Overview
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In mathematics, the identification of priority standards could be used to focus our attention on big ideas at each grade level. Through exploring and solving tasks that promote understanding these big ideas, students can connect the expectations to elevate their learning. Studying expectations in discrete manners or by single expectations often leaves students missing the connections to other mathematical topics resulting in stifled progress and potentially leading to learning loss.
For grades kindergarten through 8th grade, Numeracy is the overarching big idea. While much has been written and discussed about numeracy, we define numeracy to be students operating on quantities rather than operating on symbols. Learning opportunities should allow students to be flexible, moving between quantities and symbols, which should empower a stronger foundation for the transition to the study of algebraic topics.
As students continue their mathematical learning into high school level courses, numeracy extends into algebraic and geometric thinking, leading students to use mathematics to solve problems. These concepts support higher mathematical constructs by helping to develop logical thought and reasoning, envisioning mathematics and predicting, and use to model situations in a student’s world.
