Please note: None of the illustrations of the standards for mathematical practice are complete. What is available here is a first draft; please send us your feedback to email@illustrativemathematics.org .
The Standards for Mathematical Practice describe varieties of expertise that mathematics educators at all levels should seek to develop in their students. These practices rest on important “processes and proficiencies” with longstanding importance in mathematics education. The first of these are the NCTM process standards of problem solving, reasoning and proof, communication, representation, and connections. The second are the strands of mathematical proficiency specified in the National Research Council's report Adding It Up: adaptive reasoning, strategic competence, conceptual understanding (comprehension of mathematical concepts, operations and relations), procedural fluency (skill in carrying out procedures flexibly, accurately, efficiently and appropriately), and productive disposition (habitual inclination to see mathematics as sensible, useful, and worthwhile, coupled with a belief in diligence and one's own efficacy).
1 — Make Sense of Problems and Persevere in Solving Them
"Does this make sense?"
Mathematically proficient students start by explaining to themselves the meaning of a problem and looking for entry points to its solution. They analyze givens, constraints, relationships, and goals. They make conjectures about the form and meaning of the solution and plan a solution pathway rather than simply jumping into a solution attempt. They consider analogous problems, and try special cases and simpler forms of the original problem in order to gain insight into its solution. They monitor and evaluate their progress and change course if necessary.
Older students might, depending on the context of the problem, transform algebraic expressions or change the viewing window on their graphing calculator to get the information they need. Mathematically proficient students can explain correspondences between equations, verbal descriptions, tables, and graphs or draw diagrams of important features and relationships, graph data, and search for regularity or trends.
Younger students might rely on using concrete objects or pictures to help conceptualize and solve a problem. Mathematically proficient students check their answers to problems using a different method, and they continually ask themselves, “Does this make sense?” They can understand the approaches of others to solving complex problems and identify correspondences between different approaches.
Videos
This video shows an excerpt of a conversation between two students comparing approaches to solving a problem and trying to understand why they got different answers and where one of them made an error.
CCSS Chairs in Hall (High School) from Math Department on Vimeo.
2 — Reason Abstractly and Quantitatively
"The ability to contextualize and decontextualize."
Mathematically proficient students make sense of quantities and their relationships in problem situations. They bring two complementary abilities to bear on problems involving quantitative relationships: the ability to decontextualize—to abstract a given situation and represent it symbolically and manipulate the representing symbols as if they have a life of their own, without necessarily attending to their referents—and the ability to contextualize, to pause as needed during the manipulation process in order to probe into the referents for the symbols involved.
Quantitative reasoning entails habits of creating a coherent representation of the problem at hand; considering the units involved; attending to the meaning of quantities, not just how to compute them; and knowing and flexibly using different properties of operations and objects.
Videos
These videos show a student solving a problem using an approach that reflects the knowledge and skill described in 4.OA.3 and another student both solving the same problem but using the knowledge and skill described in 8.EE.8. In both cases, the students move fluidly between the context and the mathematics and back again.
CCSS Chickens and Pigs from Math Department on Vimeo.
CCSS Chickens and Pigs 2 (High School) from Math Department on Vimeo.
3 — Construct Viable Arguments and Critique the Reasoning of Others
"Distinguish correct logic or reasoning from that which is flawed."
Mathematically proficient students understand and use stated assumptions, definitions, and previously established results in constructing arguments. They make conjectures and build a logical progression of statements to explore the truth of their conjectures. They are able to analyze situations by breaking them into cases, and can recognize and use counterexamples. They justify their conclusions, communicate them to others, and respond to the arguments of others. They reason inductively about data, making plausible arguments that take into account the context from which the data arose.
Mathematically proficient students are also able to compare the effectiveness of two plausible arguments, distinguish correct logic or reasoning from that which is flawed, and—if there is a flaw in an argument—explain what it is. Elementary students can construct arguments using concrete referents such as objects, drawings, diagrams, and actions. Such arguments can make sense and be correct, even though they are not generalized or made formal until later grades. Later, students learn to determine domains to which an argument applies. Students at all grades can listen or read the arguments of others, decide whether they make sense, and ask useful questions to clarify or improve the arguments.
Illustrations
- 2nd Grade
- 4th Grade
- 6th Grade
- 8th Grade
- High School
4 — Model With Mathematics
"Analyze relationships mathematically."
Mathematically proficient students can apply the mathematics they know to solve problems arising in everyday life, society, and the workplace. In early grades, this might be as simple as writing an addition equation to describe a situation. In middle grades, a student might apply proportional reasoning to plan a school event or analyze a problem in the community. By high school, a student might use geometry to solve a design problem or use a function to describe how one quantity of interest depends on another.
Mathematically proficient students who can apply what they know are comfortable making assumptions and approximations to simplify a complicated situation, realizing that these may need revision later. They are able to identify important quantities in a practical situation and map their relationships using such tools as diagrams, two-way tables, graphs, flowcharts and formulas. They can analyze those relationships mathematically to draw conclusions. They routinely interpret their mathematical results in the context of the situation and reflect on whether the results make sense, possibly improving the model if it has not served its purpose.
Illustrations
In elementary school, students begin to think about how numbers and operations can describe the world. Deciding which operations apply to a particular context, and why, is an import step toward being able to do increasingly more sophisticated modeling problems in later grades: 3.OA Analyzing Word Problems Involving Multiplication
In order to model with mathematics, students need to make simplifying assumptions about a context. It is important for students to have opportunities to do this in very familiar contexts before they are asked to do the more complex task of making such assumptions (based on appropriate research) for unfamiliar or scientifically complex contexts, as they will be asked to do in high school: 7.RP Sale!
Full-blown modeling tasks require many different skills, including sifting through information and deciding what is relevant, interpreting graphs, locating information needed to solve a problem, and making simplifying assumptions. Students need opportunities to work on this skills a few at a time as well as in concert: N-Q Ice Cream Van
5 — Use Appropriate Tools Strategically
"Explore and deepen understanding of concepts using tools."
Mathematically proficient students consider the available tools when solving a mathematical problem. These tools might include pencil and paper, concrete models, a ruler, a protractor, a calculator, a spreadsheet, a computer algebra system, a statistical package, or dynamic geometry software. Proficient students are sufficiently familiar with tools appropriate for their grade or course to make sound decisions about when each of these tools might be helpful, recognizing both the insight to be gained and their limitations.
For example, mathematically proficient high school students analyze graphs of functions and solutions generated using a graphing calculator. They detect possible errors by strategically using estimation and other mathematical knowledge. When making mathematical models, they know that technology can enable them to visualize the results of varying assumptions, explore consequences, and compare predictions with data. Mathematically proficient students at various grade levels are able to identify relevant external mathematical resources, such as digital content located on a website, and use them to pose or solve problems. They are able to use technological tools to explore and deepen their understanding of concepts.
Videos
This video shows students using concrete models to solve a problem that aligns with 4.OA.3.
CCSS Hand Shake Problem from Math Department on Vimeo.
6 — Attend to Precision
"Communicate precisely."
Mathematically proficient students try to communicate precisely to others. They try to use clear definitions in discussion with others and in their own reasoning. They state the meaning of the symbols they choose, including using the equal sign consistently and appropriately. They are careful about specifying units of measure, and labeling axes to clarify the correspondence with quantities in a problem. They calculate accurately and efficiently, express numerical answers with a degree of precision appropriate for the problem context. In the elementary grades, students give carefully formulated explanations to each other. By the time they reach high school they have learned to examine claims and make explicit use of definitions.
Illustrations
- 1st Grade
- 3rd Grade
- 5th Grade
- 7th Grade
Videos
This video shows students using concrete models to solve a problem that aligns with 4.NF.3.c.
CCSS Soap -- 2 from Math Department on Vimeo.
Depictions
7 — Look For and Make Use of Structure
"Shift perspectives to discern a pattern or structure."
Mathematically proficient students look closely to discern a pattern or structure. Young students, for example, might notice that three and seven more is the same amount as seven and three more, or they may sort a collection of shapes according to how many sides the shapes have. Later, students will see $7\times8$ equals the well remembered $7\times5+7\times3$, in preparation for learning about the distributive property. In the expression $x^2 + 9x + 14$, older students can see the $14$ as $2\times7$ and the $9$ as $2 + 7$.
They recognize the significance of an existing line in a geometric figure and can use the strategy of drawing an auxiliary line for solving problems. They also can step back for an overview and shift perspective. They can see complicated things, such as some algebraic expressions, as single objects or as being composed of several objects. For example, they can see $5-3(x-y)^2$ as $5$ minus a positive number times a square and use that to realize that its value cannot be more than $5$ for any real numbers $x$ and $y$.
Illustrations
Videos
In this video students use geometric structure in different ways to solve a problem that aligns with 6.G.1.
CCSS Area of Figure -- 2 from Math Department on Vimeo.
8 — Look For and Express Regularity in Repeated Reasoning
"Maintain oversight of the process, while attending to the details."
Mathematically proficient students notice if calculations are repeated, and look both for general methods and for shortcuts. As they work to solve a problem, mathematically proficient students maintain oversight of the process, while attending to the details. They continually evaluate the reasonableness of their intermediate results.
Upper elementary students might notice when dividing $25$ by $11$ that they are repeating the same calculations over and over again, and conclude they have a repeating decimal. By paying attention to the calculation of slope as they repeatedly check whether points are on the line through $(1, 2)$ with slope $3$, middle school students might abstract the equation $(y-2)/(x-1) = 3$. Noticing the regularity in the way terms cancel when expanding $(x-1)(x+1)$, $(x-1)(x^2+x+1)$, and $(x-1)(x^3+x^2+x+1)$ might lead them to the general formula for the sum of a geometric series.
Illustrations
- 4th Grade
- 6th Grade
- 8th Grade
- High School
Videos
In this video students use geometric structure in different ways to solve a problem that aligns with 6.G.1.
CCSS 7 foot Intervals from Math Department on Vimeo.
Depictions
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