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Report Overview
Summary of Alignment & Usability: Desmos Math 6-8 | Math
Math 6-8
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 6-8 meet expectations for Alignment to the CCSSM. In Gateway 1, the materials meet expectations for focus and coherence. In Gateway 2, the materials meet expectations for rigor and practice-content connections. In Gateway 3, the materials meet expectations for Usability.
6th Grade
View Full ReportEdReports reviews determine if a program meets, partially meets, or does not meet expectations for alignment to college and career-ready standards. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Alignment (Gateway 1 & 2)
Materials must meet expectations for standards alignment in order to be reviewed for usability. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Usability (Gateway 3)
7th Grade
View Full ReportEdReports reviews determine if a program meets, partially meets, or does not meet expectations for alignment to college and career-ready standards. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Alignment (Gateway 1 & 2)
Materials must meet expectations for standards alignment in order to be reviewed for usability. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Usability (Gateway 3)
8th Grade
View Full ReportEdReports reviews determine if a program meets, partially meets, or does not meet expectations for alignment to college and career-ready standards. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Alignment (Gateway 1 & 2)
Materials must meet expectations for standards alignment in order to be reviewed for usability. This rating reflects the overall series average.
Usability (Gateway 3)
Report for 7th Grade
Alignment Summary
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for Alignment to the CCSSM. In Gateway 1, the materials meet expectations for focus and coherence. In Gateway 2, the materials meet expectations for rigor and practice-content connections. In Gateway 3, the materials meet expectations for Usability.
7th Grade
Alignment (Gateway 1 & 2)
Usability (Gateway 3)
Overview of Gateway 1
Focus & Coherence
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for focus and coherence. For focus, the materials assess grade-level content and provide all students extensive work with grade-level problems to meet the full intent of grade-level standards. For coherence, the materials are coherent and consistent with the CCSSM.
Gateway 1
v1.5
Criterion 1.1: Focus
Materials assess grade-level content and give all students extensive work with grade-level problems to meet the full intent of grade-level standards.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for focus as they assess grade-level content and provide all students extensive work with grade-level problems to meet the full intent of grade-level standards.
Indicator 1A
Materials assess the grade-level content and, if applicable, content from earlier grades.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for assessing grade-level content and, if applicable, content from earlier grades.
The assessments are aligned to grade-level standards and do not assess content from future grade levels. Each unit has at least one quiz and one End Assessment, which comes in Forms A and B. Quizzes and End Assessments are available in print and digital versions. Examples of assessment items aligned to grade-level standards include:
Unit 1, Quiz, Screen 9, Problem 5.1, assesses 7.G.1 as students solve problems involving scale drawings of geometric figures, including computing actual lengths and areas from a scale drawing and reproducing a scale drawing at a different scale. “Rectangle S is 3 units by 5 units. Sketch a scaled copy of rectangle S with an area of 60 square units. Label each side length of the copy.” An interactive graph where students can sketch a rectangle is included.
Unit 2, End Assessment: Form A, Screen 10, Problem 7.3, assesses 7.RP.2d as students explain what a point (x, y) on the graph of a proportional relationship means in terms of the situation. “A recipe for chocolate chip cookies uses 3 tablespoons of cookie batter for every 2 tablespoons of chocolate chips. Explain what the point (1, 1.5) means in terms of the situation.” A graph of the line representing this situation is included with the point (1, 1.5) on the line. In the previous (Problem, 7.2), students were asked to write an equation that represents this situation.
Unit 3, End Assessment: Form B, Screen 3, Problem 2, assesses 7.G.4 as students use the calculation for the area of a circle to determine accuracy. “This circle has a radius of 6 units. Three students tried to calculate the area. Order their area from least accurate to most accurate.” Students are given a picture of a circle with a radius of 6 units and answer choices: square units, square units, square units.
Unit 7, Quiz, Screen 4, Problem 3, assesses 7.G.2 as students construct triangles from three measures of sides, noticing when the conditions determine a unique triangle, more than one triangle, or no triangle. “How many non-identical triangles can be made using these side lengths: 4 cm, 8 cm, and 14 cm?” Answer choices: “zero triangles, one triangle, more than one triangle.”
Unit 8, End Assessment: Form A, Screen 10, Problem 6.2, assesses 7.SP.4 as students use measures of center and measures of variability for numerical data from random samples to draw informal comparative inferences about two populations. “Rudra is wondering, "Should I start a petition for a longer lunch and longer school day?" They survey a random sample of 20 students and find that 12 of them agree. If the school has 250 students, about how many do you predict would agree?”
Indicator 1B
Materials give all students extensive work with grade-level problems to meet the full intent of grade-level standards.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for giving all students extensive work with grade-level problems to meet the full intent of grade-level standards.
The materials provide opportunities for students to engage in extensive work and the full intent of all Grade 7 standards. Each lesson contains a Warm-up, one or more activities, an optional “Are You Ready for More?”, a Lesson Synthesis, and a Cool-Down. Each unit provides a Readiness Check and Practice Days. Readiness Checks provide insight into what knowledge and skills students already have. Practice Days provide opportunities for students to apply knowledge and skills from the unit. Examples of extensive work with grade-level problems to meet the full intent of grade-level standards include:
Unit 1, Lesson 7, Practice Problems, Screen 4, Problem 1.3, engages students with the full intent of 7.G.1 (Solve problems involving scale drawings of geometric figures, including computing actual lengths and areas from a scale drawing and reproducing a scale drawing at a different scale). Students are given a blueprint, a scale and the actual width of an object then asked to compute the scale size of that object. “The blueprint for Zahra’s new office measures 4 cm long and 2 cm wide. The scale for the blueprint is 6 cm to 15 ft. Zahra wants to put a couch in her office that is 3 feet wide. How wide would the couch be if it were drawn on the blueprint?”
Unit 2, Lesson 4, Practice Problems, Screen 4, Problem 2.1, engages students with the full intent of 7.RP.2b (Identify the constant of proportionality (unit rate) in tables, graphs, equations, diagrams, and verbal descriptions of proportional relationships). “A plane flew at a constant speed between Denver and Chicago. It took the plane 1.5 hours to fly 915 miles. Complete the table.” Students complete a table labeled time and distance. The time part of the table is hours and goes from 1 to t, while the distance only has 915 labeled on it.
Unit 5, Lesson 4, Student Worksheet, Problem 1, engages students with the full intent of 7.NS.1c (Understand subtraction of rational numbers as adding the additive inverse, p - q = p + (-q). Show that the distance between two rational numbers on the number line is the absolute value of their difference, and apply this principle in real-world contexts). Students use a number line to explain a strategy. “Renata drew a number line diagram to help her think about Problems 3 and 4 from the warm up. Explain how you think Renata drew each number line.” Students are given two number lines and two expressions. One expression is and the other expression is . Below each expression is a number line diagram Renata drew based on the expression. Students then explain Renata’s strategy.
Unit 6, Lesson 16, Screen 8, Help Chloe, engages students with the full intent of 7.EE.4b (Solve word problems leading to inequalities of the form or , where p, q, and r are specific rational numbers. Graph the solution set of the inequality and interpret it in the context of the problem). Students work with inequalities to convince someone that their response is not correct. “Chloe is solving the inequality . Chloe says the solutions to the inequality are . Convince her that her response is not correct.”
While students engage with 7.RP.1 (Compute unit rates associated with ratios of fractions, including ratios of lengths, areas and other quantities measured in like or different units), there are limited opportunities for students to engage with fractions to meet the full intent of grade-level standards.
Criterion 1.2: Coherence
Each grade’s materials are coherent and consistent with the Standards.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for coherence. The materials: address the major clusters of the grade, have supporting content connected to major work, make connections between clusters and domains, and have content from prior and future grades connected to grade-level work.
Indicator 1C
When implemented as designed, the majority of the materials address the major clusters of each grade.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations that, when implemented as designed, the majority of the materials address the major clusters of each grade.
To determine the amount of time spent on major work, the number of topics, the number of lessons, and the number of days were examined. Practice and assessment days are included. Any lesson marked optional was excluded.
The approximate number of units devoted to major work of the grade (including supporting work connected to the major work) is 5 out of 8, which is 63%.
The approximate number of lessons devoted to major work (including assessments and supporting work connected to the major work) is 90 out of 122, which is approximately 74%.
The approximate number of days devoted to major work of the grade (including supporting work connected to the major work) is 93 out of 127, which is approximately 73%.
A day-level analysis is most representative of the instructional materials because this contains all lessons including those that are more than one day. As a result, approximately 73% of the instructional materials focus on major work of the grade.
Indicator 1D
Supporting content enhances focus and coherence simultaneously by engaging students in the major work of the grade.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations that supporting content enhances focus and coherence simultaneously by engaging students in the major work of the grade.
In most cases, materials are designed so supporting standards/clusters are connected to the major standards/clusters of the grade. Examples of connections include:
Unit 1, Lesson 3, Screen 8, Settle a Dispute, connects the supporting work of 7.G.1 (Solve problems involving scale drawings of geometric figures, including computing actual lengths and areas from a scale drawing and reproducing a scale drawing at a different scale) to the major work of 7.RP.2 (Recognize and represent proportional relationships between quantities). “Here is one student’s sketch. Sasha thinks the student used a scale factor of 2. Randy thinks the student used a scale factor of 1.5. Who is correct?” Students are given a drawing of two trapezoids of different sizes, one labeled “Original” and the other “Student’s Sketch.” Answer choices: Sasha, Randy, Both or Neither.
Unit 3, Lesson 7, Screens 2 and 3, Circle Area and Radius vs. Area, connects the supporting work of 7.G.4 (Know the formulas for the area and circumference of a circle and use them to solve problems; give an informal derivation of the relationship between the circumference and area of a circle)to the major work of 7.RP.2 (Recognize and represent proportional relationships between quantities). “The graph shows some of the areas your classmates gathered. Do you think there is a proportional relationship between the radius and the area of a circle?” On Screen 2, students are given a tool allowing them to collapse or expand a circle. As students manipulate the circle the radius of the circle is given in units. “Drag the point to make a circle. Then determine the area of your circle.” On Screen 3, students are provided a graph with five points already plotted, the x-axis is labeled “Radius (units)”, and the y-axis is labeled “Area (sq.units)”.
Unit 7, Lesson 4, Practice Problems, Screens 5 and 6, Problem 3.1 and 3.2, connects the supporting work of 7.G.5 (Use facts about supplementary, complementary, vertical, and adjacent angles in a multi-step problem to write and solve simple equations for an unknown angle in a figure) to major work of 7.EE.4 (Use variables to represent quantities in a real-world or mathematical problem, and construct simple equations and inequalities to solve problems by reasoning about the quantities). Screen 5, “Write an equation that represents the angle relationships in this diagram.” The diagram shows a straight angle that is divided into four angles. One angle is labeled . The other three are each labeled . Screen 6, “Solve your equation.”
Unit 8, Lesson 3, Screen 10, Cool-Down, connects the supporting work of 7.SP.2 (Use data from a random sample to draw inferences about a population with an unknown characteristic of interest. Generate multiple samples (or simulated samples) of the same size to gauge the variation in estimates or predictions) to the major work of 7.RP.A (Analyze proportional relationships and use them to solve real-world and mathematical problems). “A new mystery bag has 5 blocks. Some are red and some are blue. The table shows outcomes from a repeated experiment. Based on these results, how many blocks are red?”
Indicator 1E
Materials include problems and activities that serve to connect two or more clusters in a domain or two or more domains in a grade.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for including problems and activities that serve to connect two or more clusters in a domain or two or more domains in a grade.
There are multiple connections between major clusters and/or domains and supporting clusters and/or domains. Any connections not made between clusters and/or domains are mathematically reasonable. Connections between major clusters or domains include:
Unit 4, Lesson 5, Screen 5, Calculate #2, connects the major work of 7.RP.A (Analyze proportional relationships and use them to solve real-world and mathematical problems) to the major work of 7.EE.A (Use properties of operations to generate equivalent expressions). “Each new rectangle is 21% longer than the original. Complete the table with the length of each new rectangle.” Students are given three tape diagrams; 120cm, 50cm and 150cm indicating they are the original 100%. Each diagram indicates an additional 21% has been added.
Unit 5, Lesson 5, Screen 3, Puzzle #2, connects the major work of 7.NS.A (Apply and extend previous understandings of operations with fractions) to the major work of 7.EE.B (Solve real-life and mathematical problems using numerical and algebraic expressions and equations). “Make true equations by dragging and flipping the cards. Try to use as few flips as possible.” Students are provided an equation tool with the following equations: an unknown plus 5 is equal to an unknown, and an unknown subtracted from an unknown is equal to 9. The original card choices are: 1, 2, 3, 4, -5, -6, -7 and -8. All cards can be flipped from positive to negative and vice versa.
Unit 6, Practice Day 1, Student Worksheet, Problem 5, connects the major work of 7.EE.B (Solve real-life and mathematical problems using numerical and algebraic expressions and equations) to the major work of 7.NS.A (Apply and extend previous understandings of operations with fractions). The materials tasks the students with solving the following equation, .
Connections between supporting clusters or domains include:
Unit 1, Practice Day 1, Task Cards, Fix It!, Problem 2, connects the supporting work of 7.G.A (Draw construct, and describe geometrical figures and describe the relationships between them) to the supporting work of 7.G.B (Solve real-life and mathematical problems involving angle measure, area, surface area, and volume). “Mayra created a scaled copy of figure C using a scale factor of 2. They said, “Figure C has an area of 28 square units, so the scaled copy must have an area of 56 square units.” Convince Mayra that the area of the scaled copy is not 56 square units. Ready for More? Use any strategy to calculate the area of Mayra’s scaled copy.” Students are given a diagram of figure C drawn on a grid.
Unit 8, Lesson 13, Screen 12, Cool-Down, connects the supporting work of 7.SP.A (Use random sampling to draw inferences about a population) to the supporting work of 7.SP.B (Draw informal comparative inferences about two populations). “Omari wants to know the median height of all 200 students in his dance school. He sampled 20 students on three different days and recorded their heights. Predict the median height for all students. Explain how accurate you think your prediction is for all the students at Omari's dance school.” Students are provided a diagram with three box plots, each one representing the heights of the students recorded on the different days.
Indicator 1F
Content from future grades is identified and related to grade-level work, and materials relate grade-level concepts explicitly to prior knowledge from earlier grades.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations that content from future grades is identified and related to grade-level work, and materials relate grade-level concepts explicitly to prior knowledge from earlier grades.
Content from future grades is identified and related to grade-level work. These references can be found within many of the Unit Summaries, Unit Facilitation Guides, and/or Lesson Summaries. Examples of connections to future grades include:
Unit 2, Unit Facilitation Guide, Section 3: Proportional Relationships in Graphs (Lessons 8-10), connects 7.RP.A (Analyze proportional relationships and use them to solve real-world and mathematical problems) to the work of 8th grade. “Students explore graphs of proportional relationships and use graphs to determine constants of proportionality. This work supports students with the study of slope in Grade 8.”
Unit 4, Lesson 13, Summary, About This Lesson, connects 7.NS.A (Apply and extend previous understandings of operations with fractions) to the work of 8th grade. “Students convert fractions to decimals using long division. This builds on their understanding of using decimals in equations to represent percent increase and decrease. The skills that students build in this lesson lay the foundation for a series of lessons on rational and irrational numbers in Math 8.”
Materials relate grade-level concepts from Grade 7 explicitly to prior knowledge from earlier grades. These references can be found within many of the Unit Summaries, Unit Facilitation Guides, and/or Lesson Summaries. Examples of connections to prior knowledge include:
Unit 5, Unit Facilitation Guide, Connections to Prior Learning, connects 7.NS.1 (Apply and extend previous understandings of addition and subtraction to add and subtract rational numbers; represent addition and subtraction on a horizontal or vertical number line diagram) to work in 6th grade. “The following concepts from previous grades may support students in meeting grade-level standards in this unit: Using positive and negative numbers to represent quantities in real-world contexts. (6.NS.C.5), Plotting positive and negative numbers on a number line. (6.NS.C.6)”
Unit 7, Lesson 11, Summary, About This Lesson, connects 7.G.B (Solve real-life and mathematical problems involving angle measure, area, surface area, and volume) to work in 6th grade. “In this lesson, students extend the work they did in Lesson 10 to calculate the volume of more complicated prisms. Students use a variety of strategies to determine the areas of complicated bases, including decomposing into more familiar shapes or surrounding and subtracting (MP 7). Students developed these strategies in Grade 6 and revisited them in Grade 7, Unit 3.”
Indicator 1G
In order to foster coherence between grades, materials can be completed within a regular school year with little to no modification.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 foster coherence between grades and can be completed within a regular school year with little to no modification.
There are a total of 158 instructional days within the materials.
The first lesson in unit 1 is an optional, “Getting to Know Each Other” lesson that “is intended to help you get to know your students and for them to get to know each other”.
There are 8 units with 102 standard-based required lessons (10 lessons are optional), with six lessons taking two days. Most lessons are designed to take 45 minutes. Lessons are divided into: Warm-ups (5 minutes), Activities (30 minutes), Lesson Synthesis (5 minutes), Cool-Down and Reflections (5 minutes).
All units have two practice days (three practice days are optional).
There are 25 days dedicated to assessment. Each unit has an optional Readiness Check, one quiz per unit (unit 5 has two), and one end assessment which comes in two forms (Form A and B). According to the publisher quizzes and end assessments, “... may take less than a full class period. Consider using the additional time to review early student thinking in previous work or allow students to make corrections to previous assessments.”
Each unit also has an optional Reflection and Synthesis, which if implemented will add an additional day per unit.
Overview of Gateway 2
Rigor & the Mathematical Practices
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for rigor and balance and practice-content connections. The materials reflect the balances in the Standards and help students develop conceptual understanding, procedural skill and fluency, and application. The materials make meaningful connections between the Standards for Mathematical Content and the Standards for Mathematical Practice (MPs).
Gateway 2
v1.5
Criterion 2.1: Rigor and Balance
Materials reflect the balances in the Standards and help students meet the Standards’ rigorous expectations, by giving appropriate attention to: developing students’ conceptual understanding; procedural skill and fluency; and engaging applications.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for rigor. The materials develop conceptual understanding of key mathematical concepts, give attention throughout the year to procedural skill and fluency, spend sufficient time working with engaging applications of mathematics, and do not always treat the three aspects of rigor together or separately.
Indicator 2A
Materials develop conceptual understanding of key mathematical concepts, especially where called for in specific content standards or cluster headings.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for developing conceptual understanding of key mathematical concepts, especially where called for in specific content standards or cluster headings.
In the Curriculum Guide, Courses, Conceptual Understanding, “Lessons develop students’ conceptual understanding by inviting them into familiar or accessible contexts and asking them for their own ideas before presenting more formal mathematics.” The materials include problems and questions that allow for students to develop conceptual understanding throughout the grade level. Examples include:
Unit 2, Lesson 2, Screen 4, Two Strategies, students analyze proportional relationships in a real world setting to complete a table of values (7.RP.A). “Here are two different strategies for finding the number of balloons for the rubber duck. Discuss how Ariel and Emma would use their strategies to finish their tables.” Two tables are provided, one shows Ariel’s strategy and one shows Emma’s strategy.
Unit 5, Lesson 2, Screen 6, Settle a Dispute, students use a vertical number line to apply and extend previous understandings of addition and subtraction to add and subtract rational numbers (7.NS.1). “Marc and Naoki are trying to evaluate . Marc says, ‘This is like adding 2 anchors, so the submarine goes DOWN to 1.’ Naoki claims, ‘This is like removing 2 anchors, so the submarine goes UP to 5.’ Who is correct?” Choices include: Marc (1), Naoki (5), Both, or Neither. An image of a submarine in water with a vertical number line next to it is provided. The submarine is placed at three on the number line. There is a point at five on the number line labeled Naoki and a point at one labeled Marc.
Unit 8, Lesson 3, Screen 3, Update Your Prediction, students analyze a simulation to predict the contents of a mystery bag (7.SP.6). “The graph shows the results from 200 picks. Use these results to decide how many of the 10 blocks you think are green.”
The materials provide opportunities for students to independently demonstrate conceptual understanding throughout the grade level. Examples include:
Unit 4, Quiz, Screen 4, Problem 3, students use proportional reasoning to solve multistep ratio and percent problems (7.RP.3). “To make a certain shade of paint, Anya mixed cups of white paint with cups of blue paint. How many cups of blue paint should she mix with cups of white paint to make the same shade?”
Unit 6, Lesson 2, Screen 9, Which Restaurant?, students use a bar diagram to solve real-world problems with equations (7.EE.B). On previous screens students selected tape diagrams to determine how much Raven and her three siblings can spend on a meal if they have $44. One restaurant charges a $3 service fee for each meal, and another charges a $6 service fee for their order. “Here are diagrams that represent the situations on the previous screens. Figure out the value of x and y in the diagrams. Enter your values in the table below. Explain to a neighbor what your values say about which restaurant the siblings should choose.” Two tape diagrams are provided. The tape diagram labeled Burrito Express has four equal boxes labeled x and a box labeled six. The entire tape diagram is labeled 44. The tape diagram labeled Salads-R-Us has four equal boxes labeled . The entire tape diagram is labeled 44.
Unit 7, Lesson 5, Practice Problems, Screen 3, Problem 2, students construct triangles from three measures of angles or sides and determine the conditions of a unique triangle, more than one triangle, or no triangle, as they determine a possible third length of a triangle given two side lengths (7.G.2). “One side of a triangle is 5.5 inches long. Another is 10.5 inches long. Which of the following could be the length of the third side? Select all that apply.” Answer choices include: 3 inches, 5 inches, 7 inches, 10 inches, 12 inches, and 20 inches.
Indicator 2B
Materials give attention throughout the year to individual standards that set an expectation for procedural skill and fluency.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for giving attention throughout the year to individual standards that set an expectation of procedural skill and fluency.
In the Curriculum Guide, Courses, Procedural Fluency, ”In order to transfer skills, students should be able to solve problems with accuracy and flexibility. Several structures in the Desmos Curriculum support procedural fluency: repeated challenges, where students engage in a series of challenges on the same topic, challenge creators, where students challenge themselves and their classmates to a question they create, and paper practice days that use social structures to reinforce skills before assessments.”
Materials develop procedural skills and fluency throughout the grade level. Examples include:
Unit 3, Lesson 3, Screen 6, From Radius to Circumference, students develop procedural skill and fluency using the formula for circumference of a circle to solve problems (7.G.4). “The radius of this circle is 7 centimeters. What is its approximate circumference?” A picture of a circle with radius of 7 cm labeled.
Unit 5, Lesson 6, Screen 12, Cool-Down, students develop fluency in multiplying rational numbers (7.NS.2). “Determine the value of each expression.” Choices include: , , .
Unit 6, Lesson 13, Screen 9, Write an Inequality, students construct a simple inequality by reasoning about the quantities (7.EE.4). “Write an inequality that represents this graph.” Students are given a number line with an open circle on 19 with a line heading to the right.
The materials provide opportunities for students to independently demonstrate procedural skills and fluency throughout the grade level. Examples include:
Unit 1, Lesson 2, Practice Problems, Screen 3, Problem 1.2, students solve problems involving scale drawings of geometric figures (7.G.1). “For each scaled copy, write the scale factor from triangle T to that triangle. If the triangle is not a scaled copy, leave it blank.” The screen contains a triangle T with side lengths 3, 4, and 5. There are 6 other triangles labeled A through F with their side lengths labeled. There is a table with two columns, Triangle and Scale Factor, for the student to enter work.
Unit 4, Quiz, Screen 2, Problem 1, students use proportional relationships to solve multi step percent problems (7.RP.3). “The value of a car decreases over time. This year, Faaria’s car is worth $22,000. If the value of Faaria’s car decreases by 8%, what will her car be worth next year?” Students are given choices ranging from $4,400 to $23,760.
Unit 8, Lesson 7, Screen 5-6, 3-Day Vacay and Make a Simulation, students design and use a simulation to generate frequencies for compound events (7.SP.8). Students are given a display which shows the percent chance for rain over the period of three days. Screen 5, “Ivan is planning a 3-day vacation. Here is the forecast at his destination. What do you think is the probability that it will rain at least once during these 3 days? Drag the slider to show your guess.” The slider ranges from 0% to 100%. Screen 6, “Ivan wants to design a simulation to estimate the probability of rain during his vacation. Add blocks to each bag to match the probability of rain on each day.” An interactive is provided with Fri 25%, Sat 25% and Sun 40%. Under each forecast is a bag and blocks representing rain and sunshine.
Indicator 2C
Materials are designed so that teachers and students spend sufficient time working with engaging applications of the mathematics.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for being designed so that teachers and students spend sufficient time working with engaging applications of mathematics.
In the Curriculum Guide, Courses, Application, students “have opportunities to apply what they have learned to new mathematical or real-world contexts. Concepts are often introduced in context and most units end by inviting students to apply their learning…” Materials include multiple routine and non-routine applications of mathematics throughout the grade level. Examples include:
Unit 2, Lesson 9, Screen 6, Better Mileage, students explain what point (x, y) on the graph of a proportional relationship means in terms of the situation (7.RP.2d). “Kaya wants to buy a new vehicle that gets better gas mileage than her truck. Which vehicle should she pick?” A graph is provided with Maximum Distance (miles) on the y-axis and Gas (gallons) on the x-axis. There is a line labeled “Truck,”and a point labeled “Vehicle A”, and a point labeled “Vehicle B”, on the graph. Students click on either Vehicle A or B and explain their thinking on why they would buy that vehicle.
Unit 5, Lesson 10, Screen 2, Greater than Zero, students use their knowledge of rational numbers to make the given inequality true (7.NS.1). “Make a true inequality by dragging the cards. Then press Check My Work.” Students are given the inequality [ ]([ ][ ] + [ ]) > 0 and the card choices are: -1, 2, 3, -4, -5, 6, 7, -8.
Unit 7, Lesson 13, Screen 8, Are You Ready for More, students solve real-world problems involving volume, and surface area of right prisms (7.G.6). “On paper, complete the following tasks: 1. Sketch a container that can hold 120 cubic units of popcorn while using as little paper as possible. 2. Label your container's dimensions. Then calculate the amount of paper it uses.” A graphic is provided of a popcorn container in a right prism with height (h) , width (w), and length (l). Students have the option of unfolding the container.
Materials provide opportunities for students to independently demonstrate multiple routine and non-routine applications of mathematics throughout the grade level. Examples include:
Unit 4, Lesson 3, Screen 6, Sheets of Stickers, students compute unit rates with ratios of fractions (7.RP.1). “Cho is considering buying stickers by the sheet. Four sheets cost 14. How much would sheets cost?”
Unit 5, Lesson 8, Practice Problems, Screen 5, Problem 3.2, students apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication and division of fractions to multiply and divide rational numbers (7.NS.2). “A machine that drills holes for wells drilled to a depth of -72 feet in one day (24 hours). If the machine drilled at a constant rate, what was the depth after 15 hours?”
Unit 6, Lesson 3, Screen 11, Lesson Synthesis, students use variables to represent quantities in a real-world or mathematical problem (7.EE.4). “Explain how the number 9 is important in each representation. In the story… In the equation… In the tape diagram…” Students are given the following three cards: Story - Jaylin buys 3 bags of bagels. The store gives her 5 bagels for free, making it 32 bagels total. Equation . Tape Diagram - Students are given a tape diagram divided into four pieces, the three pieces labeled x are of equal size the last piece is labeled 5. All pieces together must equal 32.
Unit 8, Lesson 11, Screen 7, Write a Headline, students use the data from a sampling method to make generalizations about a population in the form of a headline (7.SP.1). “Pick a sampling method below and use the sample to write a headline about how much time Americans spend with their friends per day.” Students are given the following sampling methods to choose from: “Ask 10 students in one high school classroom”, “Ask 10 random people at a nursing home”, and “Dial 10 random phone numbers and ask whoever answers.” Clicking on each sampling method generates a different Mean and dot plot.
Indicator 2D
The three aspects of rigor are not always treated together and are not always treated separately. There is a balance of the three aspects of rigor within the grade.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations in that the three aspects of rigor are not always treated together and are not always treated separately. There is a balance of the three aspects of rigor within the grade.
All three aspects of rigor are present independently throughout Grade 7. Examples where instructional materials attend to conceptual understanding, procedural skill and fluency, or application include:
Unit 2, Lesson 5, Screen 9, Lesson Synthesis, students demonstrate conceptual understanding as they explain what they know about proportional relationships by creating their own situation given an equation (7.RP.2). “Make up a situation that could be represented by the equation . Be sure to explain what r, 10, and p represent in your situation.”
Unit 5, Quiz 1, Screen 4, Problem 3.1, students develop procedural skill and fluency while understanding subtraction of rational numbers as the additive inverse (7.NS.1c). “Determine the value of the variable that makes the equation true. .”
Unit 8, Lesson 5, Screen 8, 100 Rolls, students approximate the probability of a chance event be running the simulation and collecting data (7.SP.6). “Roll the number cube as many times as you want. What do you think is the probability that Player 1 wins?” Students are able to roll a number cube 100 times by pressing the “Roll 100 Times” button, the results are recorded in a chart. Player 1 wins if an even number is rolled, and Player 2 wins if an odd number is rolled.
Multiple aspects of rigor are engaged simultaneously to develop students’ mathematical understanding of a single unit of study throughout the materials. Examples include:
Unit 3, Practice Day 2, Student Workspace Sheet, Problems 1-5, engage students in conceptual understanding, procedural skill and fluency, and application as they use the formulas for the area and circumference of a circle to solve real-world problems (7.G.4 & 7.G.6). Students solve a real-world problem (application) related to circumference and area of circles. Students must demonstrate conceptual understanding by determining which questions refer to circumference and area and then sort the questions from smallest measurement to largest. At the end of the activity students must calculate the circumference and area of a circle using their estimates. Problems 1-5 tasks students with the following: “1. Sort the cards into two groups based on whether you would use the circumference or the area of a circle to answer the question. Record your answers below. 2. Sort the cards in each group from smallest measurement to largest. Record your answers below. 3. Select one circumference card and one area card to examine more closely. What information do you need? Estimates for this information: 4. Use your estimates to calculate an answer to your circumference question. 5. Use your estimates to calculate the answer to your area question.”
Unit 4, Lesson 6, Student Worksheet, Activity 2: Sea Green Turtle, students build conceptual understanding and application as they use proportional relationships to solve multi step percent problems (7.RP.3). “Some beaches where green sea turtles come ashore to lay eggs have been made protected sanctuaries so the eggs will not be disturbed. This year, there were 234 nesting turtles at a sanctuary. That number is a 10% decrease compared to last year. Create each representation to show how many nesting turtles were at the sanctuary last year. How many nesting turtles were at the sanctuary last year?” Students are asked to create a double number line, a table, and an equation.
Unit 5, Practice Day 1, Task Cards, Task 2: Cafeteria Food Debt, Problems 1 and 2, students engage in procedural skill and fluency alongside application as they solve a real-world problem involving addition and subtraction of rational numbers (7.NS.1d). “At the beginning of the month, Emika had $24 in her school cafeteria account. The table below shows how her account balance changed over the course of three weeks. 1. Complete the table for weeks 2-3. 2. How much would Emika have to deposit into the account during week 4 so that the final balance is positive?” A table is included with the columns: Week, Beginning Balance ($), Final Balance ($), Expression for Difference Between Final and Beginning, and Change ($). The row labeled Week 1 is complete. In row 2, students are given the beginning and final balances and must write the expression and calculate the change. In row 3, students are given the beginning balance and the change, and must write the expression and final balance.
Unit 6, Lesson 17, Student Worksheet, Activity 1: Orange Juice and Donuts, Problems 1-3 engage students in conceptual understanding, procedural skill and fluency, and application as they solve word problems leading to inequalities of the form or , where p, q, and r are specific rational numbers and interpret the solution in the context of the problem (7.EE.4b). “Kiandra wants to surprise some friends before school with orange juice and donuts. At the store, an orange juice costs $2.15 and a donut costs $0.75 . There is no sales tax. The store has a $10 purchase minimum for credit cards. Kiandra used her credit card to pay. How many friends might she have bought treats for? 1. Write an inequality that describes Kiandra’s situation. 2. Solve the inequality you wrote. 3. What does the solution to your inequality mean in this situation?”
Criterion 2.2: Math Practices
Materials meaningfully connect the Standards for Mathematical Content and Standards for Mathematical Practice (MPs).
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for practice-content connections. The materials meaningfully connect the Standards for Mathematical Content and the Standards for Mathematical Practice (MPs).
Indicator 2E
Materials support the intentional development of MP1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them; and MP2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively, for students, in connection to the grade-level content standards, as expected by the mathematical practice standards.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for supporting the intentional development of MP1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them; and MP2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively, for students, in connection to the grade-level content standards, as expected by the mathematical practice standards.
The MPs are explicitly identified for teachers in the Math 7 Lessons and Standards section found in the Math 7 Overview. MP1 is identified and connected to grade-level content, and intentionally developed to meet its full intent. Students make sense of problems and persevere in solving them as they work with support of the teacher and independently throughout the units. Examples include:
Unit 1, Lesson 10, Student Worksheet, Activity 1: Measure Your Classroom, students plan a solution pathway to solve a problem involving scale drawings. “With your team, on blank paper: 1. Write a plan for how you will gather, record, and check your measurements. 2. Sketch the outline of your classroom and any permanent objects. Include all measurements.” Activity Facilitation, “Display Sheet 2 of the Teacher Projection Sheets to the class and review the image as an example of what they will produce as a team in Activity 1. Consider reading each question for teams to consider aloud and discussing any questions that might be unclear. Next, invite students to work together to make a plan for creating their rough sketch and gathering the measurements they need (MP1). Follow with a brief whole-class discussion to hear strategies groups have incorporated into their plans.” Students make sense of the problem as they work together to make a plan for creating the group rough sketches, and gathering measurements.
Unit 5, Lesson 5, Screen 2, Puzzle #1, students use perseverance and creativity to solve a puzzle involving adding and subtracting signed numbers (MP1). “Make a true equation by dragging and flipping the cards. Try to use as few flips as possible. Then press ‘Check my Work.’” Students are provided an equation tool with the equation, an unknown plus an unknown is equal to an unknown subtracted from an unknown. The original card choices are: 1, 2, 3, 4, -5, -6, -7 and -8. All cards can be flipped from positive to negative and vice versa.
Unit 6, Lesson 12, Student Worksheet, Activity 1: Three Reads, students solve multi-step equations. “Kyrie is making ___ invitations to their school’s Community Day. They have already made ___ invitations, and they want to finish the rest of them within a week. Kyrie plans to spread out the remaining work so that they can make the same number of invitations each day.” Students answer: “1. With a partner, discuss what this situation is about. 2. Draw a tape or hanger diagram to represent this situation. 3. Given these values, adjust your diagram. Then use your diagram to figure out how many invitations Kyrie should make each day.” Students make sense of the verbal descriptions of situations.
Unit 8, Lesson 10, Screen 7, See Some Samples, students use a slider to examine the relationship between the sample mean and population mean. “1. Drag the point to collect crabs and see the mean width for the sample. 2. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using a large sample.” Students make sense of the relationship between the sample mean and the population mean as they think about the advantages and disadvantages of using a large sample, as well as the role of randomness in sampling.
MP2 is identified and connected to grade-level content, and intentionally developed to meet its full intent. Students reason abstractly and quantitatively as they work with support of the teacher and independently throughout the units. Examples include:
Unit 1, Lesson 7, Student Worksheet, Activity 1, Will it Fit?, students use the measurements of a scale drawing to calculate the actual dimensions of a figure. “Here is the scale drawing that Karima presented to her neighborhood park’s board of directors. 1. The scale for Karima’s drawing is 2 cm to 5 m. Explain what this means in your own words. 2. Will Karima’s court fit in the 20-by-20-meter square area the park directors designated for the court? Use your measuring tools and the table below to help you with your thinking. Round each measurement to the nearest tenth of a centimeter. Explain how you know whether or not the court will fit.” Students find the scale and actual measurements of the Length of the Court, the Width of the Court, the Hoop to 3-pt Line, and the 3-pt. Line to the Side Line. Students reason abstractly and quantitatively as they find the measurement of the scale drawing and convert to the dimensions of the actual court.
Unit 2, Lesson 5, Screen 4, Cake Calculations, students represent a proportional relationship symbolically with an equation. “A cake recipe says to use 3 cups of flour for every 2 cakes. Write a proportional equation to calculate the amount of flour needed, f, for any number of cakes, c.”
Unit 5, Lesson 7, Screen 6, What It Means, students connect the concepts of rate, time, and position. Students are given a picture of a turtle on a number line and scaled by 10s with the interval -30 ft to 30 ft and -3.2 minutes in a white box. “One student wrote the following equation to determine Tam's position on the previous screen: . Explain what each number represents in the scenario. -5 represents…, -3.2 represents…, 16 represents…” Teacher Moves, “The purpose of this discussion is to connect rate, time, and position with numerical expressions and equations, and to explain why the product of two negative values is positive (MP2).”
Unit 8, Lesson 5, Screen 4, Keeping Track of Heads, students read and interpret graphs of probabilities. Students are shown a video in which a coin is flipped, then the “Fraction of Heads (So Far)” is graphed along with the “Number of Flips.” Students answer: “1. What does the point mean? 2. How might a graph help you determine if a coin is fair?”
Indicator 2F
Materials support the intentional development of MP3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others, for students, in connection to the grade-level content standards, as expected by the mathematical practice standards.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for supporting the intentional development of MP3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others, for students, in connection to the grade-level content standards, as expected by the mathematical practice standards.
The MPs are explicitly identified for teachers in the Math 7 Lessons and Standards section found in the Math 7 Overview. Students engage with MP3 in connection to grade-level content, as they work with support of the teacher and independently throughout the units. Examples include:
Unit 1, Lesson 2, Screen 6, Anushka's Robot, students explain the relationship between lengths in a figure and corresponding lengths in a scaled copy. “Anushka built a robot and made a copy that is not a scaled copy. Explain Anushka's strategy. What advice would you give Anushka to help her make her new robot a scaled copy?” Students are given an image with two robots, one with dimensions labeled 3, 4, 1 and the other labeled with dimensions 9, 10, 1. Teacher Moves, “Consider asking students how they know the two figures are not scaled copies. If it does not come up naturally, consider mentioning that the angles of the two figures are different. Give students 2–3 minutes to inspect Anushka’s robot and record their responses. Encourage students to read others’ responses and/or discuss their response with a partner and decide if others' strategies were similar to or different from their own. If time permits, consider using the snapshots tool or dashboard's teacher view to display several student suggestions for different ways to make a scaled copy. Routine (optional): Consider using the routine Critique, Correct, Clarify to help students communicate about errors and ambiguities in math ideas and language.” Students engage with MP3 as they explain/justify their strategies and thinking orally or in writing using concrete models, drawings, actions, or numbers.
Unit 2, Lesson 12, Student Worksheet, Cool-Down, students use proportional relationships to analyze a problem about water usage. “Marshall wants to buy a kitchen faucet. Faucet A fills a 4-gallon water jug in 1 minute. Faucet B fills a 1-gallon water jug in 20 seconds. Which faucet uses less water? Explain your thinking.” Students engage with MP3 as they explain/justify their strategies and thinking orally or in writing using concrete models, drawings, actions, or numbers.
Unit 4, Lesson 4, Screen 4, It’s All About the Money, students create different strategies to determine 10% less than 15. “In order to make more money, DesWorst Granola bars are now 10% shorter. If the original bar was 15 centimeters long, how long is the new granola bar? Use paper if it helps you with your thinking.” Teacher Move, “While students are working, monitor for different expressions students use and select them using the snapshots tool. When most students have completed this screen, facilitate a whole-class discussion. Ask students to justify their strategy and critique each other’s reasoning (MP3).”
Unit 6, Lesson 8, Student Worksheet, Activity 2: Step by Step by Step by Step, students critique the reasoning of others as they apply properties of operations as strategies to add, subtract, factor, and expand linear expressions with rational coefficients. “Here is an equation and the first steps that Sadia and Amir wrote to solve it.” The worksheet shows two students’ first step in solving the equation . “1. Are each of their first steps correct? Explain your reasoning.”
Indicator 2G
Materials support the intentional development of MP4: Model with mathematics; and MP5: Use appropriate tools strategically, for students, in connection to the grade-level content standards, as expected by the mathematical practice standards.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for supporting the intentional development of MP4: Model with mathematics; and MP5: Choose tools strategically, for students, in connection to the grade-level content standards, as expected by the mathematical practice standards.
The MPs are explicitly identified for teachers in the Math 7 Lessons and Standards section found in the Math 7 Overview.There is intentional development of MP4 to meet its full intent in connection to grade-level content. Examples include:
Unit 4, Lesson 9, Student Worksheet, Activity 2: What’s Fair?, Problem 2, students model a real-world situation, involving multistep ratio and percent problems, with an appropriate expression and use it to solve the problem and interpret the results. In Activity 1, students are presented with information about four servers who work in four different restaurants. It tells how many hours they work, how many tables they serve in a typical week, the average bill at the restaurant, and the percentage tip they typically earn. Activity 2: What’s Fair?, Problem 2, “Consider these three approaches to paying servers that we have seen so far: A. Servers get paid $2.13 per hour, plus tips. B. Servers get paid $7.25 per hour, plus tips. C. Servers get paid $15 per hour, with no tips. Invent and describe a system to determine a server’s pay that you think is fairer than the ones above. Calculate what each of the four people would earn under your system.” This activity attends to the full intent of MP4, model with mathematics.
Unit 6, Lesson 17, Lesson Guide, Warm-Up, provides guidance for teachers to engage students in MP4 as they solve word problems leading to inequalities. Teacher Projection Sheets, Warm-Up, “Jamal volunteers to hand out sandwiches to people who are hungry in his community. He raised $85 and i s trying to figure out how many sandwiches he can purchase for $6.25 each. He writes the inequality . Then he solves the inequality and gets . Select all the statements that are true about this situation. A. He can order 13.6 sandwiches. B. He can order 14 sandwiches. C. He can order 12 sandwiches. D. He can order 9.5 sandwiches. E. He can order – 4 sandwiches.”Lesson Guide, “Facilitation: Display Sheet 1 of the Teacher Projection Sheets. Consider reading the story aloud as a class and asking students what connections they make to the story. Ask them what the variable x represents in Jamal’s inequality. Then give students one minute to think quietly and another minute to share their reasoning about which statements are true with a partner.” This activity intentionally develops MP4, model with mathematics.
Unit 8, Lesson 7, Screen 1, Warm-up, students apply what they have learned about probability tools and repeated experiments to simulate multi-step real-world events. “Aniyah saw this forecast for the weekend's weather. What do you think is the probability that it will rain at least once this weekend? 1. Drag the slider to show your guess. 2. Explain your thinking” Students are given two images depicting weather with one labled SAT (40%) and SUN (60%). This activity attends to MP4, model with mathematics.
There is intentional development of MP5 to meet its full intent in connection to grade-level content. Examples include:
Unit 4, Lesson 3, Screen 5, Cho’s Logo, Teacher Moves, provides guidance for teachers to engage students in MP5 as they consider the effectiveness of different tools as they determine unknown values in proportional relationships. “Early Finishers: Encourage students who finish Screens 2–5 early to use different tool and to determine which tool is more effective for this problem and why. (MP5).”
Unit 6, Lesson 3, Screen 2, Baking Cookies, Teacher Moves, provides guidance for teachers to engage students in MP5 by allowing students to consider the available tools when solving a mathematical problem. “Activity 1 Purpose: On Screens 2–5, students use equations and tape diagrams to make sense of a situation. Students answer a question about a situation involving baking cookies using any representation (MP5).”
Unit 8, Lesson 2, Screen 7, How Many, Teacher Moves, provides guidance for teachers to engage students in MP5 as they show their familiarity with tools appropriate for their grade or course to make sound decisions about when each of these tools might be helpful. Students experiment with how to organize their thinking about a complex sample space. “Facilitation: …While students are working, monitor for students who use drawings, organized lists, or other tools to help them determine the size of the sample space (MP5).”
Indicator 2H
Materials attend to the intentional development of MP6: Attend to precision; and attend to the specialized language of mathematics for students, in connection to the grade-level content standards, as expected by the mathematical practice standards.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for supporting the intentional development of MP6: Attend to precision; and attend to the specialized language of mathematics, for students, in connection to the grade-level content standards, as expected by the mathematical practice standards.
The MPs are explicitly identified for teachers in the Math 7 Lessons and Standards section found in the Math 7 Overview. Students have many opportunities to attend to precision in connection to grade-level content as they work with support of the teacher and independently throughout the modules. Examples include:
Unit 1, Lesson 10, Student Worksheet, Activity 3: Creating Your Scaled Drawing, Problem 6, students select a unit of measure and scale to create a drawing. “On graph paper, make an accurate scale drawing using your chosen scale.” Teacher guidance, “Remind students that unlike their sketch, these scale drawings should be drawn with precision to scale.” This problem attends to MP6 as students attend to the precision of mathematics as they create a scaled drawing accurately.
Unit 8, Lesson 2, Screen 4, Prob-bear-bility, students use a randomizer to understand sample space to determined the probability of an event. “1. Here is a randomizer. Press “Spin” to get a random creature. 2. Drag the point to show how likely you think it is to get a bear on one spin.” Students are given a number line with a range from zero to one, zero being impossible and one being certain. It is also labeled at the mark. Students attend to precision as they understand that the probability of a chance event is a number between 0 and 1.
Students have frequent opportunities to attend to the specialized language of math in connection to grade-level content as they work with support of the teacher and independently throughout the modules. Examples include:
Unit 2, Lesson 2, Screen 6, Proportional Relationships, “When two quantities are always in an equivalent ratio, it is called a proportional relationship. Which of these two tables represents the proportional relationship between weight and balloons? Explain your thinking.” The screen contains two tables with the data for weight (oz.) and number of balloons. Students attend to the specialized language of mathematics as they use the term proportional relationship and apply their understanding to recognize proportional relationships between quantities.
Unit 3, Lesson 2, Screen 6, Madison’s Circles, “Madison made a drawing using circles. Describe her drawing as precisely as you can so that someone who can't see her drawing could recreate it. Use the sketch tool if it helps you with your thinking.” Students are given an image of four circles inscribed in one another on the coordinate plane. Teacher facilaton suggests, “The purpose of this discussion is to support students in attending to precision in their language when describing circles (MP6). Use the mathematical language routine Critique, Correct, Clarify to support students in attending to precision in their language. If it does not come up naturally, consider introducing the word center.” This activity attends to MP6 as students attend to the specialized language of mathematics as they describe properties of circles. Students begin to use precise terminology to describe the parts of a circle.
Unit 7, Lesson 2, Screen 3, Complementary and Supplementary, “The terms complementary and supplementary describe special pairs of angles. Describe what you think these terms mean.” The screen contains pictures of examples of complementary and supplementary angles. Students attend to the specialized language of math and develop an understanding of supplementary and complementary angles.
Indicator 2I
Materials support the intentional development of MP7: Look for and make use of structure; and MP8: Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning, for students, in connection to the grade-level content standards, as expected by the mathematical practice standards.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for supporting the intentional development of MP7: Look for and make use of structure; and MP8: Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning, for students, in connection to grade-level content standards, as expected by the mathematical practice standards.
The MPs are explicitly identified for teachers in the Math 7 Lessons and Standards section found in the Math 7 Overview. MP7 is identified and connected to grade-level content, and there is intentional development of the MP to meet its full intent. Students have many opportunities throughout the modules to look for, describe, and make use of patterns within problem-solving as they work with support of the teacher and independently. Examples include:
Unit 2, Lesson 7, Screen 3, Are They Proportional?, “Here are the equations from the worksheet. Select all the equations that represent a proportional relationship. Then explain one way to decide if an equation represents a proportional relationship.” The screen contains 4 equations: , , , . Students look for and use structure to generalize types of equations that do and do not represent proportional relationships.
Unit 5, Lesson 4, Student Worksheet, Activity 2: Draw Your Own Conclusion, Problem 3, “Select one of these statements. Explain whether it is always, sometimes, or never true. Use examples and number line diagrams to support your explanation.” There are 3 statements: Statement D: is the opposite of , Statement E: is less than , Statement F: is greater than . Students look for and use structure to reason about whether expressions involving integer operations with variables are always, sometimes, or never true.
Unit 7, Lesson 11, Screen 10, Lesson Synthesis,“Here are several prisms you’ve seen in this lesson. Describe a general strategy for determining the volume of any prism.” The screen shows images of three different prisms. Students look for patterns or structures to make generalizations about determining the volume of prisms.
MP8 is identified and connected to grade level content, and there is intentional development of the MP to meet its full intent. Students have multiple opportunities throughout the materials, with support of the teacher or during independent practice, to use repeated reasoning in order to make generalizations and build a deeper understanding of grade-level math concepts. Examples include:
Unit 1, Lesson 5, Screen 5, Scaling Rectangles, “Here is a rectangle and a scaled copy. The area of the original rectangle is 8 square units. What is the area of the scaled copy?” Students use repeated reasoning to explain why it is that when a figure is scaled by a scale factor, the area is not scaled by the same amount.
Unit 4, Lesson 3, Screen 2, Different Sizes, “Here's a logo that Aditi is making into stickers. Enter the missing values so that the logo looks the same on each sticker. Then describe your strategy.” Students are given an image with four stickers. Two stickers have the length and width labeled. The other stickers have only the length or width labeled, and students must use repeated reasoning to find the other. This activity attends to the full intent of MP8, look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning as students notice repeated calculations to understand algorithms and make generalizations or create shortcuts.
Unit 8, Lesson 4, Screen 5, Your Turn, “1. Spin Amari and Nathan’s spinner as many times as you want. 2. Discuss what is happening to the fraction of red spins as you add more spins.” Students are given a spinner and a graph to work, while they approximate the probability of how many red spins vs blue spins. This activity attends to the full intent of MP8, use repeated reasoning as students approximate the probability of a chance event by collecting data.
Overview of Gateway 3
Usability
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for Usability. The materials meet expectations for Criterion 1, Teacher Supports, Criterion 2, Assessment, and Criterion 3, Student Supports.
Gateway 3
v1.5
Criterion 3.1: Teacher Supports
The program includes opportunities for teachers to effectively plan and utilize materials with integrity and to further develop their own understanding of the content.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for Teacher Supports. The materials: provide teacher guidance with useful annotations and suggestions for enacting the materials, contain adult-level explanations and examples of the more complex grade-level concepts beyond the current grade so that teachers can improve their own knowledge of the subject, include standards correlation information that explains the role of the standards in the context of the overall series, provide explanations of the instructional approaches of the program and identification of the research-based strategies, and provide a comprehensive list of supplies needed to support instructional activities.
Indicator 3A
Materials provide teacher guidance with useful annotations and suggestions for how to enact the student materials and ancillary materials, with specific attention to engaging students in order to guide their mathematical development.
The materials reviewed fo Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for providing teacher guidance with useful annotations and suggestions for how to enact the student materials and ancillary materials, with specific attention to engaging students in order to guide their mathematical development.
Materials provide comprehensive guidance that will assist teachers in presenting the student and ancillary materials. Each unit contains a Unit Overview with a summary of the unit, vocabulary list, materials needed, and Common Core State Standards taught throughout the unit. Each Unit Overview page, also includes paper resources such as the Unit Facilitation Guide, Overview Video Guided Notes, and Guidance for Remote Learning to assist teachers in presenting. An example is included below:
Unit 1, Unit Overview, “Section 1: Scaled Copies (Lessons 1-5 + (Practice Day + Quiz) Describe how scaling affects lengths, angles, and areas in scaled copies. Use scale factors to create and compare scaled copies. Section 2: Scale Drawings (Lessons 6–10 + Practice Day) Represent distances in the real world using scales and scale drawings.“
Materials include sufficient and useful annotations and suggestions that are presented within the context of the specific learning objectives. The Curriculum Guide, Lesson Guides and Teacher Tips, describe support for facilitation throughout the program. The materials state, “Each lesson includes support for facilitation, which can be found in different places on the lesson page. The Summary is an overview of the lesson and includes the length and the goals of each activity. The Teacher Guide is a downloadable PDF that accompanies every digital lesson. It includes screenshots of each screen as well as teacher tips, sample responses, and student supports. The Lesson Guide is a downloadable PDF that accompanies every paper lesson. It includes preparation details and materials for the lesson, as well as tips for purposeful facilitation of each activity. Teacher tips are suggestions for facilitation to support great classroom conversations. These include:
Teacher Moves: Suggestions for pacing, facilitation moves, discussion questions, examples of early student thinking, and ideas for early finishers, as well as opportunities to build and develop the math community in your classroom.
Sample Responses: One or more examples of a possible student response to the problem.
Student Supports: Facilitation suggestions to support students with disabilities and multilingual students.”
Examples include:
Unit 3, Lesson 3, Summary, the materials state, “About This Lesson The purpose of this lesson is for students to make sense of the relationship between the diameter of a circle and its circumference. By the end of the lesson, students should be able to both describe and use this relationship to calculate unknown measurements.” Lesson Summary, “Warm-Up (5 minutes) The purpose of the warm-up is for students to learn the term circumference and connect it to what they already know about perimeter. The warm-up asks students to estimate the circumference of a circle that has been unrolled into a straight line. Activity 1: Gathering Data (15 minutes) The purpose of this activity is for students to recognize that the relationship between diameter and circumference of a circle is proportional. Students use different methods to physically measure the circumference of round objects and then analyze their class's data to determine if the relationship is proportional or not. Students will learn what the constant of proportionality of this relationship is in. Activity 2. Note: Students need access to several different round objects for this activity. Activity 2: Constant of Proportionality (15 minutes) The purpose of this activity is for students to discover that the number is the constant of proportionality for the relationship they analyzed in Activity 1. They then use this relationship to calculate the radius, diameter, or circumference of several different circles. This activity includes a focus on using different approximations for , such as 3.14 and . Lesson Synthesis (5 minutes) The purpose of the synthesis is to surface how students used the relationships between the radius, diameter, and circumference of a circle to calculate missing measurements. Cool-Down (5 minutes)”
Unit 6, Lesson 4, Seeing Structure, Lesson Guide, Activity 2: Write Your Own, the materials state, “Purpose: Students use the features of a situation to write their own question, then determine a solution and write an equation. Students also write their own situations. Facilitation: Consider starting this activity by asking students what they remember about how to write good questions or what they think makes a good question at the end of a situation. This builds on the work students did writing questions in Unit 4, Lesson 12. Then give students 5–10 minutes to write and answer questions for Problems 1–2. Consider consulting with pairs about their solutions to Problems 1 and 2 before they begin the ‘Are You Ready for More?’ problem. Progress Check: This is a great place to check students’ progress writing equations from situations. Offer individual support where needed, or lead a whole-class discussion if enough students are struggling. Support for Multilingual Learners Receptive/Expressive Language: Processing Time Students who benefit from extra processing time would also be aided by reading each situation aloud, either in pairs or as a class.”
Unit 7, Lesson 6, Screen 10, Different Polygons, the materials state, “Here are four quadrilaterals that Lukas made with side lengths 3, 3, 5 and 5 units. Describe why it is possible for Lukas to create quadrilaterals that are not identical copies.”Teacher Moves, “This is a possible discussion screen.Facilitation: When students have responded, facilitate a brief discussion about why triangles with all the same side lengths are identical, but the same is not true for quadrilaterals. Consider asking questions like: Which quadrilateral was most like the one you sketched? Why do you think what we observed with triangles isn’t true for quadrilaterals? Question to push students’ thinking: Do you think there are other polygons with the same special property as triangles (that if all their side lengths are the same, then they are identical copies)?”
Indicator 3B
Materials contain adult-level explanations and examples of the more complex grade-level/course-level concepts and concepts beyond the current course so that teachers can improve their own knowledge of the subject.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for containing adult-level explanations and examples of the more complex grade-level concepts and concepts beyond the current course so that teachers can improve their own knowledge of the subject.
The Unit Overview Video is “A short video explaining the key ideas of each unit, including how the unit fits in students’ progression of learning.” The video is intended for teachers, and contains adult-level explanations and examples of the more complex grade-level concepts via the “Big Ideas'' portion of the video. The examples that the presenters explain during the “Big Idea” portion of the overview video comes directly from lessons in the unit.
All Unit Overview Videos end with an explanation and example from later grades. The presenters show an example problem from beyond the course and explain how the problem on the screen connects to the “Big Ideas” of the current unit. For example:
Unit 5, Unit Overview, Unit Overview Video, the presenter talks about the work that students are doing now will lay the foundation for the work in “Later Grades”, when students work with rational and irrational numbers and square roots and cube roots. On the screen is a “Hit the Target #1” problem from beyond the current course, the presenter explains the problem is about asking students to enter a fraction so they can get as close as they can to the . Additionally, the presenter explains that the goal is to realize that students can get closer and closer, but can negative reach after this screen they give a formal definition of irrational numbers.
The Unit Facilitation Guide contains a section called “Connections to Future Learning,” which includes adult-level explanations and examples of the more complex grade-level concepts and concepts beyond the current course. For example:
Unit 1, Unit Facilitation Guide, Connections to Future Learning, “Similarity and Dilations (8.G.A.3, 8.G.A.4) In this unit, students use scale factors to create and compare scaled copies. In Math 8, Unit 2, students will apply this to understand similar figures, which are scaled copies of one another. Figures are similar if one can fit exactly over the other after rigid transformations (translations, rotations, reflections) and dilations. Dilations are a transformation in which each point on a figure moves along a line and changes its distance from a fixed point (called the center of dilation). Each distance is multiplied by the same scale factor. In this example, each point in 𝐴𝐵'𝐶'𝐷' is twice as far from the center of dilation (𝐴) as it is in 𝐴𝐵𝐶𝐷. The scale factor from figure 𝐴𝐵𝐶𝐷 to figure 𝐴𝐵'𝐶'𝐷' is 2, and 𝐴𝐵𝐶𝐷 is similar to 𝐴𝐵'𝐶'𝐷'.“ An graph of the original figure before and after the dilation is provided.
Indicator 3C
Materials include standards correlation information that explains the role of the standards in the context of the overall series.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for including standards correlation information that explains the role of the standards in the context of the overall series.
The Math 7 Overview, contains the Math Grade 7 Lessons and Standards document which includes the following:
Standards Addressed by Lesson - This is organized by unit and lesson. It lists the standards and Mathematical Practices (MPs) addressed in each lesson.
Lessons by Standard - This is organized by Common Core State Standards for Mathematics grouped by domains and indicates which lesson(s) addresses the standard. It also lists each MP and indicates which lessons attend to that MP.
The Curriculum Guide, Units, Unit Resources, states: “Each unit contains a Unit Overview page that includes resources to support different stakeholders. On each Unit Overview Page, you will find the following:”
Unit Facilitation Guide: “A guide to support teachers as they plan and implement a unit. It includes information about how the unit builds on prior learning and informs future learning, as well as big ideas, lessons by standard, and key math practice standards. There is a brief summary of the purpose of each lesson along with other information that may be helpful for planning.”
Unit Overview Video: “A short video explaining the key ideas of each unit, including how the unit fits in students’ progression of learning.” However, standards are not explicitly identified in the video.
Examples from the Unit Facilitation Guide includes:
Unit 2, Unit Facilitation Guide, Connections to Prior Learning, states, “The following concepts from previous grades may support students in meeting grade-level standards in this unit: Understanding and using ratio and rate language in a variety of contexts. (6.RP.A.1 , 6.RP.A.2) Finding equivalent ratios using a scale factor. (6.RP.A.2 , 6.RP.A.3) Finding unit rates in context. (6.RP.A.3.b and 6.RP.A.2) Given one value of a ratio, use the unit rate to find the other. (6.RP.A.3.b) Representing equivalent ratios in a table. (6.RP.A.1 , 6.RP.A.3.a) Graphing points in the coordinate plane. (6.RP.A.3.a)”
Unit 7, Unit Facilitation Guide, Connections to Prior Learning, states, “The following concepts from previous grades may support students in meeting grade-level standards in this unit: Describing and estimating angle measures. (4.G.A.1 , 4.MD.C.5, 4.MD.C.6) Calculating the area of triangles and non-rectangular quadrilaterals. (6.G.A.1) Calculating the surface area and volume of right rectangular prisms. (6.G.A.2 , 6.G.A.4)”
The Curriculum Guide, Lessons, Standards in Desmos Lessons, “A standard often takes weeks, months, or years to achieve, in many cases building on work in prior grade levels.
Standards marked as “building on” are those being used as a bridge to the idea students are currently exploring, including both standards from prior grade levels or earlier in the same grade.
Standards marked as “addressing” are focused on mastering grade-level work. The same standard may be marked as “addressing” for several lessons and units as students deepen their conceptual understanding and procedural fluency.
Standards marked as “building towards” are those from future lessons or grade levels that this lesson is building the foundation for. Students are not expected to meet the expectations of these standards at that moment.”
For example:
Unit 6, Lesson 2, Lesson Overview Page, Learning Goals, “Interpret a tape diagram that represents a relationship in context. Use a tape diagram to determine an unknown value in context.” Common Core State Standards: Building On: 6.EE.B.5, Addressing: 7.EE.B.3, MP.2, MP.3, Building Towards: 7.EE.B.4
Indicator 3D
Materials provide strategies for informing all stakeholders, including students, parents, or caregivers about the program and suggestions for how they can help support student progress and achievement.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 materials provide strategies for informing all stakeholders including students, parents, or caregivers about the program and suggestions for how they can help support student progress and achievement.
Located in the Math 7 Overview, there is a Family Introduction Letter which introduces the curriculum and what families can expect for their student during the year. The Family Introduction Letter states,
“Here is what you can expect for your student this year:
A blend of learning on paper and with technology.
Standards-aligned lessons that help students express their brilliance.
Feedback that shows students what their ideas mean without judgment and encourages perseverance and revision.
Resources within each lesson to meet the needs of diverse learners.
A Family Resource for each unit that includes explanations of key math concepts and problems to try with your student. “
Each unit has a Family Resource that provides an overview of prior learning, learning in the current unit, and future learning. Key concepts are outlined for families. There is also a “Try This at Home” section consisting of practice problems and an answer key for families to check their work.
For example:
Unit 4, Unit Overview, Family Resource, families are given explanations of each key concept contained in the unit, along with examples of those concepts. Under “Percentages as Proportional Relationships”, families are given the following explanations: “This unit continues the study of proportional relationships, now incorporating fractional quantities and percentages. A 4-by-6 photograph can be scaled and printed to be many different sizes. In this example, each value in the second column is times the length of the value in the first column. Increasing or decreasing an original amount by a percentage is another example of a proportional relationship. The original amount is always represented by 100% or 1. Three runners training for a race agree that they will each run 10% further next week than they ran this week. Each value in the second column is 10% greater than the value in the first column. The constant of proportionality is 1.10. This is an example of a percentage increase.” There are explanations covering the rest of the key concepts in this unit, such as applying percentages.
Both the Family Introduction Letter and Family Resource are available in English and Spanish.
Indicator 3E
Materials provide explanations of the instructional approaches of the program and identification of the research-based strategies.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for providing explanations of the instructional approaches of the program and identification of the research-based strategies.
Instructional approaches of the program and identification of the research-based strategies can be found in the Curriculum Guide, Courses, Our Philosophy. The materials state the following, “Every student is brilliant, but not every student feels brilliant in math class, particularly students from historically excluded communities. Research shows that students who believe they have brilliant ideas to add to the math classroom learn more Our aim (which links to Desmos Equity Principles) is for students to see themselves and their classmates as having powerful mathematical ideas. In the words of the NRC report Adding It Up, we want students to develop a ‘productive disposition-[the] habitual inclination to see mathematics as sensible, useful, and worthwhile, coupled with a belief in diligence and one’s own efficacy. Our curriculum is designed with students’ ideas at its center. We pose problems that invite a variety of approaches before formalizing them. This is based on the idea that ‘students learn mathematics as a result of solving problems. Mathematical ideas are the outcomes of the problem-solving experience rather than the elements that must be taught before problem solving. Students take an active role (individually, in pairs, and in groups) in developing their own ideas first and then synthesize as a class. The curriculum utilizes both the dynamic and interactive nature of computers and the flexible and creative nature of paper to invite, celebrate, and develop students’ ideas. Digital lessons incorporate interpretive feedback to show students the meaning of their own thinking and offer opportunities for students to learn from each other’s responses. Paper lessons often include movement around the classroom or other social features to support students in seeing each other’s brilliant ideas. This problem-based approach invites teachers to take a critical role. As facilitators, teachers anticipate strategies students may use, monitor those strategies, select and sequence students’ ideas, and orchestrate productive discussions to help students make connections between their ideas and others’ ideas. This approach to teaching and learning is supported by the teacher dashboard and conversation toolkit (both are linked).”
Works Cited include:
Uttal, D. H. (1997). Beliefs about genetic influences on mathematics achievement: A cross-cultural comparison. Genetica, 99(2–3), 165–172. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02259520
National Research Council. (2001). Adding It Up: Helping Children Learn Mathematics. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. doi.org/10.17226/9822
Hiebert, J., Carpenter, T. P., Fennema, E., Fuson, K., Human, P., Murray, H., Olivier, A., & Wearne, D. (1996). Problem solving as a basis for reform in curriculum and instruction: The case of mathematics. Educational Researcher, 25(4), 12–21. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x025004012
Okita, S. Y., & Schwartz, D. L. (2013). Learning by teaching human pupils and teachable agents: The importance of recursive feedback. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 22(3), 375–412. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2013.807263
Chase, C., Chin, D.B., Oppezzo, M., Schwartz, D.L. (2009). Teachable agents and the protégé effect: Increasing the effort towards learning. Journal of Science Education and Technology 18, 334–352. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-009-9180-4.
Smith, M.S., & Stein, M.K. (2018). 5 practices for orchestrating productive mathematics discussions (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications.
Research is also referenced under the Curriculum Guide, Instructional Routines, when the materials says, “Some of the instructional routines, known as Mathematical Language Routines (MLR), were developed by the Stanford University UL/SCALE team.” There is a link embedded to read the research.
Indicator 3F
Materials provide a comprehensive list of supplies needed to support instructional activities.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for providing a comprehensive list of supplies needed to support instructional activities.
The Math 7 Overview, Math 7 Year-At-A-Glance document, includes a list of frequently used materials throughout the year as well as lesson-specific materials. Each unit contains a Unit Overview which provides a list of materials that will be used for that particular unit. Additionally, materials that are needed for a lesson will be listed on the lesson page directly under the learning goals. Examples include:
In Math 7 Year-At-A-Glance, Frequently Used Materials include: Blank paper, Graph paper, Four-function or scientific calculators*, Geometry toolkits**, Measuring tools (rulers, yardsticks, meter sticks, or tape measures), Scissors, Tools for creating a visual display, *Students can use handheld calculators or access free calculators on their devices at desmos.com, **Geometry toolkits consist of tracing paper, graph paper, colored pencils, scissors, a ruler, a protractor, and an index card to use as a straightedge or to mark right angles.
In Math 7 Year-At-A-Glance, Lesson-Specific Materials include: 7.1.06: Centimeter rulers, 7.2.12: 1-gallon bucket or jug, 7.3.03: Circular objects (e.g., empty toilet paper rolls), 7.7.08: Compasses, 7.8.01: Coins (e.g., a penny and a nickel); standard number cubes; a bag, bowl, or cup; paper clips; card stock, 7.8.05: Penny, standard number cube.
Indicator 3G
This is not an assessed indicator in Mathematics.
Indicator 3H
This is not an assessed indicator in Mathematics.
Criterion 3.2: Assessment
The program includes a system of assessments identifying how materials provide tools, guidance, and support for teachers to collect, interpret, and act on data about student progress towards the standards.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for Assessment. The materials indicate which standards are assessed and include an assessment system that provides multiple opportunities throughout the courses to determine students' learning and sufficient guidance to teachers for interpreting student performance and suggestions for follow-up. The materials also provide assessments that include opportunities for students to demonstrate the full intent of course-level standards and practices.
Indicator 3I
Assessment information is included in the materials to indicate which standards are assessed.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for having assessment information included in the materials to indicate which standards are assessed. The Curriculum Guide, Assessments, Types of Assessments, states the following: “Formal Assessment The Desmos curriculum includes two types of formal assessments: quizzes and end assessments. Quizzes are typically five problems and assess what students know and can do in part of a unit. End assessments are summative assessments that are typically seven or eight problems and include concepts and skills from the entire unit. These include multiple-choice, select all, short answer, and extended response prompts to give students differing opportunities to show what they know and to mirror the types of questions on many current standardized tests.” Assessments within the program consistently and accurately reference grade-level content standards on the Assessment Summary. Examples include:
Unit 2, End Assessment: Form B, Screen 7, Problem 6, “The equation relates mass in pounds, p , to mass in kilograms, x. Is there a proportional relationship between p and x ? Explain or show your thinking.” Answer choices are, proportional and not proportional. The Assessment Summary and Rubric denotes the standard assesses as 7.RP.2a and MP6.
Unit 4, End Assessment: Form A, Screen 12, Problem 7.3, “The cost of every college is expected to increase 3.5% next year. The cost to attend Faber College is currently $24000. If the percentage increase stays constant, what will the cost be in two years?” The Assessment Summary and Rubric denotes the standard assesses as 7.RP.2c, 7.RP.3, 7.EE.3, MP4 and MP6.
Unit 7, Quiz, Screen 8, Problem 5.3, “Here are three lines that intersect at one point. Laila wrote the equation . Describe the error that Laila might have made.” The Quiz Summary denotes the standard assesses as 7.G.5 and MP7.
Indicator 3J
Assessment system provides multiple opportunities throughout the grade, course, and/or series to determine students' learning and sufficient guidance to teachers for interpreting student performance and suggestions for follow-up.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for including an assessment system that provides multiple opportunities throughout the grade to determine students' learning and sufficient guidance to teachers for interpreting student performance and suggestions for follow-up.
All Quizzes and end assessments include a digital and paper option answer key, for correcting students’ work. Each Quiz includes a “Quiz Summary” identifying the standards assessed, what is being assessed and which lesson(s) most align to each problem. Each end assessment includes an “Assessment Summary and Rubric,” which includes all components of the “Quiz Summary” and a rubric for interpreting student performance. Both the “Quiz Summary” and “Assessment Summary and Rubric” contains a section called, “Suggested Next Steps:” for following-up with students that struggle on a particular problem. Examples include:
Unit 1, End Assessment: Form A, Screen 8, Problem 6.1, “A trail runner gets a new map of her favorite mountain. Her old map has a scale of 1 cm to 100 m. Her new map has a scale of 1 cm to 500 m. If the maps represent the same area, are the distances on the new map longer, shorter, or the same size as the old map? Explain your thinking.” Choices are, “Longer, Shorter, The same size” . The Assessment Summary and Rubric, provide the following scoring guidance: “Problem 6.1 Standard 7.G.A.1, MP6 Meeting/Exceeding 4 Student successfully answers the question and includes a logical and complete explanation. Approaching 3 Correct choice with minor flaws in explanation. Incorrect choice with logical and complete explanation. Students may not have understood the question but communicates conceptual understanding of the relationship between map scales. Developing 2 Correct choice with incomplete explanation. Incorrect choice with explanation that communicates partial understanding of the relationship between the map scales. Beginning 1 Incorrect choice with incorrect explanation or without an explanation. 0 Did not attempt.“ The Suggested Next Steps: If students struggle are, “Consider asking students how the given scales compare in size. Consider asking them how the scales can be used to determine the desired distance. Consider revisiting Lesson 8, Activity 3, Problem 1. ”
Unit 4, End Assessment: Form A, Screen 9, Problem 6.3, “A store is offering a 20% discount on all items. The price of a hat after the discount is $18. What was the original price?” The Assessment Summary and Rubric, provides the following scoring guidance: “Problem 6.3 Standard 7.RP.A.3 Meeting/Exceeding 4 Response is complete and correct. $22.50 Approaching 3 Work shows conceptual understanding and mastery, with some errors. Students who respond with $14.40 may have solved the problem ‘What is the price after a 20% discount on $18?’ Developing 2 Work shows a developing but incomplete conceptual understanding, with significant errors. Students who respond with $3.60 may have calculated 20% of $18. Beginning 1 Weak evidence of understanding how to calculate the original price given a percent decrease. 0 Did not attempt.“ The Suggested Next Steps: If students struggle are, “Consider suggesting that students begin by completing Problem 6.3 and working backward, using their answers to help answer the other problems. Consider revisiting Lesson 6, Activity 2.”
Unit 8, Quiz, Screen 5, Problem 3.2, “ Esi does an experiment where she picks a block out of a bag without looking 50 times, putting it back each time. She picks a green block 32 times. If the bag has 8 blocks, how many do you think are green?” The Quiz Summary, provides the following: “Problem 3 (Standards: 7.SP.C.6, 7.SP.C.7.B, MP2) This problem assesses students’ ability to use the results from a repeated experiment to make predictions about the sample space and about future events. Students reason abstractly and quantitatively when they use experimental data to make predictions about future events and unknown information. This problem corresponds most directly to the work students did in Lesson 3: Mystery Bag.” The Suggested Next Steps: If students struggle are, “Consider asking students how they can use the results of Esi’s experiment to make predictions if the bag contained 8 blocks or if there were 200 picks. Consider revisiting Lesson 3, Activity 1.”
Indicator 3K
Assessments include opportunities for students to demonstrate the full intent of grade-level/course-level standards and practices across the series.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for providing assessments that include opportunities for students to demonstrate the full intent of grade-level standards and practices across the series.
Formative assessments include Quizzes and End Assessments. All assessments regularly demonstrate the full intent of grade-level content and practice standards through a variety of item types such as multiple choice, select all, short answer/fill in the blank, extended response prompts, graphing, mistake analysis, matching, constructed response and technology-enhanced items. Examples Include:
Unit 1, End Assessment: Form A, Screen 2, Problem 1, develops the full intent of 7.G.1 as students solve problems involving scale drawings of geometric figures. “Select ALL the scaled copies of rectangle A.” Students are given six rectangles; the rectangles have varying measurements, so students have to determine which ones are scaled copies of rectangle A.
Unit 3, End Assessment: Form B, Screen 2, Problem 1, develops the full intent of MP6 as students attend to precision while calculating the circumference of a circle. “A circle has a radius of 40 centimeters. Which of these is closest to its circumference?” Students are given the following multiple choice items to choose from:
126 centimeters
5027 centimeters
1600 centimeters
251 centimeters
Unit 8, Quiz, Screen 7, Problem 4.2, attends to the full intent of 7.SP.8 as students find probability of a multistep event. “What is the probability you will spin at least one item with cheese in the name?” Students are given two pictures. One picture is labeled “Appetizers,” and the other one is “Entrees.” There are different choices under each picture. Students need to use the pictures to decide what the chances are of spinning an item with cheese.
Indicator 3L
Assessments offer accommodations that allow students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills without changing the content of the assessment.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 provide some assessments which offer accommodations that allow students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills without changing the content of the assessment.
Accommodations are found in the Curriculum Guide, Support for Students with Disabilities under the additional supports section. The materials state the following, “Desmos’s tools are designed from the ground up with accessibility in mind. We comply with the WCAG 2.1 standards at the AA level wherever possible, and go beyond where we can….The lessons in our curriculum make use of our accessibility features, including dynamic narration for interactive elements. We work to apply a layer of custom accessibility to our lessons, including narrations for graph and sketch components and descriptions for images and videos…In addition, text to speech (beta) is available for students to turn on in the Accessibility Settings area in the student sidebar (click the hamburger in the top-left corner of an activity). Once enabled, students will be able to hear the text in any note on a screen and adjust the playback speed.”
Desmos Accessibility web link included on the Support for Students with Disabilities page, lists accommodations including, “a robust set of keyboard shortcuts in our calculators and classroom activities, respecting font-size settings of low vision users, ensuring that our colors have sufficient contrast, providing screen reader and Braille access to our equation editor, and making graphs accessible to fully blind students via audio and tactile output.” Additionally, all Quizzes and End Assessments can be administered by paper and pencil or digitally. Teachers are able to modify both paper and digital versions of each assessment by deleting items or adding their own questions. As a result, these items have the potential to alter grade-level expectations due to the fact these are teacher-created items.
Criterion 3.3: Student Supports
The program includes materials designed for each student’s regular and active participation in grade-level/grade-band/series content.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for Student Supports. The materials provide: strategies and supports for students in special populations and for students who read, write, and/or speak in a language other than English to support their regular and active participation in learning grade-level mathematics; multiple extensions and/or opportunities for students to engage with grade-level mathematics at higher levels of complexity; and manipulatives, both virtual and physical, that are accurate representations of the mathematical objects they represent and, when appropriate, are connected to written methods.
Indicator 3M
Materials provide strategies and supports for students in special populations to support their regular and active participation in learning grade-level/series mathematics.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for providing strategies and supports for students in special populations to support their regular and active participation in learning grade-level/series mathematics.
The Curriculum Guide, Support for Students with Disabilities, states the following about the materials: “The Desmos Math Curriculum is designed to support and maximize students’ strengths and abilities in the following ways:
Each lesson is designed using the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines…
Each lesson includes strategies for accommodation and support based on the areas of cognitive functioning.
Opportunities for extension and support are provided when appropriate.
Most digital activities are screen reader friendly.
To support all students in accessing and participating in meaningful and challenging tasks, every lesson in the curriculum incorporates opportunities for engagement, representation, and action, and expression based on the Universal Design for Learning Guidelines.” The curriculum highlights the following six design choices that support access: “Consistent Lesson Structure, Student Choice, Variety of Output Methods, Concepts Build From Informal to Formal, Interpretive Feedback, and Opportunities for Self-Reflection.
The Desmos approach to modifying our curriculum is based on students' strengths and needs in the areas of cognitive functioning (Brodesky et al., 2002). Each lesson embeds suggestions for instructional moves to support students with disabilities. These are intended to provide teachers with strategies to increase access and eliminate barriers without reducing the mathematical demand of the task.” The materials use the following areas of cognitive functioning to guide their work: Conceptual processing, Visual-Spatial processing, Organization, Memory and attention, Executive functioning, Fine-motor Skills, and Language.
These areas of cognitive functioning are embedded throughout the materials in the “Student Supports” within applicable digital lessons or listed under “Support for Students with Disabilities” in the Lesson Guide for some paper lessons. Examples include:
Unit 2, Lesson 5, Screen 2, All the Time, “The car travels at a constant speed. After 6 seconds, it travels 180 meters.Write a proportional equation to find the car's distance, d, at any time, t.” Student Supports, “Students With Disabilities Conceptual Processing: Processing Time Check in with individual students, as needed, to assess for comprehension during each step of the activity.”
Unit 5, Lesson 4, Lesson Guide, Activity 1: Draw Your Own Diagram, students make sense of number lines for expressions involving subtraction. “Support for Students With Disabilities Fine Motor Skills: Peer Tutors Allow students who struggle with fine motor skills to dictate how to create each number line.” Executive Functioning: Eliminate Barriers Chunk this activity into more manageable parts (e.g., presenting one pair of number lines at a time).”
Unit 8, Lesson 9, Lesson Guide, Activity 1: Marco’s Mean and MAD, students use mean and MAD on a set of data to calculate which option is the fastest way to school. “Support for Students With Disabilities Executive Functioning: Visual Aids Create an anchor chart for public display that describes how to calculate the mean and mean absolute deviation of a data set (with an example of each) for future reference.”
Indicator 3N
Materials provide extensions and/or opportunities for students to engage with grade-level/course-level mathematics at higher levels of complexity.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for providing extensions and/or opportunities for students to engage with grade-level mathematics at higher levels of complexity.
The Curriculum Guide, Lessons, provides an optional activity, “Are You Ready for More?” which is available in some lessons. “Are You Ready for More? offers students who finish an activity early an opportunity to continue exploring a concept more deeply. This is often beyond the scope of the lesson and is intentionally available to all students.” Additionally, some lessons’ screens provide ideas for early finishers in the Teacher Moves section. These ideas act as extensions to the activity that the student is currently working on, and allow them to engage with the activity at a higher level of complexity. Examples include:
Unit 2, Lesson 5, Screen 8, Are You Ready for More?, “students develop fluency writing and using equations to make sense of proportional relationships in a variety of contexts.” “Here are some facts about this truck: It travels at an average rate of 50 miles per hour. It can travel 6 miles for each gallon of gas. How many hours can the truck travel without stopping if it has a full tank of 150 gallons?” Teacher Moves, “This screen is designed as an extra challenge for students who finish Screens 4–7 before the class discussion on Screen 7. Consider inviting these students to share responses with each other in place of a whole-class discussion.”
Unit 4, Lesson 2, Lesson Guide, Activity 1: Which Recipe?, students apply what they learned about constants of proportionality to make an argument about recipes involving fractional quantities. Student Worksheet, Activity 1: Which Recipe?, states, “Amara is making peach cobbler. She has three recipes and is deciding which one to make. Amara wants to make a recipe that isn’t too sweet. 1. She thinks Recipe C will be the least sweet because it has the least amount of sugar. Do you agree? Explain your thinking. 2. Which recipe should she make? Explain your thinking. 3. Is the relationship between number of servings and total amount of sugar proportional for each recipe? Explain your thinking.” Students are given three recipes with the number of servings and the quantity of each ingredient. The Lesson Guide, Activity 1: Which Recipe? states, “Early Finishers: Encourage students who finish Problems 1–3 early to choose one of the other recipes to adjust so that it is just as sweet as the one they chose for Amara.”
Unit 7, Lesson 5, Screen 5, Will It Work?, students will determine whether or not three side lengths will make a triangle. “Diamond is convinced that a third side of 19 units will form a triangle. Mohamed thinks that 19 units is too long. Who is correct? Explain your thinking.” The screen contains an image with two sides of a triangle labeled seven and eleven. The Teacher Moves states the following: “Early Finishers: Encourage students who finish early to describe all the possible third side lengths that would form a triangle or to create their own sets of two side lengths that will form a triangle with a 19-unit-long side.”
Indicator 3O
Materials provide varied approaches to learning tasks over time and variety in how students are expected to demonstrate their learning with opportunities for students to monitor their learning.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 provide varied approaches to learning tasks over time and variety in how students are expected to demonstrate their learning with opportunities for students to monitor their learning.
The materials provide multiple opportunities for students to question, investigate, sense-make, and problem-solve using a variety of formats and methods. Lessons utilize a variety of instructional and language routines which provide opportunities for students to share their thinking via written and oral methods, with a partner, small groups, whole class, or one-on-one with their teacher. Examples Include:
Unit 3, Lesson 8, Screen 5, Class Gallery, students create their own shape made up of squares and parts of circles, and practice calculating the area of these kinds of shapes by challenging their classmates to create a shape based on that area and scale. “Now it’s time to create your own challenge! First, select a grid size and a scale. Now, calculate the area of your shape. Press “Submit” to check your answer.” After the area is checked, students can submit their challenge to the class.
Unit 7, Lesson 2, Screen 4, Click to Select, students identify a pair of complementary and supplementary angles on two identical figures. “1. Click to select a pair of complementary angles. 2. Click to select a pair of supplementary angles.”
Each unit has a Unit Overview, Readiness Check, Practice Day(s) and Reflection, and Synthesis. The Unit Overview provides a “Student Goals and Glossary” that includes “I can'' statements for students to reflect on after each lesson. The Readiness Check provides ongoing review of prior knowledge and skills. Practice Day(s), “provide an opportunity for students to apply knowledge and skills from one or more sections of a unit. They often incorporate student movement or collaboration and typically come before an assessment.” The Reflection and Synthesis provides students with a variety of activities, “for students to engage in at the end of a unit to synthesize and/or reflect on their learning from the unit.” Each lesson provides Practice Problems for students to review concepts learned in that lesson and reflect on their own learning (a reflect screen is included within each lesson Practice Problem set). The Lesson Synthesis “is an opportunity for students to put the key ideas from the lesson into their own words. There is typically an open-ended prompt followed by a discussion for students to consolidate and refine their ideas about the learning goals.” Additionally, the Cool-Down in each lesson provides an opportunity for students to gauge their understanding of the lesson. Peer feedback is often part of the instructional/language routine utilized in each lesson. Examples of where materials provide opportunities for students to monitor their learning include:
Unit 3, Lesson 3, Screen 9, Lesson Synthesis, “Describe the relationship between radius, diameter, and circumference. Use this example and the sketch tool if it helps you to show your thinking.” The Teacher Moves suggest, “Give students 2–3 minutes to respond and one minute to share their responses with a partner. Select and sequence several student responses to display using the dashboard’s teacher view or snapshot tool. Follow with a brief whole-class discussion in which students share connections they see between responses or suggest revisions.”
Unit 6, Lesson 9, Screen 13, Cool-Down, “Write an equivalent expression for .” Screen 14 has students self-assess their progress on the learning goal(s) of the lesson. “This is the math we wanted you to understand: I can write equivalent expressions. I can explain whether or not two expressions are equivalent.” Students then rate themselves using five emojis on the following two questions,“How well did you understand the math in this lesson?” and “How did you feel about learning math in this lesson?”
Unit 8, Reflection and Synthesis, gives students six optional tasks in which they can select to demonstrate and reflect on their learning. The tasks include the following: Unit Reflection, Concept Map, Unit Scrapbook, Letter to Past Self, Personal Goals, and Next Unit Preview. Teacher Guide, Introduction, states “Each task is designed to be completed in about 20 minutes. They were designed in accordance with the Universal Design for Learning guidelines, including developing self-assessment and reflection, fostering collaboration and community, highlighting patterns, critical features, big ideas, and relationships, and facilitating personal coping skills and strategies.”
Teachers can provide written feedback to students throughout the lesson using the feedback tool on any student screen. Students are able to view the comments to help them revise their work and continue to develop their understanding.
Indicator 3P
Materials provide opportunities for teachers to use a variety of grouping strategies.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 provide opportunities for teachers to use a variety of grouping strategies.
The embedded digital teacher notes, Teacher Moves, that accompany each digital lesson, include grouping strategies and recommendations, such as having students work independently, in pairs, in small groups, or suggesting the teacher facilitate a whole-class discussion. In addition, teacher notes that accompany the paper lessons also include grouping strategies and recommendations. The guidance provided for practice days includes recommendations for grouping and facilitation; however, the guidance is general and is not targeted based on the needs of individual students. Examples include:
Unit 3, Lesson 1, Screen 10, Lesson Synthesis, Teacher Moves, “Facilitation: Give students 2–3 minutes to respond and one minute to share their responses with a partner. Select and sequence several student responses to display using the dashboard’s teacher view or snapshot tool. Follow with a brief whole-class discussion in which students share connections they see between responses.”
Unit 6, Lesson 10, Screen 9, Collect All the Squares, Teacher Moves, “If students are struggling, consider one of these options: Arrange students into pairs or groups of 3–4. Encourage students to work together to write the sum using the fewest number of terms and to justify their reasoning to their group before pressing ‘Check My Work.’ Repeat as a group until all of the squares have been collected. Pause the activity. Display the screen using the dashboard’s student view. Ask students to select at least two squares. Give students time to add the expressions quietly, then invite them to share their strategies. Repeat as a class until all of the squares have been collected.”
Unit 8, Lesson 14, Lesson Guide, Activity 1: Homework Headline, the Lesson Guide states, “Facilitation: Arrange students in groups of four and distribute one Student Worksheet to each student.” Students examines the data as a group and discuss reasons why someone might believe the headline based on the data and reason why they might not. It is suggested to, “Consider encouraging groups to use the same structure as they answer Problems 1–3: read the problem aloud, discuss as a group, then record a summary of the discussion on each worksheet.“
Indicator 3Q
Materials provide strategies and supports for students who read, write, and/or speak in a language other than English to regularly participate in learning grade-level mathematics.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for providing strategies and supports for students who read, write, and/or speak in a language other than English to regularly participate in learning grade-level mathematics.
The Curriculum Guide, Support for Multilingual Learners, states the following: “Desmos believes that there is a strong connection between learning content and learning language, both for students who are more familiar with formal English and for students who are less familiar. Therefore, language support is embedded into the curriculum in many different ways. In addition, the curriculum is built to highlight the strengths of each student and to surface the many assets students bring to the classroom. This resumption of competence is the foundation of all our work, and particularly of our support for multilingual students.” Curriculum Design That Supports Language Development, states “Every lesson in the curriculum incorporates opportunities for students to develop and use language as they grapple with new math ideas.” These opportunities are broken into the following four areas:
“Opportunities for Students to Read, Write, Speak and Listen
The Desmos Math Curriculum provides lots of opportunities for students to engage in all four language domains: speaking, listening, reading, and writing (e.g., text inputs, partner conversations, whole-class discussions).
Intentional Space for Informal Language
When students are learning a new idea, we invite them to use their own informal language to start, then make connections to more formal vocabulary or definitions.
Math and Language in Context
The Desmos Curriculum uses the digital medium to make mathematical concepts dynamic and delightful, helping students at all language proficiency levels make sense of problems and the mathematics.
Embedded Mathematical Language Routines
The Desmos 6-8 Math Curriculum is designed to be paired with Mathematical Language Routines, which support ‘students simultaneously learning mathematical practices, content, and language.’”
Additionally, “Each lesson includes suggestions for instructional moves to support multilingual students. These are intended to provide teachers with strategies to increase access and eliminate barriers without reducing the mathematical demand of the task. These supports for multilingual students can be found in the purple Teacher Moves tab and in the Teacher Guide. These supports include: Explicit vocabulary instruction with visuals. Processing time prior to whole-class discussion. Sentence frames to support speaking opportunities. Instructions broken down step by step .Background knowledge or context explicitly addressed.”
Examples of these supports within the materials include the following:
Unit 1, Lesson 3, Screen 6, Reflect #2, Student Supports, “Multilingual Learners MLR 7 (Compare and Connect)After students share their approaches for [calculating the total area], ask groups to discuss, ‘What is similar, and what is different?’ between the approaches. Ask students to describe what worked well with their approach and what might make an approach more complete or easier to understand.”
Unit 6, Lesson 3, Screen 4, Liam’s Strategy, Student Support, “Multilingual Learners Expressive Language: Eliminate Barriers Provide sentence frames to help students explain their reasoning (e.g., This equation might be helpful because ________.).”
Unit 7, Lesson 12, Lesson Guide, Lesson Synthesis, “Support for Multilingual Learners Expressive Language: Eliminate Barriers Provide sentence frames to help students explain their strategy (e.g., First,________.Then,________.).”
Indicator 3R
Materials provide a balance of images or information about people, representing various demographic and physical characteristics.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 provide a balance of images or information about people, representing various demographic and physical characteristics.
The materials do not contain many images depicting people, when images of people are used they do represent different races and portray people from many ethnicities in a positive, respectful manner, with no demographic bias for who achieves success in the context of problems.
The Curriculum Guide, Lessons, Name of Fictional Students states, “The names we are given or choose to use are part of our identities, and it is important that we honor those identities. In selecting which names to use for fictional students in our curriculum, we decided that our set of names should be culturally inclusive and gender inclusive, and that they should not distract from learning.” The materials also include a link to, “Read more about our process for determining names of fictional students.” and strategies to support pronunciation of names. Names are balanced in terms of representation of ethnicity, gender, physical characteristics. No one gender/ethnicity/demographic is portrayed more positively than others. Examples include:
Unit 4, Lesson 3, Screen 2, Different Sizes, “Here’s a logo that Aditi is making into stickers. Enter the missing values so that the logo looks the same on each sticker. Then describe your strategy.”
Unit 5, End Assessment: Form B, Screen 11, Problem 7.2, “In 2020, Kathryn Sullivan and Vanessa O'Brien became the first women to reach the deepest-known point in the ocean. What was Kathryn and Vanessa's elevation 90 minutes after they started their journey to the bottom of the ocean?”
Unit 8, Lesson 4, Practice Problems, Screen 6, Problem 2.3, “Adah says that if you flip a fair coin 100 times, it is impossible for it to land heads up all 100 times. Basheera says it’s possible, but unlikely. Who is correct?”
Indicator 3S
Materials provide guidance to encourage teachers to draw upon student home language to facilitate learning.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 provide some guidance to encourage teachers to draw upon student home language to facilitate learning.
Materials can be accessed in different languages by clicking on the globe in the upper right corner of the screen. Ten languages are available besides English, including but not limited to the following: Spanish, Russian, French, Chinese, Italian, Korean, Estonian and Dutch. “When you change your language setting, the language of the website’s interface changes, but the language of the activity does not update with this setting. Before you run an activity with students, preview the activity to make sure the text is in the correct language. Not all of our activities are available in other languages yet…”
The Curriculum Guide, Support for Multilingual Learners, Embedded Mathematical Language Routines, states the curriculum, “...is designed to be paired with Mathematical Language Routines, which support ‘ students simultaneously learning mathematical practices, content, and language.’” While Mathematical Language Routines are regularly embedded within lessons and support mathematical language development, they do not include specific suggestions for drawing on a student’s home language.
Indicator 3T
Materials provide guidance to encourage teachers to draw upon student cultural and social backgrounds to facilitate learning.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 provide some guidance to encourage teachers to draw upon student cultural and social backgrounds to facilitate learning.
Each grade-level begins with a “Getting to Know Each Other” lesson, “Introduction to Desmos and Each Other. This is intended to help you get to know your students and for them to get to know each other. Consider using 1-2 screens each day for several days or assigning all at once.” Examples include:
Screen 1, Introduce Yourself, “Complete the table. My name is… I like to be called… I use the pronouns… Tell me about your name.”
Screen 2, Write About You, “What might help us better understand you as a person? Possible Things to Discuss: Who is important in your life? What matters most to you? What are you proud of about yourself?”
Screen 3, Sketch About You, “Create a sketch of something that relates to you and your life. You can change colors using the arrow next to the blue circle.”
Additional guidance for teachers to draw upon student cultural and social backgrounds to facilitate learning is sometimes provided via the Teacher Moves at the lesson level. An example is included:
Unit 4, Lesson 8, Screen 2, Warm-Up, “Here are two receipts that printed out correctly. What percent is the sales tax in this city?” Students are given two items, with the price, tax and total cost listed. The Teacher Moves states the following: “Early Finishers: Encourage students who finish Screens 1-2 early to use others’ responses to make their explanation stronger and clearer or to research the tax rate in their own community and calculate the total cost using their tax rate.”
Indicator 3U
Materials provide supports for different reading levels to ensure accessibility for students.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 provide some supports for different reading levels to ensure accessibility for students.
“Three Reads” is listed within the Curriculum Guide, Instructional Routines, as a way to engage students in reading and accessing grade-level mathematics. “This routine is intended to support making sense of language and reading comprehension. Students read a mathematical text three times, each with a particular focus. The question or prompt is only revealed in the third read so that students can concentrate on making sense of what is happening in the text before rushing to a solution or method. This routine is adapted from Jeff Zwiers and his colleagues (2017).”
The Facilitation of the “Three Reads” instructional routine has the following steps:
“Facilitation
Read #1: Students read the problem to get a big picture understanding.
Invite a student to read the problem aloud while everyone else reads along.
Ask students: What is this situation about? Allow one minute for students to discuss with a partner. Then invite them to share with the whole class.
Read #2: Students hone in on details and name quantities.
Invite students to read the situation aloud with their partner.
Ask students: What can be counted or measured in this situation? How are they related? (E.g., number of people in her family or number of markers after).
Give students one minute of quiet think time and another to share with their partner.
Facilitate a whole-class discussion about the relationships between the quantities. Record quantities and their relationships for students to reference later.
Read #3: Students brainstorm possible strategies for solving the problem.
Reveal the final question or prompt. Invite students to think of ways to approach the question. Consider asking: How would you approach this question? What strategy would you try first?
Invite 1-2 students to share their ideas with the whole class.”
The embedded digital teacher notes, Student Supports, accompany some digital lessons that sometimes include suggested reading supports for students to access the mathematics, but these do not directly address different student reading levels. Examples include, but are not limited to:
Unit 2, Lesson 8, Screen 2, The Coordinate Plane, students are given an animation to watch. The Teacher Moves states the following: “Give students two or three minutes to play the animation, select different choices, and record what they notice and wonder. Consider encouraging students to slide the animation backwards and forwards at their own pace. Then invite them to discuss their noticings and wonderings with a partner. Consider asking students if they remember the phrase coordinate plane, and if so, what it means. See the sample responses for ideas and questions that may surface during the discussion. Consider naming noticings you hear after the students who share them and using those names throughout the rest of the lesson and unit.”
Unit 3, Lesson 1, Screen 4, Which of These Are Proportional, students are given the following problem: “Here are two graphs based on the data you and your classmates collected on Screen 3. Use the graphs to decide which of the following relationships are proportional.” The Student Supports states the following: “Students With Disabilities Receptive Language: Processing Time Read all statements aloud. Students who both listen to and read the information will benefit from extra processing time. This may include reading the information in the graph.”
Additionally, most lessons include animations to help struggling readers access and engage in grade-level mathematics.
Indicator 3V
Manipulatives, both virtual and physical, are accurate representations of the mathematical objects they represent and, when appropriate, are connected to written methods.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 meet expectations for providing manipulatives, both virtual and physical, that are accurate representations of the mathematical objects they represent and, when appropriate, are connected to written methods.
Virtual and physical manipulatives support student understanding throughout the materials. Examples include:
Unit 3, Lesson 6, Student Worksheet, Activity 2: Circle vs. Radius Square, students visualize the relationship between the radius, radius square, and area of a circle. The activity states, “For this activity, you will need circles and sets of radius squares. For each circle and set of radius squares, cut up each radius square and rearrange the pieces so that they cover just the circle. Record what you and your classmates discover in the table below. In general, how many radius squares do you think it takes to cover a circle?” Teachers provide students with a supplement sheet of each circle, a corresponding radius square, and scissors so that the students can cut out each radius square to help determine how many radius squares cover a circle.
Unit 7, Lesson 7, Screen 6, Reflection, students use virtual segments to build triangles. The materials state, “Malik claims you will always get identical triangles if the angle is between the two sides. Is Malik Correct? Explain your thinking.” Students are given the answer choices of “Yes, No, or I’m not sure”. After they explain their thinking they can share with the class their thoughts by clicking the “Share With Class” button. Students are provided a virtual workspace where they can manipulate two sides around a given angle.
Criterion 3.4: Intentional Design
The program includes a visual design that is engaging and references or integrates digital technology, when applicable, with guidance for teachers.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 integrate technology such as interactive tools, virtual manipulatives/objects, and/or dynamic mathematics software in ways that engage students in the grade-level standards, and the materials partially include or reference digital technology that provides opportunities for teachers and/or students to collaborate with each other. The materials have a visual design that supports students in engaging thoughtfully with the subject, and is neither distracting nor chaotic, and the materials provide teacher guidance for the use of embedded technology to support and enhance student learning.
Indicator 3W
Materials integrate technology such as interactive tools, virtual manipulatives/objects, and/or dynamic mathematics software in ways that engage students in the grade-level/series standards, when applicable.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 integrate technology such as interactive tools, virtual manipulatives/objects, and/or dynamic mathematics software in ways that engage students in the grade-level standards, when applicable.
The materials integrate technology by including interactive tools, virtual manipulatives, and dynamic interactions. All digital lesson screens have a scientific calculator for students to use as they wish. Additionally, digital lessons contain multiple interactive activities to support students' engagement in mathematics. Examples include:
Unit 1, Lesson 3, Screen 7, A New Sketch, students work with interactive drawing tools while learning about scale factors. “Choose a scale factor. Then complete the scaled copy.” Students are given a picture of a trapezoid and a toolbar in order to select a scale factor. Students use the drawing tool to complete the drawing of the scale factor they chose. When they are finished students click on the “Check My Sketch” button and the given picture becomes the scale factor they chose and slides over to their drawing to see if the two are the same.
Unit 4, Lesson 8, Screen 1, Warm Up, students learn about multistep percent problems in the context of applying sales tax in a cafe. “Customers are reporting problems with the receipts at the Des-Cafe. Click on some items to see what's going on.” Students are given several pictures to select from, the first two pictures will have information about how much each item costs, tax and the total. The next two pictures selected will onlu have the cost of each item and the tax, but total will be left blank.
Unit 8, Lesson 4, Screen 1, Warm Up, students are given a virtual spinner to use while working with probability. “1. Make a spinner that has a 40% chance of spinning red (R). 2. Press ‘Spin’ several times. Record your results on paper in a way that helps you keep track of the spins and outcomes.” Students are able to click on any section of the spinner to change it from blue (B) to red (R) and vice versa. Once they are satisfied with their changes, students can spin the spinner using the “Spin” button.
Indicator 3X
Materials include or reference digital technology that provides opportunities for teachers and/or students to collaborate with each other, when applicable.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 include or reference some digital technology that provides opportunities for teachers and/or students to collaborate with each other, when applicable.
Teachers can provide written feedback to students using the message icon on any student screen. Students are able to view the comments to help them revise their work and continue to develop their conceptual understanding. However, students are not able to collaborate with the teacher through this method. Teachers can add a co-teacher to their classrooms in Desmos. Either teacher can facilitate, leave feedback and take snapshots. Teachers also can share individual activity dashboards with colleagues. Certain lesson screens will prompt students to “Share with Class” their response(s) to tasks. Once students, Share with Class,” their response(s) to the task will be visible. However, students are not able to collaborate with other students through this method.
Indicator 3Y
The visual design (whether in print or digital) supports students in engaging thoughtfully with the subject, and is neither distracting nor chaotic.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 have a visual design (whether in print or digital) that supports students in engaging thoughtfully with the subject, and is neither distracting nor chaotic.
There is a consistent design within units and lessons that supports student understanding of mathematics. Examples include:
Each unit contains the following components: Unit Overview, Readiness Check, Lessons, one or more Practice Day(s), one or more Quizzes, End Assessments, Reflection and Synthesis, Practice Sets, and Cool Downs.
Each digital lesson contains the following components: Warm Up, one or more Activities, Lesson Synthesis, Cool-Down, and Reflection. Lessons that require students to print out a worksheet follow a similar format.
In the top right corner there is a button marked “next” which helps to navigate the lesson. The screen number is clearly marked for teacher and student. There is plenty of space for students to write their responses in both digital and paper formats.
The text size can be customized by the student and/or teacher.
Indicator 3Z
Materials provide teacher guidance for the use of embedded technology to support and enhance student learning, when applicable.
The materials reviewed for Desmos Math 7 provide teacher guidance for the use of embedded technology to support and enhance student learning, when applicable.
Teacher guidance for the use of embedded technology is included in the Curriculum Guide, Teacher Facilitation Tools, and guidance is also included for each lesson in the Teacher Moves and Teacher Guide. Guidance provided includes suggestions for pacing, pausing, taking snapshots, and facilitating discussion to support student learning. For example:
Unit 1, Lesson 1, Screen 1 Warm-up, “Facilitation Consider starting with the activity paused. Use the dashboard’s student view to demonstrate how to use movable points as this may be the first time students encounter movable points. Then unpause and invite students to create their own shape. Consider highlighting unique or creative shapes using the snapshots tool or the dashboard’s teacher view. Consider asking students what the shape reminds them of or asking the author to speak about their inspiration. Suggested Pacing: Consider using pacing to restrict students to this screen.”
An additional guidance teachers have is the lesson preview emails. “Lesson preview emails give teachers a sneak peak at their next lesson and comes with helpful facilitation tips and suggested practices to help teachers develop their students’ brilliance. Once teachers assign activities for a lesson, preview emails for the next lesson are sent automatically before teachers begin teaching the next lesson.”