Third - Math

In third grade, students in SFUSD engage in 50-60 minutes of daily math instruction. Math instruction supports students in building agency and supports their identities as mathematicians. Math lessons provide both concrete and conceptual understanding for students by giving them opportunities to deepen their understanding of concepts through play and exploration.  By the end of the year, Grade 3 students fluently multiply and divide single-digit products and quotients by memory,  and can add and subtract within 1,000.

During math instruction, students are engaged in a number of instructional contexts and routines: math talks and counting routines.  Math talks feature flexibility with numbers and developing an understanding of the base 10 system, and developing strategies such as finding patterns in a multiplication chart or flexibly adding and subtracting series of similar numbers and looking for patterns.  In addition, engaging in collaborative tasks and games will result in joyful math learners.  

The 3rd-grade fluency requirements are single-digit products/quotients memorized by the end of 3rd grade and adding/subtracting within 1,000.

• Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them
• Reason abstractly and quantitatively
• Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others
• Model with mathematics
• Use appropriate tools strategically
• Attend to precision
• Look for and make use of structure
• Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning

Class norms help students, and give them opportunities to be accountable to the community and to act on the prosocial values of responsibility, respect, fairness, caring, and helpfulness. They support equitable participation, engagement with the practices of doing math, and the establishment of a positive classroom climate.  Establish class norms at the beginning of the school year and continue to reinforce them every day.

Math Talks are teacher-led, student-centered techniques for building math thinking and academic discourse. They allow for multiple entry points and encourage students to value the thinking of others so that they can build a better understanding of their own thinking. Math Talks support students in developing their mental math skills.

The Three Read Protocol is one way to do a close read of a complex math word problem or task. This strategy includes reading a math scenario three times with a different goal each time. The first read is to understand the context. The second read is to understand the mathematics. The third read is to elicit inquiry questions based on the scenario.

Groupwork feedback is a strategy to publicly recognize the class norms and math focus of students as they work in groups. Groupwork is loosely defined to include partners, trios, or larger group sizes. The teacher takes public notes about the quality of the group work and the quality of the mathematical discussions. This feedback should focus on the specific nature of group work interactions as well as target mathematics of the lesson rather than general positive reinforcement.

Daily routines are the cornerstone of the mathematics curriculum in the early primary grades. This structure provides opportunities for deeper learning that requires students to continuously revisit potentially abstract concepts in a concrete context. Although the basic routine structures will stay the same throughout the year, the complexity and focus will change and develop over time. 

Set up strong daily routines at the beginning of the year. These routines can be part of your formal math block or during a separate time of the day and should last 10–15 minutes. Certain routines can be incorporated into transitional periods (as an example: when lining-up students can practice a counting routine. NOTE: Counting routines can be used kindergarten through 5th grade). Depending on the particular focus, each routine should be done daily, weekly, or monthly.