States could learn to think in mathematical patterns to solve…

With the adoption of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM), many teachers are changing their classroom structure from teacher-directed to student-centered. When the author began designing and using problem-based tasks she saw a drastic improvement in student engagement and problem-solving skills. The author describes the Cake…

The Common Core Standards require students to learn content and mathematical practices, and so teachers must have content knowledge and be able to engage in practices themselves. This raises the question of how novice teachers learn to engage in mathematical practices. I investigate pre-service secondary teacher learning of mathematical practices…

What if you could challenge your second graders to design an outdoor STEM classroom with a butterfly garden, birdbath, and sundial? With this volume in the "STEM Road Map Curriculum Series," you can! "Investigating Environmental Changes" outlines a journey that will steer your students toward authentic problem solving while…

The result of a three year state-led collaborative effort, the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards was developed to serve two audiences: for states to upgrade their state social studies standards and for practitioners--local school districts, schools, teachers and curriculum writers--to strengthen…

On October 14, 2013 the Mathematics Education Department at Teachers College hosted a full-day conference focused on the Common Core Standards Mathematical Modeling requirements to be implemented in September 2014 and in honor of Professor Henry Pollak's 25 years of service to the school. This article is adapted from my talk at this conference…