Common Core State Standards for Mathematical Practice: Why they are for every teacher, not just math teachers

First in a series

This blog’s title may sound puzzling, but it’s true. If you teach any subject to any age student, the Common Core State Standards for Mathematical Practice (SMP) comprise a gold mine of teaching ideas for you.  With this blog I am beginning a series in which you and I can exchange thoughts about this very special set of 8 standards.

Are you asking how they can be so great for you if you don’t teach math? The answer lies in my use of the phrase, gold mine. As we explore these standards, some ideas will be on the surface, readily apparent to everyone reading this, no matter what you teach. Sometimes we’ll dig a little to find ideas that transfer well to any subject.

There are two groups of mathematical standards in the Common Core State Standards. One group (a) has regular standards that relate to grade level content for elementary and middle school or course/conceptual category content for high school, such as measurement and data, algebra, etc. The second group (b) is the one we are examining in this blog. 

Unlike the (a) group whose standards apply to specific grades or courses, the (b) group moves across all grade level and course boundaries from kindergarten to 12th grade and applies equally to all. Collectively, they describe the college and career ready mathematically proficient student. Specifically, they describe what this student does, i.e., how he looks when functioning mathematically.  Here is where our creativity kicks in.

As a non-math teacher, you might use these standards as springboards to creative, personalized expressions of student performance within your subject area. (If you print or post any semblance to the SMP’s anyplace, be sure to give appropriate credit by footnoting your work with something like – original source Common Core State Standards)

In this blog, we’ll look only at the first of the eight Standards for Mathematical Practice (SMP). It is quoted in full below.

1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.

Mathematically proficient students start by explaining to themselves the meaning of a problem and looking for entry points to its solution. They analyze givens, constraints, relationships, and goals. They make conjectures about the form and meaning of the solution and plan a solution pathway rather than simply jumping into a solution attempt. They consider analogous problems and try special cases and simpler forms of the original problem in order to gain insight into its solution.  They monitor and evaluate their progress and change course if necessary. Older students might, depending on the context of the problem, transform algebraic expressions or change the viewing window on their graphing calculator to get the information they need.

Mathematically proficient students can explain correspondences between equations, verbal descriptions, tables, and graphs or draw diagrams of important features and relationships, graph data, and search for regularity or trends. Younger students might rely on using concrete objects or pictures to help conceptualize and solve a problem.

Mathematically proficient students check their answers to problems using a different method, and they continually ask themselves, —Does  this make sense?— They can understand the approaches of others to solving complex problems and identify correspondences between different approaches.

http://www.corestandards.org/assets/CCSSI_Math%20Standards.pdf

I cannot think of a teacher of any subject who does not want his students to make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.

To get our creative juices flowing, I’ve copied a few phrases from SMP #1 and highlighted alternatives that might make this standard highly adaptable to your non-math students. In two cases, I just noted that original wording works for all teachers.

• ...the meaning of a problem (situation/condition)
• ...looking for entry points to its solution (analysis)
• ...analyze givens, constraints, relationships, and goals (good as is for all subject areas)
• ...change course if necessary (no word changes needed for any subject)
• ...change viewing window (change tools/tactics)
• ...check their answers to problems using a different method (monitor progress using more than one method)
• ...can understand the approaches of others to solving complex problems and identify correspondences between different approaches (good for all subject areas)

From world languages, to fine and applied arts, to science and technology, to physical education, and through all of social studies, your unique version of this standard can work for you and your students. 

How about you?  Care to write a mirror standard for your curricular specialty? Just ask yourself—if I were to present my students with a description of ideal performance, what would it say—then have fun with it. Send yours in and I’ll be happy to post it. Be sure to tell us (the Quill PD community) what subject area you have in mind. We’ll be looking at the remaining seven SMP’s in future blogs, so please restrict your ingenuity to #1.