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Building for Success: Middle School Math Adoption Fosters Collaboration, Communication, and Critical Thinking

Building for Success: Middle School Math Adoption Fosters Collaboration, Communication, and Critical Thinking


Tracing paper and colored pencils in hand, a middle school student begins to shade in sections of a parallelogram, marking areas that could be rearranged to form a rectangle. The task at hand seems puzzling at first but the student’s eyes widen as they make connections and the shape comes to form. They now can calculate the area of the original figure.

With a focus on learner-centered education and hands-on activities such as this, Redwood City School District (RCSD) 6-8 classrooms have adopted Imagine IM 6-8, the Certified Illustrative Mathematics curriculum which is optimized by Imagine Learning for engagement, accessibility, and usability, laying the foundation for the rigor of transitioning to high school.

Following the success of the elementary school Illustrative Mathematics program, Imagine IM K-5, committee members had selected Imagine IM 6-8 for a 2024-25 pilot period. The Board of Trustees recently approved official adoption of the curriculum for the upcoming school year.

Piloting teachers sought a curriculum which nurtures growth in numerical flexibility, problem-solving skills, and conceptual understanding–all core competencies needed as students prepare for algebra and beyond.

Roy Cloud 8th grade Teacher Xa Mai Checks with a Student

Roy Cloud 8th grade Teacher Xa Mai Checks with a Student


Imagine IM fosters these skills through captivating, hands-on activities and lessons designed to cultivate mathematical discussion and collaboration among learners.

This framework serves to have students dive into the “why” in mathematics, moving thinking toward a much deeper understanding. Beyond computational steps, students learn the interconnected relationships between numbers and math operations.

Board approval of the curriculum adoption also comes with the purchase of math manipulatives for classrooms so that students can build models and visual representations of mathematical relationships. Teachers will also receive training to further amplify strategies already in use which create engaging and meaningful mathematical experiences.

Strategic Organizational Alignment:
The Imagine IM curriculum goes hand in hand with RCSD’s Learner Framework, ensuring students are prepared to be Empowered Learners, Knowledge Constructors, Effective Collaborators, and Creative Communicators.

Adoption of the Imagine IM curriculum supports RCSD’s Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) Goal Three to accelerate student growth in mathematics, through increased hands-on math experiences in both high-level whole group and small group instruction.

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