This blog post is a work in progress! Be sure to come back and visit in a few weeks, as I will be adding to it over time…
It can sometimes feel overwhelming when we look at all of the individual and group needs of our mathematics learners. Building readiness to learn, along with ensuring that we meet the individual needs of students might give us the impression that we need to create an individual lesson plan for each and every person in our classrooms. That sounds exhausting…
But what if we can create structures and use a variety of math instructional strategies within those structures? What if we can create diverse learning experiences that encourage mathematical thinking and growth over key concepts? This is an idea worth investigating!
Our elementary and middle years math curricula in Saskatchewan cover a number of topics, from number to patterns to shape and space and statistics. Ironically, when you look at the skills needed for students to be READY to engage in these grade-level concepts, there are only a handful of pre-skills. These pre-skills are the math concepts that are applied and used in new learning.
For example, when we are learning about adding and subtracting fractions, we need to know about:
- addition and subtraction
- multiplication and division, multiples and factors
- what a fraction is, finding equivalent fractions, improper fractions
So, how do we teach and reteach each of these key concepts in our classrooms? You can find a large number of curated resources in this Google Drive which contains folders of resources
- Number Sense and Place Value
- Addition and Subtraction
- Multiplication and Division
- Parts of a Whole – Fractions, Decimals and Percent
- Algebraic Thinking
These folders are designed to help you to teach through these continuums as well as:
- What is an instructional sequence and strategies for teaching each concept?
- What are some common misconceptions and how might we address them?
- How might we infuse technology into our mathematics instruction?
- What are some fun ways to engage in mathematics?
- How might we use math with a purpose to gain a deeper understanding of social issues?
Concept Continuums
When we look at our Saskatchewan curriculum, we can see how concepts grow over time in these math Curricular Through Lines:
- Grade K – 3 Curriculum Conceptual Through-lines
- Grade 3 – 6 Curriculum Conceptual Through-lines
- Grade 5 – 9 curriculum Conceptual Through-lines
- Grade 7 – 10 Curriculum Conceptual Through-lines
We can also pull out specific concepts and see how they grow. The following concept trajectories were created by a province-wide math leadership group a number of years ago, and show the language, strategies and concepts over time. Each continuum has four instructional strategies listed.
Terry Johanson Consulting 
Good blog post
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