With the adoption new, rigorous and research-base standards, there have also been major instructional shifts in the way teachers are creating today’s mathematically confident students. This goal is accomplished through building mathematical foundations. The most basic level for building a mathematical foundation is for students to think and reason mathematically while building productive work habits.

At VHELP and in the state of Alabama, students apply mathematical ways of thinking to real world challenges and practice communicating their understanding. They gain power as problem solvers and fluency in procedural skills. Vestavia Hills City Schools has adopted Envision published by Pearson for K-5. In addition, VHELP teachers use Number Talks to build student mental math and computational strategies.

Mathematical Practice Standards

1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.

2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively.

3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.

4. Model with mathematics.

5. Use appropriate tools strategically.

6. Attend to precision.

7. Look for and make use of structure.

8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.