First-Grade Book. Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics Addenda Series, Grades K-6.

The "Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics" (1989) provides a vision and a framework for revising and strengthening the K-12 mathematics curriculum in North American schools and for evaluating both the mathematics curriculum and students' progress. The document not only addresses what mathematics students should learn but also how they should learn it. When completed, it is expected that the Addenda Series will consist of 22 supporting books designed to interpret and illustrate how the vision could be translated into classroom practices. Targeted at mathematics instruction in grades K-6, 5-8, and 9-12, the themes of problem solving, reasoning, communication, and connections are woven throughout the materials, as is the view of assessment as a means of guiding instruction. Activities have been field tested by teachers to ensure that they reflect the realities of today's classrooms. The First-Grade Book of the K-6 series begins with a preface describing the rationale for transforming the mathematics classroom into a sense-making experience with new roles for both the student and teacher using carefully selected instructional tools. A format that uses a varied approach provides sample lessons, activities that connect models and manipulatives with concepts and mathematical representations, problems that exemplify the use and integration of technology, teaching strategies, approaches to evaluation, and techniques to improve instruction. The book explores four areas: (1) Patterns; (2) Number Sense and Operations; (3) Making Sense of Data; and (4) Geometry and Spatial Sense. (MDH)