Standards for Mathematical Practices

These activities focus on how to use the tasks to improve students’ learning and use of the Standards for Mathematical Practices (SMP). Visit the Math Tasks page to find tasks that elicit specific SMP.

The chapter below from Annual Perspectives in Mathematics Education by Janet Frost and Jackie Coomes describes how students’ proficiencies in using the mathematical practices can be supported and improved while solving a task.

Frost, J.H., & Coomes, J (2014). Increasing proficiency levels of mathematical practices, Chapter in (K.S. Karp) Annual Perspectives in Mathematics Education 2014: Using research to improve instruction. NCTM: Reston, VA.

Standards for Mathematical Practices: Classroom Posters

These posters were given out as door prizes during the workshops. Each poster describes the 8 SMP in student-friendly language, in the same words, but the posters have different pictures. We printed them 36″ by 48″.

SMP Poster_1

SMP Poster_2

SMP Poster_3

SMP Poster_4

Connecting concepts, procedures, and SMP

In this activity, a Chalk Talk is used in a large group of teachers to examine some tasks and describe the relevant concepts, procedures, and SMP, and how these are related. A PLC could use these tasks to discuss the same ideas. The tasks are included in the facilitation notes.

ConnectingConceptsProcedures&SMP(FacilitationNotes)

Standards for Mathematical Practices

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

2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively.

3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.

4. Model with mathematics.

5. Use appropriate tools strategically.

6. Attend to precision.

7. Look for and make use of structure.

8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.