Welcome back! We hope you had an enjoyable summer and are excited to begin a new year. This newsletter helps answer common beginning-of-every-school-year questions such as "How do I create classrooms that are genuine learning communities?" and "How do I ensure that whole-class discussions are productive learning opportunities for all students?". This newsletter also answers questions specific to the beginning of this school year such as "What are the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics?" and "How will the Common Core Standards impact my school/district's use of Investigations?". You will also find information about a new professional development offering focused on using Investigations to implement the CCSS. We hope you have a successful and productive school year! 

 

Karen Economopoulos and Keith Cochran

Co-Directors of Investigations in Number, Data, and Space

 

Myriam Steinback

Director of Investigations Workshops for Transforming Mathematics

Given it's the beginning of the school year, many of you are hard at work setting up your classroom, and creating a classroom community that will support your students as mathematical learners. Setting Up Your Classroom provides support in thinking through this process.

 

The work you and your students put into creating a supportive classroom environment and community at the beginning of the year is key to making good math discussions possible. Math discussions are an essential feature of the Investigations curriculum. Discussions give students the opportunity to articulate, represent, connect and consolidate mathematical ideas. Planning for how these will happen in your classroom(s) is critical. The Investigations website offers support. Discussing Mathematical Ideas includes:

• An essay about planning for and facilitating productive whole-class mathematical discussions.
• Cases, written by Investigations teachers, about how they establish classroom norms around discussions. 
• An essay about engaging all students in whole-class discussions.

Also, keep in mind that the curriculum units themselves support teachers in facilitating productive math discussions by: recommending strategies to look for while students work; specifying key math ideas to focus on in each discussion; and offering examples of student ideas and dialogue.

 

Beginning to think about how to implement the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSS or CCSSM) in your school or district? New materials from the authors of Investigations are now available. These companion materials, entitled Investigations and the Common Core State Standards, are designed for use alongside the curriculum units (copyright 2008, 2012) at each grade.  Learn more about the new product.

  

A new section has also been added to the Investigations website. The Curriculum and the CCSS provides an essay about the Mathematical Practices, detailed correlations, information about the content to be added and omitted at each grade, and sample pages at each grade including instructional plans for one unit and one new Session.  A subsection answers common questions about the CCSS and about how Investigations relates to it.

 

For information about pricing and ordering, visit Pearson or contact your sales rep. (Use the pull down menu on the top right of any page to find your local sales rep.)   

 

 

Coming this Fall: A New Institute from the Authors of Investigations 

 

Using Investigations to Implement the Common Core  

 

This one-day institute, and several follow-up webinars, focus on how Investigations and the newly developed companion materials align with the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and support teachers as they implement the CCSS in their classrooms and schools.    

For more information about this professional development opportunity, including dates and locations, visit Investigations Workshops for Transforming Mathematics.