Well this fairly new middle school curriculum, produced by Illustrative Mathematics, is truly free. Free lesson plans, free student materials to print or use electronically, free assessments, free slide desks (power point slides), free interactive aplets, ect. Really? Yes, really?
A few teachers in Green Hills AEA are using these materials because their district only has textbooks from 1998. I am not saying that free makes this awesome, I'm saying it's awesome that is free AND GOOD. There are some other really GOOD text series on the market if you are a good consumer of materials and have a team process to identify your district non-negotiables for teaching, learning, and assessing. Many of you don't have that support. This is a full 6-8 math curriculum with Units of study, lessons, and tests.
A few things you need to know about Illustrative Mathematics' Open Up Resources.
- Lesson structure: Class warm-up, small group and partner work on a task, individual cool down
- Warm-ups include the loved instructional routines; which one doesn't belong, think pair share, notice and wonder and number talks.
- highly researched strategies for ELL students embedded in the teacher materials.
The Green Hills math team is not our on a book tour supporting one resource. We are however, wanting you to know about high quality resources, which 1 of is free. Other resources can be found at edreports.org or on our math webpage.
