UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL MATHEMATICS CURRICULUM GUIDE (M1-M4)
UNIS MISSION
Under the auspices of the United Nations and guided by its ideals, UNIS provides a rigorous international program in an inclusive and diverse learning environment focused on academic excellence. UNIS fosters innovation, creativity and cross-cultural communication, educating and inspiring its students to become an active force in shaping a better world: peaceful, compassionate and sustainable.
At UNIS, learning mathematics is based on the following core beliefs:
● Learning is an active and constructive process.
● Learners come with a variety of different learning styles and different learning rates.
● Learners’ previous experiences in mathematics impact their present performance.
● Learning is most effective when done through relevant and meaningful contexts.
● Learning is most successful when it occurs within a supportive environment that encourages risk-taking, critical thinking and sustained effort.
● Learning objectives and expectations need to be clear to the learner.
● Ongoing assessment with actionable feedback enables the learner to monitor progress and move forward.
INTRODUCTION
The UNIS mathematics curriculum is is designed to enable students to develop a strong conceptual understanding of mathematics, as well as build procedural fluency. Students should be able to use their mathematical knowledge and skills to think critically and to solve real world problems. Mathematics provides a systematic way to represent relationship and analyze change. The content of the mathematics standards is intended to support students to:
● Become mathematical problem solvers
● Communicate mathematically
● Reason mathematically
● Make mathematical connections
● Use mathematical representations to model and interpret practical situations.
MATHEMATICS AT UNIS
Pre-K: Math is integrated into Center time
JA - J4; Math is taught daily for 45/60 minutes periods
M1- M4: Math is 7 periods over two weeks for a total of 420 minutes
T1 and T2: Math is offered at both standard and extended levels.
T3 -T4: IBDP Math (Higher Level and Standard Level)
Standards and the Learning Process…..
STANDARDS
“What do we need to learn”
Standards are:
● Concept and skill goals for all students
● Organized by subject and grade level
● Learning intended to be accomplished by the end of a specific school year
Example of a Standard:
Grade 3: Numbers in Base Ten- 4b (3.NBT.4b):
Read and write four digit numbers using base ten numerals, number names and expanded form
LEARNING PROCESS
“How are we learning?”
ASSESSMENT
“What have we learned?”
“What should we do next?”
The Learning Process is:
● Based on specific, appropriate learning intentions
● Planned so that there are access points for the range of learners in class
● Varied so that learning engagements are aligned to the learners and learning intentions
● Differentiated to support the success all learners
Assessments:
● Are used as evidence of student progress
● Guide and inform teaching
● Can be formative: Determined by individual teachers to inform instruction for the class or an individual student
● Can be summative: Consistent for all math classes in a grade and used for grading/reporting purposes or unit data collection
● Can be external: Ex. NWEA MAP, IB exams
MATHEMATICAL STRANDS .
The UNIS Mathematics program is developed from the New York State Next Generation Mathematics Standards. The program is organized around the following mathematical domains:
Counting & Cardinality
Operations & Algebraic Thinking
Expressions, Equations & Inequalities
Functions & Algebra
Number and Operations in Base Ten The Number System
Number & Operations - Fractions Ratios & Proportional Relationships
Measurement & Data
Statistics & Probability
Geometry
MATHEMATICAL PRACTICES.…
The Standards for Mathematical Practice describe practices that rest on important “processes and proficiencies” with longstanding importance in mathematics education. The mathematical practices represent a picture of what it looks like for students to understand and do mathematics in the classroom and should be integrated into mathematics lessons for all students. The description of the mathematical practices remains the same at all grades. However, student performance will change and grow as they engage with and master new and more advanced mathematical ideas across the grade levels.
1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
Mathematically proficient students start by explaining to themselves the meaning of a problem and looking for entry points to its solution. They analyze givens, constraints, relationships, and goals.
2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
Mathematically proficient students make sense of quantities and their relationships in problem situations. They bring two complementary abilities to bear on problems involving quantitative relationships: the ability to decontextualize and the ability to contextualize.
3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
Mathematically proficient students understand and use stated assumptions, definitions, and previously established results in constructing arguments..
4. Model with mathematics.
Mathematically proficient students can apply the mathematics they know to solve problems arising in everyday life, society, and the workplace.
5. Use appropriate tools strategically.
Mathematically proficient students are sufficiently familiar with tools appropriate for their grade or course to make sound decisions about when each of these tools might be helpful, recognizing both the insight to be gained and their limitations.
6. Attend to precision
Mathematically proficient students try to communicate precisely to others. They try to use clear definitions in discussion with others and in their own reasoning.
7. Look for and make use of structure
Mathematically proficient students look closely to discern a pattern or structure.
8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning
Mathematically proficient students notice if calculations are repeated, and look both for general methods and for shortcuts.
MATHEMATICAL PROGRESSION
FOCUS BY STANDARD…
The mathematics progression, adapted from the New York StateNext Generation Math Standards, is mapped for each grade level and each mathematical strand. This continuum provides an overview of the trajectory of mathematical understanding and describes what students are expected to learn as they advance from grade to grade.
Mathematics units are planned based on this progression in order to ensure a smooth transition for students from one grade to the next, as prior knowledge helps support new learning.
Highlighted standards are those that have been moved from the designated grade to the grade below.
