Teachers support each other with Illustrative Mathematics strategies.

Educators request and share strategies for the implementation of Illustrative Mathematics curriculum.

  • “My school uses the Illustrative Math (IM) curriculum. I just found out we won’t be ordering workbooks this year. Does anyone have any experience with making the shift from using IM workbooks to not using IM workbooks? Any tips or tricks?” —Teacher in the United States
    • “Hi! I use IM and we’ve never had the workbooks. I can’t remember exactly where but you can download the lesson with the objective and room (basically the workbook) and we would print each one and have students put in their binder. We’re doing things a little different this year–one teacher is using the Building Thinking Classrooms model so we’re printing out the unit’s lessons, binding them and having a copy for each of her groups. I think I’m going to print out the objective, have them glue it to the top of their graph paper (I have them decoratively write ‘lesson 10’ at the very top) and then I teach using a variety of the slides and other activities. I teach 6th in an elementary setting so not sure how this may be helpful to you. For practice problems some teachers use the online platform but I hate it because it’s embedded in Canvas so the Canvas interface PLUS the IM interface leaves a tiny space for the kids to see the actual practice problems. I print each section in the unit’s practice poems, put a cover sheet and give the packet to each student and have answer keys at the back of the room for them to self check etc. e.g. One unit had three different sections so they had three different packets of practice problems.” —Sixth Grade Teacher
  • “New to Illustrative Math curriculum…When teaching middle school math using Illustrative Math curriculum, do you prefer students using online Desmos or printouts for students, not liking the technology? Why? I’m new to this curriculum. Thanks for any advice.” —Sixth Grade Teacher in New York
    • “Do as much as possible on paper. Desmos becomes a crutch and having tech out is a massive distraction. I love IM, but you and your team need to be sure to commit to it and trust that it really was written by experts. Do not skip around, and don’t pause to reteach stuff if they’ve not mastered it right away, they’ll have multiple opportunities as the topics build. Read the course narrative before you teach, then each unit narrative, then each lesson narrative. There’s a math story there and the more you can help kids see how it’s all connected the better it goes.” —HS Teacher in Washington state
      • “We use IM at the high school level, but I agree to use the books and avoid Desmos when possible. I typically only used Desmos when I didn’t have the physical resources necessary for the book activities (We don’t have class sets of rulers or compasses.) I agree with everything above, but I’d also add please make sure you read the anticipated responses and teaching strategies for each activity. There’s a lot of value in wrong answers with IM, but you’ll need to help the flow of the conversation.” —HS Teacher in Pennsylvania