Tasks & Practice 

What is a "rich task"? NRICH gives a great definition and plenty of examples on their site (Primary Curriculum Map | Secondary Curriculum Map). There are many, MANY benefits for a math classroom when rich tasks are implemented effectively. See also the MAV webpage or their handout on authentic tasks.

Resources on this page can be used to provide experiences for students with "rich tasks" or "rich contexts". Also see the Math Games page for fun ways to practice towards fluency.

SFUSD 3-Act Howto page |PreK-12th| - Provides a usable definition of 3-act tasks, why teachers would want to use this strategy,  and some guideposts and typical parts of each stage.

Primer on 3-Act Tasks |PreK-12th| - via MakeMathMoments. "What do you notice, what do you wonder?" Harness curiosity with this engaging lesson format. Simple 2-page graphic document outlining 3-act tasks.

Dan Meyer's Three-Act Math Tasks |6th-12th| - Dan Meyer is credited with creating the term "Three-Act Task." Most tasks in the large library also include sequels. Sorted by standards. Free. Dan is now the director of research at Desmos, which is a fabulous math tool. 

Graham Fletcher's Giant list of K-7 3-Act tasks. |K-7th| - Large library of really engaging 3-act tasks K-7th in simple format. Sorted by standards. Free.

Robert Kaplinsky's list of 3-Act task-style lessons |K-Alg2| - Large library includes student work examples, considerations, and lesson outline/script. Sorted by grade/course. Free.

Dane Ehlert's 3-Act Tasks @ WhenMathHappens |3rd-Calc| - Very simple formatting. Most tasks are standards-aligned. Sorted by grade/course. Free.

Kristen Acosta's 3-Act Tasks - A very pretty set of K-6 3-act tasks sorted by grade and standard. Super simple formatting (the task and nothing but the task). Free.

Ms Castillos 3-Act Tasks |1st-5th|- Includes some discussion of progression. Sorted by grade and standard. Free.

Estimation180 3-Act Tasks by Andrew Stadel |4th-Geo|- Simple formatting. Sorted by grade/course. Free. Helps students get into mathematical modeling and discourse with low-floor, high-ceiling estimation tasks that can be short or take a whole class period.

Contexts for Learning Mathematics Minilessons and Games |K-6th| - Books that gives dozens of minilessons that are "crafted as a tightly structured series, or "number strings".  See, for example, Minilessons for Operations with Fractions, Decimals, and Percents, From Fives and Tens to Automaticity (kinder), or Problem Strings for Fluency and Beyond - Grade 3. Cathy Fosnot could rightly be credited with formalizing and publishing the idea of "number strings."

Math Is Figureoutable Free Online Problem Strings |1st-12th|  offers several dozen naked problem strings (just the problems, no extra words) across topics such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, geometry, and more. (Backup Download) 

NumberStrings.com Library |K-9th| -  A library of quality number strings with explanations and notes. Hosted by Rachel Lambert and Kara Imm. Most strings are usable as is, a few require you to build the string yourself from the explanation.

"Fraction Talks" |2nd-6th| - Shape-based fractional discussions based on part-whole fractional relationships.

Problem Strings for Algebra |Algebra|- via Pam Harris - PAID book contains a collection of problem strings sorted by domain and includes these sections for each string: At a Glance, Objectives Placement, Guiding the Problem String, About the Mathematics, Sample Final Display, and Facilitation Notes. See also the book Lessons and Activities for Building Numeracy, which includes strings, or the advanced algebra book.

Virginia Department of Ed, Ten Fraction Number Strings |6th-8th| - 11 stellar examples of number strings. Requires extracting strings from the slides prior to use.

Hand2Mind Problem String Slides  |6th & 8th| - over 100 of the H2M Number String cards in slide format for 6th and 8th grade. This resource is for folks who already own the resourcess or have checked them out from our library.

General Task Libraries

Utah Education Network eMedia Hub Mathematics Page |K-12th| - This is one of the best math task resources out there. "Welcome to the Mathematics Hub where you can access high-quality, peer-reviewed teaching resources aligned to the Utah Mathematics standards." The site indexes grade level/course  resources(K-8, Secondary I/II/II, Calculus) which can be sorted by author/source. Includes lessons, assessments, labs/activities, and teaching strategies. Also includes "6-8  Major Work of the Grade Formative Assessment Clusters" and, "K-3 Mathematics Intervention Clusters".

Problem-Based Learning Curriculum Maps (PrBL) in Units for every Standard |3rd-Alg2| - Via Geoff Krall's website Emergent Math. Organized into units per standard cluster. Also includes some modeling/extension units. Sources include Fawn Nguyen, MARS, YummyMath, NCTM, Dan Myers, Open Middle, and more. A few older curricular resources require the use of the internet way back machine to access.

NASA Space Math |3-12th| - Includes hundreds of good problems that lend toward mathematical modeling, sorted by grade level bands. Many of the math books/collections circa 2010 (some of the best content!) have expired links on the site, but we have archived copies of those books here.

Utah Educators Network Mathematics Core -- Tasks by Standard Strand |K-12th| - Click on a grade level and scroll down to the "links" buttons to get annotated lists of tasks that fit standards or strands. For example, an annotated list for HS.A.REI is available at this link.

MakeMathMoments Problem-Based Tasks and Units |3rd-12th| - Problem-based units sorted by subject and based on a framework that expands on the 3-act format based on research including The 5 Practices. The initial problems, discussion prompts, and a part of the guides are free, but the full guides, related problem strings, math talk prompts, worksheets, anticipating, and other unit resources require a subscription (trial available). Units essentially walk teachers through a high-quality, planning and delivery process that is rigorous enough to be considered professional learning, but also practical enough to be sustainable.

Inside Mathematics "Inside Problem Solving" Non-Routine Tasks  |Pre K-12th| - The Inside Problem Solving problems are non-routine math problems designed to promote problem-solving in your classroom. Each problem is divided into five levels of difficulty, Level A through Level E, to allow access and scaffolding for students into different aspects of the problem and to stretch students to go deeper into mathematical complexity. The problems were developed by the Silicon Valley Mathematics Initiative and are aligned to the Common Core standards.

Illustrative Mathematics |K-12th| - A free, open education resource (OER) with a focus on problem-based math education and rich tasks. All grade levels include learning goals for students at the top of every lesson and learning targets summarized per unit. The HS content includes some quality modeling prompts with an excellent framework for teachers. See our curriculum page for more thoughts on Illustrative and Open Up as curriculum.

Geogebra Tasks Indexes |K-12th| - Professionally created content by the Geogebra team. Over 300 elementary tasks are sorted into K-2 and 3-5 grades and subjects, over 500 middle school tasks, and over 1700 high school tasks are sorted by course subject.

OpenMiddle |K-12th| - Slides with quality DOK 2 & 3 problems sorted by grade K-8 and domain for HS. Founded by Robert Kaplinski and Nannette Johnson.

WODB Which One Doesn't Belong? |K-12th| - A great set of engaging prompts to help students engage in math talk while considering various math logic concepts deeply. (Backup link). Complete PDF of all WODB.

Khan Academy Standards Map |K-Stats| - Breaks each Standard into procedural skills and provides online, adaptive math practice for those procedural skills. Khan has adaptive programs aligned to most EngageNY/Eureka courses, IM 6-8, and more standard progressions. Most of Khan academy is DOK 1, though some presses into DOK 2. Includes a fairly extensive teacher dashboard that allows assignments and provides in-depth data similar to many online adaptive math programs. Some free teacher training is available.

www.teachertoolsai |K-12th| - Use AI to generate your own task set. Copy/paste an Idaho Math Standard as the subject, provide some context (ie, make it baseball-related), and add a student's name to personalize the task for your classroom. For example, I pasted HS.A.CED.A.2 Interpret the relationship between two or more quantities.★ and got a pretty good task set. I've also had similar success with creating culturally relevant and cross-cutting lesson plans.

Fractl |4th-12th| - a large collection of reasonably rich fraction math tasks. Could be used as learning tasks in younger grades and warmups/review tasks in older grades.

Math Fails |K-12th| - Over 500 pictures of mathematics gone wrong. These work great as conversation starters, "notice, wonder" seeds, practice questions, and more! There is a download link at the bottom for all of them so far. 

Duane Habecker's Problem-Solving Tasks Document |2nd-12th| - Several dozen "non-curricular" thinking tasks that tend to be harder to think through using equations and easier to think through using models. Includes Duane's models and solutions to the problems. Duane also posts fun problems on his Twitter channel regularly. Most tasks are probably beyond 2nd grade thinking, but tasks like "Counting Triangles" could be appropriate to think about at that level.

Performance Assessment Tasks @ Inside Mathematics Dana Center  |2nd-12th| - A collection of performance tasks from various sources, some of which have linked video lessons of the tasks being implemented. Some tasks a low-floor/high-ceiling while some might need modifications. Student work is sometimes included to help with anticipation. Organized only by grade level.

Balanced Assessment in Mathematics Project |K-12th| - From 1993 to 2003, the Balanced Assessment in Mathematics Program existed at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The project group developed a large collection of innovative mathematics assessment tasks for grades K to 12, and trained teachers to use these assessments in their classrooms. The library of over 300 mathematics assessment tasks developed during the project remains freely available through this website, and are generally "thinking" tasks as opposed to "routine" or "procedural" tasks.