Welcome to the MAP Project Portfolio

MAP is developing 100 Classroom Challenges (CCs) to be used in middle and high school math classrooms, intended to support the implementation of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM). Originally called "formative assessment lessons," or FALs, MAP Classroom Challenges are unique hybrids that incorporate elements of mathematical investigations, lessons, assessments, and cooperative group collaborations. Classroom Challenges are of two types. Concept Development Lessons, according to the MAP website, "are designed to reveal and develop students' conceptions, and misconceptions, of significant mathematical ideas and how these connect to their other knowledge." Problem Solving Lessons are "designed to assess and develop students' capacity to apply their mathematics flexibly to non-routine unstructured problems, both from the real world and within pure mathematics." Both types of lessons are grounded in the content and "mathematical practices" proposed in the CCSSM. They are available to teachers to download free of charge for non-commercial use from the MAP website, map.mathshell.org.

This portfolio presents a multi-faceted portrayal of the MAP Classroom Challenges. The MAP team invited Inverness Research to help describe the MAP Classroom Challenges to a spectrum of potential users, educators at all levels of the system interested in realizing the vision of the CCSSM in their local settings. As part of that effort we at Inverness Research: conducted in-depth interviews in July 2012 with a selection of teachers who piloted the CCs; surveyed school and district users in Louisiana and Colorado in 2012 and 2013; interviewed prominent mathematics educators who served as "key observers" in classrooms piloting the CCs; and in 2014 surveyed students about the benefits of learning mathematics through engaging with CCs. The perspectives represented by these various sources of information about the CCs serve as the basis for the portrayals collected in this portfolio, each of which varies slightly in scope and purpose, but when taken together are intended to show a complete picture of what the Classroom Challenges are and how they can be used in real classrooms.

MAP Project Portfolio Site Map

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