The Common Core Math Standards are broken into two parts: the Content Standards and Practice Standards, with the Content Standards detailing both procedural skills and conceptual understandings for students. With these standards, the U.S. is moving away from an approach to math education that is focused on covering a lot of topics—an approach characterized as “a mile wide and an inch deep”—to one of uncoverage, narrowing the scope of content so that students explore fewer topics, but go deeper in their study. In this course, participants will explore the content standards for the grades they teach as well as the progressions of topics across grades to understand why the standards are sequenced the way they are and how they relate to the current curriculum. Participants will read articles and watch videos to deepen their understanding of the rationale behind the Common Core standards, as well as examine model mathematics tasks that illustrate the meaning of various standards and the connections among them. Participants will connect their current practice with what is needed to implement the Common Core, leaving the course with a good understanding of what they already do—and to what extent—as well as the gaps in their practice and the coherence, depth, and fluency present in the new standards. Session outline:

Orientation: Introduction to the Course and Overview to the Standards
Session One: A Mile Deep and an Inch Wide
Session Two: What is Math Understanding?
Session Three: What Math Understanding Looks Like in the Classroom
Session Four: Measuring Conceptual Understanding
Session Five: Math Progressions
Session Six: Gap Analysis