Common Core Math Shift #2: Coherence
Strategic Goal #1: Continuously Improve Student Growth and Achievement
Math should make sense. At DGS, we are working to make sure that math just doesn’t make sense in one grade level, but also across grade levels. Math is a progression of learning and the coherence in our math instruction supports the focus we are employing within the curriculum.
Mathematics is not a list of disconnected topics, tricks, or mnemonics; it is a coherent body of knowledge made up of interconnected concepts. Therefore, the standards are designed around coherent progressions from grade to grade. Learning is carefully connected across grades so that students can build new understanding onto foundations built in previous years. For example, in 4th grade, students must “apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication to multiply a fraction by a whole number” (Standard 4.NF.4). This extends to 5th grade, when students are expected to build on that skill to “apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication to multiply a fraction or whole number by a fraction” (Standard 5.NF.4). Each standard is not a new event, but an extension of previous learning.
Coherence is also built into the standards in how they reinforce a major topic in a grade by utilizing supporting, complementary topics. For example, instead of presenting the topic of data displays as an end in itself, the topic is used to support grade-level word problems in which students apply mathematical skills to solve problems. (Source: http://www.corestandards.org/other-resources/key-shifts-in-mathematics/)
Watch the video below to learn more about the importance of coherence: