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Open Up Resources 6–8 Math
Curriculum
Who authored the 2nd edition of Open Up Resources 6-8 Math?
Open Up Resources 6–8 Math is authored by Illustrative Mathematics. The Illustrative Mathematics team has extensive experience with materials creation based on years of providing free K–12 materials and resources.
How long are lessons?
Each lesson is designed for a 45–50 minute class period.
How many units, lessons, and activities per grade?
Each grade has 9 units comprised of 11–22 lessons. Every lesson includes 2–3 activities.
Does the curriculum include assessments?
Yes. The following assessments are included in every unit:
- Pre-unit diagnostic assessments
- Embedded formative assessments
- Practice problems
- End-of-unit summative assessments
- Student self-assessments
- Mid-unit assessments (for longer units)
How do you keep your students from accessing assessment questions and answer key?
Since our teacher materials contain student assessments and answer keys, we only grant full access to validated K–12 educators. This policy is part of our commitment to our partners and educators to do everything we can to prevent students from gaining assessment access.
Are the activities aligned to the standards?
All activities are directly aligned to standards. Each lesson is aligned by means of its activities, and the practice problems are aligned by means of the lesson. A lesson is intended to be a sequence of activities that cumulatively address the standards.
Can teachers edit the assessment?
Yes. Our curricula carry a CC BY license, which means others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon our work—including assessments—as long as they credit the authors for the original creation. Learn more about our license here.
Do you offer professional learning to support the curriculum?
We do! Support for teachers and district teams is an essential success factor. The student-centered classroom approach—for which our curriculum was designed—represents an impactful practice shift. To foster success, we offer a comprehensive suite of PL options. Learn more here.
How did you determine the sequence of the curriculum?
The order of units was chosen so that concepts can be developed in a coherent way, with a priority on covering major work of the grade as early as possible and developing skills that benefit from long-term, ongoing practice.
My district’s pacing is different than yours. Can I teach the units in a different order?
When considering a change in unit order, it’s important to consider the original flow of the curriculum as much as possible, so various components do not lose impact. For example, distributed practice, pre-unit diagnostics and end-unit assessments can still be used, but slight modifications may be necessary. Procedural fluency is built into the activities and practice problems in a progressive manner as students move through the units. Conceptual development of concepts also builds over time through a progression of units and is a consideration when choosing and ordering the units as well. We recommend consulting the Unit Dependency Chart, designed by Illustrative Mathematics, when contemplating the order of units.
Why are there units dedicated to supporting work of the grade?
The supporting work of the grade provides students with more opportunity to solidify conceptual understanding and build fluency for the major work of the grade. For example: Unit 1 in sixth grade is Area and Surface Area, which is supporting work of the grade. This unit reviews arithmetic and provides a context and application for work in Units 4 and 5, Operations and Fractions.
How does the curricula integrate the Standards for Mathematical Practice (MPs)?
At the beginning of each lesson, a narrative describes the lesson’s goals and addresses how these goals will be accomplished. A similar narrative is also included in each lesson’s subsequent activities. MPs are included in these narratives, including descriptions of how students will experience or practice them.
Can students take the test online?
While our website does not include an online testing system, the curriculum is available in Common Cartridge (LTI) format, which can be uploaded into various LMS programs that facilitate online testing.
Do you have any resources for families?
Yes! Every unit in the curriculum includes a section called Family Materials, which describes in plain language the big ideas students will encounter. These resources offer an overview of the mathematics your child is learning, detail what to expect as the learning deepens, and include questions that promote conversation around the math.
Are the materials available in multiple languages?
Yes! The second edition of Open Up Resources 6–8 Math is available in English and Spanish.
Is there a way to see a list of all the required materials for a unit other than readings through every single lesson?
The materials needed for the curriculum are listed on the site in the Teacher Guide. To find them, go to https://access.openupresources.org/curricula/our6-8math, select your grade, log in, and select “Course Guide.” Next, click the “About These Materials” option on the left and scroll up. You also might be interested in our math kits – they provide the materials so that you can spend your time planning instruction rather than gathering materials. You can find lists of the included materials here. If you’re interested in the math kits, ask for information about our pricing.
What materials are included within the program?
Our program comes complete with:
- Course Guide
- Student Materials (digital and print)
- Teacher Materials (including unit overviews, lesson plans, digital and print assessments, and embedded professional learning)
- Scope and Sequence
- Supports for English Language Learners (ELLs)
- Progression of language development
- Supports for students with disabilities
- Activity level problems for advanced learners
- Family Resources
- Accelerated Blueprint
Are Open Up Resources math curriculum core programs or supplements?
Our math programs are designed for full-course use as a core program to support an aligned, coherent progression within and across grades.
What’s different about first and second edition?
Student materials have been enhanced with the following:
- Glossary enhanced to include an image and/or example for every term.
- Enhanced user experience for Digital and Print.
- Teacher materials have been enhanced with the following:
- Every unit overview includes a table identifying when new terminology is first introduced.
- Specific progression of language development included in each unit overview and at the lesson level, allowing teachers to anticipate students’ language for mathematical purposes.
- Sentence frames are provided to support student language production by providing a structure to communicate about a topic.
- Language goals embedded in teacher learning goals describe the language demands of the lesson.
- Enhanced ELL supports to build academic language acquisition is now embedded within EVERY lesson.
- Layout AND Design transformed for an improvement in user experience on Digital and Print for both teacher and student!
- ALL materials have also been fully translated and available in Spanish.
Technology
What are the hardware/software requirements for using your curricula?
Our curricula are accessible on any device via your web browser, and we are compatible with all recent versions of Safari, Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer.
Do you integrate with any math technologies or applets (i.e., Desmos)?
We do! The digital edition of our curriculum includes GeoGebra and Desmos applets developed explicitly for our program.
Do you sync with my Learning Management System (LMS)?
There’s a good chance we do! We integrate with most major LMS systems via Common Cartridge (LTI). Let us know which LMS you’re using and we’ll discuss our integration.
Do you integrate with Microsoft OneNote?
Yes! The first edition of Open Up Resources 6–8 Math is openlyopenlyfreely available in Microsoft OneNote. Contact us for more information.
Will Common Cartridge be available?
Common Cartridge will be available in Fall 2019. Please request access here to stay up to date on our Common Cartridge release date.
Can I adapt the materials to be used with students who are visually impaired?
Yes. We can either send you the NIMAC files, or ISBN numbers of our books, so that they can be converted to become a fully-accessible textbook equivalent for students with print disabilities. Contact us for more information.