Implementing the common core state standards through mathematical problem solving

Grades 3-5

Foote, M. Q., Earnest, D., & Mukhopadhyay, S. (2014). Implementing the common core state standards through mathematical problem solving: grades 3-5. Reston: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

"Mathematics educators have long worked to help students develop problem-solving skills. More recently, they have searched for the best ways to provide their students with the knowledge found in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). This volume is one in a series from NCTM that equips classroom teachers with targeted, highly effective problems for achieving both goals at once.

The 38 problems and tasks for students in this book are organized into the major areas of the Common Core for grades 3-5:

• operations and algebraic thinking


• number and operations in base ten


• fractions


• measurements and data


• geometry

For each task, teachers will find a rich, engaging problem or set of problems to use as a lesson starting point, with accompanying discussions that tie the tasks to specific Common Core domains and clusters. Follow-up sections highlight the CCSS Standards for Mathematical Practice students will engage in as they work on these problems.

This book provides teachers of students in grades 3-5 with dozens of problems to use as is, adapt for their classrooms, or be inspired by while creating related problems. For every mathematics educator, the books in this series will help to illuminate a crucial link between problem solving and the Common Core State Standards."