MATH

Our Math Curriculum

In recognizing that all students learn in different manners and at different paces, Briarwood Elementary School believes in the research that shows that students learn mathematics best in a heterogeneous setting where teachers establish flexible within-class ability groups and provide students with differentiated instructional experiences to account for each student’s unique abilities. 

While recognizing that there is a sequential development to mathematical skills, Briarwood Elementary School’s teachers provide students with spiraling, cross-strand instruction and opportunities to use all of their mathematical skills throughout the school year, regardless of an individual chapter being taught out of a textbook. To this end, our math instruction goes beyond simple operational drills and focuses on problem-solving and critical thinking skills which require students to draw upon their knowledge of all mathematical operations. 

This philosophy will manifest itself in open-ended classwork and homework assignments that may only be one problem, but involve numerous operations, math projects which involve multiple applications, and assessments which go beyond the traditional “math test” in which students are not only asked to display their computational skills but explain how and why mathematical operations are appropriately used. Texts used to supplement teacher instruction, innovation, and creativity are from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's Math In Focus: Singapore Math by Martin Cavendish mathematics series.

Below, please find the School-To-Home Connection letter for our first chapter, Numbers to 1,000, explaining what your child will practice and study in the Grade 2 Math In Focus program.