We are constantly striving to listen, learn, and adapt our curriculum to help teachers engage and meet the needs of every student. We are excited to share our latest additions to the Fishtank Math curriculum. We hope that these updates will simplify your lesson prep, improve classroom instruction, and help you deepen students’ understanding of new content.
Fishtank Math Curriculum
Over the past year, we have worked to make your lesson prep simpler and your instruction more engaging and effective through new features and improvements across the Fishtank Math curriculum.
In our elementary courses, Fishtank Plus users will have access to Unit Launches and Sample Student Responses for every unit in time for instruction. These features allow you to build your pedagogical content knowledge, ensuring you are fully prepared to guide students and respond to their questions in every lesson.
Below is an example of Sample Student Responses from 5th Grade Unit 1: Place Value with Decimals, Lesson 1.
Across 3rd through 8th grade courses, Fishtank Plus users will also see downloadable Family Guides that can be used to inform and empower students’ families. Each Family Guide provides a summary of the ideas covered in the unit using family-friendly language along with sample problems to illustrate. There is also a Connections at Home section that offers strategies for families to engage their students in conversation about math topics and apply the unit concepts at home.
Download the complete 3rd Grade Unit 1 Family Guide
With Fishtank Plus, you can also easily edit Fishtank Math assessments to better reflect the needs of your students. You can send an editable copy of the Pre-Unit, Mid-Unit, and Post-Unit Assessments to your Google Drive, or use our editing tool to make changes and then download and print your version.
Lastly, we are excited to bring some of our favorite Fishtank Plus features to our Algebra 1 course. This school year, you can access Algebra 1 Problem Sets, Editable Handouts, and Lesson Slides.
Download the complete Algebra 1 Problem Set
Professional Learning
We are excited to announce new and improved offerings for Professional Learning that allow more teachers and leaders to take advantage of our highly-rated content. Starting this school year, we are offering our Launch Professional Learning series in an on-demand platform. This option is available to schools and districts that use Fishtank Plus through a school site license, and comes with Train the Trainer support for instructional leaders and coaches to build their capacity with the Fishtank Math resources and PL content.
Through videos, readings, reflection questions, and guided work time, 3rd–8th grade math teachers can build a strong foundation for Fishtank Math implementation. The modules and their guiding questions are included below.
- Module 1: Introduction to Fishtank Math
- What are the guiding principles behind the design of Fishtank Math?
- Where do the guiding principles show up in the curriculum?
- What are the key components in the Fishtank Math curriculum?
- Module 2: Planning for a Fishtank Math Unit
- Why is intellectual preparation important?
- How do you intellectually prepare to teach a Fishtank Math unit?
- Module 3: Planning for a FIshtank Math Lesson
- How do you internalize the content of a Fishtank Math lesson?
- How do you create a plan for facilitating Fishtank Math lesson tasks?
- Module 4: Using Just-in-Time Instruction to Support Unfinished Learning
- What is just-in-time instruction when it comes to unfinished learning?
- How do you plan for just-in-time instruction in Fishtank Math?
We are a certified provider of high quality professional learning by Rivet Education and are eager to expand our ability to provide these sessions to teachers through asynchronous learning.
Upgrade to Fishtank Plus today to unlock all the Fishtank features you need to simplify lesson prep, easily manage your materials, and deeply engage your students. Stay up to date with all the latest Fishtank news and best practices for your classroom on the Fishtank Blog and by following us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Have ideas on how we can improve? Let us know.
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