What makes a learner successful is not what they know, but how they think.
Over the course of three years, Ascend’s innovative, strengths-based curriculum simultaneously develops students’ critical thinking, social-emotional skills, and fluency with foundational mathematical concepts. Each of these content areas are aligned with Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice and integrated into experiential learning opportunities through low floor, high ceiling math tasks.
Our Three Year Curricular Vision
Ascend’s three focus areas- Habits of Mind, Problem-Solving Strategies, and Math Focus Strands- build upon one another over time. Year 1 focuses heavily on building students’ social-emotional and critical thinking skills, while Years 2 and 3 focus on applying these overarching skills to more narrow, content-specific math concepts.
Begining
Middle
End
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Our Three Year Curricular Vision
Ascend’s three focus areas- Habits of Mind, Problem-Solving Strategies, and Math Focus Strands- build upon one another over time. Year 1 focuses heavily on building students’ social-emotional and critical thinking skills, while Years 2 and 3 focus on applying these overarching skills to more narrow, content-specific math concepts.
Year 1
Beginning
Middle
End
Year 2
Beginning
Middle
End
Year 3
Beginning
Middle
End
Dive into our focus areas
“Knowing” versus “Understanding”
The power of social-emotional learning applied in context
There is a key difference between knowing the definition of perseverance and experiencing the feelings of getting stuck, digging deep, and overcoming a challenge that arise in moments of true perseverance. That is why our Learning Coaches curate opportunities for students to apply their Habits of Mind in context. With support offered through Ascend, students can lean into the discomfort and experience transformational growth – inside and outside the classroom.
Ascend’s Habits of Mind
Rooted in standards. Cultivated in students.
Curious & Creative
Perseverant
Logical Thinker
Engaged Learner
Effective Communicator
Curious & Creative
Common Core State Standard: Use appropriate tools strategically
“I make use of lots of different tools & strategies; I know that there is always more than one way to “see” or solve a problem!”
Perseverant
Common Core State Standard: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
“I stick with challenges and do not give up when things are hard. I am not easily discouraged by mistakes. In fact, I see mistakes as learning opportunities.”
Logical Thinker
Common Core State Standard: Look for and make use of structure. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
“I reflect on my process as I go by asking, ‘Is this tool/strategy working for me?’ I check my work by asking, ‘Does my answer make sense?’ “
Engaged Learner
Common Core State Standard: Attend to precision.
“I make sure I am using tools and strategies that make sense to me.”
Effective Communicator
Common Core State Standard: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
“I make sure my thinking makes sense to myself and someone else. When I collaborate, I explain my thinking to my peers and try to understand their thinking.”
The power of critical thinking applied in context
Ascend’s Problem Solving Strategies develop replicable skills that support students to be sense makers in any problem context. As their critical thinking develops, students become better equipped to choose strategies that work well for them and analyze what they know and do not know yet.
Ascend’s Problem Solving Strategies
Rooted in standards. Cultivated in students.
Visualize
Work Systematically
Find Patterns
Develop Theories
Visualize
Common Core State Standard: Reason abstractly and quantitatively. Model with mathematics.
“I can use physical manipulatives and pictorial representations to clarify and show my thinking. I can build my conceptual understanding of math through visual representations of numbers, operations, and concepts.”
Work Systematically
Common Core State Standard: Look for and make use of structure.
“I can come up with a strategy for finding many or all possibilities/answers. I can use a logical method for testing my thinking.”
Find Patterns
Common Core State Standard: Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
“I can predict what will come next.. & after that… & after that. I can make generalizations about the patterns I am noticing; I can describe how the pattern will look in future cases.”
Develop Theories
Common Core State Standard: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
“I can use mathematical reasoning and examples to convince someone why something either works or does not work.”
Higher order thinking is our highest priority
We honor our students’ capacity for deep, rich thinking by creating opportunities for them to explore low-floor, high-ceiling math tasks. This repeated exposure, combined with our highly individualized instruction, develops students’ higher order thinking skills and understanding of underlying mathematical principles. Watch Ascend’s Year 1 curriculum in action!
Behind the scenes
Students say...
“I’m proud of how far I’ve come. I just became a different person when I knew what I was doing.”
Zy’aire, 5th grade
It’s never too late to build a strong foundation
Our strengths-based, student-centered curriculum is focused on developing students’ number sense and reinforcing foundational math concepts. Ascend’s Math Focus Strands (MFS) encapsulate three grades of Common Core Standards. This framework enables Learning Coaches to deliver developmentally appropriate teaching points to each grade level. As our students’ understanding of place value, operations, and fractions improves, grade-level material becomes more accessible.
Ascend Task in Action!
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In Cookie Conundrum, the same set of cards is used to support students at all levels to deepen their conceptual knowledge of fractions. Click to see how one task evolves to meet the needs of many students.
Depth 1
Depth 2
Depth 3
Depth 4
Depth 5
Depth 1
In this task – Students use manipulatives to solve concretely for the amount each person will receive, such as fraction circles or cutting out cookie images.
- MSF Description: MFS Progression Depth 1 – The student relies on visual models (such as fraction bars and fraction circles) to build their conceptual understanding of fractions.
- CCSS: Common Core State Standard Connections
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.NF.A.1: Understand a fraction 1/b as the quantity formed by 1 part when a whole is partitioned into b equal parts; understand a fraction a/b as the quantity formed by a parts of size 1/b.
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.NF.A.2: Understand a fraction as a number on the number line; represent fractions on a number line diagram.
Depth 2
In this task – Students write a fraction to represent the amount of each cookie each person receives.
- MSF Description: MFS Progression Depth 2 – The student is able to represent a given fraction with a visual model, and is able to correctly name and write a fraction to match a given visual model.
- CCSS: Common Core State Standard Connections
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.NF.A.1: Understand a fraction 1/b as the quantity formed by 1 part when a whole is partitioned into b equal parts; understand a fraction a/b as the quantity formed by a parts of size 1/b.
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.NF.A.2: Understand a fraction as a number on the number line; represent fractions on a number line diagram.
Depth 3
In this task – Students find equivalent fractions to represent various ways of sharing the cookies. For example, they might describe the card as 2/6 OR 1/3.
- MSF Description: MFS Progression Depth 3 – The student is able to use visual models to create equivalent fractions, as well as to compare the size of different fractions.
- CCSS: Common Core State Standard Connections
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.NF.A.3: Explain equivalence of fractions in special cases, and compare fractions by reasoning about their size.
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.NF.A.3.B: Recognize and generate simple equivalent fractions, e.g., 1/2 = 2/4, 4/6 = 2/3. Explain why the fractions are equivalent, e.g., by using a visual fraction model.
Depth 4
In this task – Students combine multiple cards and solve for the total number of cookies a certain person would have as the result of each “share.”
- MSF Description: MFS Depth 4 – The student uses (and conceptually understands) abstract strategies to create equivalent fractions, as well as to add and subtract fractions with “like” denominators.
- CCSS: Common Core State Standard Connections
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.NF.A.1: Explain why a fraction a/b is equivalent to a fraction (n × a)/(n × b) by using visual fraction models, with attention to how the number and size of the parts differ even though the two fractions themselves are the same size.
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.NF.A.2: Compare two fractions with different numerators and different denominators, e.g., by creating common denominators or numerators, or by comparing to a benchmark fraction such as 1/2.
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.NF.B.4: Apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication to multiply a fraction by a whole number.
Depth 5
In this task – Students write a division sentence to match the card, recording the answer as both a mixed number and fraction greater than 1.
- MSF Description: MFS Depth 5 – The student uses and conceptually understands strategies for adding and subtracting fractions with “unlike” denominators. The student can create visual representations of mixed numbers and improper fractions, and convert back and forth between the two. Additionally, they can create visuals to represent the multiplication of fractions, as well as the division of a fraction by a whole number, or a whole number by a fraction.
- CCSS: Common Core State Standard Connections
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.5.NF.A.1: Add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators (including mixed numbers) by replacing given fractions with equivalent fractions in such a way as to produce an equivalent sum or difference of fractions with like denominators.
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.5.NF.A.2: Solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of fractions referring to the same whole, including cases of unlike denominators,
Apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication and division. - CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.5.NF.B.3: Interpret a fraction as division of the numerator by the denominator (a/b = a ÷ b).
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.5.NF.B.4: Apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication to multiply a fraction or whole number by a fraction.
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.5.NF.B.6: Solve real world problems involving multiplication of fractions and mixed numbers.
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.5.NF.B.7: Apply and extend previous understandings of division to divide unit fractions by whole numbers and whole numbers by unit fractions.
Our curriculum team says...
Our philosophy at Ascend is that math is so much more than the answer to 5×7 or 9+3. Meaningful and long-lasting student growth is about developing critical thinking skills that our students are able to replicate across all contexts, both in and out-of-school. Every single thing we do at Ascend is tied not only to academic growth, but building our students up as people as well.
